ellie bean.

or eleanor ellie "nemo" fowler, as she calls herself. :)
she's so amazing and so, so smart.

those pbs kids shows are annoying as... whatever you can imagine, but i will let her keep watching them because she just soaks it all up. she knows almost every alphabet letter by sight and knows the sounds that many of them make. she knows her colors and many shapes. she knows a lot of dinosaur names (thanks dinosaur train). she's interested in spelling and wants me to spell out words for her.

the other day we were at a stoplight and we saw an estes truck.
she said, "oh look, mommy! a yellow truck with an 'e' on it!"

also, while visiting grammie over the weekend they read a picture book once or twice and brought it home with her. i had not opened the book once. she told me from memory what several of the pages said. not easy stuff, either.
"the rhino munches."
"the armadillo digs."
"the hedgehog closes his eyes."
"the squirrel collects."

what? i swear i can't take credit for this.

she remembers everything. she tells me about things we did last week or last month and she's accurate.
"mommy, you ran a race and you had colors on you. i went to mcdonalds with grammie and pop-pop."

her excellent memory can be a problem. for instance, if i tell her we have a playdate and it gets cancelled, she is so unhappy. she will also remember if i tell her we're going to the park or for a walk so i can't just say it offhand. and if we have cookies in the house, she remembers and asks for them even when i haven't mentioned them to her all day.

she talks about her friends all the time and loves them so much. if she knows you, she probably talks about you. she asks about her friends and their birthdays, wonders what they are doing and she is so excited when she knows someone is coming to see her. she has a really big heart with room for everyone.

she always says so many things that make me laugh.
she loves to make up songs and recently made up a song (and dance) about how much she loves banana bread. she also loves to sing about the members of our family and her friends. she also requests songs for me to sing to her, usually princess songs.
i love having a talkative little buddy. she can be a real pill, but she sure is a cute one.


this is her at her happiest, running wild and free:

love this girl more than you can imagine.

six months.

penelope!

six month stats:

weight, 17 lbs 9 oz - 96th percentile

length, 25 inches - 19th percentile

(i have some chubby kids. i guess i make ambrosia or something.)

she is so much fun. 

her smile lights up a room and she always, always has a smile for me.

every time i see her i just want to kiss her all over. 

poppy, we love you like crazy. 

poppy boo.

or, as ellie likes to call her: "poppy-nelope fowler"

webcam pictures of us from our first all-nighter (she got up at 2 am and wanted to play)

she's in my favorite stage of transition right now:
from helpless, cuddly newborn to independent, fun(!!) baby.
nothing against those squishy pink babies, but they really are no fun. they are sweet and they smell wonderful and even their poops are precious. for me, though, around six months is the golden time. they are still little tiny things but they can sit up and laugh and play and make demands and i just love it. they are so curious and interactive and, as i mentioned before, fun.

she loves to scoot and she goes after anything and everything. watch out magazines, you will be eaten. she wants to inspect everything with her mouth. she can get into many things by herself, too. yesterday she dumped out a box of "choking hazard" toys and tried to go to town. unfortunately, she's at the bottom of the toy food chain. i take the dangerous toys away and the big kids take everything else. she is so upset when you take something dangerous away from her. she puts her face into the carpet, goes stiff and cries as if she is heartbroken.

she also has started my favorite thing,

baby cussing.

"ah dah dah dah DAH! gah goo GAH!"

so hilarious. 

she's up rocking on hands and knees lately, about to take off crawling any minute. she's getting pretty good at sitting up for long periods of time. her little personality is really starting to shine. she is still in the habit of rolling around on the floor until she suddenly just drops. she often falls asleep in the middle of the floor while the craziness goes on around her.

i love all the little things she does. i am enjoying every minute of watching her grow.





just for fun, check out this picture of ellie at almost six months:

cute babies. happy babies, too.

rainy day.

we ran errands in the rain the other day and, much to ellie's delight, we used our umbrellas.

it is so much fun to go out with her (most of the time) (that day especially).

(oh, and i got a haircut. shorter. it looks way huge in the humidity.)

radio silence.

i'm sorry for the radio silence.

we've been busy having fun! 

also, daddy has been buckling down on his studies and we have been trying to get out of his hair (and out of the house) as often as possible so that he can crunch numbers. our computers share the office now, so that means this blog is getting dusty. 

we've also had a cranky ellie bean because of an ear infection
(the first time she has ever really been sick beyond the average sniffles)
and a very, very wiggly poppy
(we're in that stage where we have to constantly clear the floor of things she might try to gum on)
and bedtime has been a circus. circus.
i wait all day to try and do things "when they go to sleep" but they never do and the clean laundry never ends up getting to the closet before it needs washing again.

but! i did steam clean the carpet in the two main rooms so
that's something.
 


here are some pictures from the instagram. they may be repeats for many but that's okay with me.

i have some posts with pictures scheduled for the week so tune in.
the fowlers love you!