Ode to Ellie-belly, so sweet and smelly

So I think that I will do a special post for each of the children. Each one is so unique and special in their own way that I can't possibly lump them into any one descriptive group except to say that they are definitely "Hill's with a bit of Sorhus thrown in." Admittedly some of them have more Sorhus in them then others. Such is the case with my first spotlight (these are in no particular order, I just found these pictures that I'm assuming Maddy took). Elizabeth Margaret Hill was born on August 17, 2004 and is affectionately known as "Ellie." She is the our third child and has an older brother and sister.

Ellie is hard to put into words. To really get the sense of her one must really experience her. But given the medium, I suppose that you readers are not near enough to experience her, so I will do my best to convey some bit of her personality. If I had to sum her up in a word I suppose it would be gregarious - very prone to performance with a good bit of craziness thrown in. I have often said that she is the child that my mother wished upon me when I was a kid. She definitely has a mind of her own and does not hesitate to make her opinions known, and once she has her mind set on something it is very hard to convince her of anything else, whether it is taking a bath or wearing sandals in six inches of snow. I have learned with her, more than any other of my children, that sometimes they have to make their own choices and deal with the consequences.

So, on to the pictures, as you can see, she is not one to shy away from the camera lens. Aways a willing subject, sometimes I'll catch her posing while she's watching TV or something. When I ask her what she's doing, she replies with,"Mom, I was pretending that Andy was taking my picture." Did I mention that she has an uncanny ability to put that "duh" tone in her voice that tells you that she thinks you're an idiot? She may think that I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, but she loves me anyway. That is another of her numerous talents. She is one of the snuggliest kids I have ever met. Granted our whole family is prone to the snuggles, but she perfected the art, at a very young age, of weaseling in between John and I and claiming the space as her own (may I also mention that she has passed this trick on and now Andy is just as good, if not better, at it than she is).

So to sum up, Ellie is the quintessential third child, who does not put up with being overlooked for any reason. She has made her own place in our family dynamic and we certainly wouldn't be as dynamic without her.