16 Months

I don't think I have anything profound and endearing to share, but nonetheless my little girl still amazes me everyday.  We hit the 16 month mark the other day, but sometimes I feel like I'm dealing with a 16 year old.  Aside from the random hissy fits, Elise is totally in love with hair brushes, hair products, styling tools, and shoes (and electronics still).  Poor Jason.  I keep finding my hair brushes in my closet, in her mailbox, in the living room.

Elise loves feeling like she's a "helper."  She shared her love of cosmetics and helping with me this morning, as she went into the bathroom and got into the cabinet that I had left open and made three special trips to hand me lotion, hair spray, and volumizer.  Every time she hands me or Jason something, we always say "thaaank Yoooou."  So, now she has started saying "kaaaaank koooo" in the exact same tone that we do when she hands us something.  I finally figured it out the other day when I was folding her clothes.  She would hand me one sock and very softly say "kaaank koo."  Then another sock, "kaaaank koo."

Jason asked me if she was saying "kiki" (kitty) and I said "no, listen to how she says it, it's the exact same way we tell her 'thank you' she just says it very softly."  It's so sweet.  I should try to get it on video.

I think she had a big growth spurt recently.  She has been eating like a football player and all of her pants are suddenly high-waters.  Unfortunately, all of the stores have spring clothes out we can't find many sweat/lounge pants.  Which I guess is ok since we need to start looking at getting her some spring clothes anyway.

She climbs up on the furniture, she knows the correct (SAFE) way to get down.  She has also learned to HANG from the side of the Pack & Play.  She will put her hands on the side of it, pull herself up and dangle her feet.

She and her daddy are birds of a feather when it comes to Oreo cookies.  If I buy Jason a package of them when I go grocery shopping he can polish it off in a matter of days.  If I eat one or two out of the package he immediately knows it... like he counts them or something.  So now Elise can identify the package and I'm pretty sure she even knows what it sounds like when you open it.

Going to the park, playing outside, and going for rides in her wagon are her favorite things to do.  After spending some time at the park the other day going down the slides, walking around, and climbing up and down it was time to go.  Elise turned into a noodle when I tried to pick her up, then she stiffened up to try to resist being picked up.  I finally got her strapped in her car seat.  Then she kicked the back of my seat half the way home.  I thought to myself "ahhhhh, we are going to be in for it."

Lucky for us, she is a little sweetheart the majority of the time.  We usually have to beg her for a kiss, but she shocked me and Jason the other day when she climbed up in the chair with him, sat in his lap, and leaned into his face to get a kiss.

Hopefully I can get some 16 Month pictures of Elise up over the next couple of days.  And maybe a video of her saying her new words.

A Day In The Life of Elise

I am pretty proud of myself for putting the time and effort into getting Elise on a very structured schedule.  And it was time and effort.  She didn't just mold into it on her own.  We sat down, had some chats about how she and I would like to spend our days, when she'd like to nap and eat, bath time and bed time... we came to some agreements and now we have the perfect situation for the both of us.  That doesn't go without saying we occasionally have some interruptions, but for the most part our days run pretty smoothly.

Since I'm not a morning person and she sleeps between 11-12 hrs a night, she goes to bed around 9:30 and wakes up between 8:30 and 9:00am.  This agrees perfectly with my internal clock.

She immediately gets a diaper change and breakfast.  Then I get her hair fixed and get her dressed for the day.  We play, I do things around the house, get myself showered, get lunch.

She has her nap between 1pm and 1:30.  I catch up on DVR'd shows, blog, pay bills, do laundry, pick up toys, etc.

She wakes up around 2:30 or 3ish and gets something to eat.  We play or go to the park or run errands if necessary and if the weather is nice.

Around the time Jason gets home, or before, I start getting dinner made.  He plays with her some and unwinds after work.

We all sit down at the table together and eat dinner.  We try to engage in conversation with Elise and enjoy a nice meal as a family.  Sometimes in the middle of trying to eat my meal that I have just spent time cooking for my family, I have to get up and find something else for the princess to eat if she's protesting what I've already made.  The Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets are usually quick fix to that situation.  I am trying to quit giving her so many different choices to eat because I know it will only make things worse as she gets older.  I usually try to think about everything she's eaten throughout the day and decide if it would really even make a difference if I made her something else.  If she's hungry enough she'll eat what's in front her.  And she gets a full tummy before bed time anyway.

And then, in the middle of our meal, Elise makes this huge production.... bright red face, grunting, sighing, shaking, heavy breathing, excessive grunting, farting..... and we all stop so she can take her poop in the middle of dinner.  It's like her subtly way of saying "LET'S EAT!" I guess?  So, we all continue our meal as quickly as possible if the stench is unbearable.  She doesn't seem bothered by it.

She gets her bath immediately after dinner.  While she sits in her high chair, I go and run the water.  I start stripping her down and cleaning her up and plop her in the tub.  In the bath, she plays with the shampoo bottles, shaving cream cans, gets her teeth brushed - which she's positive is going to kill her, and gets bathed.  My wonderful husband cleans up the kitchen while I'm doing bath time.

After bath time, she gets lotionized, jammies, and her hair brushed.  Sometimes her daddy will make some ice cream or get some Oreos for them to share before bed time.  Elise gets a small sippy cup of milk (which she takes turns interchanging with her paci), her favorite blanket, and snuggles up on the couch with me.  She falls asleep while I hold her every night.  Occasionally she will let Jason hold her and fall asleep with him, but for the most part she sits with him until she's ready to go to sleep.  Then she gets down from his lap, drags her blanket over to me so I can pick her up to fall asleep while we lay together on the couch.

Once she's asleep I carry her to her bed and she sleeps in her room all night.  It wasn't always this way.  It took a couple of nights of her crying in her crib and some trial and error.  But, we seem to have it working for all of us right now.  I know I always feel more comfortable knowing what's coming next, having a routine.  I hope that giving Elise a structured schedule will make her more calm, confident and comfortable.  That's the goal anyway.  I know when I return to work we will all have to make some adjustments and learn to adapt to a new routine.  It will be hard in the beginning I'm sure, since I've spent so much time perfecting the one we have now.

Just Because She's So Cute

Afternoon at the Park

Yesterday, Elise and I headed out to the park to enjoy the sunshine and warm temperatures.  I had taken her last summer to swing and go down the slides with me or Jason.  She seemed to enjoy the experience.  This time was a whole new adventure since she's able to explore things at her level.  She is so careful about what she chooses to participate in.  I guess that's a good thing, since she's not likely to be a daredevil and jump off the roof in an attempt to fly. 

"Here's my belly, momma."

Stopping just for a minute to take it all in.  So much open space to explore.

This little piece of equipment really turned out to be a huge hit.  Only because it had little rocks all inside it.

So, we spent some time examining the rocks.

All of the rocks.

And then we spent a little more time looking at them.

"You know what, mom?  I think I'll count them all."

"Oh Em Gee!  Look at all of THESE rocks!"

Last year, Elise thought these swings were pretty fun.  Unfortunately, she has not come to share her mother's love for swinging anymore.  She does however like the big swings if I hold her in my lap while I swing.  Unfortunately that doesn't last long because those swings were designed for people that have hips the size of 12 year olds.

This look is on the brink of terror.

Still not happy about this, but she sits still and looks like she's thinking really hard about something.  I would imagine her little brain was saying "please don't die, please don't die."

This kinda looks like a mad face.  

"Seriously lady.  Take me out of this bucket with holes in it!"

The slide was fun to go down, I wonder what going up it is like?

"What???  What are you looking at, dude?  Like you've never seen a little girl with pink pants on?!"

Still deep in thought.... 

"I hope that kid falls off the jungle gym.  That would be pretty funny!"

May 2010 vs. February 2011

I Got My New Shoes On

Elise is trying to figure out her new "big girl" shoes.  They are helping her walk "correctly."  She's a little pigeon-toed so hopefully with these shoes, she'll start straightening out her feet.  This was the first time she had them on to walk around in.

Photos From The Blizzard

We were outside a total of three and half minutes just to snap some pictures.  Once I went outside I immediately thought it was a stupid, stupid idea!  It was FREEZING!  Elise had on 2 pairs of pants, a long sleeved shirt, heavy jacket, hat, shoes, and socks on her hands.  You can tell from the pictures she was not too thrilled about all of this.

My Big Girl

In 10 days I will have a 16 month old.  It's really hard to believe.

At her last appointment - the 15 month check up- she was 21.1 pounds (in the 25th percentile) and she was 31 1/4 inches long (75th percentile).  She's progressing right on track.

She is very independent and definitely lets me and Jason know when we are not running things according to her preferences.  This is one way she lets us know...

Sometimes she throws herself on the floor and screams.  I try not to laugh, because I don't want her to see any kind of reaction out of me.  So, I just walk away and wait until she has regained her composure to pay attention to her.

She has started to try climbing things.  She has always been very cautious, so she is very careful about her climbing attempts.

A fun game that Elise likes to play is called "Handing Momma the Laundry."  I stand at the washing machine next the laundry basket on the floor.  She hands me ONE article of clothing at a time to put in the wash.  One. sock. at. a. time.  Thirty minutes later, everything is finally inside.  When it's time to fold the clothes, she takes everything that I've thrown on the couch to fold, and throws it all on the floor.  ONE article of clothing at time.  As I fold the socks together, she goes behind and rips them apart.  It's really TONS of fun.

One day I had washed, dried, and folded all of her clothes and set them in her room on the chair.  I left Jason and Elise at home while I ran out to do some errands.  When I came home, Jason told me that Elise "had been doing laundry in her room."  Everything I had folded was thrown all over the room.  Obviously someone wasn't keeping a good eye on her.... or else he was watching her do it and was laughing the whole time. Which really wouldn't surprise me.

I'm going to try to do better about taking some more pictures and posting them.  We have been having good weather the past couple of days so it's nice to get outside and take pictures instead always in the house.  Until I get some outside pictures up, these will have to do!

Show Me Your Belly