Dance class "parent show"

Eleanora's dance class had a Halloween "party" this week. All the girls dressed up in costumes and the parents got to come in and watch what they've been doing the past 5 weeks. At the end of the class, they got to trick-or-treat around the studio. It was adorable, as expected. Eleanora totally blew me away (I haven't been to dance in a few weeks, I've been home doing building stuff). I basically was crying/laughing/crying the whole time, which is expected by me. Hopefully E gets used to me sobbing in public whenever she does anything that gives me the slightest feeling of pride...

So here is Miss Eleanora in her cat costume doing her tap dance first (you can see her little classmate running in late was enough to stop her in her tracks) and her ballet dance. It starts to get shaky when I could no longer contain myself from the cuteness overload...get used to it.

(make it big, you know you want to. Oh you're at work and trying to be sneaky? Do it anyway, your coworkers want to see!)

Preschool!

My baby started preschool. She goes Tues/Thurs from 9-11:30am. It has been totally wonderful. Here she is with Bryce outside the doors at the open house the week before school started.

Trying out the sand table,

A view of one of the classrooms,

The actual first day,

She is so proud of her hook,

With her cousin Justin at the end of the first day,

Preschool has been a great experience so far. I really didn't know how it would all go, but I am so pleased. Separation has been way easier than I imagined. She lingers and holds my hand for a minute and then jumps in. Only one morning she cried at drop off, that was because and she let go of my hand and I turned to leave, the fire alaram went off (fire drill day). It was SO loud (she is sensitive to noise) and she had no idea what it was and happened at the exact moment of her feeling vulnerable as I let go of her hand. I stayed for the fire drill to reassure her the world wasn't ending, she cried when I finally left, and I listened outside the door and she cried for less than 60 seconds.

I imagined her not talking at preschool for like 6 months. I thought she'd just observe and follow directions. That lasted the first week. By the second week the teachers were telling me she had begun talking, a lot. Last week I volunteered for the day (I will once a month, for a tuition discount and for fun!), it was show and tell day and she got up in front of the class and the teacher asked her questions about her bear she brought and she ANSWERED! I was so proud. She shouts out answers and sings along to the songs. Watching her there you wouldn't know how shy and introverted she can be. The entire ride home she talks about her day and her teachers, and asks to go back again.

It has eased my slight concern about her birthday and being ready for Kindergarten at 5. The cutoff is Sept 1, her bday is August 18. She will be 5, but just barely. She is the youngest at preschool and it doesn't show, which makes me feel good. But, for instance, there have already been 2 birthdays at preschool, kids turning 4. They are 11 months older than Eleanora. That's a lot of time at this age. They are split into 2 groups, the "older" 3's and the "younger" 3's, which I think is great. They are all together to start the day, then split. Anyway I've always wondered if she would for sure be ready for Kindy at 5, and being that she's been home with me all the time I really had no way to measure. I was one of the youngest (July 22) and really enjoyed graduating HS at 17 and getting my BA at 20 - I felt I got a jump start on real life. I know many others that do not feel that way, that were the youngest and didn't like it, but I guess we are all just making decisions about our kids education based on what we either did or did not like about our own, right?

I feel like she's blossoming lately, with preschool and her new dance class really helping with that. She loves her new dance class and begs to go everyday. She walks right in and gets to work! It's very cute. I will take pics with my real camera (I only have iPhone pics now) and post them soon. We started at a different studio for one week and did not like it, now we are at Victoria Dance Productions in Edina and LOVE it!

And here are just some pics from summer,

This is Triangle Park down the block we go to all the time. Her favorite thing is the balance beam,

Goofballs,

Fall is underway, which means Bryce is HOME! It was really rough the last month. We are so glad the Twins are over (Bryce might disagree)! Whether or not he will usher again next year is still under debate. For now we are enjoying him coming home everyday and having him all weekend!

Upcoming posts I want to write include dance class and documenting Eleanora's bedtime routine, because it's the same thing every night and I'm not sure how normal it is...

A Check-in

I've been bad with the blog, lately. We've been so busy!

Bryce is gone all. the. time. If the Twins are in town, there are days that go by without seeing him for more than feeling him fall into bed. He'll be home at 11:30 (or later) and up again at 6am, to work then bus from work to Twins, bus home again at 11pm. Rinse and Repeat. Over and again until they are out of town. Then we see him! During this the building (and other buidings, I covered another one for 4 weeks) is pretty much solely on me to clean, move in and move outs, show apartments, steam clean carpets, take applications and the like. So if you haven't seen us in a while, it's because the days we have together get filled up with errands, building stuff I need Bryce's help with, lawn care and trying to get in time with the 3 of us.

All this time with Bryce at work has given Eleanora and I a LOT of time together. She is one amazing girlie. She's such a mix between the two of us personality-wise, with her own unique Eleanora-ness thrown in there.  She's so sensitive/thin-skinned, like her mama. She gets embarassed and hurt (emotionally) easily. Things that roll off other toddlers' backs really effect her. She really is sensitive to energies. If two kids are fighting, she screams and cries, if someone else her age is crying/screaming, she can't keep her composure.  If someone scolds her, she just can't help but be hurt and cry. She walked into the room while I was showing Bryce this video and she started screaming and her whole body was shaking and peed her pants (potty trained). She kept screaming that they baby was in trouble and screaming for it's daddy to come. It broke our hearts. We immediately told her that they baby could swim! And oh wow isn't that great that they baby knows how to swim? Wow look at that! (we had to watch the whole thing so it could end well). That seemed to resonate with her, and she say "good job baby" and wasn't freaked anymore. But wow, right? That she could sense that the baby was in danger and feel so strongly? I think sensitive is a good thing. It means more meltdowns and more helping her through things emotionally, but it also means that she is incredibly empathetic. If she sees a kid in whatever group we are in start to wander off, she freaks until an adult pays attention, she is very aware that they might be in danger. She amazes me. She has such a big heart! It is actually nice having a child with the same sensitivity as you, because I totally get it. I can relate and know how she's feeling when someone scolds her, so I know how to help her through it. I can hear how she hears things (people speaking to her), so I get why she's upset and can help speak to her in a way that will help her cope. I was going to talk about other personality traits of hers right now, but this is getting long so I will save them for another post.

You are here for pictures, right? Here is just a random assortment of mostly iphone pictures because it is the thing I always have with me and always has batteries!

Father's Day Twins Game,

On our way out somewhere, she insists on wearing her backpack a lot of places,

Eleanora and I had planned on going to a friend's cabin for the day/night last week, but it was soooooooo hot and her cabin has no a/c and I just couldn't go. 115 heat index is just not my cup of tea. So since Eleanora had helped me pack and was SO excited, when she woke up that morning I decided we had to go somewhere. Bryce was working many days in a row so we weren't going to be seeing him anyway, so we checked in to the Kelly Inn in Plymouth and got a poolside room. They have two pools, one is toddler heaven. She had her swimsuit on from 1:30pm (check in) nearly non stop until 9pm (bed) and the first words out of her mouth in when she woke up were "Good morning, I get my suit on for the pool now?" and we swam from 9:30am to noon (check out). Poolside is the way to go, I tell ya. We hopped in for a snack/juice, then hop back out the door, then back in for dinner (Green Mill is attached to the hotel and delivers to the rooms), then back out for more fun. She loved every minute and asked when checking out "We can come back here soon, yes or no?" I loved it to, it was such a fun treat for the two of us.

She went down this swan slide at least 500 times, (she's the blur on the slide)

We had two double beds, and she made it clear she wanted her own, so this was her set up, she did great,

Here are just a few randoms that I never shared. Her with her teacher Miss Andrea at her last dance class,

And her class making funny faces,

Feeding Jack all by herself,

Sleeping on the way home with the Sock Monkey she stole from Grandpa Ron's house,

That's all I got right now, I am anxious for the baseball season to come to a close so we can have Bryce back! We are so proud of him working so hard, but we miss him. I don't think we'll do Twins ushering again next year, but Bryce says he might want to (he kinda likes getting paid to be at Target Field watching baseball). I guess once the season is over and I have a total of how much debt we paid off since April, I might be singing a different tune.

 Hopefully I can find some time to post before this, but if not surely I will post again after her birthday party.

A Star is Born

Ok so there's a ton of other stuff I haven't posted, but I have to jump right to Eleanora's dance recital. I had NO idea what would happen. We weren't going to sign her up for the recital, she's the youngest in the class, she's generally very shy in new settings, and we thought it would not enjoy it. But she kept saying at dance class when they'd talk about it that she wanted to do it - she didn't even know what a recital meant, but she got the impression it had to do with dancing on a stage. So we signed up, and I immediately asked if I could be the "room mom" and be wrangling the kids backstage and helping out with the class, they said no! They have a whole staff and want the parents to enjoy the show. So now I thought for sure this would be a disaster. No way would she let me drop her off backstage with strangers, let alone go on stage and not run off and cry.

She blew us away! She walked right backstage at the hand off, going with a total stranger. Then she ROCKED on stage. The videos are poor quality, and my hand is moving all around while I was trying to clap and wipe tears from my eyes, but make the video big and you'll feel like you were there. We are so incredibly proud of her. Bryce and I were speechless and amazed.

Some pics,








 

Her first dance, I Love Worms,

Her second dance, Uno Dos Tres - this was her tap dance, but they didn't change shoes during the recital, it was too much (as you can see, she is concerned about being on her blue "X")



The grand finale, Dancing in the USA



Wasn't she great?

The long awaited real post...

Have you ever been to Nickelodeon Universe with your kids? It's awesome. New Year's Eve day we took Eleanora for the day, and she had an absolute blast! (so did we!). We had lunch at the food court and played at Lego Land, too.

Before the ride,

During the ride,

Ice cream,

We really need to plan a day to do this again, it was great.

We have a little princess in our house all the time, she loves dressing up,

Lots of dance classes. We switched days of class recently and the class is much smaller/less crazy and it's been a good change.



With her BFF,

dress up at Lily's,

She and her BFF went to see Elmo Live! Lily's mama Mary got us sweet tickets (6 rows back on the floor I think? Or was it 4 rows?)

A not zoomed in pic, that's how close we were! The girls got to dance with characters when they came down to dance in the aisles.



A dinner I actually thought to bring my camera to! Dinner for Chris and Amy's birthdays.

Auntie Amy,

Smiles with Carsten,

I love this one,

Baby Jack has been by, which makes my little mommy Eleanora very happy,

Nora has gotten a little too good with daddy's ipod touch, she can navigate to play games, watch her videos, take pictures and even request face time!

And some from Tuesday on our way to dance class,



Lots of changes around here lately. Eleanora gave her paci's (or papi's as she called them) to the Paci Fairy a few weeks ago. She and I decorated a shoe box to put her paci's in and put the box outside the apartment door before bed. When she woke up, the Paci Fairy had left all sorts of loot! Mostly Tangled toys - a Rapunzel barbie, Tangled flip flops, Tangled figurine set, book - yes that's a lot but we had to make it worth it! She had a deep, deep love for her paci's. If it was up to her she would have had one in her mouth all day everyday. We had cut them down to bedtime and longish car rides only, but still it was time to say goodbye. It's been really great to be paci-free! She asked a few times for them after the Paci Fairy took them to bring to other babies that need them, but after we tell her they are gone she just sort of shrugs and moves on. It only took 2.5 years!

The first night without paci's is the night she decided she now needs a nightlight. It was strange, because she's slept in the dark for 2.5 years, and that night she said it was too dark. So Bryce had to put a lamp in there while she fell asleep and then sneak in and turn it off. The next day we took her to pick out a nightlight at Target and she's a happy camper again.

The other big change is last week we took down her crib and set up her big girl bed. Last Tuesday when she went to bed she threw a fit about wanting to go to sleep in a big girl bed. It was 8pm so we calmed her down and she fell asleep in her crib. Her big girl bed has been in storage down the hall so she's seen that it's here. The next day I asked if she'd sleep in her crib that night, she informed me no way, I need a big girl bed. So we washed her new bedding, took down the crib for storage, assembled the bed rail and prayed! I was dreading this transition. But to our surprise and delight, she stays in bed all night. She's so excited about her bed she runs and dives in at night, loves being tucked in and sort of talks to herself and reads to herself (this started when the paci went away) and then falls asleep and STAYS there all night. In fact she's sleeping better than before, 8pm-8am lately. This morning it was 9! She gets up and comes and knocks on the door when she's awake. It's really cute. She looks so tiny in a Twin bed!

I will admit I cried taking down her crib. She's slept in it for 2.5 years and I remember so vividly putting newborn Eleanora down all swaddled in the middle of the crib and she looked so so tiny in the crib. So the last of her babyhood is gone. It was bittersweet for me. I'm so happy she loves her big girl bed, and we've kicked the paci habit, but she's a real big girl now.

We are already enjoying the slightly warmer weather and looking forward to the park melting so we can go run around. Twins season is starting up and our summer is about to get crazy...