Happy Monday everyone! This post is long overdue. I let the holiday madness get to me and while I did capture Eleanor’s four year birthday portraits, I never ended up writing this. Her birthday blog post. So to be perfectly clear, yes this is Eleanor’s birthday blog post, but she turned four in October. It’s not her birthday now. It was her birthday and I did take pictures, so I’m now rolling with better late than never.
Dear sweet Eleanor, what to say. It is so wonderful watching her grow up. Being a big sister is no easy task, especially when your little sister is passionate, emotional and obsessed with you. I can say this, because I am an emotional, passionate #2 who was obsessed with my oldest sister. (Still am, honestly. What’s 800 miles? We still sit and sip coffee and talk for multiple hours, multiple times a week, over video calls. . . .we throw some housework in there too or on my end photo editing.)
Honestly there’s so much to say, about Eleanor, I can’t choose! So here are just a few thoughts about her and about being her Mom. I am constantly amazed at how sharp this little girl is. She is a sponge and is already doing an excellent job memorizing Bible verses and uses words like. . . . automobile. She’s gone from just scribbling to drawing pictures that I can identify and coloring in the lines, letters and numbers are coming along fine.
Subtlety, bit by bit, day by day she is growing up. I realized months ago, with a bit of surprise, that my toddler was gone and I now had a young lady. How did that happen? As she leaves those toddler years behind her and accepts more responsibility, I am so sympathetic to her objections on obeying “I just wanna do what I wanna do!” Me too, Eleanor, me too. Naturally, this results in more than a few power struggles. And while I’m challenged daily by teaching and channeling her desire to control and lead, I’m astounded by her ability to present me with, at times, truly reasonable arguments for why we need to do something her way.
And yet, she embraces it. As she desires to help more, I have to learn and adapt on how to allow her curious mind and helping hands into my routines. She loves to dance, is learning how to sing and I think may love the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” as much as I do! She loves to read books with me and I can’t wait until she learns to read for herself, not because I don’t want to read to her, but I think she will be truly delighted by the wealth of stories and other worlds she can explore on her own.
She is asking more and more questions about how the world works, stumping me already with some of her questions. When my Grandmother passed back in November, I was quickly educated on how navigating grief is a little different when there is a four year old present asking ALL of the questions. I couldn’t even be mad, because I knew that Grandma wouldn’t have been mad and probably would have found it quite humorous.
Eleanor is still a rock star for road trips. And I am touched that she actually understands now, that she has family in MI and gets so excited when she knows we’re going to see them or when they are coming to see us. ( This was a fear of mine, moving so far away. Would my children have a good relationship with their MI family? The answer is yes, yes they would and I shouldn’t have worried.)
I could go on, but enjoy some pretty pictures, from when the weather was warm. I only managed to get a couple smiling photos, because gracious, four year olds don’t like to hold still, lol.
Mom and Dad love you sweet girl! We are so blessed by the opportunity to be a part of your life. You’re already about half way through year four, but we’re here every step of the way.
