elsie - fifteen months

Here we are, 1/4 of the way through Elsie's second year of life.  Again, I feel like she is older than fifteen months, but at the same time wasn't she just born?  Time is a strange thing.

the closest I could get to her laying on the blanket... "hi mom!"

Elsie's tear ducts are still clogged, the damn things, so we have surgery schedule for the 15th.  Her well check is on the 14th, so I'll have some 'official' stats then, but at her pre-op appointment on the 1st she weighed 21 pounds, 10 ounces.  Ry was 22 pounds 10 ounces at 15 months, and I definitely think she looked a little rounder than Elsie does, so I'm betting that they are about the same height.  Elsie is wearing mostly 12-18 month clothing, the 18 month size from Caters, but in tee shirts or any remotely slim fitting top she needs a 18-24 month or a 2T.  Girlfriend's belly is large, and definitely in charge, she walks around with it pushed out, like it is leading the way or something.  E is in size 4 diapers and shoes.

By far Elsie's favorite thing to do is eat.  She never turns down the opportunity to eat.  NEVER.  And she eats almost anything.  Vegetables aren't her favorite, and usually the last thing to be eaten off her plate, but for the most part if it is her only option left she is damn well going to finish them.  Her favorite things to eat are avocados and blueberries, and chocolate chips and M&M's.  Whoops.  She doesn't get them often but she sure loves them.  It's hard to truly say that those are her favorite foods, because she just plain eats everything.  And so much.  And so quickly!  I swear it is a race to finish my meal before she eats hers, otherwise she'll eat mine too.  Unfortunately she is still terrible about chewing larger pieces of food and more or less just tries to swallow everything she shoves in her mouth.  Therefore we are stuck cutting her food up in to itty bitty bites so she doesn't choke.  The one thing that Elsie actually refuses?  Milk.  Unless it is flavored.  She has been weaned for a little over a month and still acts like she is being offered poison.  I'm going to talk to the pedi about what she suggests, but if anyone has any insight please share!

Sleep.  Well, it isn't terrible.  Much better than some parents are dealing with I'm sure.  (But then my friends post about their kids sleeping 13 hours at night and taking a nap or something and I think my kids are the worst sleepers in the world.  Yes Ashley, I'm talking about you :o).  Elsie is in bed between 7:20-7:40 every night, and wakes up anytime between 5:45am and 7:00am.  Then she naps around 12:30, usually sleeping about 2 hours, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.  It is when it slides on the little less side and she wakes up at 5:45am that I'm truly annoyed.  Combine that with the fact that Ryann doesn't nap and sleeps 10.5 hours tops at night and the topic of sleep just annoys me.  But we rarely have to deal with either of them between 8:30pm and 5:45am so I guess that is good?  Ugh. 

Elsie's molars are starting to come in, so I'm sure that could have a little something to do with the sleeping issues.  But it isn't like she is regularly crying out in the middle of the night or anything so I'm not placing my bets on that.  Apparently my husbands genes produce kids that are just wired ALL THE TIME.  But back to the teeth.  I believe she has 9 that have broken the gums now.  Maybe 10, but I haven't gotten a good look for the rest of the molars.

The amount of words Elsie says is definitely increasing, but she is nowhere near the level that Ryann was at that age, the difference is insane.  I never truly understood how above average Ryann was in the language and learning department, until I had a baby who falls in the average range.  Nonetheless Elsie's comprehension is excellent and she can communicate her wants and needs pretty well.  And even if she can't accurately repeat a word, she'll give it a try with the proper inflection.  Instead of yes and no she just uses head nods and says ''mm hmm! or mm mm."  If that makes sense.  She can say mama, dada and daddy, Ry Ry and sissy, up, please (pease, along with her sign for please) kitty (although it sounds like titty, which gets my immature self every time), bubble, bath (baah!), ball, snack (naah!), eye, mouth (mow), ear, jacket (jack-ee), shoes (shushs), flower (flow-wow) and probably a few more that I can't think of. 

She makes several animals sounds, points to most of her body parts, and can recognize a heart.  We've roughly started working on shapes and colors, but I don't see that going anywhere fast too soon.  E also babbles like crazy.  She'll spit out streams of things I can't understand at all, long sentences and maybe even paragraphs.  I swear one of these days the babble is just going to transform into words and suddenly everything will make sense.  The other week she repeatedly was saying the same 'word', something I couldn't understand, over and over.  The was waving her finger at me, repeating the same inflection very forcefully, but I just couldn't figure her out.  I think she is very much moving to the frustrated stage when I don't understand.

With as much as she was uninterested in books and reading before she was one, I can't believe how much she LOVES to have us read to her.  She still won't sit for a super long book, or something that has too many words on each page, but when we're reading board books as soon as I finish one she is tossing out the exaggerated "pease!" for another.  We read to books before bed each night (Night Night Little Pookie and Good Night I Love You) and she babbles her way through both of them.  E seems to like pretty much all of the Sandra Boynton books.

Elsie's personality is pretty entertaining.  Even the part of her that loves to be a pain in the butt.  Annoying, but stupidly cute so for the most part you just smile and move on.  She still loves getting a rise out of Ryann and it takes a lot of my effort to tell her no.  She has some killer dance moves, and has discovered the joys of spinning in circles.  She has also figured out that plugging her ears makes everything sound different.  It is so fun to witness those little discoveries.  Something that doesn't even cross your mind as exciting or interesting now, is so completely amazing to little ones.  She likes to color and loves to swing.  She asks to go in the stroller every time we go in to the garage.  And she loves to steal all of Ryann's toys.  Once she gets a hold of something she doesn't want to give back, she does 'the tuck'.  Exhibit A:

'the tuck' with a chocolate chip.  yes, all of these photos were thanks to a bribe.

See?  Adorable and annoying all at the same time :o).

Also adorable and annoying?  How much she still loves me.  And ONLY ME.  Yes, ok, she loves other people too.  But for the most part she only wants me.  Can't be left alone with strangers or non strangers.  Searches for me in the house even if she is in the same room with Christopher.  I still haven't gotten the nerve to go back to the gym because I'm terrified of what will happen if I try to leave her in the childcare center.  She is going to scream and scream and scream.  At least that is what I think.  It has also been the cause of the most stress for this dumb eye surgery.  Of course I'm worried about her being put under anestisa.  It freaks me out.  But she screams through every doctor's appointment, and I have no doubt that if they have to pull my screaming baby from my arms before surgery I am going to absolutely lose it.

Pretending that isn't going to happen.  Moving on.  Another thing Elsie has been quite in to, is building Lego towers.  Over the last month she has figured out how to stack them, and can spend a long time making towers and taking them apart.  I've started carrying a stack of six Legos in my diaper bag because I know they will keep her fairly entertained.  She is also getting better at doing simple puzzles, or at least understanding that the goal is to put the pieces where they came from.  She quickly gives up and asks for help, but she gets the concept.

Elsie girl, I don't care that you're getting older.  You'll always be my baby.  Love you!