Flamingo Girl

Eliza decided to be a "Flamingo Dancer" for Halloween.

I almost got her a "Flamenco Dancer" costume. Thankfully she was pretty insistent that she wanted to be a flamingo that danced.

And so she was.


Eliza and her best buddy, William, headed off to the American Museum of Natural of History for some Halloween fun.



Eliza is the "older woman" and so has no hesitancy to corner William and tell him what she wants to do.



And if he doesn't listen the first time, she can get pretty insistent:


Eliza got to see the Giant Blue Whale with her favorite cousins:


She got to meet Teddy Roosevelt:


And Teddy got to meet his very first Flamingo Dancer:


And Mama and Eliza got to spend a fun day together:


And of course, Eliza got to do some pretty fancy Flamingo dancing:

Candy Corn and Cows

Any doubts I had about Eliza's imagination and story telling abilities can officially be laid to rest.

Halloween is upon us and with it, bags of candy corn:


Tonight Eliza was sharing her candy corn with me, but when I asked if she liked candy corn, she said "no Mama, I need my candy corns for my Mickey Mouse."

Here is Eliza's recipe for making Mickey Mouse from candy corn (verbatim):

"First you get a mama cow who can squirt milk:"


"Then the mama cow squirts the milk on the candy corn:"


(really I am not making this up and I did not pose the cow over the candy corn, that was Eliza).

"And then you find the chocolate pumpkins and put them with the candy corns that had the milk squirted on them so the candy corns can become Mickey Mouse:"



Now you tell me, doesn't that look like Mickey Mouse? Eliza made the body and legs from the orange wrappers from the pumpkin chocolates.

Seriously, this is better than seeing Jesus in a grilled cheese sandwich (or maybe that was Mary?).

Jazz Hands and Tutus

Eliza is embarking on several rites of passage into life as a girlie-girl.

It may seem as if Eliza is doing her best "Jazz Hands" here:


But in fact she is showing off her very first manicure! One hand pink and one hand white, like her flower garden she will tell you (she decided her green nail polish could wait for manicure number two).

Her first manicure was courtesy of Aunt Bonnie who was more than happy to be part of this rite of passage, and who does a pretty good manicure too!





Eliza has also decided that each day requires a new tutu. Thankfully she has a few tutus since she now wears them everywhere, even climbing in the playground.





The tom boy still lurks inside of Eliza since she has perfected climbing the rock wall in her tutu and her favorite toys are her Lightening McQueen and the King (or "Dinoco" as she calls him).

Tears

Eliza (crying): Mama I am crying.
Me: I know sweetie, but there is no reason to cry
Eliza: But Mama these are real tears
Me: Are there other kinds of tears?
Eliza: Yes Mama (still crying). There are toy tears.
Me: What are "toy tears."
Eliza: Those are the tears that come when I really really really need a new toy.

Great. Eliza has invented a whole new emotion.

The Perils of Online Shopping with Eliza

Tonight's conversation:

Eliza: Mama can I be a lion for Halloween?
Me: Well we already bought your Flamingo costume.
Eliza: But you bought it on the computer, right?
Me: Yes we did.
Eliza: So put it back in the computer and then we can get a lion costume.

Personally I am holding out that the Flamingo costume wins out over the lion costume.

Some Saba Photos Courtesy of Peter

Just when Eliza and I were getting all melancholy about not being on Saba, Peter sent us a few long lost photos to remind us of how much we enjoy Saba.

Searching for our wandering beach:

It's too windy:

Just us two:

Coloring in the lines:

Doing the Dinosaur March into Windwardside with her cousin Alma and Mama:


These past few weeks have been filled with school tours instead of days at the beach or listening to the tree frogs at night. I have seen a few schools that look like they would be a good fit for Eliza for next year when she leaves Gramercy, but most of them have very few spots available. One school had as little as 2 and one had as many as 36 spots. The school with the 36 openings has over 500 applications for those spots. I don't even think William and Mary had that high of a ratio of applicants to spots. This all just seems surreal for Kindergarten, and makes homeschooling Eliza to the sound of tree frogs and crashing waves look pretty attractive.