Eleanor 4

Eleanor is 4 today! She weighs 33lbs, and is 40.5" tall.

An exciting, momentous thing happened this month. She got her ears pierced in honor of her birthday! We had been talking about it for months. I thoroughly described the whole process and then told her when she was ready, she could tell me. She finally said she was ready last month and so I decided to go for it. We went to the Claire's at Northgate Mall and it was very simple and quick. She was so brave and only shed one tiny tear, which she bravely wiped away. She was so determined not to cry (she had told me she wouldn't several times in fact). It was only after I told her that getting your ears pierced hurts, and that it was perfectly ok to cry, that she let out a few sobs and hugged her little arms around my neck for dear life. After a few moments she pulled herself together and she was totally fine the rest of the day. That first night she had to sleep on her back (shes normally a side sleeper) due to some mild pain, and I gave her some ibuprofen and by the next day she was totally back to normal. The piercings have been healing incredibly well too and so far the whole thing has been way easier than I expected it to.

She has such a fun, girly personality. She loves to sing and makes up funny little songs, full of nonsense words every day. She tells me, "mom, you need to learn this one!" I earnestly tell her I will try my best. She comes up with the best names for her toys too. She got a stuffed rabbit with a tutu for her birthday and she named it Kitchen Ruby. She has a great imagination and can spend hours quietly playing with little figurines by herself, all the while making a running dialog of various voices and scenarios for the figures to play out. She also can spend hours playing by herself outside. Usually she and Will play together but every now and again they either choose to play apart or I make them (due to constant fighting), and she is perfectly happy to go off on her own and play in her own little make believe world. Its wonderful!

Nora has been vocally feisty lately and her favorite response to requests to do something she doesn't want to do is to sigh wearily and say, with attitude, "FINE!" When she is somewhat less annoyed, the response is the somewhat more whimsical, "finey, piney, pink-butt finey!" (This comes from a much hated nickname Michael has for her of Rosey Rosey Pink Butt Posey). Michael says she gets the 'fine' from me, and once he mentioned it, I suddenly realized how much I do tend to use that word. Its funny what kids pick up!



Shes also been prone to dramatic statements lately. When Will is mean to her or won't share, she says, "then I'm NEVER going to play with you/look at you again!" A funny version of this the other day was when she proclaimed, "then I'm going to live in the bathroom FOREVER!" I don't even remember why she picked the bathroom of all places, and it took everything in me not to laugh. When she says this I usually shrug and say that forever is a long time, and then casually walk away. The other thing shes been doing lately when she is very unhappy, she will announce, "FINE! Then I'm going to have a tantrum!" And she will throw herself dramatically to the floor and pout for a few minutes. As she has found her voice, her sassy personality has come out more and more.

She got a new 16" princess bike with training wheels for her birthday and she is absolutely in love with it. She is a little wobbly on it still and has taken a number of spills. But she is tough and every time gets right back up and continues riding. She is so brave! She is still pretty nervous about going downhill but uphill she speeds right along. We've walked and rode all the way around the school  twice now and she was noticeably stronger and more able the second time around. I think if we can keep doing that regularly, within a few months she will have enough strength and confidence to ride faster and even potentially take the training wheels off. Realistically though that probably won't happen until next summer. Once the rainy season comes that bike will sit in the garage all winter and she will have to spend all of next spring getting used to it again. But there is really no rush and she is doing great as she is!

Will is now fast enough on his bike that he can take bike rides with Michael. Nora is not quite fast enough yet, though still wants to come along. So Michael's solution is to put her into the hiking backpack and ride his bike with her on his back. She LOVES this and says that she has rocket boosters. Michael has also convinced her that she can help him go faster up hills by pushing down on his shoulders. She gets so excited and pushes eagerly and takes all the credit as they fly up hills together. Its pretty cute!

She often talks about how hairy Michael is. He is 'hairy like a gorilla' and is the hairiest man in the world according to Nora. Recently she informed Michael that he was TOO hairy and that he would need to be shaved. When I inquired about how that would happen, she told me that we would have to hold him down, and that he would not be happy about being shaved, but that it had to be done. She is nothing but efficient!

She went to a preschool summer camp for two days this month. On the way to class on the second day, the following conversation happened:
 Nora: "Will, I'm going to miss you! I love you so much!"
Will: "Nora I'm going to miss you too! Super duper, kooper trooper!"
Nora: "Whats kooper trooper?"
Will: "It means a whole, whole, whole bunch!"
Nora: "Oh, ok!"

Its hard to believe my baby girl is FOUR now! How in the heck did that happen so fast? Oddly enough, I feel more sad about her being 4, than Daniel turning 1. Shes just so fun and funny to be around, I feel like the clock is ticking before she becomes a sour, distant pre-teen in just 5-6 years. Years that are sure to fly. So I am trying to enjoy these sweet years as much as I possibly can! Ahhh happy birthday to my sweet little Nora!