The Asay Family

Friday, November 12, 2010

Our Little Individual

I'm pretty sure Elise doesn't like the outfit I put on her this morning. You're probably thinking, "As long as it's comfortable, I'm sure she doesn't care what she's wearing." That's logical. But I have reason to believe she's pickier than that.

I have put this outfit on Elise three different times, and she has never made it to the end of the day wearing it. The first time I put it on her, she had the biggest spit up/throw up ever in her crib. Not only did she soak the outfit almost down to her waist, she also soaked the onsie she was wearing, the blanket that was covering her, the burp rag under her face, the crib sheet, and the mattress cover. It was a mess.

The second time she wore this particular outfit was the day she had her first blowout (she's had several since). It took me a really long time to scrub out the stain. Since the outfit is off white, I might have tried using bleach, but there is a brown bear appliquéd on the chest.

Today was the third time I put the outfit on her. You guessed it—another mess. This time was another blowout, thankfully not as bad as the first.

This got me thinking about Elise's likes and dislikes. I feel like it's safe to assume that babies have preferences and quirks. After all, they are human like the rest of us.

Here are a few unique things about Elise and/or her likes and dislikes that I thought of:

She is very vocal and always has been. Whether she's eating, sleeping, crying, or playing, she's making noise with her mouth.
She thinks whistling is fascinating. I think this is because she can't figure out where the sound is coming from.
She loves going on walks outside.
She always scrunches up her neck as I lay her down in her crib. I'm not really sure why.
When she eats, she likes to cross her feet. She also has to have a handful of something, especially when she's really hungry. She will grab my shirt, my hair, my finger, it doesn't matter to her.
She smiled at 5 weeks! She loves to smile and to be smiled at.
She can listen to books for a really long time without getting bored.
She likes to watch TV (unfortunately). Again, she is her father's daughter.
She only likes to turn her head to the right (which is also very unfortunate).
She doesn't mind the bath, but she hates having her hair washed.
She loves to be praised. Loves it. I kept telling her how great a job she was doing when she was batting at a toy, and she was so happy and kept doing it for a really long time. You may notice that she looks around after she bats at the toy in the video I posted. I think she was waiting to be praised and couldn't figure out why we weren't excited that she was doing it. When I do her neck stretches with her for her torticollis, my reward for her when she's done is to praise her, and she is usually happy with that.
She started sucking her thumb really early. A side note that makes me laugh: I was telling Paige on the phone that Elise was sucking her thumb (this was several weeks ago). "Oh, she's getting her thumbs? How cute!" said Paige. Hailey overheard her and asked, "She doesn't have thumbs?"
She's a great sleeper. And she has this adorable smile she sometimes does as she's falling asleep. It's unbelievably cute.
Her face is very expressive.
I'm pretty sure she's teething already. I think I can see her two middle teeth on the bottom about to come in. Matt says he can't see anything.
She is completely fine in the car as long as it's moving.
She likes to poop as soon as you lay her down on the changing pad.

Those are just a few things. I'll stop now because this is probably starting to get boring to anyone reading it. Anyway, I guess I'll just have to expect the worst if I ever put that outfit on her again. Too bad; she looks so cute in it.

P.S. Here's a video I took today of her shaking a rattle. She's getting so big!

Went to Bed and Didn't Get Up in the Morning

Last night Elise ate at about 8:15pm. By 10 or so she was tired, and we put her down to sleep. At 11:30, when I was finally getting to bed, she was still sleeping. I thought she had just started her 6-hour stretch for the night early, so I expected her to wake up at about 4am. Then, when I woke up at 5:45am (about the time Elise typically wakes up to be fed and changed), she was still sleeping! Remember, the last time she had eaten was about 8:15pm, so we're talking about a 9 1/2 hour stretch! She's never gone that long without eating before. I changed my shirt (I probably don't need to tell you why) and woke her up to eat. She didn't even act franticly hungry the way she sometimes does for her first feeding of the day. Here it is now, after 9:30am, and Elise hasn't woken up yet this morning. She's been sleeping since around 6am. That girl really is her father's daughter (when he was a baby, he would regularly sleep 12-hour stretches at night). I guess she was doomed to be a sleepy head with parents like us.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Itchy, Itchy Ichabod

So, a nurse from Medicaid came to do the home visit they always do after the baby is born. When she came, she said that I should read to Elise every day for 20 mins at a stretch to help develop her attention span. We only have a certain number of books, and twenty minutes = a lot of children's books, so I end up reading the same ones over and over (and over) again. I have a lot of them pretty much memorized. For some reason, certain parts come to my mind often. Like the page in One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish that goes like this: "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I can not hear. Will you please come over near? Will you please look in my ear? There must be something there, I fear." Especially the "Will you please come over near" part. I think of that every time I ask Matt to come here.

Dr. Seuss must just be really catchy because I also get his ABC book stuck in my head. I don't know why, but I really like the letter I part of that book. Here it is:

I love that Ichabod (even though I have no idea what kind of animal he is supposed to be).

Elise really likes Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and The Rainbow Fish. Of course, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? and Green Eggs and Ham are also favorites.

Matt, the Husband of the Year

I was clipping Elise's nails as she slept in my lap (and lamenting the fact that clipping them now couldn't heal the scratch she had already made beside her eye), and as I clipped, I thought of my terrific husband. He's still at work right now, even though it's after 8:00pm. He works so hard for our little family. Today he really did so much to make sure I was able to do the things I wanted to get done.

His day started with a 7:00am mandatory meeting at work. I had an interview today for a Hall Advisor position (I didn't get a second interview, by the way), and he came home from work just to watch Elise while I went. Then I sent him to Walgreen's to pick up my birth control and prenatal vitamin prescriptions, of all things. I also had him get a couple of food items because I was making dinner for a bedridden sister in our ward. He then went back to work for a couple of hours before coming home again to watch Elise to make sure I had plenty of time to make the meal for the sister and get it to her at a reasonable time. Then he did the dishes. I sent him back to the store when I realized I didn't have an ingredient I needed. Then he tolerated my flustered mood when I was running later than I wanted to delivering the meal I'd made. Now he's back at work, and it's taking longer than they planned to finish setting up for an event in the morning. Matt, how do you handle all the craziness? You're just amazing, I guess.

P.S. Matt didn't get home until way after 9:00pm. Then he put Elise to bed. He's such a great dad, too.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Dos meses sounds much better than two months.

Well, doesn't it? Not that I prefer to speak Spanish. I couldn't even if I tried (even though I took three semesters of college-level Spanish classes). I just think this particular phrase sounds much nicer en español, ¿no?

Anyway, Elise is now officially two months old! Yeah! She turned two months on Monday. Talk about a whirlwind. She had her two month well check yesterday with her pediatrician, Dr. Clayton (who I think is terrific, severely pointy nose and all). For those interested in the stats, she was 23 1/2 inches long (When is it that people stop being long and start being tall?), weighed 12 lbs 2 oz (!), and her head was 37.2 cm. That makes her 90th percentile for height, 80th for weight, and 30th for head size.

Like any new, concerned, paranoid, overprotective, loving mom, I was a little concerned about Elise's head being small. Since Ryland was diagnosed with craniosynostosis (unfortunately, we're still awaiting the results of his CT scan) I have been more than a little obsessed with her head. (If you don't believe it, ask Holly.) I'll try not to worry. Or call Holly so much.

At two months, she is doing so much! She's such a happy, social kid. She started smiling at 5 weeks and pretty much hasn't stopped since. She is just learning how to roll from her back to her side, how to bat at a toy, how to put a toy in her mouth (almost), and how to shake a rattle when I put it in her hand. She has also become an expert drooler all of a sudden. (I really hope she isn't teething yet.)

She also loves to suck her thumb when she doesn't have a pacifier. This is great for us as parents because she is terrific at putting herself back to sleep. (Did I mention she has been sleeping 6-hour stretches at night since for a couple of weeks now? Hallelujah!) To sum it all up, she's just a terrific baby. We love her so much!

rolling, rolling, rolling . . .