Eleanor is 9!

Eleanor is NINE years old and wow, was this a year for growth. She has matured a lot, she's asking tougher questions, processing more things, and unfortunately experienced a lot of personal loss this year. She also thrived in school under her initial teacher both in independence and organization (though she still leaves a trail of her belongings behind her wherever she goes) and was moved into the gifted program at school. She loves being around friends and truly enjoys being by herself, too. She works hard when she has goals she wants to achieve and has shown us that for the most part, she can handle increasing levels of freedom and independence. She ran two 5ks this year, coming in 3rd for her age group in the second one. She worked very hard at swimming this summer and swam up with the 9 & 10 year olds for practice as well as earned points for her team at every meet. She continues to love reading (finished the Series of Unfortunate Events, the Mysterious Benedict Society series, and of course, the Harry Potter series this year among other books), has expressed an interest in learning to sew, and continued at piano (I taught the girls the basics during our homeschool year) with our neighbor across the street who has been teaching her (though practicing is not often in her repertoire). We are looking forward to seeing her grow more this coming year and are so thankful for how her personality fits into our family. 

Eleanor at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fifteen, and eighteen months old.

Eleanor at two, three, three and a half, four, and four and a half, five, six, seven, and eight years old.