Four-year check-up with Dr. Loucks- weighing in at 40 pounds and 3’6″ (85th %)
Ella is now able to get up the stairs all by herself, so it’s endless loops on the slide
“Here dad, I raked you a leaf!”
Tag Archives: Eleanor
October 17th, 2018
Ms. Becky welcoming Desmond back
Making sand cakes with the help of Des’ BFF’s little sister and Ella
This fall’s hottest new trend- filling the recycling bins with leaves. Des indicates that his bin is full, despite Eleanor’s enthusiasm. Fortunately there are two bins.
Des Fourth Birthday
Desmond chose yet again to spend his fourth birthday out of school on a special adventure with just mom and dad to… the pumpkin patch. While waiting for the tractor to depart, Des surveys the map
Cold and muddy, he’s undeterred on his quest for the perfect pumpkin
The kind lady taking tickets at the gate, upon learning it was his birthday, offered Des a special birthday button. It took nearly 10 minutes for her to return with it, but clearly worth it.
Proud of his haul
While dad runs the pumpkins to the car, Des hops on another tractor ride
The now annual windmill photo, Des is notably more comfortable walking on grated surfaces 🙂
He was a bit trigger happy, though some apples made contact with the steel pumpkin and black cat silhouettes
While last year’s climb to the top was immediately followed by walking down the stairs, this time Des was all about the Big Slide
The yellow barn was the same loud, pneumatic chaos of foam ball fury
Desmond was endlessly tickled by the horse with what appeared to be dog-like patience and interest in pellet treats. The swing-arm feeding tray that he could control likely also played a role in his ear-to-grin and giggle fits.
Gotta feed the goats…
…but there’s no one like his #1 pal
Able to peddle his own way around the trike track with dad needing to push. It was a lot of fun until he didn’t understand that one must yield to pedestrians loading/unloading at the beginning :/
Refueling with some sandwiches and a pickle
The equivalent “fun” of paddle boats, Des enjoys the ride as mom and dad peddle (with their knees to the chest) what can be best described as a manual dune buggy. Mom takes the wheel as dad engages in vehicular photo shenanigans
Practicing his mastery of the force in the corn pit
Much more confident as a four year old, Des really enjoyed the bounce pads
Duck racing, as you do
Snack break for some apple cobbler and ice cream
It’s not a John Deere, but it’ll do
Mom and dad weren’t sure how this was going to go…
There’s sometimes a fine line between thrill and terror, but Des clearly landed on exhilarating!
To be fair, no one in Team Llama got over a condescending “bumpkin”
About sums up the day-
Opening family presents
Des first Hot Wheels track!
His own music station, for mixing his noise-scapes on a whole new level
Yeah, that’s fun
Continuing the tradition of birthday cupcakes
After half a cupcake, Ella get’s pretty wild
May Des’ Fourth Be With You
What was certain to be a good omen, Desmond starts his birthday party day with the season’s first snowfall. On a trip with dad to nab folding chairs, Des also gets a special birthday hot chocolate
All warm
A young Jedi recreating a scene in Star Wars
Eleanor is in a phase where any material, regardless of how small, is either spread out as a blanket to lay on or cover something that is “going sleepy”
Ella is as surprised as everyone else that the snow is sticking and begins to accumulate
What dad thought would be just a nice background (while Beatles played on the speakers) ended up being an early focal point of the birthday party
Getting pigtails with aunt Megan, who is significantly more skilled than mom and dad
Snack picnic
When originally prompted for birthday theme ideas, Des, almost without thinking, replied “Star Wars and Rainbows.” Safe to say, mom and dad’s baker friend nailed it. Mom took to the next level with action figures.
Ella and pa negotiating terms for sharing chips
One can only assume he’s wishing to watch Empire Strikes Back. Or for real-life dinosaurs…
Ella showing off her fork skills for great-grandma Jan
Action figures rivaling cake and ice cream for attention
When you’re so cute, everyone offers you a bite of cake
Desmond solicits help from Liam reading cards
Making the rounds
Mom demonstrating how the R2-D2 candy dispenser works
Hug pile with ma
And the party inevitably ends in some sort of balloon-oriented mayhem
(Mom gets award for best birthday installation)
A New Hope
Eleanor susses out the new crow on ma and pa’s front porch
Literally years in the waiting, Desmond finally gets to watch to watch Star Wars on the eve of his fourth birthday. In all of history, there has never been a more well-informed pre-schooler on the primary and more subtle plot points. Beyond general knowledge, Desmond and dad had even been re-reading/studying the stories before bed in preparation. With Eleanor spending the evening with grandma, and having borrowed a subwoofer from pa, it was finally time for the opening score and crawl-
A boy first seeing R2-D2 and C-3PO landing on Tatooine
Ok, the first scene or two with Darth Vader may have been a bit intense…
…but there’s comfort and support
After the first intermission, reinforcement stuffies arrive
“The Force will be with you. Always.”
October 12th, 2018
Everyone piles in bed for a Daniel Tiger story while mom’s at an Edgar Allen Poe reading at Joslyn Castle
October 8th, 2018
Desmond amidst nap-time acrobatics
Upon the first piece’s successful extraction, one thinks, “there was surely no way he was going to pull that off, but wow, he got it. Maybe he has the hang of this…” Second turn, reliably, “yeah, that’s what I was expecting.” Game over.
Leave it to Eleanor to find entertainment in not applying stickers, but attempting to remove prior installations. She hears dad’s logic to the contrary, but just doesn’t care.
October 7th, 2018
Post-nap felt board creations on the theme, “Tigers Everywhere”
As if with sheer instinct, Eleanor knew just where the felt socks went
