Elise walking from Stephanie Powell on Vimeo.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Walking
Elise has been practicing her walking big time over the last few days... and tonight she took 36ish steps! Here is a short video with about 12 steps. After this video was taken, she figured out how to take a few steps, pause, then take a few more steps, and pause until she got to what she was after. I can't believe she is getting so big!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Part 1
Elise and I traveled to Austin to spend a few days with my family and Mike's family. On Wednesday, I went with Kara and Jennifer to buy the bridesmaid dresses for Kara and Ben's wedding in May. They are so pretty! I'm excited to wear it (and I will definitely wear it again!).
We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and grandparents and Elise got to open her very first present from my grandparents. It was a little house by Haba and she loves it! There are little finger puppets that fit inside as well as a wooden person with a little wooden car. It is a really cool toy and she will enjoy playing with it for a long time.
This morning we celebrated Christmas with my parents and brother. Elise had a lot of fun with some new toys and a set of wind chimes! She LOVES the wind chimes on their back porch and always points to them when she is outside. She gets a sheer look of delight on her face when she hears them.
Then we headed to Lockhart to see my dad's side of the family for lunch. Tonight we are going to have dinner with Mike's family. We are saving our family and Mike's family Christmas celebration for January when Mike is here. I have already picked out the toys that we/Santa are going to give Elise and I am so excited to see her open them after he gets home.
She's been practicing her walking and talking over the last few days. Today she took several steps in front of the crowd (twice!) at my grandma's house and received much praise in return. She LOVES to point at things and I usually say something like "look, there's the ____" when she does it. At the Christmas Eve church service last night, she pointed to a tree and said "look!" We will add that to the word list. She has repeated 'tay' or 'table' several times but hasn't said it yet without repeating after someone else. I haven't been counting something as a word until she's used it a few times without me saying it first (does that make sense?). She did another cute thing this morning in the bath tub. She was holding a few of the cups from these bath toys:
http://www.amazon.com/Munchkin-Bath-Toy-2d-Caterpillar/dp/B000V9A2S0/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1261779251&sr=1-9
One of them has a little spinner in the cup. She was holding it and I asked her to spin the cup, and since she had cups in both hands, she placed the cup in the water and took her little finger and started spinning it. So cute!
I am looking forward to starting some Christmas traditions with our little family next month. What are your favorite family traditions?
We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and grandparents and Elise got to open her very first present from my grandparents. It was a little house by Haba and she loves it! There are little finger puppets that fit inside as well as a wooden person with a little wooden car. It is a really cool toy and she will enjoy playing with it for a long time.
The camera caught this toy in midair...
This morning we celebrated Christmas with my parents and brother. Elise had a lot of fun with some new toys and a set of wind chimes! She LOVES the wind chimes on their back porch and always points to them when she is outside. She gets a sheer look of delight on her face when she hears them.
Looking at the tree
Come on in!!!
Mega Bloks wagon from Mimi and Pop. There is a little bus that goes with it, too!
More Mega Bloks from Bryan
Bear from Mimi and Pop
Some stocking toys
Then we headed to Lockhart to see my dad's side of the family for lunch. Tonight we are going to have dinner with Mike's family. We are saving our family and Mike's family Christmas celebration for January when Mike is here. I have already picked out the toys that we/Santa are going to give Elise and I am so excited to see her open them after he gets home.
She's been practicing her walking and talking over the last few days. Today she took several steps in front of the crowd (twice!) at my grandma's house and received much praise in return. She LOVES to point at things and I usually say something like "look, there's the ____" when she does it. At the Christmas Eve church service last night, she pointed to a tree and said "look!" We will add that to the word list. She has repeated 'tay' or 'table' several times but hasn't said it yet without repeating after someone else. I haven't been counting something as a word until she's used it a few times without me saying it first (does that make sense?). She did another cute thing this morning in the bath tub. She was holding a few of the cups from these bath toys:
http://www.amazon.com/Munchkin-Bath-Toy-2d-Caterpillar/dp/B000V9A2S0/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1261779251&sr=1-9
One of them has a little spinner in the cup. She was holding it and I asked her to spin the cup, and since she had cups in both hands, she placed the cup in the water and took her little finger and started spinning it. So cute!
I am looking forward to starting some Christmas traditions with our little family next month. What are your favorite family traditions?
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Happy 11 months!
I can't believe my sweet girl is one month away from turning 1! This is great news though, because that also means that Mike will be here in less than a month. I am so anxious for him to get to play with his baby-for-just-a-little-longer girl. We are looking forward to a lot of time at home with our little family.
Here is a little 11 month summary for my baby book (that only has 4 months done, yikes!). Elise...
-weighs somewhere between 23-24 lbs and measures about 31 inches tall.
-says several words consistently (without me saying them first)... mama, daddy, book, boss, puppy, bath, and ball. The other day in the car I was watching her in the rearview mirror and she held up the book with Mike's picture and said "daddy". it was so cute!
-tries to repeat lots of words
-LOVES to read books. I keep a basket of books under her nightstand and we read several books in the morning after she nurses. As soon as she is finished, she starts saying "buh" or "ook" for book.
-has 5 teeth (3 on top, 2 on bottom). She is working on her molars.
-enjoys riding in the car. I rotate the toy that she plays with every time we get in the car. Her favorite car toys are Freddy the Firefly (Lamaze), Sophie the Giraffe, Stretch the Giraffe (Lamaze), her plastic keys, and an ice cube in a mesh feeder when she is teething. In a pinch, I just stick my hand in the backseat to give her a water bottle and she's happy.
-loves to explore the house... especially the kitchen. She loves to push and pull the dining room chairs around. I am convinced that she and Boss have teamed up against me because she pulls the chairs out so that he can climb on the table to search for crumbs.
-is beginning to learn how to walk. Tonight she took 4 steps from the coffee table to me.
-hates to have her diaper or clothes changed. I have a few toys that I rotate during diaper changes and that seems to help. The toothbrush, the Haba Max toy or the Baby Einstein Takealong Tunes usually work, but sometimes I still end up putting her diaper on while she is crawling or standing. Thank goodness for snaps on the cloth diapers!
-knows all of her toys and major things in the house by name. If I say "Where's your walker?" she will crawl over to it, pull up, and start walking with a big smile. The "Where's the..." game is a great distraction if she gets upset because I took something away or moved her away from something.
-likes to hand me toys or food. I use the word 'share'. We'll see how long this lasts!
-tries to stack things, put things back together, play with the shape sorter, model my actions (put the ball in the cup, etc).
-eats 2 meals of all finger foods. She still won't eat from a spoon if I try to feed her. I just ordered her some toddler spoons and I think she is ready to learn how to eat with them. She holds her own straw cup. She likes pretty much everything... fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese and beans. I haven't really introduced grains. I gave her half of a half of a bagel yesterday and she loved it! She starts clapping when she is done eating. I think I need to teach her 'all done'!
-loves to dance and rock (sway back and forth or push the glider, depending on what room she is in. It is kinda funny because she doesn't even like to be rocked.)
-has a slightly different sleeping/eating schedule. With a new tooth, two growth spurts, teething, and 2 bouts of sickness in the month of November and early December, she got in the habit of eating in the middle of the night (not good!). I finally decided to let her cry it out at night last week. I never had to do that before but I had been praying for wisdom about the situation and decided it was time. I finally came to the realization that, yes, she was hungry, but no, I couldn't feed her or else the cycle would just continue. She wasn't sick any more... she was waking out of habit. I decided not to go in her room at all. She woke up 2 times and cried off and on for 20-30 minutes before falling back asleep. The next day, she didn't get distracted while she was nursing like she had been in the afternoon feedings. She slept 12 hours straight the next night and all of the nights since then. It has been about a week. I couldn't really do the cry it out sooner because of the growth spurt, teething, and sickness, and I was pleasantly surprised that it only took one night for her to get back on track. I decided to nix the breakfast meal because she never ate much and still goes down for her morning nap early. If she starts waking early from that nap, I will add breakfast. She is very, very, very easy to put down for a nap or at night. I can't remember the last time she fussed at any of these times. She knows when it is time and she actually reaches for her crib. I think I am going to teach her the sign for sleep.
So, if you are curious, the schedule is:
8:00- wake up/nurse/read books/play in the living room (we are pretty slow-moving in the morning unless we have a playdate... sometimes we jog if the weather is nice)
10:00 to 11:30- nap
11:30-wake/nurse/independent playtime in the big pack and play with her new Wonder Dice toys.
12:00-lunch (She gets 2-3 different things and water in her straw cup. She eats either steamed veggies, fruit, cheese, beans, meat, etc. I try to do at least 1 fruit, 1 veggie, and 1 protein every day. I don't know what I would do without my Babycook. It is awesome.)
12:30 to 2:00-talk to Mike when he gets back from work/play
2:00 to 3:30-nap
3:30-wake/nurse/play/go for a walk or run errands if necessary (of course the early evening is the worst time to go to the store... oh well!)
5:30 or 6-dinner (She gets 2-3 different things and 4-5 oz of thawed pumped milk in her straw cup.)
6 to 7:30-play
7:30-bath/nurse/in bed by 8
So there you have it!
I also have a few cute stories. We were driving in the car the other day and stopped at a light. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw her hold up her picture book with Mike's picture and say "Daddy". So cute!
Tonight I was trying to cut her nails. This is always a battle. I usually do it while someone else is at the house to distract her, but Boss wasn't being helpful. I turned on the Baby Einstein First Signs DVD. This is the only baby dvd that I own right now (and we've only turned it on a few times to cut nails. I'm not a fan of babies watching TV until they can communicate and interact with you while they are watching.) Anyway, Elise was fascinated with it tonight. She was so interested that we kept watching it together after I finished her nails. When a girl and a beach ball came on the screen she immediately pointed to the TV and said 'bah' for ball. She did the same thing later for baby. Eventually, she crawled over to the entertainment stand and pulled up to get a closer view. When 'milk' was being discussed, she got really upset for a few seconds, then got down and crawled over to me because she wanted milk. It was about 30 minutes before she would normally nurse. She started clapping when they talked about the sign for 'eat'. A few minutes later, she got bored and decided to go play with her toys. I was pretty impressed though. I think she understands waaaaay more than I know.
I am impressed that you made it to the end of a really long and really disorganized post. I'm not even going to reread it to make sure it sounds right. I just wanted to get this typed before Christmas. Time for bed!
Here is a little 11 month summary for my baby book (that only has 4 months done, yikes!). Elise...
-weighs somewhere between 23-24 lbs and measures about 31 inches tall.
-says several words consistently (without me saying them first)... mama, daddy, book, boss, puppy, bath, and ball. The other day in the car I was watching her in the rearview mirror and she held up the book with Mike's picture and said "daddy". it was so cute!
-tries to repeat lots of words
-LOVES to read books. I keep a basket of books under her nightstand and we read several books in the morning after she nurses. As soon as she is finished, she starts saying "buh" or "ook" for book.
-has 5 teeth (3 on top, 2 on bottom). She is working on her molars.
-enjoys riding in the car. I rotate the toy that she plays with every time we get in the car. Her favorite car toys are Freddy the Firefly (Lamaze), Sophie the Giraffe, Stretch the Giraffe (Lamaze), her plastic keys, and an ice cube in a mesh feeder when she is teething. In a pinch, I just stick my hand in the backseat to give her a water bottle and she's happy.
-loves to explore the house... especially the kitchen. She loves to push and pull the dining room chairs around. I am convinced that she and Boss have teamed up against me because she pulls the chairs out so that he can climb on the table to search for crumbs.
-is beginning to learn how to walk. Tonight she took 4 steps from the coffee table to me.
-hates to have her diaper or clothes changed. I have a few toys that I rotate during diaper changes and that seems to help. The toothbrush, the Haba Max toy or the Baby Einstein Takealong Tunes usually work, but sometimes I still end up putting her diaper on while she is crawling or standing. Thank goodness for snaps on the cloth diapers!
-knows all of her toys and major things in the house by name. If I say "Where's your walker?" she will crawl over to it, pull up, and start walking with a big smile. The "Where's the..." game is a great distraction if she gets upset because I took something away or moved her away from something.
-likes to hand me toys or food. I use the word 'share'. We'll see how long this lasts!
-tries to stack things, put things back together, play with the shape sorter, model my actions (put the ball in the cup, etc).
-eats 2 meals of all finger foods. She still won't eat from a spoon if I try to feed her. I just ordered her some toddler spoons and I think she is ready to learn how to eat with them. She holds her own straw cup. She likes pretty much everything... fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese and beans. I haven't really introduced grains. I gave her half of a half of a bagel yesterday and she loved it! She starts clapping when she is done eating. I think I need to teach her 'all done'!
-loves to dance and rock (sway back and forth or push the glider, depending on what room she is in. It is kinda funny because she doesn't even like to be rocked.)
-has a slightly different sleeping/eating schedule. With a new tooth, two growth spurts, teething, and 2 bouts of sickness in the month of November and early December, she got in the habit of eating in the middle of the night (not good!). I finally decided to let her cry it out at night last week. I never had to do that before but I had been praying for wisdom about the situation and decided it was time. I finally came to the realization that, yes, she was hungry, but no, I couldn't feed her or else the cycle would just continue. She wasn't sick any more... she was waking out of habit. I decided not to go in her room at all. She woke up 2 times and cried off and on for 20-30 minutes before falling back asleep. The next day, she didn't get distracted while she was nursing like she had been in the afternoon feedings. She slept 12 hours straight the next night and all of the nights since then. It has been about a week. I couldn't really do the cry it out sooner because of the growth spurt, teething, and sickness, and I was pleasantly surprised that it only took one night for her to get back on track. I decided to nix the breakfast meal because she never ate much and still goes down for her morning nap early. If she starts waking early from that nap, I will add breakfast. She is very, very, very easy to put down for a nap or at night. I can't remember the last time she fussed at any of these times. She knows when it is time and she actually reaches for her crib. I think I am going to teach her the sign for sleep.
So, if you are curious, the schedule is:
8:00- wake up/nurse/read books/play in the living room (we are pretty slow-moving in the morning unless we have a playdate... sometimes we jog if the weather is nice)
10:00 to 11:30- nap
11:30-wake/nurse/independent playtime in the big pack and play with her new Wonder Dice toys.
12:00-lunch (She gets 2-3 different things and water in her straw cup. She eats either steamed veggies, fruit, cheese, beans, meat, etc. I try to do at least 1 fruit, 1 veggie, and 1 protein every day. I don't know what I would do without my Babycook. It is awesome.)
12:30 to 2:00-talk to Mike when he gets back from work/play
2:00 to 3:30-nap
3:30-wake/nurse/play/go for a walk or run errands if necessary (of course the early evening is the worst time to go to the store... oh well!)
5:30 or 6-dinner (She gets 2-3 different things and 4-5 oz of thawed pumped milk in her straw cup.)
6 to 7:30-play
7:30-bath/nurse/in bed by 8
So there you have it!
I also have a few cute stories. We were driving in the car the other day and stopped at a light. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw her hold up her picture book with Mike's picture and say "Daddy". So cute!
Tonight I was trying to cut her nails. This is always a battle. I usually do it while someone else is at the house to distract her, but Boss wasn't being helpful. I turned on the Baby Einstein First Signs DVD. This is the only baby dvd that I own right now (and we've only turned it on a few times to cut nails. I'm not a fan of babies watching TV until they can communicate and interact with you while they are watching.) Anyway, Elise was fascinated with it tonight. She was so interested that we kept watching it together after I finished her nails. When a girl and a beach ball came on the screen she immediately pointed to the TV and said 'bah' for ball. She did the same thing later for baby. Eventually, she crawled over to the entertainment stand and pulled up to get a closer view. When 'milk' was being discussed, she got really upset for a few seconds, then got down and crawled over to me because she wanted milk. It was about 30 minutes before she would normally nurse. She started clapping when they talked about the sign for 'eat'. A few minutes later, she got bored and decided to go play with her toys. I was pretty impressed though. I think she understands waaaaay more than I know.
I am impressed that you made it to the end of a really long and really disorganized post. I'm not even going to reread it to make sure it sounds right. I just wanted to get this typed before Christmas. Time for bed!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Santa
Well Elise went with John to visit Santa today at Avery Ranch. She was not impressed at all and tried to escape.
She and John also had a little photo shoot outside before they met Santa. This was the first time I have used my new camera outside, and I think the photo quality is excellent. Unfortunately, Elise didn't think that was worthy of looking at the camera. Oh well :)
"Mom, how can I possibly look at the camera when there are all these leaves to eat??"
Leaves are so yummy...
"Pick me up, Mimi!"
John obliged and looked right at me for a few pictures.
They look like twins here!
Playing with mommy outside... AFTER the whole Santa incident.
She and John also had a little photo shoot outside before they met Santa. This was the first time I have used my new camera outside, and I think the photo quality is excellent. Unfortunately, Elise didn't think that was worthy of looking at the camera. Oh well :)
"Mom, how can I possibly look at the camera when there are all these leaves to eat??"
Leaves are so yummy...
"Pick me up, Mimi!"
John obliged and looked right at me for a few pictures.
They look like twins here!
Playing with mommy outside... AFTER the whole Santa incident.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Yes, I know I'm cute
I think she will wear this outfit for her Valentine date with John... I just bought it and the onesie sleeves fit perfectly. Most of the 18-24 month tops are a little long in the sleeves, but these fit great. She's also into size 5 shoes. These silver shoes were passed along from Brooke, and I just bought her some size 5 Stride Rite brown shoes at Marshalls for $16 (they are originally $40-50!). Hopefully they will last for a few months!
Go to Old Navy...
They have coupons at the store for 20% off the purchase of gift cards from December 18-24. Old Navy gift cards can also be used at Gap. I buy almost all of Elise's clothes at BabyGap and I have found that the quality is better than the other brands of clothes that she has worn. Of course, I also wait for the clothes to go on sale (and then get marked down again...). Happy shopping!
Friday, December 18, 2009
All over the place
Elise loves to explore the house. She can identify so many things if I say the word... like "crib", "table", "stocking", etc. She tries to repeat a lot of the words, but it comes out pretty garbled. Today she tried to say "stocking" and "Elise"... it was pretty funny. I can ask her where something is and she'll point to it or crawl to it or pick it up. She has been saying "hi" or "iiiiii" more (while waving to me or Boss) and "buh" for "book" quite often. She has taken 3 steps a few times, but she can't stand alone well so she just drops to her knees. She has started to push her walker with just one hand. If I ask her to "dance" she will bounce up and down, and if I ask her to "rock" she will sway back and forth (or push the glider, depending on which room she is in).
Her 5th tooth FINALLY popped through today. She was a little cranky last night and this explains it. It has looked very close for at least a month. She's about 95% back to normal from all of the sickness and is finally back to sleeping 12 hours straight without waking up. I had to do a little "sleep training" to make that happen. Previously when we would hit a growth spurt, teething, etc, she would revert right back to normal when it was all over. So much has happened in the last month and a half with developmental milestones, teething, two rounds of being sick AND two growth spurts that I had to do a little "intervention" of my own. She is still napping well with no sign of decreasing her amount of sleep. She usually wakes between 8 and 8:30, takes her first nap at 10, her second nap at 2, and goes to sleep around 8. We went back to nursing 5 times a day since she was adding a 5th one at night when I tried to drop it to 4. I decided to just continue this until she is a year old and then offer her milk to replace one or two of the nursing sessions.
I am working on editing a video that shows some funny stuff. In the meantime, here are some pictures from today.
These chairs were pushed under the table before she got to them... she actually holds the back of a chair and walks backwards. It makes me really nervous, so I stand right behind her.
She loves to play with the laundry when I am folding piles or putting it in the washer.
She also loves the bathroom. I try to remember to keep the door closed. I regret my decision to add knobs to these cabinets a few years ago. I think she has learned "open" and "close" from them though!
She still loves to play with Boss and giggles hysterically when she tries to chase him. He is such a tease. He will stop and wait for her to get close and then take off again.
He jumped off the couch and she had to follow...
Her 5th tooth FINALLY popped through today. She was a little cranky last night and this explains it. It has looked very close for at least a month. She's about 95% back to normal from all of the sickness and is finally back to sleeping 12 hours straight without waking up. I had to do a little "sleep training" to make that happen. Previously when we would hit a growth spurt, teething, etc, she would revert right back to normal when it was all over. So much has happened in the last month and a half with developmental milestones, teething, two rounds of being sick AND two growth spurts that I had to do a little "intervention" of my own. She is still napping well with no sign of decreasing her amount of sleep. She usually wakes between 8 and 8:30, takes her first nap at 10, her second nap at 2, and goes to sleep around 8. We went back to nursing 5 times a day since she was adding a 5th one at night when I tried to drop it to 4. I decided to just continue this until she is a year old and then offer her milk to replace one or two of the nursing sessions.
I am working on editing a video that shows some funny stuff. In the meantime, here are some pictures from today.
These chairs were pushed under the table before she got to them... she actually holds the back of a chair and walks backwards. It makes me really nervous, so I stand right behind her.
She loves to play with the laundry when I am folding piles or putting it in the washer.
She also loves the bathroom. I try to remember to keep the door closed. I regret my decision to add knobs to these cabinets a few years ago. I think she has learned "open" and "close" from them though!
She still loves to play with Boss and giggles hysterically when she tries to chase him. He is such a tease. He will stop and wait for her to get close and then take off again.
He jumped off the couch and she had to follow...
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