Happy Birthday to Elise ⇒
Ok, ok I've put this off long enough. Elise turned one two weeks ago. It has been an amazing year which can best be described in contrasts. It has gone by really fast yet I feel like I've been her mother forever. She is getting so big yet she seems so small when she's curled up in her crib sleeping. I've never loved anyone this much yet how can it ever be enough? I want to watch her grow yet keep her like this always. I want her to be strong and independent yet always need me. I am proud and humbled.
She weighs 21 pounds (7 pounds 9 ounces at birth) - 50th percentile for weight.
Magically, three days after her birthday, she started walking. She puts her hands up in the air and walks like frankenstein's monster but this is progress. She can take about 20 steps at a time now when she gets in a groove. She is obviously extremely proud of herself because I catch her with a big smile on her face just before she lets go of the furniture to take those steps. I expect by next week she will be walking everywhere instead of crawling. I confess I am happy that I didn't miss this great milestone. Erin was there to see it too.
Elise has never been a baby who laughed a lot. If you've met her you will know that she smiles constantly and that her mouth can't seem to smile big enough to illustrate her joy (or all her teeth) but we had to work pretty hard to get a giggle (or maybe we're just not as funny as we think we are). Recently though she has started laughing and squealing with glee all the time, especially when Erin throws her around like a rag doll. She likes us, she really likes us!
She knows 18 signs now, her favourites being FOOD and BOOK. She still doesn't say anymore words but even the one year olds I know who say a few more words than her don't know 14 words so we are still doing very well with communication. Remains to be seen if her sign language abilities will slow her verbal skills down but I'm not worried. She babbles a lot and sounds like she is having a very interesting conversation. Her day care provider, Anna, didn't know any sign language before so I had to submit a list of her signs: food, more, milk, help, cold, hurt, walk, oranges (which is the same for her as milk), shoes, socks, book, rabbit, dog, bird, bug, rain, bath, and sleep. Apparently she's been signing like crazy so Anna and her assistant Andrea are learning sign language pretty quick!
Elise has some funny little ways. I keep meaning to write about them but always forget. One of our favourites is that she likes to hold things by the very end and she takes great pains to get her hand in the exact position. For example, if she picks up a leaf outside, she adjusts and readjusts until her little fingertips are holding the very end of the stem. She does the same with her spoon which means she hasn't learned to feed herself yet because she picks up the spoon by the very end then taps it on her food. It is bizarre. My friend Kristen thinks she is learning about the limits of things. She also likes to climb over things instead of going around them. For example, last night Erin and I watched her climb up onto a little basket, which took a while because it is not a big basket, then climb off on the other side. This basket is maybe a foot and a half long, 8 inches across and 6 inches high. Funny! The other funny little thing is that I keep my tea towel hung on the handle of the oven. She comes into the kitchen, pulls it off and leaves it on the floor. She doesn't even play with it. The whole point is just to take it off the oven.
She can also climb down from heights now and knows to turn around and go feet first. She learned this in one incident. Erin taught her ages ago to get off the couch head first while he held her feet. She learned quickly what happens doing this unassisted when she went head first off our bed (on my watch of course!) Thankfully she wasn't hurt but it scared her enough to try it feet first later that day and hasn't looked back since.
Now it's time for the teeth report. She has 11 and we are just waiting for the 4th molar to appear. Actually, it may be there already but it is risky to put your finger in to find out so we have to wait for her to open her mouth when her head is at the right angle to see it.
Her favourite activities haven't really changed. She still loves to play the couch chase game. She loves going for walks to the park and it is a great day if we see anyone out for a walk with their dogs. Even more of a bonus if we see bunnies at the park. She loves playing on the slide at the park and of course, climbing on the equipment. This translates to stairs if available as we don't have any at our house. She also loves to read books and can sit for quite a long time with someone reading to her. She uses her signs to interact with us while we are reading. I recently introduced a couple of Baby Einstein videos. She loves Baby Neptune about water and also likes Baby MacDonald's Farm. She especially loves the puppets on these videos.
Socially she is going through a phase where she doesn't want other kids or babies touching her. This may change quickly at day care. She loves adults who play with her though and is extremely cuddly.