Baving Soup Fun

Elise and I just attended her third Daddy & Me swim lesson at Waterworks Aquatic Center.  Mar found a Groupon for four lessons, so I started taking Elise the Saturday morning when Mar was at the conference in Dallas.

The first time we went, Elise was very excited to put her baving soup on and had fun getting used to the water and the games that Teacher Natalie led us through.  She was not too enamored of dipping her face under or floating on her back with her ears under the water, though she did kick a little bit and loved knocking the turtle over after she "swam" to the wall.  Even more fun was the changing room with Daddy and toddler showers right next to each other.  She wouldn't let me turn the showers off.  She does this funny thing where she gets down on hands and knees and sticks one of her legs backward into the stream of water.  I think she's trying to avoid getting water in her face!  As we were leaving the building, she started to get upset and said "More swimming pool!"  So I knew it was a success.

The second week, Mar came along to watch and take pictures.  Not our best idea ever!  Once in the pool, Elise kept clinging to me tightly in fear and looking to Mama to rescue her from the scary swim lesson.  She cried a lot.

This week, we were sure to leave Mama at home, but I was still a little nervous that we might have a repeat of the previous week. However, Elise had been practicing all week in the bathtub, putting her mouth under, kicking, even singing "Humpty Dumpty sat a wall, Humpty Dumpty sat a wall, wheeeeeeeeee!" which they sing while sitting on the edge of the pool before jumping in.  She was determined to make this work.  And she was amazing!  She was all smiles and giggles from the start.  In the wading pool before the lesson, she was showing the octopus how to do Humpty Dumpty.  During the lesson, she kicked like a froggy, smiled after we dipped her mouth and then eyes under the water, knocked over that turtle, lay motionless on her back while I held her head with her ears in the water (!), and walked from one end to the other of the foam choo-choo train three times, jumping off into Dada's arms the last two times.  Teacher Natalie gave her lots of high-fives and told her that she can go into the intermediate class next time if we want.

I was so proud of her for trying so hard and trusting her Dada.  When we were showering, I put my face under the water for literally two seconds, opened my eyes, and she was gone!  She must have been watching me, and the second I closed my eyes, crawled under the door and out into the main area.  It freaked me out, but she crawled back in three seconds later with a big guilty grin on her face.

As we were talking about the experience on the way home, I told Elise that we can go swimming together again, but not until next Saturday.  She, said, "No, swimming tomorrow!" which was the first time I had heard her say "tomorrow."

I was planning to stop after the Groupon runs out next week, but now I think we might have to keep going!  It's great daddy-daughter bonding time, and it's fun to see her learning something feeling so proud of her accomplishments (regularly clapping for herself, of course.)

New phrases

Elise is talking up a storm and saying new phrases everyday.  Some from yesterday:

Grace was over and as she was saying bye, Elise ran to her jacket and said, "You have to get your jacket".

She's starting to share mini stories like, "I went swimming with dada in the pool.  Mama took a picture.  I wear baby soup (bathing suit)."

Now instead of saying "no", she'll say "I don't want" preceded by whatever is that she doesn't want.  Almost everyday, she does not want to change out of her PJs in the morning or change into her PJs at night.  "I don't want to wear PJs".  She hates changing her clothes.  She really puts up a fight.

She helped make corn mini-muffins yesterday.  She saw me making them and became very insistent about wanting to help, since she made them in her class.  She stirred the batter and poured it into the pan one spoonful at a time.  She loved it!  I may designate this task to her every time even though it can get kind of messy.

  

At the doctor's office yesterday

We were at the pediatrician's office yesterday and within the 45 minutes we were waiting in the office, Elise managed to: 

•  slap 2 boys in the face
• climb a table
• scream "hello!" 100 times at the top of her lungs because the office was so quiet
• talk to every grandpa about her dora bandaids (she loves grandpas) whether he welcomed it or not
• lie down repeatedly in the middle of the floor saying "Elise go to sleep" and lose all muscle control whenever I tried to pick her up so she became 1000 pounds 

She is quite the active child.  At her school halloween party, out of her class of 12, she was the only one dancing and singing like crazy to all the songs.  The teacher would say, "ok, let's dance!" and all the kids would just sit and stare but Elise would say "yeah!",  jump up, and start dancing.  She was also the only kid who did not cry.  For whatever reason, all the kids started crying once their parents arrived.  Maybe they were confused by the break in routine.  Right when we got there, Elise had a very confused look on her face for a long time and perhaps she was close to breaking down, too, but she managed to hold it together.  The whole morning was just very hilarious.

So far, she is still a very happy and easy-going kid.  Bryant and I are so thankful.  I also finally weaned her from breastfeeding during this past weekend while I was in Texas for a conference.  So far, she is taking it much better than I had anticipated, but I can still tell that she is sad.

Meeting the "polieeshman"

The police department visited Elise's school today.  Here's a photo that her teacher took.  One thing I love about her school is that they regularly take photos and post them for parents.

Good morning

I just dropped off Elise at her school and her teacher told me that when she says, "Good morning, class" during Circle Time, Elise is the only student to respond and she yells, "GOOD MORNING MS. GINAAAAA!!!"  I so wish I could watch it happen.  :)

Laughing while tantruming

Elise has started to do this really funny thing where she gets really worked about something and wants to tantrum, but when she starts, she finds the behavior really funny and starts laughing.  So for example, she will be crying in bed because I won't read whatever book she wants me to read (to stall sleep) and then she'll start thrashing her body and immediately start cracking up and then realizes she's still upset, thrash, and laugh again.  It is so hilarious. 

Singing

Elise loves to "sing".  She is learning songs at daycare and today she sang "Jesus loves me" with hand motions.  Bryant and I were SHOCKED!  We had no idea that she knew the words to the song.  She was also singing another song I don't know.."walk walk walk to Jesus" or something like that.

Being a parent is incredibly fun right now.  It's also the easiest it's ever been.  Elise is very easy going and happy.  Even when she is crying, we can easily make her laugh.  Her teacher says that Elise is her little helper because she is the most verbal one in the class and therefore either reiterates what she says to other kids or tries to redirect kids herself.  If a kid is acting mean, she will say, "be nice" or if a kid is crying, she says, "be happy!".  So hilarious.  Her teacher also mentioned to me that Elise has a really great memory.  She most definitely did NOT get that from me!  

Now that parenting is so easy now, I can't imagine plunging myself back into infant days again.  But when we do have a #2, it looks like we will have to name him or her "Carr".