Ready to Go

Elise is so ready to go these days. Since she started walking, she hasn't looked back. She almost never crawls anymore. She can stoop and pick up toys off the floor and stand up easily in the middle of a room. And she's getting so fast!

Elise is up for all kinds of adventures. Now that it's finally getting a little cooler here in Arizona, we can actually go outside occasionally, as long as we don't stay out too long. Elise begs to go outside several times a day.

Here she is saying "out," which is how she asks to go outside. We can't wait for even cooler weather!

Elise's First Birthday

Elise is one year old! Her birthday was a lot of fun.

Here's the birthday girl.

Her party was rainbow themed. We had a rainbow fruit tray made out of strawberries, oranges, pineapple, green grapes, and blueberries.

The cake turned out to be an epic disaster. No joke. Apparently it still tasted good, though. (I wouldn't know; I couldn't have any. Dang celiac disease.) I guess six layers was a little too ambitious for me. The inside was kind of pretty. White cake with added food coloring and rainbow chip frosting.

Cake time!

Elise knew just what to do with it.

After we had cake, Elise opened presents.

Here she is enjoying them all.

Happy first birthday, Elise! We love you so much!

Stuck

This is Elise at eight months. She had just learned to pull to a standing position, and she was teething. She scratched the finish off of her crib all along the side by biting the bar. The scratches were ugly, but I thought we would just refinish that part one day.

Fast forward to yesterday: Elise had been playing around in her crib (when she was supposed to be napping) and had gotten her leg stuck. She had put her leg through until it was stuck above her knee in the bars, then bent her leg to try to pull it back through. Bending her leg made her chubby knee even chubbier and even more stuck. I heard her crying, came in, straightened her leg, and was able to pull it back through without much of a problem.

Later, I left Elise at home with Matt while I went to the grocery store. Elise was napping, and Matt was watching Kung Fu Panda. All was well.

When I came home, this was what I found:

Apparently, Elise had gotten her leg stuck again. According to Matt's story, it sounded like she had woken up and repeated her shenanigans from earlier that day. Matt, being the loving, protective father that he is, found her stuck and crying. He panicked a little, grabbed the bar, and pulled it off. That's right, he broke the crib to save Elise's leg. Now the crib is glued back together. Hopefully it's still safe to sleep in.

Moral of the story: Matt shouldn't watch violent television, including Kung Fu Panda.

Our poor little crib, that was supposed to last our family a long time, is not looking so great.

I Scream for Ice Cream

Tonight Elise had her first taste of ice cream, Cold Stone sweet cream with Heath bar (we shared). She's a fan. She especially liked feeding herself with a sample spoon. She didn't even care if the spoon had any ice cream on it; she just would swipe at the bowl and put the spoon back in her mouth. She liked it whether or not she got any.

Leighton, Savannah, and Ryland loved their ice cream too.

Higher and Higher, Baby

Elise is crazy. She loves to climb, even in the bathtub. Here is a video of her scaling the shower wall, with the added bonus of Jonathan's commentary.

To Read or Not to Read

This is a picture of Elise almost four months ago. She was eight months old then, and she loved books. Even when Elise was really tiny, she would pay attention for so long as I read to her, sometimes as long as half an hour or more straight.

I have been sad lately because I thought Elise didn't like to read anymore. I used to love that she loved books, but she won't sit still long enough to be read to anymore. She squirms away almost every time you try to read to her.

I said something about this to my sister, and she suggested that maybe Elise just wanted to read all by herself. [Remember this post?] My sister said her son went through an independent phase where he wouldn't let anyone read to him either. I had never thought of that, so I started watching Elise more closely.

And she still loves books. I realized that before I had just been too quick to take them away from her when she tried to read on her own. She's really hard on books sometimes (just yesterday, she ripped the cover off of one book, tore the page in another one, broke the binding on a board book, and bit into yet another board book). Since the books she reads belong to my sister's family, I didn't want her to mess them up. (Obviously, you can see how well that's going, but Holly is really nice about it.)

When you give her a chance, she really is very interested. This was yesterday:

This sight melted my heart.

I was so glad my baby still likes looking at books, even if she usually is too wiggly to finish Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? right now. She is just learning to walk, which makes her crazy about moving. All. The. Time.

And every once in a while, she will sit still for you.

[This picture also melted my heart.]

Yard Sale Finds

My sister and I went yard saling today, and we found some fun things. I love going yard saling with Holly; she is the best deal-finder I know. I got this Little People barn for Elise for 75¢. She loves it.

I also got her this set of percussion instruments that are pretty fun, also for 75¢.

The barn is missing the silo, but I was happy with my purchases! Much better than paying $30 or $40 to get the toys new.

A couple of weeks ago, Holly got this entertainment center while we were yard saling. It's not in perfect condition, but it's really nice and sturdy. Only $5. I know, crazy. Holly was pretty happy, especially since she hated her old entertainment center.

So, happy day today. Maybe I'll wrap up the barn and drum set and give them to Elise for her birthday, which is in less than two weeks.