Nellie, six-and-a-half

Nellie was asked the other day to write about what she's good at. She wrote: Making people laugh, being funny, eating carrots, reading and writing books, and taking care of my younger siblings. All true! Nellie has a great sense of humor. She learned about and loves thinking of plays-on-words. In fact, she and Kevin started their own club called the "Word-Players Club." She gets our (oh so sophisticated) jokes, which is a lot of fun. Most of the time, Kevin and I just look at each other, shaking our heads and asking where she comes up with this stuff. Like yesterday, after a very normal conversation with Kevin about making bracelets on her Rainbow Loom (best Christmas present ever), she paused, saluted Kevin saying, "Cheerio!" in a British accent, and walked away.

We don't have many good pictures of Nellie from the last few weeks, primarily because she usually only wears underwear around the house. One of the many things that makes Nellie Nellie.

New gloves in her stocking.

Both girls have been extra into baby dolls these days.

This is just a fun picture of cookie baking on New Years Day - I'm not actually sure where Nellie was at this moment!

Nellie never does anything quietly or slowly. Big personality, and a big presence in our family! Which makes it especially wonderful that she loves reading, playing piano, and making rubber band bracelets and will do those things for relatively long periods of time. Reading, in particular, can occupy Nellie for hours. It's great, except that she's going through books faster than I can keep up with, and I'm running out of ideas. Next up, the Little House series that my mom got her for Christmas. She also makes up and writes elaborate stories and games--Annie is usually her reluctant audience or participant.

She loves school, except for the getting up early part. Her favorite subject is Spanish, but really, it changes every time you ask. Her favorite food is an egg sandwich--we got Kevin a breakfast sandwich maker for his birthday, which Nellie uses every morning. But she picks off and eats only the egg and meat, so now we're wiser, and just cook the egg and meat parts without the english muffin.

It's fun, and bittersweet, to watch Nellie becoming more independent this year. She's able to do more for herself, but still in a very little girl kind of way. At the same time, she's a great big sister and still thinks her family is awesome. I'm trying to appreciate every day of this.