Elise Violet

Elise's First "Cold Hot Doggie"

2009-07-09T21:46:00.002-06:00

Because a normal 2 year old has still a lot of Firsts to go through, Elise is going through a hard 9 month one with her mommy. We went through several months of sickness in which Elise would watch her "Gabba" while Mommy was hanging her head in the toilet. She would sometimes yell "Mommy? You Okay?" to act like the caring 2 year old NOT busy with her cartoons. She sometimes come up to the bathroom where Mommy again is hanging her head in the toilet, and gives Mommy a tissue to wipe her mouth, and ask "Mommy okay?" We had another first ALL her own, with no sickness.

On Monday Elise had another first. Mommy is 5 1/2 months expecting with her new sibling and is always tired and hot, and Elise is always wanting to play with Mommy. Mommy thought it was a good idea to find a shady spot and have an ice cold treat.(since Elise is always asking nicely for them) Elise knows a few colors well I asked her if she wanted a Green one or a Yellow one. She picked Yellow. Mommy opened the small plastic baggy they were wrapped in gave one to Elise and said "taste it, you'll like it".

There was little persuading. She licked, and then presented it to mom claiming "Oh Mommy!!! Cold Hot-Doggie is SOOOOOO GOOD!" Since she loves her Hot Doggies on sticks, it was CLEARLY obvious that what she was eating a Very Cold Very Tasty Cold Hot Doggie in a banana flavor. After another few yummy noises she decided to take a load off and lounge to better enjoy her treat.

Elise's 2nd birthday, Now with New 2 Attitude!

2009-05-31T20:12:00.004-06:00

Welcome to Elise at two!!! She talks really well (at least she thinks she does). Some phrases most commonly used around our house in Feb. was "Hi Momma" "Daddy!!!" "El-Phant" "Where's El-Phant" "Gabba". Since then it has expanded greatly and as of recently she has added. "Can I have Treat?" "Hi Mommy How you?" followed by "I good". There is an a bit of a "I need to go to Church" with a VERY RECENTLY "Hey, Wait a Minute..." She is very polite with a bit of excited when she meets other little ones she calls "Friends". It's hard to understand how she can be so sweet n polite and at the same time say things like "Mommy Stop it." "No No No I SAID..." and as of last week "Shut-UP". Since Elise was turning 2, it was time for a Big Girl bed. I was finally able to drag out all the bedding she got for her first Christmas. She couldn't believe that she got this big bed. Daddy showed her how to use her stool to climb up to her bed. We would hand her a book from her book shelf and she was a happy to go to bed little girl. Over the last several months, when Elise was finished with her book, instead of going to sleep...she would get up and get another book. Before going to bed, I would check on her and find her entire collection of Curious George, Dr. Suess, tucked under her head into her blankets and Under her pillow. When she wakes up she usually has her pink Elephant, her best buddy( who she cuddles roughly and mutters "oh I yove you so Mush") and a book she is ready to read.
We watch Yo Gabba Gabba in the morning and get ready for what ever mommy has to do that day. For her birthday mommy had to make up her own Gabba items because it wasn't anywhere to purchase. (Yo Gabba Gabba is her FAVORITE show on Nick) Daddy went to work on a special cake. On Saturday mornings, Elise has a standing daddy-daughter date that includes a trip to Lowe's and a trip to the Grocery Store. She usually comes away with Juice and String Cheese. Elise has special name's for most of the people she knows well. There is Bogey, Gamma Sanra(sandra), Her Ana, her friends Ernie-Truck(that is what she calls fire trucks since that is what Ernie drives), and Meow(Mel). Her favorite person is her Pa-pa(grandpa). She enjoys going to see him and her Granma House (her grandma, as in "We are at Grandma's House). Sometimes she will walk into their home and yell "HOUSE!", in hopes that Grandma will come running. For the last two weeks Elise has come to sit with me on the couch to watch Gabba, and rubs her head on my arm and Groan "Oooooohhhh momma, I yove you SOOOOOO mush". We love our Elise Violet and feel blessed she brings a smile and sweet spirit in our home.

Elise's First AMAZING Snow Fall

2008-12-09T12:36:00.007-07:00

We had gone out shopping for Christmas. Elise was tired but being as good natured as she is, she went along with me. She entertained the women we were with but saying Please, and Thank You. It tickled the one older gal when Elise ran up to the jewelry counter and said..."Oh mommy, pretty! Buy it?"

Wouldn't you know it, the one day planned to go shopping it snowed all day. Elise though it was a game to get bundled in her coat and Yo Gabba Gabba hat and gloves. At the end of the afternoon we headed home and Elise chatted me up with her now full words, and broken sentances. We were not far from home when I noticed that the Snow was coming down in BIG snow flakes. Elise noticed too because she yelled "OH BUBBLES MOMMY, YOOK SEE!!! BUBBLES" I giggled and told her that it was SNOW. We got home and I pulled her out of her car seat and told her to run to the front door and knock for Daddy to open it, while I brought our bags in. Elise got out walk a few steps and was in AWE. I realized she had never really seen Snow, or at least this snow. It was thick and white and the pretties snow I had seen in a while. Elise ran to the front lawn and raised both mittened hands towards the sky trying to catch it. I showed her how to try and catch them in her mouth. She ended up with them on her nose. Over and over she said "Oh Pretty". It was the kind of sweet thing that tugs at a mommies heart. To Elise, this was most beautiful amazing thing she had ever seen, and she told me so. (Picture to come shortly)

Elise's First Bollywood Or Trickle Trickle

2008-11-17T16:45:00.002-07:00

This is Elise. We thought it would be awesome if Elise was something different for Halloween. So with that, I made her a bollywood dacer! I thought this would be the year that she would get that if she said "Trick or Treat" there is MOST likely a treat at the end of the involved for her. The best we could get out of her was a Trickle Trickle (Treat-Tickle) and when a treat was presented to her, She wiggled her finger and giving a Homer Simpson "oh oo oh" she would take a candy and man handle it. It was good times and now you ask about the costume. Yes Yes Yes...as a Happy Hippy Homemaker I made up the pattern and did it all by myself. I made a top as well but that was way messy and the head hole was WAY smaller then this little girls Fat Noggin. Without further adue...

For further adventures of Elise's Halloween picture session(which was taken by Bridgett n Rory's AZURE PHOTOGRAPHY ) Click their Here or Here. There are some amazing bubble pictures there as well.

For any questions on her killer costume, and her Crafty Mommy. Your can click HERE

Elise's First Comments

2008-10-14T17:51:00.004-06:00

Notice that I did not say baby??? This is not by little baby any more. She is my little person...VERY little person. She is my toddler. I forget that everything I do and say is going to come out in her actions and little mouth. I found this out the hard way...not with a swear escaping from her, but with a comment that I use when I am talking with friends, on the phone or even conversing with her dad.

I noticed a few months ago that Elise started talking on the phone. Not talking with anybody, she was just yammering. Sometimes she would stop, like she was listening to what the other person said...and then laugh. I giggled because "look how cute! she's JUST like her mom". I would Te-he because "look she thinks she is big people".

A week ago I had an intense conversation with a friend of mine. It was over the phone so all Elise got was my side of the conversation. There was a lot of me yelling 2 special words I say when I strongly agree with what is being said . The following day I got up wandered around the house getting Elise her cuppy of milk, some eggs for breakfast, and I looked for a cold can of Coke I hid in the fridge. I found the coke, with two eggs. I set the coke down and stumbled over to the stove and started to cook. In Previous posts I showed Elise trying to drink a Coke her self. She, THINKING she was sly, made a move for the coke. She picked it up and took off running. When she realized just how cold that coke was she dropped it. "Ohhhh mommy...Coooooolllllld." I laughed because really how sneaky and quick she THOUGHT she was, from how clumsy she REALLY was made me say "Ya Thought you could get away with it?? Its WAY cold huh??" To which she responded almost TOO enthusiastic. "I KNOW".

Elise stayed with her Grandma and Grandpa one night. It doesn't happen often but when it does Joseph and I make the most of it...by coming home and turning in early and sleeping in. AHHHH anything past 7:30 am is HEAVEN. When we went to pick her up Grandpa told us this story. He turned on the fan in their TV room, but to get it started he reached up and gave it a little bit of a push. Elise looked up and saw what he did. When it kept spinning she said. "Huh...Cool", then returned to playing.

Baby calls everything round Bubbles

2008-09-17T09:38:00.002-06:00

Elise is saying a lot more that isn't gibberish and needs translating. Although the translating part is fun for mom. Elise will waddle up to whoever and begin just yiddish, jammma, and gargle gargling wait for a response, and then say "Yeah? okay" and waddle away. Then they will turn to me and ask what Elise wanted in which I will translate "She just asked if she could barrow 50 bucks for her mom can take her out and buy her something nice. You just told her yes". I then wait to see if they fall for it. But because she has been sneaking in real words to her yiddish, it makes it easier for her to get want she wants, and tell me what she seeing. Recently she got her ball out and told mommy..."yooksee? bubble!" and began rolling it around. We went to the store and saw balloons, and she yelled "Mommy!! yooksee?? Bubble!" The first Sunday of the month the family gets together for a big family dinner, Grandma too her out side and showed her bubbles...real bubbles that she loved to play with. I want to thank Bridgett for making sure she captured the moment! http://azurephotography.blogspot.com/

Baby's first realization that she isn't the "baby" anymore.

2008-07-27T20:31:00.002-06:00

Elise and I went to McDonald's with a friend of mine. My friend was VERY mindful of Elise and thought that it would be a great time for her to Play on the slides and climb through the tunnels in the "Playland" area of the burger joint. Out of ALL the slides and the tunnels and ALL the things to do, Elise toddled up to entrance to an area of this jungle gym and sat down. She sat happily, and waved at us...talked to a boy who climbed over her to get to the slides, she clapped her hands while she sat, and sat for long enough for us to snap a few pictures on on our phones. (since it was the only thing we had on us that was camera like.) I don't think she was aware of the greatness of this place which is FINE BY ME. The longer she stays oblivious to this McDonald's jive, the better.

Elise learned a hard lesson this week. This lesson was so hard, that I was glad she learned it now. Aunt Yarley had a baby girl on July 24th(happy birthday to Rory that day too). We were there to see the baby with cousin Taylor, Grandma, AND Grandpa. We entered the room and immediately began to too and ahh over the infant. Elise leaned over to see what the Hub Bub was about. She saw the little peanut of a baby wrapped tightly in her blankets. Elise then looked at me and sighed. She saw that The Grandparents were cuddling and loving this little bundle, and began to be jealous. HER Grandpa was HOLDING something that was not her. That night Elise broke out into fake crying when she didn't get her way. Usually when babies are around Elise likes to see them and pets them saying "baby". Recently we learned that she likes to lean clear over to the babies she sees and yells "TICKLE TICKLE TICKLE".Tonight she saw that Grandma was holding little Tater Baby(Taytum Rae) turned her nose up and began to beg for attention. She didn't care what was in Grandma's arms, because it wasn't her.

It's not the "I Want My MTV" generation anymore.

2008-06-06T18:27:00.006-06:00

Someone once told me that she felt that the decline in music was MTV...and how that things like Napster furthered that spiral downward. I don't believe it. Sure some day this little lady is going to be looking at her parents collection of CD's much in the way that I looked at 8-tracks. It's going to be like that OR she is going to get her one of those classic CD Players and listen to a complete album and like them because they are so Retro(just like mom when she pulls out the old Blondie record Albums). My little Elise Violet loved music before she was born. It's my little gadget that make music easy enough my waddler have listen to and enjoy the music all by herself whenever she wants.

While I was working as a Office manager, I would take my lunch and drive around doing errands. I would listen to the local High school radio station because it was the on radio with no talk or commercials, and they seem to be a little more my taste in music as well. Every day about lunch there was a little DJ who would play Matisyahu (Mah Tis Yahoo). My belly would move around and around, as our little unborn girl danced. Over the past year, there were songs and CD's that she like better and you could tell by how quiet and how intense she was listening to it. Yo Gabba Gabba encourages her to get up and dance with different kids moving wildly to music saying "Hi, my name is...... I like to DANCE" Recently she has discovered the Beach Boys. She bounces and twirls around and around.

About a year ago E.V's Dad bought me a small Ipod shuffle. Elise noticed, really NOTICED it about 3-4 months ago. When I showed her what it was and what it could do, it ROCKED her small small world. Today mom (me, myself and I) was using it as she cleaned her house and tried to do a little yard work. Elise nabbed my little Orange Ipod as soon as I set it down. She promptly took the right ear bud and held it to her ear and pushed the play button. She walked back and forth, and twirled around, and bounced. This particular song was The Darkness, followed by Lily Allen. She isn't interested in movies, TV or anything unless she can see where the music that has sparked her attention has come from. The music is quickly gone and her attention is lost. The Ipod is her new friend that plays on demand with no fuss, and one simple play button.Really, how could she miss it...it's a LARGE ORANGE BUTTON. The music comes on, it's everywhere, and when she is done, she pushes stop and hands me the Ipod.

Instead of her growing up saying "I want my MTV" I'm thinking as soon as her words are understandable she is going to be shouting "I want my I-P-O-D".

The Most Smartest OR I'm in So much trouble

2008-05-13T16:38:00.003-06:00

This is my little Elise Violet. She was mad at me for some time because we moved her out of her apartment, and moved her into a house. She was very mad at me for weeks until I finished painting her room, and moved her into it. Then we went on a trip to Oklahoma to stay in homes she wasn't familiar with. She was much happier with me after she had a place of her VERY own, and I haven't made her stay over night any place but her own bed. We have a set of stairs...that was the first thing I showed her when she came to the home. We went up the stairs, I let her crawl up and down the hallway, and then I turned her around and we slid backwards down the stairs. she safely learned the stairs in 1 day. I was so proud...what a good mommy I am to so effectively teach my daughter how to use the few stairs safely
I few months ago my daughter got hair. It came in quick, and it came in THICK. I would take two combs to pull her hair into piggy tails. One for me and one for her to play with. One day she took her comb and started rubbing it in her hair while i was trying to comb it. She was COMBING HER HAIR. Not only was it STINKIN' CUTE to watch but it was so sweet! She might be a hairdresser some day TOO! What a good mommy I am, teaching my daughter how to comb her hair.
Yesterday I had two things happen and something pretty big. Yesterday I realized that my daughter was saying FISHES when she brings me a bag of Goldfish Crackers. I thought that she was saying SHHHHH like "ssshhhhhh be quiet". The Sh-sh's that she is saying over and over again is her fish crackers. She ASL signs "eat" when she is hungry along with "Sh-sh's" She has been saying it for days and I wasn't catching on. What an okay mommy I am...I still know my Girlie is hungry but I didn't know she wanted Goldfishes.
Elise, like most waddlers(she is just learning to walk so she waddles not toddling yet) she gets into things. I was in the kitchen while she was wondering around the living room. She got stuck between the Brown Chair an the wall she moaned "Oooohhhhh moooommmmm. OH mooooommmmm". I should know that means by now. That is the "something is terribly wrong, and help me" moan. She has been saying it for months. I finished the few dishes I had left and came to find her. When she saw me she started to cry. She had to have been stuck for at least 5 minutes. I know that is what she does when she is in trouble. What a mean mommy I am to not be paying attention to her moaning for help. I beginning to think my Girlie was a bit more observant and a little bit smarter then me at this point, and beginning to realize that mommy is an airhead.
At nap time today I told Elise to go to her room and she made a mad dash up stairs to her room. We got up stairs , and realized Elephant(Her Pink Elephant Rattle stuffed toy who is her best friend) was missing. We had gone to down town to the Library, to Costco and to Walmart... Where in the world did it go. I Searched my bedroom...Elise in toe. I went out to the car to see if by chance she smuggled Elephant out. I searched high and low for the places that Elephant could be. Elise was yelling something at me, to which I responded "Elise, Elephant is missing we need to find him." she went down the hall to the stairs while I went to look again in my bedroom. I yelled at her to come up to her room and get ready for a nap. I walked out of my room to look for her, and heard the rattle of her Elephant. She had hid Elephant in Daddies suit case in the living room. Once I told my 15 month old that her buddy was missing she knew where to find him. I picked her up amazed that she remembered where she had last left him and thought "She is brilliant, what a terrible thing that your 15 month old is smarter then you, and that if she is this smart now, she is going to surpass you in smarts when she is 2! Oh man, you are in SO MUCH TROUBLE".

Monkey SEE...I wish Monkey wouldn't do

2008-04-23T15:35:00.003-06:00

Take a look at this picture...closely, wait not to closely because my house is a mess. (Yes I am TOTALLY blogging about that). This is my daughter, Elise Violet. she is standing by herself in the middle of the room, but that is what she does, not really walking yet. We returned from our outing in Oklahoma to our home, we have been trying to fix up fix out bla bla bla. Everyday I get up and move around getting laundry done, clean out another closet, cupboard or a box...at 8:30 Elise gets up we drink a big cuppy of milk and eat a yogurt for breakfast. We watch her favorite show, Yo Gabba Gabba, and when that is over, we listen to music while I continue what I was doing until its time for lunch and a nap. In order for me to get through the day, I have to have my coke, or whatever diet drink that is on sale when I go shopping. It's been difficult packing and moving and traveling without the man. It's VERY often that Elise and I sit down to eat a Peanut Butter n Jelly Sammich, I with my Coke, and her with her milk. Its pretty often that I will sit down with Elise at the end of the day, her with Milk and me with my coke to read our books (We like Gossie and Gertie books) So Elise is VERY familiar with what is Mommy's drink.Yesterday, I left my empty can on the Coffee Table when I went into the kitchen to get Elise a drink of juice, and I came back to see this: My lovely daughter stealing the last drops of mommy's drink. Seriously, there was only a drop or two.

I think its interesting that she has learned that this is something good to drink because mommy has it and drinks from it. I don't think that it's just the color of the can that she recognizes but it's the can. I thought it was funny, but I am second guessing that now. At 14 months she knows that if its good for the goose is good for the gosling. I am going to have to learn that saying my mom use to tell me all the time "Do as I say Not as I do".

Are you almost a YEAR already????

2007-12-04T20:51:00.000-07:00

I am a slacker mother, more commonly known as a busy mother. Elise has been equally as busy she learned to say mother(in which her dad and I wiped our brows with relief. I thought for sure is would have been the A-S-S word). Elise likes to say dad, grandpa, anna, b-bye and a lot of sounds that might sound like she is trying to talk like older people. She learned to crawl recently and that has been both fun, sad and frustrating. The worst part of her getting bigger that she has learned to pull herself up in her crib. When she isn't ready for bed she pulls herself to standing position shakes her bed and begins yelling to let us know that "I'm Not SLEEPING".

Elise got her first tooth the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the second broke through last night. The third one is WELL on it's way. She claps her hands, waves goodbye, and bounces to music she likes. I thought I would post a few of my favorite pictures in the last few months. She has a habit of me getting pictures with her and things on her head.

The first pic is Elise with her first weekend away from Mom and dad in Sept. The second was about 3 weeks ago. Her first trip to Wienerschnitzel and her first corndogs. The last one was in October...for some reason she was trying to put the PJ bottoms on her head. She couldn't get it right so i helped her out. I laughed for an hour, and she was happy to have them on her head.

Caught Red Handed

2007-08-21T20:00:00.000-06:00

Look over this picture and let me tell you a story. Elise is now 6 months and is doing all the things little girls her age should do. She learned to say Mama, it's been sweet and she knows that it means someone who showers her with attention. She has been eating things like her cereal and her fruit. Next week is eating vegetables. She chew on Cucumbers, Carrots and lemons. She likes to try to eat bags as well...they make noise and well they make noise. Today I got Elise after her morning nap, fed her Apple Rice Cereal, and a bottle. I saw the clock and realized that I needed to get ready to go to work, I placed her in the middle of my bed since I was afraid she would roll off. I walked past the bedroom, in and out of the bedroom...looking for clothes, doing my hair, and finishing my make-up( I have learned to do things quickly seeing how all of my attention must be focused on Elise) All it all this took me 5-8 minutes. In that time, Elise managed to wiggle her way to the CLOSED of chips (that I was planning on taking back to the kitchen as soon as I was done). Wiggling up to a shiny red bag wasn't enough...she had to see what was inside. As you can see she dumped the entire bag of chips on my bed, and proceeded to eat the chips. I came in and saw the mess and startled the little monkey when I yelled at her. She put this particular chip down long enough to grin at me and then got back to what she was doing.

Baby Loves Chocolate

2007-04-22T18:35:00.000-06:00

No, I haven't been feeding her chocolate. I've been told I'm not allowed to do that until at least her first birthday. But nobody's told me that she's not allowed to smell chocolate, right?

Let me back up a little. Turns out Elise hates it when you blow in her face. I've been told that I did too when I was her age. I've also been told that when I wasn't getting my way, I would hold my breath until I turned blue and passed out. The only way to get me to stop doing that was to blow in my face. Bearing this in mind, I've tried blowing in Elise's face when she's screaming her head off. It doesn't make her stop completely, but it does make her take pause.

When she's not unhappy, blowing lightly in her face seems to be okay. But one day I noticed that blowing lightly in her face after eating a chocolate truffle made her smile. As the taste dissipated from my mouth, I noticed that blowing lightly into her face didn't cause the huge smiles that it had. So I ate another truffle and blew in her face again. Huge smile!

Today I took out a piece of chocolate and held it in front of her nose. No much of a reaction. So I blew lightly across it, to help the smell reach her nose. She got all sorts of happy and excited! She was laying on her back, but that didn't stop her from trying to dance! She may not have tasted chocolate on her tongue yet, but she seems to absolutely adore the smell. She'll be a world-class chocolatier yet!

Baby's First Album Review

2007-03-31T08:07:00.000-06:00

Translation by Dad

Today my dad had me listen to Shriekback's Oil and Gold album while getting ready for the day. While listening to this album, I was prompted to voice my opinions on several occassions, in reference to every track.

Malaria
A decent song to get started, it made me decide to begin the day with a smile. Still, perhaps a bit weak. The end of the song found me frowning.

Everything that Rises Must Converge
Much to my dad's horror, this song made me scream like all the baby formula in the world had just fallen into a deep chasm. It did not make me happy.

Fish Below the Ice
Better, as I had stopped screaming by the end of the song.

The Big Hush
An excellent way to start breakfast. This song seemed to have a calming effect on me.

Faded Flowers
I was uneasy about this song at first. perhaps because it marked two slow songs in a row. By the end of it, I had decided that it was much better than the previous song.

Nemesis
Masterful! This song made me forget about breakfast and not want to eat for a few minutes. All I wanted to do was dance in dad's arms.

Only Thing that Shines
Not a bad followup, it made me remember that there was still more breakfast to be had. I polished off another ounce of formula during this song, leaving me full.

Health and Knowledge and Wealth and Power
I don't know why dad insisted on burping me during this song. It was just as he described, a handbook for the 80's goth. Upon releasing a considerable belch, I resumed my smiling duties for the morning.

Hammerheads
I don't know what it is about this song, the strange beat or the quirky lyrics, but I just wanted to dance like there was no tomorrow. Another smiler.

Coelocanth
Wow. What a way to end an album! This song was soothing and relaxing, and my dad wondered through much of the song whether I was going to fall asleep.

All in all, a good album. When it was finshed, I still felt like dancing. It put a smile on my face for quite some time afterwards, long enough for my dad to type my review and probably quite a bit more. I look forward to hearing more from this band in the future.

She's Just The Girl You Want

2007-03-26T08:39:00.000-06:00

I found out I was expecting last May. I can't remember why I was at the mall, but I found myself wandering into The Childrens Place. I had never been in there before, but I thought I better get use to it. There was a display of clothes right there in the front as I walked in. I don't remember what was on it, other then the most perfect pair of Sunglasses. They were so tiny! The Cateye, Animal print Sunglasses were perfect for a little girl. I was so PROUD of my purchase, but was sad when Joseph said, "What if the baby is a boy?". The evening after our Ultrasound, I reminded Joseph of my Cateyes that I bought for the baby, and told him that it was a good thing I purchased them. I love my Cateye glasses, and to find something like that for the baby was a MIRICLE ( I thought it was more of a for sure sign that this baby was MENT to be a girl) . It was cute that we could wear matching cateyes. I love, love, love plaids. My wedding colors were plaid. My favorite shoes are Plaid. My favorite cloths were plaid. Joseph knows my love for my plaids. It came from my love of plaid skirts. I thought that finding something of that sort for the baby was going to be hard. Joseph had been surfing and found a handful of sites of baby plaid skirts. I had forgotten about them, until yesterday when Joseph opened one of his several packages that came to the house. He proudly presented the gift. it was a red plaid skirt!!!! I was so excited, we quickly put it on. She was SO beautiful in plaid. She really is her mommy's girl!

Babies Can't Be Troubleshot

2007-03-22T11:43:00.000-06:00

...at least not in terms of traditional troubleshooting. What calms Elise down one day can utterly infuriate her the next. As she grows, she starts to leave behind things like accepting being bundled in her blanket, just like she was in the womb. But if she's in the right mood, it seems to offer her some comfort when we put her in her bed to sleep, when she doesn't want to.

Back in the day, when her bellybutton hadn't quite sealed up yet, we had to give her sponge baths. This was a cause for concern, at least for her, and an excuse to excercise her tiny lungs and scream bloody murder. When it was time to wash her back, I had to lean her against my chest as I washed her. This would generally calm her down enough to stop crying instantly, as if she thought the ordeal was finally over. When the warm washcloth touched her skin, and then moved away allowing the convection of any cold air in the room to chill her again, it was back to lung aerobics.

Fortunately for Elise, her naval has finally sealed, and she has graduated to sitting waist-deep in warm water. She is generally okay with this, at least until she is picked up and moved to a towel for the drying process. Those few seconds of cold hitting her warm body cause her to resume her vocal performances until she realizes that there is a towel wrapped around her, and the towel really is warmer than she apparently expected. Last night, the majority of complaints came from her dad, who was experiencing for the second time the joys that come from trying to hold a squirming baby in one hand, cleaning her with the other, and all the while trying not to let her fall into the water and drown or fall out of the water and break her head. It's much easier when a second parent is present to hold the baby while the first one washes her.

While there was a moment of obvious discomfort for her upon leaving the warm water, it was quickly calmed with the application of a towel, and Elise decided to forego her nightly ritual of communicating at the highest possible volume. Dressing her, as with bathing her, prompted more complaints from parent than from child, as she happily resisted extending her arms enough for me to pull them through the sleeves of her onesie.

Feeding her presented no challenges, nor did burping her. But having discovered something recently, I wanted to experiment. When she was loudly resisting sleep the other night, I found that holding her against my chest (either with the front of her against my chest, or with her whole body facing sideways) and patting her back as if burping her softly, calmed her down enough that I could fold up her legs into the fetal position, and lay her in her cradle, where she would finish falling asleep. The difference this time was that I had her just over my shoulder. She remained calm, but fidgety. This wasn't going to help her sleep anytime soon. I moved her down, with her head against my chest, and continued exactly the same motions. The squirming ceased immediately, and she was out like a lamp within five minutes, even allowing me to fold in her legs before she zonked complete.

While I have had some small success with this strategy, I suspect it will fail to endure. Still, it worked well enough last night, and she managed to stay asleep until her mom got home and went to bed. That was when she decided it would be a fine night to wake up hourly, and keep her mom from getting any real rest. Thankfully for me, her mom decided against waking me up until at least the 5am session.

Baby Love

2007-03-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

Baby love. It describes many things. A baby crying until she is picked up. That same baby turning her head towards daddy when he cradles her, as if expecting that he can feed her the same way mommy does. It might explain the baby's reluctance to turn her head away even when it's obvious that what she's trying to suckle on is covered by one of daddy's favorite shirts. And it's such a powerful force that it keeps daddy from getting more than mildly irritated when she finally turns away in search of her bottle, leaving a slobbery mess in her wake on what is also one of daddy's more difficult to clean shirts.

Chunky Monkey

2007-02-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

We took Elise to her first doctors appointment(when I say 'We' I mean 'Me'). The doctor took a good long look at her. They measured her head, how tall she was, and how much she gained. I noticed in the last two days that she has gotten heavier. At the doctors office I noticed how red her hair had gotten, and the doctor commented on it. I have noticed that her little face has changed a little over the last two weeks. She looks more like Joseph everyday I think.

She was very good at the Doctors office, we had to strip her down and she didn't cry. I think she was a little nervous because she promptly messed herself. I quickly changed her in time to catch what could have been another projectile poop incident. She gained several oz. to make her 7 Lbs. 14oz. I was happy that it wasn't my imagination that I saw another chin, I think she has 3 now. she grew a whole inch, to make her 20 1/2 inches long. She sleeps now at night...do you know what that means?? That means that I may get some sleep at night! She is eating a ton for such a little gal. For the most part she has Joseph's temperment, mellow and easy going.

Getting Used to Us

2007-02-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

I think Elise is finally getting used to her mom and dad, for the most part. Waking up isn't such a tragic event anymore, and being awake isn't so horrible as it used to be. She's getting more or less acclimated to being uncovered in order to wake her, and when she's awake, I think she's finally starting to prefer it. Nat tells me that babies like being bundled up tight because it reminds them of being in the womb, which is what they're used to. But she's getting used to flailing her arms and legs about now, so long as she isn't tired. When she thinks it's time to sleep, she happily draws up her legs for me to wrap her up in her blankets. Then she realizes that her legs aren't free to move about anymore, and starts to whine until we toss her binky in her mouth. That usually keeps her happy until she falls asleep and it falls out of her mouth.

The story of the binky. About a week before Elise was born, Nat and I went into Babies 'R' Us and picked up a baby tub and a set of pacifiers that came with a handy little clip to help keep from losing them. We had those with us at the hospital, and shortly after she was born, we gave her one of them to suck on. She wasn't incredibly interested in it, but she hung onto it anyway as we took her off to the nursery for another set of tests and her first bath. While she screamed bloody murder at being bathed, and was only slightly less unhappy at getting her first shots, her binky was set aside and promptly forgotten. When we tried to find it a few hours later, we realized that it must still be in the nursery, so I headed on over to ask the nurses about it.

They all remembered seeing it, and after several minutes of searching found it in a dirty laundry basket. The nurse that gave Elise her bath felt so bad that she washed and sanitized it three times in a row, and then gave me a couple of new binkies to make up for it. One matched the clippy set, and even accepted the clip as the other ones did. The other was a standard-looking hospital binky that, due to the powers of pareidolia, looked like it was smiling. This would end up being the binky that Elise prefers, and now she won't even consider the clippy ones, of which we now have many.

She's finally learning to smile, though I still question whether she knows that's what she's doing. She mostly does it either when she's waking up or going back to sleep. I've also noticed that she seems to have an anime mouth. It's small and dainty when it's closed, almost not there at all. But when she yawns, it seems to take up half her face.

This whole keeping her up during the day thing seems to be paying off still. She fell asleep right after bathtime and her 10pm feeding, only to wake up an hour later thinking it was time to play, or at the very least scream at her mom and dad. Her mom fielded this one and once she finally fell asleep, seemed content to stay that way for the rest of the night. Outside of the projectile poop incident that Nat spoke of, the night was pretty much uneventful, and Nat thinks that if it wasn't for feeding times, Elise might have been content to just sleep the night away.

The Little Squirt (or things you can't be a whimp about)

2007-02-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

It's such a relief that we have managed to get Elise to sleep most of the night. The only bad thing is that we still have to set our alarm to wake her up for feedings. Her 1AM feeding was the only time I didn't have to wake her. I just think she is a lot like her mom, she would rather get her beauty sleep then eat. The 4 AM feeding started off like something at 4 AM would, the alarm going off, and me getting up stumbling around trying to wake up. I got the bottle ready, grabbed a diaper on the way back to the crib. I picked up the sleeping baby, and got her ready for her diaper change. With VERY little light on( this is to help her know that it is still night time, and that its only time to eat and sleep, not to keep mommy awake) I began the changing. I removed the wet diaper to hear a rummble in her tummy. I thought for about two seconds about that sound. It was the sound that was made the day before when Joseph and just fastened a new diaper to her, just in time to remove it again because it was NOW a messy one. I hurried to place a new diaper under her so to keep the mess at 4 AM to very little. I lifted her under side up to place the diaper under her, just in time for her to squirt all over my shirt. * NOTE THIS PART IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART* I was stunned! Projectile Poop!! All over me! That was a new one for me. Joseph got up to see what I was moaning about. I finished cleaning the baby, replacing her diaper, and handed that baby to Joseph to feed. I quickly got undressed and started the wash of all that was involved. I replaced my Pj's just in time for the baby to go back to sleep. I giggled a little and explained to Joseph what had happened. My quick mommy hands just were not quick enough, but honestly projectil poop was something the took me by surprise. I should just get use to it though. There are going to many more firsts where I am going be taken back. Joseph laughed, and just before he went back to snoring, he said that this was something I was going to have to blog about, because there was no way HE was going to do it. Moral of this story... Mommies hands are quick, babbies are quicker.

Sleeping Through the Night

2007-02-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Elise finally managed to make it almost all the way through the night this time. Yesterday we made sure to wake her up at least half an hour before feeding time, and then keep her awake for at least half an hour to an hour after. We also made her bathtime a little bit later than before, so that she got a bath and a meal right before we went to sleep. She zonked pretty quick at 10pm, and when it was time to feed her at 1am, she went right to sleep as soon as she was done. It didn't work so well when it was time to eat at 4am, but it was still better than last time. Nat and I both got way more sleep than the night before.

This three hour feeding schedule that the pediatritian had us put her on seems to be working well. She starts trying to munch on her hand at around the 2 1/2 hour mark, whether or not we've woken her up yet, and she's stopped crying when we change her diaper because she knows that she's going to get fed as soon as we're done. She still screams bloody murder at bath time, but as soon as she's finished, she shuts right up.

The lady down the street brought us dinner last night, and she went all out. It was basically several meals worth (at least for our little family) of soft-shell taco makings. We'll have to make something nice to return in those containers that the food came in. If I wasn't so keen on making chicken curry tonight, I don't think we'd have to do any cooking at all (aside from reheating) all weekend. But I had put chicken in the fridge to thaw yesterday, hours before we found out about dinner, and you all know I would never refreeze meat. That's just asking for trouble. I also don't want to waste food (formula ain't cheap, you know), so I still feel like chicken tonight (bwak bwak).

Ohhh Ohh Sweet Child O'mine

2007-02-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

On Monday, after many months of waiting and anticipating Elise Violet arrived.

On the last doctors appointment we decided that if Elise didn't show up on her due date by her self we were going to have to give her a little push. My blood presure was getting a little high, my weight topped out at 21lbs. gained. Rather then waiting for her, we thought it safer to be induced The hospital induction was schedualed, and Sunday night they called to let us know that we should arrive at 6:00AM. We got to the hospital on time and immediately was set up in a room. I was hooked up to an I.V. and waited for my Midwife to arrive so they could start up the Pitocin. A little after 8:00 AM my Midwife showed up checked things out, and there was no change(still). I had been dialated to a 2 for about and half weeks. The Pitocin was hooked up and immediatly started to take effect. Joseph and I decided earlier that we would take out portable DVD player, and watch "My Name Is Earl" TV show. I love it, and thought it would be a good way for me to pass the time and focus on something else other then my labor pains. By 10:45AM the Labor was so bad that I asked for an Epidural. Joseph was doing a good job rubbing my back up until then. I had it, and it took full effect by 11:15AM. I was then checked out and I was dialted to an 8! They called my Midwife, and told her to hurry or she was going to miss this baby. 11:30AM my midwife showed up, I was checked, and Elise was ready to roll. By 11:42AM Elise was kicking and not really crying a whole lot. Her head so perfectly round, and she had lots of hair. I was so excited she was finally here!

We came home from the Hospital on Weds. in the early afternoon. We are tying to get our feet under us. She isn't demanding, but has had a hard time remembering that she hungry enough to wake up and eat. We have set our clocks for every 3 hours to feed her. She is getting the hang of it. We took her to the doctor, at his request, to check her weight and make sure that she is eating properly...and apparently we are doing a good job. He said she is looking great and weighing in healthy.

Joseph is getting the hang of diaper changes, feeding, making sure she is wrapped up tight in her blankets. She is good and being good for her dad, and snuggling with him. I am getting good and staying up all night making sure she has a pacifier when she wakes up once an hour, thinking its time to get up and play. Thankfully, we are doing good and are very happy with are new addition to our family.

Photos!

2007-02-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting around to posting some photos of Elise! Click here to take a look!

Elise Violet Hall

2007-02-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Our little girl has entered the world!

Elise was born on February 12, 2007 at 11:42am. She was 7 lbs 7 oz and 19.5" long.

Check here for her hospital photo.

Soon Our Duo Will Become Three

2007-01-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

Elise Violet Hall, is almost here! Nat is still coming in at 20lbs. gained as well!! (Yeah) We are about as prepared as we ever will be. Elise's due date is February 10th, but anytime will make us all happy. Nat worked in both the salon and her day time job until Feb. 2nd. Both parents tried to keep as busy as possible, so that not to go crazy waiting for her to arrive.