We recently returned from a wonderful vacation to Lake Tahoe with our friends Mark and Ali. Elise spent 5 days with her grandparents! She is a lucky girl. Gram and Grandpa kept her for the first half of our vacation and then traded with Mimi and Pop.
You know you're in for trouble when the first thing Mimi says upon picking you up at the airport is "don't forget that your pastor said that my job is to spoil my granddaughter" (true story from the Mother's Day/baby dedication service at TBC). You reply with a nervous laugh and wonder what is in store for you when you get back home and try to regain your routine. When we got back home, Elise was a little... shall we say... "different". Here is a funny story to illustrate my point.
We now have a small child who asks for your hand in a way that clearly indicates her request has never been denied. She takes your hand and walks you to wherever she wants you to go. If there are two adults available, she'll gladly ask for both of your hands and travel as a group across the room so that you both can watch up close as she plays with her toys. If you decline the request, she simply repeats her command, not having experienced rejection from anyone over the last five days.
Her first real annoyance came when she reunited with Boss, and he clearly didn't have any desire to appease her. Happily perched atop the couch in his usual spot just out of Elise's reach, he was content to doze quietly. Elise decided he should come watch her play with her house across the room, and began ordering him, "Boss, down here!" Repeating her order several times, the tone and pointing became somewhat frantic before Mike intervened. Mike picked Boss up and put him on the floor to see what she had in mind next. She then said, "Boss, move house!" to instruct him to move over to the house. He was just as happy lying on the floor as he was on the couch and was content to stay put. Boss was clearly amused at Elise's notion that she could move him without his consent. She wrapped her arms around his waist and attempted to drag him across the floor, but Boss never budged. Mike asked Elise what she wanted, and she sadly exclaimed, "Boss, move house!" Mike walked over to the house and signaled Boss to join him, and Boss happily trotted over to the house and stretched out on the floor. Elise was overjoyed and resumed playing with her house...by herself, but now with an audience.
Thankfully, it only took 5 days for her to return to her normal pre-grandparent-vacation self. Thank you to Gram, Grandpa, Mimi, and Pop for making our childless vacation a reality!
Here are some pictures of our unspoiled angel taken by the future Mrs. Michelle Boyd! Elise says "Tank you, Eyell!" Stay tuned for some pictures from our Lake Tahoe and Sea World trips!
I have so much to blog about that I am finding it hard to actually sit down and write one post. I've been working on this post for at least a week! Elise says and does so many funny things every day. 18 months is a really fun age for us.
Physical facts: Her last two incisors came in earlier this month, so she now has 16 teeth. She wears size 2 shirts, size 2 or 3 dresses, and size 3 or 4 shorts/skirts (I bought big and use the adjustable waist thing. It is awesome!). She has officially outgrown all things 18-24 months. There are a few wide dresses that she can still wear with leggings or jeans underneath. She is about 27 lbs and between 33.5 and 34 inches tall (it is hard to measure her!) and is already bigger than her mommy was at age 2! It looks like she stayed in the 75th percentile for weight and the 95th percentile for height.
Verbal changes: Elise is a BIG talker. Last week, my mom and I sat down with the laptop and counted up the words that she says on her own (without being asked to repeat something... if I counted that, there's no way I could even make a list!). We stopped counting at 500 words and over the last few days, I keep thinking of many others that are not on that list. She says well over 500 words, including 26 letters, 6 numbers, and many animal sounds. I am going to print out the list for her baby book. More and more of her conversation is made up of phrases or short sentences. She likes to add adjectives or verbs in front of nouns to more effectively communicate. She is a little parrot and will repeat anything you ask her to say. She is getting much more accurate with her colors but is still only 100% with the color blue. She also identifies green, yellow, orange, red (this is her weakest color), white, pink, and purple with about a 75% accuracy. She is most accurate with her colors if she initiates the color description. She likes to distinguish things by their colors, size (big, little, or heavy), owner, or temperature (hot or cold) by saying "orange ball", "purple mail", blue W, yellow 1, heavy purse, big truck, hot stroller, Eeese shoes, etc. She knows the numbers 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 0. She still thinks that 5 is the same as S and proudly pointed out the S candle on her grandpa's recent birthday cake, haha. She will forever think that 9 and 6 are the same thing. If you ask her to count, she says "one two!" or "one two three!". I can't think of any words that she should know that she doesn't already use and she daily surprises us by using a word that we didn't already know that she knew. Today it was "juggle". Most of the time, I have to prompt her to say "thank you" or to add "please!" to the end of a request, like "strawberries, please!". If she really wants something, she will definitely add it on her own, like when we had Chick Fil A for dinner last week (only her second time to try it, yum!). "More Gicken! Gicken, please!" We think it is funny that whenever she runs into something or otherwise "hurts" herself, she immediately names the affected body part and often wants a kiss to make it all better. In summary, she says a ton of words and can accurately say up to 4 syllables (either one word or several words combined).
Here is a video of her with her letters (I was grabbing random handfuls off the fridge but after the third one, she got bored).
She has an amazing memory. This month, she really started getting bothered by missing things. If one of her shapes goes AWOL, she will carry the others around while saying "square, square, square?" or "purple mail, purple mail?" until we can find it. If you can't find it, you are stuck hearing the word over and over and over again until it turns up. This goes for anything that is part of a set (her groceries, mail, balls, shapes, etc). Last week, I got out a new package of wipes. This just so happened to be the same package that Sarah brought for John when they came to visit last month. Elise stared at the wipes and immediately said "John John? John John wipes?" I was absolutely shocked that she recognized the wipes from the time she saw them one month ago and then associated it with the rightful owner. She has about 20 people that she asks for on a regular basis, even if she hasn't seen them in a while. It is really funny to watch her brain move from one thought to another in a logical sequence. People and places generally go together, along with things that she likes to do with those people or in those places. At the end of dinner, she pointed to her bib, which was hanging a few feet away, and said "bib! on! (short pause) no no no!" (She saw the bib, knew that you put a bib "on", but immediately wanted to make it clear that she did NOT want to put her bib on).
Here is a video of her "memorization" of the Five Little Monkeys book. This is actually very representative of Elise at this age. In summary, Me: "Five little monkeys jumped on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head..." Elise: "Mama call doctor!" Me: "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said..." Elise: "No more monkeys!" She will repeat it verse after verse! Haha. The funny thing is, this isn't even a "regular" book for her to read. She also tries to repeat part of the alphabet song.
For the record, the orange mentioned in the video was indeed in the car... haha.
Other funny "conversations" from this month...
Elise: (squatting) "Toot. Pee Pee. Poop." Me: "Sweetie, do you need a new diaper?" Elise: "New diaper?" Me: "Yes ma'am!" Elise: "No ma'am! no no no!"
Me: "Love you!" Elise: "Love you mama! Hug!" (moves in for the hug... so sweet!)
Elise: (garage door opens) "Daddy home!" (runs halfway to Mike and then back to the living room) "Daddy get you!" Mike: "I'm going to get you!" Elise: (falls on floor giggling hysterically) This happens nearly every day around 6 pm.
Me: "Elise, do you want to go to the library?" Elise: (running to the door with her purse) "Eeeese go wibarry! Eeese go wibarry!"
She loves to play with Boss and point out his body parts. She says "hey Boss!" whenever she sees him. Thankfully, he is a pretty good sport.
One morning a few weeks ago I took her to run errands while Mike was still sleeping (since he was flying that night) and I told her to "whisper because Daddy is sleeping" when we walked past our bedroom to go out the garage door. When we got into the garage, she said "bye daddy sleeping!". She has a book that has the baby animal and daddy animal on each page. She will open the book and say "tiger! big tiger! little tiger!" (or the appropriate animal on the page)
"I pooped! New diaper!"
(holds up her purse) "Eeeese purse." (holds up my purse) "Mama purse. Heavy."
When the toaster beeps, she says "waffle done!"
One afternoon, I was working in the kitchen and she started handing me all of the colored balls that belong with her house. She started saying "guggle!" and it took me asking "what?" a few times before I realized that she wanted me to juggle for her. This was the first time I heard her say that word. Mike occasionally juggles for her and she loves it. The next thing I knew, she ran into the living room, sat down in the middle of the floor and said "in here! in here!". Thankfully, she was impressed with my juggling attempt even though I can only do 2 balls at a time.
I would have expected her to hate being confined in a stroller at 18 months old, but she actually LOVES it. It is the strangest thing, but hopefully it will last for a long, long time. We went to Pottery Barn Kids last week and I took her out of the stroller so that she could try on a back pack. Instead of wanting to run all over the store and explore, she asked to get back in her "roller".
She likes to ask for hugs and gives hugs and kisses. For some reason, this happens most frequently when she is sitting in the high chair and I am working in the kitchen. She always wants a "hug".
She asks for your "hand" so she can take you somewhere. She usually says "hand. walk."
Behavior: Since Elise is such a strong communicator, we never have the "I can't communicate what I want" fits. She can tell me (in words) exactly what she wants. Rather, we occasionally have the "I told mom what I want and she said no or she won't let me have it RIGHT NOW" fits. Fortunately, for the most part, she accepts the "we'll have _____ later" or "we'll do ____ later" answers and sometimes we can still distract her by asking her questions about other things. It took about a week to get her to accept the fact that she isn't allowed to stand on the couch. She typically doesn't get into things that she isn't supposed to. Several times a week, she starts throwing food from her high chair when she doesn't want it anymore. The other day, she was happily eating her turkey and cheese when she saw the cucumber. This is one of her newest favorite foods. She finished the cheese and left some turkey on her tray. I gave her several pieces of cucumber to eat, and she was enjoying them immensely. At some point, she thought that the turkey would be better if it was on the floor. I immediately removed her tray (which still had some cucumber on it), and in her most pathetic voice, she wailed "cuuuuucumber! cuuuucumber!" like the world was coming to an end. Mike and I both couldn't stop from laughing.
Her eating habits are still about the same as they have been for the last several months. I bet that 98% of her diet is composed of the same 30 foods. She eats lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, cheese, and meat. I usually let her have a bread or grain (like cereal) for part of her breakfast or for a snack later in the day. She can name all of the foods that she eats, even cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, and guacamole. If she decides she is finished eating her vegetables, we can usually bribe her with fruit until she has eaten it all. She is still not really interested in eating with a fork or spoon. She prefers to pick things up with her hands. Occasionally she will try it, but gets frustrated when she can't shovel the food in as fast. I figure, as long as she is eating what I want her to eat, the spoon and fork isn't a huge deal. She won't go to kindergarten still eating with her hands, and her fine motor skills are obviously improving in other tasks so I am not too worried.
Sleeping habits: Her sleeping habits have also been pretty constant over the last few months. I can't remember the last time she woke up in the middle of the night. She goes to bed between 7-7:15 and usually wakes up between 7:45-8. She averages about 12 hours and 45 minutes of nighttime sleep. Not bad! This might explain how she has a boatload of energy throughout the day. She takes her nap right after lunch (between 12-12:15) and typically sleeps until 2ish, sometimes later. She totals between 14.5 and 15 hours of sleep each day.
Playing habits: Elise loves to play with her toys and loves to go outside. Unfortunately, it is July, so if we want to go to the park, it has to be right after she wakes up or right before she goes to bed. Even still, we still end up sweaty. Hopefully October will hurry up and get here! Elise is allowed to have one toy out of her toy closet at any given time. When she is ready for a new toy, she says "new toy!" and walks to the toy closet. About half the time, she carries the old toy to the closet to make the trade. She loves to read books, and reading books really makes us realize how many words she knows. She doesn't really want you to read the book to her, she just wants to point out the names of everything on each page of the book before turning to the next page. She also likes for me to move her big toys from room to room. For example, she'll go up to her rocking chair and say "rocker! move! living room!". She still likes playing with her magnetic letters and numbers. She carries her little Vera Bradley purse around all the time (with her cell phone inside, of course). She loves to play with people just as much as she loves to play with toys. She also likes Duplos and her Haba animal blocks. She has learned how to stack the parts of the animals together to make a pig, alligator, monkey, and lion. I will have to take a video of this. She especially likes playing with people. Her favorite "games" are "____ get you!" (insert the name of the person who is instructed to chase her) and "hide" (where she hides under a blanket or couch pillow.
Potty habits: She has started asking for a "new diaper" after she poops (about half the time). Sometimes, she even says "poop" a few minutes before she actually does it. I think that is probably the first step to potty training. I am hoping that we can start doing that in a few months so that she's trained by age 2. We shall see. She often says "pee pee" when she pees in her diaper.
I will leave you with some recent pictures. You'll notice that she finally leaves a bow in her hair. :)
A future mathematician (haha)
Pretty mullet
Eating oranges (new favorite snack)
Boss just took my fruit snack! (her "reward" for letting me cut her nails... that is the only time she gets to have one)
Congratulations to my brother (and faithful blog reader) and his new fiancee! We are so thrilled to officially welcome Michelle into the family. Aren't they precious?
Happy birthday to my dear friend Sarah and happy 18 month birthday to John John! We miss you guys and hope that you are having fun in "Cago"!
Stay tuned... 17.5 month post is coming soon (with videos)!
Elise says short phrases, including "here you go", "daddy go?" (where did daddy go?), and "boss go?". Here's a video of her playing "daddy go" with Mike. At the end of the video, she records a short video message for her boyfriend John, who just moved to Chicago :( John John, don't worry... she loves you and she won't forget you!
16.5 months: Elise and the letters (this was taken about 3 weeks ago and includes some of her very favorite letters... now she knows almost all of them)
Elise is changing so quickly! She is really a joy to be around at this stage. I feel like I am actually having conversations with her. In the last few days, she has started saying "wub you!" when I say "love you!", "tank you", "help", and "yes" without being prompted. She also says "here you go!" (she usually shortens it to "gee go" but can say the full sentence) when she gives you something to hold. We hear that about 50 times a day. She also says "night" when you say goodnight. Her pronunciation continues to improve and she can say the ending on words like book, milk, work, etc. She says a lot of two syllable words very well, including "apple", "buckle", "yogurt", "chicken", and many more.
If you ask her how old she is, she'll smile and say "one!" and will usually hold up one finger. Next time you see her, say "What is your daddy's name?" and she'll happily say "Mike!" When a piece of food is really big, she'll say "big big bite!" and ask for help. She also uses the "big big" description for big trucks, big steps, and big balls, haha. The other day, I asked her where she wanted to go and out of the blue she said "Barbucks! (Starbucks) ". If she says or hears a word, she often says another word that is associated with it (like "book" and "read", "car" and "ride", "daddy" and "work/golf/lawnmower", "mimi" and "pop" and "austin", "more" and "please"). She will repeat everything with a high degree of accuracy.
She loves letters and says/identifies almost all of them. This month we are going to start working on numbers. I just ordered her some fun number magnets from amazon.com. She is still working on colors. She usually guesses blue first and red second, but occasionally she will correctly identify something that is green or yellow on the first try. For eating/sleeping info, see my last post... nothing has changed. She mostly wears size 2 clothes and size 7 shoes. She has 14 teeth.
We love our sweet girl!
Videos are coming soon... I promise! :)
Elise loves playing with the squirt bottle that we use to keep Boss in line during our walks.
She also loves playing with her magnetic letters and dancing to the alphabet song.
I have a bunch to blog about but for some reason, I've been working on this post for a over a week and it never got finished. I have so many funny videos from the last few weeks but I haven't made the time to shorten them into clips. Maybe this week. In the meantime, there are some pictures at the end of the blog for your viewing pleasure. We've enjoyed a lot of great time as a family during the past month and now we are adjusting to Mike's return to work. Elise only asks for her daddy about 100 times a day. When he was on leave and not at home, she would say "Daddy?" and I would say "Daddy's playing golf." Elise quickly learned the word "boff" and loves to answer the question "Where's Daddy?" with "Boff!". She also loves to play boff with Daddy in the living room.
Soon after my 16 month post, Elise started showing signs of wanting to drop her second nap. It only took about 2 days to establish our new schedule. Now, she goes to bed by 7:30 and wakes up between 8:15 and 8:30. I put her down for a nap around 12:30 and she sleeps until 2:30 or 3. I am surprised at how smoothly it worked out!
She is crazy about letters right now and knows about half of the alphabet. I have some videos of this that I need to post. She loves to point out letters on billboards and storefronts. Her favorites are A, B, D, E, G, I, O, Q, S, T, U, and Y. She really likes her bathtub letters and her refrigerator letters. We drove by Bed Bath and Beyond the other day and she went crazy because she saw three Bs!
I need to put in another plug for the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Home. She still loves this thing and never gets tired of playing with her "owss" (house). She says the words open/close, up/down, on/off as she is playing with it. She also uses it to point out her letters and shapes. It has shape sorters on it as well which is good for her fine motor skills. She is a shape sorting expert now and will actually look for the correct hole on her shape sorters before putting the shape in (instead of just trying to shove it in the last hole that worked). It is quite impressive!
We play with one toy at a time from her toy closet. The other day, for the first time, she took her toy up to the closet to put it back so that she could get another one. She is so funny with mimicking us. She will blow on her food to cool it down ("buffs" really need to be cooled, haha) and she whispers when we whisper.
She understands many more questions and will answer appropriately, like... What is your name? "Eeese" What is daddy doing? "Boff" (at the golf course) or "werrr" (work) or "wanmo" (if we are watching him mow the lawn, haha) Where's Mimi? "Ossss" (Austin) Who is in Austin? "Mimi" Who is playing golf? "Daddy" Who loves Elise? "Daddy" Who else? "Mimi" Who else? "Bop" (Pop) Who else? " Dondon" (John) Who else? "Mommy" Sometimes Boss makes the list too. What was that? (in response to an ultra-feminine noise) "Toot" or "whoa"
She turns electronic toys off and says "off" or turns them on and says "on". She loves the "wings" and the "wide" at the "bar" (park) and just started going down the slide all by herself. Some new words include "wanmo" (lawnmower), "pee pee", "toot", "ott" (hot, which she says when she gets in a hot car), "phone", "tights", and about a million more. She seems to have a word for everything. Any little piece of food is considered "trash" and therefore can't be eaten. She loves to give kisses/faceplants and hugs. When she wants to kiss you, she makes the "mmmm" sound and leans in. It is too cute!
The discipline is going very very well right now. She is really responding to "uh oh" and actually says it when she drops something or walks up to the "bee bee" (TV) (the buttons are a big "uh oh"). She is doing very well at understanding her limits and not freaking out about it. She got over her high chair/booster tantrums last month and actually asks to sit in her "iiiii" (high chair) or her "booooos" (booster) when she is hungry for a "nack" or a "bite". She also asks to sit in her "roller" (stroller) every time she sees one. I really hope this trend continues! Her appetite is very good but sometimes she is unwilling to try new things. Thankfully she still likes her fruits and veggies. I bet that 90% of her food comes from these:
grilled chicken baked ham black beans cheese steamed peas steamed carrots steamed broccoli steamed lima beans steamed squash baked sweet potatoes corn (corn on the cob is a huge hit!) plain yogurt with fruit mixed in bananas strawberries blueberries (she LOVES these) blackberries raspberries mango watermelon cheerios raisins grapes cantaloupe steamed apples pears bananas
Grandparents, I will try to make it a priority to upload some videos for you this week. We've got some pretty funny ones. In the meantime, here are some pictures that I took a few weeks ago while Elise was eating a snack.
Flirting with Daddy...
Roll it and roll it...
And throw it in the pan!
Here is the snack that she was so happy about... lima beans and corn.
