Eleanor's Looking Glass

Ella my dear....

Ella my dear, you wore me out this weekend! But we did have lots of fun! We went to the park a few times, the weather was just right for it. I have been backing off a little when we are the park, I am ready to catch you at any minute but am letting you climb all over everything, I am trying to do a better job of letting you try everything on your own and so far you’ve been very successful and I find myself in awe of all that you can do!

You are such a smart girl and you are so tall. This has been kind of confusing for the kids that are playing around you. There were a couple of boys at the park on Saturday who kept talking to you and trying to get you involved in there game of tag. They must have been around 5 or 6 and you guys were all about the same height. I could tell you didn’t really know how to answer them, you wanted to play with them but didn’t know quite what to do. You still mostly just play side by side with other children.

You have been playing a lot with our neighbors. You call them friends and it is really sweet! The minute you hear that they are outside you start asking if you can go out and say ‘hi’ to your friends Amy and Amanda. Amy is your age and Amanda is around 6 years old. Amy is tall, just like you. You guys like to immediately trade whatever toys you are playing with, you love to tickle Amy when she is going down your slide and you both just love to run, back and forth and back and forth all around the backyard! Sometimes you’ll both stop what you are doing and go play in your sandbox or sit down for a little picnic. Amy loves to hug you and quite often she is trying to hold your hand, you really aren’t big on the whole hand holding thing though, not just with Amy, but with all of us. Lately though when you have to come inside from playing with your friends you give them hugs and kisses goodbye, so sweet and both Amy and Amanda love it! I am so glad you have them as friends.

putting some fun into getting older!

Eleanor –
The other day was your Dad’s birthday and I just wanted to share with you what a wonderful job you did at making it a special day for your Dad. You are quite the party planner my dear. We had been talking about Dad’s birthday for some time now and you still talk about your own second birthday and about the cake and balloons that you had. So for Dad’s birthday you wanted to do all the same. I think you would have liked to have gotten Dad a Wiggles cake just like the one you had but since your new favorite show is Dora and Dora likes cupcakes (cupcakes with pink icing to be exact), we settled on making Dad vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles, I think the sprinkles part is what hooked you on making these cupcakes, cause really who doesn’t like rainbow sprinkles…

So the other morning you and I got to work on these cupcakes. Did you know that you are turning into quite the baker? I did the measuring and you did all the mixing, you even scooped all the cake batter into the muffin pan, ALL BY YOURSELF. It took some restraint on my part, I was ready for a big mess, but you did it and you did it carefully, so neatly that I think I must have thanked and kissed you a thousand times afterwards! When the cupcakes cooled we got hard to work on the frosting and sprinkles and against my better judgment we splurged and had a mid morning snack of cupcakes and juice. Now just forget that part because the next birthday is mine and it isn’t until February, no cupcakes until after lunch!

We had asked Dad what kind of birthday he wanted to which after a quick minute he replied, ‘Spiderman, wait no…Star Wars’. So you and I splurged a bit more and got Dad both Spiderman and Star Wars plates, napkins and balloons, Yup – I think we made his day. He was quite surprised when he came home and showered us both with lots of love! I put 29 candles in those cupcakes, okay I didn’t, I think there was about a dozen and we sang the Birthday song that we had been working on and you sat right up there on Dad’s lap where you proudly helped him blow out all the candles. After some presents and cupcakes you and Dad took a few of the balloons and went outside to set them free. I think this is the part you had been waiting for the entire day! It was a sweet moment dear one to make your father and I smile for days!

give me love

Eleanor – you should know that you are very loved, spoiled with love actually. The other day so that your Dad and I could have a ‘date’ in celebration of his birthday we brought you over to Nana and Grandpa’s. I had been fore warned that you may not be taking a nap that day, which while troubling was also okay because you seem to be kind of sporadic in your napping lately, so that Nana and Grandpa could take you to Edaville Railroad where you could ride on trains big and small, elephants, merry-go-rounds and some crazy kind of caterpillar thing. And on top of all of this you would also be able to meet Curious George; which is also pretty cool because you should know that Curious George is one of your favorite books.

The part where Curious George is floating in the air hanging onto a ton of balloon and then the balloons pop and he lands on the traffic light and the man with the yellow hat looks up to see George and then yells, ‘GEORGE’. Well for some reason that part always makes you smile and sometimes even laugh. Sometimes you’ll be in the middle of playing and you’ll stop look at me, laugh and yell out GEORGE! I love reading that book with you.

Okay though, back to the spoiling. So not only did Nana and Grandpa take you Edaville Railroad where you were able to enjoy all these fun rides, but your Nana went on all of these rides with you. That my dear is love! You seemed to have a great time and there are lots of pictures to show all that you can’t say although really there isn’t much you don’t say or talk about. The first thing you told me this morning when I walked into your room was that you had fun on that swing ride with Nana, I told you how it sounded like lots of fun and that you should be sure to tell Nana that you had lots of fun.

In a few weeks Grandpa will be off from work for two weeks, that means that you’ll have two weeks of Nana and Grandpa together, and that my dear means lots more fun to come!

a glimpse

I am stumped at what to write under this picture....do I dare to ask for ideas?

when simple things work

Last night I was feeling a bit crafty in the kitchen and since it was a rainy night I was craving a bit of pasta. I ended up making a meal so delicious that Ella looked at me in the middle of eating and said ‘Mama, I love this pasghetti’. So I thought I’d share the recipe for all those finicky eaters out there!

Are you ready…
– Boil one box of thin spaghetti
– Heat one jar of Classico Florentine Spinach and Cheese sauce

Mix together, toss in some Parmesan cheese (preferably some store brand, nothing freshly grated) and serve warm.

You will get rave reviews from your toddler who will eat two big plates full. Although your spouse may be mildly unsatisfied with such a simple meal, it is just a chance you have to take!

head first

No fear here!

waiting for summer

While the weather was really beautiful this weekend, we just didn't have a chance to get to the beach! We did get to go to the waterfront one sunny afternoon and watch the boats and have some ice cream. Ella loves watching the ocean and the boats! Hopefully this weekend the weather will be just as beautiful and we'll have a chance to take her on Grandpa's boat! So in spite of the cloudy and cold day we had yesterday Ella and I created a bit of the ocean in our kitchen! We painted some fish, and cut out some stars for starfish from some of Ella's earlier finger paintings and glued them onto the ocean I made and had hung up on our slider! We had a lot of fun making our own ocean and Ella was so proud when it was all hung up!

so happy together

Yup, she is definitely TWO!

For a while things seemed to have settled a bit, you were growing but the changes were subtle, you had tantrums but the majority of the time you were easy going and lots of fun. You stuck to your routine and you seemed to enjoy your routine, you liked that you knew what was coming, it seemed to give you a sense of comfort. Each day we watched as you soaked in all of your surroundings, whether it be at home, the library, at a restaurant, even in London. You had your second birthday just 3 weeks ago and suddenly in what seemed like such a short time span you have changed.

It almost seems as though the changes happened overnight, although I’m sure that isn’t how it happened. You are becoming your own person. You are starting to realize this too and so you are trying to assert your independence from us constantly lately. It started kind of small, you told us you weren’t going to eat lunch at lunch time, and then each day since then you have let us know of each and every thing that you will and will not do. I thought it was that you were just trying to be bossy, but after reading up on some of the sleep issues you are having right now I see that it isn’t bossy that you are trying to be, it is ELEANOR that you are trying to be. ELEANOR who is her own person, separate from Mom and Dad. You tell us that you aren’t going to rest at nap time now, even though you happily crawl into your bed and cozy up under the covers. You tell us that you aren’t going to bed at night even though you go through the whole bedtime routine happily and again smile when I kiss you and tell you goodnight! It is the night time that I am having issues with dear Eleanor. At night now about a half an hour to and hour after I put you to bed you begin to yell out to me, and this isn’t just crying, what you are yelling are words, sentences, feelings even. For the past four nights now you yell out, ‘Mama, Ella has pees, Ella needs to pee on the potty’ (which you should also know you have told me you weren’t doing anymore so I had given up on the whole potty thing for awhile)! So I go up and let you sit on the potty, the first night we did this once, the second night three times and so on. However now that I have caught onto the game we are playing we only did it once last night, even though you woke up at 1AM, 1:30AM, and 2:30AM crying about the same thing, well that and that the blanket wasn’t covering your toes. We are going to work on this sleep stuff dear. I don’t do well without sleep, this is just one of the reasons you don’t have a sibling yet, I can still remember what it was like to have a 3 hour stretch of sleep be the longest you get in days, weeks and months.

The moments when you are talking about other things, things other than what you will and won’t do, are really wonderful. You seem to use your imagination even more now and you put your dolls to sleep and you feed them in your pretend kitchen. I even caught you hugging ‘Sage’ this morning telling her, ‘I love you Sage’. Sometimes when we say I love you Ella, you say ‘I love you too’ back, all by yourself. These are the great moments! You also sing, and you sing a lot. We went to get an ice cream yesterday and you sat and sang, ‘Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy’ and another woman at another table heard you singing and commented how she knew that song too, is there anyone out there who doesn’t, the Wiggles are everywhere! You can tell us a little bit about your day, like that you held hands with Anna at the library and that you had Spaghettio’s for lunch. When we were playing in the backyard yesterday you played with our neighbors Amy and Amanda instead of just watching them play. You took Amanda’s hand and asked her to chase you. It was great, you made me smile, although you always seem to do that pretty easily! You are sweet, smart, beautiful and oh so energetic, I always seem to find myself marveling over how much I love you and how blessed you make me feel, …even on the tired and cranky days!

Tiny Dancer

Ella has been keeping busy with Gymboree, Art Class, and her latest adventure...Dance Class with Nana! Our town has a great recreation department which offers lots of different classes for toddlers her age! She has really been enjoying all of these new activities!