Colors

Matt plays a game with Elise to help her learn her colors. He asks her to get a certain color block from her wagon, and she has to bring him a block in that color. I didn't realize how well she was doing with learning her colors until Matt and Elise played this game this morning. Here is the stack of blocks she brought back correctly. The trick is to get her to stay focused on the game long enough to demonstrate what she actually knows.

So at almost 18 months, Elise can identify blocks in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. And I'm pretty sure she knows white too.

Bowling

Disclaimer: If you don't want to read the details of Elise's sleep habits yesterday, skip the text and head straight for the pictures. In fact, feel free to skip all the text in this post. In a lot of ways, this blog is journal-esque to me, and some things are mostly for me to remember later.

Elise didn't wake up until about 9am yesterday. She has been doing that a lot lately, despite her 7pm bedtime and typically about 2.5 hour nap. Not that I'm complaining or anything! It did mean that her nap time was bumped back a couple of hours, though. Then she had some trouble settling down, and before I knew it, it was 2:45pm and she was just getting to sleep (usually she is asleep by about 11:30am if she gets up at a normal time, meaning before 7:30am).

Matt came home around 4pm and Elise was still sleeping. Since she didn't get up until about 4:30pm, we thought that we could do something fun that would keep us all out a little later than usual. Bowling! (my suggestion, Matt took some convincing)

We went to Chick-fil-A for dinner, which was amazing! (Don't laugh.) Sometimes I forget how much I like eating there. I have been craving fries and fast food lately, so it really hit the spot.

Then we took Elise bowling for her first time ever. She was so excited! In the pictures she isn't smiling because she was just too focused on what was going on, but I guarantee you that she was having a blast.

Matt bowling his first turn of the night

me about to bowl my first turn

(I think I already look pregnant!? Is that normal at 11 weeks!? At least I'm not in maternity clothes yet.)

For some reason the ball return was super clogged with balls most of the night, but I didn't want to move them because the balls were there before us and the people in the next lane might have wanted them. So we just kind of managed.

Matt helping Elise bowl

With gutter guards and that ball chute thing, she scored higher than I did (for both games)!

As much as Elise loved the bowling and the clapping for Mom and Dad, I think her favorite part of the night might just have been the air blowing out of the ball return.

And my favorite part of the night was watching her!

This picture makes me laugh.

final scores for game #2

None of us are experts, but we had fun together!

(I don't want to talk about the fact that I lost twice in bowling to my daughter who is not yet 18 months old.)

This might give you a taste of Elise's enthusiasm. I love the little skippy step she does when she is running and excited. Notice she doesn't care at all about the pins at the end of the lane.

Cheese Whiz

Elise loves string cheese more than any other food. Along with peanut butter or biscuits, it is one of the only foods she almost always finishes. I am amazed by how fast she can put away a string cheese! I'm pretty sure she doesn't even attempt to chew.

Elmo Obsession?

photo from here

Let me begin by saying that we currently don't own a TV, and I make a point to limit any kind of screen time Elise has (I know what the AAP has to say about babies and TV). The only full-length show we have ever put on just for Elise to watch is Baby Signing Time when she was about nine months old and we were encouraging her to start signing with us. Even then, we didn't watch the shows for long, partly because we checked the DVD's back into the library and partly because she started catching on with signing. And sometimes we would watch Jeopardy in front of her when she was really little.

So, why is my baby obsessed with Elmo?

I do admit that sometimes I put on a Youtube video of Sesame Street while Elise and I wait for Matt to get home from work. When dinner is cooking, or when Matt is a few minutes later than he thought, she loves to watch these clips. But she never watches more than a few at a time, so a total of less than about 15 minutes. And this has only happened very recently, and fairly infrequently.

I was walking around Wal-mart the other day when, far off in the distance, Elise spotted a pair of Elmo pajamas on a rack. She immediately pointed and exclaimed, "Elmo!" What? Baffled, I told her what a good job she had done identifying Elmo correctly. Then I tried to figure out how she knew with such certainty who Elmo is.

And he keeps showing up everywhere. I noticed her safe-to-swallow toothpaste has a picture of Elmo on it. Actually, she pointed that out to me. Every Sesame Street character is Elmo to her, except Big Bird, who is just "bird." Pretty soon, she'll be insisting I buy her Elmo pajamas like the ones she saw at Wal-mart.

She also knows Sesame Street from these toys she got from my sister Paige for her first birthday, which are great little toys. Elise is still really into biting, and these little figurines are perfect for that. They're also great for church, since they make absolutely no noise. She has Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, and Ernie.

So now that I have written this post, I guess it doesn't seem like such a mystery that Elise knows who Elmo is. But it still scares me a little.

But I guess not bad enough, since my not-yet-18-month-old is also currently obsessed with this Youtube gem from 1986. Yeah, I know; I'm a great mom.

P.S. We're not anti-TV. We just haven't bought one since we gave away the free CRT giant one we used to have before we moved. Matt and I watch movies all the time on our laptop. And we have already bought Elise movies for when she is a little older.

P.P.S. Oh, and that day we were at Wal-mart? I bought Elise a Sesame Street counting video from the $5 movie bin. I haven't decided if I want to take it back yet. We'll probably keep it.

P.P.P.S. If you let your baby/toddler watch TV every day, I totally don't blame you. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Ten Tiny Toes

Elise's perfect little feet

8 days old

Elise's feet now

almost 18 months old

Can I just say that I love Elise's toes? Her little feet are so perfect and chubby. I especially love the crease at the base of each toe. I will be so sad when she grows out of her baby chub and those creases go away.

Please, Elise, don't grow up too fast.

Another Baby Asay!

We're excited to announce that we're having another baby! This baby is due September 20, 2012 (which is 18 days after Elise turns two).

These images are from when I was 8 weeks 1 day along. Now I'm just about 10 weeks.

The head is over on the right. (The ultrasound tech kept telling me how great the images were. I guess she knows much better than I do, because they look a lot like blobs to me.)

And a labeled one, for those of us who really just can't tell.

My favorite part about the ultrasound was getting to see the baby's little heart beating. He/She was moving around too, which was fun to watch.

We are so happy to be expecting this little addition!

Pretend Play

photo from here

Elise has this toy car that comes with blocks and a Little People girl. She got it for her birthday.

The other day she was playing with it when she turned a block upside down, put the girl inside, and told me "poo poo" (what she calls the potty, as well as pee, poop, and tooting). I realized she was pretending that the girl was sitting on a potty.

She has been pretending a lot more lately. She has a stacking cup that she pretends is a bowl, and she uses the mallet for her xylophone as a pretend spoon to feed her baby doll. She likes to undress her babies and give them pretend baths, using a doll hat or doll diaper as a pretend washcloth. Sometimes she randomly feeds me pretend food or hands me pretend things (never sure what she is pretending to hand me). I can't tell you how cute it is when she is pretending.

Here she is feeding her babies from their "bowl," but not using the mallet/spoon. That yellow stacking cup is the only one she uses as a bowl, probably because I suggested it once. (The mallet as a spoon she came up with all on her own.)