Odds & Ends

Pigtails, potties, and people

Three weeks ago, Elisa had her hair put in pigtails for the first time in honor of the math & computer science department picnic that we hosted.  She was quite enamored of her pigtails (as were her parents and the students) and for days brought the rubber bands to mommy to get her hair put in pigtails.  However, her patience with keeping them diminished to nil and for about a week she hasn’t even though about her pigtails.  Still, her hair is definitely thickening and lengthening and showing definite hints of red.

With the department picnic, we had about 25 people over and Elisa enjoyed it immensely, moving from room to room and person to person.  The picnic wrapped up shortly after she went to bed and Elisa woke up bright and early the next morning (5:30) and when we got her up at 6:30 and brought her downstairs, her first word was “people?”  She had missed them leaving and was looking for them. 

The day of the department picnic was also the first day Elisa wanted to get naked.  She has long taken shoes off and put them back on (less frequently – and usually after removing the socks).  This day she pulled down her jeans of her own accord and stepped out of them, a trick she has repeated a few times.  But she came to Mommy overwrought because she couldn’t get her shirt off.  We had to convince her that she needed to keep her diaper on.  We were able to convince her to put clothes back on for the party and are keeping a strict line of needing clothes on to leave the house.  Most of the time, she just wants to take off her shoes, socks and pants…and that hasn’t been too bad the last week with the colder weather!  She has also shown a couple times that she can put on her own pants – as long as she has help pulling them up the last bit.

Two weeks ago we did invest in a potty for Elisa.  It is still way too early, but she has friends who use the potty and it has come into her vocabulary.  The real incident that pushed us to this was that when we were in Toronto for Association, she was grabbing her diaper and heading to the changing table – once even grabbing the hand of a random teenager and taking off.  The honor of being chosen wore off quickly for the sweet teenager once she realized the destination.  We also invested in pull-ups and panties for different stages of the process (Mommy doesn’t go shopping that often) and Mommy carefully explained that the pretty panties were for when Elisa had proven she could use the potty all the time for a week.  Since that time, Elisa has pointed to the panties when she sees them and says “potty.”  Elisa has sat on the potty a few times, especially the first couple days, with us talking about taking off pants and diapers and sitting on the potty, but she hasn’t used it yet.  Mostly, we have invested in a new step stool for being able to wash hands and brush teeth.

Today, Elisa had fun with the slides at the park.  Last fall, she had enjoyed slides and shown reasonable independence in going down them (small ones of course!)  This spring she showed great reluctance to go down them – but today we had a breakthrough.  There was another little girl modeling going down the slide, so Elisa went of her own accord and wanted Mommy to be waiting for her at the base.  Over the next 15 minutes, she moved on to sliding independently  down the straight slide – again and again – and finally moved on to the curved slide herself without anyone waiting at the bottom, which Mommy and Daddy hadn’t been able to tempt her near it.  It is amazing how quickly they can grow in confidence!

A few other facts:

• She really likes the theme for Car Talk – and in general all country/gospel music.  But she is fond of much music.  She recently has developed delight in Row, Row, Row Your Boat, playing it repeatedly on her LeapFrog letter pad and singing with Mommy “row, row, row” and somehow getting a sense of “merrily” without being anywhere close!  She also likes singing “Happy are the People Whose God is the Lord,”  – mostly the “happy” part – and occasionally answering the question “Where does this happy feeling come from” on her own.  The other song she joins in is Ho-ho-ho-ho-sanna, particularly the “he-he-he” part.
• Two word phrases – especially possessives – are run of the mill.  Three word phrases happen occasionally.  Probably the first 3-word phrase was at 6am one morning, clear as a bell: “Up pease, Daddy!”   That isn’t a typo – she still isn’t saying much in terms of blends – but she has been getting consonants into the middle of words for a few weeks.  She is also starting to pick up verbs, mostly “ing” words.
• Elisa has long insisted that Daddy take off his glasses for prayer (she also insists Mommy wears sunglasses when they are around.)  She has recently picked up the idea of folding her hands to pray, in the last week taking the initiative to fold hands rather than hold hands. 
• She likes to go ”around” – she may spin in a circle saying “run around, run around” and today when Mommy asked her to come around another way (since she was trying to go up and over the flower beds) she stopped in her tracks and turned around. 
• She has picked up the word “trowel”and started going in the basement door from outside to look for it since she was allowed to use a trowel to be like Daddy who was turning over the garden.
• She likes blowing bubbles, but really likes holding the wand right to her mouth.  Her technique also includes taking a breath just as she holds the wand to her nose in preparation for blowing.  This afternoon daddy was blowing big bubbles and she coined the word “bubballoon,” which seems amazingly appropriate!

Snakes, Hotdogs and more plants

Recently, Elisa scared her mother spitless!  We were getting up from a hillside (since we have had June weather in April!) when Kristin turned around to see Elisa holding a 16 inch garter snake.  Amazingly, she had picked up the snake just like you see the experts do, with one hand right behind the head.  Kristin screamed bloody murder, Elisa dropped the snake and got upset, and Andrew (like a good father should when his wife is screaming) immediately picked Elisa up, not even having seen the snake.  The snake was rather shocked, too and laid there half upside down for minutes.  After gathering herself, Mommy tried to tell Elisa that garter snakes are not scary, but that we really shouldn’t pick up snakes.  (Who knows if that will stick).  We spent a little time looking at the poor snake and watching him stick his tongue out and then left him to his own devices.  Mommy saw the snake again the next day, but thankfully he escaped under a tarp before Elisa noticed him.  Before seeing the snake, Elisa had already had the word snake from books (although the “s” isn’t pronounced yet).  Later that day, she noticed some short bungee cords on her way down into the basement and dubbed them her snakes.  So for the last two weeks, Elisa has gone to the closed door at the top of the basement stairs and asked for her “nake.”  She doesn’t seem to have picked up much fear of snakes. 

The week before this last week, Kristin was on break, so we took a few days and went to visit one of Kristin’s college roommates and family down near D.C.  It was wonderful to see Megan and Brian and their son Noah, who is a couple years older than Elisa.  It can’t be said that Elisa and Noah really played together, but they did enjoy the same toys and videos and Noah was very sweet in sharing with Elisa.  We did drive into D.C. one morning since Kristin had to meet someone (work even on vacation!) at the Spy Museum (doesn’t that sound cool?) and the whole family had a hotdog lunch from a roadside stand.  Elisa greatly enjoyed her hotdog, something she has only had a couple times.  Mommy started by trying to give her a little piece with bun broken off, but after tasting a little Elisa decided she needed the whole hotdog and gave the piece back.  She ate down the whole hotdog and half the bun (it was in the way of getting to the hotdog) and overall enjoyed herself.

Elisa has enjoyed continuing to work with Daddy on various things, although transplanting the seedlings to larger pots was not as successful a joint activity.  Elisa did help with the first couple plants, but when it got to ALL the plants, she was too interested in holding (pulling, bending, etc.) the seedligs rather than content with getting the dirt ready and watering.  So Daddy did most of the work.  Most days, Daddy and Elisa go to look at the plants which are under a high intensity light in the basement and Elisa eats a piece of leaf lettuce (still quite small).  She enjoys asking for a “leaf.”

Elisa continues to not only spend time in the car, but find new ways to enjoy it.  She recently went through a spell where she wanted to go and sit in the car and pretend to drive each day.  (This did happen more when Mommy was on break and we were home more!)  She has learned to put on the windshield wipers and turn signal.  She wants mommy or daddy to sit in the passenger seat and the doors must be closed (which is rough on the hot days we’ve had).  She has also experimented with new activities in her car seat.  She has helped various dolls dance to music in her head and has also given piggy back rides to dolls a couple times.  As you can see, she enjoys her pretending.  It is a joy to see this aspect of pretending become more obvious, as she shares her sippy cup with a stuffed animal, or puts a baby to sleep.  She loves pretending to sleep herself, putting her head under a blanket and saying “night night.” 

Another sign of her increased mental connections is that she makes and remembers her own “jokes” and connections.  One of her books has dogwood blossoms and Mommy has been naming them for most of a year.  A few weeks ago she made the connection that “dog” was the first part of “dogwood” and said “woof-woof.”  The last couple days the book has come out again and when we get to that page, she points to the dogwood blossoms and says “woof-woof.”  Another book has frogs that say “peep-peep” and she had enjoyed that part of the book.  The book didn’t get read for a month or two and recently came out again and just based on seeing the cover (which doesn’t have the frog) she said “peep-peep.”  She has also learned to join in a social laugh when Mommy and Daddy think something is funny and she quickly notices what we laughed at and will repeat it and laugh at it herself.  Silly girl!  (And no, she isn’t solving Rubik’s Cube yet!)

A few gems

Well, we haven’t been too good at taking pictures nor keeping the blog updated, so here are a few episodes with pictures that aren’t necessarily related.

Last week, Elisa went with Emily, her daycare provider, and the other kids to walk through the stations of the cross set up at Houghton by students and faculty because Emily wanted to be prepared to take her Sunday school class this weekend.  At one point, there was a display that showed Jesus crucified and Elisa saw it and said “Ow,” drawing it out with feeling.  May she always be sensitive to the incredible sacrifice Jesus made for us! 

In general, she seems to have a good sense of “ow.”  We have some sticker bushes as we go down to the creek and when walking down, Andrew pointed them out to Elisa and explained they would hurt.  Of course, she touched it and said “ow.”  Then she brought us back later and pointed out the bush and said “ow!”  She also watched a cartoon short where the character has a vending machine fall on him.  As the vending machine tipped she tensed and said “uh-oh” in a worried tone.  When the vending machine fell, she gave another sympathetic “ow.”

Elisa has two volumes for speech: full voice (with good carrying power that she comes by honestly) and sotto voce.  Frequently her responses are whispered – saying yes or thank you (“Kyew”).  As expected she is using new words every day and adapting many old ones.  We are now getting consonants regularly in the middle and end of words, although there are still no blends.  She says “Bubble” very clearly and has started saying  names of her various caregivers.  Today she was saying “Bannon” frequently for Brandon, Emily’s husband.

Andrew is particularly good at involving Elisa in his different activities.  Last weekend, Elisa enjoyed planting seeds with daddy.  Andrew led her through planting two 6×6 trays of seeds of all kinds.  The sunflower seeds and those of similar size were relatively easy, with Elisa poking holes and placing the seeds and covering them.  Small seeds like herbs and lettuce were accomplished more with a dip and brush method: dip the finger in the seeds and brush off those that stuck into the dirt.  Elisa was very patient working through both trays.  After the first tray, daddy asked if she would like to get down.  She said no and pointed at the seeds that weren’t yet planted – she wanted to complete the job!

The bank clerks – mostly grandmother age females – think Elisa is a perfect child.  Last December she picked up a little Christmas decoration (a wire tree with little bells) and enjoyed shaking it and when Mommy told her to “put it back” she did it immediately.  I think that was the first example that “put it back” was a magic phrase.  Elisa has played with Halloween pumpkins, played peekaboo around corners in the back, written on scrap paper and generally charmed while Mommy was banking.  Finally this week, Elisa proved to them she isn’t perfect – she cried when Mommy had to put her down to fill out a deposit slip.

Elisa has other ways in which she isn’t perfect.  Like Mommy, she gets irritable when tired.  A week ago she had her first real fever – Thursday night and most of Friday she was running fevers around 102 and was pretty miserable.  Friday she had her first sick day from daycare and Daddy and Mommy split the day at home.   Sabbath, she was down to just a slight fever but she was exhausted from not sleeping well.  Then she got a cough that kept her from sleeping, so she finally caught up Thursday and became her normal even-tempered self.

We had another episode recently that shows Elisa may be too devious for her own good.  Like most toddlers, she likes buttons.  (Thankfully she doesn’t seem to be as obsessed as others!)  Daddy has played her music and showed her pictures on his iTouch and she was very quick to figure out how to press buttons and bring up menus.  Her favorite buttons are on the dehumidifier in the basement – where she only goes when helping to feed the cat or change laundry.  Last weekend we were taking her doll out of the wash (since it had been loved with strawberry fingers) and while Mommy was putting more clothes in the dryer, Elisa walked over to the dehumidifier and pressed a button.  Mommy turned around saying no – just in time to see her holding the dolls hand to the power button and turning it off.  Mommy told Elisa not to turn it off and pressed on again – only to have Elisa point to the doll as if to say the doll had turned it off.  Mommy was not pleased with the implications that Elisa wanted to pass the blame, but the level of literalism as to who had pressed the button was impressive. 

While this episode isn’t the best, it shows the beginnings of Elisa’s ability to pretend.  Not only has the doll pressed buttons, but the doll has held the guitar pick to strum the guitar and danced as she rides in the car or stroller.  The doll has been sat up in chairs or placed on grass.  She also is currently pretending to sleep – anytime she has a blanket or pillow on mommy and daddy’s bed, she crawls underneath it and calls out “nighty night.”

One other episode was a little traumatic – with Mommy taking one for Elisa.  We were baking two weeks ago while Daddy was away (Mommy had to make cookies to celebrate pi day at school!) and Elisa was following her normal procedure when the oven needed to be opened: she stood across the kitchen holding onto a cupboard handle.  She has done this for the past month and done quite well.  Mommy opened the pre-heated oven and had to change the level of an oven rack, so she opened the cupboard to get the potholders and pulled out a rack…only to see Elisa moving toward the oven.  In the next seconds of confusion, Mommy managed to get the oven rack to her lower lip and chin (about 1.5 inches vertically), put the oven rack in and catch Elisa just as she was about to put her whole hand in contact with the door of the oven.  She was so sure Elisa had been burned that Mommy ran Elisa’s hands under water – only to see there were no burns on either hand, which was a blessing.  Mommy on the other hand had a very nasty looking bubbly and scabbed 2nd degree burn for the next week.  At this point, it is down to a pink line so at least her vanity isn’t smarting quite as badly.  And all of this was probably because she saw animal crackers in the open cupboard.

Before the burning episode, Elisa was standing on a chair watching Mommy scoop out cookies.  Mommy was focused since Elisa couldn’t get into much – and then Elisa gets down off her chair and gets the dustbuster and comes up on the other side of Mommy to have her turn on the dustbuster.  Thinking this was a standard “I think the dustbuster is cool” episode, Mommy turned on the dustbuster only to realize that Elisa had spilled some corn while on the chair (leftovers that needed to be thrown away) and was vaccuuming up all the corn.  She is definitely going to be a better housekeeper than Mommy!

Adventures at Babysitting

While being with Elisa is a joy (who doesn’t love a little girl who loves hats and smiles all the time!), it can also be very fun to hear what others’ experience with Elisa!  This week I’ve heard a few different stories about Elisa that give a good snapshot of her weekly experiences away from her parents.  [Unfortunately, since we weren't there, we don't have pictures of that and you have to put up with these pictures of Elisa in a hat she got from her cousins and her green monkey pajamas!]

Elisa is cared for by Emily, wife of one of the physics professors, every school day.  Emily is a former elementary school teacher who is a sweet, gentle and steady caregiver.  One or two afternoons a week she gets to leave after lunch and starts her nap on the way home.  While she is there, she spends her time with a few other kids – a little girl, Adelaide, about 8-9 months old a few mornings a week; a little girl, Sophia about 3 who she sees every day; and the little girl’s older brother, Eli, who comes after preschool.  Beyond this, they go to the local church playgroup two mornings a week and to the church nursery during Emily’s weekly bible study.

One of the other faculty members has a daughter named Elise Joy who is a month older than Elisa (we didn’t know about the other’s names until months after they were born!)  She goes by Ellie and sees Elisa at playgroup and bible study.  Apparently, every time she sees Elisa she says her name and runs to her.  She has gone to the nursery during church services and asked to see Elisa only to find Elisa wasn’t there.  The faculty member told me today that he hears about Elisa all the time!  It is nice to know Elisa is well-liked by some of her peers!

Sophia and Eli are definitely teaching Elisa about a variety of things.  Sophia models for Elisa all the ins and outs of being a girl.  Occasionally Elisa’s diapers get used to diaper dolls.  Sophia mothers Elisa, bringing her sippy cup and other things she needs.  Elisa has learned from this by bringing little Adelaide her sippy cup and trying to feed her.  This week Kristin looked out the window and saw Emily walking all the kids (she lives just off campus, probably a couple hundred yards from the science building) and quickly realized that Elisa was wearing a pink coat rather than her maroon coat.  After a first thought that maybe her coat was inside out since the lining is pink, Kristin realized that Sophia was wearing Elisa’s coat and hat and Elisa was wearing Sophia’s.  So Elisa is being trained to trade clothes at an early age!

Last week, I came to find Elisa with a towel knotted around her shoulders as a cape.  Having seen Eli with this same setup earlier, it was clear where the influence came from.  Eli likes pretending that he is an “evil pharoah that fights for righteousness” - I love the consistency of children!  This week Eli read a book about colors to Elisa.  He first asked for Elisa to sit on his lap, but quickly switched his request to have her sit beside him when she was placed on his lap.  Then he read to her “R-E-D, red…”  Apparently Elisa is absorbing early ideas of alphabet because she points to the letters on Emily’s sweatpants and pretends to read them!

Between playgroups at church and daily walks onto the Houghton campus to play on the quad or visit students in the campus center (which keeps Elisa very amused!) many people know Elisa.  Besides the faculty member at lunch, Kristin had someone else stop her this noon to tell her how adorable and sweet Elisa was and how much she enjoyed seeing her around campus.  Since Elisa is known by more people at Houghton than she is after 4 years, Kristin is accepting that she is identified first as “Elisa’s mom!”

Stickers, Dishes & Noises

Elisa recently discovered stickers.  We had a sheet of happy face stickers from who-knows-what that had been on the fridge and over the last week she had wanted to take them down and grab a few stickers.  Once she ended up with a few on her face – without too much help from Daddy.   Tuesday she seemed more intent on the stickers than before and started putting them all over her pants.  Mommy came and sat down on the kitchen floor, too and Elisa began transferring all the stickers from her pants to Mommy’s.  She got every sticker off the sheet (with a little help from Mommy on one) and then Mommy showed her the joy of peeling off the backing and she had fun tearing it to pieces.  It certainly seemed to be an activity she enjoyed! (See the last picture!)

On Wednesday, Elisa was very helpful in cleaning up the table.  She carried all the dishes to the dishwasher where Daddy put them in.  The only problem is that she wanted to be too thorough and picked up Daddy’s still-full glass of milk from the table and spilled some!  Paper towels came to the rescue and after most of the milk was wiped up, Elisa took over and kept wiping the chair.  She tends to be a little more thorough in cleaning than her parents, so not only the seat of the chair, but the spokes got wiped.  (We’ve seen this before – once she took the dish towel from her playhouse and started cleaning around the window ledges and the door.  This is clearly not an inherited trait!)  After the chair was deemed done, she dived under the table with a cry to clean kitty.  Ink very wisely left the area quickly.

Elisa has picked up a number of animal sounds in the last week or so.  It was rather surprising last Friday to realize how many she knew since she had never done any of them for us!  She knows that a cow says moo, a kitty says miaow (usually VERY high pitched), a dog says woof, an owl says hoo, and a lion says roar.  She has also learned this week that a monkey says he-he-he.  Of course, these sounds aren’t always consistent – sometimes the high pitched sound takes over for all the different animals and doesn’t even sound like miaow any more!

Helping around the house

It’s obvious that the semester is back in session since we haven’t written for a month and haven’t taken many pictures either!  Elisa continues to develop new abilities and preferences and lately has enjoyed many around the house chores!

Elisa is gaining new words (not very clear yet!), but her major mode of communication at this point is to come to us, sign please while making an insistent whimpering sound until we take her hand and follow her to whatever she wants.  Raisins are a current favorite and she will take us to that cupboard (she knows which cupboard most things are in!) and ask for “Rayuns” – it isn’t really two syllables, but an extended vowel sound.  She spontaneously signs please when she wants something and when asked to say thank you, she often blows a kiss since she confuses the sign for thank you with this.  When asked to say goodbye, she sometimes responds with a wave, other times with blowing a kiss and often plays dumb.

Elisa adores the dustbuster and frequently goes to pick it up and pretend to vaccuum.  She asks us to turn it on and then pushes it around – although she hasn’t figured out lifting it to get an angle.  She regularly watches what Daddy is making in the kitchen from her highchair and asks to get up and look into things while dinner is cooking.  Yesterday, she wanted to stir the noodles and had to be distracted by her own bowl and spoon elsewhere.  She has tried to help with snow shoveling as well. Recently, she got hold of the reusable shopping bags and carried ALL of them around her playhouse.  

Elisa is also learning to mother.  Over Christmas, she force fed her cousin Ellie with a sippy cup.  Apparently, she is also helping the younger baby (~8 months) who is babysat with her – putting away the sippy cup where she thinks it goes and fetching it when asked.

While she hasn’t learned to put back toys without prompting, other things have a definite place.  She will let us know when we haven’t hung up our coats yet, bringing us to coat and insisting we do something about it.  This morning, she took books and DVDs that she found out of place (she actually put the Veggietales DVDs out of place) and put them onto the appropriate shelf, sliding them right into place.  She also has started carrying dirty dishes to the sink and putting dishes (and not just silverware) into the dishwasher.

Elisa is developing her own sense of style.  She is mostly particular about shoes and socks.  For a while, she would choose which pair of shoes.  Recently, it is a question of socks – and white socks have become boring enough to throw fits about (argh).  Sometimes we end up with layered socks and although the bright colored socks we’ve invested in help ($6.50 for 10 pair), we may still need to find more creative socks!  Only once has she complained -in fact, threw her biggest tantrum yet - about shirt or pants.  After calming her, we modeled the correct way to ask for a change. 

She also plays dress up.  Largely, this has to do with hats since this is what is actually laying around for her to play with.  She likes putting on her various hats in various ways.  Occasionally she just wants to wander the house in her snow pants.  I think she accessorizes with stuffed animals and dolls – this week she has brought a different doll or stuffed animal 4 of 5 days in the car.  A week ago, she rediscovered the pacifier she never really used and seems to treat that as a way to change her look, too.  And whatever the look (either clothing or expression), she monitors it in the mirror regularly!  One thing closely related to dressing up is her deep joy all month at getting her parents under a blanket with her and seeing them in this “secret hideout.”  We get a lot of giggles that way. 

At the beginning of the semester, Elisa moved to one long nap after lunch.  Mommy tries to get away from school at least one day a week right after lunch to pick Elisa up.  Elisa falls asleep on the way home, surfaces slightly as she is carried through the cold and has her shoes and coat removed, and then goes back to sleep – usually for a total of 2.5-3 hours.  Her bedtime is back to 7:30 and she usually wakes up between 6:30 and7:30 (it usually gets later as the school week goes on – her naps at daycare aren’t as long because she can’t bear to miss what the other couple kids are doing!)  At this point, Elisa is usually pretty happy about being put into her bed for nap or bedtime.  She will often carry her blanket to the crib of her own accord, and once in will lift her arms so we can tuck her blanket around her.  She may yell for a few seconds, but then will either fall straight asleep or talk to herself happily for a while.

While Elisa has always enjoyed water (especially in her face and on her head), she recently has found new ways to enjoy water.  Always fascinated by water bottles, she has recently learned to drink from them and even from cups if given very small amounts (and yes, there is plenty spilled – she is still learning about the inevitability of gravity if she turns the cup upside down.)  She has also started to enjoy pouring water in the shower/bath so Mommy decided to pour a little water over her head.  Of course, she has experienced rain and loves the shower that is a part of every bath, but this was a true thrill as the water came over her in concentrated force – she kind of shivered in excitement and laughed all at the same time.   (We always knew she was a bit of a thrill seeker).  She kept asking for more water over her head and tried pouring water over her own head.  She is not yet able to lift the large container we are using over her head with water in it, so she kept pouring the water down her front rather than over her head.  She knew she wasn’t getting the container high enough, so she leaned sideways in the bath and tried again.

We have one other not-so-happy milestone: 2 weeks ago, Elisa was the first of us to get the stomach flu.  She was a real trooper, not showing any real fussiness before food came back up and when we picked her up to control where the returns landed she made her only complaint.  Otherwise, she was just cuddly, trusting and even happy between bouts.  We gave her a bath to clean up and she got another round and we gave her a bin to use in the bathtub – and she knew exactly what to do with it, even returning to it when she lost more.  She went to bed and other than one more mouthful that necessitated a change, she slept the rest of the night and was sluggish the next day, but otherwise recovered. 

We are very blessed by the positive attitude our little girl has as she encounters new situations in life.  She is a blessing to us – full of deep joy at the little things in life and a constant surprise.

Children’s Museums

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!

Merry Christmas!

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!

Thanksgiving in South Carolina

 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!

15 months!

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!