We had our first Kindermusik class tonight with Sarah and John. The kiddos loved it! We are doing a set of four Christmas classes. Elise was SO excited to be there and had a blast exploring the room, dancing with the music, and playing with the "instruments". She quite the vocal and enthusiastic participant. Afterwards, she took John's rice cracker right out of his hand while he was eating it. John's mom was nice enough to offer her one of her own. I think she learned this trick from Boss.
So far, I have only used my camera on auto mode, but I am really pleased with the results. One of these days I will take the same picture with both cameras so that you can see the difference. It is so nice to catch Elise in action without blurry body parts!
Mike and I decided to get a new camera for Christmas this year. I patiently waited until Cyber Monday to order the Canon Digital Rebel XSi and scored a free case, memory card, lens cleaner, and screen protector. The price of the camera dropped about $50 in the last two weeks of November, woohoo! I wanted to get a DSLR camera so that I would be able to take better indoor pictures and better pictures of Elise in action. Since she is so mobile, I inevitably get a blurred hand, head, foot, etc, in a lot of pictures. It arrived today and I decided to snap a few pictures of Elise before bedtime. The shutter speed is very fast and the pictures turned out very nicely for the setting. It was already dark outside and I just had the overhead light on in her room. I didn't experiment with Photoshop or any settings on the camera other than "Auto". I think the picture quality is wonderful!
2 posts in one day! This video is too funny not to share. Elise was SOOOOO excited to be reunited with her toys after spending nearly a week in Austin for Thanksgiving.
Well, Elise decided that she wanted to climb in Daddy's care package and go visit him! This box entertained her for a solid 30 minutes. You will notice that the picture is not focused (and I have about 10 in a similar pose... none of them came out well). It has gotten increasingly difficult for me to take good pictures of Elise since she is never still. This will only be a problem for a few more days... Mike and I are getting a new camera for Christmas and it should be here soon. I am so excited! I ordered a Canon Digital Rebel XSi and the Cyber Monday bonus was a free case, high speed memory card, lens cleaner, and screen protector. I patiently watched the price fall about $50 during the last few weeks of November and then made my purchase.
I took her to the doctor on Monday for 2 shots. She weighed 22.5 lbs and measured 30 inches long. She's in the 90th percentile for height and weight. She gained just over a pound in the last 2.5 weeks since I took her in when she was sick. This definitely confirms the growth spurt. She is still waking up once at night to eat, but I think this is wearing off. I need to be more consistent about giving her a breakfast of solids before her first nap. Sometimes it just isn't convenient when we go somewhere in the morning because she is only awake for 1:45 or 2 hours before her first nap. Today I went back to 5 nursing sessions in hopes that if she gets her 5th one during the day, she won't need it at night. If it works, I may just keep doing this until she turns a year old (or nurse 4 times and give her pumped milk out of a cup once), and then gradually replace a couple of feedings with cow's milk. I am not sure how long I will continue nursing. We'll see what happens.
She is learning new things every day. Waving 'hi' and 'byebye' has finally clicked for her. She's done it sporadically for the last few months, but during the last two days she's done it correctly at least 90% of the time. She even waves hi to me and Boss and sometimes says 'iiiiiiiiiiiii' or 'ba ba' while she is doing it.
She loves to repeat sounds that I make. Today I tried hard to not say the word just because I was curious if she would do it herself. I know that she understands a bunch of words (probably 20?) but I wanted to see what she would say. After she took a bath tonight, she crawled back into the bathroom three times saying 'bah' for bath. She said 'bah' several times when she was crawling toward her ball in the kitchen (the ball on the tile floor entertained her for a good 30 minutes) and said 'buhn' when she picked up her stuffed bunny. It was the first time I've heard her say the 'buhn' sound. I was really surprised about the last one because she just met the bunny yesterday. Unfortunately, she might not get to play with the bunny very often. Boss tried to sneak it outside. She also says 'puh' or 'bah' to Boss.
She has also learned to hand things to me when I ask. We started working on this a week or two ago and... get this... when she picks up one of Boss' rawhides off the floor, if I say "That is Boss' toy, can you give Boss the toy?" she will hold it out for him to come get. Then she thinks it is hilarious when he takes it away from her. She did it about 5 times today. It is SO cute. My next mission is to get it on video. This is a huge step up from her previous habit of examining and then trying to chew on the rawhides.
Changing the subject...
On the weekend before Thanksgiving, we drove down to San Marcos to watch the 5A State Volleyball Championship Game. Right before the game, we were honored as the 1999 State Champions. Volleyball was a huge part of my life in middle school and high school. In 1998, we made it to the state tournament but lost in the championship game, and in 1999 we came back and won. Here is a picture of the seniors from 1999.
And here are some pictures from last weekend. About half the team made it to San Marcos. We had a great time catching up.
We spent most of last week in Austin for Thanksgiving. Elise loved eating turkey, ham, and green beans. We had Thanksgiving on Wednesday night at my parents' house. Several of my friends from Fort Hood (including John and his family) were able to eat with us. We had a great time!
On Thursday, Bryan and I ran the Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot downtown. It was perfect weather for the race and I felt great during all 5 of the miles. We were being silly trying to stay warm before the race...
Afterwards, Elise and I met up with Mike's extended family for lunch. Elise definitely doesn't mind being the center of attention! Then we came back to my parents' house for a quick nap before the UT/A&M football game. Here is Elise with her grandparents. By the looks of this picture, you might be surprised to know that 3 of her 4 grandparents went to UT and the other one went to Baylor.
On Friday I had lunch with 4 of my good friends from high school, Cindy, Ashley, Gretchen, and Lindsay. Somehow I totally forgot to take a picture while we were all together! We are going to make it an annual event.
That's all I've got! Maybe tomorrow I will be able to post some pictures of the supposed snow... :)
John's mom had a great idea to put the blog in the form of a Q&A, so I will try it this time in an effort to spice it up!
How big is Elise? I will take her to the doctor next week for 2 shots, but until we get the accurate measurements, I will guess that she is around 22 lbs and 30 inches.She has not outgrown any 12-18 month clothing, but most of her onesies, shirts, and dresses are 18-24 months.I bought a little big so that it will last for the whole winter. What does Elise eat? She eats 2 meals of finger foods at lunch and dinner. This requires me to be much more prepared. I keep lots of frozen vegetables and fresh fruits on hand. I LOVE my Beaba Babycook and use it at least once a day. It is perfect for steaming frozen food or harder fruits like apples. She loves black beans, sweet potato cubes, steamed apples, bananas, cheese, lima beans, grapes, peas, and carrots. She has eaten Rudy's brisket and chicken and LOVED it! She also loves Chipotle. I will put scoops of it on her tray and she will devour everything except the rice. I also love using my mesh feeders to give her things like apples, cucumber, pears, etc. It is so nice to be able to eat while she feeds herself!
I recently switched from 5 to 4 nursing sessions during the day. She has been waking up hungry during the night, so today I added a breakfast meal of cereal. She was VERY hesitant at first because she hasn't wanted to eat anything with a spoon, but after a few "airplane noises" she eagerly ate what was offered.
She will eat any finger foods so far except for broccoli and avocado. This is especially strange because avocado used to be one of her favorite foods!
What are Elise's sleeping habits? She is a great napper. She is very predictable. She wants her first nap 1:45 or 2 hours after she wakes up, and it lasts about 1.5 hours. She is ready for the second nap about 2-2.5 hours after she wakes up from the first nap, and it also lasts about 1.5 hours. When I carry her into her room at naptime, she automatically lays her head on my chest and puts her thumb in her mouth. The only time we play in her room is between bathtime and bedtime, so she has been programmed to know that when we walk into her room during the day, it is naptime.
We start the bedtime routine around 7:15 and she is in bed between 7:45 and 8:00. I have mentioned in previous posts that this month has not been great for sleeping at night. I think it has been about 2 weeks since she has slept for 12 hours in a row at night. She is still in bed for 12-13 hours, but she's been waking up hungry. I have been holding out on the breakfast meal because of laziness, but I recently decided that I would rather take the time to feed her again during the day instead of at night. I have been so spoiled with a great sleeper that it has been hard to wake up and feed her!
What is she doing physically? She is crawling all the time now. The little inchworm was so cute that I am sad to see it go, but the crawling is adorable too. She has a strange technique on the tile, but I don't blame her. Her poor little knees!
She pulls up on everything, including the coffee table, couch, entertainment stand, walker, exersaucer, toy bucket, end table, Leapfrog table, wall, back door, my leg, crib, glider, ottoman, pack n play, and the salad spinner (not joking!). The salad spinner is one of her favorite kitchen toys. It was one of those wedding registry must-haves that I never used, but now it is worth the extra cabinet space. She loves playing with it.
She has been cruising really well for a while now. Nothing has really changed in the last month. She took her first step a week ago, and repeated it 3-4 times, and did it again a few days later, but hasn't attempted anything since then. I think she needs to get better at standing alone before she'll be able to take two steps.
She has REALLY improved getting from a standing position to a sitting or crawling position. This is a great relief because it means that I no longer have to "rescue" her in her crib to lay her down so that she will fall asleep. She slowly lowers herself down onto her knees, then sits down or starts crawling.
What is she doing verbally? She tries so hard to repeat some words that I say. For puppy she will say "puh", for ball, bath, Boss, etc, she will say "bah". She really focuses and mouths the words rather than just babbling. It is so adorable... even cuter than just babbling! Her second word is officially "daddy". Tonight we were sitting in the glider in her room and she said "daddy" very distinctly and then pointed to the pictures on the wall of Mike and I. She has been saying a variation of "dada" or "dat tee" when she sees Mike on the webcam as well. She combines many consonant and vowel sounds together. I love listening to her from around the corner when she thinks no one is around. I think her third word will be puppy. I need to stop saying it whenever I see Boss (it is a habit) to see if she says it first instead of just repeating it.
What else has she been doing? She loves to point at objects. She's gotten more consistent at waving 'byebye'. She knows a lot of words that she can't yet say, but if I say them, she will look at and sometimes point to the object or person (as long as she isn't distracted!). These words include cup, ball, table, crib, light, fan, spoon, puppy, necklace, button, nose, walker, maraca, Sophie (her favorite teething toy), mama, pop (my dad), etc.
She gets very excited when she hears the word 'milk' or 'bath'. You have to be prepared to feed her or give her a bath if these are mentioned! She loves bathtime and will start crawling toward the bathroom when we start talking about a 'bath'.
She is starting to pay more attention to books and will often make it through a whole board book without trying to eat the book.
Diaper changes are FRUSTRATING! She is so squirmy and wiggly and half the time starts crawling away and pulling up and cruising as I am trying to fasten the diaper. I try to have a new toy or object on hand for her to play with, but sometimes it just doesn't work.
Here is a cute video of her after naptime a few days ago. I am sorry that this post is a few days late! I am also working on a volleyball post and a running post and I will get those done soon. We are currently 7 months into the deployment and a little tiny light is starting to appear at the end of the tunnel.
It has been a while since my last post, and a lot has happened over the last week. Elise has been crawling full-time and I think she likes being able to pull up and sit up from the crawling position... it is much easier than from her belly! On Sunday she took her first step (several times) from the coffee table to me, but hasn't done much since then. She needs to get better at standing alone before she will be walking alone. She is still obsessed with cruising and she's gotten much more graceful about getting down from a standing position.
She typically doesn't leave the room unless I do. There have been many times that she has crawled or cruised after me (saying "mama") into the bathroom, laundry room, her room, etc. I have to be very vigilant about keeping the bathroom door closed!
She makes a great effort at repeating many words, though she can usually only get the first syllable. She repeats "puh" for puppy, "bah" for bath, "bah" for ball, "bay" for baby, "pop" for Pops (my dad), "buh" for book, etc. There have been a few times that she has tried to say puppy or book without me first saying the word. She says it a lot when we are talking to Mike on the webcam. It will be interesting to see what she does when she sees him for the first time in January. I think she's actually learned that "dada" or "dadeeee" refers to Mike!
Here are a few videos of her that I've taken during the past week. They aren't as funny as the spoon video, but they give a good summary of what our days are like.
