Over the last month, we have checked out two of the area’s children’s museums, one in Buffalo and one in Rochester. It is clear that while Elisa is not big enough for many of the activities, she is big enough to enjoy herself hugely!
At the beginning of the month, Elisa and Daddy had a special day all to themselves while Mommy was away in Michigan giving a talk. So they went to the Explore ‘n’ More center in Buffalo. Elisa enjoyed sitting in the train and even came back to it (Grandpa Rood would be proud!). She played different musical instruments, hid under the dress-up clothes, and had fun playing in the rice table! Someone volunteered to take this picture of Elisa and Daddy in hard hats.
This last Tuesday, Andrew took a day off and we went to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester. It was amazing! Elisa had fun playing for 2 hours and that was just in the first 2 of 9-10 sections of the museum! Mommy and Daddy even had to pull her away from activities so that they could get a better sense of the museum.
We started by watching beautiful tropical fish in a few large tanks – and Elisa kept running back and forth between the two tanks, which meant she was running across the main pathway into the museum! Then we moved on to the section devoted to what is learned from play, both science and life lessons. Overhead, balls rolled, giant mobiles modelled balance and there was a large kaleidoscope. There was a mirrored and lighted section that allowed Elisa to be in a kaleidescope, musical instruments to play, a giant drum to drop plastic beads into to make different pitches of music against the different sized nails, race cars to drive or mini-ones to put on a track, fun houses that set off your sense of balance or perspective and many other things. Elisa particularly liked driving, diving under the tongue pillow in the fish chair, and putting beads down the drum.
We went on to Sesame Street, where Elisa knocked on the door, looked at books, was on TV with Mommy and Rosita (counting in Spanish!), hid under dress-up smocks, climbed in the Muppet Taxi (to drive, of course), and played the musical pipes with a paddle. (Mommy can’t wait until we can look up in the tree and count all the different things hidden in it!) Elisa also got to ride the train around the track and climb in the cockpit of the plane in the next section before we grabbed a stroller and just took a tour of the rest.
We did visit the butterfly garden and were the only ones there. Besides having butterflies land on us and fly past, we also got to watch the butterflies emerging in the crysalis case and Elisa just stared! There were also turtles, coy, and a tortoise that wanted to get close to Elisa. At that point, we were done for the day, but Elisa had really enjoyed herself and had another good nap on the way home – and slept well that night!
We had the rare chance today to celebrate Christmas by ourselves at home – most years we have been traveling ON Christmas. It was a nice relaxing day where we could spend time with Elisa and do a few special things.
Elisa got her big Christmas gift at the beginning of the week – an open playhouse (that folds up!) with working doorbell, light, burner noises, opening shutters, letter to go in the mail box, etc. We gave it to her early since her Grandparents Rood had contributed to the gift and we wanted to make sure she had time to get used to playing with it before they arrive this Sunday …but she didn’t need any time to warm up to it! She loves the mail slot, doorbell and light (and sometimes looks like an engineer trying to analyze the light as it turns on and off as she flips the switch). What was unexpected is that she already understands the idea of pretending in the kitchen – using the faucet to fill the water glass and then drinking or putting dishes on the burners. It is clear that there is much more going on her head than she can communicate!
This morning we took out the nativity scene (that hasn’t been out this Christmas since it is ceramic) and took out the pieces and used them to tell the Christmas story with Elisa. She kissed both Mary and baby Jesus. After putting it away immediately, we opened some presents she had been sent. She enjoyed the guitar that plays songs and went back to it intermittently throughout the day. She also got a cute coat for when the weather is a little more mild and three books, which we read during the day.
She then took a nice long nap (mommy and daddy’s Christmas present), enjoyed playing in the afternoon, had another short nap, and a yummy special dinner that daddy cooked. We ended the day with a Veggietale.
We have been blessed to enjoy the earthly family God has put us in as we remember the heavenly family that we have been invited to join, with Jesus as our older brother born so many years ago!
We have been in North Myrtle Beach, SC with all of Andrew’s family for Thanksgiving. We drove down leaving after Kristin’s Monday afternoon class and staying overnight. Poor Elisa – we drove late enough both nights that she was asleep for the night in her carseat both nights and just waking her up to take her in meant that she took a long time to get back to sleep! But she so desperately wanted to be asleep that she would climb out of Mommy and Daddy’s arms and walk to the crib even though she would just lie there.
Elisa has enjoyed being with all her cousins – 10 of them ranging in age from 2 year old triplets to two 12 year old cousins! In return, all of her older cousins (all male) have been very sweet and nurturing, playing peekaboo, hiding under pillows, reading to her, and holding her. They have had fun playing with each other’s toys – trains, stuffed animals, books. Elisa’s family photograph book has been quite popular with all the younger set.
Since the beach is just past the buildings across the street, we have walked over a couple times. It is late November, so the wet breeze has kept it pretty cool, but the sun was out Friday afternoon and Elisa got to go wading. Note the nice late fall clothing… She was very excited, putting out her foot to reach the incoming waves and running in place to get good splashing. Daddy was making sure she didn’t get knocked over by the waves and let go after she was more sure of herself…so of course, she took a couple of dives. She had no fear in the process, but the velvety sweatsuit and fleece coat were soaked, so we took off for a warm bath.
Elisa did enjoy her couple baths in our jacuzzi bath (we had the master suite since Elisa shared out room) with the jets. The first time, Andrew had bubble bath in and the jacuzzi supersized the bath. Only Elisa’s head showed when she was sitting, but it was great fun for her. Once again her fearlessness came through since she (accidentally) dove in headfirst right before the end and Daddy rescued her (and got quite wet) – but Elisa didn’t mind.
Elisa has also tried a number of different foods she didn’t get at home. On her own volition she asked for cucumbers and olives – and finished the cucumber and ate most of a second olive. She enjoyed daddy’s cranberry juice on the way down and some of his fried okra (a different meal!) The first attempt at french toast didn’t take, but she did enjoy two small bites of a Krispy Kreme donut.
The whole family went to Brookgreen gardens Friday morning, a sculpture garden and zoo of local animals. Elisa enjoyed her stroller, petting and taking pictures with the different animal sculptures. She also enjoyed watching the different animals, being very patient with her parents. She pointed up at the birds and said “bir.” At one point we were trying to point out a pair of otters basking in the sun and she kept pointing in a different direction, only for us to realize she had found an otter we had missed!
She has picked up a number of new words. She has asked us to pray – “way” (and bows her head!), fixated on a “ba” (bath) when we said it was time, and repeated fan - “an” – after mommy when looking at the bedroom fan. She continues to get closer to “ma” and “da” – fully able to make the sounds, but it is unclear when she means it. As we started on the trip, she had also picked up the sign language for “please” and uses it with great earnestness – we assume she picked this up from one of the other kids she is babysat with. She has also picked up and concatenated up and down – daddy had been giving her rides on his recliner footrest up and down and now she says “up-down” when going up and down stairs or wanting up and down from her highchair.
Another interesting development is that Elisa is starting to request her diaper to be changed. Before we left, she had shown some interest in her diapers, once or twice pulling out a diaper, spreading it out and sitting on it. The day before we left she pulled the diaper up around herself. While here there have been a number of times that she has gone to our closed bedroom door and asked to have her diaper changed by getting out a diaper and lying down. This is a little scary for parents who really don’t want to think about potty training until summer break!
The major snafu of the trip was that Andrew broke his glasses Sabbath morning and we planned to leave that afternoon for home. So Andrew and his dad got to bond over finding a 1-hour glasses place on a Sabbath morning. And of course, early next week the glasses Andrew had ordered at home should come in… But this way he has a back-up pair!
We are very thankful for our time with family, especially since people are from so many places, headed to a different set of places and who knows when we will have the chance to all be in the same place again and how much kids will have grown by then!
Well, it’s been almost a month, but Elisa is 15 months old! When the doctor’s appointment finally came, she weighed in at 24.2 lb, was 30 in. long and had a head circumference of 18 in. And she got 4 shots… We had actually been to the doctor 2 weeks previously (just before she was 15 months old) to see if she had an ear infection (nope) and she had stood on the scale herself! She waved and said “bye” to the doctor after he had checked her ears and he was impressed that she did this spontaneously – after he had been concerned/surprised at 12 months when we weren’t sure she had any words yet!
Elisa has a lot of teeth at this point: 7 of 8 front teeth and all 4 molars (although one or two may not be fully through). She is using the molars well and chomping on apples and carrots. She “brushes her teeth” every morning while mommy dries her hair and brushes her teeth – usually biting the brush. Then mommy helps! She enjoys closing things - dishwashers, trash cans, the refrigerator, doors to bedrooms, etc. Of course, she frequently traps herself inside rooms, so she has learned to knock (as well as cry) when she finds herself trapped. She frequently picks her shoes and almost always pick a matching pair.
She is doing a good job going down stairs expeditiously on her stomach – somewhere between a slide and crawling. We had kept the gate at the top of the stairs so she can run around upstairs without slipping down, but last weekend she turned a laundry basket upside down and climbed on top of it just a foot or so from the gate…and apparently the presence of the gate becomes more dangerous than its absence, so the gate has been removed.
Elisa enjoys reading books and recently has picked a favorite to read over and over for a day or two – lately Good Night Gorilla, The Wheels on the Bus and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. She particularly likes books with songs – and regularly dances as we sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider to start out that book. She will get a big smile and stand up (rather than sit on our laps) and shake her hands while holding them out in front of her to try to imitate the spider.
We have been fighting the battle of not having her stand on chairs – she likes to stand in both her rocking chair and the new solid wood children’s chair that she was given by Ruth Bottoms, a woman in our church. It is almost a game, with her almost sitting down and then standing back up. She is trying to be compliant, but somehow doesn’t seem to understand this instruction.
She has 5 words – bye, hi, ki (kitty), dog, and uh-oh. (Uh-oh is the most popular of the five!) She knows many more words than she can say. When asked if she wants to go upstairs or downstairs, she will head for the stairs and start. She also knows where to go to have a bath. She will respond if asked if she wants to play the piano or have music, either heading for the piano or the stereo. She started climbing up on the piano stool and has learned to play with more than the volume, so that means the music often ends pretty quickly! However, she still loves to dance and continues to get more moves!
She is starting to come when asked (but not always) and responds to a number of requests: bringing her shoes, socks, moose, finding her sippy cup where she dropped it, etc. She and Ink are getting along a little better. Ink will frequently sit still while she pets (and pats) him and will even purr at times. Of course, she hasn’t figured out that Ink isn’t always in the mood, so there have been a couple minor scratches and Ink enjoys escaping down the cat door to the basement. Elisa also enjoys throwing things through the cat door – papers, toys, anything that fits!
Recently, Elisa starting holding our hands to pray for meals. She will hold out her hands as we sit down to eat and after we hold her hands she bows her head – briefly! It makes us feel like we are doing something right that she seems to have picked up this habit – and very humbled that we can be reminded by our 15 month old of how great our God is and how many reasons we have to be thankful to Him!
Elisa and Mommy have enjoyed the last two days of Mommy’s break while Daddy was in Wisconsin for meetings. We’ve had more time together, with Mommy only having one student teacher observation. So we have tried to clean a little in Elisa’s room – but that didn’t work so well since Elisa wanted to play with the clothes that Mommy was trying to pack up and put away. We have played piano and danced to music and climbed on chairs and taken baths. And Mommy has had more chance to take pictures of all of it!
We took a trip to Rochester, NY in order to get a minor safety recall on Mommy’s car fixed. Before we left home, we played in the 2 inches of snow on the ground (in mid-October!) for a few moments, and Elisa was decidedly ambivalent. She was happier once Mommy gave her a big chunk of snow, but still uncertain. While the car was being fixed, we went to the mall across the street. Elisa got to look at the puppies, birds, rabbits and pythons at the pet store, squealing louder than their delighted yips and stomping her feet in excitement. We also got Elisa outfitted for the winter earlier than planned, buying a snow suit (maroon, not pink!), hat and mittens. She liked the hat and mittens enough that she wandered around the house in them for a bit. We also had lunch at Friendly’s (mac and cheese and brocolli for Elisa…and she even ate off the plate without picking up the plate!) and shopped for a few things for Mommy.
We did miss Daddy, though. Elisa waved a big goodbye to Daddy Wednesday morning. Thursday afternoon Elisa started waving and smiling at Daddy’s picture on the wall. So Mommy took down the picture and let Elisa look at it and she carried it around for a while, eventually secreting it in the bottom of the end table in the living room. (Mommy didn’t find it until Elisa brought it back out later!)
Elisa is still teething on her 1st year molars and as of Thursday, the top two had started to break through. In the process, Elisa has been running a low grade fever on and off for the past week and having sudden unexpected moments of pain. So she will be happy and grinning, especially now that she has started to deliberately smile and wrinkle her eyes, and then will yell. This has a side benefit for Mommy, since Elisa has taken to bringing books to Mommy or Daddy when she isn’t feeling as well and cuddling. With teething, we have even made it through multiple stories at one sitting.
Mommy has indulged Elisa just a little while Daddy was away. Elisa has continued to get much more fluent at climbing up on the dining room chairs. So she is frequently up and down two or three times in the time it take Mommy to get breakfast (i.e. cereal and juice). Friday, Mommy allowed Elisa to eat her toast and banana while standing on a chair. Elisa also managed to get a knife from further in on the table and speared her toast so she worked a little at toast on a stick. Elisa has been working on getting more fluent with silverware, sometimes having good success with a fork and macaroni and other times (most of the time!) picking up food with the fork and then using her fingers to take the food from the fork to her mouth.
Elisa also continues to climb and clamber more. This morning, she made it onto the coffee table on her own. The other day she crawled under the chair which has cross bars about 8 inches off the ground. Her dancing has become much more varied, including stomping her feet one after another, swaying from side to side (even in a stroller in the mall to background music), waving arms in the air from side to side and “singing” as well as the regular bending at the knees. Despite the fussiness with teething, she is a very happy girl – and she likes being happy! We enjoy her playful and cheerful spirit!
We continue to be amazed how quickly Elisa changes! She is now 14 months and it was just 6-7 weeks ago she was introduced to milk and it seems like ages ago! Since then she has also learned to drink from a straw, which leads to better sippy cups and less spilled milk. Elisa has no new teeth, but the gums are swelling with molars coming and as a result have been constantly drooling for more than a week.
This week she has taken her climbing skills to new levels. For a week or two, she has enjoyed getting up on the little two-shelf shoe rack and this week she has mastered climbing onto a dining room chair by using the rungs on the chair. (At first she was stepping up on a little box.) The table is no longer a safe place to leave anything because she wants to climb from the chair to the table!
Elisa is also getting better at putting objects in their places, like the pieces for her fridge farm and the alphabet tiles in her Croc. In another sense, she is definitely learning to pick up (though not always doing it.) She has a bin for her bath toys that goes under the towel stand in the bathroom which she has been taking out and dumping (on the floor, into the bathtub, in the hall, etc.) One morning this week, having dumped it out, mommy asked her to put the toys away and modeled with two of them. At that point, she picked up every other toy to put it away and then carried the bin to its place in the bathroom.
Elisa has also gained a couple new words. She clearly started saying “ki” for kitty by mid-September. “Dog” is her current favorite. We taught her this since she was applying “ki” to the neighbor dog and now she is applying “dog” to cats and bears and all sorts of animals. Today she came home and said “uh-oh” a couple times when she had dropped something – a word I’m sure she learned from a 17-month old girl she spends half her days with!
What is most surprising is the amount of understanding she has even though she has few words. Early on, she would bring us our shoes or her coat to hint that she wanted to go outside. Recently, she has clearly caught on to words like “piano,” “music,” “bath” and “outside,” knowing certain places in the house associated with these words. Most surprising are the times that she will respond to complex commands. Last weekend, Andrew wadded up a plastic bag with a hole and asked her to throw it away, noting that she was allowed to throw it away since we normally discourage use of the trash (since desirable things tend to be added…). She took the bag, deliberately set off the 8 feet to the trash can, opened the lid and put the bag inside and, when Andrew requested it, she shut the lid of the trash can rather than continue to play in it.
As of Friday August 7, 2009, Elisa turned one year old! When we finally got to the doctor 2 weeks later, her stats were as follows:
Weight: 22 lb., 9 oz.
Height: 28.5 inches
Head Size: 18.5 inches
We celebrated on our own and then with extended family in Berlin, NY – 21 of us around the table. She got a pink and white outfit, shapes puzzle, palm crayons, Noah lift-the-flap book, a feed and learn croc, and a Busy zoo activity cube. Perhaps the favorite was a mylar balloon…which came with us camping for a few days in Maine after we left Berlin. She would walk around with the (weighted) balloon inside and out.
A few other notes about Elisa at a year old (and some 13 month updates):
Teeth: We have been holding steady at 6 (4 top, 2 bottom) for a couple months now. She has seemed to be teething a few times since, but we haven’t seen the results yet!
Stairs: although after a fall in July she was very slow at starting down the stairs. She really started becoming fluent with going down stairs while we were on vacation in Maine. At 13 months she is now quite fluent at going down stairs, frequently putting her right leg down straight and immediately going down to her left knee rather than standing on a stair before going down to her knees.
Communication: Still no clear words, although there are many syllables: ma, da, ki, ti. She does seem to associate “ki” with kitty, but we’re not sure. There are far too many piercing screams for Mommy and Daddy, although we seem to be past the worst of the last round. After a hiatus, we are back to signing “all done” at the end of meals, sometimes spontaneously, and after 12.5 months, she has developed her own sign for “food” or “more” – currently multipurpose. We modelled two fists touching and she came up with a finger pointing to a fist. Now that has morphed into a fist into an open hand. And she is insistent! While we are still waiting for spoken words, we know she understands a lot since she will respond to many phrases – even things like “Why don’t you bring your book into the bathroom to read” a few times. She almost always turns when called and frequently comes when asked a couple times in a row.
Food: Eating what Mommy and Daddy are eating with a few exceptions such as beef or apples, which are only half eaten, along with some other hard things (but she likes worrying a thin apple slice and taking little pieces off – at almost 13 months she stole a small whole apple from another child and ate, or at least bit off, a sigificant portion!) Her favorites are noodles and Daddy’s crusty homemade bread (she seems to prefer crust) although she doesn’t seem to really like storebought bread at all… When it comes to noodles or tortellini she can eat a serving that is close to adult size. She will eat almost anything.
Walking: Well, yes, it seems a long time ago now. One of her most interesting traits is that she will just take off without looking back – at home or in public places. She has confidence and will go. Of course, she still prefers to be carrying something (books off shelves in the library, a ball, etc.) A recent favorite is shoes. At almost 13 months, she learned that she could walk backward as she had taken off and turned back when Mommy called, but still kept moving away. Since they she has purposely practiced walking backward a few times.
Outside: She loves the outside! When camping she proved that she is a girl not afraid of dirt. If she is fussy, a stroller ride is the perfect cure. At about 12.5 months, she started bringing us our shoes and encouraging us to put them on so we could take her outside. We often go to a little park in town with small slides and toddler swings and she has gotten much better at slides – she can start herself down the slide and go on her own and enjoys slides enough to try to walk up them on her own. Of course, she doesn’t sit down on her own at the top of the slide – if she gets to the top of the slide herself, she goes down the slide backward as if going down the stairs!
Clothes: Beyond Elisa’s love of shoes (and she will pick out a pair to wear many mornings – usually a matched pair!), she seems to be happy in whatever we have her wear. She does enjoy carrying anything on a hanger and really likes Mommy’s nylons – she likes the texture. She definitely knows where different pieces of clothing belong (on her), trying to put shoes on her feet and shirts over her head and becoming much more cooperative in the dressing process.
Comforters: Elisa has adopted a blanket and a stuffed moose as her favorite comforters in the last few months. The blanket is a cue for sleep and the moose is her favorite to hold in her car seat. When she wakes up, she has to take the blanket out of the crib and hold onto it for a few minutes until she is fully awake and distracted by something else. She will frequently hold the moose in a strangle-hold for the full 20 minute trip up to Mommy’s work and her day care.
Favorites: Elisa loves bouncing balls, climbing up into her rocking chair, and carrying things from place to place. The last month or so she has developed a deep joy in music. For the last couple weeks we’ve been listening to either Bible songs or toddler songs in the morning for a half hour and when it comes on she will usually stop what she is doing, raise her arms and bounce/dance. She will frequently wave her hands almost as if she is directing. She also quickly learned how to turn the volume up – she agrees with her Grandpa Rood that music should almost shake the floor boards. With this, she has also been using the various musical toys more frequently and with longer attention span. She also enjoys stroking the strings on Mommy’s guitar and went right after Uncle Jeff’s guitars for the Guitar Hero video game!
Milk: Elisa has made the switch from hot formula to cold whole milk in the last two weeks. It wasn’t easy, but not too bad considering…it has taken extra opportunities to drink because she didn’t like it at first, but we mostly went cold turkey with occasional formula if she hadn’t drunk anything and was overly fussy. At this point she is drinking her 16 oz. or so a day and we are starting to move it more toward meals and snacks, where the formula had been associated with getting up from naps.
Nighttime routine: Elisa tends to get a last few sips of milk and then we read a few books. She might race through Pat the Bunny (except for the waving) or walk around while we read one of our favorites. Then we close the night with a page out of a Bible story book that she likes enough to carry around and a prayer. With kisses from Mommy and Daddy, she grabs her blanket and is laid down – and usually asleep in less than 5 minutes. Most of the time she is sleeping 8 or 8:30 p.m. until 6:30 or 7 a.m.
We are so blessed by our little girl! Overall, she has a very good temperment, being generally happy and reasonably independent.
Elisa and her cousin Donovan have been having fun together – well, at least most of the time! Besides heading to church, our two big “outings” have been to the fire station when they were having an open house and to the backyard to play in the pool. Both trips were definitely a success, with Donovan more able to enjoy the fire trucks and Elisa revelling in her first time in a wading pool.
Both kids had fun sitting in the fire trucks, with Donovan really getting into steering and wandering around the back of the fire truck to look at things. It was also a great time to hang out with his Daddy!
Elisa wasn’t quite aware of what to do with a steering wheel (who knows if she’s ever noticed one before since she still rides backwards!), but she did put her hands on the wheel. Both kids were adorable sitting in the old fashioned fire engine.
The pool was – pun intended – a big splash. We had a nice cool spot in the shade for the adults on a sultry day. Elisa got in and immediately started splashing with great exuberance. She ended up basically in the pool for 45 minutes, just getting out a few times. Donovan was much more in and out, running around the yard and heading into the house once or twice. Still, they both had a lot of fun! Elisa is fearless around water, crawling around in it and a couple times diving in face first. The first time she scared herself a little and appreciated intervention and reassurance but the second time she pushed herself up immediately, sputtered a little and went right back to playing. Donovan was more interested in the toys than the actual water. He played with the bath toys and the balls and netted rackets we had. Once Elisa got hold of the rackets, the nets were quickly detached and used for her signature over the head and across the neck/back move.
The two have also enjoyed bathtime together (except fighting over the toys – any maybe they enjoy that). Donovan gets placed toward the drain since Elisa really likes pulling out the bath plug. And yes, that goes over the head and around the neck, too! There are more pictures, but many of them are not suitable for publication!
Elisa has discovered the joy of waving and used it to charm multiple people at this point. The fact that it is still unpredictable makes it all the more enjoyable. She will spontaneously wave hello to the cat but refuse to wave when Mommy and Daddy encourage her to wave goodbye. At the end of May, she had her musical debut at a church talent show singing “Inright Outright Upright Downright” with Mommy. [Grandma recommended starting early before an audience since it seemed to help Mommy have no fear of performing and Mommy tries to follow Grandma's instructions...especially when it shows off Elisa!] Mommy helped Elisa do the actions, which Elisa regularly enjoys – for a couple months, the song got her out of a bad mood every time – and everyone was delighted and clapped hard. Once Elisa understood that the applause was for her, her face lit up and she waved both hands very hard. The double handed wave is a sign of great excitement. It also showed up last weekend at church: while Mommy was leading songs up front while playing guitar, Elisa shouted out (singing?) and waved both hands very hard. While not entirely conducive to worship, this provided a good moment of group laughter.
Elisa has continued to walk, walk, walk. It is still a rolling sort of gait – Grandma says it is like she is riding a horse – but she can move pretty well. Most of her falls happen when she gets so excited about moving that she gets ahead of herself and trips. We went to visit Great Mama and Great Papa Greene in Berlin, NY at the beginning of June and during our two days there she moved from a few forays into the middle of the room to ignoring walls entirely and walking 10-12 steps at a time. One of the big advancements toward this was learning to stand in the middle of the room rather than pulling herself up. This is also much more graceful since she has not learned to plant her feet and line them up with whatever she pulls herself up; instead she may have her legs all twisted and stay on the tops of her feet until the very end. Last week in church was the first time she was truly mobile and at the first opportunity, she left the pew (2nd pew, piano side) to come visit Mommy at the piano. Mommy was considering letting Elisa stay until she starting plunking the keys on the piano – apparently the Clavinova is enough lower than the home piano to provide good “plunking.” Now Elisa is almost running – but her rolling gait keeps it from working!
We have “invested” all of ten dollars in a baby pool – one that is inflatable and has a giraffe neck and toys built in. We have yet to use it for swimming, but we did blow it up to see what it was like and discovered that it makes a great jungle gym. Elisa will get in or out on her stomach and will happily play inside with the built in toys or her own toys.
Elisa has two favorite expressions at the moment, one with her tongue out and another that we call the turtle-face – she makes a fish face, but then sucks in the bottom lip so the top lip hooks over the bottom one. She also has continued to make very expressive sounds, although not words. She inherited the ability to project her voice well and prefers to belt at meal time. We’ve just been working to make sure she sticks to lower pitches rather than that of a fire siren!
Over the last month, we have checked out two of the area’s children’s museums, one in Buffalo and one in Rochester. It is clear that while Elisa is not big enough for many of the activities, she is big enough to enjoy herself hugely! 
had a special day all to themselves while Mommy was away in Michigan giving a talk. So they went to the Explore ‘n’ More center in Buffalo. Elisa enjoyed sitting in the train and even came back to it (Grandpa Rood would be proud!). She played different musical instruments, hid under the dress-up clothes, and had fun playing in the rice table! Someone volunteered to take this picture of Elisa and Daddy in hard hats.
This last Tuesday, Andrew took a day off and we went to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester. It was amazing! Elisa had fun playing for 2 hours and that was just in the first 2 of 9-10 sections of the museum! Mommy and Daddy even had to pull her away from activities so that they could get a better sense of the museum. 
Overhead, balls rolled, giant mobiles modelled balance and there was a large kaleidoscope. There was a mirrored and lighted section that allowed Elisa to be in a kaleidescope, musical instruments to play, a giant drum to drop plastic beads into to make different pitches of music against the different sized nails, race cars to drive or mini-ones to put on a track, fun houses that set off your sense of balance or perspective and many other things. Elisa particularly liked driving, diving under the tongue pillow in the fish chair, and putting beads down the drum.
(counting in Spanish!), hid under dress-up smocks, climbed in the Muppet Taxi (to drive, of course), and played the musical pipes with a paddle. (Mommy can’t wait until we can look up in the tree and count all the different things hidden in it!) Elisa also got to ride the train around the track and climb in the cockpit of the plane in the next section before we grabbed a stroller and just took a tour of the rest.
We did visit the butterfly garden and were the only ones there. Besides having butterflies land on us and fly past, we also got to watch the butterflies emerging in the crysalis case and Elisa just stared! T
here were also turtles, coy, and a tortoise that wanted to get close to Elisa. At that point, we were done for the day, but Elisa had really enjoyed herself and had another good nap on the way home – and slept well that night!
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