Ellis Wellis

I don't remember if I ever posted that we call Ellis, "Ellis Wellis the Whale."  She pronounced herself thus one night about a year ago in the bath. We loved it and it stuck.  I have a few cute Ellis Wellis stories to share.  First up, Ellis decided she wanted her hair to be straight like mine, so we took the blow-dryer to it and got this result.  She also likes to get her hair braided, though Ms. Sulama does a much better job at it than I do.  On Wednesday, she asked for lots of braids like some of her friends in class.  I came up with 3 French braids that joined in a pony talk and she was satisfied. 

One of my closest friends has been quite sick and hospitalized for weeks.  Ellis calls him Uncle Tommy and has been upset that she can't visit him.  So she sat down last week and made this card for him (she has a great car making kit thanks to her friend Bridget).

The first thing I notice is how intricate the picture is.  The girl sitting on the roof with her legs hanging off the side is Ellis.  The boy on the other side of the roof is Anders "as a grown up."  Uncle Tommy is at ground level in a wheel chair and being pushed by Aunt Sharee.  At the time, Tom was not yet able to sit up in a wheel chair.  But now he is walking with assistance.

She got help with the words "love" and "you."  And the words are out of order.  It is meant to read: "Uncle Tommy, I'm sorry that you are sick.  Love, Ellis."  I was blown away when I saw it.

Ellis is an incredibly sensitive, serious and sweet kid who worries a lot about others and is very hard on herself.  Here are a couple stories demonstrating that.  Yesterday morning, Anders woke up at 7:15 and it woke Ellis up too because was calling for me to come get him.  So Ellis decided to try to help him get out but couldn't pull it off.  As she walked to the door to call for me, Anders started to cry, which made her cry too and run back to the crib.  When I came in, she was distraught.  She wanted to help him but couldn't and didn't want to leave him to get me because it made him so upset.

Finally, as we were walking to the park, Anders was waiving and saying hello to everyone as he does -- as I did as a little kid -- and everyone was eating it up.  Ellis asked why people reacted that way.  And I explained that grown ups love friendly people, but especially friendly kids.  (We went through the whole not talking to strangers thing here too.)  We also talked about how little kids like to talk about themselves but, as they get older, they start asking others about them.  So for the rest of the walk, Ellis would wave to adults as say, "Hello. Have you had a good day?" They were totally disarmed by her, as was I.

BTW, the last picture was taken by Ellis.