Eden's 2 and a half!

Last week our baby turned 2.5!! She has changed so much – especially the past three months as she is turning into such a big girl. Eden’s sweet spirit and strong will keeps us on our toes!! She has such a complex personality! I’ve had this conversation with a few people as we say “You can’t just describe her in two or three words” like a lot of other kids her age. I’m still trying to figure her out sometimes but I do know that she is just the way God made her: empathetic (concerned with anyone upset or crying), an observer, gentle spirit, class clown goof (always trying to make someone laugh), stubborn with a capital S, determined to accomplish things herself (doesn’t easily give up), creative and imaginative, nurturing,

Now for things she really loves and is into! She still gravitates towards a lot of typical boy interests such as trains (especially a train book we got a few weeks ago!), building blocks, roly pollies, turtles & balls. Not sure how much of her love for dolls and kitchen play is her or because Claire has instilled that in her. She certainly has the nurturing, mothering side with her dolls! She continues to love animals of all kind and playing outside. About 4 months ago she mastered climbing the rock wall at the playground in seconds flat which amazed me! Everyone always asks me "how old is she?" I have to really keep an eye on her =) If she isn't on a slide, she's scaling the wall. Eden also continues her innate love and skill for music. She has been able to keep a steady beat for months and match pitch since I can remember - I often find her playing the piano!

Here are a few pics of our sweetheart!

"Share-you-go" - this is what Eden says if she wants t o give you something and it's SO cute! Neil and I LOVE this and will be so sad when she stops. Ever since she could talk she would say "share" if she wanted you to take something from her (her cup, plate, toy, etc.) It slowly turned into "share-you-go" which comes out sounding like one word. Here she is sharing her cupcake with Daddy - two of her loves!

Eden is still trying to grasp the idea of our adoption as she continues to wonder where the baby is in my body =) She has still lovingly patted my chest asking "baby?" but the past three weeks when I've asked her "Does mommy have a baby in her tummy?" She will say "no" and I will explain as best as I can in her words. Two weeks ago she prayed for baby brother in her night time prayer when thanking God for everyone and when asked the question again about me having a baby in my tummy she said "no, Birth mom" - pretty much brought tears to my eyes to see her starting to get it the best her little 2.5 year old mind can.
Loving the water these days but will cling to us in the pool! Will be doing lessons in the fall =)


One of our biggest milestones the past three months was potty training!! After her time with the stomach bug was over about a month ago, she has been completely out of diapers both nap and night time. This blows me away because although Claire was potty trained at this age, she was never dry at night so she was in diapers for a very long time. I think I hindered her a bit in that area so as soon as Eden was dry twice (we watch her evening liquid intake closely), it was bye bye diapers!! We went straight to panties which worked for both girls but she was pretty self motivated and for the first three weeks of trying the potty she was motivated by chocolate chips! I'm so blessed that she didn't make it into a power struggle because that's what I anticipated. I think because I took it so layed back with her and took HER lead, she felt like she was in control and it was never something I was making her do. I don't know - just glad she's done and we can now work on moving her into a big girl bed =)

I'm going to sound like a broken record but here it goes again - time is FLYING by and although she will always be my baby, she's moving on and growing up too fast!