One Month of Charlie

We’re starting off strong here by posting about Charlie’s first month while we’re only a week away from his second, but that’s ok! We have a lot going on over here!

At one month, Charlie spent the vast majority of his time sleeping. However, he was (and still is) very happy when he wakes up in the morning, and loves looking around and visually exploring everything he can see.

Thus far, he has still retained much - although not all - of his dark brown hair, and it likes to stick up on the top, especially soon after he’s had a bath.

He sleeps quite well for a newborn, and consistently sleeps at least three hours at a time at night. I’m hoping that sticks around, because not waking up three or more times a night is excellent. We’ll see what happens when he hits the four month mark.

He’s a big fan of stretching himself out, clearly enjoying living in a world with space versus being curled up inside of a womb. He also frequently waves his hands around, often alternating one and then the other.

Overall, he’s a happy, contented little chap, and loves to snuggle. In fact, his preferred way of falling asleep is to be held until he dozes off, and half the time he wakes up when he’s put down, and lets you know he wants you to pick him back up. Once you do that, he will cuddle with you he falls asleep again, and then you repeat the cycle until he’s really and truly out. It’s both adorable and occasionally frustrating, depending on how many other children need me during the whole process.

And his biggest accomplishment of the month? On the very day he turned one month old, he started to smile. I wasn’t quite able to capture it in a photo, but it may be the cutest thing in the entire world.

We love you, little buddy!

Twelve Months of James

Hey hey! We have a one year old! We also had Christmas, a new year, and a little birthday party since I last posted. Definitely a busy time of year, but it did remind me that I’m very grateful that James was born in January rather than late December. Those couple extra days beyond the holidays really did make a big difference!

The vast majority of pictures this month are blurry, because he just moves non-stop. His preferred speed is As Fast As Possible, which is slightly dangerous since he’s not entirely steady on his feet all the time. Hence the little bruise on his cheek, which he acquired first thing in the morning on his actual birthday. It was a bit of a rough start, but the balloons cheered him right up and he would probably say he had a delightful day, if he could tell you verbally.

Speaking of verbal skills, he doesn’t say too many things, but he can say Mama, Dada, and, when prompted, Uh Oh, which is quite useful since he likes to drop food and water bottles off his high chair when he has finished with them. Fortunately, this particular skill didn’t affect his birthday cake.

His absolute favorite thing to do remains climbing up anything he can manage, which has most recently included our dining room table (not pictured, for safety’s sake). He climbs up a dining chair, plants his hands on the table, and then pulls himself right up. And he doesn’t stop there; oh no, if he’s not standing on the table, his ascent is only partially complete.

At his 12 month checkup, his doctor declared that anyone would be hard pressed to find a taller baby, although we have quite a few friends with equally tall children, so perhaps we just have something in our local water. Nevertheless, he is quite tall, and so I find myself using strollers more than baby carriers since those are getting harder to use. He’s also got a couple of top molars and is working on the bottom ones and all of his canines, so teething has been rough lately. In spite of that, he remains a very happy camper the vast majority of the time, and the discomfort has mostly affected his sleep rather than his mood. As a result, all of us are very ready for the teeth to be all the way in.

At 12 months, he was still requiring two naps a day, but within the last two days, he suddenly seems to have perhaps dropped down to only needing one. We might give that a try tomorrow to see how it goes, which will mean some reshuffling of our daily schedule. When better to do that than a weekend, right?

His birthday party was small and I guess sort of Covid-style, although to be honest we mostly do small but happy birthday celebrations all the time. After his balloon-fest and his morning nap, we had immediate family over for a taco lunch, birthday cake, and presents. James loves blueberries, so I decided to make a lemon cake with blueberry frosting between the layers and a whipped cream outer frosting. I will never win any awards for cake decorating, but I can make them taste good! If it’s not too boastful to say, I think this was a very tasty one.

He got a layer to himself to smash up as he saw fit, since I was nearly certain he wouldn’t eat the entire thing himself. He enjoyed stabbing it and squashing it with his fork, and I think he may have put one bite into his mouth. The rest of us ate the other two layers, and then my dad took the smashed up leftovers home and consumed them later. Leave no trace, I suppose.

And then after exploring his new car toy a bit, he settled down for a long birthday’s nap and enjoyed living his best one year old life. Can’t get much better than that, according to him!

He is a joy and a delight, and life with him in it is better than we ever could have imagined. Happy birthday, little buddy. We’re so blessed to call you ours.

Eleven Months of James

And just like that, James is 11 months and his first birthday is right around the corner! He is as happy as ever, and as daring as ever to boot. Just with the past couple of days, he’s learned to climb up on to the window seat in the dormer in the kids’ room, and now that he’s figured it out, he does it nonstop.

He is also fully mobile at this point, and prefers walking to any other mode of transportation. I suspect he’ll be running within a week.

Just today I noticed that he’s popped through one additional tooth, which brings the total up to eight, and I’m assuming is why he hasn’t been sleeping terribly well for the past few days.

His latest tricks include lots of dancing (bouncing up and down or shaking his head back and forth), and, more frequently, blowing raspberries. He thinks it’s hilarious when you do it back at him.

He loves baths, he loves pushing around our hedgehog riding toy, he loves being anywhere near his big sister, and surprisingly, he loves snuggling, as long as he’s the one that comes to you, not vice versa. He despises having his diaper changed and he turns into an absolute alligator whenever you try.

I really can’t believe that he’ll be one in a month. We have so much stuff going on between now and then (like…actually a lot, not a sarcastic pandemic a lot) given that we’re trying to observe Advent and we’re looking forward to Christmas. It’ll be a fun month!

We love you, little buddy!

Ten Months of James

Every month post is getting a bit later here. For what it’s worth, the pictures were taken right at the month mark, so at least we know that much is accurate! This past month was a big one for James, so I didn’t want to let it go un-commemorated.

For starters, he took a few steps! He had been independently standing before the 10-month mark for a few seconds at a time, but then one day he decided it was high time to take standing up to a whole new level and add some motion to go along with it. I don’t know if I’d quite say it’s full walking, but it’s definitely an accomplishment nonetheless.

I had to take two sets of pictures…his regular white onesie was in the wash at first!

He also said his first and only word, which was “cow.” Elise and James and I were all sitting around the table at breakfast time, and we noticed that there were pictures of cows on several of our food items at the table. I pointed to each one and said “cow!” after each point, and then James just followed suit! His favorite non-word syllable is “gah,” so while it is a bit hard to differentiate between “gah” and “cow,” they were different enough that I’m pretty confident in calling it a word.

While the steps and the word were notable, his most significant accomplishment appears to be climbing on things. He climbs on literally anything climbable, which has led to some close calls. I don’t take my eyes off of him for a second when climbing structures are nearby, including things that are not your typical climbing structure. Example A:

Less you miss it while having a heart attack over his position, please take note of his expression. This is a very, very accurate representation of his approach to life, and I am here for it. Oh, you want another look at the rocking horse ascent? LET ME OBLIGE.

I should also note that I was closer at hand than this picture makes it look. He is always spotted. Gotta cover my bases in case some variety of mom police are out there.

He also climbs your standard things, like benches.

Last but not least, he sprouted two more teeth! We had some rough nights when they were coming through, although I think we’re mostly back on track after that setback.

So there you have it! Way to go, little guy.

Nine Months of James

Another month, another post. Also, another several days late…I think every month yields a later post. Hopefully I’ll get back on track by his first birthday!

James at nine months is a hoot. He figured out how to clap recently, and he likes to do it all the time.

He moves constantly, and one of his favorite activities is pushing Elise’s cart or rolling hedgehog toy all around whatever room he’s in. He gets very, very frustrated when he bumps into something and can’t figure out how to turn himself around, screeching and throwing a baby tantrum until I point him back in a direction with more room. Once he’s off again, he’s instantly delighted. Moods change on a dime these days.

He has a favorite book - In My Tree - that has a built-in finger puppet of an owl. He laughs and laughs when the “owl” says, “Whoo whoooooo!” and he likes to poke the owl with his finger.

When it comes to eating, he still has yet to meet a food he won’t try. He makes a disastrous mess every time he has a meal, but it pays off in the sense that he feeds himself until he’s full, and he eats what we eat and I mostly get to eat my food at the same time in relative peace. This month he’s seeming to really enjoy watermelon and pretty much any kind of meat…the little carnivore.

In addition to clapping, he also likes to both flap his arms all over the place and also thump them on things, including me. At bedtime he alternates between snuggling his head into my torso and then sitting upright and flapping both arms to thump my shoulders, which sounds somewhat painful but is really just funny.

Whenever we’re in a room with cabinet doors or drawers, he takes it upon himself to open them and explore their contents. He particularly likes the bathroom cabinet that contains a box of Q-Tips, but fortunately he has yet to dump them all out. In the kitchen, he goes straight for the drawer that contains all the kid cups and bowls, probably because they’re colorful.

Speaking of the kitchen, he’s earned himself “Dangerbaby” as a nickname - he figured out how to climb up Elise’s tower, which allows her (and I guess now him) to stand at counter level. I can’t turn my back for a second with him before he’s off to explore new heights.

He’s very pleased with his newfound abilities. And I think that’s all we have for now! I still can’t believe we’re creeping up on a year already…but I can’t wait to see what he’ll accomplish before then.

Eight Months of James

Well. I guess I only post on my blog once a month now. Here we are at eight months and James just keeps on growing!

Getting non-blurry pictures of this kid is becoming increasingly difficult. He’s on the move constantly, crawling like a speed demon and pulling himself up like it’s his job. He cruises around furniture with ease, transferring himself between coffee table and couch like he’s been doing it his entire life.

On his 8 month birthday, he both graduated to size four diapers and started making a new clicking sound, which is his new favorite thing to do. He clicks all the time, and seems quite pleased with himself for having figured out how to do it.

This month was also momentous in that he got sleep trained, which wasn’t the most fun process for three nights, but now that those nights are behind us, he goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:00, sleeps all night until between 5:00 and 6:00, eats once and goes back to sleep, and then gets up for the day between 7:00 and 8:00 am. I had been totally against sleep training with Elise, but after not sleeping through the night until 22 months with her and now seeing how much better we all are getting a full night’s rest each night, I’m totally on board with it now. Three (hundred) cheers for Taking Cara Babies once again.

He and Elise are also now sharing a room, which is fun! I have a few more decor changes that I want to make, but it’s nice to have an actual nursery room.

In other news, he also learned how to scale the staircase, which means we now have it blocked off with a pull up bar (very high tech) to make sure that he doesn’t climb up and/or fall down while my back is turned. Of course, that didn’t stop me from spotting him and letting him do a little exploration to document his accomplishment…

He also continues to love to eat almost any food put in front of him, and he seems to enjoy gobbling every variety of fruit, toast with peanut butter, bell pepper, and chugging water with particular gusto. I’m trying to capitalize on his enthusiastic food exploration now, since things change around the year mark, so we’re trying to get as much new food exposure as possible now.

Finally, he’s started really enjoying watching Elise play, and he tries to see what he can do with her, occasionally to her chagrin.

And with that, I think we’ve had enough of a report for this month (even though the report was two weeks late). We’ll return next month for more, although I hope to post at least once more between now and then. Huzzah!

Seven Months of James

This little guy is seven months old, and I’m almost two weeks late on reporting the details!

All of the photos this month are a little blurry because he won’t. stop. moving. The only times he stays still are either when he’s sleeping or occasionally when nursing, although the very second that he’s done he’s twisting his body out of my arms to be on his way again. He went from almost crawling at 6 months to speed-crawling and pulling himself up all day every day at 7 months. The only downside is that diaper changes are now nearly impossible, but we make it work.

He’s also been loving eating solid food, and seems to particularly enjoy Cheerios, shredded carrots, and freeze dried fruit. He also likes toast strips, which is both good and bad - within the last few days I’ve needed to give them to him just one at a time, or else he’ll stuff it all in his mouth and start choking, which is scary.

He’s also completely stopped using his bath sponge while bathing, which means that he’s in an open tub. It’s become one of his favorite activities - I fill the tub with only an inch or two of water, and he crawls around in the water, stopping every so often to lift his hand up and down over and over again to make a splash. He must really enjoy the patting/splashing motion, because lately he’s taken to doing it on any surface, whether it’s water, a table, or my shirt.

In terms of growth, James is busting out of his 6-9 month clothes and starting in on 12-18. At his last doctor’s appointment in between 6 and 7 months, the doctor noted that he was in the 99.9th percentile for height, and he has an appetite to match. Between all his growing and moving, I think he eats nearly as much as Elise does at every meal. He and Elise are starting to play with each other a bit more, which is fun to see. I’m hoping that they’ll be lifelong friends, and that they’re setting the groundwork now. She likes to give him a kiss before he goes to bed, which is particularly endearing.

He’s just such a delightful baby and it’s the best thing to see how excited he is about discovering the world around him. What a gift.

Six Months of James

I’m a few days late in writing this down, but James is now six months old! It feels like a lot has changed since last month, which is pretty exiting. The two main ones are that he has started sampling non-milk food and that he’s probably just a couple of days away from crawling!

He loves getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth, and hes managed to move his knees forward a few times already. He hasn’t quite figured out the hand motion yet, but he’s getting there! While he’s figuring that out, he’s conquered the army crawl, and he can wiggle his way from one spot to another in no time. I suppose we’ve reached the point where we actually need to baby-proof.

He can also sit up unsupported for brief spurts of time, although he’s liable to tumble backwards since he hasn’t quite figured out that there isn’t anything behind him when he’s in that position. Based on the fact that he’s nearly mobile, it looks like we’ll skip the potted plant phase entirely…sitting and crawling are happening simultaneously rather than sequentially. Elise did that as well, so it’s not like this is unfamiliar territory!

Sometimes you just need a break, you know? Also, look at all his hair! I realize that “all the hair” is relative, considering some babies are born with significantly more hair than he has now, but it’s fun to see it starting to come in.

James is still very early in his food-eating experiences, but we’ve checked off all the major allergens so far: he’s successfully eaten eggs, strawberries, and peanut butter with no reaction, and he’s also sampled red pepper, guacamole, a taco (which he loved), broccoli, pork carnitas, oatmeal, plain yogurt, sour cream, and a bit of bread. He may have also licked some bacon at one point. Essentially, he gets a little taste of whatever we have on our plates at every meal. He still hasn’t really gotten used to having anything with texture in his mouth, so his reactions are pretty amusing.

These days, it’s very hard to get him to stay on his back, which is particularly challenging during diaper changes and (to a lesser extent) baths. He just wants to practice crawling so much that he doesn’t have the patience to stay facing up, so I’ve resorted to handing him whatever object is both hold-able and nearby whenever I change him. Frequent objects have included diaper cream, a tennis-ball-sized plastic Playmobile tunnel piece, and a 1/2 cup measure. Aside from the diaper cream, I’m not sure why any of those things are nearby, but they hold his attention long enough for me to change his diaper like a ninja. Thankfully while he’s taking a bath, splashing his feet distracts him enough that his rollover speed is slightly slower.

If you want to make him laugh, either kiss his cheeks or brush his teeth. Both of these will reliably produce contagious giggling. I can’t wait to see what he can do by next month!

Five Months of James

The world feels a little bit heavy right now, so this post seems almost frivolous amidst all of that. So the quick facts are these:

1) James has started laughing all the time at all sorts of things, and it’s the best sound in the world.

2) After four months of hating tummy time, he now prefers to be on his stomach most of the time, and flips himself onto his stomach to sleep.

3) He absolutely adores being in the door frame bouncy seat that we have, and goes crazy every time I put him in it.

4) He seems like he might be starting to discover that his thumb is a nice pacifier. I’m torn about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

5) He’s wearing 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes, and has recently outgrown a pair of Elise’s old pajamas that she wore when she was between 6 and 9 months old.

The innocence of a baby is such a balm in a hurting world. The quarantine has been a tedious period of time, but the more recent racist altercations have everything in a more painful uproar.

As a result, I’ve had Micah 6:8 on my heart more than usual. My main job, as the mother of both James and Elise, both of whom are about as fair-skinned as one can possibly get, is to guide them to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their (and my) God.

Doing that behooves us to recognize the image of God in our neighbors, of every tongue, tribe, and nation. I pray for unity and reconciliation in our land, and that the country that these kids grow up in becomes one that is more just and merciful toward our POC compatriots than it has been in the past.

I’m not sure what else to say today. I’m hoping that between now and next month, things will both have improved and calmed down. 2020 has been…a year.

Four Months of James

What day is it again?

#quarantineproblems

It took me a hot second to realize that another month had passed. Fortunately, I paid just enough attention to the calendar to remember to take some photos during the daylight hours, and even get a blog post up on time!

All my photos are slightly more blurry this month, because he just likes to wiggle around! He successfully rolled over from back to belly at exactly 15 weeks, and has repeated it a couple of times since. However, being on his back is much preferred to being on his tummy, so he’s not too motivated to get all the way over very often. That said, he has taken to sleeping on his side, so I imagine that he’s pleased to have found a means to rotate himself even part of the way.

I’m also happy to report that my suspicions about teething last month proved to be correct - he has two bottom teeth! He was pretty miserable in the two days just before they popped through his gums, so I’m glad that the worst is behind him for those at least. He had a brief reprieve from drooling but seems to have started up again, so perhaps more teeth are on the horizon for him. Time will tell.

He has now mastered a wide range of vocal skills, his evident favorite being a sort of growly squeal that, in spite of “growly squeal” sounding dreadful, turns out to be rather infectiously joyous. Would that we all had such skills.

His two favorite activities seem to be lying on the floor to (visually) explore his surroundings, and standing up with a supporting hand or two. In fact, if he’s fussing, standing him up will almost always quell his agitation. Standing up also highlights the little rolls on his knees, which is adorable.

He naps like a champ and goes to bed like it’s his job, although he’s not currently spectacular at sleeping through the night. He’s typically up three to five times per night, so I’m tired. The fortunate thing about that is that he doesn’t need to eat every single time, so often popping his pacifier back in will do the trick.

Eventually, he got tired of his photo shoot today…

…so I guess that’s as good a place as any to stop. Until next month!

Three Months of James

Well…I meant to have at least one other blog post up between two months and three months, and considering we’ve been practically quarantined, I definitely had the time, but no dice. Next time!

James is three months old today!

He’s the smiliest baby there ever was. He’s also growing like a weed and has started inching his way into 6-9 month clothes. That’s been kinda fun, because the only 6-9 month clothing I currently have for him has come from Elise’s stockpile of baby clothes, so she definitely wore the onesie in these pictures.

Fortunately, white onesies are the most neutral of baby clothes.

In addition to smiling a ton, he has also started exploring his vocal range, which is adorable - he’ll tell you all kinds of “stories” that only he can understand. If you respond in a way that he finds particularly amusing, he’ll even giggle at you.

He spends a lot of time chomping on his hands and drooling, and I’ve actually thought that he might be teething. It seems ridiculously early, but I miiiiiight be able to see two bottom teeth just under his gums. I’ll report back next month to tell you if I’m delusional or not.

He has come very close to rolling over from back to tummy, pulling his knees up as high as he can and getting over on his side, although he hasn’t made it quite all the way to his stomach yet. He did manage to roll from tummy to back one time, although I don’t think it really counts because I had positioned his arms in such a way that rolling wouldn’t be terribly difficult.

He absolutely despises tummy time, and will start fussing within 30 seconds of being put down in that position. As a result, I’ve been quite indolent in my efforts to make sure he fits tummy time into his obviously very busy daily schedule of eating, playing, and sleeping.

He seems quite unaffected by the current quarantine situation, which is great. In fact, he’s probably benefiting from staying at home, when my natural tendency is to try to get out of the house at least once a day to run errands under normal circumstances. Instead, our near-daily outings have been limited to outdoor walking areas or our backyard, both of which seem decidedly healthier habitats for children than…say…Target.

His nicknames range from the normal (Jamie) to the slightly unusual (Guy) to the downright weird (Bubbo, Buddaboo, The Jamesophone). Those last three are limited to at-home use only, which is pretty easy these days. We’re all looking forward to the end of the coronavirus so we can visit with everyone again!

We love you, little guy! Keep growing!

Two Months of James

TIME FLIES when you’re growing by the hour. James is two months old today! We’ll get his stats for height and weight at the doctor tomorrow, so I’ll add a postscript at the bottom when that info comes IN.

His biggest accomplishment this month is mastering the art of the smile. He’s a smiley kid and will light up when you talk to him. He’s a little more skeptical of the camera, but he warmed up eventually.

As of tomorrow, he’ll be in size 2 diapers, and he’s started wearing 3-6 month clothes within the last two weeks or so. While his growth in length and width are impressive, perhaps even more impressive is the fact that he seems to be growing hair. I had expected him to be bald until he turned one or so, but he has far surpassed those expectations. In person it looks brown at the moment, although in the pictures it seems blond, so the color remains up in the air.

He remains a pretty good sleeper, which is again somewhat expected. We’ll see if that changes around four months, but I’m hoping for the best.

Within the past week has has acquired an appreciation for “standing,” where we hold him up and he holds most of his weight (although he’s far from balancing). If he’s fussy, it’ll stop his disgruntlement in its tracks and he’ll start smiling.

He likes to stick his thumb between his other fingers when he’s holding a fist, which is just sorta funny.

It seems like he’s going to have blue eyes, which is somewhat surprising given that only one parent has blue eyes. We were discussing over over dinner the other night how we thought it was supposed to be a statistical near-impossibility to have two children with blue eyes if one parent has brown eyes (anyone else remember the punnet squares of 10th grade biology?), and I guess he is still too young to say for sure that his eyes will forever be blue, but we do seem to be on that track.

We’re having so much fun watching him grow. It’s the best! Here’s to month three…

One Month of James

Look at this! Two blog posts in a row? HELLO, WORLD.

James is one month old, plus a little change. In fact, if we’re being honest, he’s actually closer to 1.5 months, but who’s counting?

It’s very fair to say that babies don’t do a whole lot in their first month of life, but the things that they DO do, they do with significant expertise. All that to say…he’s a champ at eating, sleeping, and pooping. We change a looooot of dirty diapers. I’d say his area of most success is sleeping, though - he sleeps in his own bed, in a swaddle, on his back , and puts himself to sleep! Considering newborn Elise slept completely unswaddled, either in our bed OR on her stomach in a pack and play, and had to be nursed to sleep, this is like a whole new world. I credit that success 100% to Taking Cara Babies, and I wish I’d had it as a resource during my first round of newborn care.

He’s typically sleeping a solid 6-hour stretch at night already, which I attribute again to Taking Cara Babies and also the fact that the kid loves his milk. He’s gained over three pounds since birth and has some adorable rolls to show for it.

He has started to smile recently, and though I haven’t yet caught it on camera, it’s possibly the cutest thing in the world. Overall he just seems like a pretty happy kid, although he’s also mastered the grumpy old man face and has a hairline to match.

He doesn’t have any unusual nicknames. Most of the time we just call him James, although I tend to call him Jamie when I’m talking either directly to him or to Elise.

At this point…I think that’s most of what there is to report. It’s exciting to see him sort of wake up a little more as each week passes! He’s our little buddy, and we love him so much.

As a bonus, Elise wanted in on the photoshoot action, so here’s a shot just of her, since she’s been upgraded to Big Sister. Enjoy!

One Year of Elise in Photos (x2)

I suppose this is a bit of a continuation of the birthday post, but this is basically all photos. Throughout the course of the year, I took two series of photos each month. One was the "real" set with a legitimate camera, and the other was in our Moses basket and with my phone. I was much more consistent on the date of the photos with the camera, but the basket ones are fun to see exactly how much she grew! And so here you go: the basket photos first, then the others. 

And then the camera photos!

I'm just milking all the birthday stuff over here. Don't mind me. You can expect at least one more...because she only turns one once, after all!

One Year of Elise

Elise turned one on Memorial Day, and we spent the first half of the day up in Vermont and the second half driving home. But while it wasn't the most celebratory day of all time, we still had a good time, and her real birthday party is next weekend! No doubt I will recap that as well. In the meantime, I did still take my normal volume of month stat pictures, and then I tripled that amount for good measure.  

Within the last month, she learned things in leaps and bounds! The most exciting one is that she is walking all over the place, and she seems delighted with her newfound ability to walk without holding on to someone's hand. I suspect she will move on to running in the next week with how fast she still likes to push her little cart. 

She's added some more words to her vocabulary, and uses them with great frequency. If you visit our house, you'll likely hear her say, "Uh oh," "Duck," and "Wowwwww!" The last one is most often employed when hearing, seeing, or thinking about the construction vehicles that are currently working on replacing our formerly rotten wooden retaining wall along our driveway. That's another story for another time. If you were hoping for a visual of her saying her favorite word, look no further!

In addition to the spoken word, she has also created her own version of the sign for All Done. She makes this sign when she has finished eating a meal, wants to get out of her car seat, or has woken up for the day and would like to get out of her crib. 

Since the weather has gotten warmer at long last, we've spent more time outside. She loves being out there, and this month she's discovered the singular joy of feeling the grass on her bare feet. She loves it, and we've already had several baths on non-bath days thanks to having dirt on her knees. I consider that a sign of a day well spent.

Her favorite food lately is cardboard. Yes, you read that right. While she often refuses tasty things like fruit, she will chow down on tags, board books, boxes, and church bulletins, and within seconds will tear tiny pieces off and swallow them if I don't catch her in time. Fortunately for the board books, she also likes reading, so I don't have to be quite as vigilant around those as I do around other pieces of paper. Nevertheless, most of her books have bite marks, evidently indicating to the world that they belong to her and her alone.

Her animal sound repertoire has increased, and in addition to lions and monkeys, she'll reliably tell you what owls and birds say when asked. Occasionally she'll remember what a cow says, so we'll be working on that one next. 

Her sleep has also improved lately, which has been wonderful. It had been rather terrible between 10 and 12 months, with a typical night including two or three wake ups and getting up for the day around 5:30. In the last couple of days she's only been waking once and sleeping in a little later, so I'm hoping that will continue. 

It's quite odd to think that this is the last of her month by month posts, since it seems a bit unusual to continue reporting beyond a year. Cue a barrage of thoughts about the speed of time. However, in lieu of actually writing those out, I present to you a stream of photos of Elise with a party hat or five. What could be better than that?

Happy very first birthday, sweet girl! We love you forever and can't wait to watch as you continue to grow.

Eleven Months of Elise

Elise is 11 months now! That came up quickly thanks to the fact that I didn't write her 10 month report until two weeks into the month. But a lot of things happened between 10 and 11 months! Time for an update.

In recent days, Elise has become slightly pickier in her eating habits. She's a big fan of spitting things out, but I read somewhere on some moms' message board - the best source of quality information, right? - that this particularly delightful habit is sometimes related to teething. That doesn't seem too far fetched because between 10 and 11 months she cut three teeth all at once! She's up to eight total, and it's changed her little smile quite a bit. 

She must have hit a growth spurt as well, because we used 12 month onesies for about two weeks before she needed the 18 month size. 

Last month I mentioned we were working on some animal sounds, but the lion was the only one that was consistent. Well, shortly after that, she mastered a monkey's sound as well! She's learned a lot lately - she's clapping, raises her hands when she hears us cheer, and if you ask her where your nose is, she'll point to it without fail. 

Her hair continues to grow as well, which is good - she doesn't get random strangers referring to her as "Baldie" anymore. But the best part about it is that as long as her hair dries right after a bath, she ends up with a single curl right on the top of her head. I'm just hoping it doesn't eventually descend down to the middle of her forehead, because there's a rhyme about that. 

Within the last week or two she's gotten especially good at standing independently, and now it's much more often on purpose than it was before. It's hard to capture in a picture since she's always on the move, but every once in awhile, I get lucky:

Her favorite activities include opening and emptying drawers, pulling all of her books off of her little bookshelf, pointing at anything she finds interesting, cruising around with her push cart, and, more than anything else, holding on to our hands and walking around the house. She'd do it for hours if she could, and she gets rather sad when we have to let go and do something else. In that case, she'll go back to her push cart, which she recently learned how to steer!

But her biggest accomplishment this month is that a couple days shy of her "month day," she took a step! It was only one, and at first she wasn't too happy about it, but she did it and she has done it several times since. 

We keep cheering her on with each new development. It really is amazing to see how a baby can go from being completely and entirely dependent on you in the first days of life to a little independent person all within the space of a year. I mean, let's be honest...she's still very dependent in most ways. But it's so much fun watching her personality reveal itself every single day. What a blessing.

And next month, she'll be one! Prepare yourself for an onslaught of pictures of Elise in a white onesie...with a birthday hat. 

Ten Months of Elise

We've made it to another month day! Happy 10 months, Elise!

Also, a note: a took her pictures on the actual day, but I have been remiss in my chronicling duties and am posting about it a week late. Alas! 

The most notable thing to occur this month was the big trip, of course. That included several milestones for Elise: first international trip, first passport stamp, first croissant, etc. But she's glad to be home now, exploring her familiar things and places, and she's growing like a weed. Her 9-month clothes are getting too short, and I'm packing up some of my favorite outfits in favor of ones that fit. While I normally start with the standard white onesie shots, I decided to first pay homage to her hedgehog pajamas with the matching hat, since they're going to end up in the storage box after their next washing.

She's been practicing standing all on her own more and more lately, usually when she's absorbed in something (like removing all of the books from her bookshelf). She has also expanded her vocabulary a bit, using more consonants and speaking in what sound like full sentences of gibberish. 

We also discovered that she has sprouted yet another tooth, bringing the total up to five. I suspect that the same tooth on the other side is on its way in as well, but she hasn't been complaining about it. As a result, it may be a little while before her mouth gets into a symmetrical state again. She's totally pulling off the look though. 

She has also been sampling a ton of foods! She'll eat whatever is on my plate, and so I've tried to become more intentional about making her a little miniature meals at mealtime so that she gets a substantial amount of solids each day. That works some days and other days she subsists entirely on milk, but since food is more for exploration than nutrition at this point, I think she's doing just fine. 

As of eight or nine months, she began playing games with people, usually with Chaz, where she leans all the way over to one side when she's sitting or standing and expects you to reciprocate. Once you've leaned over to match her, she'll lean the other way and wait for you to follow. She thinks it's hilarious and the game is typically accompanied with lots of smiles, babbling, and giggles. 

And whenever she's in the presence of a light blanket, you can be sure she'll play peekaboo with you. She pulls the blanket up so it's covering her face, and when you ask where she is, she'll pull it down with gusto and grin. 

She has also developed a strong affinity for climbing anything and everything that she can, so stairs hold a particular fascination for her. However, when stairs are not available, the nearest chair suits her just fine. 

Fear not; I rescued her immediately once things started heading that direction. 

When not climbing, her preferred activity of late has been reading, which I love. She sits on our laps to read, and when we get to the end of the page, she'll reach with her left hand (only - never the right) and turn it. She really loves lift-the-flap books, and her absolute favorite is Dear Zoo. She gets very excited when we begin, and her excitement culminates on the page with the lion. So much so, in fact, that when you ask, "Elise, what does a lion say?" at any point, she'll roar. It's the best. We're still working on monkey and elephant noises, since those are some of the other animals in the book, but having the lion noise down pat is pretty great. 

I think that's all I have to report for the moment. See you next month for another report!

Nine Months of Elise

So we're really late to the party here. Two weeks after the fact is a new record, I think, but it'll be documented nonetheless. This delay has been brought to you by a heaping dose of traveling with a baby, to be recapped in the near future. Hold on to your glutes.

9-month-old Elise is lots of fun. One day she woke up and started pushing her walking cart, stood for a moment by herself without holding on to anything, and figured out how to climb the stairs all within the span of a couple of hours. We bought a gate for the stairs that weekend, because if she's left to her own devices, she'll find her way there within minutes and make her way up. 

She is infinitely curious, and loves exploring details, often on things I'm wearing. Buttons, necklaces, and (rather unfortunately for me) glasses are items of particular interest, and she'll spend many a minute poking at them with her pointer finger. 

She continues try new foods in the form of whatever is on my plate, and seems to be particularly fond of eggs of and oatmeal. She also continues to be the most talkative member of the family, and has expanded her consonant sounds beyond mamamama, dadadada, and babababa to include nananana (we're still working on BATMAN). She also enjoys clicking her tongue and opening her mouth over and over, which almost makes a whispery papapapa sound.  

When she's especially excited, she inhales with a raspy sort of gasp that sounds like a mix between hyperventilation and wheezing, which seems somewhat alarming, but really she's just so thrilled with whatever she's come across that she can't help herself. 

She's started to think that toots are funny and giggles whenever they occur, and she also cut her top two teeth. We're up to four! All her developments this month have come with a side of separation anxiety, most often evident when she needs to sleep in her bed, so we're working on that. She very much has opinions about how things should be, and isn't afraid to show some displeasure when they don't go the way she expects. I think that will be a good quality later in life, but right now it's going to keep us on our toes. 

I really can't believe that we're already approaching her first birthday. This year has gone by in the blink of an eye, and even though everyone tells you that ahead of time, there's no way to know what it feels like until it's happening. But I guess we still have a couple of months before we get to that point, so I suppose I'll savor these last couple of months before her first birthday as much as I can. 

And that's all there is for this month! 

Eight Months of Elise

Another month has gone by, so yet again it's time to document!

This kid's middle name should be Active. She very rarely wants to sit still, because there's so much to explore and she's developed a bunch of skills to do so. She was crawling awhile ago, and shortly thereafter learned how to pull herself up, and she has never looked back. She pulls herself up on e v e r y t h i n g, ranging from our media console to the coffee table to the kitchen island to the couch to her crib rails to our legs, etc. She's gotten really good at balancing and it's not an uncommon sight to see her loosely pressing a single hand against her latest support. Pretty soon I suspect that she won't need the support at all and will stand up anywhere! 

She suddenly developed a fondness for eating solid foods, which is great, and for most meals she wants to be in my lap, eating whatever is on my plate. So far she has yet to encounter a food she doesn't like, although she was a little surprised the first time she tried a green bean. She proceeded to chow down on a few more after that, so that apparently didn't hinder her appreciation for them. She's a big fan of eggs, oatmeal, broccoli, guacamole, and prunes, of all things. She also very much enjoys every flavor of Puffs, which is a great way both to get her used to different textures and also work on her pincer grasp, even though they have very little actual nutritional value. When she's not eating food, she's trying to eat everything else, so she might be on teething round 2...

She seems to have hit another round of somewhat unpredictable night wakings, so we're all a little tired. However, she makes up for it by being a napping champ during the day, so that, at least, is great. I'll take what I can get when it comes to baby sleep! Eight months of this parenting gig has taught me that everything is a (usually short-lived) phase if nothing else, so we grin and bear it when it's sometimes a little tougher, knowing it won't last forever. 

She's also discovered some very fun tricks, including kissing (albeit very wet and with a wide open mouth) and dancing to music. She'll stop what she's doing and start bobbing her head along with the beat. We think it's one of her more adorable stunts, and it makes me remember to turn music on more often while we're at home.

She quite despises getting dressed and having her diaper changed these days, presumably because both activities require staying still more more than 0.5 seconds. She's generally become rather skilled at voicing her opinions over such things, but she counters that by being delightfully content and smiley when she's doing almost anything else.

I feel so lucky to be her mom. I hope she always knows how loved she is, and that we think she's the bees knees, forever and always.

Seven Months of Elise

Well, we've arrived at yet another month marker. This one snuck up on me. In all other months, I've started thinking of Elise as the upcoming month's age a week or two prior to the actual date. But this time? I thought she had a couple more days to go at least before she graduated from a half a year to a month plus a half year. 

This month brought with it a host of changes! She started crawling at six months plus three days, something I only remember with such specificity because the month change had happened so recently prior. While very exciting, I had rather been looking forward to the "potted plant" stage where she would happily sit on a blanket while playing with toys. No such luck for me. We went from stationary lying to very non-stationary moving in the blink of an eye, and there was no turning back. 

Our house converted from being quite safe to extremely hazardous overnight, and we're in the process of baby-proofing everything at the moment. In the meantime, we watch her like an overprotective hawk while she zooms around every conceivable area all the live long day. 

Within a week or two of crawling, she also decided she'd like to pull herself up to a stand, and we lowered the crib mattress ASAP. In lieu of having an easily accessible crib rail, she finds many a surface with which to serve her standing needs. The current favorite is a box of Costco wipes waiting to be stocked away.

She babbles all the time, alternating between syllables and growls to her heart's content. She's also sampled some "real" food this month, trying her taste buds at such exotic flavors as plain yogurt (with a touch of maple syrup), peanut butter (hooray for no allergies!), Thai massaman curry (hey, the doctor said to mash up whatever we were eating...), butternut squash and apple soup (sampled at our work's Christmas party), and avocado (which she despised). It seems that she appreciates many a flavor but hates any and all textures other than liquid, so we'll be introducing textured things later. That said, she does enjoy a good chomp on a whole carrot when the time is right. 

When she wants to sit still for long enough, she loves to read books, and I frequently watch her crawl over to her bookshelf to pat each book on the binding, apparently to signify her approval of the contents. As a result, several baby Bibles have made their way to the most easily-accessible shelf. 

She has a few favorite toys at the moment, and thoroughly enjoys time spent on her play mat.

However, she typically finds the tag on said play mat as interesting (if not more so) than the actual toys. 

She had her very first Christmas this month, and in spite of dealing with a bit of a cold during the festivities, she enjoyed herself and loved having her Nana, Papa, and two uncles around for the occasion. 

As previously stated in every month post since she's been born, we love her to pieces. She's the most marvelously delightful little girl and we think she's just the best.