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.