elsie: ONE YEAR!

Elsie

One Year

--Elsie gets leaps and bounds smarter everyday. It seemed like suddenly one day you could ask her things like "Where is your spoon?" and she would look towards the spoon drawer, look around her high chair, earnestly looking for the spoon. Or if she were holding it, she might hold it up and smile.

--Other words she recognizes: socks, ball, doggie, Snoopy, bear, hat, Mommy, books.

--Speaking of spoons, she can use one pretty effectively these days. She dips it in the bowl (though sometimes using the opposite end), and brings it to her mouth. At first the spoon would tag team with her hand, but now it's pretty much a straight shot from the bowl to the mouth.

--She also likes feeding other people, generally with food that has been in and out of her own mouth several times. She's just sharing the deliciousness!

--Also, one day it seemed she magically learned the sign-language sign for "sleep" and "wash hands", and there is a chance she knows "brush teeth", too.

--Pretty much everything is still "Daddy" in Elsie language. We think she just learned to copy Aaron, who in attempts to teach her that he was her daddy, would frequently point to himself and say "Daddy". Now if you ask her where daddy is, she probably will point to herself and say "Daddy".

--Still no teeth and no official steps yet, but they are just under the surface and just waiting to happen!

--She is fascinated with zippers and eyelashes.

--Somehow she has learned to shake her head and say "No". How do they learn that?

--She loves her hats, though for some reason totally hated the hat her Gramma knit her that we tried to use in the photo shoot. She ripped it off immediately and shook her head "no" when we brought it near her :( We are hoping it just needs a soft lining!

--We are working on animal noises. It seems like she is trying to master "Moo" and "Grrr", both excellent choices.

--She is great at opening cabinet doors and making a mess of whatever is inside. If there is a trash can in it, she'll go for it. She loves the game cabinet, and knows exactly which buttons to push on Catch Phrase to make it start beeping.

--And along with buttons, she has totally mastered pressing Apple device home buttons. It's not super fruitful though. She will usually get a picture of herself, since all of our lock screens are her, and sometimes she might get Siri to say something to her. If she's on an opened Apple device, who knows what she might do...

--And finally, drum roll please...it looks like she has some curls forming at the base of her early-stages-of-a-child-mullet! 

elsie: 11 months

Elsie

11 months

--The biggest and best new thing for Elsie is that she calls everything "Daddy"! Or maybe "Doggie"? It's really the same word, whatever it is--she says it when Aaron comes home, or when she sees a dog... or when she's pointing at the iPad, or a picture of herself, or a stranger... or anything.

--Still no teeth and no walking...but she crawls around like crazy.

--As you can see in the pictures, she can't stand headbands. She won't settle until it is either hanging around her neck, or completely off--which she can do all by herself!

--She is so determined! She loves focusing all her energy on little details and projects, like pulling people's earrings out, or putting a cap or lid on something. She has been trying to buckle the buckle on her high chair for some time now. She'll get it soon :)

--She plays peek-a-boo with anyone, including her own reflection in the oven.

--She will only eat if you let her get really messy--even pureed food has become finger food in our house, just so we can get that little girl to eat.

--She used to love string cheese. Then she hated it for two weeks. Currently, it's a love-hate.

--We left Elsie for the first time this past month for a week! Honestly, it wasn't really that hard for us. She was with grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles, and other great people the whole time, so we weren't worried. And all reports said she was a perfect little girly while we were away!

--Elsie also got sick for the first time this month. It was so sad! She spent all morning just lying in my arms, not wanting to move. I even just plopped her in the bean bag and she just stayed there, motionless. It was such a dramatic difference for our constantly-moving little jumping bean to be so mellow! Luckily, she was feeling more perky later that day, and back to herself (pretty much) the next day.

--She is starting to help me put her clothes on. She knows when a shirt goes over her head, she has to stick one arm up, then the other.

--I swear she knows the sign-language sign for "hat". If I have a headband on, she pats her head and points at it. If I have a bun on my head or a towel turban wrapped on my head, same thing. Thanks, Baby Signing Times.

--It's hard to capture her really good moments, because whenever a phone comes out or a camera, all she wants is to get the phone!

--She can open cupboards :) The only drawer she has opened so far is the one under the oven with some pans in it. The real baby proofing is overdue!

elsie: 10 months

elsie

10 months

--Elsie has entered the stage of head bonks. At least 3 times a day, cries break out due to some sort of head-bonking fall.

--This little lady is determined! If she wants something, she will keep at it until she gets it. She crawls and climbs all over everything. If you pull her away from something, like, oh, Aaron's bike, she will just keep going for it over and over and over again.

--She smiles and laughs when she sees the yellow Cheerios box.

--When she first wakes up, either from nighttime or a nap, she generally wants to point at everything around and tell you about it.

--She does this super cute shoulder shrug with her right shoulder. Only the right shoulder.

--She has started playing games with us--mostly making us do silly things

--She is in the stage of "sequences" and that is totally obvious! She knows that when she pulls the iPad charger cable out of the outlet, the iPad will light up and show a picture of Aaron. She pulls the cord out and immediately looks at the iPad.

--She has started letting go of her support while she's standing! It only lasts a little while, but when she wants to go down she generally can squat all the way to floor with some serious control.

elsie: 9 months a.k.a. AAAHHH!

Elsie
9 months

--Literally the day after I wrote her last, 8 month journal, and said that she was only pseudo-crawling, she started crawling full-out, no joke, for real. She is a girl on the move!

--She crawls around and pulls herself up to stand on anything she can. Our house is not baby-proof for a crawler, so I have to keep my eye on her constantly.

--She has started whispering incantations. These are usually accompanied by pointing fingers, like she is hexing the world around her...or just looking at things and describing them.

--As mentioned above, and seen in the last photo, she is great at pointing.

--She has added "dada" to her vocabulary, and sometimes in her whisper voice it sounds like she says "bebe".

--She has slept through the whole night a handful of times! We put her down at 7:30pm, and she will wake up between 6:00-7:00am.

--She loves turning the pages of books. She usually does it very vigorously.

--It has become a battle to change her diaper, meaning she twists and turns and tries to sit up and crawl around as soon as I get the dirty diaper off. We've had a few accidents.

--She usually laughs when you say "Meow meow".

--No teeth yet, but she sure is chewing a lot this last week. They are somewhere under those gums!

--She has entered Mommy-Only mode. I guess it's not so bad when I am nowhere around, but if someone else is holding her in the same room as me, Elsie probably won't stand for that.

--I've been taking Elsie swimming (trying to go every week). She gets more and more comfortable with the pool, and we tried bouncing her under the water for a moment. She did pretty well with that--just some coughing, no crying.

--She loves watching other kids. Sometimes just seeing other babies makes her laugh.

elsie: 8 months

Thanks Aunt Kaili for this amazingly cute outfit! I don't think I caught any smiles in this bunch, but these pictures are pretty accurate of Elsie--always exploring, always moving. 

And my camera battery ran out after only 47 pictures! So a few are iPhone shots :)

Check out those pointed toes!

Elsie

8 months

--She's making serious advancements in the crawling department. She can travel pretty far if left to her own devises, but it's not really straight up crawling quite yet.

--She likes to walk around, especially if there is a hug at the end of the journey, she just needs a little stability help.

--She loves trying to stand up. If you sit on the floor, you become her jungle gym. She has been seen standing up in her crib, screaming at the door until someone comes to get her :)

--Her fine motor skills are also developing. She is starting to get better at putting Cheerios in her mouth, instead of up her nose, on her chin, or mostly, in her lap.

--She loves pointing. She often has her pointer fingers out. If not, than her hands might become crab claws, opening and closing at you.

--I think giving suckerfish kisses has become a game, but she is selective who she gives them too. I am the winner and often get quite slobbery. Aaron gets a few here and there, along with a few choice others, I think.

--She is starting to get stranger anxiety, or more like anyone but mom anxiety.

--She flew on an airplane for the second time--to Arizona to visit Uncle Ryan, Aunt Kim, Uncle Dave, and Aunt Adrienne. And Roger and Me (cats). Yet again, she was a champ on the plane.

--She likes to eat paper.

--She loves being outside.

--She loves animals.