time for knives

the other day as i made soup for lunch while gracie took a nap downstairs, ella decided to pull up a chair and make soup for little bear.  so she grabbed her little knife and worked very hard to cut up some vegetables to put in her pan with water, salt and pepper.

it's not easy cutting with a butter knife.  i eventually grabbed out a sharp, little knife and helped her to cut up the carrots.  when do you start giving a kid a real knife to practice with?

elenora has really been enjoying her time with gracie, as we all have.  it's funny, but ella gets more independent when grace is around.  she is also very helpful--holding the bottle in grace's mouth while i open something, remembering to bring up one of "gracie's favorite toys" when i go upstairs, and sharing little bear with grace ("no, no gracie, little bear is not for the eating, he's for the playing").  we have relaxing, fun thursdays while gracie either joins us on elenora's bicycle adventures or for reading time on the couch, or while grace takes a nap and ella and i spend some quality time doing quiet things around the home (or running in the rain puddles with the monitor on the front porch, as we did this past thursday).  

elenora often says stuff about "when we have a baby..." for instance "when we have a baby, we can name her 'eelid'".  uh-huh.  sure.

i can't believe elenora turns 4 one week from now.