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.
Well Miss Elise turned 16 months old on Sunday. I started this post last weekend but just never got around to finishing it. If only blogger would upload photos faster. I also have some new videos but they will have to wait or I'll never get this posted! According to Mike, the two major changes since he got home are improved pronunciation and increased vocabulary. The girl loves to talk and is very proud of her communication skills. Some new favorite words are "cheerios" (pronounced reeerioz), "puffs" (and she knows the difference between cheerios and puffs), "tricycle" (kinda sounds like rice), "cock-a-doodle-doo" (da doo doo), "raisins" (raise), "John" (don don), "music" (meez), "rhino", "stroller" (roller), and "trash". She recently got a scrape on her leg and she calls it her "boo boo". She's starting to combine the words "more" and "please" with whatever she wants. We are amazed at the different things she remembers. When she and I went to babyGap last week, I gave her some raisins for a snack in her stroller. We went back to babyGap yesterday to return something and about 30 seconds after we got in the store she started asking for raisins. That is the only time she's ever asked me for them without seeing them first. Luckily I had about 1/2 a box in the diaper bag. She likes to hold the box with one hand and eat the raisins with the other hand. She is very careful not to drop any. She often asks for people by name, even when they aren't there (daddy, mimi, john, boss) and she is starting to ask for food that she doesn't see first. If you ask her "Would you like some ____?" she'll either giggle (yes) or say "no". If she says no, she means it. Her favorite foods include broccoli, cheese, blueberries, bananas, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and black beans. She is starting to identify "boo" and "geen" objects and her first letter is "y".She is very affectionate and likes to give hugs and kisses when she is in the mood. If you haven't watched the video of her and John, you really should. It is hilarious :)
We're still on about the same schedule but her afternoon nap is getting a little later. She wakes up between 8 and 8:30, eats breakfast, goes to the park, takes a nap from 10:30-12ish, eats lunch, plays, runs errands, has a snack, takes another nap from 3:30-5ish, plays, eats dinner, takes a bath, and goes to bed around 8. All 4 of her one year molars are in and her pointy teeth are very close. She sucks her thumb in the car and when she is tired. She is wearing mostly size 2 clothes and just got into size 7(!!!) shoes.
She loves her new water table, her learning home, books, and any toy that she hasn't seen in a while. I keep most of her toys in a closet and she can get out one at a time. She picks a different one almost every time.
I think she did very well for herself! John is quite a handsome catch :)
So sorry for the blog update delay. Mike is home (!!!) and we've gotten to spend a lot of time together these last 3 weeks. This is a really long post but there are lots of fun pictures and stories, including Elise's first flower girl experience! Here's what we've been up to...
After 368 days of deployment, Mike finally arrived home around midnight on Monday, April 26. I put Elise to bed at 8 and then got her up around 10 to get in the car to drive to the field. All of the ceremonies were held outside. She went right back to sleep in the car and stayed asleep while we sat in the car until 11:30 pm. My parents, Mike's parents, my sister-in-law and my grandfather all came up for the ceremony so they saved a spot for us on the field. I have MANY pictures that Mike's sister took for me. Here are just a few. We are so thankful to be reunited!
Elise is pointing to the horses that were part of the ceremony. She said "neigh neigh neigh" the whole time.
We also took a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo. Elise loves the animals, especially the "rahfs" and the meerkats (check out the third picture... we are thinking Boss might be part meerkat since he has perfected this pose, haha).
On Mother's Day we had the opportunity to dedicate Elise and publicly commit to raise her in a home that puts God first and teach her so that one day she will have a relationship with God and accept Jesus Christ as her Savior. What a huge responsibility! We are so thankful that God has blessed us with the gift of s precious child. Our parents came to our church to see the baby dedication ceremony and then came over to our house for fajitas. Elise wore her girliest dress :)
The moms
Our good friends "Uncle" Mark and "Aunt" Ali
Elise and her grandparents
New toothbrush (I LOOOOVE this one... it is by RazBaby)... click here for more info
She hates being dried off after her bath
On May 14, Mike's brother Ben got married to my new sister-in-law Kara! Elise was a darling flower girl. I wish I had a video of her trip down the aisle. She did amazingly well. Mike and I were both in the wedding, so my dad had the honor of starting Elise at the back of the aisle. He will be telling this story for years. After the other flower girls and the ring bearer started down the aisle, he put Elise down and told her to take her basket to mommy. She walked about 2 steps, dumped out the rose petals, and then starting "running" up the aisle. It was so cute! Once she made it to the front, she walked over to me and stood next to me for a minute and then started walking back to the center. I picked her up and passed her to my mom, who carried her off to the side and fed her raisins throughout the ceremony. I could hear her saying "more more more!" as she was eating the raisins and then saying "mama mama mama" as they walked her toward the back of the pavilion. We were very proud of her, especially since she was sick the whole day (and still has a lingering cough).
Before getting dressed
"Come look at this cool cat outside!"
She had enough of pictures and wanted to run away to explore... I couldn't keep up in my shoes so Daddy had to go get her.
First finger smash... she loved sticking her hand in a cup of ice
Pretty flower girl
She wanted to ride in the getaway car with her uncle Ben
Mr. and Mrs. Ben Powell!
Here is an example of how I am still learning to use my new camera. This would have been the cutest picture had I focused on her face and not her dress!
Changes in Elise
I'll elaborate more for her 16 month post next week, but here are a few updates.
At the end of April we had her 15 month checkup. She was 25.5 lbs (between the 75th and 90th percentiles) and 32 inches (95th percentile). The nurse actually measured her at 33 inches but we think that was too long. She is definitely getting leaner. She looooooves her daddy and called him "da" for a few days, then "dada", and has been calling him "daddy" for a few weeks now. She is a busy, busy girl and somehow we are all tired at the end of the day! She is so talkative and we are constantly surprised by new words that she says. Some new ones include "swings", "bible", "donkey", "whoa", "brush", "water" (wah or wah wah), "toes", "thank you" (she has only said this once so far). She refers to all letters as "eeeee". Her pronunciation is getting better and better and you can actually distinguish "bath", "boss", "bus", and "ball" without using context clues. She will say "no" if she doesn't want something but giggles and smiles to indicate "yes". She's had a runny nose for several days and when it needs to be wiped, she says "nose!". She loves to ride in her strollers but hates getting into her high chair or booster seat. She fusses at the beginning of almost every meal because of this. We stopped nursing a week ago and we are both doing well. I can't believe we did it for 15.5 months. That seems like a very long time and it means that I was pregnant or nursing for 2 years. It's kinda nice not doing either of those for a while :) It would have been difficult to wean her from the last feeding before Mike came home. Since he was off last week, he got her up in the morning and read books and gave her a cup of milk. After a few days of this, she was no longer in the habit of nursing when she wakes up. I am happy that I did it but also happy to be finished. I am sure that many of my mommy friends can relate to this.
Mike is back to work this week but then will take 2 1/2 weeks off. We are looking forward to more family time and a trip to Sea World. Thanks for reading!
