eleanor and papa
Fia!! Eleanor's favorite 10 year old!!
This place was bizarre and charming. They had all these models of typical German architecture through the ages in this little idyllic park setting. Eleanor ran around and went, "ooooooo".
Here is Ellie, aka, "Ali" as Eleanor likes to call her. She is 4 and is adorable. Eleanor loves her and she comes over to "paaa-lay" from time to time. Though there is an age disparity they play really well together, it is nice to have a house full of giggling and running.So we are really getting into a nice pace of life here in Göttingen. Eleanor and I attend a playgroup fairly regularly on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Mike has begun his German classes and we all have made friends that we see frequently. Eleanor says the people's names that she knows all the time. Currently they are Deb, Fia, Alice, Ali, Isla, and Hana. If you are above 10 years old then you are automatically excluded from the list, sorry. I have tried to get her to say with equal enthusiasm: Opa, Pappy, Grandmother and so on, but she insists on saying only the children's names. Her association with these people is so strong that if we are out somewhere and I need to coax her into going I will say their names. The promise of seeing them is so alluring that her most robust refusal quickly switches to gleeful acceptance, and off we go.
She is starting to put together ideas with words now, which is an amazing process to behold. One night last week when she was having a hard time falling asleep, she started to say: "Fia, home, sleepin'. Deb, home, sleepin'. Alice, home, sleepin'." AMAZING. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Another example is the other day, I asked her, "does your eye hurt?" and she replied, "yeah", and sure enough she had a corneal abrasion!!! (everything is alright now, no significant damage) Maybe that doesn't seem too incredible, but knowing that I can have a reliable dialogue with her about her well being is such a breakthrough!
Also, Eleanor is playing in her own world more and more, she will carry Dolly, or Baby or Beethoven around and put them to sleep, or change their oofs...or other such games that I can't understand. She occupies herself thus for long stretches of time- something that we are having to (thankfully) get used to!
