Happy 4th Birthday Elena

Another year. It's hard to believe that our little baby is such a little girl now. But that is what she is.


I guess the theme of this year might be independence with a dash of extreme vocabulary thrown in. Of course, it was another year of large transitions for Elena. One year ago she was a mostly dutch kid always on a bike or cruising through Europe. Now is is mostly an American kid hanging out in the front yard and making cookies. Over this year, she has become much more independent. Part of this is her new school (and no doubt combined with her increased age)...she has her school 'friends.' Mia, Sydney, and sometimes Hannah and Maggie are her crew. Usually she can be found on the playground spinning as fast as possible on the tire swing giggling with Mia and Sydney. Her wonderful school and teachers (Alexis, Jessica, and Jennifer) keep the kids busy with projects and field trips. Elena brings a great deal of this home - sometimes asking us questions about things like how the planets formed or where Thailand is, seemingly out of the blue. She wants her friends from school to come over for play dates. Of course, with friends comes, well comes, the 'not friends.' There have been hurt feelings because someone said, 'I don't want to be your friend.' And the conversations now include phrases like, 'Mia doesn't have to wear brok (leggings) under her dress; why do I?' Great - and you can't start dating until you are 16, either, while we are at it.

Elena is still a big fan of imaginative play. This year's favorites have been playing doctor, music teacher, and mommy/baby. One difference is that Elena will play many of these by herself (except she prefers to have a patient during doctor). She also likes a little 'space' when she plays. She wants to be in her room with her door shut, or our on the front porch (almost) out of sight. She has these odd cycles through toys, just when you think that 'investment' of the brio wooden train was a bad idea and should be put away, she drags it out. Same with the duplos, aquadoodle, etc. She will get them out and play by herself. Often in the morning. She loves dress up, mostly when it comes to fancy 'clicky' shoes and making emotional pleas in front of the mirror.

Physically, Elena is more dynamic and adventuresome than in years past. She did experience what we call the 'dutch slingshot' when it comes to height and isn't the smallest kid by any stretch. She comes in at over 104 cm (41 inches) and 35 lbs--tall and skinny just like the Sewall's and the Dutches grow'em. She hasn't gain but maybe one pound since arriving back in the US, but has continued to gain in length. She is more aggressive (in a good way) on the play ground. She will leave our side to swing and play and often interact. She loves to run and will ask to go for an evening run. She sprints ahead, but will wait at appointed spots for us to catch up. She also likes to garden, play with sticks, help carry things, drill into wood, and water plants. She loves to help with the pigeons, and is definately her father's daughter - she will sit and watch the birds alone for a long time. Like her dad, it seems to calm her.

Speaking of calming her - she has many fewer tantrums and 'bad' nights. Usually brought on predictably by over tired, over hungry, over stimulating days. But she is a rager when she does lose it. Her screams are louder (and probably sound more like a call to CPS to the neighbors than ever before!) and are combined with amazingly illogical requests. What can you do, just ride it out.

She has also started to key in that we are not a 'normal' family. Do you know that other families have TV's and eat chicken nuggets every night. (and you already know that her father doesn't own crocs! gasp!). It's hard to see the crazy huge birthday parties happen and learn that you won't be having one. She quickly transition from the dutch tradition of giving presents to your friends on your birthday to 'all of my friends will come over and give me presents!' So we just stopped going to all the birthday parties for a while. We'll keep her in our little world for a bit longer while we can. So far she still seems content dressing herself in all sorts of crazy ways and is adamantly herself.

Elena has also been very engaged this year in knowing ALL the details of what happens. In years past, we could sort of 'gloss' over things - unhappy events or details we just didn't have the energy to go into. Now, she just keeps prying seeing through our statements like, 'Oh nothing' or 'why do you think?' She drives until she gets the information she craves. This has caused an explosion in her vocabulary (mostly in 5 syllable words that Jake likes to throw in there). She works through this information and process it (often on the phone with her grandparents or over the dinner table). That means that complex topics like death, and birth, and why people are different, are big parts of our conversations as she struggles to understand the world.

Elena has continued to reach out to those around her - worrying about people who are sick, wanting to help her friends, hugs and kisses to her parents. (or doing that popular, throw the phrase back in your face of - 'mom, I think you need a DEEEP BREATH!' - it always makes me laugh because she is usually right.) Of course, like any preschooler, the world still largely revolves around her.

This year she really transitioned her intuition and emotion into more verbal expression. We keep wondering if we can just find a pause button. She is so amusing, authentic, and engaging right now. It's clear that we won't get that pause, because she is going to keep challenging us in the very best way. We love her so much. Next year will bring another round of transitions, not of country and language, but of family as Elena crosses the older sister bridge. It always seems impossible to predict just how much she will grow in one year. She never ceases to blow our minds and fill our hearts.

We love you 10800 times, Elena.