I am a pretty ordinary looking person and I think you could count on one hand how many heads I’ve turned in my life, so it is fascinating to be to be out and about with Eve some days. She always gets attention, wherever we go, but some days it’s ridiculous! She’s not even a classically beautiful child (I say with no disrespect, of course!). I wonder if the stereotypically “pretty” kids with the long blond hair and deep blue eyes get as much attention as Eve does. I suspect not!

Today we went to the hospital to visit Grandma. Last night Eve picked out “my prettiest dress to wear to visit Grammy in the hospital.” This morning I put pigtails in her hair to help control the curl chaos. At Lex’s school drop off two of his teachers (para and student, not the primary) were GUSHING over how adorable Eve looked. They had her take off her jacket so they could see the whole dress. They oohed and ahhed. Eve basked.

She still doesn't like me taking pictures of her.

At the grocery store Eve picked out a little pink Primrose plant to bring with us and we bought a helium balloon at the hospital gift shop. Walking down the main corridor at the hospital Eve had everyone’s attention. She wasn’t even being loud or silly or really doing anything to draw attention to herself, other than wearing a winter jacket with a tutu sticking out the bottom, pigtails, pink and gray winter boots, and carrying a flower and a balloon. She was seriously, and quite literally, turning heads everywhere we went! In Grandma’s area all the nurses were talking to her and everyone kept asking if she was a ballerina. She didn’t quite get it. In her mind she was just wearing a pretty dress, I’m not sure she knew why people kept talking about ballet.

Silly girl! :)

After we were done visiting Grandma we got lunch at the hospital. While we were eating I asked Eve is she liked all the attention. I think I asked if it made her feel happy or shy. She said shy. I asked because I saw how she basked in Lex’s classroom when his teachers (very much known to Eve) were gushing over her, but as the morning went on she got quieter and quieter and after awhile even stopped responding to some of the people who stopped to comment on her adorableness. It must be an interesting experience for her. I wonder what kind of connections are being formed in that little brain when she gets so much attention from strangers. Oh to be inside her head sometimes.

Besides the excessive attention we had a really nice morning. It was the first time I’ve taken either of the kids to visit Grandma in the hospital. She should be going home this weekend so hopefully it’s the last time too! :) Eve and I went grocery shopping, then to the hospital and Eve was so excited that I let her choose the flowers and the balloon, and that we got lunch at a restaurant (Sabarro’s food court, but close enough!) and I even let her pick out (within my very tight restrictions) a little dessert treat after lunch. It was a full morning and now she is happy at school.

I have to get off this blog and focus on some work though. I have two (that’s right, two!!) meeting tonight and a busy afternoon. Lots to do!

We have been very crafty around here lately and there are so many things I want to blog about but I am totally stressed out and over my head… mostly in volunteer work commitments. I need to untangle myself from that sticky web, somehow. However, I am going to take a quick minute to write an important post.

Eve and I had a good morning today. I have been trying to slow down our schedules (see above paragraph) so the past few mornings we have spent at home. Today we made peanut butter and jelly muffins (I hope to do a blog post about that as well!) and played and read. Then, as I was making her lunch, I got a phone call regarding this volunteer work. I didn’t want to answer it, but I did because otherwise I would have had to return the call and I had no time to do that today and so it would have become one more thing on my to-do list. So I answered it, and somehow ended up committing myself to a 9am meeting on Saturday morning! Ugh! When I hung up the phone I headed straight for the fresh baked muffins and proceeded to spiral for the next half hour. Getting out the door to school wasn’t too hard, but I was short with Eve and clearly cranky. I explained why in the car and ranted a bit, as we drove, about how I had not enough time and just couldn’t manage to get things done. I’m sure unloading on a 4yr old is a parenting no-no. In my head I was thinking of the phone calls and deadlines and semi-regretting that I was to volunteer at Lex’s library this afternoon. Then I felt bad for that because I LOVE Wednesday afternoons when I get to be at the library with his class! Like I said, spiraling.

Are you wondering yet how this relates to why I love Eve? The whole way there she was so sweet and patient with me. When we got into her classroom she gave me a hug and wouldn’t let go. Seriously! She is strong! Her hug became a vice grip and when I forced her off of me (gently, by this point all thoughts of volunteering had left my head, replaced by concern for this unusual behavior) her calmness became raging tears. She pleaded with me not to leave her. She begged. She clung to me for dear life. She would not be swayed. She would not be distracted. She told me she was too tired (a popular excuse in this house) and hated school and would miss me too much. I tried to talk with her, her teacher tried to talk to her, her classmates all looked concerned, but she was unswayed. After about 15 minutes I decided to give up and took her home. I told her that if she’s really that tired then she needs to have quiet time when we get home. She happily agreed.

I love Eve because she takes care of me. Knowingly or not I think she sensed that I was very stressed and she did what she needed to do to stop me, if only for a few hours. I don’t know exactly what was going on in that curly head of hers, but something told her we needed more down time and she forced the issue. Now she is happily laying in bed listening to an audio book and I am able to make those phone calls that were roiling in my head and check a few time-sensitive things off my list that would have otherwise had me up too late, again.

I don’t even have any good pictures of her these days because she hides from the camera, but this one shows her really having fun this morning, laughing with me.

Hopefully soon I’ll fill you in on the fun craft projects we’re doing, Lex’s airport, my latest Pinterest obsessions, and why I love baking with kids. For now, it’s back to work for me.