Eleanor 4.5

All of a sudden Nora has become a swimming fiend! She lost her fear of the water overnight and now suddenly has all of this confidence and excitement about going into the water. Shes still not the best swimmer however, so honestly this new found love if the water makes me more than a bit nervous. I feel like I really have to watch her around water, where as before I knew she would never get in without me. During class she is telling the teacher to watc
h her as she dives underwater and performs tricks like underwater spins and somersaults. She will even jump in unassisted! I attribute some or even most of this dramatic change, to our recent trips to the Lynnwood water park. We've been going a couple of times each month and the kids LOVE it. There are water slides, a splash pad, a lazy river, a recreation pool, and best of all for the adults - a hot tub! We all have a good time there, but Nora in particular REALLY loves it. She talks about it all the time and asks when we can go next, even if we just went the day before. I am glad that she is learning to love water though. Hopefully that love, combined with regular swimming lessons, will have her skillfully swimming soon!

She has had her kindle tablet for a year now, and it is still a favorite activity, and a lifesaver for me when I have things to get done, or the weather is cold and rainy. I've been able to find some pretty good apps for her, and at the moment, her and Will's favorite app is called Monument Valley. Its a leveled game where you have to solve a series of logic and MC Escher-style perspective puzzles. Some of them have been challenging for me, but its a very calm and tranquil game and she really loves it. Her favorite is to sit on my lap and cuddle, while we play the game together. I love that she still likes to cuddle with me a lot of the time!

Nora just got finished with a growth spurt and is now wearing 5T. Now that the spurt is over, her eating has slowed way down, and its like pulling teeth to get her to eat anything, and it takes FOREVER for her to eat the small amounts that she does. Its frustrating but normal. She is starting to care about her appearance more lately. She definitely wants to pick out her own outfits and will not listen to any of my suggestions on what to wear. She also likes to pick out her own earrings and really enjoys all the compliments she gets on them. I even made her a few pairs to match ones that I have - one of her favorite things is to match with me right now. Its SO cute! She is also becoming a bit more fashion aware these days. We took the kids sledding and because we rarely do that, and because we weren't going to be there long, we used trash bags to keep the kid's pants dry. Nora did NOT want to wear pants made out of trash bags! Another time she got up late one morning, and we didn't have time for her to change into day clothes, and so I had to walk Will to school while she wore her pajamas. She was NOT happy about that. Also shes been a lot better about getting dressed on time since then ;)

All of the walking we do to and from school, has resulted in her gaining a lot more stamina and leg strength. Its a half mile to the school, so a mile total. When school first started, I would usually push both her and Daniel together in the double stroller. As the months wore on, she would often walk to school, but then want to ride in the stroller on the way home. But more and more shes been walking both ways, and sometimes she's even able to make it to the grocery store and back, which ends up being about 1.7 miles. I hope this walking will help her transition to riding her bike without training wheels this summer!

Michael loves to tease her, and she is responding to that teasing differently lately. Instead of playing into his nonsense and acting indignant, she now kind of looks at Michael like hes a nutjob. I don't tease her very often, because she doesn't like it, but every now and again I can't resist. I made her a hat a few years ago. I purposefully made it pretty big so that it would last her a long time and she could grow into it eventually. Its so big that it actually fits me! So every now and again, on a cold day, I will wear it (as she usually prefers another hat that fits her better). When I wear it, I will crow about how warm it is and how perfect it is for me to wear. So the other day we were going out and she grabs the hat and says, "I'M going to wear this hat mom, NOT you!" So I thanked her for bringing a hat for me to wear and that I was excited to put it on. She yelled, "NOOOOOOO!!!" I had to chuckle! Its so fun to get her goat!
g the whole mile on her own. It makes me excited to think that we might be able to go back down to a single stroller her soon! That stamina has also made neighborhood walks, walks to the park, and trips to the zoo, a LOT easier!

We had a great, low key Christmas. My parents and my brother came up two days before Christmas, and left on Christmas Eve and we all really enjoyed the visit. Then on Christmas day, we opened stockings in our pjs, then got ready and went to church, then afterwards, came home to open presents. Then later that afternoon we went over to Mary and Adam's house and the kids got to open more presents from them and Michael's mom and dad. All in all, the kids had a great time. These ages are fun, and full of Christmas magic. They are all totally invested in Santa and are so genuinely excited for it all to happen. I can so clearly remember feeling that way myself as a kid. I hope we still have a couple more years like this, before Will stops believing!

Four has been one of my favorite ages so far, in Nora. She is just so fun and cute and wants to be with me and do all the things I do. I am relishing this time and never want to end. I know that it will though, so I am cherishing every sweet moment with my sweet girl!