Why it's Great to Have 17-Year Old Uncle

Uncle Cody proudly brought over the birthday present he'd "bought all by myself" for the girls the other day. And then, even though it was only like 70 degrees Monday morning, Cody showed up bright and early and blew it up and turned on the water. There are few things Cody finds more fun than playing in the water (and sand) outside during the summer. Good news for him is he now has two willing playmates when the rest of his friends won't admit to wanting to engage in such 'childish' antics anymore. Ever since Annie was a year old, Cody would come over to our house on summer mornings and ask if "Annie can come play with me out in the sandbox/sprinklers/kiddie pool?"
This morning Annie and Cody splashed and frolicked until they were both too cold to play anymore. What really surprised me was how much Ellie was loving it too! (We added some warm water to the standing water of the 'sprinkler play mat' and had turned off the cold water for Ellie's introduction to the fun.) Annie dived right in, having the time of her life. In a lot of ways, Ellie is more adventurous than Annie was at this age. She's much more likely to crawl into and onto weird places, splash water onto her own face and slide down the slide again and again, all be herself. Annie had a cautious streak a mile wide at this point, but at this point has grown out of most of it.


After changing into warm, dry clothes, Annie and Ellie participated in what is probably their favorite sisterly activity. Annie races around the room on her tricycle, while Ellie books it after her in a near sprint, hanging on for dear life. They both laugh uproariously the whole time. I just liked this picture though, 'cause all the sudden Annie decided she needed an umbrella. After this, she sat cross-legged on the seat holding the umbrella and had Ellie push her across the room.
One of Ellie's new favorite toys is her sister's laptop. She sits up to it and frantically pounds away at the keyboard. Annie told me today, "She thinks she's emailing something." This picture is also showing off her new 'standing' skills. Actually, standing is not new. She's done that for awhile, and can stand (and squat, how do they do that?!) for minutes at a time now. But she's finally learned she can get into a standing position without pulling up onto anything. In fact, her favorite way to stand is to drag some over-sized, cumbersome toy up with her.
I love these last two pictures, 'cause they're just so perfectly Ellie . . . "Oh, I wish I was with my big sister outside . . . I love my big sister . . . My big sister is so cool . . . I want to be where she is and I want to be just like her . . . If only I was big . . . "

This is a quick video of Ellie 'typing' on the computer. She only 'types' for a few seconds here, and not quite with the gusto she usually does, but it's the only video of the toy in action. When she's in the car with the laptop in her lap, she will tap as quickly as possible for minutes at a time. I just hear this "clickclickclickclickclickclickclick" the entire way to the grocery store sometimes.

This is a grumpy Ellie, showing off her 'lifting big objects while standing myself up' skills.