All about Eleanor (Better Late than Never)

Last Tuesday night, we were doing some much needed laundry after we had all been sick for the past week (some of us still are). Eleanor just had to try on things before putting them into the washing machine. She's putting on Daddy's shirt in this one.She thought it was a fun game to stand back for me, smile, and then come running toward the camera just as I was about to take the picture.

Jumping with her sister.

Walking Grandma Mills' dog, one of her favorite things to do.
We spent MLK day at Grandma Mills' house. Eleanor helped her daddy clean branches off the deck.

Sweet sisters.

(I took this last month, but didn't get a chance to post it.)

• Eleanor can't seem to decide if she wants to grow up or be even younger than she is now.
• She sees all the "cool" toys Phaedra gets (bouncer seat, bumbo, johnny jump up, etc.), and she wishes she wasn't too big for them. She even wants to eat baby food when I feed Phaedra. If there is any left in the bowl after Phae is done, I let Eleanor eat it. She takes a spoonful, tries not to make a face, and says, "I like it." If you ask her if she wants more, she says no. But the next time Phae gets solids, Eleanor is right there, asking for a taste.
• Eleanor loves to pretend. I've already mentioned that she gives the whole family names according to the current character she wants to be. We do that every day. I don't know who she is half the time. If I address her and call her the wrong name, she corrects me, and I have to repeat my entire sentence using her current name.
• She plays realistically. If she pretends to be something, she's like an actor studying for a part. This can cause a bit of trouble. . . Last month, while we were staying at Grant's parents' house, Eleanor was pretending to be their dog, Riley. She watched as Riley licked their kitchen floor, and asked her grandma what he was doing. Grandma explained that sometimes Riley licks the floor to try to clean it for her. The next thing she knew, Eleanor was licking the floor. She happily looked up at her grandma and declared, "I'm Riley." Naturally, Grandma told her, in an alarmed manner, to stop immediately. I overheard the commotion from the other room and rushed in to help drive the point home (lest she doubt Grandma’s seriousness or authority), and Eleanor understandably . . . started to cry.
• That was the worst but not the last instance of Eleanor over-pretending. I’ve watched her at my mother’s house observing Lane (dog) after he took a drink and proceeded to lick his front legs. She watched him, and then she started licking her arms. She watches Phaedra put things in her mouth all the time, and she tells me, “I am a baby,” as she starts sucking on a stuffed animal. I hate to ruin her fun when her sister is allowed to do it, but it grosses me out. I usually tell her to find a hard toy to put in her mouth instead. Telling her to pretend to do it doesn’t work. She just responds that she can’t pretend to (fill-in-the-blank) because she is a real dog or a real baby. As we all know, real dogs would never be caught pretending to lick themselves. They just go ahead and do it.
• In spite of her roll playing as Phaedra, her current form of sibling rivalry is to freak out anytime Phae has touched something of hers. She cries out dejectedly, “Oh no! It’s all slobbered!”
• I’m sad to say that most of her knowledge is gleaned from watching TV in the morning while I try to get a little more sleep. (This is one of my biggest sources of guilt lately.) She has all this knowledge about shapes and letters that I know I haven’t taught her. I’m glad she’s excited about letters, and I’m glad she’s recognizing more and more. I just wish it were because I taught her rather than PBS.
• Eleanor is a wonderful, loving, respectful daughter. But, she is starting to challenge us more lately. I comfort myself by attributing it to her intelligence. If she wasn’t so smart, she might not be so difficult, right? The majority of the time, she is better behaved than I could hope for, but when she decides to be stubborn about an issue, we really have to go the rounds to bend her will.
  
  Here are some things (among others) I love about Eleanor right now:
• She can pick up the words to songs really easily, and she loves to sing.
• She makes up songs randomly. She’ll be playing, and I’ll hear her sing, “Yesterday-hey-hey . . .” Just tonight, we were at my mother's house, and she held two My Little Ponies side by side and sang, "We love each other. We love each other."
• She has a gentle nature.
• She still loves books, and she can read many of her own books to us (from memory).
• She’s pretty easy to take places.
• She entertains herself well.
• She loves opportunities to get involved in what I’m doing. I can work on just about anything if I can think of some little job she can do to help me with it.
• She’s a very attentive sister. If I’m in the shower and I hear Phaedra’s toy drop to the floor (from the bouncer seat or Johnny jump up she’s sitting in), I look out a minute later, and she has her toy back. Sometimes, Eleanor sits and reads her stories the whole time I’m in the shower. When Phae gets up from a nap, Eleanor likes to help me carry her to the family room. I lift Phae out of her bed and into Eleanor's arms and support her weight as the three of us walk through the house.
• So many little things can be exciting for her, and it rubs off on me.
  
  That’s not all, but I’ll stop there for now.