14 months

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).

Mike should be home for her 15 month post! :)