This is what she looks like when she said "please".
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
15 months
We celebrated Elise's 15 month birthday by heading to Waco with Sarah and John. The kids played at Books a Million while I did a little shopping next door at Ann Taylor Loft. Then we all went to lunch at Panera and headed to the Children's Museum. E and J had a fabulous time in all of the "discovery" rooms. I am amazed that they both lasted so long without needing a nap. We didn't head home until 4:30 and Elise was asleep in the car before I even got on I35. What a fun day! One of the interesting exhibits involved seeing an overweight mom who was feeding her (crawling) baby french fries and fruit loops. How sad! I actually got this on video, haha. I have several fun videos from today but I can't figure out how to get them from my phone to the computer.
Here are a few things I want to remember about Elise at 15 months. This will hopefully be the last post that Mike sees before he gets on a plane, so I want him to know what he's coming home to :)
Elise is a VERY busy girl. She's still only awake for 9ish hours during the day but when she's awake, she is like the Energizer bunny. She loves to play outside, go to the park, go to the store, play with her friends, play with her toys, etc. She still loves the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Home and I think that will be a hit for months to come. She likes ride-on toys and pull toys.
She just cut her third molar and has 11 teeth. The molars have bothered her more than her other teeth and she was teething off and on this month. She is a fussy eater when she is teething. Thankfully, she still slept very well, even during the worst teething days. I tried for a week to get her to take one long nap instead of two, but she is not ready to drop her morning nap yet. She usually wakes up around 8. I let her play in her crib for 15-20 minutes before I get her up. This gives me time to shower if we are heading somewhere in the morning. We are in the weaning process right now and have only nursed in the morning for the past week. Then she usually has some water and fruit and Cheerios or a package of Sprout baby food for breakfast. She goes down for her first nap between 10:30 and 11 and sleeps for about 1.5 hours. Then we have lunch and drink milk. She has been starting her afternoon nap around 3/3:30 and we have a snack before or after the nap. She wakes up around 4:30/5 and we eat dinner and play until 7:30 when we take a bath. She's in bed by 8.
She's very talkative and gets really excited when she sees things that she knows. She is very proud of herself when she is understood. Some new words in the past two days include horse, neigh, fish, nose, and eye. I think she says 75ish total. Her vocabulary is growing exponentially! By no means is her pronunciation perfect... I am quite sure that many of her words are only understood by her mama. Sometimes even I have to use my context clues (usually a frantic point, haha) to figure out what she is saying.
She has started telling me "no". Today it happened once while I was trying to feed her mashed bananas, once when I told her "let's change your diaper!" and once when I was trying to put her clothes on. "No no no no no!".
Sometimes she points at herself in the car mirror and says "lise!" She is still a happy car traveler but I will probably turn her car seat around soon so that she can face the air vents. Today she got really sweaty in the car on the drive to/from Waco.
She loves to make animal sounds for cow, horse, dog, lion, sheep, etc. She has figured out that she might get to stay up for a minute or two past nap time or bed time if she says something cute. Today I walked into her room to put her to bed and she started pointing to her stuffed animals and telling me the name and the sound. Yesterday she started pointing to parts of my face and telling me what they were. She's figured out how to say a whimpery "pleeeeeeeeease!" that is just heartbreaking!
She gets really excited when I ask her if she wants to go to the park. She usually makes a beeline for the swings, then turns back and smiles at me and says "please! please! please!".
She is very affectionate and loves giving me hugs and kisses and laying her head on my shoulder or chest. Her favorite things are mama, dogs, balls, balloons, certain books, moving vehicles ("go go go go go!"), John, and saying "please". She loves her grandparents and has gotten to spend a lot of time with them this month (which is wonderful for all of us!). She likes to put on her socks, my shoes, sunglasses, and hats, though hats are usually the only thing that she can put on correctly.
What a blessing she has been throughout this deployment. Thank you Lord for keeping us all safe and healthy this year and for being faithful to reunite us very soon!
Here are a few things I want to remember about Elise at 15 months. This will hopefully be the last post that Mike sees before he gets on a plane, so I want him to know what he's coming home to :)
Elise is a VERY busy girl. She's still only awake for 9ish hours during the day but when she's awake, she is like the Energizer bunny. She loves to play outside, go to the park, go to the store, play with her friends, play with her toys, etc. She still loves the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Home and I think that will be a hit for months to come. She likes ride-on toys and pull toys.
She just cut her third molar and has 11 teeth. The molars have bothered her more than her other teeth and she was teething off and on this month. She is a fussy eater when she is teething. Thankfully, she still slept very well, even during the worst teething days. I tried for a week to get her to take one long nap instead of two, but she is not ready to drop her morning nap yet. She usually wakes up around 8. I let her play in her crib for 15-20 minutes before I get her up. This gives me time to shower if we are heading somewhere in the morning. We are in the weaning process right now and have only nursed in the morning for the past week. Then she usually has some water and fruit and Cheerios or a package of Sprout baby food for breakfast. She goes down for her first nap between 10:30 and 11 and sleeps for about 1.5 hours. Then we have lunch and drink milk. She has been starting her afternoon nap around 3/3:30 and we have a snack before or after the nap. She wakes up around 4:30/5 and we eat dinner and play until 7:30 when we take a bath. She's in bed by 8.
She's very talkative and gets really excited when she sees things that she knows. She is very proud of herself when she is understood. Some new words in the past two days include horse, neigh, fish, nose, and eye. I think she says 75ish total. Her vocabulary is growing exponentially! By no means is her pronunciation perfect... I am quite sure that many of her words are only understood by her mama. Sometimes even I have to use my context clues (usually a frantic point, haha) to figure out what she is saying.
She has started telling me "no". Today it happened once while I was trying to feed her mashed bananas, once when I told her "let's change your diaper!" and once when I was trying to put her clothes on. "No no no no no!".
Sometimes she points at herself in the car mirror and says "lise!" She is still a happy car traveler but I will probably turn her car seat around soon so that she can face the air vents. Today she got really sweaty in the car on the drive to/from Waco.
She loves to make animal sounds for cow, horse, dog, lion, sheep, etc. She has figured out that she might get to stay up for a minute or two past nap time or bed time if she says something cute. Today I walked into her room to put her to bed and she started pointing to her stuffed animals and telling me the name and the sound. Yesterday she started pointing to parts of my face and telling me what they were. She's figured out how to say a whimpery "pleeeeeeeeease!" that is just heartbreaking!
She gets really excited when I ask her if she wants to go to the park. She usually makes a beeline for the swings, then turns back and smiles at me and says "please! please! please!".
She is very affectionate and loves giving me hugs and kisses and laying her head on my shoulder or chest. Her favorite things are mama, dogs, balls, balloons, certain books, moving vehicles ("go go go go go!"), John, and saying "please". She loves her grandparents and has gotten to spend a lot of time with them this month (which is wonderful for all of us!). She likes to put on her socks, my shoes, sunglasses, and hats, though hats are usually the only thing that she can put on correctly.
What a blessing she has been throughout this deployment. Thank you Lord for keeping us all safe and healthy this year and for being faithful to reunite us very soon!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Video
I'm going to be uploading one recent video a day until Mike gets on a plane to come home. Thankfully, he has internet access. Please pray that the flight situation gets resolved and that the soldiers stay healthy since they are living in such close quarters while they are in transit (on cots in a big tent). Without further adieu, here is recent video #1!
Shoes and Circles from Stephanie Powell on Vimeo.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Baby girl clothes
Mike's flight home has been delayed until Monday night at the earliest. There has not been a reasonable explanation given for this round of delays. Hopefully we'll hear some good information soon. In the meantime, I am doing some spring cleaning.
I must admit that I love, love, love buying clothes for Elise. It will be a sad day when she wants to pick out her own clothes to buy, haha. As a result of this, the deployment, and my 90th percentile daughter, I have some clothes that I bought last summer (for this summer) that are brand new and don't fit. I was going to just post this on craigslist but I decided to go ahead and blog about it in case any of you are interested.
I buy almost all of Elise's clothes at babyGap, so I don't know how to compare them to other brands. If you haven't discovered Gap's adjustable waist skirts, shorts, and pants, you must go there! She has all 3T and 4T skirts and shorts and I am positive that they will also fit her next year. Anyway, Elise has a long torso and is still pretty "thick" all over. She can fit in some 18-24 month dresses but has mostly moved into size 2 for dresses and tops. I'm not sure of her height and weight. I think she is probably close to 26 lbs and 32 inches.
I digress. Here are a few things that I am going to sell. Aside from the aqua dress, I'm guessing that I paid around 50% of the original price on these things and I'm not trying to make money on them.
Left: Aqua babyGap dress size 2 years, $15 (I bought this dress 2 months ago and Elise wore it once for pictures. Sadly, it is too small in the chest but I love it so much that I ordered a size 3 when it went on sale. It is a little wrinkled in this picture from hanging to dry. The color is gorgeous on her fair skin and the detail is really pretty.)
Right: Brown babyGap dress size 18-24 months (brand new with tags), $15. Elise wore this last summer in the 6-12 month size and I loved it so much that I bought it in a bigger size for this year. It buttons up the back. It is too tight in the chest.
Left: Brown flowered babyGap top size 18-24 months, $10 (brand new with tags). It is stretchy through the chest but is almost too short for Elise. She also wore this shirt in the 6-12 month size last summer and it is really cute.
Right: Brown embroidered strappy tank top (brand new with tags), $10. The flower detail is embroidered along the bottom and the colors are really pretty. This is also almost too short for Elise.
Old Navy 18-24 months printed dress, $7. Sorry, I decided after this picture was taken that I'm going to keep the hat. It matches the color of that aqua dress perfectly and Elise has a few other things that will match it. I bought this dress from a friend whose daughter had outgrown it. Unfortunately, it is too small for Elise in the chest. I was really looking forward to her being able to wear it. The colors are gorgeous in person!
Just let me know if you are interested in any of these. I'll probably post them on craigslist on on Thursday or Friday.
I must admit that I love, love, love buying clothes for Elise. It will be a sad day when she wants to pick out her own clothes to buy, haha. As a result of this, the deployment, and my 90th percentile daughter, I have some clothes that I bought last summer (for this summer) that are brand new and don't fit. I was going to just post this on craigslist but I decided to go ahead and blog about it in case any of you are interested.
I buy almost all of Elise's clothes at babyGap, so I don't know how to compare them to other brands. If you haven't discovered Gap's adjustable waist skirts, shorts, and pants, you must go there! She has all 3T and 4T skirts and shorts and I am positive that they will also fit her next year. Anyway, Elise has a long torso and is still pretty "thick" all over. She can fit in some 18-24 month dresses but has mostly moved into size 2 for dresses and tops. I'm not sure of her height and weight. I think she is probably close to 26 lbs and 32 inches.
I digress. Here are a few things that I am going to sell. Aside from the aqua dress, I'm guessing that I paid around 50% of the original price on these things and I'm not trying to make money on them.
Left: Aqua babyGap dress size 2 years, $15 (I bought this dress 2 months ago and Elise wore it once for pictures. Sadly, it is too small in the chest but I love it so much that I ordered a size 3 when it went on sale. It is a little wrinkled in this picture from hanging to dry. The color is gorgeous on her fair skin and the detail is really pretty.)
Right: Brown babyGap dress size 18-24 months (brand new with tags), $15. Elise wore this last summer in the 6-12 month size and I loved it so much that I bought it in a bigger size for this year. It buttons up the back. It is too tight in the chest.
Left: Brown flowered babyGap top size 18-24 months, $10 (brand new with tags). It is stretchy through the chest but is almost too short for Elise. She also wore this shirt in the 6-12 month size last summer and it is really cute.
Right: Brown embroidered strappy tank top (brand new with tags), $10. The flower detail is embroidered along the bottom and the colors are really pretty. This is also almost too short for Elise.
Old Navy 18-24 months printed dress, $7. Sorry, I decided after this picture was taken that I'm going to keep the hat. It matches the color of that aqua dress perfectly and Elise has a few other things that will match it. I bought this dress from a friend whose daughter had outgrown it. Unfortunately, it is too small for Elise in the chest. I was really looking forward to her being able to wear it. The colors are gorgeous in person!
Just let me know if you are interested in any of these. I'll probably post them on craigslist on on Thursday or Friday.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Recent things
Elise and I have stayed busy during the last few weeks! We spent Easter in Austin with both sets of families. We planned an Easter Egg Hunt with Elise's Killeen playdate friends but it was rained out, so we'll be doing that in the near future. I haven't taken many Easter pictures yet. Oh well! Here is her Easter dress.
She also got new sneakers for the playing outside at the park. They are Stride Rite size 6 and she loves to climb in them. Here are her new sneakers and her new fake smile.
The day after Easter, Elise got her first haircut. I decided to get her hair trimmed across the back and in the front so that it wouldn't look as scraggly for her flower girl debut next month. She did great!
The weekend after Easter, we took a trip to Cedar Creek Lake to have a girls' weekend with two wonderful college friends, Cass and Staci. We had a great time catching up and celebrating 28 years of Cass! Elise loved the lake and the boat ride (but she wasn't crazy about wearing a life vest, haha). She was teething big time during this trip and was cranky a lot, but thankfully she slept well. I think Cass and Staci will meet us there again sometime :)
The next week, we took our first trip to the Cameron Park zoo. We met up with a bunch of our friends from church and had a super time! Elise especially loved the "rahf" (giraffe).
Nikki and Evie (Evie is about 6 weeks older than Elise... they have so much fun together!)
We also had an indoor playdate last Friday to replace our scheduled Easter Egg Hunt. Here are Evie, Elise, John, and Lillian. It is impossible to get them all to look at the camera at once!
Mike's flight home has been delayed due to the volcanic activity in Iceland. He was supposed to arrive in less than 12 hours from now, but it will be a minimum of several more days before he is here. What a bummer! The frustration level we are experiencing is on par with that of an overdue baby. I hope he isn't 6 days late like Elise! I keep telling God that we don't need a grand, fashionably late entrance... just an entrance :) We love you, Mike, and we can't wait to be a family again!
Elise will be 15 months old on Friday! I can't believe it. Here is a quick summary of our baby girl at this age. I'll do a more detailed post later on.
Elise is quite the chatterbox. I was keeping track of her words until about 2 weeks ago when we reached 50! It is just crazy how her vocabulary has exploded. Some fun new words include "circle" (gurgle), "shoes" (suuuuze), and "elise" (liise), which sounds similar to please, keys, peas, and cheese. She points to herself when I ask "Where's Elise?" and loves to tell me the names of the foods that she is eating. I always ask her "What do you see?" and "What's that?" and she usually has a verbal answer for me. Whenever she sees a moving vehicle she says "go go go!". She loves to play with her grandparents and friends. Going outside is the highlight of her day! She gets really excited when I ask her if she wants to go to the park. We often see "birhs", "gogs", "gats", "gees", "gicks", and "eafs" along the way. When we get to the park, she will "run" over to the swings and say "please!" and turn back and smile at me. She has two molars and is working on 2 more. They have bothered her off and on for the last few weeks. Thankfully, she is still sleeping from 8-8 at night, even in a pack and play. I tried for a week to get her to take one long nap a day, but she can't make it until after lunch without being cranky and then is cranky for at least an hour before bedtime. She's not ready to drop her morning nap yet. Oh well, for now I will enjoy two breaks during the day :) The girl never stops going when she is awake! We are looking forward to many more pictures like these:
We can't forget about our first child. Boss is also anxious to see his daddy!
She also got new sneakers for the playing outside at the park. They are Stride Rite size 6 and she loves to climb in them. Here are her new sneakers and her new fake smile.
The day after Easter, Elise got her first haircut. I decided to get her hair trimmed across the back and in the front so that it wouldn't look as scraggly for her flower girl debut next month. She did great!
Before:
After:
The weekend after Easter, we took a trip to Cedar Creek Lake to have a girls' weekend with two wonderful college friends, Cass and Staci. We had a great time catching up and celebrating 28 years of Cass! Elise loved the lake and the boat ride (but she wasn't crazy about wearing a life vest, haha). She was teething big time during this trip and was cranky a lot, but thankfully she slept well. I think Cass and Staci will meet us there again sometime :)
Elise walking down the hill to the lake. I love her new spring/summer clothes! 
On the way to the lake, we were able to stop and visit Lindsay, eat Pei Wei, and see Lindsay and Scott's new house!
The next week, we took our first trip to the Cameron Park zoo. We met up with a bunch of our friends from church and had a super time! Elise especially loved the "rahf" (giraffe).
All the kids...
Elise is in the third stroller from the left
Girls and giraffes
Nikki and Evie (Evie is about 6 weeks older than Elise... they have so much fun together!)
I took this picture right after we asked "Where's the giraffe?"
Elise and Evie
Happy girl who wouldn't look at the camera
We also had an indoor playdate last Friday to replace our scheduled Easter Egg Hunt. Here are Evie, Elise, John, and Lillian. It is impossible to get them all to look at the camera at once!
Playing with toys this afternoon (in her birthday dress from Jelby's!)
Mike's flight home has been delayed due to the volcanic activity in Iceland. He was supposed to arrive in less than 12 hours from now, but it will be a minimum of several more days before he is here. What a bummer! The frustration level we are experiencing is on par with that of an overdue baby. I hope he isn't 6 days late like Elise! I keep telling God that we don't need a grand, fashionably late entrance... just an entrance :) We love you, Mike, and we can't wait to be a family again!
Elise will be 15 months old on Friday! I can't believe it. Here is a quick summary of our baby girl at this age. I'll do a more detailed post later on.
Elise is quite the chatterbox. I was keeping track of her words until about 2 weeks ago when we reached 50! It is just crazy how her vocabulary has exploded. Some fun new words include "circle" (gurgle), "shoes" (suuuuze), and "elise" (liise), which sounds similar to please, keys, peas, and cheese. She points to herself when I ask "Where's Elise?" and loves to tell me the names of the foods that she is eating. I always ask her "What do you see?" and "What's that?" and she usually has a verbal answer for me. Whenever she sees a moving vehicle she says "go go go!". She loves to play with her grandparents and friends. Going outside is the highlight of her day! She gets really excited when I ask her if she wants to go to the park. We often see "birhs", "gogs", "gats", "gees", "gicks", and "eafs" along the way. When we get to the park, she will "run" over to the swings and say "please!" and turn back and smile at me. She has two molars and is working on 2 more. They have bothered her off and on for the last few weeks. Thankfully, she is still sleeping from 8-8 at night, even in a pack and play. I tried for a week to get her to take one long nap a day, but she can't make it until after lunch without being cranky and then is cranky for at least an hour before bedtime. She's not ready to drop her morning nap yet. Oh well, for now I will enjoy two breaks during the day :) The girl never stops going when she is awake! We are looking forward to many more pictures like these:
We can't forget about our first child. Boss is also anxious to see his daddy!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Uh oh and please
Elise started doing a really cute thing earlier this week. When she wants something, she says "pee!" and does the please sign (she moves her hand over her heart). Most of the time, I don't even prompt her to do this. She just knows when the appropriate moment arises, which is usually when she wants something to eat or drink, wants me to open a door, wants me to help her up so that she can sit on a chair or couch, or sees something else that she wants but can't reach. This definitely happens in the grocery store when she sees a ball, balloon, bananas, stuffed animal, etc. I have been known to say "that's Walmart's ball" or "that balloon is for HEB" and she accepts it and moves on with life. She understands her boundaries very well and doesn't make a fuss about it. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the future. She even walks up to the refrigerator and says please when she is hungry. I haven't been good about taking videos lately since Mike can't download them and I can't mail him anything (because he is coming home soon, yay!) but I did take one today. I inadvertently captured a "discipline" moment and a please moment all in the same video! The "uh oh" comes from Love and Logic for Early Childhood.
Uh oh and please from Stephanie Powell on Vimeo.
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