bitty walks

in the evening we've been going on 'bitty walks' after dinner. We let Ellie choose the direction and generally circle our block. ellie picks up bitty sticks and disperses them amongst us. she does a happy dance on top of the sprinkler system covers and man holes we pass. she picks flowering weeds. she holds negra's leash, 'eddie hod tight'. she 'hod hand' with one our both of us some of the way. she stops to sit on the large tree roots coming out of the ground.
it is just lovely!!!
this afternoon we were at the library and ellie spotted two dogs. one was a giant fiberglass blue dog overlooking the entrance to the kid's section. the other was a large stuffed 'clifford.' as she was standing between them she noted that there were two and promptly struck something of a warrior pose (squatting a little and arms extended both directions) and exclaimed, "ttwooo doooggies, twwwoooo niiiggghhtt doggies" over and over again. She was not using her library voice! Did I have the heart to tell her to be quiet, heck no! She was sooo happy and I wasn't about to ruin it for her!
She was very interested in all the books and enjoyed pulling them in and trying to put them back. She really got the idea that we were choosing books to take home. She picked out one book that we have already. As soon as we got home she ran to her room to make the pair. As she united the matching books she did a happy dance and sang a song.
Her vocabulary and pronunciation is just blossoming! New words emerge every day and she is clear enough for people other than me to understand her.