Eleanor's 4 Year Old Birthday List

Eleanor is 4 now. I can hardly believe it. I am sure I write that every time a birthday passes, but it is true. She is confident and chatty but still somewhat observant in new situations.



She is skipping and hopping on one foot and generally enjoying life. She doesn't nap very much anymore, but by bedtime seems to have greatly needed a bit of rest. Eleanor and Henry play little games of imagination together all the time and it just melts my heart to see. They are both excited about the arrival of their sister in the spring. My intention is not to let so much time pass before the next post, but we'll just see how things go. Without further adieu, here is Eleanor's 4 year old list. My questions, her words below.

1. What is your favorite color?
Uh...blue and pink.

2. What are your favorite toys?
Mmm...all my birthday gifts. [Birthday gifts included a princess dress, crown, high heel shoes, fairy wand, and many more.] My pink bike. Mom, I have a question for you, I want Henry to share Wall-e a little bit more with me because I haven't played with Wall-e much yet. So, Henry is going to go to sleep early tonight and I am going to play with Wall-e a little bit. I have another question for the computer, I like, also, also favorite colors are red and yellow.


[Playing Sleeping Beauty in her new dress.]

3. Where do you like to go when we go outside?
Mmm...play in the snow. Play in the car and the backyard.

4. What is your favorite book?
Mmm...Little [Brown] Bear and the Little Bundle of Joy [by Jane Dyer]. [Thanks to Lilly for this very appropriate birthday gift.] The Three Little Pigs.

5. What things do you like to do or play with?
I like to play with my princess balloon [thanks Nonna]. I really like to do, uh, I really like to, mmm, ah, play ball with my Daddy.

6. Who are your friends?
Vivian and Lilly and Riley and Talan and Kalie.

7. What is your favorite food?
Cinnamon bread [which we just had for lunch], applesauce, just regular bread.

8. Anything else you want to say?
Yes. Uh...to play soccer with my Daddy. And I like watching trains. And I like going to the Metro with Daddy. Well, I have another friend to tell you Mom, computer friend, I mean I am saying it to the computer, can I please say another friend? Someone who has long hair I am thinking about. It is Luke. [Me: He doesn't really have long hair.] I just said him because I like men and women. I've got another book to tell the computer. The one about the Nutcracker. I want to tell Ms. Paula to the computer. Ms. Paula is a little bit growly, her voice. I'm going to sing ABCD and you can write it. I want to say something else to it. I have another favorite color, I do, I do, I do! Green. And, red and orange. And, pink is my last favorite color. And all the colors in the world. I got so much stuff. I want to say something about...that I want Henry to play ball ball with me. I don't have any more stuff to say. No Mom, I don't.

Quote of the Day

Henry (eating a pear): I don't want to get juice on me. [pause] Do pears have apple juice?

Me: No, pears have pear juice.

Henry: Oh, pear juice. Pear juice. [pause] Where do pears live?

Me: Pears grow in trees, like the trees in our backyard. Do you remember when there were pears on our trees?

Henry: Uh-huh. On trees, like in our backyard.

California Trip: Day 2 -- Muir Woods

Our first full day in San Francisco we were up early and headed in to the city before traffic was to heavy. We found a little corner coffee shop and I had rhubarb pie for breakfast. The perfect way to start your day!



Then we headed to Muir Woods National Monument, a wonderful place to see the magnificent redwoods.





The kids enjoyed the walk, particularly looking for wildlife and reading the signs posted along the trail.



Two notable discoveries were the deer:



and the banana slug:



I found it particularly interesting to learn that the redwood sorrel is so accustomed to low light that it closes if too much direct light filters through the trees.



On the ride home, we took a different path and crossed the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge for the first time.

California Trip: Day 1 - San Francisco

I am going to go back to our California trip and try and put down a few thoughts, more likely though it will be a good deal of pictures. Since we have SO many pictures, I'll try and go day by day.

The kids were amazing on the long flight. They played lots of games, the favorite was probably using the old disconnected telephones as boats for their "guys". That took us through the last wiggly hour without any sort of meltdown at all.



Our first afternoon in San Francisco, we went down to Golden Gate Park and had a little walk around, to try and keep the kids awake so they could switch on to California time. They played hide and seek in the very different vegetation, which I couldn't help mentioning over and over.



We also stopped in for a snack and a visit at the de Young Museum's sculpture garden, where Eleanor and Henry made a good impression on the security guard by looking but not touching the sculptures. Eleanor even did a few sculpture impersonations herself.



We checked in to our hotel, which was perfectly situated slightly outside of the city but close enough to walk to Trader Joe's and a few other shops. And, everyone even slept reasonably well.

Quote of the Day

Eleanor and Henry were playing with play dough this morning when this conversation took place.

Eleanor: It's a poop storm!

Henry: What's a poop storm?

Eleanor: Poop, thunder and rain.

Henry: Oh.

Yep, my friends, the potty talk has begun.

Quote of the Day

Update -- I've edited this post based on Vince's comments about how the quote went down.

Vince (as Eleanor is hopping around the living room): You must be at least half rabbit.

Eleanor: Yep.

Vince: What’s your other half?

Eleanor: Cheese.

Quote of the Day

From dinner this evening:

Eleanor: Dear God, thank you for our food. Thank you for our nice lives and... [long pause, eyes closed in thought] welcome home from California and I hope you have a nice dinner. Amen.

Henry: My turn. Dear God, thank you for our lunch. Thank you for my milk, and my bread and my lettuce.

Eleanor: Now you say "Amen".

Henry: Amen.

Then, a few minutes later...

Henry: Can I say "Dear God" again?

Me: Yes.

Henry: Dear God, thank you for our lunch. Thank you for my bread and my milk and my lettuce and my lunch [pointing to his pasta], and my other bread [pointing to another slice of bread], and my other bread [pointing to the first piece of bread mentioned] and this [pointing to an onion].

Eleanor has said some really sweet and thoughtful blessings lately. I have been meaning to write one or two down but I forget so quickly, so tonight with both of them saying prayers and a piece of paper handy, I just noted it down as it came.

After dinner was over, there was one other sweet moment that I thought might fit here as well.

H: I want chocolate goodies, Mama.
E: I want a goody!

Henry is Two!

My sweet little boy is two years old. He talks a blue streak in amazingly understandable English. He runs, jumps and climbs all over the place, just as one would expect. He is a snuggly, lovey, sweet little boy and I am so happy to have him in our lives. [I may put a few more pictures up once the computer issue is resolved, we have a bunch of nice shots from our trip.]



What is your favorite color?
Brown

2. What are your favorite toys?
Mmm. [Thinking.] Mmm. Mmm. Wicker dicker toy. [Henry has been saying "wicker dicker" and "ocker docker" a lot lately. Not sure what it is about but it is pretty funny.]

3. Where do you like to go when we go outside?
At store. [With Eleanor in the background saying "to the farmers market!"] I want to see a train.

4. What is your favorite book?
Mmm. Wicker dicker book. [I think he likes the Chalkbox Story by Don Freeman, Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, and anything about trucks or trains.]

5. What things do you like to do or play with?
Wicker dicker like play with. [I notice him playing with his "guys", cars, trains, trucks and his new scooter that Vince got him for his birthday. And, any kind of pushing toy. He is very happy to play along side Eleanor, for the most part.]

6. Who are your friends?
Mmm. I want go down on the floor, Mama! [He is getting tired of my questioning. I would say his partner in crime is definitely Anna and he also hangs out with Eleanor's friends.]



7. What is your favorite food?
Mmm. Wicker dicker food. [I think he is just saying wicker dicker because now I laugh every time he does. Henry seems to like pizza, milk and anything sweet. He has my sweet tooth for sure.]

Crash.

I have a lot of posting to catch up on. We have taken two major trips, celebrated a 95th birthday, a 2nd birthday, and a wedding. We also have pictures of the garden and I need to get Henry's 2 year question and answer post up. However, our desktop with all of our pictures has crashed so it may take a bit longer. I was feeling sick about it this morning but we are just going to see what we can do to recover the pictures and move forward from here. Our laptop sort of works, however, I do not trust it nearly enough to download all of our pictures from the trip. So, for those of you who are eager to see images from our California adventure and Mike's wedding, please be patient and we'll be with you shortly!

Quote of the Day

Eleanor: "Jesus and Molly, it's the right place!"

Eleanor and Henry set up these little scenarios with their "guys" and narrate as they go along. In this particular scenario, Eleanor was pushing along a little tractor (thanks Caryn!) with several guys seated in the hay wagon areas. Apparently they had arrived at the proper location and she told the two passengers, Jesus and Molly, that they had arrived.

A couple of minutes later, I also heard Henry say, "Jesus, Molly, it's darker in here", as he pushed his train into a box.

Another of Eleanor's favorite names for her guys is Keely. Not sure if this is a female or male name but she uses it quite often.

And, just this very minute, Eleanor just said, "Jesus, want to ride at the front or the back? Front. Ok."

Quote of the Day

At Caryn's request, I will try and put up a few new things to push the snake story farther away from the front of the blog.

This morning.

Eleanor: Mom, is there a lot of dirt in the car?
Me: No, honey, there are lots of Goldfish and crumbs but I don't think there is much dirt.
Eleanor: Mom, just use your imagination!

I wasn't clear at first why she would want dirt (soil) in the car. Then I remembered she had been pretending to be a worm earlier in the morning. She was making sure that she could survive as an earthworm in the car on the way to camp.

Our Memorial Day Visitor

This morning we had a visit. I was sleeping (the kids have been sick and up in the middle of the night/waking up early) and all of a sudden I heard Henry crying and "HOLY S&!$!! MOLLY GET OUT HERE." I know when Vince uses my name and that tone of voice something is seriously wrong. I imagined a loss of limb or some other horror. As I rounded the corner to the back porch, I heard "Henry got bit by a snake." Then I felt a moment of complete panic. Henry and Vince were both freaking out and there was a four foot long black snake on the porch inches from the door leading inside.



We checked Henry for bites and comforted him. I didn't see anything that looked as if it might be a bite, so I took a moment to size up the snake. I had recently heard that some of our neighbors had spotted black rat snakes around the neighborhood up to seven feet in length. This snake fit the bill, it was long and skinny with a thin head, back in color with a whitish belly. Really beautiful and shiny, though somewhat scary as well -- especially if you are barely three feet tall, I imagine.

Anyway, we got everyone calmed down, opened the back door and watched the snake explore our back porch before finally making his way back out into the yard. Eleanor decided she wanted to name it "Eleanor" and Henry thought a good name would be "Henry". Whatever the name, it is somewhere out in the wilds of our backyard.



Edited to add Vince's perspective. He sent this out to a few but I thought it should be included here as well:

A story –

So on Monday, Henry and Eleanor were sick and the kids and I were watching cartoons on the couch while Molly was taking a nap. Henry gets bored with the cartoons after awhile and heads for our screened-in porch to play. After he’s been away a few minutes, he starts crying this really sharp, I’m-hurt-come-and-help-me cry. I thought he must have been stung by a bee, and I rush for the porch. When I get there I see the following snake coiled up next to him. From the crying, I assume he’s been bit. I was totally freaking out and called for Molly, who was very calm about the whole thing. We checked Henry out and he was OK (no bite marks). But it sure scared me. I was feeling phantom snakes crawl across my feet the rest of the day. The snake is a black rat snake, apparently pretty common around here. It’s a non-poisonous constrictor that eats rodents, but has been described as “snappy” and will bite (and can break skin) if cornered.

Quote of the Day

Henry: Happy DIRTday to you, happy DIRTday to you, happy DIRTday dear Dolly, happy DIRTday too you.

Emphasis on the "dirt". He is pretty much on key though.

In the Big Bed and Potty Trained

Henry has, for the past several days, been sleeping in a twin bed. He has had a few middle of the night wake ups and a few running out of the room while trying to fall asleep giggles but generally has done really well.



And, Eleanor is completely out of diapers. Hooray!

The Garden is Growing

Well, the garden is managing to grow a little bit. Hooray! We have some potatoes planted in the garden and also some planted in an old kids bathtub -- an idea we got from the fantastic book Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy. Also, from the same book we planted a Sunflower House, which will hopefully be a place where the kids can hide out while I putz around in the garden. We also have some peas (shelling and snow), which are sprouting nicely. We have a nice patch of mesclun lettuces (growing well) and some arugula (slow starting). Hopefully, we will also have some tomatoes, beans, peppers, and who knows what else...

Anyway, here are a few pictures.

The potatoes:



The lettuce:



Where the Sunflower House will be (hopefully!):



And, Henry calling, "Are you worms?" [Where are you worms?]

Easter Eggs!

Anna, Sarah and Charlie came over to dye Easter eggs this morning. We had a fantastic and messy time.



The whole kitchen smelled like hard boiled eggs, which (I never realized before) totally reminds me of Easter. We spent about an hour prepping for the dying -- boiling eggs, mixing those little tablets with vinegar, setting out stickers, crayons and other accessories -- all for about 3 whole minutes of dying.



The kids were grabbing eggs and throwing them (literally) in the cups just as fast as their little hands could move.



So, we ended up with 18, mostly cracked, beautifully vibrant Easter eggs for the Bunny to hid on Sunday morning. Oh, and Eleanor ate about three, Henry and Anna each peeled one and tossed them around like little balls, so maybe it is only 12 eggs for the Bunny to hide!

Forgetful

I am losing it. For some very specific reason, I took this picture of Eleanor pointing at something that she drew. I remember doing it. I remember her telling me what it was. But for some reason, I cannot remember what she said it was.

Quote of the Day

I forgot one of Henry's expressions the other day and was reminded of it today when we were at the book store.

Henry: Upping!

The escalator at the book store was going up, or "upping". He also frequently uses "downing" for anything or anyone going down. Pretty clever.

Quote of the Day

Actually, these are just a few of the current Henryisms we hear on a regular basis. His vocabulary and sentence construction are just exploding and it is (in my unbiased opinion) absolutely adorable.

Efetant = Elephant

Bargage Truck = Garbage Truck (He has a favorite matchbox car that is a recycling truck.)

Right there! (He uses this a lot to point out anything and everything.)

Ar you? = Where are you? (As in "Worms, where are you?", when we are in the garden.)

Henny = Henry (And, this is clearly because we call him Henny Penny Coco Puff -- we should probably start using his real name more, eh?)

Nory Cake = Eleanory Ellencake (A nickname we sometimes call Eleanor, he has shortened it down, nice and neat.)

Florida Follow Up

It has been about a month since we got back from Florida, but we had a fantastic time and I wanted to post a few shots from our trip.

Henry at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center down by the Intercoastal:



Eleanor checking out her shadow as she runs like a little sandpiper down the beach:



Enjoying the back yard at Nonna and Grandaddy's:



Pancake breakfast at the beach:



Piano with Nonna:



There are a bunch of other pictures, including our fabulous family meal, others from Gumbo Limbo, and plenty more from the beach mixed in with some other springtime photos here.

New Do

After many long months of holding her hair out of her face or patiently (sometimes) allowing us to put it up with a hair tie, Eleanor got bangs. She looks like a totally different girl, so grown up. I can't believe I waited so long, she seems so happy with the ease of her hair now. Here are a variety of dinosaur scary faces to show off the new cut:





And, my personal favorite, complete with flailing dino arms:

Quote of the Day

After pretending it was Henry's, Giraffey's, and my birthday by singing over various "cakes" with "candles"...

Eleanor: Mom, I don't have any more pieces of cake for you, so you can just hang out with a full body.

(I had "eaten" five or six pieces, after all!)

Happy Spring!

We are having a chilly but gloriously sunny first day of spring. We even got the first part of our garden in this afternoon -- lettuces and peas. The kids were super big helpers and they LOVED it. I think the garden is going to be much more successful this year for several reasons -- 1) the kids are totally into it, 2) I have been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and it is very inspiring and 3) I have been reading actual "how to" garden books so I have a better idea of what I am doing.

Pictures to come. I swear. I am about 500 pictures behind -- I don't even have our Florida trip up yet, for goodness sake!

Lavender

We have a lovely lavender plant on our dining room table right now. Eleanor takes great joy in rubbing the leaves between her fingers and smelling the lavender's gentle fragrance. So, this morning while the kids were eating some granola, I stepped out of the room for a moment and as I came back down the hallway, I heard, "Now Henry, put this up your nose..." What? I rounded the corner to find Eleanor holding a small lavender leaf to her brother. I promptly grabbed it and explained to her that we don't stick things up our noses, at which point I noticed that she was trying to stick her finger up her own nose. I realized that she had probably tried this out on herself first. After a couple of minutes of me holding one nostril down and her blowing, the little green culprit made its way back out. Kids can get into things faster than you can say "Jack Robinson."

Singing, Dancing and Other General Fun

We woke up this morning to Henry serenading us with "baila, baila baila!" Our Music Together class gave us a 20th Anniversary DVD featuring the original band and singers that play on their CDs. "Uncle" Gerry does a very lively rendition of "Don Alfredo Baila" on the DVD and Henry has been obsessed with it ever since.

I haven't written in a while, there has been lots going on though. We took a trip to Florida to visit Nonna, Uncle Bobby and Uncle James (pictures soon). We have been preparing for the annual Puppet Show fundraiser at Eleanor's school, which is today. We have been battling coughs. We have been dreaming about the garden and searching for wiggly earth worms in the dirt. Eleanor has been going to school and dance class. Vince has started tennis lessons. I have been playing basketball. We have been cooking, baking and doing some crafty projects. We just had a visit from Mu and Tada to celebrate my birthday.

The kids are working on lots of developmental milestones as well. Eleanor is using the potty about 50 % of the time, when she feels like it. Henry is also able to use the potty, maybe he will be easy to potty train! Henry is talking up a storm as well. He will repeat absolutely anything anyone says. This is very cute and often hilarious.

Eleanor at Henry's age

I was just thinking about how Henry is the same age now as Eleanor was when he was born. I feel so lucky to have my two little sweets around all the time. I think they enjoy each other, too -- most of the time. Here are a couple of pictures from when Eleanor was Henry's age and Henry was brand new.

Two Amazing Things

This may not be amazing for anyone other than me, and maybe the grandparents, but Eleanor did two things recently that I thought I should make note of.

1. This morning she spelled her name to me. E-L-E-A-N-O-R. No mistakes, hardly any hesitation. I was impressed.

2. A teacher at her school in the other 3 year old class told me that she and Eleanor had been talking about how Vince gets to work. Apparently, Eleanor told her that he takes the Metro. When the teacher asked how he gets to the Metro, Eleanor replied he takes the [number] bus. Eleanor used the actual number but for privacy sake, I've left it out here. She hears and remembers EVERYTHING.

Quote of the Day

I was preparing to make some banana bread this morning and all of the ingredients were out on the counter.

Henry: "Sugar, sugar, sugar! Want it!"

How does he know?! I mean really, how?

Quote of the Day

Eleanor and Henry were helping "wash" dishes in the sink today while I washed the floor.

Eleanor: "I made bubbly soup!"

Me: "What ingredients do you use in bubbly soup?"

Eleanor: "Um, corn, guacamole, avocado...orange. And, that's all."

She loves talking about ingredients. She is going to enjoy the kitchen like her Grandaddy.

Snow!

It has been a long time since I have done a good old fashioned photo shoot with the kids where I take a gluttonous amount of photos and post way to many to our Flickr feed. But, since we had our first snowfall of the season, I decided today was the day. We went over to Anna's house for a little bit and played in (or completely trampled) the snow on their front lawn. The kids had a blast and, as promised, we had hot chocolate upon our return to the house. The hot chocolate probably delighted them equally as much as the actual snow. So, here are a few of my favorites from the afternoon:








And, on a completely separate note, I finally put the pictures from the inauguration up. It was really amazing to see all of the people who showed up to celebrate the various inaugural festivities. We enjoyed spending the day with Leah and her family, though we didn't actually stay until the parade. It was fun to watch the parade at home with the kids anyway.

Quote of the Day

Henry (with gusto): Gaah-baah!

Translation: Barack Obama!

The Concert

So, there was this little show down on the mall today. When my dearest, sweetest, most generous husband suggested that I go down and see it, I couldn't say no. Though I did lament that he and the kids were not there to share it with me. It was good though to go Beth and Jason, we had so much fun. There were just masses of people but everyone was in a great mood and things flowed so smoothly. The line was long but once we got in there was lots of space to move around and we found a great spot near the reflecting pool to watch and listen to a piece of history.





A few little things that happened near us: There was a sweet family right next to us with a little girl sleeping on her dad's lap, she reminded me of Eleanor and it made me smile to see her there. At one point, a little boy noticed the Washington Monument and comment on how sharp it looked. He was right, it did look sharp against the cloudy sky. And, I have to say thank you to the random guys who gave us their leftover chips after waiting in line for two hours at the concession stand -- that small random act of kindness kept me from passing out from hunger (I forgot to eat lunch in my excitement to get down to the show).

This time I took LOTS of pictures and they are all up and ready to look at. More to come on Tuesday.