Eden.

Oh my Eden. She's just as frustrating as she is intelligent, witty, and creative. So that's pretty frustrating! But she is amazing!

Lately, she's had her nose in a book all the time. She loves Amelia Bedelia (one of my faves too) and Cam Jansen and Junie B. Jones. (Side story, Elly calls Jimmy Johns sub place "Jimmy John Jones- after the book Skippy John Jones). Ok, back to Eden. The other day, she came home with a piece of paper from school announcing that the school was participating in a contest to get your art work displayed at a local bank. I have heard of this before, and I didn't know how hard it was to actually get chosen, so I encouraged her to work on it, but also tried to temper my enthusiasm with bits of wisdom regarding not getting one's hopes up, enjoying the process even if she doesn't win, etc. Well, my girl got right down to business that day and drew an adorable colored pencil sketch of a fox in a wildlife setting. I was actually quite impressed but thought she needed to spend more time on it (I'm the art teacher you know). But I kept my mouth shut and let her do it, since this was her idea and she wanted to enter the contest. I filled out the consent form and expected her to lose her artwork and forget to turn in the paper. Well, quite the contrary. She reminded me every day- she took the consent form and the artwork in to school and remembered to turn it in at Art time (which is at the end of the day!). This is a feat only because this is the child who has NO memory and cannot keep track of important things to save her life! I was proud of her for driving the train on this one.

So last week, she comes home bearing a letter of congrats! Her work will be shown at the bank downtown and they even have a "reception" for the artists. I have no idea how hard the contest was to get in or if they just allow everyone, but I was SO proud of her for taking charge and doing something that she wanted to accomplish. And she got to experience how good it feels to get rewarded for a job well done. Nothing better than that! Congratulations Eden, my little blooming artist.