Mastered Skill

Elsa mastered pulling herself to a standing position on Monday. She was doing this occasionally on certain objects around the house before, but now she can crawl over to any ole' structure and pull herself right up. This, I have found, makes her much more of a walking disaster-waiting-to-happen, so I have to keep my eye on her. Yesterday I sat her down in her room to play with her toys and left her for not more than two minutes to run and do something in another room, and by the time I got back she had crawled into the living room, pulled herself up on the coffee table, and was standing there flipping through the stack of magazines. We have definitely entered a new chapter of life with baby!

Another Important First

I am a little behind in my blogging and, as a result, am just now reporting another one of Elsa's important firsts, which took place last Wednesday -- her first taste of Dunkin' Donuts baked goods. She had tastes of both my sour cream and old-fashioned donuts, but really did not seem too overly impressed with either. I would say she might take after her mommy and daddy and not be much into sweets; however, both of us thoroughly enjoy Dunkin' Donuts, so maybe it will just take her some time to realize their yumminess factor.

Elsa graduated to her new car seat a couple of weeks ago. I picked it up while we were in Charlotte last since the Babies R Us there is much closer to my parents' house in comparison to the distance separating our house and any of the locations around here. And I had already been to the Lithonia location twice trying to figure out the answer to the Great Car Seat Debacle. I won't get into all of the details, but we basically ended up purchasing and attempting to install two seats and returning them both before settling on this one. I even ended up calling the manufacturer of this seat to make sure it was going to work. The main problem was that the convertible seats are rather cumbersome, especially when trying to install them rear-facing (it is now recommended babies stay rear-facing as long as possible). We don't have a small car, and yet it still seemed difficult to find a seat that would (1) fit in our car rear-facing and (2) not eat up two-thirds of the back seat. The Safety First Air Protect seat is a bit more slender than some, and their side-impact crash test videos online were very convincing. Elsa seems to be pretty comfortable in it, and us parents at least feel like she is fairly well protected.

Mmm... Wood Chips

What is this interesting find?


Hmm... I wonder if it is as tasty as it looks?


Are Mommy and Daddy paying attention?


Yes! Daddy's attention is turned toward the skateboard park.


And into my mouth it goes!

(Don't worry... we didn't actually let her eat any, much to her chagrin.)

First Pair of Shoes

I took Elsa into Downtown Decatur yesterday morning to a local children's store that carries toys (mostly of the classic variety) and clothing -- including shoes. Now that she is crawling and attempting to pull up on various structures, we have run into a few instances where it would be nice to let her get on the ground and explore, but perhaps not with bare feet. So I broke down after holding out these 11+ months and purchased her first pair of shoes. See for yourself in the photos I took today at the park, but I think they are incredibly cute. Let's just hope they last for more than a month!

The Zoo

On Friday morning, Elsa and I met Shelly, Christian, Alison, Finnan, and Jude at the zoo. This was Elsa's second visit to see the animals, and this time she at least showed some interest in the flamingos and the panda bear, who was doing some somewhat sad-looking pacing very close to the window. I was telling Jarrett later in the day that I really have a love/hate relationship with the zoo. I think it is wonderful that we are able to take our children to such a place and let them see animals you just cannot see on an everyday basis, but at the same time I feel bad for them because they're so penned up. The kangaroos don't have room to run and jump, lions and bears pace, and don't even get me started on my childhood favorite -- the elephants. I know the animals are well taken care of, but it is just the lack of space that kills me. But, alas, I am sure I will continue to visit because it is still just so darn cool to see these animals up close.

It seemed like the monkey pictured above, however, along with his monkey buddies, were free to escape, if they so desired. There did not seem to be any sort of cage or netting around them -- just a few zoo staff standing around. Did they really think they could catch these guys if they decided to jet?

Besides looking at the animals and joyously snacking from her stroller tray, Elsa also had quite a fun time inspecting various tree branches and pointing out the vegetation in the snake and turtle tanks. I think she did actually spot a couple of the turtles moving around, but for the most part the reptiles were a little too camouflaged. She did, however, really enjoy my imitation of a hissing snake combined with very much tickling.

Elsa Dances

Here is Elsa playing with her new toy. She has taken to dancing to it as it plays "B-I-N-G-O."

An Elsa Funny

Yesterday when Elsa and I were strolling down the cereal/baby supply aisle at the grocery store, Elsa seated in the cart, I paused by the jarred baby food. As I was looking over the organic options, I noticed Elsa out of the corner of my eye pointing in my general direction and speaking her usual baby gibberish. When I looked over at her, she starting signing "please" and pointing at the various baby food jars. As there were no dogs on any of the baby food products, I am assuming she actually meant "please" this time. Of course, she forgets that there are only one or two jarred foods she will actually eat, but I guess she wanted some all the same. She did, however, scarf down the homemade lentils cooked with chicken broth, carrots, and a little shallot that I made earlier in the day.

Elsa is Eleven Months

So this is it. The last month before Elsa hits the one-year mark. Incredible! And this month has brought with it incredible developmental progress. She is crawling, and though she doesn't yet venture much from room to room, she has discovered the dog bowls just outside the back bedroom on more than one occasion. Who knew playing with dog-slobbery water could be so much fun! She also very much enjoys crawling over to the bookshelves, the changing table, or the little rocker in her room and pulls herself up onto her knees. Occasionally she will pull herself all the way up and onto her feet, but usually prefers help with that at this point. She has definitely started cruising around a little when standing and holding onto furniture, but doesn't yet have much speed when it comes to cruising or crawling, which is fine with me!

Elsa is clearly understanding words now. She still only does the sign for "dog," but over the past few days has started doing it nearly constantly with much enthusiasm. She is even trying to say something when she signs that sounds very close to the word "dog." She often confuses the signs for "please" and "dog," as they are both done by patting -- one by patting the chest and the other by patting the thigh, respectively. So if she doesn't have good access to her leg when she wants to sign for "dog," she will just pat her chest instead. We continue to work with other signs, and I just assume she will pick up on them at some point. She is fascinated by lights right now and points to them on a regular basis. Fascination also surrounds photographs on refrigerators (especially when there are dogs in those photographs!) and, strange though it may sound, the clear shower curtain in the guest bathroom. She sticks her finger out to touch it very cautiously and then immediately draws her hand back. She must think it is strange that she can see through a tangible object.

The love of her books still continues. Her favorites these days are The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Peekabo, I Love You! (the book we were given in music class), Pajama Time, and Play (out of the priddy books line). She is still quite fond of her old faves, though -- Goodnight Moon, Easter Bunny (also by priddy), Wild Animals, and Curious Kitties. Now if you lay all the books out and ask her to pick one, she will choose the book she would like read to her, which is a lot of fun. I think the girl would let you read to her all day... as long as there is only a sentence or two per page, as turning the pages is half the fun.

Elsa now has five teeth (two on the bottom and three on the top), and another is about to pop through. She is still nursing four times a day, but I am considering beginning the weaning process here soon. She has cut out all other feedings on her own, so I have hesitated starting any weaning from my end, but I think we might be nearing that time. We shall see... I have a feeling the nighttime feeding might linger for a little while. She is still eating solids well, and has even decided that maybe she does like eggs after all, much to my liking.

She is officially down to one nap a day (except for days like this past Monday and Tuesday, when she decides to play games with me just to keep me on my toes, but those days are rare), and usually goes down around 12:00-12:30 p.m. and naps for somewhere around two hours -- sometimes more, sometimes less. And aside from a few disturbed nights of sleep due most likely to teething, she still sleeps really well at night, going down around 7:00-7:30 p.m., and sleeping usually until between 6:00-7:00 a.m. I still dream of that day when Elsa is staying with grandparents and Jarrett and I are off sleeping in together one morning, but I can't really complain.

We attended our last music class for the summer yesterday, which was sad, but we had a lot of fun over these past five weeks. Elsa really seemed to enjoy it, so I think we will look into enrolling her in the next session. She is still fairly enthralled with musical instruments, and still loves to play guitar with Daddy when he comes home from work in the evenings.

Happy 11-month birthday, Sweetie Pea.

Elsa's First Pair of Jeans

I put these on Elsa yesterday and thought they were just too cute -- and too funny (check out those flared legs!). Go figure that her first pair of jeans would be as pink as pink can be. My mom picked these up at a sample sale, I think, when she was still working at Belk. Elsa couldn't move around in them too well, though, so I ended up stripping her down to the onesie fairly early on in the day.

To Grandmother's House We Go

This last Sunday, after a nice family brunch at Thumbs Up Diner (which Jarrett and I have now fondly labeled "Twiddle Your Thumbs Diner," but that is an entirely separate story), Elsa and I headed to Charlotte for a visit with my parents. The drive went okay. Elsa took her nap in the car, and I was smart enough to place her tote full of toys/books next to me on the passenger seat so I could pass items back during the awake periods. She didn't get really fussy until the tailend of the trip, but I was ready to get out of the car by then myself. We spent a little time out of the car just hanging out at the house, and then that evening we went to Buca di Beppo for dinner -- one of my favorites.

It was nice seeing my parents and letting Elsa spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa. She opened her first (early) birthday present, which was exciting. It is an electronic-learning-light-up-and-play-loud-music-type toy, and she pretty much loves it. She hasn't quite figured out that she should let the thing finish saying/singing one word/phrase/song before pushing or prodding something else, but she likes it nonetheless.

My dad is back on a day shift now, which is fabulous, but we determined he probably would have actually seen Elsa more had he still been working the night shift. He was still able to see her some in the mornings and evenings, though, which worked out pretty well. My mom is still currently out of work (pray that she finds a job!), so aside from her couple of hours of volunteer work at Samaritan's Purse, she was around, and we were able to get out and do a few things. On Monday we met one of her ex-coworkers at Belk to do a little shopping. Her friend actually retired a few years ago, and since she was there a certain number of years (at least 25, I think), she receives a lifetime discount. She was kind enough to meet us at the store and help me get some good deals on clothes for Elsa, which was awesome. I was really going to miss my mom's discount, but apparently we still have our connections. :) After the shopping spree, we went out to lunch at the nearby Mexican restaurant, which is almost always a must when I am in town.

On Monday evening, my mom and I tried to sneak out to a movie after I put Elsa down for the night. However, she wasn't asleep when we left the house, and I had a bad feeling about it once we arrived at the theater. Call it mother's instinct or whatever you'd like, but I was smart enough to call my dad before purchasing our tickets and -- sure enough -- I could hear her wailing away in the background. So we just turned around and headed back to the house. After NO napping the next day (I think the first time she has not napped at all in a day's time) and an outing to Babies R Us and Chick-fil-A, she fell right to sleep a little early Tuesday evening, and my mom and I did succeed in making a movie -- My Sister's Keeper -- which was really good (aside from audio mishaps at the beginning). I never read the book, and likely won't now, as I have issues with reading books after watching the movie. For some reason I can't get the actors' faces out of my head, and it drives me crazy that my brain will not allow me to formulate my own character images. I've heard it's a good read, though.

We had lunch out with my mom once more on Wednesday before hitting the road, Atlanta-bound. The ride back was about the same, aside from my drive-through stop for a giant vat of Coke, necessary to keep from falling asleep at the wheel, and a Georgia Welcome Center stop, necessary due to effects of that giant vat of Coke. I think Elsa was even more ready to get out of the car after the ride back... and I think we were both really ready to get into our own beds that night. We had a great time, though -- thanks Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa)!

Jarrett's Quick Project

Our missionary friends, who are currently in Thailand, inspired me when I read one of their blog posts to ask Jarrett if he would be willing to build Elsa a sand/water table. I have wanted to get her one of these, as we currently have no play things outside, but the plastic versions are really kind of pricey, usually only allow the use of sand or water at one time, and are not so easy on the eyes. So when I saw the table Tim made, a light bulb went off. Of course our own favorite woodworker could build one of these! So we made a family trip to Lowe's yesterday morning and picked up the needed lumber, and Jarrett proceeded to come home and complete the project within just a couple of hours. I think it's perfect! And built in time for all of the kiddos to play with at Elsa's upcoming birthday party (though we might need a stepstool until they all get a bit taller... perhaps Jarrett's next project?).