Adventure is out there

Ellie is pretty ecstatic about life lately.


Emphasis on the static.


She loves the trampoline. Did I ruin the illusion? Should I have let you believe her hair does that on it's own? It practically does most days.


This picture got cut off, but she just looks too happy in it not to post.


It dawned on me looking at these pictures that Ellie has a Disney doppelganger.


I had forgotten until we watched Up again with her that this little girl was also named Ellie. It's funny to me how much these Ellies are alike, hairstyles aside. Our Ellie is a non-stop talker, always wanting to go on "bentures" [adventures]. She creates adventures for her "guys" all the time, narrating their precarious falls from the couch, dangerous slides down the toy box, and arduous treks across the kitchen table during lunch. Everything is an adventure with Ellie. If we need to get her to go somewhere, we just tell her it's time to go on an adventure and she's game--the library, the bank, the rhino store (not as exciting as it sounds; it's just Costco, but she was really into rhinos for a while, so we called it the rhino store and she was all for going. Wal-Mart is the donkey store, and I forget what some of the others are, but she remembers them all . . .). Sometimes it's exciting just going over speed bumps in the parking lot with her.


Sometimes it can be a little nerve wracking to have such a little girl willing to try anything.Now it's funny to tell the story about the time she climbed all the way up to very top of toys at the indoor McDonald's playground and got stuck when she was about 20 mos. old, but at the time seeing my little baby up there, excitedly waving down, "Hi, Mommy!" was a little more terrifying. I thought we were going to have to live there.


Now we just embrace this daredevil side of her. And really, really hope she doesn't do too much of it while we're not there to catch her.
And run to grab the camera quick when we are.