Three years ago baby Elora brought so much light and healing to our family. What a happy time it has been and so quickly has it passed! Today as she leaves toddlerhood behind, I’ll share one last milestone post, for all of Elora’s virtual grandmamas and aunties and uncles.

Our family took a walk in the woods down the way from our house. We’re so blessed to live by this forest, which must be at its most beautiful at this time of year. Before long we trade the bricked estate drive for woodland trails blanketed in fallen leaves.

This pleasant path offers a series of gates, which Elora delights to open, and charming foot bridges to keep our feet dry.

Come along with us on one more stroll down memory lane.

Memory Box {Three Years}

Milestones: I’m proud of how well Elora has adapted to preschool. She’s always been eager to go, but for a few weeks our goodbyes were tearful. Now she’s content to hug me goodbye and then wave from the window as I bike away. It’s wonderful to know she feels so secure there, even though Dutch is the primary language.

In other milestones, Elora gave up her naps sometime last month. She’s sleeping from 7 pm to around 6:30/7:00 am, and staying awake all day. That’s one more mark of a big kid, isn’t it? She’s starting to show interest in counting and alphabets. Oh, the other day she began play “writing”, making deliberate small lines on her page and telling me what they said. It’s exciting to enter a new stage of development. Always so much to learn and do!

Biggest Challenge:: As you heard, Elora now sees a speech therapist once per week. She’s a very quiet child, more likely to use sounds or body language than words to communicate. While this generally works for her, she is developmentally delayed in this area. With some extra help, we hope to hear her sweet voice more often. And since I’m sure you’re curious, she has said a few Dutch words beyond “nee” for “no” (which she’s quite good at).

The speech therapist gives her exposure to Dutch language with concrete objects through games. Each week we go home with simple printed games that make it fun for us to keep using the week’s key words. Elora is very enthusiastic about the whole thing.!

On the other hand, through preschool she became aware that she speaks less than other children. I sense that she is becoming shy about her speech abilities and possibly even more reluctant to try. I can’t say this doesn’t make me nervous, but I also know that no matter what we will all be ok - really more than ok. Elora is happy. We are happy. We have so much to be thankful for.

Biggest Surprise:: What surprises me most about Elora is how kind and empathetic she is at such a young age. Sure she needs to be reminded to share and occasionally acts out in a hurtful way. But, most of the time she is amazingly quick to respond to the feelings of others. If a child falls, she comes along with nurturing coos and wants to help them up. She’ll fixate on the character in a storybook who’s having a hard time and gesture her concern or say “sad”.

One sentence she does say is “I cried a little bit.” Now, I promise you that she doesn’t cry a lot. Don’t worry! The point is that if she is sad or has cried, it’s important to her to communicate that to me. She’s in tune with her feelings, just as she is in tune with the feelings of those around her. This gives us an extra reasonability to moderate our attitudes at home, so that her world is a safe and calm place. I was browsing recently for English picture books for our wish list and came across In My Heart by Jo Witek*. I think this is the type of book that she’d really connect with at this point. It might help her find more sentences to express how she feels. Oh, and speaking of books, if you know of a picture book that might encourage her as a quiet child, please do recommend!

*affiliate link

Best Memory:: Oooh, it’s hard to choose just one memory. A year is much too long to pick out a “best”; but, here is one that hits near the top. In this last year Elora learned to give kisses. Daddy would lean down for a hug in the morning, when saying goodbye, and after he stood up she would often kiss his leg, right on the jeans. It made us chuckle.

Ok, but that’s not the memory; that’s the prelude! A few weeks ago Elora and I were cuddling on the couch after reading some books. Suddenly hugs turned into kisses, and I was delighted to receive a series of smooches on my cheeks, nose, chin and hair. Naturally, I started kissing back, and it just went on and on. The kissing made me laugh and laugh, which probably encouraged her to keep kissing. So we had a jolly good time of it. I’m so lucky to have such an affectionate little girl!

Thanks to each of you for walking this journey with our family. You have been there all along the way from Eleni to Elora, and so I know that these happy times are healing for you as well. It has been an honor to share life with you. Don’t worry, you’ll still see Elora in Expat Chronicles and sewing projects and who knows what else. But now that she’s a little kid, not so much a baby, we shall close this chapter of Stitched in Color.

Many blessings,

Rachel Hauser