Elsie 2 Years

 

My little munchkin is 2 years old!  It is kind of overwhelming to see her turning into a little girl.  Her hair is growing out and she is starting to lose that soft baby fat pudge.

At 2, Elsie is becoming more of a complex little creature with a developing personality.  The thought of trying to summarize who she is at this point feels like a big job but I will give it a try with some stories...

Singing and dancing (aka swaying back and forth to music) are still some of her favorite activities.  She still sings the classics like ABCs and is actually pronouncing various letters as she sings now.  Her recent favorite song to sing is Wheels on the Bus and her favorite part to sing is "up and down, up and down, up and down".

She loves snacking.  She asks for "nuts" every day. Her pronunciation of snacks started as "nacks", then turned to "nuts" and is starting to move back to "nacks" now.  She will pull out a bowl, bring it to one of us and say "nacks pease".

I've noticed her social personality start to change a little bit.  When she is at home or with familiar people she is her loud, active self, exploring all over the place.  When she is in strage situations, she becomes more of an observer.

We've definately seen some examples of the big two year old emotions.  When she can't do something she really wants to do, it is just devastating for her.  The other night, she and I were walking around the neighborhood and stopped at a garage sale and also saw some kids.  She thought it was a great time.  We walked back home and had to go back in for dinner.  She wanted to go, "Outsigh mama.  Pease, pease.  Outsigh."  She bows her little head when she is really trying to ask nice for something.  I kept telling her we would go back outside after dinner and she gripped her coat, wanting to keep it on.  When I finally got it off of her, she just cried and cried.  Before long, we had a surprise visit from Nana, Papa, Auntie Ang, and Baby Newnew.  Those are some of her favorite people so all was right with the world again.

I am always concerned about her ears and hearing but I think that will just be a lifetime thing just like it is for her Dad.  A couple months ago we had her tubes checked out. One was blocked with fluid behind it and the other was clear.  We did a drops sequence to try to get that cleared out.  A few weeks later, Matthew took her back and found out that the one did not clear out, and now the other is blocked as well.  So now it is as if she doesn't have tubes at all.

She is still saying lots of single words and some of her constant babble and jargon is turning into actual sentences.  (I always wonder if there would be more if her ears were better.)  Most of her long sentences start with "I want" Examples:  "Mama, I wa mo cheeeeeese.". "I wa open dis." At her birthday dinner, Matthew and I asked the waitress for water and then she said, "I wan wawa too." 

She is a sneaky little munchkin.  Any time we leave our bedroom door open, she rushes into our bathroom and takes our toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Then she goes to the side of the nightstand to start investigating.  She is quick and any time she grabs ahold of something she shouldn't, she rushed off to hide and be quiet as a mouse with it.

She loves her baby sister and will say "hi baby" in a baby voice and talk to her as she plays.  It is cute to see little Elsie using baby talk since she just was one herself.  She "reads" Cora stories, lays on blankets with her, shows her toys, and gives her kisses and hugs.  If I am ever holding Cora in the morning when I go in to get Elsie, Elsie will ask for Cora to lay on her pillow with her.

Speaking of babies, she is very into her baby dolls lately.  She will imitate things she sees me doing with Cora, using her doll.  She sits and feeds and burps the doll while the boppy in on her lap.  She burps her and her favorite recent activity is to try and get Cora’s diapers on the baby doll.  Last night I was bouncing and shushing Cora to put her to bed and Elsie went to grab her doll and did the same thing, bouncing around the room with me.

She is in a phase of extreme highs and lows.  She can get pretty upset but is also so loving to all of us lately.  She gives big hugs and kisses to her mama, dada, and baby Owa (Cora).

Any time one of us goes outside, Elsie runs off and says “soos shoes zoos!” and wants to be out there too.  We are in a bit of trouble because the other day she was actually able to get the door, to go outside, open.  I fear that there is about to be nothing off limits because she also almost got out of her crib last night.  She is our crazy little girl!

Lastly, here are some pics from her birthday party.  It was a great time because it was so fun to watch Elsie get into everything and actually understand it all.  She opened all her gifts, hit her piñata, ate cake, etc.  Now when you ask her how old she is, she will proudly say, “two!”

 

 

 

Cora 5 months

My little booboo is 5 months old!  Our little chickie Cora just keeps getting cuter and cuter and cuter!  We all love her so much!

At 5 months -

Cora likes to interact by smiling lots, giggling, and saying "ehhhhhhhhh" and "ahhhhhhhhhhh".  When she hears her mama, dada, or Elsie come into the room, she turns and gives the biggest smiles.  She is starting to get upset when that attention is taken away and will sometimes fuss when left alone.  She is generally made happy if someone is willing to hold her upright and/or walk around with her so she can see what is going on and watch people.

When she is playing by herself on the ground or in her chair, she likes to blow little raspberries as well as make her talking sounds.  She plays with toys and will pull them to make sounds, she crinkles things and eats them.  She prefers to be on the ground because she likes to roll around.  She rolls onto her sides and onto her tummy all of the time - but sometimes she wants to get off her tummy and doens't know how.  Although she does roll from tummy to back from time to time, I think she only does it on accident.

Sleeping has definately improved over the last month.  She still isn't sleeping through the night but she generally only wakes up once to eat.  She has started to take a nuk and I think that helps to transition her to sleep.  She sometimes naps for up to 3 hours now.  Some days she will keep rotating through the day and only taking 30-45 minute naps.  However, there are times when she wakes up  crying after only sleeping half an hour and you can give her her nuk or rock her again and she will fall back to sleep - or she might just flip onto her tummy and fall back to sleep - then stay that way for 2 more hours.

She started going to daycare and things have been going really well.

She has started to go in the jumperoo a little bit with a blanket underneath so her feet can touch the ground.  She doens't jump at all but likes to be upright and play with the toys.

She still likes her baths (eventhough I feel like I do so many less bathes than I did with Elsie).  Yesterday she took a bath along with Elsie and sat in her bumbo chair.  She loved watching Elsie play and Elsie was really cute to show her toys and things.

She is eating 6 times a day - sometimes 5.  I nurse her between 6:30-7 in the morning and night, she has 2-3 bottles at daycare, and then wakes up once in the night to eat.  She hasn't tried any solids yet with no plans to introduce anything any time soon.  She hasn't really showed any interest in eating solids and we haven't had any interest in giving her anything yet.

She just recently had her 4 month well child check.  It was late because we had a hard time getting in for an appointment.  She weighed 14 pounds 3 ounces, 40%, height was 25 3/4 inches, 73%, and head 42 1/2 cm, 86%.

Last but not least, the most exciting thing that happened in Cora's life (and all of ours) in the last month is that she met her new best friend.  Her little cousin Isabella Ruth was born on April 26 and we are all so excited and in love with her.  Here are the first of many shots of the friends together.....