Elise Update

Oh, Elise, our sweet baby and wild woman all rolled into one. She can be so chill and calm one moment and then the next moment she is running through the house, climbing things, and jumping off them. Ty still laughs about the day she was getting on the ottoman at the end of our bed and jumping off, grabbing onto the back of his shirt and hanging on him while he put clothes away in his drawer. She did it multiple times and had no problems with missing and falling to the floor. Sister has almost no fear! We went swimming one day and she walked right over to the side of the pool and jumped right in without any warning. She popped back up, thanks to her puddle jumper, and wasn't phased that she'd gone under water. The rest of the time we swam she wanted to jump in the pool over and over. When she wanted me to catch her, she'd call out for me before jumping. Thank goodness because she has a really bad habit of doing what we like to call trust falls and just jumps off something expecting one of us to catch her. She's had a few close calls when jumping off her changing table after a diaper change or off the bed.

Elise has serious dance moves and loves to dance. When a song comes on, she can't help it, she just breaks into a dance! My favorite move right now is where she takes her arms and spins them around in front of her. She knows I like it so she makes sure to incorporate it into her dancing quite frequently. She has definitely branched out from her previous dancing which used to be just hopping up and down over and over, although she still does that quite a bit as well. Dancing seems to always put her in a pretty good mood and even if she is being fussy, if I put the Trolls soundtrack on, she starts grooving. She's starting to learn some of the words to the songs and it's adorable to hear her sing along. There are a couple songs she recognizes by the intro and will sing the first few words before the singer does. It cracks me up! When Can't Stop the Feeling from Trolls plays she sings out "Just imagine," at the top of her lungs along with it. Another favorite of hers is Get Back Up Again. Her favorite part is to loudly sing "How hard can it be," when that part comes on!

 

She has picked up being a trickster from her brother and likes to do things and then say, "I trick you!" She especially likes to hide behind the curtains in the living room and jump out, saying, "I trick you!" Having an older brother has been helpful for her to learn her full name. Carter always introduces himself and her using their full names so now Elise knows both their names. She's said her full name a few times but, of course, never will when I ask her to. When she gets upset with Carter she calls him by his whole name which she pronounces "Carty Ty Coc." I can't help but laugh when I hear it! She's gotten more inquisitive and asks lots of questions. When she's watching a show or a movie she asks me lots of questions about what's going on or to verify what she is seeing or thinking. She does the same thing when we read books. She's gotten a lot more interested in reading books and will sit through multiple picture books in one sitting. She's also gotten to where she'll actually bring me a book and ask me to read it to her. As we read she gets excited to point out what she sees and recognizes in the pictures. Favorites to point out are dogs, cats, and birds.  

 

Sis loves to count and does a pretty darn good job. Sometimes she starts with 5 and will say "5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!" She doesn't always say all the numbers and when she skips one it's usually 4. Her favorite numbers are 8, 9, and 10 and that's the sequence she gets every time along with 1, 2, 3, unless she skips it. She's picking up more colors and will say pink, green, blue, red, and yellow instead of just calling all colors yellow. She rarely responds with a color name when I ask her what color something is but will tell me what color she sees when we're reading a book. She also says purple and it's so cute to hear. She knows body parts and facial features and will point to them when you ask. Belly is her favorite. She knows more shapes than I realized too. One day we were at the library and she was doing a shape puzzle. She kept saying, "Where tiangle?" Then she started looking around and found the triangle puzzle piece on the floor, exclaiming, "Here tiangle!" I was so proud that she could identify a triangle. She also knows circle and square. I'm curious to sit down and see what other shape names she knows, but I'm sure if I ask her she won't tell me. She picks up so much just from watching us and listening to us. She's so good about putting her dishes in the sink if there's food on them. I've also noticed her putting her empty plate into the dishwasher. I'll open the dishwasher to put dishes in and find her plate in the tray all caddywhompus which cracks me up.

 

Little lady has still been getting up early but sleeps until 7:00 most mornings, unless it's a weekend and we'd like to sleep in, those mornings it's 6:20! Now that she's been sleeping a bit later in the morning her naps are back down to 2 hours long. When she was waking up earlier in the morning she would sometimes take 3 hour and even 4 hour naps! I still rock her at naptime and before bedtime. Sometimes Ty rocks her at bedtime instead. When she wants to rock she'll say, "Mommy rocky me." When Ty rocks her he shows her kitty pictures on his phone. Sometimes I let her look at pictures on my phone. Now she'll tell me, "I wanna see Leese," because she wants to watch videos and look at pictures of herself. When she's putting herself to sleep while I'm rocking her, she'll grab my hand and place it over her face. She wants me to leave it there and if I move it, she'll put it back over her eyes and nose and hold it there. It is interesting but cute. She also uses a pillow now. I noticed at my parents' house she didn't have a pillow in her crib so she used her panda stuffed animal as a pillow. She still sleeps with Pandy, Teddy, and Otty. She's also added in her ballerina bunny from Aunt Mary and Uncle Kelly. She loves it! Her most prized bedtime possession is her blanket with pink and teal hearts. That's the thing she most needs to sleep although other blankets can substitute when need be. I've been so impressed with her ability to sleep even with key buddies or blankets missing. I will always remember desperate searches for Carter's favorite items at naptime or bedtime because he wouldn't sleep without them. That's not a problem with Elise, she just rolls with what she's got. But she does request a sippy cup with water now and says, "fresh," when I lay her down because she wants fresh water. She knows our bedtime routine so well. She loves to play mommy when I'm putting Carter down. She'll come in with us and grab his sippy, refilling it for him. Then she'll call for Harper and try to shut the door with me inside. It's pretty cute! When she gets out of bed she typically brings something out with her and carries it wherever we are. Sometimes it's her sippy, other times her blanket, and sometimes it's her ballerina bunny which she has yet to name.

 

Elise's imagination is really taking off and she does lots of pretend play. It is adorable and I remember loving it just as much when Carter hit this stage. It makes it even more fun this time because I get to see Elise pretending with Carter as they play. She loves to play with toy kitchen and is always quick to tell me things are hot. We were playing with our sensory bin and she told me the beans were hot. She always says it so firmly when she tells me something is hot. She also loves playing with her babies and adored seeing her baby cousin Wyatt when they came to visit. She was thrilled she got to hold him one morning and was even more thrilled to feed him some purees one morning. She loves to put diapers on her babies, feed her babies, and walk them in a stroller. One day she wanted to take her baby in her stroller on a walk when we went to the park. On the way there when we got to where the sidewalk ended and she had to walk on grass she turned and said, "Carty, your turn!" I thought it was such a clever way to get him to push the stroller through the grass for her! She loves to run and is always running around all over the place. She really doesn't have any fear when it comes to jumping off things and climbing. She's something else! She's also really into makeup and nail polish. She loves to paint her nails and is always finding and putting chapstick on. I got her to pose for pictures this time by giving her a colored lip gloss I found in my drawer that I never use. I have to keep my makeup where she can't get to it or she's all over it.

 

 

 

She still adores Carter and they get along really well most of the time but there has been more fighting this month. She's getting to an age where she's more likely to assert herself and Carter is adjusting to that. Before when he grabbed something out of her hand, she'd just pick something else to play with. Now she tugs back and it turns into a struggle. She is really good at sharing. If Carter asks her for something of hers or to have a turn with a toy she's playing with, she's quick to pass it over to him. But if he walks over and just grabs it out of her hands, which he has gotten really bad about, he better be prepared for a fight! Elise isn't one to shy away from a confrontation and can hold her own in pretty much any situation. She seems to expect it from Carter but doesn't as much from other kids. One day at the splash pad a boy kept slapping her cup out of her hand as she was filling it with water. She ignored him the first two times and I was walking over to intervene as he did it a 3rd time. That time she just stood there and cried. I was actually relieved to see that was her response because it's easier to work with than what Carter's response was at her age, which was to hit. I told her if the boy bothered her again to yell, "Stop it," at him and she was quick to stand up for herself after that. She is such a little sweetie and is typically quick to right a wrong. One day she yelled, "Go away," at me. Before I even had a chance to respond she told me she was sorry. 

 

 

We really haven't taken any big steps toward potty training yet. We've been putting her on the potty before bathtime and she'll potty and we do it other times throughout the day. She still likes to potty when we are out and about and Carter and I both go. A new thing for her is a fascination with poop. When she poops she asks me to see her poop so I hold her diaper out so she can see the poop in it. I think that may be helpful when we are ready to potty train because she'll be able to get a better look at her poop when she poops into the potty than when she poops into a diaper.

Now on to some random tidbits. When she sees me putting mousse in my hair she wants to put it in her hair just like me. I'll give her a little bit and when she tries to scrunch it she typically just pulls her hair. She used to be wonderful with brushing her teeth but is terrible about it now. She'll scream and scream and writhes around. Everything we've tried works for a couple days and then she's over it. Letting her watch something no longer works and having her show off how to brush for the dogs or someone else doesn't work either. I've started letting her brush her own teeth in the morning because she does a better job than I can do while holding her down with her writhing and the morning brushing isn't as important according to our dentist. I focus more on the evening one. Ty tends to take over there and she does infinitely better for him, not sure why, I've watched him do it and he seems to be a bit more aggressive with it than I am. Some days she just fights a little and other days I have to physically pin her down. Thankfully when she cries her mouth is open so I'm able to get it done pretty quickly. She still likes to floss though. For whatever reason she doesn't like band aids when she's actually hurt. She'll freak out and doesn't want me to put a band aid on her, even when she has blood running down her leg! But she asks for band aids randomly at other times or gets them out of my purse (so I never have any when we're out and about and someone gets hurt). She will bend over and kiss herself where she's hurt and that's pretty darn cute! I love my little Leesey Loo and am amazed daily at her strong personality and bravery! She is an amazing little girl and I love picturing how her personality will be an asset to her as she grows into a strong woman. I am thankful to be her momma, that's for sure!