Morning Munchies

Elise is not sick but she has thrown up all of her dinner the last two nights.  She has a very easy gag reflex and she throws up A LOT.  Anyway, this morning, she woke up at 6 am, and immediately started naming the food that she wanted, "bam (bbang, which means bread)" and then followed by "gapes" (grapes).  I went and got her a bowl of grapes and she proceeded to inhale it and immediately asked for more.  She ended up eating 3 bowls of grapes and I really should not have given her that last bowl because she started complaining of a "tummie owie". 

At Thanksgiving dinner, we were at our Aunt Alison's house in Irvine, and one of the dogs (Mimi) started to eat some food Elise had accidentally dropped on the floor.  Elise got a KICK out of it and has since incessantly talked about how "the doggie ate my food!". 

Proud Mommy

Elise's teacher told me today that Elise was "really going to be something" when she grew up.  Hopefully that "something" is a good thing.  ;)  She definitely has a unique spunk to her.

Class pictures

I can't believe my little baby is at the stage where she is taking class photos!!!  They come out in a few weeks, but here is a snapshot of her class, and her beloved teachers, Ms. Gina and Ms. Christine.  I can't express how happy I am that she is thriving in daycare.  I even tried to put it off a few months because I was afraid she wasn't ready, even though I knew she wasn't a big fan of going to the babysitter's.  Her teachers tell me that she is extremely precocious, active, and engaged.  She's definitely the most talkative one and she is very affectionate towards her teachers.  One time last week, as Bryant was picking her up, Ms. Gina was asking the class a series of questions, and although Elise was across the room being carried out of the class, Elise was yelling out all the answers.  I'm glad they're at the stage where she's too young to be called a know-it-all.  ;) 

Oh, Toddlerhood

Ever since I weaned Elise, her mood has shifted, and she's becoming more whiny and sensitive.  We're not full on in terrible 2s yet but just in this last week, she threw some of her first (relatively calm) tantrums.  I'm still waiting for the inconsolable screaming, thrashing, kicking legs variety.  Anyway, she had her first tantrum in a public place today, and of course it was at the Target checkout line because she wanted a pink headband (which we did not buy her).  Usually she is OK when I tell her no to things, but she was really upset this time.  I read somewhere that tantrums are usually due to the kid being either tired or hungry, and since it was 5:45, she was probably hungry.  Lesson learned.

At Target, she looooooved looking at the Christmas trees and hanging various ornaments on them over and over and over again.  Bry and I have decided to get a small real tree this year since she will probably be obsessed with hanging ornaments on it.  I bought 4 little stuffed animal ornaments at Target and she adores them.  Hopefully, we can score a good fake tree during after Christmas sales.  Those suckers are expensive!  

By the way, Bryant is putting Elise to bed right now and after a few minutes of quiet, presumably as she is falling asleep, she all of a sudden screams, "THANK YOU JESUS FOOOOR....TOBY!"  And now I hear her thanking Jesus for all of her different friends and teachers. 

Our plan is to have her sleep in her own room sometime in December.  She is also going to potty-train then, too, at the request of her teacher.  I would actually like to put off potty training as long as possible (since I love the convenience of diapers) but she has been begging to use the potty.  A few weeks ago, she saw one of her friends using the potty at church and she begged to try it.  The following Sunday, while Bryant was helping with Sunday School, she asked him for the potty, and when he put her on, she was sooooo excited.  Here she is, so READY to use a big girl potty.

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.