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