Bom Dia: Evelyn and her "evil ways"

Evelyn saw the recent post dedicated to Jilly, and she wanted to title this one, "Evelyn's EVIL WAYS. Muahahaha!" She also thinks that vampires are cool, ghosts roam our house, and she enjoys being scared of things (even if it drives me a little nuts). She really is the antithesis of evil though (except for that one time where she told Gordon that the shadows in his room are scary and now he doesn't want to sleep in his bed or be caught alone any where in the house. (She told me to add that by the way).)

I am really enjoying the stage she is in right now. She's happy to take on more responsibility if I ask her to help Gordon or Angelina with something, and is always eager to help in the kitchen. The help is actually helpful now, no longer a messy hindrance. She's no longer afraid to turn the bathtub faucet on, run down to the playground by herself to fetch something we left behind, etc. I guess her budding sense of independence is endearing to me.

This is not to say she doesn't have her rough moments either - like afternoon-long runs where everything in the world is negative and she refuses to be grateful for much of anything. These are times where anyone near our apartment can probably hear, "You'd better take your garbage attitude and flush it down the toilet! I don't want to hear another word about how things are so terrible for you!!" There were a few weeks earlier this fall when this was almost a daily occurrence, and she and I were at odds a lot of the time.

Teenage years. I do not look forward to them for this reason. Evelyn and I share quite a few personality traits, so we can butt heads really hard. This is when it's good to have a husband to step in (especially in the morning before school). Her and Ben have almost always gotten along great, their personalities complement one another, so he can usually reason with her when I've failed. I fulfill the same role with Jillian.

Evelyn asks many thought provoking questions, often times about the gospel, or things she sees going on in the world or among her friends at school. The time after dinner has become one of my favorite times of day because we get to talk about really neat and interesting things, and I get to share my testimony of the gospel with my girls. One of my fondest childhood experiences were the talks my Dad and I (sometimes my mom too) shared when much of the family had gone to bed, and we would talk about anything. I hope my girls can remember sharing the same type of experience with me.

She has a talent for music - which will become more apparent if I can get her to practice the piano. Like the rest of us, she loves The Killers.

She has a definite love of learning about things in the natural world - weather, volcanoes, earthquakes, and often asks me to help her look up something on the computer so she can figure out what it looks like and why it happens. I am grateful for the Internet so I can satisfy her curiosity while she's hungry for the knowledge, instead of having to wait until the next library day so she could check out a book on the subject. She loves books about fairies and fantasy stuff too, like most other girls her age do. She likes the "Rainbow Magic" series right now.

Evelyn is the brother Gordon doesn't have - he gets all wound up when she comes home from school because he knows she will squish and wrestle him. He loves it.

She asked a few weeks ago when she'd get her own cell phone - I told her not until she's at least 16. She looked a bit bummed, but not many of her friends have cell phones either, so she's not too worried about it yet. She likes to get on my out-dated phone and play a game called 'Diner Dash,' and send text messages to family members. Once in a while I can convince her to call someone, usually Daddy.