19 months of Elise

August has been a very fun month for us! After we returned from Lake Tahoe, Mike and I took Elise to Sea World. She loved it! We didn't love the drive (traffic in San Antonio both ways with a toddler is not a good combination). A few days later, Elise and I flew to Chicago to visit Sarah and John. Elise did great on the plane (aside from a brief meltdown around bedtime on the way there, which was quickly stopped by a sheet of stickers). Luckily, I was able to bring her car seat on the plane and she stayed in it almost the entire time we flew. We had a wonderful trip and the kids definitely got some good sharing practice! A week later, we flew back to Texas with Sarah and John (with another very smooth plane ride, even though it started at 8:30 pm). We had such a great time hanging out with our friends for two weeks! A few days after they left, we dropped Elise off in Austin and headed to Horseshoe Bay for a fun weekend away at an Army marriage retreat. Pictures to come from this month, I promise! I started this post over a week ago and it will never get finished if I sort through all the pictures right now.

She is still eating and sleeping wonderfully (7 pm - 8:15 am almost every night, with a nap from 12:30-2:30!). If you give her a big piece of food, she will tear it into little pieces before she eats it. She has outgrown her size 7 shoes and is probably a 7.5, but a size 8 with a pediped foam insert underneath fits well. We turned her car seat around last week, and she is really enjoying the new view in the car... especially since we live very close to the high school and she see a "yeyow cool bus" multiple times a day. She is very accurate with her colors and loves to point out the colors of cars, trucks, buildings, toys, clothes, etc. She continues to enjoy labeling things with the person who owns or uses them. For this post, I'm mostly just going to share some funny stories that I wrote down from this month. Our video camera has been acting funny and I don't have many videos.

Story #1:
Here is some evidence that Elise did in fact learned something about sharing this month. The day after John flew back to "Cago", we were at the store looking at tricycles. They had a floor model out so I showed Elise how to push on the pedals and helped her ride it. After a minute or so, she suddenly said "Mama turn!" and climbed off the tricycle! I obliged her sweet request and rode a tricycle designed for 1.5-3 year olds down the aisle of Walmart. I then announced that it was "Elise's turn!" and she smiled and climbed back on. About 15 seconds later, it was "Mama's turn" again. We are making progress!

Story #2:
One of my favorites... we were driving and...
Me: "Elise, do you want to go to Starbucks with Mama?"
Elise: "No!"
Me: "Well, where do you want to go?"
Elise: "Gap!"

Story #3:
I was sitting on the floor against the couch while Elise sat on the couch behind me and John played across the room. Elise was obviously trying to turn my attention from John to herself but I didn't respond quickly enough because she said "Mama.... Mama! STEPH!". She knows the first names of her parents, grandparents, etc, but she has never called any of us by our first name before!

Story #4:
We were visiting Mike's grandma and Elise noticed her cane and quickly pointed to it and said "cane". I commented that I didn't know that she knew that word, and Mike's grandma asked Elise "Where did you last see a cane?" Elise thought hard for about 20 seconds, and then smiled and said "Gigi's house!" Gigi is my grandmother, and she uses a walker but my grandfather "Paw paw" does use a cane... so it totally makes sense that the last time she saw a cane was at Gigi's house. She is always amazing us with the things she understands and remembers.

Story #5:
While we were in Chicago, Elise and John got to go to a fun bookstore to play in the toy area. They had a train table set up and the kids loved it. Fast forward a week or two later... While Sarah and John were in Texas, they went to Barnes and Noble to meet up with a friend. Elise kept asking for them while they were gone, and I told her that Sarah and John went to the bookstore. She ran to the door and said "train? train?" because the last time she went to a bookstore there was a train there.

Story #6
When Mike comes home from work, Elise yells "Daddy home!" and either runs to the door or runs to me to pick her up and carry her to greet him. When he got home yesterday, she walked toward the garage door and said "Daddy home! Happy! Happy!" We didn't even know that she knew the word "happy". How sweet is that?!


Here are a few other things that describe Elise at 19 months. She says "new diiiiiaper" whenever she poops or pees, and if you ask her which one it is, she'll tell you. She has sat on the potty a few times but never done anything without a diaper. She will sit on the potty and poop or pee into her diaper sometimes. I feel like the potty training time is getting closer, but I'm not planning to start anything until after we move.

She carries around 2 little Vera Bradley purses all the time. She loves these things so much and gets quite upset if she can't find one. She has 2 cell phones and a set of keys that she transfers back and forth. She leaves the purses on the glider while she sleeps and takes them with her everywhere. Depending on where we go, sometimes I make her leave them in the car. Sometimes she is okay with this and other times she cries. The only time that she willingly parts with them is if she is eating. She will say "thank you" and hand them to me. Anytime that she hands something to me, I say "thank you", so she has started saying "thank you" instead of "here you go" before she hands something to me.

She still loves to read books. She knows a lot of titles and asks for specific books. With many books, she anticipates what is on the next page and tells you before you turn the page (or fills in a word if you pause in the middle of a sentence). For example, in the "Polar Bear, Polar Bear" book, if you pause before you announce who the animal hears, she will tell you the animal that is on the next page (with a pretty good degree of accuracy). In the "Go Dogs Go" book (which she calls "Dog go!"), when you turn to the second to last page, she yells "Almost there!" and on the last page she yells "Dog party!". She tries to sing the ABCs (up through G-ish) and often counts 1-3 things (usually pieces of food). If asked, she will usually tell you what she has done or seen that day. She even remembers things that happened weeks and weeks ago. For example, she will tell us which animals she saw at Sea World at the beginning of August.

Our moving time is rapidly approaching and we look forward to starting a sequence of moves over the next several years (with no deployments!). We will start in Alabama from November to July-ish, then follow Mike to grad school for 2 years, and then go to West Point for a 3-year teaching assignment. Of course, we are going to miss our family and friends in central Texas, but we are both very excited and ready to move forward. Therefore, we are getting ready to put our house up for sale next week (this might explain why I have been behind on blogging!). If anyone has home staging tips, please let me know! I promise that I will try to get pictures up sometime soon :)

5 days with the grandparents

We recently returned from a wonderful vacation to Lake Tahoe with our friends Mark and Ali. Elise spent 5 days with her grandparents! She is a lucky girl. Gram and Grandpa kept her for the first half of our vacation and then traded with Mimi and Pop.

You know you're in for trouble when the first thing Mimi says upon picking you up at the airport is "don't forget that your pastor said that my job is to spoil my granddaughter" (true story from the Mother's Day/baby dedication service at TBC). You reply with a nervous laugh and wonder what is in store for you when you get back home and try to regain your routine. When we got back home, Elise was a little... shall we say... "different". Here is a funny story to illustrate my point.

We now have a small child who asks for your hand in a way that clearly indicates her request has never been denied. She takes your hand and walks you to wherever she wants you to go. If there are two adults available, she'll gladly ask for both of your hands and travel as a group across the room so that you both can watch up close as she plays with her toys. If you decline the request, she simply repeats her command, not having experienced rejection from anyone over the last five days.

Her first real annoyance came when she reunited with Boss, and he clearly didn't have any desire to appease her. Happily perched atop the couch in his usual spot just out of Elise's reach, he was content to doze quietly. Elise decided he should come watch her play with her house across the room, and began ordering him, "Boss, down here!" Repeating her order several times, the tone and pointing became somewhat frantic before Mike intervened. Mike picked Boss up and put him on the floor to see what she had in mind next. She then said, "Boss, move house!" to instruct him to move over to the house. He was just as happy lying on the floor as he was on the couch and was content to stay put. Boss was clearly amused at Elise's notion that she could move him without his consent. She wrapped her arms around his waist and attempted to drag him across the floor, but Boss never budged. Mike asked Elise what she wanted, and she sadly exclaimed, "Boss, move house!" Mike walked over to the house and signaled Boss to join him, and Boss happily trotted over to the house and stretched out on the floor. Elise was overjoyed and resumed playing with her house...by herself, but now with an audience.

Thankfully, it only took 5 days for her to return to her normal pre-grandparent-vacation self. Thank you to Gram, Grandpa, Mimi, and Pop for making our childless vacation a reality!

Here are some pictures of our unspoiled angel taken by the future Mrs. Michelle Boyd! Elise says "Tank you, Eyell!" Stay tuned for some pictures from our Lake Tahoe and Sea World trips!