Elise went on her first field trip today. We met up with Sarah and John at the Austin Nature and Science Center. They loved being outside and seeing all of the animals. Here are a few pictures...
E and J looking at the animals while enjoying a snack
Elise is mesmerized by the buhs (birds)
Doing the "more" sign for more grapes
Elise wouldn't look at the camera until I asked her where it was... hence the point
Elise really loves her baby doll and stuffed animals. She loves to hug her baby doll and rock back and forth and say "baby". It is the sweetest thing.
I forgot to include a few things in her 14 month post. A few nights ago, she woke up around 6 am SCREAMING. This is rare, so I went in to check on her. She is frantically pointing at a (clean) diaper that happened to be on the floor. Sure enough, she had a VERY dirty diaper. We changed her diaper and went back to sleep. Maybe this is a sign that potty training won't be impossible?
She has also figured out how to take off a disposable diaper (if she has no clothes on over it). I am thankful that most of my cloth diapers have snaps! I think it will be awhile before she figures that out.
She is obsessed with balloons. I don't know how I forgot about this when I wrote a few days ago. I never realized how many balloons there are in HEB and Walmart. The girl finds them all and points saying "ball ball ball ball BALL!!!". She was thrilled to get her very first balloon from the cashier at HEB a few days ago. She also loves to say hi to people that she sees in the store. She never disliked going to the grocery store before, but now it is a whole new fun game. There are so many things to see and she loves to use the words for things that she recognizes.
Next time you are on the phone with me, wait a few seconds after I say "bye" before you hang up. Elise almost always says "bye!" right after I do. It is so cute.
She has also learned a sign for "drink". This has made our mealtimes go very smoothly. I often catch her using her signs while we are driving in the car. Usually she is pretty patient to wait until we arrive at our destination.
She must be teething again because she keeps sticking her tongue out, haha. Look how much hair she has now!
Elise started doing something really funny today. She puts her own hats on her head! We walked to the park with Sarah and John and there was an extra hat laying by her feet in the jogging stroller. When we got there, she had 2 hats on her head! I took it off and she put it right back on. When we got home, she found John's hat and put it on.
At least I don't have to worry about her fighting hats when she is outside. The girl now has a hat fetish and a shoe fetish. If only I could get her to leave a bow in her hair... sigh.
Beware, there are some blackmail pictures coming! Elise and John are about the same height but she is a little wider and a few pounds heavier... it is evident in this picture. John is on the right with his new hair cut! He is so handsome.
Elise will be 14 months old on Tuesday! I haven't weighed or measured her since her one year appointment so I am not sure how much she has grown. She looks like she has gotten longer and leaner. She currently wears mostly 18-24 months and some 2 year clothing. Elise's vocabulary is really starting to take off. Here are some words that she uses on a daily basis:
bib ball hi bye bath mama dada bah-ha (boss) nana or nanana (banana) guck (duck) gog (dog) gar (car) gee (tree) book bear baby
Her communication is really good. She uses a few signs... more (this also means eat and please, haha), milk, and all done (this also means up). Her schedule is pretty much the same as it has been since she was 5 months old. She still loves to sleep, praise the Lord! She goes to bed around 8:15 (since daylight savings time) and wakes up around 8:15 or 8:30. I'm going to try to keep her on this schedule so that Mike will have more time with her in the evenings after he returns and starts working again. She still takes two solid 1.5 hour naps. Occasionally on a church or bible study day she will take one 2-3 hour nap and then go to bed early.
She is eating well and has gotten over her picky finger food phase from the beginning of this month. I think she was teething during that time (she has 9 teeth and several that look really close) and just didn't want to chew much. On the positive side, this means that she will now eat pureed food again. She is getting good at feeding herself with a spoon. On a typical day, she has 4-5 smaller meals/snacks. She especially loves peas, blueberries, and grapes, and especially hates yogurt, avocado, and strawberries. She gets water with "breakfast" and "lunch" and milk with the snack(s) and dinner. We are still nursing 3-4 times a day. I recently realized that weaning her at this age is going to be a lot harder than I thought because she can communicate so well and knows that she can communicate, haha. I am hoping to get down to 2 (morning/evening) by the time Mike comes home. When I go in to get her in the morning, she is standing in the crib with a big smile and the milk sign going in her right hand.
The behavior training is going really well. I would definitely recommend the Love and Logic for Early Childhood book. I didn't expect it to work so well at this age.
Her favorite toys include the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Home, the Radio Flyer Soft Rock and Bounce Pony, her Melissa and Doug puzzles, and any book or ball. She loves to carry balls, roll balls, and kick balls. She knows her basic shapes (circle, square, star, triangle, etc) and can identify the objects on her shape sorter. She loves to play outside and go to the park. We are so thankful that a great (playground is shaded!) park is a short 1/2 mile walk from the house. I have to be very vigilant when we are outside because sometimes she tries to eat a rock or a piece of bark. She loves to pretend to talk on the phone and will sometimes say "hi" or "bye" while she doing it. She enjoys playing with her friends and going to the church nursery. The nursery workers usually comment on how well she did when I go pick her up.
Things I especially love about her at this age: *She is very affectionate and loves to hug me and her doll/stuffed animals. She walks over to me and lays her head on me. She also likes to lay her head down on the couch or on a pillow (for a brief second until she's up and running around again). *She tries to hug Boss but only succeeds if he is really tired. *She turns around and backpedals to sit down in my lap to read a book. *She giggles when she communicates successfully. *When we are playing outside and she sees a car drive by, she waves and says "bye!" *She repeats words (and points) when she gets really excited "gog gog gog!" or "gar gar gar!" or "ball ball ball!" *She tries to put any article of clothing on her head. *If she wants to get on or off something, she holds both hands up and giggles when I ask her if she wants help.
In other news, it looks like we will be staying here until November. The start date for Mike's course at Fort Rucker was changed from October 18 to December 6. We are excited that we won't have to worry about putting the house on the market so soon after he gets home. I am excited that I will be able to go on the church women's retreat (it is in October this year) and that I will be able to do most of the fall bible study before we leave. The grandparents are thrilled to have 2 more months with Elise (and I suppose they are excited that we will be here as well, haha).
Obviously, this post is long overdue. I still haven't posted about our first Christmas as a family and Mike's R&R. I promise that these won't go forgotten!
Elise's 1st birthday party was at our house on January 30. We ate sandwiches, chips and salsa and queso, and a cupcake cake. We were blessed to have Elise's grandparents, aunts and uncles, 4 of her great-grandparents, and several of our friends at the party. My brother's wonderful girlfriend, Michelle, graciously documented the party so that Mike and I didn't have to worry about taking pictures. Thank you so much, Michelle! We all had a great time!
Birthday shrine and decorations
Framed invitation
HABA birthday caterpillar debut
Eating dinner
Cake time
Why is everyone singing?
Notice the icing on the wall behind her
Opening presents (look for an orange ball or a water bottle in her hands in almost all of the rest of the pictures)
Playing
Group pictures
Charming 4 of her great-grandparents
Elise and her grandparents (surprisingly this was the best out of 4 pictures)
Trying to get four 1-year-olds to look at the camera was impossible...
Sweet Austin didn't mind looking at the camera :)
Elise with her aunts and uncles
Elise with Bryan and Michelle (orange ball is gone)
Our dear friends Caleb and Julie drove down from Dallas for the party. We've been double dating with them since 2000 (and we are long overdue because of this deployment!)
Our little family. Mom, will you send me the high res version of this photo please? :)
Today Elise and I ran our first 5K together. The course involved a bunch of hills, so I am hoping to take credit for burning twice as many calories since I pushed her the whole way :)
A bunch of our friends ran the race as well. Several of us ran it in 2007 during the first deployment (before we all had kids!)
It was tough weaving in and out of the other runners (and around the walkers who didn't start at the back of the pack) for probably the first 1/2 mile. Here we are ready to start. Elise got a little restless while we were waiting since the race began about 15 minutes late. She is enjoying a rice cracker in the stroller.
Erin, Sarah, John, Elise, me, Kami, and Austin after the race
John and Elise playing after the race
I have to confess that I cheated on my sugar detox this week. I enjoyed a delicious frappuccino on Wednesday and another one this morning after the race :) I don't feel bad about it at all because I am not craving sugar like I was a few weeks ago. I have also worked out 12 of the last 13 days. I am in a really good rhythm right now and I enjoy it immensely. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
