11 months and one week

I realize that this blog is all about Elise. If you get tired of reading about Elise, you can skip this post and we will still be friends. Her first week of being 11 months old has been a big one, so I have to give Mike and the grandparents a quick update. Stay tuned for Christmas Part 2.

Since she started walking on Sunday, she's really enjoyed practicing her balance and taking steps, but she doesn't want to venture out in the middle of the room by herself. She likes to have someone to walk from and walk to... a slight problem considering that I have to be the "from" and the "to". We make it work though... I stand her up (facing me) and back several feet away and she walks towards me. She gets really excited when she reaches her destination (me). She demonstrated her walking skills for Mike on the webcam today.

On our Christmas trip to Austin she cut 2 new bottom teeth, so now we are up to 7. The 4th top tooth is looking VERY close. She's also been practicing her words. Here is an updated word list (of words that she uses correctly without repeating the word after me) for Mike and the grandparents:

hi
byebye
look
book
puppy
boss
bath
mama
daddy
bell (for the bells in the kitchen at my parents' house)
ball
pop (my dad)
Christmas tree (it comes out in 2 syllables)
dance (a new one today!)
picture (a new one today!)

Here are few cute things that she does:
-rock herself while sitting in her mini rocking chair
-plays peekaboo where she goes behind a door and then peeks around
-picks up boss' rawhide off the floor and holds it out to him saying "boss"
-hands me books to read
-tries to put bows back on her head, ornaments back on the tree, magnets back on the fridge, blocks back in a stack, etc... still working on those fine motor skills :)
-walks to mommy or crawls/climbs on mommy for a hug
-can identify all her toys by name (she either points to or goes to them)
-she loves to be surprised
-she notices when things are odd (like if I put a cup on my head) and thinks it is hilarious
-she speeds up when she is crawling or cruising and I say "I'm gonna get you!" and giggles uncontrollably when she gets caught

This week we are working on saying/signing eat, drink, more, and all done. She gets fussy when her tray is empty and when she is thirsty, and I would like her to communicate with me other than fussing. I gave her a spoon today to see if she would feed herself. I prepared some cereal and put it on her tray. She let me feed her a few bites from the spoon, and then I tried to show her how to get some cereal on the spoon and then put it in her mouth. Instead, she decided to hold the spoon in one hand and eat the cereal with the other. Needless to say, she got a "bah" right after lunch.

On a sad note, the Leapfrog table was retired this week. I found out recently that it contains high levels of a heavy metal and is not considered safe. I'm sorry if you bought it based on my recommendation. I have contacted Leapfrog to see if they will give me a refund. If you are interested, look here.



I will post some videos later!