Oh, the things she says.

Today in Walmart Ellie was especially chatty. It was a good thing. She started our visit to Walmart asleep in the carseat, but I had to wake her up to go into the store. When I awoke her, she smiled at me, said, "Night night." and closed her eyes again. I picked her up and she layed her head on my shoulder and said, "Sleep." in a dreamy voice. I asked if she wanted to sleep in the cart and she said, "Yes." and snuggled in closer. It was precious. I put her in the cart, all wrapped up in a blanket and she giggled all the way to the door. It was her "Silly Mommy! I can't sleep in this bumpy thing!" giggle and she was happy. She kept the blanket over her head for a good long while in the store and was very chatty.

She said, "Hi!" to pretty much everyone we passed. Most people ignored her. Some smiled. One shopper was kind enough to smile and say, "Hi!" back. And by doing so she opened the door to what may very well have been Ellie's first real conversation with a stranger:

Ellie: Hi!
Lady: Hi!
Ellie: How are you?
Lady: I'm good! How are you?
Ellie: I'm good. Bye!
Lady: Bye!

I'm delighted by her interactions with other people, especially when they are as sweet and courteous as this was. I love that she is learning the give and take of conversation. I love that she is learning polite social protocol. And I love that every once in a while someone will take the time to practice these skills with my daughter. The world needs more people like that in it.

In general Ellie has been saying cute things a lot lately. When I picked her up from a playdate today, my friend told me how impressed she was at how big Ellie's vocabulary is. And it's true. I gave up long ago trying to count the number of words Ellie could say. She's just a little talking machine right now, and it often leads to cuteness. Case in point:

A couple weeks ago we were at Cosmic Pizza for lunch. There are celestial shapes painted all over the restaurant and Ellie loves looking at them. On this particular day she started to get out of her chair when we asked her, "Where are you going, Ellie?" She looked at us, pointed at the wall (which has a moon painted on it), and stated matter-of-factly, "I go MOON."

She has also started imaginary play, beyond "talking" on the "phone" (which may or may not be an actual phone). The other day she came into the bedroom with an empty bag. She dumped it upside down and shook is delicately, "pouring" something onto the window seat. Then she moved over, chattering all the while, and repeated the action again, making another "pile" of whatever she thought she was dumping out of the bag. She moved a third time and made a third "pile", at which point she looked up as if someone had said something to her. She looked toward her first "pile" and nodded her head saying, "You want s'more, bunny? Okay." and returned to the first "pile" and proceeded to "pour" some more. It was at that point that I realized she was pretending to feed the bunnies that live under our deck. She was pouring out the "food" just like we do with the cat food we give the kitty that also lives under our deck. (Though we haven't seen the bunny since the kitty returned, so I think only the kitty lives there now.) Again, I love to see how she learns, grows, and interacts with the world around her. And I feel so very thankful to be able to stay home with her. How much I would miss if I couldn't!