Goodbye 2009...Happy New Year 2010!

The best gift of 2009!

Welcoming Elise into the world, has made 2009, without a doubt, the most memorable year of our lives. As early as it is, we’re already beginning to feel a sense of nostalgia for 2009!  This year, we experienced truly life changing events that have brought us together as a family and strengthened our capacity to love beyond imagination.

As the new decade quickly approaches, we feel immense excitement that we get to experience life from a new perspective. We foresee 2010 shaping up to be an even more monumental year. Elise will reach many significant milestones in the New Year, such as learning to sit up, crawl, walk, talk and countless other highlights. We look forward to taking her on weekend outings and allowing her to experience more of the world around her. We can’t wait for the first time she looks up at us and says "mama" or "dada". What will her first word be? When will she take her first step? What will be her favorite activities, toys, books, songs? What will make her laugh uncontrollably? We’ve pondered so many questions like these, so knowing that with each new day, week, month and year we will gradually discover bits and pieces of the person she is makes the future all the more enticing. It’s with this enthusiastic sentiment that we say GOODBYE 2009 and HAPPY NEW YEAR/DECADE 2010!

Elise in 2009

1 Day old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 months old

Elise's First Christmas - 2009

 

Six-month-old Elise celebrated her very first Christmas! To be honest, we were expecting her to be a bit too young to fully enjoy the occasion, but thankfully she proved us wrong. She actually really loved unwrapping her gifts and proceeding to chew on each and every item. I should mention that this is the stage where Elise has decided that before she experiences the world around her, she first needs to taste test it. Everything now has a clear path of progression: eyes, to hands, to mouth. It doesn’t matter much what the object is, she will sample just about anything. Fortunately, all her Christmas gifts met her taste test seal of approval.

Christmas Eve and all Elise's gifts

Excited about her first gift!

Playful girl

Elise and her cousin Tyler

The kiddos opening gifts together

 

Cute little face

Momma with her munchkin

Elise sampling her gift!

In awe of all the presents :)

Mommy helping Elise play

Elise figuring it out on her own

Enjoying her play time

This little expression looks so much like daddy

The photo in question - Daddy with a really unconvincing Santa

Elise Acrobatics

Cheeky little Elise escaping the changing mat as usual

I’m slowly learning that I have a little acrobat for a baby! When I change her diaper she now likes to try and turn from her back to stomach midway through. I hold up both her legs while the rest of her upper body is twisting like a pretzel. She finds it amusing each time I’m forced to turn her back around and attempt to hold her down. I now offer her a toy, to serve as a distraction, at each changing. It has helped somewhat, but she is still a little squirmy terror when it comes to diaper changes.

In fact, just the other day when I had Elise on her changing mat, which (formerly) sat on top of her dresser, I turned my back for a second and when I looked back she had completely flipped over from back to stomach. She had her head up in the crawl position with the biggest smile on her face. Naturally, I wanted to freak out, as she looked ready to crawl off the dresser, but she stayed still just smiling huge. It was the cutest thing ever! I’m not sure how she managed this on the small space of the changing mat. Usually she rolls across the entire floor to turn. Of course, I’ve realized that I will have to change her on the floor from here on out. That was certainly a bit too close for comfort.

Elise and Link, our resident house cat, are beginning to make friends. Link is basically a dog in cats clothing (the perfect pet if you ask me). He LOVES being around us and craves constant attention. He has never been wary of Elise. Even when she grabs his fur, ears or tail he will simply wait for her to let him go. Sometimes he takes his paw and pushes her hand off, but he has never scratched. He loves to nuzzle his head toward Elise and wait for her to pet him. It is so cute watching the two of them play!

Elise and Link making friends

Baby Friends

Little Olivia (8 months) and Elise (5 1/2 months)

First Family Christmas Photos - 2009!

Elise's First Christmas - 2009

This past weekend, we organized our first DIY family photo session. It went relatively smooth. We dressed Elise in her festive red holiday attire, set up the Nikon on the tripod, posed in front of the tree, and did our very best to get her to look toward the camera. Out of around 25 family shots, we found one that made the cut. I had hoped we would be able to get a smile from her, while we had no such luck in the family shots; we fortunately got a few separate photos of her smiling. I couldn’t decide on favorites, so our first family Christmas card ended up with six separate photos from our improvised session. Mom and dad were both happy with the end result. Little Elise looked adorable and did very well for such a grueling photo shoot haha.

After our experience, I have much more respect for baby photographers. While it is ok occasionally, I certainly wouldn’t want to try and get babies to look at a camera and smile day in and day out. Taking photos of a five month old is no easy task, especially when she is still unable to stand, hold her head up for too long, or understand the word “smile”. I’m sure it will only get more difficult as she gets older. She still isn’t quite able to run or crawl away, so in some respects we had it easy!

Happy Holidays 2009!

Five Month Growth Stats

Elise had her five month checkup this week. We got her first round of immunizations and she did great. We also checked up on her growth stats. She now weighs: 16 pounds and is 26 1/2 inches long. For weight she is just above the 50th percentile. Her length is in the 75th - 90th percentile [For reference, mommy was 26 1/2 inches at her 7 1/2 month checkup so Elise is definitely outgrowing her in length!]. For length relative to height she is in the 5-10% range, so essentially this just confirms what mom and dad have recognized for months; she is tall and slender.

December snow in California!

Snow in Citrus Heights, CA!

An unusual sight here in sunny CA

Mommy, daddy and baby Elise awoke this morning to snow! This is especially unusual as we live in Citrus Heights, California, and have not seen snow in the nine years we've lived here. Elise may have a white Christmas after all :)

After seeing snow, we got into the Christmas spirit and decorated the house. We also had a fire to warm us up a bit. Daddy and Elise sat together and watched the fire while mommy took photos. It was a wonderful December day.

Elise's first fire

 Warming up the house!

Peek-a-boo baby

Happy and playful Elise

This past week alone, we’ve seen huge changes in Elise. She has become extremely playful. She smiles and laughs all the time and continues to test her voice and creeping skills. Playing peek-a-boo and reading to her have become my favorite activities. When I peek out from behind my hands, she laughs and shrieks hysterically and I’m convinced it’s the best sound in existence. Her signature noise is a darling little mellow squeal. She now makes this noise all the time when she gets excited. I love working to get laughs out of her. Each day it becomes less work and much more rewarding, as she is developing a very precious little personality.

More recently, I've started to read her a couple books each day. While I know she is still a bit young to fully understand, I enjoy watching her eyes light up when I read the words aloud and let her touch the pages. I mainly read her board books, with touch and feel pictures. She loves to touch all the pictures and hear mom make silly animal noises. This past week as I read to her, she started babbling along with me. It was the cutest thing imaginable. I can’t wait to hear what her first word will be.

Five months - Growth, lullabies, solid food and a holiday thrown into the mix

Elise with daddy

Elise is growing and developing by leaps and bounds. She is nearing five months old, and really starting to show signs of her impending toddlerdom (yes, I’m a mom and therefore permitted to make up silly words). She now has a morning routine of babbling and cooing conversations. She is also testing out her squeals and shrieks. They get louder and shriller each day, and never fail to make us smile. After each squeal, she smiles with satisfaction realizing she has got our attention.

The one downside, to all her new found energy and vigor, is that bedtime has become a struggle. Elise usually has a morning and afternoon nap and is then awake for about six hours before her bedtime. One would think she would be exhausted and fall right asleep; wrong, she fights it like crazy! She is perfectly content in our arms, but the second we lay her down for bed she starts squirming and goes into inconsolable mode. We pat her back and sing to her, but try not to pick her up as we want her to learn that crib=sleep. She's getting better, but with her teething (her second tooth is now on its way through) she is even fussier than usual. Thankfully, the last few nights she has fought a bit less and is gradually getting accustomed to her bedtime routine. Of course, who can really blame her for wanting to be close to mom and dad at all times!

Getting in her "mommy time"

Another sweet moment this week came from Daddy. He has been helping put her to bed a bit more lately, and has come up with his own lullaby to sing to her. Daddy’s lullaby: “Sweet little baby I love you” (x 4 verses), “Sweet little baby it’s time for bed” (x 2 verses), “Time to close your little baby eyes” (X 2 verses), "Time to dream your little baby dreams" (x 2 verses),“Sweet little baby I love you” (x 1 and repeat as many times as needed). When I saw him singing this to her, I got tears in my eyes; it was just about the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.

Elise also celebrated her first Thanksgiving this week. In preparation, mommy spent quite a few hours in the kitchen baking pies and desserts. Elise hung out with momma in her jumper. She was as active as ever on Thanksgiving morning; bouncing, cooing and shrieking, then smiling afterwards proud of herself. Of course, in all her morning excitement, she missed her nap and was then cranky for the rest of the day. She was also too shy to let any of the family in on her babble conversations.

Whenever I bake or cook, I often let Elise smell the spices and ingredients. She enjoys the new scents and seems ready to sample them herself. Every time Clint or I eat, Elise just stares up at us fascinated. She now grabs at our plates and food; trying to get a piece for herself! We decided that with the amount of interest she has been showing, it was time to give her rice cereal. We sat her in her highchair for the first time and she held herself up ready to eat! She did great during her first rice cereal feeding. At first, she would sample the cereal then push it out of her mouth, but eventually she got the hang of swallowing it down. Daddy was also able to feed her exclusively and he really enjoyed it.

"Feed the baby!"

Elise stealing daddy's food

Juggling work and a baby

Surprise!

This week, mom and dad were super busy trying to catch up on work; in preparation for the holidays next week. Elise has been gradually doing better at keeping herself entertained. When we work we always have her in the office with us, either in her bouncer chair or on her play mat. While her pink bouncer chair has done well in the past, I think it may be nearing its retirement. Elise’s legs hang off the end of the chair, and when she gets fidgety she starts squirming and writhing in attempt to escape from it. I keep the bouncer on top of my desk, next to the computer, so I can play with her while I work. Now when she fidgets, she is able to almost lift the chair base with each squirm. It surprises me every time, and I end up having to take her out of the chair and either hold her or put her on her play mat.

The play mat keeps her attention a bit longer, but she is now semi-mobile so she ends up squirming off the play mat and moves across the floor on her back. Clint call this her, “crab crawl”. She usually squirms and “crab crawls” her way over to Clint or I and looks up at us, with a little mischievous smiling face, ready to be picked up. I would love to say I don’t give in, but let’s be honest, she usually gets her way. I give in more for my own selfish reasons, as I love holding her in my arms and want to take advantage of every presented opportunity.

Elise working her charms, ready to be picked up

I’m starting to find ways to work around Elise’s schedule. She wakes up and eats at 7am. After I feed her I usually have about an hour where she moves at a slower pace due to digestion. I then put her down for a two hour nap at 9am. Her next feeding is at 11am, giving her downtime until almost 12:30pm. She then has her afternoon nap around 1:30 – 2:30pm. Her next feeding is at 3pm, and then she has a wake period until bedtime with two additional feedings. So clearly, I get much more work done in the morning than any other time of day.

While I am getting more efficient at utilizing the time I have available, there are still days where it is just plain difficult to get things done. Elise gets cuter and more interactive by the day, so I find it harder to set her aside now. She still isn’t fully mobile, so I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like once she is crawling and walking and I have to chase after her. We will probably end up putting her in day care a couple days a week sometime next year. I am championing the idea of day care, more for the social exposure than anything else. Elise has already been showing signs of “stranger danger” and I want her to grow accustomed to being around other children early on. I’m sure she will do very well once she gets adapted to the new routine.

"My thoughts on daycare...ehhh no thanks"

Shopping cart pull-ups

Elise had her very first shopping cart ride! She successfully held herself up (virtually unassisted by mom and dad) and navigated the aisles. She made the funniest little strained face while attempting to hold up her body. It was the most precious thing I’ve seen! Of course, we got adorable photographic documentation. While this isn't exactly big news, after reviewing the photos, I just had to post them!