A Letter to Elise at 17 Months

Little Miss Elisey Loodle Doodle, I cannot believe you are almost a year and a half old! I still think of you as being a year old even though you can do so much more now than you could in March! I was looking back at pictures of you from your birthday and I was cracking up over how little hair you had. You still don't have a whole lot, but back then you mostly just had hair down the middle of your head. It has filled out all over your head and is growing. The hair on the back of your head is so curly and precious, I love it! At least once a day every day you make me laugh so hard. Like today during your photo shoot when you repeatedly climbed over the side of your chair and hung upside down into the seat. You are the silliest and sweetest little girl and you bring us all so much joy. It is crazy how much you are talking and how much you enjoy copying sounds or words you hear other people make. My favorite is probably still how you say "cheese" when you hear me taking a picture or if I ask you to say cheese for a picture. The best part is that you don't always look at the camera and sometimes have your face turned completely away from me as you so sweetly parrot "cheese"!

 

It seems like you pick up new words on the daily. Right now your favorite thing to say is uh uh. You say it to everything and with some serious sass! It cracks me up because you say it even when the answer is yes. I'll ask if you are ready to eat dinner and you'll say uh uh and then take off to your high chair. The new words you've said that I remember are watermelon, water, and blueberries which you say "bbees". It's adorable. You also say excuse me when you toot and up please anytime you want held or want help up onto something. You meow when we play kitties which is darn adorable. Anytime you hear someone else meow, you start meowing right back. You've also figured out how to makes noise by blowing air through your lips and you do it all the time. You find all kinds of things to blow through and make noise. Your favorites are straws. One of my favorite moments this month was at a friend's birthday party. There was a water balloon fight and you were just running around with a water balloon in your hand the whole time. Someone threw a balloon and nailed you right in the head. You just looked directly at me with water streaming down your face and said, "uh oh," before taking off again. You were hardly effected at all. Your reaction cracked me up and I couldn't stop laughing!

 

 

I'm impressed with how much you take off each month as far as movement goes. This month you've started running all the time and so fast! We were at a playground and you were playing with a couple older boys. Then all the sudden you turned and ran. One of the boys said, "Whoa, she runs so fast!!!" You are a big climber. Pretty much anything higher than you, you attempt to climb. You love to climb up onto the windowsill in the living room. Sometimes you are afraid to get down and will stand crying until someone comes to help you. Jumping on the trampoline is one of your favorite things. You climb up all by yourself and just bounce like crazy. It cracks me up that you almost always jump on your tippy toes! You also just started standing on your tippy toes to grab doorknobs in an attempt to open doors. Most of the time it is Carter's door that I have shut so you won't wake him from his nap. You absolutely love waking Carter up from his nap. If I don't catch you, you'll just stand in his room by his bed making noises until he wakes up. Recently you've started making diaper changes extremely difficult. You either want to stand up, which I can somewhat pull off as Carter did the same thing when he was little, or lay on your belly. I haven't mastered changing your diaper with you on your belly yet. It's pretty darn tricky. Sometimes you lay there just fine if I hand you something to play with. Most of the really tricky times are right after you wake up. I've found it's easier to just wait until you either eat breakfast or a snack before changing your diaper as you aren't as difficult then. One day you were throwing a fit in your car seat when we were trying to go somewhere. You would not sit down and I didn't want to get you seated forcibly. I showed you the snack I had for you and asked you if you wanted it. You shook your head yes. I told you that you had to sit down to get it and you immediately flipped around in your seat and sat down on your hiney. Food is definitely the way to your heart most of the time! You love to ride your cars around the house. You used to just sit on a car and fuss until Carter pushed you around the house. Now you just take off on your own and can even go backward. You still enjoy Carter pushing you around if he's interested.

 

 

I've been amazed by how well you eat with a spoon or a fork already. You actually prefer to eat with a utensil most of the time. If I forget to give you a spoon or fork, you will cry while showing me your dirty hands. I'm impressed that you don't like dirty hands, that's something that never phased your brother until he was much older. Your fine motor skills continue to improve. You can write and draw with a pencil or a pen as well as markers and crayons. You get mad when I try to help you by pushing down on the pen to get the tip to come out. You like to do most things by yourself. You can also put Duplo blocks together and put caps on markers. You are so good at playing independently. Obviously you love to play with Carter, but you have no problem playing alone. You happily wander around doing your own thing much of the time. We have been impressed with what a good helper you have become. You put toys away and are so good at cleaning up. Today while I was taking your pictures, you found a box of outlet covers and opened it up, pouring them all over the floor, then you spent probably 10 minutes cleaning them all up, dumping them back out, and repeating the process over and over. In the evening when we are picking up the house you are happy to pitch in. It is so nice! You also like to put your shoes away and Carter's too if you can find them. I'll find one of your shoes in Carter's shoe bin and his shoes in yours at times. We were missing your silver moccasin for the longest time and I finally found it in the bench in the entryway where I keep my shoes. I should have thought to look there!

 

 

You love copying Carter and doing everything you see him do. It works out wonderfully most of the time because you do nice and helpful things you see him do. The only downfall is that you will jocky for position with toys and push or elbow other kids which is what he sometimes does to you. My favorite one that you do is copy him in the bath. You will put your hand by the soap pump and then rub your hands together and then rub them on yourself as if you are soaping up. If I put soap on your hands you will wash your hair and rub your belly to clean it. We use that time as an opportunity to practice body parts. I'll ask you to clean a certain body part. Sometimes you get it, other times you just wash what you feel like. One of your and Carter's new favorite games is for him to climb into your crib and you climb onto the chair next to the crib. You like to look in at Carter while he lays there and you play with each other through the slats. If we are out and about and I'm letting you walk, if I say stop or come back, more often than not you don't listen. If instead I ask you where Carter is, you immediately find him and head straight to him. You don't like it when he holds your hand and tries to get you to go with him, but you love to follow him around. If he's scared to walk down the hall by himself, he'll ask you to go with him and you'll go running along. It's so cute.

 

 

You have 8 teeth now, four on top and four on bottom. You chipped one of your top middle teeth this month. One Sunday evening you were really tired and kept falling down. Then Monday morning I noticed you had chipped your tooth. I'm not sure which fall it occurred on as you didn't have any you cried more after than any of the others. The tooth hasn't changed colors or anything so the doctor said not to worry about it. I feel terrible about it and wish it hadn't happened, but there's nothing we can do about it. Your sleep is still the same. You take a 2-3 hour nap and go to bed at 7 pm most days, some days it's closer to 8. You usually sleep until 7-8 am. It's rare for you to wake before 7 am. If you don't get enough sleep you fall a lot and are fussy, pretty typical baby stuff. I'm holding out hope that you will take to potty training earlier and more naturally than your brother. I've noticed that you have started crouching to poop sometimes. What's hilarious is that if I ask you if you pooped, you'll look at the ground behind you to check for poop even though you are wearing a diaper.

 

 

You absolutely love your blanky. You carry it around right after you wake up. When I go in to get you out of your crib, you point to it and say uh oh until I hand it to you. You also love necklaces and bracelets. It's so cute to watch you put them on. You also settle for medals and hair ties. Anytime I get a medal from a race with a ribbon, I put it in Carter's toy box to play with. You love to wear them and I've often times gotten you out to the car and found you still wearing one. You still love slides and will go down on your own. One day you went down before I was ready and I didn't make it down with you. It didn't go very well for you, but you just got up and went up the stairs wanting to go down again. Today you jumped on my lap to go down with me and accidentally hit your head on the side of the slide, but you still laughed the whole way down. Swings are still a no go. You enjoyed one for about 30 seconds one day and I got really excited but then you were totally over it. You also still hate having water dumped on your head in the bath and daddy says you act like you are being water boarded. Something silly you do is throw clothes in the bathtub while I'm getting your bath ready. You'll make multiple trips into Carter's room to grab clothes out of his hamper and throw them in the tub. It drives me a bit nuts but is pretty funny. We all love you so much, little Leesey girl! Thank you for bringing so much love and laughter into our lives. We appreciate you every single day!

 

 

Now on to Daddy:

Something you did just a few days ago really cracked me up. We had given you a doughnut and you were running around eating it, happy as a clam, when you tripped. Luckily, you managed to catch yourself. As you went to get up though, you realized that you still had the doughnut in your hand, you just stayed on your belly and finished the doughnut! It was so funny to see!

 

 

Watching you learn new things and pick up new habits is so much fun. You are now wanting to take ALL of your blankets and buddies with you when you wake up. And if I don't get them all picked up and given to you at the same time you say "uh-oh" and stare at the one still in the crib. It is so cute!

Keep growing, learning and having fun baby! Love you!