Our precious Eleanor,
Happy 5th birthday, baby girl! What a special birthday this is for you as you have just become a big sister! Even though you may not officially be the baby of this family anymore, you will always, always, always be our baby girl. You absolutely light up our lives and we can’t wait to watch you continue to grow. Here are some special things about you that have characterized your fifth year of life.
- One of the biggest changes in your life this year is that you are almost completely bilingual. Your Latvian is so natural, and you may just have the best accent of all of us. It’s precious to hear you talk because sometimes you just can’t find the words in one language, so you mix them together as necessary.
- Your major progress in language has been due almost entirely to your mornings being spent at bērnudārzs (Latvian kindergarten) while Mommy does her language tutoring. You have some great teachers and friends and really love all of the activities that you get to participate in.
- Speaking of school activities, you absolutely love your music class and your dance class, and the concerts to get to be in every few months. Your Christmas concert was called “How the bunny family celebrates Christmas” and you looked forward for months to that “bunny show” (as you called it). You were, in fact, the star of the show (if you ask us, of course)! You have absolutely no stage fright and sang your songs and recited your poems just as confidently as could be.
- Not only do you love singing and dancing at school, but you also sing and dance constantly no matter where you are. Several times a week, you gather all of us together for a concert and you entertain us with your school songs, or other songs you have created yourself. You have very specific rules for these concerts too: no talking, no laughing, and all attention must be on you.
- You also have been enjoying playing your violin. You are quite the expert at your rhythms and putting your fingers down for “I’m a little Monkey,” and are now working on Twinkle.
- Your favorite playtime activities these days are playing kitties, bunnies, and baby dolls. You love to play family and be the family pet. You also love to be the mommy and take care of your baby. For Christmas I made you a diaper bag with diapers, wipes, paci, changing pad, etc., and you take this baby care thing quite seriously. I know you are going to be a big help with your new baby brother!
- As much as you love taking care of babies, I’d be lying if I said you were completely ready to give up the baby role yourself. You still are quite attached to your blankie and your thumb at nap time and bedtime. You also may or may not come to Mommy and Daddy’s bed almost every night around 3am for snuggles until morning. I know, I know, we should have broken you of that before the baby came, but deep down we don’t really hate it. And you’ve been saying that once he arrives, you’ll stay in your own bed. We will see!
- Not only do you love to snuggle at night, but you are probably our most cuddly child in general. You love to just crawl up with Mommy or Daddy wherever we are and get your fill of snuggles before you head off to your next activity of choice.
- Of those activities of choice, one of your favorites is reading or being read to. You have been working through Alpha Phonics and are now reading all of your simple 3 and 4-letter words very well on your own! You are just so proud of yourself and so are we. Of course, you still love longer read-alouds from Mommy or Daddy or your sisters and sometimes pull out big stacks that you want us to read straight through. We usually have to negotiate down to just a couple at a time!
- You have recently been wanting us to read your Bible to you more and have had lots of questions about what we read, about Jesus, about heaven, and about spiritual things. Sometimes you amaze us at our family devotion time with what you remember from previous days. We know that God is working in your little heart.
- You have a few precious Ellie-isms that you still haven’t outgrown. For example, instead of saying, “Let me see” or “Let me check,” you say, “Let I see” or “Let I check.” It’s the cutest. You also have a self-invented word for how your eyes feel when you get a little sad about something, but don’t want to cry. You say that your eyes are “blurtery” and it’s the cutest and saddest all at once.
- And, of course, there are some things about you that I don’t think will ever change. Your precious little dimples and smile, for one. Also, your nicknames of “The Nor,” “Elle-pie,” and “Piece of pie”!
Eleanor, you are a spitfire. You are creative and dramatic and fun-loving and sensitive and talented and loving, and the list goes on. You are our precious baby girl, and we are so thankful for the privilege of raising you.
Love, Mommy and Daddy
And here are your birthday pictures over the years!
