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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Fair Oaks Chicken Festival Photos

Elise ready to chase the chickens!
 
Holding up her festival signs

Posing with the giant chicken

Chicken lady!

One of many feathered residents

A couple weeks ago, Elise went to her first Chicken Festival with mommy, daddy, grandma and grandpa. I must admit we had never heard of the Fair Oaks Chicken Festival before, but we were certainly glad to have made the discovery. Wild chickens roam free in Fair Oaks Village, so it's nice to know the town has put together a celebration in honor of its feathered residents. It was a very fun little town festival, with plenty of entertainment and free roaming chickens to keep Elise sufficiently entertained for the afternoon!


Grandma's favorite band Mumbo Gumbo

Stuffed chickens :)

Ordering around the chickens
   
A guinea pig enjoying the festivities
  
Having fun!

She did her best to catch this chicken

Official Chicken Festival T-Shirt :)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Baby Play Time

She wanted to climb up the slide rather than go down

Exploring the play area

Daddy helping her down the slide

The last time we let Elise loose in a mall kids play area, she was still crawling and unsure of how to react to the unfamiliar surroundings. After being swarmed by bigger kids attempting to play with her, she ended up quickly crawling back to mom and dad's feet for rescue. A couple weeks ago, we brought her once again and this time around she loved it! She had a great time exploring all the activities in the play area and even made some little friends, who showed her the ropes around the playground. It was fun to watch and in the end she didn't want to leave!


A little encouragement to explore

And she's off

We got the stinker face when we tried to get her to leave!

At home and taking control of the remote as usual


Friday, September 10, 2010

Elise's One Year Photo Shoot


Mommy and Elise

I finally got a chance to upload Elise's one year photo shoot album! The photos turned out beautiful and I can't thank Mattu, my good friend and photographer, enough for spending the day with us and capturing all the adorable candid moments between mommy and her baby girl. I was going to post just a few favorites, but to be honest I love the entire album and you can view it in its entirety below.


Elise's 12 Month Photo Shoot

Friday, August 20, 2010

13 1/2 month update!

Cutie pie Elise at 13-months

Elise walks everywhere now. She started walking unassisted right around 12-months-old and for a few weeks after that she would teeter around the house very gingerly. She has since become a pro and is on the verge of running. Mom and dad will be chasing after her sooner than expected!

At 12-months-old, Elise was already saying five words regularly: mama, dada, baba, cat and up. At 13-months-old, she has now expanded her vocabulary to over 20+ different words. She's added words like banana, dog, ball, down, book, apple, car, fish, bird, bunny, hi, bye, uh-oh, daddy and mommy among others. About 23% of 13-1/2-month-olds say over 10 words, so she is a bit ahead of the curve in terms of her vocabulary! We're at the point where she learns a new word on a daily basis.

Daddy and mommy are amazed each day by how smart she is. She can already count to three. She says it as, "un, tooo, fee", it is pretty darn cute. At first, we thought she was just repeating it back until she actually started counting her toys, and other items around the house, without any guidance from us. I was reading to her this morning and when I pointed out objects in books she correctly identified dog, banana, apples, and even did her best to say octopus (it came out more like octo-pol) but still impressive nonetheless! For alligator she points to the photo and says "grrrrr". It is very cute and certainly a video worthy moment!

Elise now goes to daycare three days a week. It is great for mom and dad, as we are able to get more work done, but best of all Elise really enjoys getting to spend time with her little friend Lillie.

She loves hide-and-seek and squeals with delight whenever we discover where she is hiding and chase her around the house.

She likes to squint her eyes, pucker out her lips and turn her head when she doesn't want to eat something we offer her. We now have to trick her into eating her food by acting as if we are eating it.

She has learned to give kisses! When she gives kisses, instead of puckering her lips she just curls them inward and smacks her mouth together. It is pretty freaking adorable.

She started singing at around 12-months-old. She has the cutest little singing voice. During car rides, she will sit in her car seat humming and singing to her own little tunes.

Elise got a hold of mommy's cell phone and made her first (and hopefully last) 911 call. The officers actually showed up to our house. It was pretty embarassing to admit our 13-month-old was the culprit!

She is on a primarily solid food diet now with three glasses of whole milk a day. She's tried just about every kind of fruit and vegetable there is. Her favorites are bananas, peas, avocado, squash, grapes, macaroni and cheese, tomatoes and of course her cat cookie graham crackers. She likes her graham cracker cookies so much, she went as far as to dig them out of her food bag and eat them all while mommy left the room for a minute. Bananas are her # 1 favorite food and she will go to the refrigerator and ask for them by name!

Enjoying the outdoors

Elise's art from daycare :)

Monday, August 16, 2010

Our Simpson makeover

We've been Simpsonized! Unfortunately, toddler bodies weren't an option, so little Elise grew a few feet and is sporting a mini Marge do. Isn't she cute!?! haha

Simpsonize yourself at: http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html

Sunday, August 8, 2010

California State Fair Photos - Day 2

September 11th tribute

The granite sphere fountain - a tribute to the fallen

The sphere rotates above the water to display all the names

Elise has no interest in visiting the land of Shrek

With grandma watching the old TV sets

BEEP! BEEP!

Toy Story 3

We took little Elise to the California State Fair for the second year in a row. We made our first family trip last year when she was only a couple months old. Nothing, aside from milk, holds the attention of a two-month-old, so Elise definitely enjoyed this year's festivities quite a bit more. She loved pointing and grinning at all the animals, and used her growing vocabulary to correctly identify every "bird" and "bunny". We are working on "guinea pig", to please Aunt Darcy, but that one may take more time.

Trying to teach Elise all about guinea pigs
  
 She was more interested in the birds as they talked back

The parrot who said "hello" to her

Elise saying "hi" to the goose; he didn't talk back
 
She loves bunnies!

A Mayan temple at the fair :)

Elise checking out the tortoises

We dubbed this tortoise "Sleepy"

Tokay Gecko

Veiled Chameleon

Chocolate covered bacon; bringing fair food to a new level of unpleasantry

Elise with daddy and her uncles before the concert

Elise wanted daddy's ice cream all to herself

Monday, August 2, 2010

California State Fair Photos - Day 1

Flintstones - complete with baby Pebbles :)

Checking out the Raptors
 
Yep, the baby already wants to drive

Daddy protected Elise from the vicious animatronic dinosaurs

Transported back to the caveman era

Ready to see the exhibits

Mommy and Elise at the animation exhibit

Elise met Buzz

Kung Fu Panda!
 
Enjoying the music, while Elise enjoys her bottle
 
The Fab Four - Excellent Beatles Tribute Band

 Zuri and Elise

Amusement park

The end of a fun day!