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.