Ellie is a nurturing soul, or at least she is from what I've seen so far. She shares well, shows gentle attention when Randall and I are sick, and is very aware of emotions of those around her. [A more recent story to illustrate this was during our OBX vacation in July. I had a cold the whole week and had just about gone through the boxes of tissues in our room upstairs and in the living room downstairs. Randall and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary the day before we left the beach and decided to go out to the outlets for some shopping and then dinner while Ellie stayed with Nana and G-Diddy (a huge perk to vacationing with family!). When we got back to the house at the end of the evening Ellie came running outside to greet us and kept saying something we thought sounded like "fishy". Being at the beach with ocean themed toys it seemed to make sense to us as there are a lot of fish and sea creatures to explore. It wasn't until we went inside that she darted straight for the box of tissues and ran them over to me. She had been saying "tissue"! Such a sweetheart-- it was the first thing on her mind when she saw me.]
When Ellie is sick she is a very good patient! I've never seen a little one take medicine as well as Ellie does-- and not just the sweet, over the counter stuff, even the not so great tasting prescription medications go down smoothly. She snuggles, lets us take her temperature without any struggle, productively blows her nose on command into a tissue, and doesn't fight sleep with tantrums you would normally expect from a small child who doesn't feel well or understand why they don't feel well. This is all just another way we know we have been so lucky with her, she's such as easy kid!
One of the things that warms my heart the most is how she illustrates this sweet compassion in her imaginative play with her babies and with her doctor's kit. One morning, on the way to daycare I heard what sounded like Ellie lightly blowing her nose. She had been having some sniffles and insisted on holding a clean tissue of her own for the car ride after I had already helped her blow her nose. At the stoplight I turned around to see if she was blowing her nose and asked her "are you blowing your nose?" She replied "baby." It didn't even occur to me to look in her lap but sure enough Ellie was holding the tissue over the baby doll's nose and pretending to help her blow her nose. I snapped a quick picture which you can see below :) I've also caught her feeding her baby doll "medicine" (water) from a medicine cup she found around the house. I wonder what goes through her little mind? I'd love to know.
A friend of ours said that Ellie is so sweet to her baby dolls because she is showing her babies the same love she has been shown by us. While I am humbled to consider that thought, I think the truth is that she is truly just a loving soul. I'd like to take credit for it but I think a certain omnipresent entity deserves the real kudos! She is incredibly attentive for a little girl her age, it amazes us to see how she applies things from tv, daycare, church, and home into her playtime. When we stand back and just watch her play we are always left with a smile on our faces in awe of her heart, her humor, and her intelligence. There's only so much of that which can be nurture, the rest has got to be nature. We are so blessed to have Ellie, she has enriched our lives and shown us a love we never knew before she graced our family with her beautiful life.
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