35 months

So I've decided that her 36 month/3 year post will be the last monthly post and after that I'll do a long, detailed post every 3 months (along with other random posts in the middle). I feel like at this age, most of the content in these posts are in the "nothing has changed" category, and all people are really interested in reading are the funny sayings :)

Everything is still great in the eating and sleeping departments. She has done a fabulous job during our trip to Texas. She is in bed from roughly 8-8 and sleeps for probably 11 hours on a normal day. On a very active day, she will fall asleep sooner. She takes a two hour nap from about 1:45-3:45. She had one day this month where she talked through her nap, but other than that, she has slept great and I usually have to wake her up. She still wears a pull up at night and pretends there is a potty in it when she sleeps. She loves her crib but sometime in the next few months I think we will convert it to a toddler bed. I don't remember if I put this on the blog or not, but Elise basically stopped drinking milk a few months ago and only drinks water. She'd had a perpetual runny nose for probably a year (maybe since we started cow's milk, maybe not... we can't remember but we know it started when we lived in Texas), which we kept blaming on moves and climate changes. For a few days in September, she was sick and we didn't give her milk during that time, and we noticed that her runny nose went away. We experimented a little bit and determined that the nose running was in fact associated with milk. She still eats yogurt and cheese but usually only has milk when we get it as part of her meal at Chipotle, or if I buy it for part of a recipe (Mike and I are not milk drinkers).

She's been such a pleasant person to be around the last few weeks. She has been much less challenging and less clingy. The hardest part of the day for us is probably getting ready to go somewhere. She doesn't like to get dressed and she especially doesn't like wearing a coat/hat/mittens, to the point that she won't want to play outside because she doesn't want to put them on. Newsflash, sweetheart... it's about to get really cold in Maryland! When we get back home, we're going to finish organizing the basement and bring in her slide/climber so that we'll have a nice indoor place to be active. She'a also getting a Schwinn Roadster for her birthday that we will keep down there.

Her vocabulary, pronunciation, memory, and conceptual knowledge continue to develop so rapidly. It is quite amazing what a toddler can understand and learn. Here are some funny sayings from the last week:


(the Saturday before we left to go to Texas)
E: "Today is Saturday and we are going to the zoo. Tomorrow is Sunday and we will go to church. After that is Monday and we will go to Texas!"
(a few minutes later)
E: "We will not take naps [while in Texas], we will just play."


(while eating breakfast and wearing her pajama shirt with her sweatshirt and sweatpants because she was being difficult and we were late leaving the house...first time she's worn any part of her pajamas out of the house)
E: "You can't see my shirt. It's hiding."
Mimi: "It is?"
E: "Yeah... 'cause I'm wearing my sweatshirt!"
(pause)
E: "When you wear your pajama shirt all day long, that's what you have to do!"


Mimi: (walks in the bathroom to find Elise, arms folded, sitting on a stool in front of the open cabinets)
E: I'm not going to touch anything. I'm just looking.


(after going to many places to see many people in the days leading up to Christmas)
Pop: "Elise, what are you going to do today?"
E: "I'm going to play with... somebody."


Mimi: "Is your nose running?"
E: "Yes... I don't know why it's running. I think it's running from my cold I got when I went to the Baltimore Zoo but I don't know why it's running... I think it's 'cause I think too much."


E: "When I cough, I have to cover my arm so I don't get dirt on everybody."


E: "I just went potty all by myself. And I pooped. That was my option."


(I accidentally cut Jack's finger when I was using inferior nail clippers a few weeks ago)
Mommy: "Thank you for cooperating while I cut your nails, sweetie. Jack doesn't cooperate that well, because he's a baby."
E: "Is that because you cut his little finger?"


(We met some friends to eat at Chick Fil A today and she was staring at the logo and shocked me by saying this...)
E: "Chh Chh Chh. C H says Chh, like Chick Fil A!"


(while trying to get her to say long words, like 'anethesiologist')
Daddy: "Can you say 'arachnaphobia'?"
E: "Is that an animal?"


E: "Donkey Donkey duh duh duh... It starts with a 'd'! Is that similar to a 'k'?"
(going to the potty and asking Pop to leave because she likes her privacy)
E: "Leave, Pop. You can go play with the old people."


(randomly pondering the logistics of airport travel)
E: "Who is going to pick us up when we fly back to Maryland and Baltimore?"
Mommy: "Nobody is going to pick us up because we left our car there. We'll drive our car home from the airport."
E: "How are we going to get to the airport if we don't have our car? Are we going to take Mimi's car?"


E: "Mom, go wait in Mimi's bathroom while I go potty."
(pause)
E: "Do you have any questions for me?"


(reading with Daddy and not wanting The Night Before Christmas)
E: "I will crawl under the bed so I can't hear you."


(talking to Daddy)
E: "Go check on your son, Jack. You know, the one in the other room."

E: "Look at Mommy because she's your family."

E: "I misplaced Jack. I don't know where I put him!"


She also will say anything to prolong going to bed, like "Pop, you have pretty hair!" and "We forgot to do somethin'... what did we forget to do? We forgot to do SOMEthin'!"


I can't believe she's almost 3!! We love you, sweet girl!

Happy 30th Birthday, Mike!

I love you more than ever, old man :)

Conversation from dinner last night... we wer:

Elise: "I got you a birthday present."
Mike: "What is it?"
Elise: "A surprise!" (we've been working on this! little lady is not good at keeping secrets)
Mike: "What kind of surprise?"
Elise: "A surprise football and a surprise frisbee!"

First haircut

Well, I think Mike cried a little inside when he saw Jack with less hair, but at least the little man won't be getting hair in his eyes anymore :)

Jack is 7 months old!

Happy 7 months, sweet boy!

Stats: I haven't weighed or measured him yet, but I don't think he's grown that much since his 6 month appointment. His 6-12 month clothes fit well, but most of his winter clothes are 12-18 months because I only wanted to buy long sleeved clothes in one size. I have to roll the sleeves up, but that is fine. I hear it is still cold in April so we're going to make the long sleeves last as long as we can. He has the two bottom teeth now. The second tooth popped through last week.

Sleeping: Still a great sleeper, even with teeth! I'm so grateful. He goes to bed around 7 and wakes up between 7 and 7:45. We successfully transitioned to 2 naps during the second half of this month, and he's done great. He takes his first nap from 9-10:30 and then his second nap from 1:30-4 or 4:30. This falls in the window of Elise's nap, which is super for Mommy! He's usually a little fussy between 1 and 1:30, so that is often jumperoo time. Once or twice a week, he wakes up a little early (during the 6:00 hour) and I either feed him and put him back to bed or leave him in his bed until 7, depending on the time.

Eating: He still nurses 5 times a day, at roughly 7:30, 10:30 (after nap #1), 1:30 (before nap #2), 4:30 (after nap #2) and 6:45 (before bed). He eats 2-4 oz of something at dinner. He's not a fan of fruit, but he really likes the yellow/orange vegetables. I haven't added the lunch meal yet, but I plan to this month. His favorite food so far is pumpkin.

Playing and other random stuff: He's such a happy, silly, sweet baby. He still enjoys his activity mat, jumperoo, and exersaucer. He spends most of his time playing on the floor or sitting and playing with toys, but he usually gets a little time in the exersaucer right before dinner and in the jumperoo right before his second nap. He's very easy to take places and loves to flirt with everyone. He enjoys sitting with a bucket of toys and pulling everything out. He also loves knocking down towers of cups. He LOVES to stand up and either hold on to the toy box or to someone's fingers. He also tries to walk and jump while holding onto our hands, sometimes taking up to 10 little "steps". He's still trying very hard to scoot on his belly, and can make it about 1/2 inch at a time. He still likes the "b" sound, and often says "ba", "bee", and "buh". I've caught him on all fours a few times, and he can stay up there for a while if he's in the mood.

Since he's been teething, he has really enjoyed the pacifier again (this is after over two months without it). He doesn't use it to sleep, but I will let him have it when we're out somewhere or if he's fussy while he's playing. He likes to suck on it and chew on it. He also loves his Sophie the Giraffe toy and his Haba rattle/teether toys. Thankfully, he spits up a lot less now and I bet he will have outgrown it altogether by 8 months old. Elise was also 8 months when she stopped spitting up. I am about to attempt his first hair cut. The long hair has gotten less curly except when it's wet, and now it hangs down over his little eyes. Sorry about the complete randomness of the last two paragraphs.

Happy 7 months, Jack! We love you to pieces!