elsie - twelve months

attempted to write this February 10th.  however the KU/K-State game was a wee bit too distracting.  damn basketball game.  so written February 11th.

For the record, I'm pretending Elsie isn't one.  Yes, I'm aware she is and I can't change that, but nope.  Not one.  Sorry kid.

onesie, headband

Today we got to have another lovely TRAUMATIC trip to the pediatrician for a well child check.  Why Elsie hates the doctor so freaking much I have no idea.  I mean I get it, kinda.  Strangers, people looking at you and such, but the second the nurse tried to measure her head, while I was actively holding her, E was done.  Then the nurse took her out of my arms to go weigh her.  Elsie was NOT having it AT ALL.  She screamed and screamed and screamed some more.  I'm sure it doesn't help that she was probably tired, it was what should be morning nap time (even though the kid pretty much refuses morning naps now).  But it was ridiculous.

Aside from the screaming (that lasted the ENTIRE appointment), our visit went well enough.  Elsie has definitely had a growth spurt in the last two months, now weighing in at 20 pounds 10 ounces (42nd percentile), and measuring 29 inches long (44th percentile).  At her 9 month appointment she was falling in to the 24th and 30th respectively, so I was impressed.  Not that I should be surprised.  E will easily put down a half an avocado plus more food for dinner.  She LOVES to eat.  More on that in a bit.

We discussed her constipation issues, and just like many suggested on instagram, our doc wants us to try adding flaxseed to her diet.  We also got a referral to see an eye doctor about her clogged tear ducts.  Lately they have been looking SO much better, but if she is congested at all they are really nasty.  Our pedi said it was better to have the consultation and let the eye doc decide what to do now, because if we waited it could end up no longer being a probe procedure, but a stent placement and then at a later date a stent removal.  That doesn't sound fun so I guess a trip to the eye doc it is. 

Another thing on the list that sounds like zero fun is blood work.  The office we go to requests a full work up at one year, and when we did it with Ryann it was seriously one of the most traumatic experiences of her little life, for her and us.  The though of going through that again makes me want to cry.  But it is better to be safe than sorry I guess.  Because we will already be having blood drawn, our pedi would like to test Elsie for allergies to oats and rice.  Even though we haven't had any vomitting episodes lately, the fact that she seems to react to foods in one way or another that contain rice or oat flour makes the doc want to check for the allergies, just to be safe, before we attempt to reintroduce those foods.  Hopefully it is just a sensitivity that she will grow out of.

As soon as I'm done writing this post I am forcing myself to go down to the basement and find the boxes of 12-18 month clothes.  Leggings always seem short on Elsie, but now the majority of her 6-12 month pajamas and tops look way too small.  The dresses and onesies are still alright, but I have to stop making the poor girl wear high waters all the time.  Especially since it is zero degrees outside.  The one thing that doesn't seem to be growing quickly (yet) are her feet.  Size 4's are just now starting to stay on, but they are definitely way too big.  We still have her in size 3 diapers, but I could see her growing out of those in the next few weeks, unless she starts walking or something and slims down a bit.  And because no paragraph seems like the right one for this to go in, she has five teeth, with a sixth looking like it will make an appearance in the next week or two.

Back to the fact that Elsie loves to eat.  It is just crazy how different she is than Ryann in terms of food.  There isn't anything she won't try at least once.  Sometimes she eats more scrambled eggs for breakfast than I do.  She loves blueberries, strawberries, pears, avocado, cheese, meatballs, pork, chicken sausage and pancakes.  She also likes peas, carrots, black beans, other beans, bread, crackers, things of that nature.  She has surprised me and doesn't really like chicken nuggets or french fries.  Oh darn.  She is still nursing four times a day.  Part of me wants to start pushing weaning more, and the other part just doesn't care.  As of Saturday I did drop our late afternoon session, since it was lasting maybe five minutes and she was much too anxious to just go play with Ryann.  Next to go will probably be our mid morning one.  The early morning, before nap and bedtime ones are the ones that I think will stick the longest, but anymore I don't know if she would care too much as long as she got to eat something :o).

Sleep is, well, fine.  Really.  Nothing terrible at all.  We did some sleep training which really wasn't all that terrible at all.  Except for the fact that now Elsie doesn't take a morning nap because she is just to hopped up on life or something to actually lay down and sleep.  At bedtime she goes to sleep no problem.  I nurse her, rock her a bit, lay her down and I don't really hear much of a peep out of her until at least 4am.  We had a pretty good stretch of her sleeping until 6am or later, but the last week or so she has probably woken up between 2:30am-5:00am at least 3 nights.  I wanted to not nurse her at night anymore, but it is the absolute fastest way to quiet her down.  I don't nurse her back to sleep, just let her for a little bit and then lay her back down.  That is all it takes.  Yes, it is still disrupting my sleep, but it could be a whole lot worse.  We'll see what happens as we move more towards weaning.  Bed time is between 7:00-7:30pm and she is usually up for the day between 6:30-7am.

Nap time is really where we have the issue.  Morning or afternoon, if I don't nurse her to sleep Elsie takes at least 30 minutes to fall asleep.  Sometimes it takes an hour.  I just don't get it.  She knows what is going on, we follow pretty much the same routine everyday.  For the most part she doesn't cry, but sometimes after a while I think she gets pissed that she is just hanging out in there.  If she wakes up before 6:30am I try hard to make her take a morning nap around 9, otherwise she goes down for a nap between 12:30-1:00.

Elsie still has yet to truly stand unassisted.  She has a few times for a few seconds, but if you try and stand her up by herself she quickly just drops to the ground.  She is showing a preference for cruising over crawling now, and has gotten relatively good at walking while holding on to someone with just one hand.  Still looks a wee bit drunk, but she gets the job done.  On February 1st she did take her first steps!  It was maybe three between Chris and I, but they were three solidly good steps.  I'm not sure that she'll be walking by 13 months, but my guess would be for sure before 14 months.  Just taking her sweet time, marching to the beat of her own drum.  Oh and this month she finally gave up pointing at things with her middle finger in favor of her index finger.  I'm glad because that saves us from some awkwardness, but I kind of miss it.  It was too funny.

E is starting to pick up some animal noises and more words.  She knows what sound a dog, cat, cow, snake, elephant and lion makes, and she also makes a fishy face.  She can say Daddy hi, and off pretty clearly, and if you know what she is talking about she says kitty (ki-yee), owl (ow) and sissy.  Recently she started signing more at meal times, but she does it by just touching her index fingers together.  I think it is pretty adorable.  For the most part I've only shown her the signs for more, please, all done and help, but she doesn't seem to care much for signing.  She claps her hands, waves, gives high fives, knows where her head is, can blow the tiniest bit of air and shows me her muscles.  That last one is highly important, obviously.  If you're lucky she'll give you hug, and sometimes she will pat or rub my back while she does it.  Unfortunately she has also decided it is straight up hilarious to smack me in the face or pull my hair.  Not cool girlie.

Elsie is ORNREY.  So ornrey.  Aside from thinking it's funny to hit me, she gets such a huge thrill out of doing something she knows she shouldn't.  Like opening cabinet doors.  My word, she'll pull up on our refrigerator, and then just start laughing as she quickly cruises over to the pantry and flings the door open.  Or I'll hear little giggles as she heads towards the magazine basket and then she starts tossing them out one by one at lightening speed.  And I think dresser drawers might just be the bane of my exsistance.  She pulls them open and starts throwing clothes on the floor as fast as she can before someone comes and ruins the fun.  I never had to really baby proof with Ryann, but we have got to do something about all the cabinets and drawers before I completely lose my mind.

My favorite part about the stage Elsie is in right now, is watching her and Ryann interact more and more.  Now the back seat of my car is filled with giggles from both girls more often than not.  I have no idea what they are doing.  Ryann can definitely get Elsie to laugh the fastest.  Sometimes Elsie likes to tease Ryann, or at least I think that is what she is doing.  She'll reach something towards Ry, and when Ryann goes to take it she yanks it back.  That doesn't usually end well for either party involved but I still find it kind of funny.

I think the thing Elsie really loves, probably second in line only to eating, is bath time.  After dinner if you ask her if she wants to take a bath she starts freaking out and yanking at her clothes and charge crawls the bathroom.  She loves to splash like crazy and just hang out in there.  Now she throws a little mini fit when it is time to get out.  I hope the love of the bath transfers over to a love of the pool.  It didn't with Ryann, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Over the last month Elsie has also began to actually enjoy books.  That is definitely a thrilling development for me.  E now brings me books and wants me to read.  She really likes Rumble in the Jungle and doing the various animal noises that correspond to the animals.  She is also a fan of Dinosaur Roar, You Are My Cupcake as well as touch & feel or lift the flap books.  If only destroying lift the flap books wasn't so exciting.

Oh Elsie girl, I just love you to pieces.  I'm so happy you're mine.