All About Eleanor

Favorite books: she’s enjoying a wide variety right now. We have a bunch checked out from the library including several by Gerald McDermott, Eric Carle, and William Steig. She also likes The Pocket Dogs by Margaret Wild.

Favorite TV show: probably still Martha Speaks, but we recently introduced her to Dora on Netflix, and she’s really been enjoying that.

Favorite activities include swinging, going for walks (either riding in a stroller or pushing her baby in one), playing in the sandbox, coloring with her “chalk walk” (sidewalk chalk), talking to the neighbor boy at our back fence, crawling around with her sister, play dates, and any sort of talking into the microphone at church.

Eleanor loves to pretend she’s a dog. I recently asked her what her name was when she was a dog, because we couldn’t just call her doggy all the time. We don’t call other dogs “doggy.” We call them by their names. So, she told me her name was Bohsher (pronounced like the O in slosh). We have had our challenges with Bohsher and her commitment to being a realistic doggy. I have had to train her not to lick my face with her tongue. She gives me pretend licks by rubbing her closed mouth against my cheek. We also have had food battles where Bohsher insists on eating like a doggy on the floor without using her paws. This can be tolerated at breakfast with dry cereal, but it’s not happening during dinner!


Last month is when this started, but she has really been stuck on the words “ta-da” and “ding” for a while. Ta-da probably came from the Wall-E movie, and Grant and I use it a lot because of that, too. I don’t know why she decided to start using “ding,” but if you give her a choice between two things, she will point to one and say “ding!” She also uses it to point out things. Example: Where are your shoes? She points to them on the floor and says, “ding!”

Sleep has been interesting. She has really struggled with staying in bed at bedtime lately. Some nights she falls right asleep, and others, she lays in bed awake for a long time. She’ll surprise us by wandering out at almost 10pm to tell us she can’t sleep. Other nights, she’ll wake up at 4am, and after trying to go back to sleep for an hour or so, she’s just up for the day. No Fun! What’s worse is that even on days like this, she is done with naps. Unless by some miracle she falls asleep in the car or watching a movie, we’re just stuck with the mood she’s in until we can get her to bed at night. The only thing I can do is try to get her some “down time” where she isn’t interacting or moving around much—either watching a show, taking a ride in the car, or reading stories together.

One time that we were going to see my mother, I gave Eleanor the choice whether we should take the back roads or the highway. I explained that the back roads have more trees and things to look at, but she still chose the highway. When we were almost there, she changed her mind and asked to go on the back roads. Obviously, she had to live with her original decision, but the next time we went to Grandma’s, we took the back roads. The road we take is really winding, and there are hills and bumps along the way. Eleanor loved the ride, and squealed and laughed with every turn or bump. Now, the back roads are a popular favorite. Eleanor squeals and laughs, and Phaedra laughs along with her, not quite knowing what they’re laughing at but happy to be part of the fun. I have to laugh along with my happy, giggling girls. So, whenever I have time, we take the back roads, and it brightens our day.

On Mother’s Day, Eleanor played with the other kids for a while, but then she withdrew to play by herself. She found the game, Battleship, and began putting the pegs into place. When she was finished, she had a perfect little pattern of white around the edge and a few inner rows and then red rows inside the white. Can anyone say OCD?

Has anyone noticed the many things you end up saying as a parent that you would think (and hope) you wouldn’t have to say? I always notice them when I’m saying them, and I think to myself, “You would think I wouldn’t have to say this.” Let me see if I can remember a few examples. I seem to block them out of my memory as soon as the situation is past, but here are a few I can remember:
Don’t lick the refrigerator.
Don’t put the potty seat around your neck.
Please don’t put clean dishes on your head.

She’s getting so smart. If she’s doing something she isn’t supposed to do, and I ask her to stop, she kindly invites me to go to another room. I don’t think she thinks I’m smart enough to figure out why she wants me to leave.

We have officially entered the “why” phase. She was already asking tons of questions, but they were mostly about what things were for or what they meant. She would also ask why, but she would use full sentences to ask the question. Apparently, she’s getting lazy, because she’s just been throwing the word at me instead of actually forming a question. I try to answer to a certain extent, but when neither one knows to what the “why” is pertaining, it gets a bit challenging. I also admit that there are times when I’m running low on patience, and she asks me why about something when I know perfectly well she knows the answer, I just tell her, “Don’t ask me why.” I can’t be perfect all of the time.