Poor E has quite the runny nose and is working on cutting her fifth tooth, so her face was just a plain ol' hot mess. She absolutely wouldn't have any part of us trying to clean it off, so aside from a little booger photoshopping, gooey face is what you get.
Oh Elsie, the amount of ridiculous antics we pull trying to get these pictures of you? It's just absurd. Just as I say to Ryann, if you would just suck it up and do what I'd ask we'd get done a lot quicker, mmmkay? ;o) And seriously. Eleven months? How in the freaking heck did that happen? Surely my baby is not almost one. It just can't be. Can I borrow someone's newborn for a bit? (Because I'm not dumb enough to consider having another one of those right now, I'm still waiting for continous string of good sleep...)
I'm just too plain lazy to try and figure out how long Elsie is because how dare we try and make her lay still for any length of time, so yeah. I know she is taller (longer?) because she no longer can stand under the dining room table without hitting her head. We did manage to weigh her tonight and according to our scale she is 19 pounds again this month. Meh, not sure why I even bother. Still in 6-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers and size 3 shoes. I've ordered some 5 inch sole moccs but even they won't stay on her little feet. So sad. The onesie she is wearing in these pictures is actually a 9 month Carter's onesie, but it's a touch small. Just never got around to getting some 12 month onesies and for some reason didn't have any from Ryann? I have no idea.
Our tooth count is up to four now! And she puts those little chompers to good use. Pretty sure Elsie would eat all day long if I let her. She is constantly following us around the house 'nom nomming.' I swear you would think we never feed her. She wants to try anything and everything. She prefers my food over what I typically deem acceptable to her. Cheese, meat, hummus, enchiladas, yes please. She loves scrambled eggs, peas and blueberries as well. Vegetables regularly get the boot (forcefully tossed from her tray with a look of disgust, as if we slapped her in the face with them or something). I haven't tried anything besides water in her sippy cup, but she does great with the water. Hopefully she'll accept milk in the sippy soon, just haven't exactly ventured down that path at all.
We did have one instance this past week where I fed her something much too spicy for her. I had cooked some Italian sausage and vegetables in the crock pot. She hadn't napped that afternoon, and during dinner kept randomly bursting out in tears. At first I chalked it up to she was just being a nut because she was overtired, but as my tongue started feeling more and more hot it finally clicked. Poor girl, her mouth was on fire and she had no idea why! Of course she just kept eating anyway because, um, food. We switched it out to something a little more mild and all was good. Sorry Elsie!
Elsie is nursing anywhere from 4-6 times a day. I know, 6 is probably kind of ridiculous. But, well, I nurse her before each nap and bed, and sometimes in between, just depending how long she sleeps, what her disposition is, just trying to keep her happy for a bit, etc. Lately nursing her to sleep hasn't really been working, and I know being on the verge of weaning (because as much as it scares me, I'm ready to move on, I think...) I'm going to have to teach her to put herself to sleep. So to cut a couple of those nursing sessions I think we need to revisit sleep training. Oy. I don't want to go back there, but I'm hoping since we've done it once, and she puts herself back to sleep with no problem in the middle of the night, it won't be that bad. I hope.
Sleep has been all over the place. Overall, I would say she is a decent sleeper. Elsie usually naps twice a day, around 9:30 and 1:30. Sometimes the morning nap is only 40 minutes, sometimes longer, one day she randomly went down at 9:45 and slept until 1:00. The afternoon nap is usually her longer one, but if she took a good nap in the morning I have a hard time getting that second nap in, and then she is just a bear for bed. Bedtime is between 7:15 & 8:00 depending on how naps went, and she is up for the day anywhere between 6:15-7:15, depending on how well she slept at night. She'll give me like a 4 or 5 day stretch of sleeping through the night, and then another 4 to 5 day stretch of being up around 4am. I just plain never know. But it never fails, if I stay up late, or gasp, have a drink or two after she goes to bed, you better believe she is going to make me pay for it by waking up at absurd times.
Over the past few weeks Elsie has become so much more fun and interactive. With that also comes a bit of ornrey and more opinions, but still. So. Much. Fun. She gives hugs and giant open mouth kisses when asked (most of the time anyway), and will occasionally initiate the little love fest on her own. The best was Christmas morning. Ryann had slept in my parents room, so it was just Elsie in with Christopher and I. When she woke up I pulled her into our bed. After a bit I told her she needed to give her daddy a morning hug, and she crawled over to him and did her best version of a hug, which comes with the most adorable little 'mmmm' noise. It was so cute, so I asked her to come give me a hug and she did! It was just the sweetest, definitely a nice little Christmas present.
An exciting thing to note this month was that Elsie said her first clear word, 'hi.' It was actually on Christmas Eve, while Chris and I scrambling around the house packing up everything we needed. We had the girls situated at the table with lunch and Chris was going in and out of the front door putting things in the car. One of the times he came in, Elsie looked over at him and said 'hi!' I looked at her and said, 'hi?' and she continued to repeat it over and over again. Her and Ryann said hi back and forth for a good 15 minutes or so. She has the most adorable little voice. I think she also says dada or daddy, kitty (ki-yee), and boo, as well as off, on, up and hat, but those ones all sound kinda the same in Elsie speak. Whenever she sees us putting on coats, feels cold air or we go outside she says brrrrr. And if she is hungry or sees food it is a pretty intense 'nom nom!' Let me tell you that makes grocery shopping so much fun. The entire time she is pointing at everything (still with her middle finger I might add) and yelling 'NOM NOM!'
right when she realized Chris had crackers... "NOM NOM NOM!"
Elsie is slowly but surely getting pretty good at animal sounds as well. I mean, they don't sound perfect and it isn't 100% every time, but she makes her own little roar/growl sound for lion and dinosaur, attempts a 'woof' noise for dog, has some version of moo for a cow and a somewhat accurate elephant sound. She also says 'bop' for bunny, because I tell her they 'hop hop hop!' Overall you can just tell her word recognition and understanding is growing by the day. She can somewhat follow simple commands, will point at things like the light or random toys and stuff when prompted, will go to the bathroom if you ask her if she wants to take a bath (which she loves by the way. love love LOVES.). She is definitely entering my favorite stage, where you can just see their little brains soaking up things by the minute.
she's learning just how to push my buttons! ;o)
Just in the last week Elsie has truly started to show an interest in books. It makes my heart so happy. I know many kids aren't all that interested in books until after one, but Ryann would let me sit and read to her for hours from a very early age. Elsie? Heck no. She was way too busy doing other things. But now she'll bring me a book and actually sit still long enough for me to read it, and maybe a few more. Barnyard Dance is still ranked pretty high on her favorites list, but I think right now Peekaboo Kisses is at the top. She loves the squeaky mouse page. Are You Ticklish also makes the cut for one she'll listen to. The other day I was reading What's Wrong Little Pookie, and in it the mom is asking the kid (pig?) what is wrong. One page says 'Are you cold?' Elsie responded with "brrrrr." 'Are you hungry?' Elsie said "nom nom!" Adorable.
annnd she's done with me
She still has no interest in standing unassisted. I try and trick her in to it but she just melts to the floor or dives at me. She is cruising a lot more though, using furniture and the walls to get her around. And sometimes when I try to set her down she'll keep her legs straight and want me to hold her hands so she can walk. But for the most part nothing crazy going on in the gross motor skills department. E has taken an interest in putting things inside, containers? for lack of a better way to say it. The other day I caught her carefully moving a pile of fake coins Ryann has one by one in to a pot from their play kitchen. She is also enjoying a shape sorter my parents got her for Christmas, where she can put the pieces in the big wide open part on top.
Can't believe you're almost one Elsie girl. Love you more than you'll ever know!
