A Letter to Elise at 15 Months

My Eleesey Boo, you are now a quarter of the way through your second year of life! You are funny, sweet, curious, and down right adorable. We all love you so much. Any time I look at you my heart melts with love for the precious little baby/toddler that you are! I can't believe how good you are and how much joy you bring to my life. It still amazes me how I fall more in love with you and your brother with each month that goes by. How is that possible?

I didn't want her nasty apple in the pictures, but she would cry when I took it away and that didn't bode well for photos. She didn't eat it, just carried it around.

At this age your personality shines through a bit more each month. We are starting to see some more of your spitfire side coming out. You are so funny with how you communicate at times, but you definitely let us know when you don't like something. You scrunch your face up, ball up your tiny fists, and scream. When you are tired you get really mad when we put you in your car seat and will bite at my Fitbit or anything we may be wearing around our wrists. You get a bit of a temper when you want to do something and we don't let you.

We rarely see that temper of yours because you are very compliant. If you start to do something and I tell you no, you immediately stop. Most of the time you try again right away, but still stop if I tell you no again. Your favorite is putting your foot in the dog water. Usually with a shoe on as I'm trying to quickly pack snacks and drinks so we can head out the door. You comprehend so much of what we say. I can ask you questions and you shake your head to respond for yes or no. You also follow commands like lay down, get down, no, lift your legs, arms up, simple stuff like that. You are really good at helping me get you dressed as well as undressed. It is so nice! The trickiest part of getting you dressed is finding your shoes. You know which cubby your shoes are in and constantly get them out and carry them around the house. It never fails that I can only find one of the shoes that belong to the pair that match your outfit! You also carry Carter's shoes around. Sometimes when we are getting ready to go I am searching for one of your shoes and one of Carter's! One day I put the swim bag by the door with your and Carter's swim shoes in it. Of course that meant when it was time to go each of you only had one shoe. I've gotten wise now and find your shoes before we need to go and put them up high where you can't reach!

You walked over and sat in the chair on your own.

 

 

Talking has taken a big jump this month. You say quite a few words and it's obvious you know what they mean. You regularly say mama, dada, Carter, Harper, oh no, and Benny. You also say mimi for banana which surprised all of us because that's exactly what Carter called bananas for the longest time but he stopped saying it before you were born so you've never heard anyone say it before. You have also said Oma and Opa as well as balloon which sounded like ba-oon. At the aquarium you pointed at fish and said fi-dee. You mimic Carter a lot and have said let's go when we were leaving the house. One day we were waiting on him so we could leave and you kept yelling, "Come, Carter!" I was so shocked I didn't think to pull out my phone to take a video until too late and you had decided you were done. I love the way you say Carter's name, it's so cute. In the evening when you hear the door chime as it opens you yell dada as you run toward the front door. It's the sweetest! Then once you get to daddy you turn and run away like it's a game.

You are such a little fierce firecracker too. You aren't afraid of anything (other than swings you freaking hate them and I guess water on your face as you flail your hands around when you get water on your face). You like to stand on the fireplace, climb on the bed, wrestle with Carter. Anything Carter is doing you want to do as well. You will straight up carry ice around without even acknowledging it is cold. One day you fell off the bed as I was running toward you and you just climbed right back on like nothing had happened. You also aren't afraid of anyone. That stranger danger phase has yet to hit you. You'll walk over to complete strangers and sit in their laps. You also love babies and smaller children but will grab their faces, noses, and ears. You've done it to me and it really hurts! It's the only thing you do that me telling you no doesn't have an effect on. Anything else you stop when I tell you no. That is something you do constantly and I have to follow you around pulling your hand away and telling you no as you reach for someone's face. I'm so ready for you to be over it! You love other kids though, so I hate that you do that because then they're afraid of you! When you see Addison you get so excited, stomping you feet and kissing her face. You also call your friend Finley by name.

Sister loves to run!

 

 

Much to my dismay you have figured out how to take the caps off markers. Carter's usually pretty good about putting them away but often forgets to put them up on the cubbies where you can't reach and leaves them on the table. You like to open them, put the ink end in your mouth and suck it or rip the tip off with your teeth. It's gross! You've also learned how to kick a ball and attempt to throw balls with them sometimes going behind your head which is hilarious because you can't quite figure out where it went. You now walk during the first part of our hikes and love it! You saw me brushing a My Little Pony's hair and then you started brushing your pony's hair. When daddy gets you ready for bed, he gives you the brush after he brushes your hair and you brush his sideburns. It's darling! You also pick your play comb up and comb your hair. Soon enough you'll actually have a decent amount of hair!

You are a little too good at sharing. You try to give your sippy cup to other people when we are at play dates. You also like to hand your toys to the dogs. If you ever eat while walking around instead of in your high chair, which we do sometimes for snacks, you try to feed your snack to the dogs. I've been showing you how to put things in buckets and then dump them out. You've just caught on that it's pretty fun to do. I was cleaning up the kitchen this morning and saw you had pulled a small cooler off the bottom shelf on our shelving unit and were filling it with tools from the play tool bench. You are so creative! You are strong too. One day we took a cooler with popsicles to the splash pad to share with friends. When we got home, you found the cooler and carried it all the way in to me because you wanted another popsicle.

Elise went over, got a book, and headed to her chair to read.

 

 

There for a while you were pulling dirty clothes out of your laundry hamper at bedtime quite a bit. We noticed you would snuggle them to fall asleep so we started letting you sleep with a blanket at bedtime as well as naptime. Right now you use a very lightweight swaddling blanket because it's so hot out! You are down to one nap a day for the most part. You act like you'd still like a morning nap some days but if we stay home in the morning for you to nap, you take forever to fall asleep. Sometimes you take a little nap during our morning run and sometimes you fall asleep on the way home from an outing and then sleep through lunch, eating first thing when you wake from your nap. My favorite is still getting you when you first wake up. You get so excited to see me, bouncing and stomping your feet. I love it! It definitely makes my day! Your afternoon naps are usually 2-3 hours long and you sleep from 7 or 8 pm until anywhere from 6:30-8 am depending on the day.

You are still a wonderful eater. You eat mostly anything. Sometimes you'll use your spoon or fork for a few bites but usually toss it overboard pretty quickly. You are fully weaned and did great with it. Every once in a while when you're tired, you'll pull my shirt out and look down it or plop your head on my chest and suck at my shirt, but we haven't nursed in a long time. Oddly enough I've leaked milk a few times in the past few weeks but I haven't nursed you in over a month which I thought was random.

 

My sweet Neesey Noo, I love you so! You are a good and easy baby and I'm so thankful that your challenges are different from those your brother posed. I like that you change it up. You are oh so sweet, absolutely beautiful with a loving heart and I couldn't adore you more!

Now on to daddy:

You have a little bit of a temper little girl! Now, when you're little, it cracks us up. When we take something from you, you are quick to let us know your displeasure. But, often times, you are very compliant and will even give us what you have when we ask.

You are also starting to communicate with us more and more. Just the other day, I asked you if you were done with lunch, and you aggressively shook your head no. I gave you another handful of blueberries and you were happy as a clam!

It is so much fun watching you play with Carter. Just tonight he was laying on the ground and you crawled over, got on his tummy, and started bouncing! You both laughed so hard. You guys play so well together it melts my heart.

You are also just now at the age that when you hear the alarm chime, you say dadda and come running to the front door. I love that so much!

I love you baby!!