Chatterbox!

Elise is becoming more vocal, more inquisitive and loves to explore.
She has discovered all the buttons on the stereo & receiver & loves to find cords to shake like a jump rope. Of course, we try not to encourage this with cords, but sometimes it's pretty cute. This clip is from breakfast - I tried to grap the camera in time, but she was trying to scratch/pick up the cheerio on the box. Have a great week. We're all feeling pretty well now, but we still have lingering symptoms. Hopefully this will be gone soon.

Fun Weekend with Ben & Toni

On Friday afternoon I got a call from Toni - they had a free weekend & wanted to know if we were around and wanted visitors. Of course! We had a fun weekend with them. John and Ben tackled a small project - putting "flooring" boards down along our office attic floor to create more storage. Meanwhile, Toni and I took Elise for a stroll down to the shops and browsed around. It was a gorgeous Saturday here, around 65.

Elise is feeling ok, but not completely healthy. She now has a runny nose & a yucky sounding cough. Poor thing. At least she is sleeping well. John and I started noticing that we both feel a sore throat and aches coming on Sunday night. Must be some of that flu bug that is going around. We're just staying home and trying to rest.
I've noticed my daffodils and tips of my tulips are starting to show. I'm excited for Spring.


Today (Monday) was another beautiful day (70 degrees and sunny)
so Elise and I went out to the driveway and she rode around her little tricycle, or more accurately, I pushed her around. She seems to really like it. That is about all that's new here. John has an exceptionally busy week ahead with freelance, and he has some fun projects he's working on.

103.6

103.6...It's not our favorite radio station, & not the temp outside - but it was Elise's temp yesterday afternoon when we went to the pediatrician. She was fussy Tuesday night, and I took her temp then & it was 99, and since she had been gumming on everything in sight I thought it was just teething. She didn't sleep well Tuesday & was extremely fussy & wanted to be held all morning Wednesday, so I took her temp again because she felt really warm, and it was 103. I called the Dr. and got in to see them within 30 minutes. They pricked her heel to check her white cell count to see if it was a viral bug or some other kind of infection. She didn't have any other symptoms - just a slight runny nose, which again I had contributed to teething. The results came back with a slightly higher than normal white cell count, so to eliminate the types of infections she might have, they had to catheterize her and take a sample to make sure it wasn't a UTI - I felt so bad for her. Thankfully that test came back as normal, so they sent us home and recommended that we give her tylenol and motrin & to keep her as hydrated as possible. It's probably some type of flu bug - so the next couple of days will be up and down. Last night she slept in her crib until 2am, then couldn't fall back to sleep, so we gave her more medicine & a cool washcloth on her forehead & then she slept with us the rest of the night and actually slept until 10am this morning. Who knows how today will go - I'm still in my p.j's as I type this, but we just take the good with the bad. "Mama said there'll be days like this..."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our little Valentine! She just keeps learning & growing. Today we were in our office, and she was playing on the floor near our black chair. I was on the computer & when I looked back at her, she was standing next to the chair. She must have pulled herself up & the next thing she was interested in was pulling open the file drawer & trying to pull out the files and papers...wow! Life as we have known it the past 8 months is now going to change!!
We ordered a new car seat & it arrived today. Sadly, Elise has grown out of her infant car seat, and so we are graduating to the next stage...I think she'll be happy, since she is at the weight where she can be forward facing. We'll have to install it sometime this weekend. Love to all our family & friends.
Enjoy your Valentine & do something special!

Bear Hug

8 Months Old

Today Elise is 8 months old. She is busy exploring her world.
She loves to feed herself, and Cheerios is one of her favorite treats. She can also stand for many minutes if she is next to a couch, and she is beginning to learn how to crawl towards a toy or something else that intrigues her. She also loves to walk while holding on to our hands. While these new milestones are so fun to celebrate with her, we're also discovering that she is more easily frustrated when she can't move as quickly as she'd like, or is unable to reach something beyond her, and we are not very excited about the excessive whining that ensues. John loves to have her ride around on his shoulders, and she will bounce up and down to keep going. Ceasar has a new fondness for Elise since he's ready to eat any scraps that fall from the table or out of her hands when she's having a snack. Again, it's hard to believe how quickly the months are flying by.

Superbowl Weekend

This blog entry is late in coming....I've been meaning to update all week, but I've had a head cold & tried to rest when Elise was napping, so I'm only now getting to this - sorry.

Last Sunday afternoon we took Elise out on her maiden voyage in her new wagon she got for Christmas! We strapped in her favorite bear for a ride, too! It was a great stroll, however, on our way home, only a few blocks from our front door, we noticed that she was somewhat slumped over...poor girl fell asleep in her wagon. We've been having some great weather this week. On Friday afternoon we took the wagon out for another walk to the playground with Michelle & Kaylie. It was cute to watch the girls ride along. At one point it looked like they were trying to grab on and hold each other's hand.

We celebrated the Superbowl with friends - this picture shows Alexia, Chrissie & I with the great spread before us. Josh & Alexia hosted and we had such a fun time watching the huge upset.

Bath Time