Elise's Amazing Two Days

If you've chatted at all with Elise in the past couple of days, you know that she's 8! You also probably heard something about butterflies, Legos, Adventure Peninsula, Smores, and a betta fish, plus probably a lot more. She's had some great days lately.

Elise turned 8 last Tuesday. In keeping with tradition, we took the day off of school (but not piano lessons, which until she realized she could wear her birthday button and probably get an extra prize from the prize bin, she was super bummed about). She requested just a simple day at home.

The lead-up:
Elise, Saturday: "The day after tomorrow, will I get to say that tomorrow is my birthday?"
Me: "All day!"
Me all day Monday: "Elise, when's your birthday?"
Elise, grinning every time: "Tomorrow!"

Unfortunately, things went quickly downhill as she fell ill with a cold and fever over the weekend. So possibly my best gift to her was to force her to rest and recuperate with the result that she was, actually, pretty much recovered on Tuesday.

Of course it was hard to get to sleep the night before, for everyone, and of course it was easy to wake up the next morning. At 6:00, I heard the bathroom door open and close, but fortunately it wasn't until 6:30 that I heard, "It's my birthday!"

There was a bunny to take care of, and birthday-ish clothes to put on, and plenty of general excitement. Finally, presents! Birthday cereal! Celebration!

And the morning was every bit what she hoped it would be: nice gifts from nice people, a fresh box of Lucky Charms, and plenty of time to do the Lego sets, start the sewing kit, page through the books, etc.

We made her cake, and as it baked, we went on a walk with the two critter cages Kalina had given Elise. Amazingly, by the end of the walk, we had a new pet for each cage! A caterpillar that's still alive, and some sort of small, green stick inset, which was mercifully released. Plus some algae to look at under the microscope!

We enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for lunch, and then Naomi gave Elise her gift: the opportunity to go make some Lego people at the Lego store--a favorite activity. Of course, I was planning to do the driving. Elise chose to redeem her gift on her birthday rather than wait, so after I royally messed up her cake icing (adding cocoa when it was supposed to be white!), we piled in the car for the trip to the mall, followed by the piano lesson.

At the mall, Elise painstakingly pieced together three Lego people before I realized I could offer to let her choose a $10 Lego set instead. As the pieces available in the minifigure bins were disappointingly repetitive, Elise delightedly found a cute little animal set she'd had her eye on all along. Perfect! Off to the lesson, after doing the library drive-thru (yes, a drive thru! Happy birthday to me!) and the gas station.

Meanwhile, Naomi, who was not having the best day but whose mood improved the second we were released from her sister, and I formed the Birthday Squad, rushing to Target for more frosting to rescue Elise's birthday cake, plus more necessities. She gratefully accepted a sticker at checkout.

Naomi, at checkout: "Mommy, do you think I'll get a sticker?"
Me: "I don't know, but remember we don't ask."
Naomi: "But Mommy, do you think I will? I really want one."
Me: "We'll just have to wait and see!"
The cashier, of course, couldn't help but overhear. "Here's her sticker." I was possibly more grateful than Naomi.

And the birthday was a whirlwind after this: I rescued the cake, Grandpa came and we went out to eat, and then Elise opened the rest of her presents and shared her rescued owl cake with everyone. Yum! It was a great day.

Since we actually had friends to invite to a party this year, Elise decided she'd like a small, nature-focused party with just a couple guests. But that wasn't all that happened on Saturday: it ended up being a day jam-packed with fun.

But it didn't begin that way. Having run through the schedule in my mind, and seen the Legos scattered throughout the house, I knew this was only going to work out if we reigned it in a bit. So until it was time to leave for her first activity, monarch butterfly tagging, Elise was busy helping me get things in order for her party. Thank goodness we'd already put together the goody boxes the day before! Whew! :) (Elise still adores goody boxes.)

Butterfly tagging was restricted to ages 8+ (a detail Elise enjoyed, especially since she'd been left at home the year before), and Matt took both the older girls while Naomi indulged in Blues Clues with her otter and I continued to get ready for the party (we also played a few board games, so she wasn't entirely ignored!). Matt had the brilliant idea of collecting their tags and skipping the ranger talk, seeing as the girls could probably give the talk themselves, and so our group was the first on the prairie. Whether for that reason or due to a sheer plethora of monarchs (which there is this year), it didn't take too long for them to place 4 of their 6 tags. Plus, everyone got to catch at least one butterfly--even re-catching some they'd already tagged! Amazing!

As if that wasn't enough, Matt agreed to stop at Petco on the way home so Elise could use the birthday pet certificate that was burning a hole in her pocket. After weighing the various merits of hermit crabs, betta fish and hissing cockroaches, she decided on a fish. Its name is Opal, and it's beautiful, with blue and red fins and a whitish purplish body.

And the birthday party hadn't even started yet! The two guests arrived, plus one guest's older sister to play with Kalina (they made a really fun space-themed Lego stop-motion movie), and Elise was able to show everyone everything cool in and around the house, included some of the unique pets, the stream and her new betta fish.

After watching her pet tarantula eat, the girls dove into a forest-animal sewing project, in the screen tent (the weather, by the way, was stunningly perfect). I hung out with them, and was eventually only needed every couple minutes or so, as Elise and another girl already knew how to sew. Their attention span for this lasted nearly an hour, and would've lasted longer if I hadn't let them know their parents would be coming in half an hour or so, and thus raised the alarm of, "But we haven't played much in the stream!"

Off the girls raced to explore. Possibly a little too much: within 5 minutes Elise was back, mentioning, "Um, we might need a little supervision..." So I went to supervise, trying to strike the balance between, "Yay, it's a birthday," and "Yikes!!!" Eventually, once the giant branch was done being lowered onto the narrow ledge with two girls on it (the ledge, not the branch) and everyone had dashed off to a safer locale, I wandered back to the house to help Matt get the campfire and s'mores ready.

A few minutes later, I heard calls from the girls, and saw that they were now proudly standing across the stream, in a place no one previously knew how to get to--and announcing that they weren't going to be telling how they did it.

Elise, now so completely over the moon we might never get her back, named the place Adventure Peninsula, and still hasn't stopped talking about it to absolutely anyone who will listen. Being Elise, she eventually brought her sisters there, and then Matt and I, and Grandpa, and she'd probably bring you if you so much as mention the word peninsula. Or stream. Or hello.

The girls triumphantly returned and enjoyed s'mores, gifts and goody boxes before it was time to go. I was glad we'd chosen to purchase whistles for the goody boxes, as now when Elise goes off exploring, she at least has a means of getting help if she needs it.

Shortly after the party, we attended an AHG campfire, where we all enjoyed another round of s'mores.

It'll be hard to top this birthday, but knowing Elise, someday she will!

Our sweet Elise at 8 is now a fun mix of sugar and spice. Agreeable, fun, pleasant and even "adorable," as she was recently called but someone who'd just met her, she can also out-eye-roll a teenager. We're hoping she gets it out of her system now--because some of the looks she gives us when she disagrees with our decisions could wilt a flower. She has a very strong sense of justice, as long as the justice is clearly within her wishes. Which means that everything outside her wishes is, clearly, unjust.

And yet, fortunately our girl is mostly sugar. She adores her sisters (although occasionally at arm's length, especially when feeling pestered), makes good decisions, saves her money for a reasonable amount of time before spending it, loves animals, is improving at drawing, does the bunny chores every morning, plays piano very nicely, has read Harry Potter (but is okay not going on yet--they're a pretty high reading level), still really likes to cuddle, has a great laugh, still talks really loud when she's excited, can memorize a times table in 5 minutes and forget it just as quickly, can manage a recipe mostly on her own, still obsesses about treats, likes manageable adventure, climbs anything like a pro, roller skates quite well indoors, doesn't do well with suspense or awkwardness in books, and still does a masterful job of bridging the gap between childhood and adulthood.

Elise is still super into mermaids, and is working on fleshing out her idea of Eliseland, which includes everything she loves and an area for mermaids. She lives there alone, but has a house next door for visitors. She's writing a series of chapter books about mermaids who rescue ocean animals. There are 7 ocean zones she's working with, and 7 mermaids for each zone. Soooo.... She's about two chapters in and has drawings of most of them by now.

She's also into squirrels (she occasionally feeds one from the back deck), the ocean (except, apparently, when she's on it), unicorns, rescuing animals (she also has a series about this that she's working on), nature, the stream and bugs. She likes weird pets, just like Matt, and will tell everyone that she has a tarantula and an axolotl, and now a betta fish. Elise is great at sewing, and loves making little things out of felt and embroidery floss.

Elise loves to reminisce about "little Elise," and remembers remarkably well what she was doing or thinking even as a two-year-old, telling stories and reminiscing about what was going through her head. She thinks she was pretty cute, but doesn't realize that she still is.  Yet she's clearly considering the future: she plans to live off the land in the wilderness of Alaska when she grows up. Alone, probably, because she figures no one else has the same dream. But she'll have plenty of animal friends. She spent part of the year training--running laps, doing pushups, etc., to get in shape for this venture, and she's been discussing survival kits with Kalina a lot.

Elise's enthusiasm is unmatched when she's really into something--and overpowering. Nothing else matters until her muse is fully explored, and nothing compares, especially all the boring ol' work I make her do. What's more, everyone else needs to understand and appreciate whatever she's into, preferably on the same level. She does this so sweetly it's never a chore, and many of her interests endure even after the initial high, but even a sweet tidal wave is still a tidal wave.

Elise began to get self-conscious this year, although her perceptions and hesitations are usually reasonable. She took off her Birthday Girl button at Build-A-Bear when we stopped in on her birthday because she didn't want the salesperson making a big fuss over her--apparently she noted what happened with Naomi and wanted to go incognito. But who can blame her? It's the kid version of the birthday sombrero and serenade--blech.

Elise is often the one to rescue us from bugs when Matt's not around, or even when he is, since she insists they be treated humanely. She's generally very resourceful and intuitive and willing to tackle projects on her own, which is just a breath of fresh air sometimes. She can reliably be counted on to remember things and handle a task, as long as she's on board.

Her ideal outfit: Cozy sweatshirt, skirt and flip-flops. Her arms get cold, but not the rest of her and flip-flops are just...so...something. She sneaks tastes from the kitchen every chance she gets.

Kind and generous, Elise at her best is a complete sunshine without which we'd be a somewhat dull household at times. There's no one better to help celebrate any kind of holiday. She's quick to forgive, quick to join in, and can be surprisingly patient. She's often so sweet with Naomi, reading to her, playing nicely with her and increasingly considering her an equal (although we're not there yet). Elise still, on the other hand, considers herself not a day younger than Kalina, and holds her ground so well that not even Kalina herself would argue that. She's helpful, honest, loyal and tries her best, taking life seriously most of the time.

We're excited to see what new adventures abound for our sweet Elise this year! We know they're out there, and are confident in her ability to find them. Love you, Elise!