All About Elena

Elena is my sweetheart. She just finished her first year of preschool. She will be doing 3 weeks of the summer program at preschool, though, because she loves playing with other kids. When she had 3 weeks off for winter break she was so anxious to go back and play with everyone, so I thought that 3 months off would be too much. 

She is kind and loving, cuddly, funny, creative, imaginative, and always likes to try her best. She loves to laugh, and she loves her daddy.

She cares about other people and animals, and she asks at bedtime who she can pray for.

The other day when we were outside Jorge got rid of an ant (Elena is scared of bugs, including ants!) and she asked where it was. Jorge told her it was gone, that it had died. "It died?" she asked. "Don't worry," Jorge said, "it probably just went to heaven." She replied, "No, it's not supposed to die. God is supposed to take us to heaven when it's time, but it's not time for the ant to die." I'm amazed by the conversations we have with her sometimes.

She loves to color, and is a bit of a perfectionist. Every time she comes out of the lines she has to inform me. 

Sometimes she's willing to smile for a picture. 

She's silly.

Here she's trying to get some dinosaurs out of ice eggs I made for her. She used salt and water. This age is so fun; she gets such pleasure out of simple things. The word "activity" brings such wonder and joy to her. I'll tell her "We're gonna do an activity," and she gets so excited and anxious to start whatever I have planned for her. A lot of these activities are done during Samuel's naptime because they're a little too advanced for a one-year-old. Sometimes they'll do them together, but he'll start wandering off after a little while.

She loved the tunnels that the salt made in the ice.

She loves playing with her toys, and she liked playing with the dinosaur babies and making sure they were taken care of. She put me on babysitter-duty a few times.

And of course she had to show them to her daddy.

I'm so thankful to be caring for such a thoughtful, loving, fun little girl. And she's growing so fast, I'm amazed.