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.

Pregnancy Through the Eyes of Eleanor

Last week, E drew this picture of me:



This week, she drew this one:

Apparently, as the baby and I grow, we get less happy. She told me that the scribbles around the baby are the "am-ni-odded fluid."

Eleanor, Curious George and Lisa Bear (her Carebear) were giving the baby hugs and feeling it move. A fun time was had by all.



On a side note, mixing red silly putty with play doh can have disastrous results. Eleanor and her friend Scout had a blast playing with this concoction until I literally caught them red handed. I must have scrubbed their hands for five solid minutes, only to leave a ring around the sink--very much like the cake ring in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.



Just so you know, we are constantly stopping to smell the roses.

Camping

We went camping over Memorial Day weekend with a big group of people from our church. The camp grounds were in Malibu cayon and were beautiful. This state park is most famous for being the filming site of MASH and something else I forgot. All the landscape looked very much like MASH, but not so much like Korea (from pictures I've seen).

We spent Saturday at Leo Carillo beach. Matt surfed. Eleanor played in the sand. I hung out under the umbrella.

I'm pretty sure Eleanor loves camping so much because of the food. We had a very loose policy this weekend concerning what she ate and she enjoyed that immensely: Frosted Flakes for breakfast, Cheetos for lunch, s'mores after dinner.

Sunday we went hiking. We only made the three-ish mile hike instead of the 5ish one to the MASH site or longer to Reagan's ranch. Eleanor caught a ride the whole time. Matt was pretty wiped by the end of the hike.

Eleanor enjoyed sharing snacks with Brady. Mostly because Brady had Cheetos.


She was also able to get a little fishing in using Brady's pole. She didn't catch anything and I'm pretty sure she would have dropped the pole if she had.

Eleanor also decided this weekend on a new profession: a "wheat cutter." Forget dreams of being a "baby doctor" or an artist, she's on to more noble pursuits.

The Saturday Between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday

 Easter Egg hunt at Fuller started a bit early for some.

Neighbor, Eli was ready to go.

 

Thomas, Mary and little Audrey turned out as well.

 

 "And Go!"

 

E was not in a hurry (Dress courtesy of Memaw).

 

 

She did find an egg.  I had goldfish inside.  We encouraged her to look for more but she replied: "I found one already."  We did not wish to change her lack of greed.

 

Later she went to climb on a prominent statue in the center of Fuller Seminary's campus depicting the crucifixion of Jesus.  Eleanor likes to hug the man swinging the hammer and ask me why they wanted to hurt Jesus.  This Good Friday is the first she has asked about the crucifixion.  We read to her a couple of versions from children's Bibles before a wonderful service at church made the mystery evident to her in sight, sound, word and song. It is truly amazing experiencing worship and the Christian story through the eyes of someone who is still putting it all together.  It is a reminder that we are all still putting it all together.

 

Later (after a change of clothes) we dyed eggs.

 

  

Eleanor loves food coloring.  I love stacking things.

 

Melody and Eleanor both love to eat hard boiled eggs.

 

Easter Pictures

Eleanor looked absolutely adorable Easter morning. Unfortunately, the sun was too bright and I didn't use the good camera. I should have had her stand in the shade, then we could have gotten a better picture and a less squinty face. Eleanor was so excited to wear her new dress, new shoes, and new lace socks. She asked for braids, which her hair is now long enough for (two french braids). The only part of her outfit that didn't match was her hair rubber bands. She insisted on one purple one (her favorite color most days) and one blue one (her next favorite color most days).

Sister got graham crackers

Mouth full of chocolate

Sharing some Easter snacks with Sister

A forced smile:

And on a different note, Eleanor has been drawing pictures of babies "inside the uterus." Here's one that she gave to me. Note the two hairs. The circles on the side of the head are ears.