Hightlights of our Year in Dallas - Part 2 (Elyse)

Our sweet, fun Elyse!

"Anything you can do, I can do better..."  This song often plays through my head as I see Elyse interacting with the world around her.  We moved to Dallas last year with a 2 going on 3 year old and we are leaving with a 3 going on 13 year old!  Like her older brother, Elyse has done so well with all the transitions of our family.  She misses her friends in South Carolina, but God blessed her with many friends in Texas.  She went from never going to preschool to going 5 days a week from 7:45-12:45.  She had wonderful teachers who helped her make this transition.  She can sing her ABC's and know how to count to 20 (the teens get a little mixed up, but all the numbers show up eventually)!  She can even write the E, L, & Y in her name (the S is still a little tricky).

Elyse has an imagination like no other.  In addition to her real life friends, she also has a slew of imaginary friends.  They have very interesting names like Mena and Kalenda.  Her favorite imaginary friend is "grandpa".  Grandpa often disagrees with mommy and daddy's rules for Elyse.  A common excuse we hear around here is, "Well, my grandpa said I don't have to (go to bed, take a bath, come inside, etc.)!"  She also has friends already set up in Mexico.  Speaking of Mexico, Elyse is ready to go!  Almost daily she asks when we are moving to Mexico.  We are so thankful that she enjoyed her time there last fall and desires to go back.

Our pretty ballerina

After Christmas, Elyse decided that she wanted to take ballet and thankfully, God provided a ballet class at the same rec center and at the same time as Kieran's Karate class.  We signed her up and a star was born!  Elyse really enjoyed her class.  She was very bashful at first, but I was surprised at how much she learned and remembered from week to week.  Whenever music is playing, she wants to be up and dancing.  Thankfully, she had the chance to perform in a mini-recital in March since we weren't there for the big recital at the end of June.  She said when she moves to Mexico, she wants to take Mexican dance lessons. 

Even though Elyse pretends to be shy at times, she is our fearless child who throws caution to the wind!  When we experienced our first tornado evacuation at the beginning of April, Elyse wasn’t scared at all.  She told Kieran, “Don’t worry, this will be fun!”  Even though her fearlessness has led to some bumps, bruises, and two trips to the doctor, we trust that God is preparing her for a life full of adventures.  Our prayer for Elyse is that she will continue to grow and learn and that we will have wisdom in parenting her strong-will! 

That's our girl!