Eleanor is FOUR!

Eleanor turned four years old last week! She is very smart and independent. She will be starting pre-school next week - her first foray into organized education - and is very excited about it. She knows how to write her own name, write several other letters, and recognizes almost all the rest of them. She knows all her numbers and can count to thirty reliably before she starts getting confused with what comes next. She does basic math all the time when it involves something she cares about ("Well there's only five M&Ms so if you give Jane two that means I only get three and I want four!!"). She also loves to "write" and tell stories, sometimes tucking me in before nap time with an Eleanor original...and boy are they original! She also asks a million questions and doesn't seem to stop until she gets an answer that makes sense to her. 

Eleanor has a huge imagination and can play by herself for hours. She still has an imaginary friend named "Kali" (pronounced kah-lee) who shows up and disappears at random moments. She naps about 75% of the time still, for about 2 hours at a time whenever she goes down. She struggles to control her emotions, because she has so many of them, and such strong feelings! There are many tantrums, but then she seems sweet as can be immediately afterward. 

She learned how to swim this summer, and seems to love anything active. She really enjoyed gymnastics this last year, the field hockey clinics at W&M, and is very eager to try soccer this fall. She has a ton of energy. She loves to sing and act here at home, often acting out entire scenes from her favorite movies. She particularly loves to dress as Belle and walk around with "her nose stuck in a book." 

She gets along very well with her little sister and can be very helpful when she so chooses. She can also terrorize Jane because she knows exactly which of her buttons to push, so we are working on kindness. Jane is also working on standing up for herself now that she is starting to talk more. She still hasn't let us cut her hair, though we've tried, and it's gotten quite long!

Our biggest girl is a mini-replica of me in terms of emotions and soul, and I can't wait to see her keep progressing in the coming years.