Sushi, Parking, and the Carousel

The other day I found this pouch that had six tiny dolls in it. I had bought them at 10,000 Villages once for a small purse toy. They have helped her quietly play in church services, resturants and such. At some point E added various tiny nativty scene characters to the bag: a couple of wise men, baby Jesus, a camel, a cow and a sheep. I stuck the pouch in my purse and pulled it out later at a resturant while we were waiting for our food. E played happily with all the small people/animals. When we got home, she asked for them again. She said they were hungry. When I walked in the room, I found them all eating sushi. My favorite was baby Jesus upside down on top of some sort of fish eggs.

I had a doctor's apointment this morning. Eleanor went with me, and since our doctor's office is within sight of E's favorite mall (is it bad that she's four and has a favorite mall?), we decided to have a mall day. Mall days consist of riding the carousel, boba (the boba place at the mall has mini boba, which E calls "baby boba"), and "Panda Food" or lunch at Panda Express. I don't go there with E if I want to get any shopping done, but it's a nice air conditioned place to walk. Today I even let E play in the play area, which I usually avoid, and realized that she is getting too big for it. This didn't stop other parents from allowing their school age boys to trample toddlers and flip each other off. My favorite thing about today's trip:

There are three of these parking spaces that I've found in various lots. I got the one in the parking deck, which meant not only was I right by the door, but my car stayed cool. Beautiful.

Eleanor's favorite part of the trip was the carousel. She got a letter last week with money earmarked for carousel riding. She was pretty happy about that.

Decisions

I heard Eleanor scoot a stool over to her new wardrobe and ponder, "What do I want to wear today?"

Dancing

Eleanor's favorite thing to do these days is dance. She loves skirts that twirl, ribbons that swirl, and, most of all, an audience. I'm looking for a ballet class for her that fits her age and development. In the mean time, ask to see her arabesque. She's quite proud of it.

Four Years, One Hat

(She wouldn't wear it on her second birthday. It was there though.)

Happy 4 Years to E!

Monday was Eleanor's fourth birthday. Crazy, isn't it? Here's a couple of pictures from her birthday. We'll have a party on Saturday and break out the good camera, so you can look forward to better pictures.

We took E to Kidspace, a muesum/play area for children. Scout (and fam) went with us. We had a picnic while we were there that included cupcakes with princess rings on top. I think they liked them:)

There were these huge climbing structures. This one is called raindrops or something like that. Eleanor would go up ten or fifteen feet, but wouldn't go all the way to the top. She enjoyed seeing a blue world.

After rest time, E got to open some presents. Of course she wanted to wear her Cinderella dress while doing so. It was so fun to watch her open these gifts. You could see the thought process of wanting to open the next one, but really wanting to play with what she had just opened.

Cinderella

I Tom Sawyered Eleanor into scrubbing the kitchen floor tonight. She kept thanking me for letting her play with the spray bottle (filled with water). My favorite part was she was wearing her Cinderella dress.