Ellie's First Sleepover

Sometimes I find it intimidating to blog about Ellie.  Her little life changes on an hourly basis some days.  So where do I begin.  I'm not great with words or communicating.  And because I get intimidated, I procrastinate and then weeks or sometimes a month goes by before I get a blog pulled together.

This happens to the case for this post.  Ellie's first sleepover was a few weeks back with her cousin Elizabeth.  The girls were so cute and wonderful together.  Their personalities and age difference seem to be just perfect at this point in life.  They are both strong minded and determined.  They both tend to very strong in their approach with others (aka bossy).  But when together, they don't seem to mind the other taking a demanding approach.  They seem to "get" each other in that way.

Elizabeth being three years older and having a sibling Ellie's age is very caring and looks out for Ellie.  Ellie being a tall three year old, can keep with Elizabeth pretty well and seems to idolize the girl time.

I was nervous about the actual sleeping part of a sleep over.  We debated whether or not to put them in the same room.  Elizabeth seemed open and very understanding as we discussed different options.  But Ellie was insistent that she wanted them to sleep in the same room.  So we agreed under the condition they actually sleep.

It started off as a perfect night's sleep with two little girls sleeping next to each other in sleeping bags.  And although there were a couple wakeups due to Ellie's middle of the night milk habits, they did very well considering.

In the morning, we headed off to Chelsea Teddy Bear Company to make some teddy bears.  Elizabeth was much more excited and into the cuddly result.  Ellie still doesn't seem to value sleeping with dolls or animals...she prefer her pacifier and a glass of milk to cuddle. 

After we headed to the Chelsea Tree House for a couple hours of play and lunch.  The girls did great in amongst the chaos of the indoor play structure.  Elizabeth kindly looked after Ellie who still struggled to get up some of the structures.  And they both did a great job listening to me.

As we drove away from the day's excitement back to the other side of Detroit, wrapping up our event, they fell fast asleep, happy to be near each other.   When we left Elizabeth they both refused to say goodbye and from what I've been told and experienced with Ellie, there were heartfelt tears that they weren't ready to be separated.

Braden and I have always hoped Ellie would get to experience special relationships with her cousins.  I rank my cousin relationships as some of my most important ones.  I'm happily thinking that this wish is coming true.