Eleanor celebrated her birthday this week with lots of festivities. We had a dinner with Uncle B and Lala (Eleanor got to choose the cuisine – cheeseburgers), monkey balloons, a giant inflatable monkey, and a morning present string trail. Eleanor actually slept in, and Mom, Dad and Henry finally had to go in and wake her up so we would have time to do the present trail before school. It took her a minute to catch on, but then she eagerly followed the string unwrapping presents along the way (video coming soon). A few months ago, Eleanor and Dad had decided to have a sleepover on the night of Eleanor’s birthday. Unbeknownst to Dad, Eleanor and Mom had a similar plan. So we ended up dividing the sleepovers over a four night span, and even Henry got in on the sleepover fun. On Dad’s night, Eleanor spent most of the night in the trundle bed with “A-hunger” (the name Eleanor gave the inflatable monkey), while Dad was on Eleanor’s bed. On Mom’s night both slept in the trundle, as well as on Henry’s night. On Henry’s night, he and Eleanor were up till about 9:15 before finally falling asleep, and it showed the next day. Henry was dragging and finally fell asleep at the dinner table a little after five. He perked right up later though, and shoveled in mounds of pasta with both hands.
Eleanor has been working on some small Lego’s that she got for her birthday – she hasn’t mastered them yet, but is showing some interest. In fact, she decided to cancel plans to go to the planetarium, and instead work on putting together a new fire truck. Unfortunately, she if finding it a bit frustrating, so lots of Mom help was needed. Henry continues to be fascinated by puzzles, and will do many all by himself. He loves to tell you about the “tricky” pieces. He has also started playing catch – so far our record is two throw and catches in a row without the ball touching the ground.
