Elena is 3 jaar!

Elena's third year has been amazing. Let's do the numbers:

1 year in the Netherlands
2 languages
3 wheels on her new bike
8 countries (England, Belguim, the Netherlands, Greece, Switzerland, US, Portugal, and Austria)
26 Ukkie friends
162 Trips to the AH
1040 minutes on the phone with her grandparents
25919 Continental frequent flyer miles
1,000,000 times asked 'why because?'

Now for the skills:
Eating: yes, Elena eats. Almost everything, except brussel sprouts and cheese with cloves in it. Her current favorite foods are boren kaas-farmers cheese (except with cloves), icecream, broccoli, olives, chocolate, muijes, licorish, tofu with sauce, actually-anything with sauce, Dutch fries (only with mayo, no ketsup), boren yogurt, dried strawberries, fruit, pancakes, fish and bitter lemon. She eat almost all the time with her fork and spoon and likes to drink tepid tea (like her poppa) with breakfast. She likes to try new things but you never know exactly what she will eat at a certian time. Elena is definately a 'binger' - she will have 5 pieces of toast for breakfast some days, and other days eat practically nothing.

Social skills: Elena is very social and has overcome a lot of shyness this year. She will now respond to people in stores when they talk with her. She likes to play with her friends at Ukkie, especially with Lieka ('me and Lieka are the big kids') and play 'big zustia' (big sister) with the Ukkie babies. Elena is concerned when another child is hurt or crying and often tries to comfort or help the babies. She has also started 'tattling' on her friends ('Sami hit a baby today, he has to go to time out!') but hids when you mention any time she got in trouble. She has not really hit or bitten anyone (except mom and dad) all year. This is a big change for her, when she was two she was still expressing these frusterations physically. She shows concern with something falls in the house ('you OK poppa?') and has started to give hugs when she thinks we are sad. She still rarely says 'I love you.' Elena is still not comfortable interacting with strange kids on the playground and will not leave Mom or Dad's side. This is in contrast to how interactive she is at Ukkie and with those she knows.

Playing: Elena loves imaginative play. She has a vivid imagination, I wish I could crawl inside her head. She likes to play grocery store, Ukkie, airlines 'snack ladies' and resturant (she takes your order and makes you food). She will pretend that she is Isabelle or Laura from Ukkie and that her animals are the Ukkie babies. Elena loves to do puzzles and has gotten very good at doing many pieces by herself. Elena also likes to color and 'write' - she will make detailed notes to mail to her grandparents and address the envelope her self. Elena loves her wallet and money (both play and real) and keeps an assortment of old hotel keys, train tickets, and boarding passes to help her play 'travel' or grocery store. Elena likes her wooden train set (because it is like a puzzle) and her toy tool kit. Whenever something is being fixed, she gets her backpack of tools to help. And sometimes she will just 'fix' things like a chair or the couch. Elena has started to become more dynamic with outside play and will play 'football,' climb on the play ground, or ride her bike to the end of the street. She still loves digging in the sand on the beach more than anything and makes 'sand soup' with detailed recipes. While elena likes to pretend and use props, she isn't into 'dressing up' yet (inspite of a well stocked dress up bin). Elena likes to sing and dance. She will sing both songs she knows and make up new ones for things that have happened. Elena has too many books to pick one, she rotates through almost all her books. She will pick one book that is popular for a week or two, but there is no 'favorite.'

Self Skills: Elena wears undies and 'tries very hard to keep them dry' and only wears diapers to sleep at night. She is accomplished at using the potty by herself, but needs help with zippers and snaps. She gets mad when 'Lieka flushed my pee at Ukkie!' and likes to do everything herself at Ukkie. At home she isn't so independent and though she can almost entirely dress herself, rarely does. Every night before bed, Elena cleans up her toys (or the ones left out go 'on break') Sometimes Elena will put herself to bed, but usually she likes stories (three) and momma or poppa to sing her the bedtime songs (also three). Elena is pretty good about letting us brush her teeth and sometimes she will brush her own hair (to get the tangle bugs out).

Language Skills: Elena now speaks in opening and closing arguments, 5 paragraph essays, and repetitive beat poetry (why because why because why because why because). I really don't know how many words elena has - a lot. She uses multiple verb tenses, will speak of things in the past and present (future is still being understood, although in the last month or so she will speak of things happening in the future). She uses modifying clauses-because, then, if and 4-5 syllabel words. At Ukkie, Elena only speaks Dutch now. At home she mostly speaks english, but will merge Dutch and English grammar (especially with 'you' and negative placement). When she plays by herself, Elena speaks almost entirely in Dutch.

Motor Skills: Elena has continued to work on her fine motor skills. She now hold a pencil like writing, rather than gripping. She started drawing noticably similar objects in April, her first was a pigeon with a beak and legs. When she uses water colors, she doesn't saturate the paper and rip it, but actually paints. She can make very small scribbles that looks like 'pretend' writing. She can put together small pieces, put on her shoes (but doesn't tie laces) and zip her jacket. She has developed the coordination to pedel her bike and steer. Lately she has been into 'exercising' with mom and dad (she calls it 'scampering') and is starting to look like a gymastics class might not be a bad idea.

Other important skills: Elena loves maps and understands the concept of distance and travel. She likes to look at maps of where all her family lives. Elena still uses photo albums and pictures (just like we do!) to remember people she misses when she feels sad and important events. She likes to know where those happen on a map. When we travel, she likes to have her own copy of a map. Elena is starting to learn family structure, 'Nana is Poppa's oma?' 'Nana is poppa's momma?' 'Who is momma's momma?' 'Who is Grammy Sewall?' 'Who belongs to Grandpa Dwaine?' 'Who is baby brayden's momma? is that baby brayden's aunt sara?' Elena is also good at goodbyes, even if they are always hard. She knows that people leave and come back. And she knows that sometimes it is for a long time. Elena uses her backpack to feel secure while traveling and likes it filled with her special things. Elena has started to learn how to make jokes and word plays, how to tease and tickle. Elena still has tantrums and needs 'calm down time.' Time out's don't work as punishment anymore...taking away (lots) of toys does, for the big things. Usually elena either has to have a huge tantrum and blow off steam or she responds will to 'conversation' (as she calls it) and redirection. She likes to understand things and when she is too frusterated to do that, she gets very angry. Elena test boundaries all the time and has started trying to 'ask a different parent' when one says no to something she wants. Elena still naps for about 2 hours every day (from 2:30 -4:30) and sleeps from 8pm to 6am.

What can we say, we think she is great. We love her so much. We can't imagine life without her.

Our little monkey.