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.