Ellie-speak

As I wrote a few posts ago, Ellie's vocabulary and ability to pronounce words has exploded over the last couple months. Right around her birthday, something clicked in her toddler brain and off she went. She's stringing together several words, which tickles me to no end. Other than her tendency to answer every question with "yeah", we are enjoying the ability to have a conversation with our kid! The other night, she was calling out "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" And then, out of nowhere, she yells "Daddy! Sit there! Eat supper!" Keep in mind that for her, each word has it's own little punctuation, so it sounds more like "Daddy! Sit! There! Eat! Supper!" Which makes it even more precious.

I've captured some of her speak in little video snippets, where I ask her to say something and then she repeats it. I'm hoping to someday be savvy enough to edit all of these into a little film, but now we all just have to be satisfied with one or two words per video.

I hope you enjoy video #1. Topic: Exercises, Banana, but no Toast.

Kargers x3

Right before Ellie's birthday, one of Bonner's brothers and his family came through town on their way to a wedding. I alluded to their visit in the previous post when I mentioned that we went swimming at their hotel. I was digging around, looking for a new video to post, when I found these four photos. These three kids are so stinking cute! To be fair, all the cousins on all sides of the family are cute as can be, and B. and I really do wish we all lived closer. As Ellie has gotten older, she's really started to appreciate the awesomeness of cousins. Or as her daddy taught her, "cuzzies".

I am completely baffled by how, in this sequence of photos, the cuteness quotient increases exponentially. It's one thing to maintain a level of cuteness, but I've never seen such a thing.

Here's Ellie, showing off her mad popper skillz*.

And here you'll find Ellie, Ridley and Bryce.
I don't know why E. and B. don't have any pants on.
Maybe that's part of the cuteness quotient?

OK, seriously. Does this not just make you giddy inside?
Look at Ellie; she looks like she's about to explode with glee.


And our final, parting shot. One of only two boy cousins of the seven total on B.'s side.
This is a picture I expect to see posted on one of those potentially
embarrassing "photo boards" that parents and siblings put together
for high school graduation:

Show's over! Did I not try to tell you about the cuteness quotient? Did I not forewarn you of the expanding balloon of cuteness that just exploded?

*A quick story about the popper, which I think is funny and I remembered it when I saw the photo. Grandma Cindy gave that popper to Ellie for Christmas this year. At the same holiday gift opening extravaganza, Grandma Cindy also gave cousin Z. a similar popper, but this one was more of a rolling cylinder that sounded tinkly and fairy bell-y when you rolled it. So as the girls were running around with their new rolly/poppy/tinkly toys one day, Z.'s dad piped up and, speaking as if he were Z., explained how "First, you have to pop the floor. Then, you can fairy dust it."