Nine-month growth update

Elise had her nine-month checkup this afternoon. She is now 29 3/4 inches (95th percentile) and 18 lbs 5 oz (25th - 50th percentile). Dr. Jammal was surprised at all her energy and the fact that she is already standing and walking supported. She was also impressed with how vocal she is. She commented that she looks like she will be an early walker and talker. Mommy and daddy now think she may start walking around 9 1/2 - 10 months. We are eagerly awaiting that first step!

In other growth related news, Elise now has eight teeth! Four on top and four on the bottom. She still has three months to go before her first birthday and at this rate it seems like she may have a fairly full set of chompers all before she turns one-year-old.

Nine-months-old and on the verge of toddlerhood

Nine-month-old Elise

The dishwasher never ceases to entertain

Elise turned nine-months-old yesterday. It’s hard to believe that our once tiny baby girl is now on the verge of becoming a toddler. At this point, it is difficult to keep up with all Elise's latest milestones. Each day, she learns something new and more of her personality shines through. She gestures, dances, climbs, plays independently, giggles and squirms in excitement, eats finger foods, chases the cat, gets into everything she shouldn't, and is on the verge of walking and talking. She continually surprises us with her strength and drive. She is becoming such an adorable little girl, both in appearance and personality.

Mom and dad are in agreement, that our favorite new milestone is her dancing! One day, out of nowhere, she just started swaying back and forth to her music. We would love to take credit for passing on our intrinsic rhythm, but anyone who has seen us dance knows that is NOT the case. Elise has her own natural rhythm and we just enjoy sitting back and encouraging her to develop new moves!

While Elise is 99% little angel, she does have her little stinker moments. In fact, she had her first mini-fit this week when I wouldn’t allow her to grab my plate of food. As I was eating she kept inching over and making her best attempts to snatch the plate right out from under me. I blocked her a few times until I finally had to put the plate up and out of sight. Elise yelled at the top of her lungs, fell to the ground and started kicking out her feet and flailing her arms. It was the funniest sight imaginable and the expression of frustration on her face was priceless. I was floored as it took me by complete surprise. Fortunately, I’m laughing at the moment…get back to me in a couple years and I’ll let you know if I'm still laughing.

Close to outgrowing her jumper

 Our messy little eater

99% little angel

I do have my moments of stinkerness :)

Into the wild

Elise and Maya

Playing ball

Clapping together, so cute!

Elise now thoroughly enjoys the company of other babies and kids. She visited with her little friends Maya and Max about a week ago and had a wonderful time. She laughed, smiled and was kept fully intrigued and entertained by Maya. 

She also recently experienced her first large group play time when we took her to the mall and let her roam free with the other kids in the play area. It was fun to watch her reaction. When we first put her down to play, many of the kids ran up to her smiling and a few of them got down on their hands and knees to crawl around like she did. She froze for a minute turned and looked at us, then back at the kids, then us, then back at the kids again and repeated the process over and over. Initially, she gave the distinct look of stranger anxiety, there were a few times when we were sure she was going to cry, but thankfully she didn't. She really wasn’t sure what to think and after a few minutes she came crawling back to us.

The entire time we were watching her, we couldn’t help but think of those nature show narrations. It would have gone something like, “Mother and father release the baby into the wild. The baby, not sure how to react, freezes and looks to its parents for guidance. The baby studies the new subjects, who share her general appearance yet vary greatly in size and behavior, and in the end decides to seek comfort by crawling back to the feet of its parents. The baby survived, albeit a bit wary of her surroundings, but ultimately more prepared if, in the future, a similar situation should present itself”.

Mom's the word!

Elise and "mama"

After saying "dada" for the past few weeks, Elise has finally learned how to say "mama", which is cause for some serious celebration! It has since become her new favorite word and daddy is slightly envious :).  The best part, is that she understands the meaning! Whenever she wants my attention, she reaches up for me, curls her lips inwards and utters "mama" over and over again. It is so thrilling to finally be addressed as "mama". I couldn't be more proud and in awe of my baby girl!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day greetings from our little good luck charm!

And the first word is...

Yep, I'm a daddy's girl!

Elise has been babbling up a storm for the past few months, leaving us eagerly wondering when she would say her first word. Well, the time has come and her first word is "dada". Daddy is very proud, and has enjoyed teasing mommy saying, "she said dada first!". Of course, daddy has been training her since two months to say dada. He would sit with her in his arms and repeat, "dada dada dada" over and over. She would widen her eyes and smile each time he did this. It now appears that his hard work has paid off as she says dada all the time. She started out by referring to everything as "da" and has now progressed to "dada".

It's still debatable whether she knows that daddy is "dada". Daddy swears she knows, but she pretty much refers to everything as "dada". When I make her a bottle, I call her by saying "baba". No matter where she is, she will immediately crawl out to the kitchen to fetch her baba. When she grabs for her bottle, she excitedly says "dada dada". It is so cute!

Our future chatterbox

Another adorable thing Elise started doing, is babbling and pointing while we read to her. When we read aloud and emphasize words to her, she babbles back and tries to repeat what we say. Of course, it usually comes out as "dada", her most favorite word. However, every now and then she will repeat the word very closely. It is so exciting knowing she is on the verge of speaking!  

Her babbling gets cuter by the day, and she now often reaches up to touch our faces while she babbles. It is almost as if she is speaking directly to us now. She will smile, reach up, uncurl her palm and softly touch my face while she babbles in her own little language. It is so precious and I just love the feeling of her soft little hand caressing my face. When I look down at her smiling face, I’m satisfied in knowing that she is feeling the same intense love and joy that I experience with her!

Elise now points and babbles during storytime :)

Elise's first trip to the beach!

Intrigued by the sand

Last weekend, we took our first long road trip to Southern California (Carlsbad and Santa Barbara) to visit family. In Carlsbad, Elise got to visit with her favorite red haired auntie and Starbucks lovin' uncle :) She also took her first trip to the beach. She enjoyed watching the waves and playing with mommy and daddy in the sand, but as soon as we dipped her feet in the cold ocean water the tears started flowing. Luckily, daddy has the magic touch and was able to calm her down immediately. She definitely enjoyed her visit and was such a good girl the entire time. Some of our favorite memories from our trip were: Elise eating her first lime, Aunt Robin's amazingly delicious chicken tortilla soup, curling, curling and more curling (heheh), playing in the sand at the beach, and Elise's newfound dance moves!

We love those chubby cheeks!

Enjoying the beach

Bird of Paradise

Playing with her new bunny from Aunt Robin

After we said our goodbyes in Carlsbad, we headed up to Santa Barbara so little Elise got a chance to visit with Uncle Colin and Devin. We made another trip to the ocean (only a three block walk from Uncle C&D's house). Of course, we also made it a priority to watch the U.S.A. vs. Canada Olympic gold medal hockey game. Great game, but damn those Canadians with that game winning shot!

The beach is just three blocks from her uncle's house!

Hummingbird

The view down Goleta Beach

One of the brightly painted fraternity houses

Daddy and baby girl

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After the baby stinker face post, I figured I should post up a super cute photo for good measure. It doesn't get much better than seeing daddy make our baby girl smile!

Meet baby stinker face

Watch out for baby stinker face!

Elise has a new alter ego: baby stinker face! She scrunches up her nose, squints her eyes, raises her eyebrows, and puckers her mouth to make the funniest little face imaginable. Sometimes she even sticks out her tongue and pants loudly in and out through her nose to add to the stinker face effect. For the past few days, she's been proudly displaying her mischievous little stinker face, it is absolutely hilarious and has left both mom, dad and everyone else in stitches. Mommy thinks that the stinker face may be a result of her one and only pregnancy craving; lemons! Could it be that eating all those lemons has turned little Elise into a sourpuss? :)  

The stinker face strikes again

Elise also achieved yet another exciting milestone this week; she has learned how to clap her hands! She now loves to show her excitement by clapping her hands together while smiling and giggling. It is pretty darn precious as expected.

You have to earn my applause ;)

7 1/2 months - Forget crawling...standing and walking is the future!

Crawling is for babies, I'd much rather stand!

Today, Elise crawled across the floor, grabbed my pantleg, pulled herself up to stand and then reached up for me to pick her up. It was adorable and worked like a charm. She reminds me of a little wind up baby when she crawls. She looks so cute moving across the floor in exploration. Elise now crawls out to find us anytime we leave the room. She often fusses while she’s crawling as if she’s thinking, “do I really have to do this?!?!". She is not too keen on crawling and instead prefers standing and walking while supporting herself. Every time we put her down, she will immediately find a means to pull herself up and stand. It makes us wonder if she will be taking her first steps sooner than expected! Dad predicts she will walk at 8 ½ months while mom says 9. Place your bets…we shall see.

Standing as usual

Mirrors + babies = endless entertainment

Some more exciting news, is that her top two teeth are finally cutting through. She was very fussy for the past week or so and kept biting down on just about everything she could find. In fact, just the other day she crawled up to the sofa, stood up and bit my leg! I let out a surprised yelp of pain and she responded by yelling back at me and then smiling, after that I couldn’t help but laugh!

Adorable little Elise at 7 1/2 months

An afternoon stroll through the wetlands

Watching the ducks

Elise did a bit of bird watching this past weekend. Mommy, grandma, grandpa and Aunt Darcy took her for an afternoon stroll through the wetlands in Folsom. She absolutely loves being outdoors!

Baby girl, happy as usual 

 The quackers

  

She wore her sunglasses for about 30 seconds

Cattails

Say cheese :)

Oak tree

Weekend outing in Sacramento

A little walker in the making

All smiles at the art museum

This past Sunday afternoon, we took little Elise to the Crocker Art Museum and Old Sacramento. Everyone enjoyed lunch on the river and Elise loved spending time with her grams, gramps and Aunt Darcy. Elise is quickly becoming grandma and grandpa's number one fan. They get her to laugh and smile all the time now!

Elise loved the mirrors!

Cutest work of art in the museum :)

  

The buildings in Old Sacramento

 Tower Bridge

Boats on the Sacramento River

Ziggurat building

Elise enjoying her time with family

Family photo

We love our happy little girl!