Early to Rise

My Elinor.  She and I have been spending a lot of time together lately.  We meet in the kitchen at about 4:43 a.m. each weekday morning.  I sit on the stairs and put on my shoes.  She fills her water bottle at the sink and we ask each other how the other slept.  Then we say, "Okay, let's go."  We leave home in the pitch dark and head out to Herriman for swim team and/or water polo practice.  It is the joy of Elinor's life and, if you can believe this, not only do I not mind getting up at that hour.  There is a part of me that actually enjoys it.  Things I would not have thought possible!  But mostly I am so proud of her dedication and discipline and hard work.  She almost never misses practice and she has gotten so much stronger. 

She is quite bummed today because it is the last day of doing preseason workouts with Herriman.  Swim team tryouts are this coming week and she'll be doing tryouts with Riverton.  She can still go to water polo practice a couple of days week for the next month, but it won't be the same as everyday.  It did make her happy that the Herriman coach said she was an honorary Herriman swim team member.   At the Riverton/Herriman swim meet I fear Elinor will be a total traitor to her team!

Another favorite thing about Elinor lately is when she nails an algebra or chemistry problem she pumps her fists and cheers and yells things like, "YES!  I LOVE ALGEBRA!  100%!"  She's pretty much adorable in every way.

 Bethany's' violin teacher comes to our house early in on Thursday mornings.  The kids are sequestered in my room during the lesson.  They are perfectly content with the arrangement.  Cartoons in the morning-- thank you very much.

She had attempted to paint her nails bright orange a couple of times before, but we had caught her before she got the nail polish open.  This time she quietly hid under the kitchen table and had her way with "Traffic Cone" orange.  To be honest, for a two year-old I think she did a pretty good job.

The cowboy-ninja baby.  Complete with orange painted nails-- repainted by Elinor. 

Though she be but little, she is fierce!

  Homecoming dress shopping with the girls.  When Bethany took this picture Elinor said, "Oh, I think I blinked!"  Ha ha ha!  They are too much fun.  The truth is, I enjoy being a mom to teenage girls so much more than I enjoyed actually being a teenager.

Okay, happy, happy news of the day:  

I successfully got two critical carpools set up today.  

The first one is for Elinor's daily afternoon swim team pick up.  That's important.

But even more important is a three family carpool to Nutcracker rehearsals for the boys.  Now we only need to drive downtown once a week rather than three times a week.  HALLELUJAH!!!  We are saved!