The Powells: Elise

Elise July 2013 - Photo by Michelle Boyd

Elise was so excited to turn 4.5 on July 23! She counted down the days for several weeks before the "big day".

Stats: She's approximately 44 inches tall and weighs about 40 lbs. She wears mostly size 6 clothing (girls size S) and a 12.5-13 shoe.

Sleeping: Elise is still a fabulous sleeper. During the last few months, we've transitioned more and more from naps to rest time. For some reason, she spent about 3 weeks after our Texas trip where she took a nap every other day (I keep her up on the day after a nap so that her night time sleep doesn't get messed up). Maybe she was in the middle of a growth spurt. Prior to that, she was down to a nap (i.e. falling asleep during rest time) 1-2 times a week. The transition has been very smooth. On days that she doesn't take a nap, she has 30 minutes of rest time while Jack is sleeping and then goes to bed at 7:30 and wakes up around 8. Her clock turns green at 7:30 every morning. On days that she does take a nap, she goes to bed around 8:30. A few weeks ago, we converted her toddler bed to the full size bed. She loves having new bedding and a lot of space to sleep in! In August, we moved her bedroom to another room in the house, so in this picture the bed is positioned against the bookshelves/desk in her old (small) room, but at least you can see the new bedding. It looks great and she loves it. Her request was for an "aqua" bed and I love how the different blues, pinks, and greens look together in her room. This is the Pottery Barn Kids Brooke bedding. I've added more pink accents after the switch to her new room. As of now (early September), she also has pretty much completely dropped her nap and just has 30 minutes of rest time each afternoon. Funny story... I laid down to have rest time with her when we were in Texas one day and put my arm around her. After about a minute, she whispered, "Mama, we need to keep our hands to ourselves during rest time, okay?"

Eating: Elise continues to be a great eater. Sometimes she has to work pretty hard to eat more than her little brother at meal time, but she manages. Favorite breakfast foods include fruit, eggs, bacon, pancakes/waffles/bagels/etc, cereal with or without milk, and yogurt. For lunch, we usually have sandwiches with a few sides. She likes peanut butter, almond butter, turkey or ham with cheese and mustard, etc. For dinner, we usually have meat (she likes pretty much everything except ground meat), a vegetable or two (she likes sweet potatoes, corn, cucumbers, bell peppers, asparagus, etc), and something like noodles, rice, beans, etc.

Favorite Activities: Elise is very active and very girly. She loves to run, jump, climb, ride her bike, and do anything outside. Her absolutely favorite toys right now are her Lego Friends. They have made the cutest little girly Legos and she loves to play with them in her new room on her new pink rug. She also enjoys dolls right now and isn't picky about which ones she plays with. She likes her mini American Girl dolls, baby dolls, Disney Barbie-type dolls, mini LaLaLoopsy dolls, Duplo figures, etc.

Lego girl with an Elise original bed

She's always up for a trip to the zoo, park, aquarium, or friend's house. She is my little sidekick and often accompanies me on errands while the boys are doing something else. She also very attentive to Jack and enjoys playing "boy toys" with him. She is just as excited as he is when a construction vehicle is spotted along the road and her favorite DVD to watch is Thomas the Train. Clothes, shoes, and accessories are very important in our house. Elise always wants to pick her outfit for the day and packs a small purse to take with her when we go somewhere.

Now for some pictures taken in May-June...

Organizing purses and backpacks