Our baby girl is a one-year-old!

It's hard to believe that Elise's 1st birthday has already come and gone. She is a full-fledged one-year-old now!

Over the past month, Elise has grown so much. She still crawls around a lot, but within the past week or so she has started taking lots of steps. She even bends down from a standing position to pick things up and stands again to take more steps. She sometimes bends over at her waist and looks through her legs. She seems to be at the halfway point of a somersault. It's so cute!


She is becoming a great sleeper, too, just like her brother! She finally started sleeping through the night a few weeks ago and now does this consistently. She's also taking two good naps each day in her crib. She is very easy to get to sleep - change her diaper, give her a passy, rock her for a minute and sing a song or read a book, and then she's ready for the bed. (Isaac, on the other hand, is a different story!)

It's adorable to watch her eat because she loves to eat - often she'll hold pieces of food up and display them for us to see. Then she gives a huge grin before gobbling them up. She eats three meals a day with us and she nurses three times per day, too (upon waking, after her afternoon nap, and at bedtime). She eats almost anything that we put in front of her. She loves shredded chicken, green beans, bread, bagels, bananas, plums, grapes, pasta, tomatoes, yogurt, black beans, soft tortilla shells... just to name a few! She also drinks water, a tiny bit of diluted juice, or kefir in her sippy cup. For snacks, she loves yogurt melts or puffs (if she can manage to get any before Isaac inhales them all!)

Elise is still such a happy baby girl. She is quick to grin, laugh, and make the sweetest faces ever. She's usually only fussy if she's hungry, tired, or we've taken something away from her that she wanted to play with (like our keys for example. OR the Tylenol bottle that I took away before taking the first picture above. That's why she looks so sad!)


We celebrated her actual birthday this past Thursday. We went to her doctor's appointment for a well checkup and shots. She received a great report from the doctor and she did well getting the three shots and her hemoglobin finger prick. Since Isaac has egg allergies and the flu shot contains eggs, we stayed after she got that shot to observe her for any potential allergic reaction. She seemed just fine, so the doc gave the go-ahead for us to head home for some more pleasant birthday celebrating. After picking Isaac up from preschool and napping, we had dinner as a family and sang "Happy Birthday" to Elise. She loved watching us bring the cupcake with a lit candle toward her chair. She enjoyed watching the flame dance, but we quickly blew it out and she got down to the business of eating her cupcake! She and Isaac both devoured their cakes. Well, and Steven and I did too!



After playing and getting ready for bed, we said goodnight to our little birthday princess. Isaac was having a hard time getting to sleep, so we were back and forth in his room. One time he called out loudly, so we went to check on him. While doing so, we heard Elise scream. I thought that maybe Isaac had woken her. When I got into her room, her new talking stuffed dog, Violet, was talking to her in the crib. I then thought, "Oh it wasn't Isaac who woke her, it was Violet! That toy dog must have scared her!" So I picked Elise up, and started to cuddle her. Then I realized she was burning up. I took her temperature. The numbers on the thermometer seemed to never stop... but they finally did at 105 degrees. I knew that wasn't good, so I handed Elise off to Steven, gave her some Tylenol, got a cool towel for her head and neck, got her some ice water and then called the pediatrician. The on-call nurse asked me a few questions and then said that even though a fever is normal after shots, if it is over 102 degrees within the first 24 hours after the shots, the child needs to be evaluated by a physician immediately. Since it was 9:30 PM, our options were to go to the ER at the hospital or try out the new Pediatric Urgent Care across town. We called my dad, and he quickly agreed to come and sit with Isaac (thank you Daddy!) We then made the trek to the Urgent Care. We were the only ones there, so we were seen very quickly, and the doctor determined that the fever was indeed most likely from the shots. He was very thorough with us and took the time to educate us further on fevers in babies. He gave Elise a dose of ibuprofen to help reduce the fever even more and then sent us on our way. (By then, her fever was down to about 101 degrees since the Tylenol had kicked in. And we'd been praying hard!) By midnight we were back home, Daddy was headed back home, and Elise was back asleep in her crib. The next day, Elise continued to have a fever, but it was all gone by Saturday. We thank God for reducing her fever and touching her little body! We received three phone calls from Elise's pediatrician's office on Friday to check in. They wanted to make sure she was doing well since a 105 degree temperature can be very scary! We were very thankful for the new Urgent Care (which is open until midnight) and the awesome doctor and nurse there who took excellent care of Elise and us!


All in all, Elise's birthday was a wonderful day of celebrating the blessing she is in our lives. She is a strong and healthy little girl who loves life, and we sure do love her!