Elise Update

I'm a little late getting this update posted due to Thanksgiving and then our family cycling through sickness. Then I had trouble with our nice camera so I ended up last minute taking pictures on my phone. I wanted to go ahead and get this one done because I missed last month and I had a lot to document about Elise's ever changing and growing personality. She is such a bundle of fun and leaves us laughing daily. She is so sweet and kind and she has really grown into a loving and sweet, little girl.

I wasn't able to use the nice camera this month, so these pictures are from my phone.

Elise still loves babies and plays with her baby dolls a lot, kissing them and being sweet to them. She is so careful to put them in the stroller just right and is always sneaking kisses on their heads. It is the absolute cutest! She calls anything small a baby and refers to her potty chair as a baby toilet. That may be why she still prefers it to the regular-sized toilet when at home. We used a family restroom at Wal-Mart that had a smaller toilet and a regular sized toilet. She said, "Awww, baby toy-lit!" and then bent down to hug the toilet. Yuck! She also still refers to my parents' puppy, Garo, as Baby. He is now bigger than Harper but she still calls him baby and tries to get him to sit in her lap and snuggle. He is so much bigger and more grown up that he doesn't sit still for long periods of time but that doesn't stop Elise from trying. I got canned mandarin oranges and she referred to those as baby oranges. She will dig through grapes, carrots, and broccoli looking for the baby grapes, carrots, or broccoli. It's so cute. Then she'll say, "Awww, baby gape (or whatever it is)," snuggle it to her face and then eat it. Whenever we read a book where a child is in the picture alone, she's always very concerned about where his/her mommy is.

Another thing she has picked up and loves doing is telling knock knock jokes. She and Carter will sit in the car telling each other knock knock jokes the whole drive. Elise's go to is always to say "kitty" when you say "who's there." Then when you say "kitty who," she responds with, "kitty booty." She is still caught up with trick or treating and wants to play trick or treat. She'll say, "tick o teet" and then when I pretend to hand her something she says, "thank you!" She says anothy for another. She'll say it in place of more. When she's eaten all her grapes, she'll say, "Anothy gapes, mommy." It is pretty darn cute! When I rock her before bed she just chats away. She'll tell me all about her day and often tells me the same story over and over. For a while she was telling me, "Carty goes to a house and says tick o teet. Then I say tick o teet. Then we say thank you!" One night we went to take care of Thomas' dogs because he was out of town and she told me, "I go to Uncie Taco's house but I not see Uncie Taco." It's not what she says that's funny, it's how she says it. She uses her hands to express herself and really flaps them around as she talks. I always end up rocking her for longer because I am enjoying her stories so much!

Even Thomas was commenting on how sweet and affectionate she's been lately. She gives lots of hugs and kisses. Every kiss and hug seems so genuine and love filled. One night she kissed me and when I said, "I love you," she said, "I love you so much." Then she whispered, "I love you the best." It melted my heart! She has a way of wrapping her arm around my neck and giving me the sweetest, most genuine hug! She's picking up so many words and phrases and talks so much now. It's pretty rare for her to say something that I can't understand. But, I swear, when she does, it's in the car and she has a meltdown when I can't hear/understand her. Carter did something naughty one day and got in trouble. Elise wanted me to pick her up and when I did, she said, "I'm sorry that happened to you." It really reminded me of how much the kids are listening and how they pick up so much of what we say.

Elise is so physically capable. She can do lots of tricks that Carter has a hard time mastering. She can spin around in a circle. She was trying to teach Carter and was so sweet with him. She'd say, "Not like that, watch me Carty," then she'd model for him. She kept telling him, "Good try, Carty! You get it!" It took him a few tries but he was eventually able to do it. Her newest goofy trick is standing on one foot like a flamingo while hopping up and down. I had never seen her do it before and my parents were visiting and mentioned it. I asked her to do it for me and it was hilarious. I have no idea how she does it! She doesn't even wobble or start to fall at all. Carter can't do it nearly as steadily or sure footedly as her, it's amazing!

She grasps her pencil, crayon, or marker really well and already holds scissors appropriately. She can't cut on the line, but she sure can cut with them! One day she got ahold of scissors somehow, I thought they were all hidden, and cut up a puzzle bag for the puzzle Carter was putting together. She absolutely loves to draw. If you hand her a coloring page, she'll flip it over to the blank side so she can draw instead. I'm amazed at the progress she has made with her drawing just in the past couple of weeks. She told me she was drawing a kitty one day and actually drew legs coming out of the circle body. I couldn't believe it! Most of the time she just draws a bunch of circles. They are her favorite thing to draw right now. She can stand or sit contentedly drawing for long periods of time. She still draws on herself and other stuff she shouldn't at times. When I was sick I let the kids draw on the couch while I caught up on some cleaning and I caught Elise drawing on the couch!

She loves Carter so much and is so sweet to him! She'll tell people, "I have a Carty! His name is Carty Ty Coc." She says Carty like it means brother. I've heard her ask people if they have a Carty, meaning to ask if they have a brother. If Carter does something naughty, she'll yell, "Carty Ty Coc!" One day I spilled something and she reprimanded me saying, "Mommy Ty Coc!!!" I cracked up over that one! She'll also say, "Daddy Ty Coc," which is funny since that's actually Ty's name. She gets onto herself by saying, "Elise Kay Coc!!!!" She's a pretty tough critic of her past behavior. Recently she's switched to saying, "Mommy Kay Coc," when she thinks I have misbehaved. I think it's cute she's made the distinction between male and female and the males are Ty Coc whereas the females are Kay Coc. When Carter and Elise watch tv before bed she wants to sit right up against Carter and snuggle him. If he moves to a different chair, she follows him. She is such a snuggle bug. I love that about her. She's the sweetest about moving close to you and snuggling in. She'll come stand by me and yell, "There's no room for me!" Then she'll plop down on my lap once I've arranged my legs how she wants. When we read books before bed she always wants to sit in my lap but insists on looking at a different book than the one I'm reading to Carter which makes it hard to see the words in the book I'm reading. She also likes to turn off the light as I'm reading which is pretty irritating for both me and Carter. She's her most mischievous during our bedtime routine, go figure! Just recently she's started pulling Carter's hair when they get into a tussle. Her strength and ability to grab on and not let go is crazy! They get along really well, but like all siblings have their moments. I'll catch them hugging while whispering into each other's ears, "I love you." It really doesn't get any better than that as a parent!

 

Elise's relationship with her friend, Charlee, is so darn sweet. I met Charlee's mom when the girls were just a few months old and they've been friends ever since. We do weekly playdates and often see each other multiple times a week. When we drop Carter off at school Elise will say, "We see Cha-lee?!" We do see her most Tuesdays and Thursdays. When we make it somewhere we'll be meeting Charlee before they get there, Elise gets so excited yelling and dancing when they arrive. She refers to Charlee as "my Cha-lee" and Charlee refers to her as "My Leesey". I love their special friendship. She's also very close with my best friend's daughter, Addison, and calls her Addy. I love that Elise and her 2 best friends all have rhyming middle names with Kay, Rae, and Mae. They also have very similar birthdays with March 21st, April 20th, and May 22nd. It's wild! Unlike her friends, Elise still refuses to wear anything in her hair and doesn't like me to pull it back out of her face. Then she goes around all day brushing her hair out of her face with her hand. If I do pull her hair back she will rip chunks of her hair out to get the offending bow, clip, or tie out of her hair. If I'm lucky, she might leave it in for a few hours.

 

When we are out and about and people try to talk to her, she usually engages them with, "I sick," or "I have a ouchie." She burned her hand on a cookie sheet and for weeks after it healed was still telling people she had an ouchie and showing off her arm that was healed. When Carter's with us, she's really friendly and will interrupt him to yell gibberish at strangers. If it's just me and her, she often times just turns her head away and ignores them or hisses at them like a cat. So her social skills are all over the place and vary depending on who is around. But if she does want to talk, she will chat you up and tell the most hilarious stories. Just yesterday I got home from the doctor and Ty had opened the crock pot while I was gone, getting burned by the steam. She came running up to me and told me, "Daddy say hot, hot, hot!" I got the whole story from Ty and he hadn't just said hot, hot, hot but thankfully that's what she took from it. He said after he burned himself she said, "Daddy I sorry that happen to you." She's just the sweetest and I love her so much. Some days I stop and look at her laying on the ground or standing on the stool and my breath is taken away by how big she is. My baby sure has grown up! While it's hard to see her grow, it's wonderful to have conversations with her and to listen to her knock knock jokes. She really is a light in my life! Carter is already talking about and helping Elise plan her birthday party and I can't believe she will be 3 years old in just 4 short months!