Eleanor at 32-33 Months

 Now that she is talking more and more, she is mimicking Will more than ever. He will run around the house, shouting or singing something, and she is right behind him, shouting/singing the same. So far he loves that she copies him, we'll see how long that lasts! One cute thing that they have both been enjoying lately, is my oldies rock song collection. In particular, they both love the song "Bald headed Lena." For a few days, every time we would get into the car, Will would excitedly request that I "Play Bald headed Lena please!" A few days later, Nora started joining in with her own request of, "Ball! Lena!" Now every time we get into the car, they both loudly request that song in unison. It sure is cute hearing her mimic him so well, and its so nice to be able to hear her talk and be able to communicate with her so much more effectively!

One funny thing she has been doing lately is noticing weeks old scabs or bruises on her legs or knees, then dramatically showing them to me, and whimpering, as though she were bravely suffering a fresh injury, instead of showing me a crusty old dried scab that is about to fall off. I play along and agree that she has a small cut, and promise her that her body is healing them fast. She usually nods in agreement and forgets about them until the next diaper change or any time her pants come off.

With the adjustment to a big girl bed, she had a hard time staying in her room once she could easily access the door. So we put a locking handle on her door and for the first month, we would lock it from the outside any time she was in there to sleep. Eventually we stopped doing that and for about 3 months, she stayed in there no problem without the door being locked. The last few weeks however shes been making clandestine escapes intermittently. I have gotten out of the habit of locking the door and so I often forget to do so. Sometimes the escapes are as innocent as me finding her sitting just outside her bedroom. Other times she breaks into Will's room and wakes him up and causes a ruckus. Tonight was such a night. Shortly after putting the two of them down, they both come padding downstairs, with Will informing me that Nora went into his room and was jumping on his bed. I turned to Nora and reminded her that she was not supposed to leave her room, and I asked her if she needed me to lock her door. I fully expected her to say, 'no' and was very surprised when she solemnly answered, 'yes!' I chuckled to myself and went upstairs to tuck both kids back in, remembering to lock her door this time. She is a funny kid!

We got a load of dirt delivered for new garden beds and Michael dealt with loading it into wheelbarrows and dumping it into the beds. It took hours over several days. The first day however, both kids were very excited to help. Nora and Will each grabbed a shovel and 'helped' Michael load the wheelbarrow and followed him into the backyard to watch him dump it. After about 30 minutes, Will tired of this exercise and left to play with the neighbor kids. Nora however stuck with it for the entire two hours that Michael was out there, not only helping to scoop small trowels of soil into the wheelbarrow, but walking back to the backyard with Michael for each and every load dump. By the end she looked like a dirty little mongrel and was exhausted, but happy. It was pretty adorable.

Tonight I was cooking a pizza and I asked her if she wanted to help me load the pizza into the oven. So I was perplexed when she went off running into the playroom. I shrugged and went into the kitchen to get the pizza ready and a few seconds later she came tearing around the corner, holding her small toy oven mitt from her play kitchen. I told her that she looked like she was ready to help and she exclaimed, "yes!" And she helped me load that pizza with great eagerness.