Heaven and Earth

Me, Eden, Leila, and Molly were all driving in the car.  It was quiet for a moment and Eden was pondering.

Eden:  "Mom. I think Heaven is right here on the Earth."

Mom:  "Yeah?  Why do you think that?"

Eden:  "I don't know.  I just thought that."

Later on....

Mom:  "Remember how you told me about Heaven being on Earth?

Eden:  "Yeah!  Its like God painted over Heaven to look like the Earth!"

Mom:  "Well, I think you should trust your thoughts and feelings."

Eden created a beautiful picture in my mind.  She is one smart cookie.

Only My Kids....

Only my kids play telephone by calling the hospital to schedule a time to get a transplant and to cure osteomyelitis...

Feeding Tube

We got slushies during happy hour at Sonic.

Eden was drinking through a straw, when she stopped and said,

"Mom. Its kind of like a feeding tube. Except it goes in your mouth."

Only my child would compare straws to feeding tubes.

The Piggy Bank

While dusting, I broke Eden's piggy bank.

Eden: "That was my favorite piggy bank!"

(Her ONLY piggy bank actually)

Eden: "I'm so sad that you broke my piggy bank."

Mom: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. It was an accident."

Later that night we had family scriptures and prayer which is followed by a story of her choice.

Dad: "Do you want mommy or daddy to read the book tonight?"

Eden: "Daddy."

Dad: "Okay, what book do you want?"

Eden: "Let's read 'Bert and the Broken Teapot' so we can figure out why mom broke my piggy bank."

Salmonella

At the library I decided to get Eden a educational book. I lead her to the books about animals and asked her to pick one out. She decided said, "I don't want to learn about animals. I want to learn about this." She handed me a book on Salmonella. She wanted to learn about a disease over animals. Go figure.

Apparently she's been understanding the book.

Today's after dinner conversation.

Eden: "I think I'm sick. I have salmonella."

Mom: "How did you get salmonella?"

Eden: "I ate a raw egg. And you have salmonella."

Mom: "I do?"

Eden: "And dad has salmonella."

Mom: "Oh no, it must have been something I cooked."

Eden: "NO, it was something you DIDN'T cook."

She's got me there.

50 Nifty United States

One of Eden's new favorite songs to sing is the states song (naming all the states). It usually goes something like this....

"Alabama, Alaska, Arizon-e-a, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Alaska, Arizon-e-a, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Alaska....."

Then I get her back on track by saying, "Connecticut"

"Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Arizon-e-a, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Alaska...."

Then one day I tried to sing it all so she could get past those first few states. I got stuck for a second at New Jersey and was reviewing the states in my mind so I could figure out what came next.

Then Eden chimed in,

"New Mexico!"

And of course she was right.

Reading

Eden: "Grandma? Did you get this cup from IKEA?"

(Mom and Grandma confused how she knows this)

Grandma: "Yes."

Mom: "Wait, did you tell her it was from IKEA?"

Grandma: "No...."

(Eden looks at the bottom of the cup)

Eden: "I.K.E.A. IKEA."

Sure enough, IKEA was spelled at the bottom of the cup. The first word she read without prompting or help....

IKEA.

Nursery

Eden brought home a paper fish attached to a string....

Grandpa: "Eden, what is that?"

Eden: "A fish!"

Grandpa: "Why do you have a fish?"

Eden: "To go fishing."

Grandpa: "Did you learn a story about fishing today?"

Eden: "Yeah. Cause we learned about Jesus."

Grandpa: "What was the story?"

Eden: "People were fishing and they didn't catch any fish and then they saw Jesus and said, 'We didn't catch any fish!' and he said to go fishing again. Then they caught LOTS of fish and the net almost BROKE!"

(Silence)

Mom: "Then what did Jesus say?"

Eden: "He said, 'WOAH! That's a lot of fish!"

(Laughing)

Mom: "Did he say to follow him and become fishers of men?"

Eden: "Oh yeah. And then they became his apostles."

Drinking Fluids

After all the sicknesses a while back, Eden was into playing doctor. That's when she learned that when you are sick you "drink fluids".

Today she said:

"Mom, I'm sick.

I have T-Gondii.

(nickname for the virus, toxoplasma gondii)

I need to drink more fluids."

Since our "sick days" Eden's has also said things like:

"Mom, I need some fluids."

"Leila wants a drink of fluid."

or my favorite was when she said...

"Mom, I want a drink of fluid....like MILK fluid, not water fluid."

Cinnamon Knot

For those curious, a cinnamon knot is basically a bread stick covered in cinnamon and sugar, then tied in a knot and baked.

On with my story...

We had cinnamon knots the other day. Tyson wasn't feeling too good so we saved his for him. The next day Eden found it...

Eden: "Mommy, can I have the cinnamon knot?"

Mom: "Its dad's, you'd have to ask him."

Dad: "You can have SOME of it."

Mom: "You should ask dad nicely if you can have some of it."

(Eden turns to dad)

Eden: "Dad, can I have so...ALL of your cinnamon knot?"

Sneaky girl. Guess she realized mid-sentence that it was better to start by asking him for ALL of it, just in case. I mean, why settle for less?

Spelling

Eden has been able to spell her name for a while now (the letters...not always in the right order). Sometimes she does better than others.

But today she's really started to improve.

Eden: "I spelled 'MOM'!"

Mom: (checking if she did) "How did you spell it?"

Eden: "M-O-M."

(I looked and sure enough, 'MOM' was written on her paper.)

Eden: "I spelled 'Leila"!"

Mom: "Oh yeah?" (not REALLY believing it)

(I looked and she had written the letters "L", "E", "I", and "A".)

I'm impressed.

Stars and Dots

Coming home later at night.

(Looking up at the night sky.)

Eden: "Mom, what are those dots up there?"

Mom: "Those are stars."

Eden: "But they don't have arms."

I do sometimes wonder why we draw pictures of stars with 5 points on them when you look in the sky and they just look like dots.

Sign Language

The missionaries are teaching a sign language class once a week for 5 weeks. I signed up.

Yesterday was the first lesson. It was great. Learned a lot of basic rules and a few common greetings as well as the alphabet and numbers.

This morning I wanted to see if I could teach Eden a little bit of what I learned.

Mom: "Eden? Want to learn some sign language? Its how people who can't hear talk to each other."

(Eden just kind of sits there looking at me funny.)

Mom: "This is how you say 'How are you?'." Then you can say "Good." or "Happy." or "Sad." or "Alright." or something else. So, Eden, how are you?"

(Eden beginning to show interest but not sure how to answer.)

Mom: "How do you want to answer? Good? Bad? Happy? Sad?"

Eden: "Exhausted!"

Man, didn't learn THAT one on my first sign language class.

Word of the Day

Tyson's phone has an app for Webster's Dictionary where he can look up the "Word of the Day". Lately he's been reading it out loud when the family is all around.

The other day the word was "Snaffle: To obtain especially by devious or irregular means. I snaffled the last cookie."

I stole Tyson's phone earlier that day and read the word to Eden. She didn't seem to be paying too much attention.

Later on in the day:

Tyson: "Want to hear the word of the day?"

Me: "Oh, I already read it to Eden. Its...umm...snuffle or something."

Tyson: "The word is...."

Eden: "I snaffled the last cookie!"

She WAS listening! That was the example sentence they gave in the app. I can't believe how good that girl's memory is.

Humidifiers and Bathtubs

(Hears the bathtub filling up.)

Eden: "I want to take a tubby!"

Mom: "Dad's taking a tub cause he doesn't feel well."

Eden: "Oh."

(Pauses to think.)

Eden: "He's taking a tubby because his lungs don't work very well and so he needs to take a tubby to get some of the water in his lungs to help him get better?"

Mom: "Yep."

We recently borrowed our neighbor's humidifier and she apparently was listened to her father's in depth description of how the humidifier helps your body. Then she was able to relate the humidifier to the bathtub....which is the same principle for both.

I didn't even think of comparing the two. My thought was the simplified version of "because he doesn't feel well". She's good.

My Guess....She's Tired.

Eden woke up earlier than usual this morning.

Leila was also up and wanting to be fed. So, I started feeding and the house was silent. Eden stood outside the bedroom door and eventually laid down with her stomach on the floor.

Mom: "Eden, why don't you go back to bed. You look tired."

Eden: "I'm not tired mom."

(Pause.)

Eden: "I'm not tired. My ear is just cold."

Oh...so THAT'S why you have it pressed against the floor. NOT because you're tired. RIIIIGHT.

Planets

Eden knows her planets (although she usually needs help with the START and occasionally with "Earth" oddly enough).

We got a balloon and Eden told me,

"Mom. Blow up the balloon so we can make Saturn."

Esophagus

While eating, when Eden swallows she often says

"My food is going down my esophagus!"

(Then its followed by her saying "down the middle intestine and large intestine"...even though I try to tell her that its the SMALL intestine and not the MIDDLE intestine....but whatever.)

Thank you Magic School Bus.

But yesterday after brushing her teeth, she spit into the toilet, flushed the toilet, and said:

"Look! My toothpaste is going down the toilet's esophagus!"

Encouragement

Eden, Leila, and I went to a little indoor playground with my sister, Laura, Trey, baby Ramona, and my mom. We let Trey and Eden go play, while we all ate some lunch.

We watch as Trey helps pull Eden up to higher places than she can't go by herself.

Then Trey comes running.

Trey: "Beefy! Beefy! Come here!"

He grabs me by the finger and leads me to Eden who is in the middle of a climbing area causing a traffic jam.

Me: "Eden, what's going on? Do you need some help?"

Eden: "Mom, Trey needs some encouragement."

A little confused, I try to figure out what's going on.

Me: "You need to keep climbing so other people can go up too."

Eden: "No, I want to get down."

Me: "Ok, let's get you down."

I start to help her down...when Trey grabs me.

Trey: "No! Eden go up!"

Eden: "Trey wants me to go up."

Me: "Do you want to go up?"

Eden: "No, I want to get down!"

I help her down.

Apparently Eden saying Trey needed "encouragement" meant that he needed to be encouraged to let her climb down instead of up.

All I have to ask is....What two year old uses the word "encouragement"? I guess Eden does...

Words of Wisdom

Eden: "Sometimes we do what is right. And sometimes we cry."