Aquamarine - The Gem of Courage-us-ness

 This is a necklace given to me by Anita after Chloe was born. It has an aquamarine heart with three small diamonds set above it. Aquamarines are Chloe's birth stone. Over the weekend, Chloe was inspecting Anita's necklaces that feature her grandchildren's birthstones. Chloe got curious about birthstones. She remembered a National Geographic Kids magazine she had that featured an article about gem stones.

She was reading the article aloud to us. There were the dates and different facts about each gem and also what each stone represents. When she got to March and began reading, her eyes widened. The aquamarine, her birthstone, represents Courage. Her chest puffed out and you could see the shock and awe on her face.

At that point everything became about her courage. I got out the aquamarine necklace and she wore it proclaiming, "It makes me more courage-ous." She even challenged us to "Courage Games" to show how "courage-ous" she was.

It was pretty delightful to see how her whole idea of herself changed. For that evening at least, she viewed herself as brave.