Isaac and Gramps' adventures in the yard!

One of Isaac's favorite activities in all the world is to go spend time with his Gramps (affectionately known still as "Ba" to Isaac and most of the rest of us.) Last week, Isaac spent a morning with Gramps working in the yard and Kati was able to capture some of their adventures on camera. Here they are:

Isaac helps Gramps rake leaves:



Isaac helps Gramps transport sticks and twigs around the yard by using their wheelbarrows:



These two are best buds:


We are so thankful that Isaac gets to spend time with his Gramps and that Gramps is so involved in Isaac's life. What a HUGE blessing. These moments are truly priceless.

We love you so much Ba!

Elise is 11 months old!

Today Elise turned eleven months old. It's hard to believe that she'll be turning one year old in. a. month. This little girl is growing faster than we can keep up!

This past month has contained many milestones for Elise. Here are some of those:

* She started saying the word "Mama" (HUGE milestone, don't you think?!)

* She started really sleeping through the night (she currently only nurses once between 8 PM and 8 AM - and that's around 11 PM right before I head to bed myself.) She's still taking two naps each day - one in the morning and one in the mid-afternoon.)

* She took her first steps! Since then, she's been venturing out to walk more and more. So far, she's taken about seven or eight steps at one time. She is getting more confident each day!

* She has started to really drink from her sippy cup. This is a major stride since she never drank from a bottle and, therefore, wasn't able to consume anything liquid when I wasn't around. Now she is able to drink very well from her sippy cup, and she drinks water throughout the day. When I'm not around, she can subsitute a cup of kefir for a nursing session.

* She has stopped eating canned/bottled baby food. Apparently her taste buds are starting to mature and she's liking the tastes of our table food (and she can chew a lot of things now with all the teeth she's had come in recently). In fact, the only thing she really lets us spoon feed her is yogurt, applesauce, and grown-up soup broths. Otherwise, it's finger foods for this little lady! She has recently tried one of Isaac's favorite snacks - fruit and grain bars (We like the ones from Trader Joe's the best, but they are basically like a Nutri-Grain bar.) She loves them! She also really likes the Gerber Yogurt Melts, which is another treat she just started eating this past month.

* She has started communicating more clearly. Although she still babbles, her babbling seems to be much more intentional and thoughtful these days. When she talks, her face really looks like she knows exactly what she's saying; it's just the rest of us who can't figure it out! She says "Uh-oh" quite often and just this week she started saying "Idee, Idee" which we think means "Isaac." She doesn't direct this only towards Isaac, but we think that she's heard his name so much that she's just doing her best to repeat the familiar word.

* She's getting physically stronger and more mobile. Not only is she trying to walk more, this little girl discovered last week that she can climb our entire flight of stairs all by herself. (Isaac loves to watch her while she climbs and say, "Elise can do it! She can do it Mommy Daddy! Leese can do it!") She has also recently tried standing up, bending forward at her waist and then looking between her legs. Maybe she is going to be a gymnast!

Elise is such a sweet girl. She loves to laugh and is very ticklish. We can kiss her belly or her neck, and she breaks out into huge giggles. She also starts laughing whenever we go into Isaac's room to get him in the morning or after his nap. She squeals with joy when Steven, Isaac or I enter the room. She's definitely a social gal who loves people. She never meets a stranger and quickly gives grins to anyone who wants to spend time with her. And, boy, is she a pleasure to spend time with! We can't get enough of this little precious girl!

Here are the monthly comparison pictures and some from today's photo shoot:

Birth - 9.30.09


One month - 10.30.09


Two months - 11.30.09


Three months - 12.30.09


Four months - 1.30.10


Five months - 3.1.10


Six months - 3.30.10



Seven months - 4.29.10



Eight months - 5.31.10



Nine months - 6.30.10


Ten months - 7.30.10


Eleven months - 8.30.10


She's a mover:


And a student of everything that's around her:


Check out this new silly face she's just started making:


Such a sweet princess she is!


Happy eleven months to our precious baby girl!

A lovely dress, a sweet girl, and a shady spot on the lawn...

Last Saturday, Steven dressed Elise for our lunch outing. His choice for her was a bit dressier than mine would have been, but I was so glad! Elise was adorable in this dress, and we were able to take some pictures on our front lawn after lunch, before we all headed in for naps.







As you see, Isaac jumped in for a quick shot at the end. He'd been "cutting bushes" with our small hedge clippers and also "pull weeds." What a great helper he is!

We love our babies!

Baby teeth: they just keep coming!

Elise now has six teeth that have cut through her gums. She has the four center bottom teeth, one of her front lateral incisors and just last Tuesday night (as you may remember from my recent post on Elise's ear infection), she cut one of her front center teeth. I was able to get some shots of these teeth on camera last week. See if you can find them!





*Well, there aren't any teeth showing in this one, but it was too cute not to post!


*Same sentiments as above...

Elise is really using these teeth, too! She is eating more and more table foods including turkey and chicken lunchmeat, string cheese, tortillas, black beans, breads, shredded cheese, and most any soft fruit or vegetable. She doesn't like eating any of her canned baby food anymore, but she does let us spoon feed her yogurt. She's also doing much better at drinking from a sippy cup. We can give her the cup now and she can hold it, drink from it, and even sit in on the table herself. She can also throw it off the table and sweetly say, "uh oh!!" Over and over. How C.U.T.E.

Fun Family Time!

Last Monday night, our family had the opportunity to spend some quality time visiting with Steven's aunt, uncle and cousins. We were excited to be able to see Aunt Ruth, Uncle David, Cousins Tammy and Sherry, and little cousins (Tammy's children) Patrick and Rebecca. We ate delicious home-cooked stromboli, pizza, salad and cake (I'm hungry now just thinking about it!), visited around the dinner table, and then headed to the piano where Steven played a few songs. Steven and I really enjoyed catching up with everyone, and our kids had a blast as well! Isaac had great fun with both Patrick and Rebecca. I think he especially enjoyed playing "soldiers" with Patrick and "taking pictures" with Rebecca's toy camera.

Elise loved being passed around among the adults. And Rebecca. They were instant friends. Rebecca seemed to really enjoy seeing and holding a real, live baby, and Elise loved all the attention! (And I mustn't forget to mention that Patrick also held Elise and was so sweet and gentle with her!)

Here are some pictures from our time together:

Ruth enjoying Steven's music (he was probably playing some Anthony Burger (Southern Gospel) at this point!)


Rebecca, posing beautifully, while Isaac checks out Patrick's camoflauge gun:


Can't you tell these little girls are having a great time together?!


Patrick and Elise; he was so sweet to her!


Rebecca and Isaac playing:



Sherry and Elise:


Tammy, Rebecca, and Elise:


David and Isaac:


David and Elise:


Isaac, "taking pictures" (just like Mommy!)



We were so blessed to spend an evening at Ruth and David's home and to be able to fellowship with family. It was a GREAT time!

They light up my life...

Goldfinches must like Italian!

We have enjoyed seeing goldfinches eat the seeds on our basil plant recently. They perch there and eat for quite a while. It's a beautiful sight, and I caught it on camera earlier this week:

Five firsts...

Last week included several firsts for our little girl. We'll start with Tuesday night. She woke up every four hours crying out in pain. We determined that it was teething, gave her Tylenol, and she seemed to respond well and went back to sleep. The next day we checked her mouth and yes, she'd sprouted a new tooth! In fact, it was one of her "two front teeth" and due to its relatively large size, that seemed to confirm that her crying spells were indeed due to this tooth coming in. "First" number one: cutting her first front tooth.

Later that day, she seemed sluggish and took a three hour nap in the afternoon (which is not typical for Elise). When she woke up from that nap, I took her temperature and it was 102.7. "First" number two: having a temperature over 101. Since my babies rarely have fevers, I called the nurse immediately. I was told that she was probably just fighting off something viral and to wait, watch her and bring her in on Friday if she still had the fever. That night she slept a little better but her fever continued. She slept a lot on Thursday and after her nap that afternoon, she still had a fever. As I was cuddling her, I reached to touch her ear to flick a tiny piece of wax out. When I did that, she made the saddest face I've ever seen and started to cry out as if in horrible pain. I didn't think twice; I knew she had an ear infection and I knew we needed to get to the doctor's. I got an appointment for 40 minutes later, called my Dad to come watch Isaac (thanks Daddy!!) and headed out the door.

When we got there, the doctor looked in Elise's left ear and said it was clear. Then she looked into her right ear and said, "Oh, she did have an ear infection. And then her eardrum ruptured. And, let me clear out the infection...[at this point she got some kind of ear-cleaning instrument and cleared out the infection. Elise was a trooper and barely squirmed.]...yes, she has another ear infection that's developed." At that point, I felt so bad. I thought and then said out loud, "How could I have missed this?!" The doctor comforted me and said not to worry. She said that Elise probably got an ear infection after the cold she'd had last week (which was very mild, just a runny nose, really), and her fussing on Tuesday night was probably due less to her tooth cutting in and more to her eardrum rupturing, which is the body's natural way to relieve the pain and pressure from an ear infection. "First" number three: Ear infection (times 2). "First" number four: Eardrum rupturing.

The doctor said that Steven and I were "doing everything right" (she's so encouraging!) She prescribed amoxicillin for Elise, said to check back in two weeks, and sent us on our way. "First" number five: taking an antibiotic.

That night, Elise was up every hour fussing. I'm thinking it had less to do with pain than it did with the amoxicillin and ibuprofen which were in her system. Note: she sleeps much better with Tylenol than ibuprofen. After a couple days of close cuddling and getting plenty of rest, she is feeling much better and back to her active, happy self (and really enjoying that amoxicillin. So much that she fusses when we take the syringe away from her!)

Whew, what a lot of not so fun firsts! As you can imagine, we are all catching up on our sleep this week!

Thank you Lord for...
*healthy teeth
*thermometers
*on-call nurses
*Tylenol
*mother's intuition
*grandparents who step in and help in HUGE ways (!!)
*our awesome doctor
*Amoxicillin
*SLEEP
*more sleep
*and your incredible GRACE for the sleepless nights

Thank you for healing our little girl!

Highchair Adventures: Feet on Table Edition

Remember the post about Isaac putting his feet up on the table? Well, if little siblings follow in their big siblings' footsteps, then it sure is happening around here!

[Elise thinking] "Hmmmm. I'm kind of getting tired of just eating while I'm up in this chair. I think maybe I'd like to try something new, maybe like putting my foot up on the table..."


[Elise still thinking] "Let me figure out the logistics of this...OK I think I've got it!"


[Elise going for it] "Here goes... I did it! And check this out: I can do three things at once! Put my foot up on the table, eat a snack, and pose for the camera. I am so rockin' this multi-tasking thing! How cool!"


[Elise celebrating] "That was really fun! I love learning new things!"


How can you say no to that?!