Yogurt

Elise is catching on to so many things. This past week she wanted to try to use her spoon in whatever we were trying to feed her & so I grabbed my camera & let her try a little herself.
She didn't get much in her mouth, but she knows what to do. John and I are both amazed at how much she seems to understand already. We also sat on the floor with her & she's starting to try to walk back and forth between us. She can only do maybe 1-3 steps, but she's practicing & she'll be ready to take off on her own pretty soon. Hard to believe our little baby is growing so quickly & will soon be one!

Things going on here

This weekend I planted our summer flowers. I scaled way back and only put flowers in a few pots to save myself time later from watering and keeping up with the extra task. I'm amazed at how much Elise understands lately. I showed her how I would water the flowers & when I handed her the watering can, she showed me that she understood what I was talking about. Also, you can see the little video clip below - she's started to understand that she needs to put things away in the basket for the dishwasher. With all this new learning, she's also learning to get into things - and so fast! She decided to pull several books off the shelf & look through them, and then she moved over to the bathroom where she pulled every extra towel out that had been stored in the cabinet there. I'm constantly monitoring her, however, she seems to be able to do these things at warp speed. In the time it takes me to pull a load of laundry from the dryer & place it on my bed she has explored & pulled apart another shelf, cabinet or drawer.

The weather has been pretty good for getting outside, and so we've had lots of fun playing with Kaylie next door. Elise has been content to ride along as Kaylie pushes her in her little Barbie truck. Kaylie gets a workout, but she doesn't seem to mind - it's so cute to watch.

John has an exceptionally busy week ahead, and Elise and I have a few outings planned as well. Life at the Brandenburg's just keeps moving along. At times I still find myself looking for Ceasar when we come home, and with the passing weeks we're getting used to our quieter house; however, Elise is gradually making up for it with her babble. Lately it's been lots of "Mama, ma, ma" or "Dada, da" and she's really working on some new teeth, too.
Thanks for reading...later!

Little Helper

Sunday, April 20

Well, another week has gone by - where does all the time go? This past week was good - nothing out of the ordinary. Elise has become so busy lately, we can't hardly get her to look at the camera when there are toys to be played with...and this also carries over to meal times, getting dressed, changing a diaper - she's so busy exploring and trying to move about, that these small, everyday tasks become more challenging just to keep her in one place. She now loves to move doors -opening & closing, and she likes to take a toy in her hand and push it along the floor as she crawls with it. These are just a few things going on here.
On Saturday Elise and I went to Home Depot & on our way we called Curt to see if he'd like to come along - and so we stopped by and picked him up. We picked up a couple tomato plants, some sweet basil plants & when he helped me load the soil bags into our cart he looked at me and said - "Now I know why you wanted me to come along." I just smiled. Normally John would have been on this trip with us, but he was at a client meeting.
I'm getting excited to do a little spring planting, but nothing too daunting. I've also decided that if I'm going to plant it in the ground, I'd like to only use perennials and let them come back year after year. I've got to be more selective as well since we'll live with it longer than one season, and I've got full sun in many places, so that also is a bit more limiting.

I've also been excited to do more shopping at Trader Joe's in the last couple weeks - it recently opened in Charlotte & I'm finding lots of great buys & yummy things. If any of you are expert shoppers there, I'm always looking for good, easy meals. So far we all (including Elise) enjoy the Pesto Tortellini bowl, and their creamy yogurt. Everything in their store is free of preservatives, and mostly all organic, too & for some reason just feels like we're eating healthier.
Hope you all have a great week, thanks for reading. I'm off to do a few things while Little Miss is napping!

A little too much Baby Einstein?

Elise is now 10 Months

Last week Elise turned 10 months old & each stage has been so fun, but admittedly getting better & easier. She is exploring everything...and a few of her joys include opening & closing doors, pulling all the CD's & DVD's out of the TV Cabinet, emptying her dresser drawers & getting "chased" by John.
She smiles easily for most everyone & still has a very easy temperament.
She loves to watch from inside as John cuts the grass & she gets so excited when he passes by her window & waves.
We enjoy meeting up with Michelle & Kaylie next door in the afternoons to stroll around the cul-de-sac, too.
Last Friday evening we walked down to the Blakeney Shops & hung out a bit with Chad, Michelle, Kaylie & my brother, Curt and listed to live music. It was a picture perfect evening & we feel blessed to have this free entertainment just a walk away.
Thanks, Grandma June for the cute red gingham & denim outfit (and Grandpa Ron, too...but I don't know how involved he was with picking it out...LOL)! Elise wore it in celebration of her 10 month b-day.

Good-Bye to our first "furry baby"

On Tuesday morning, less than 24 hours after we got home from the beach, we had to put to sleep our Boston Terrier, Ceasar.

Over the past 2 weeks we noticed that he would have episodes where he became very stiff, barely walked, couldn't move his head & wasn't eating or drinking normally. We took him to the animal hospital where they monitored him for the day, but didn't have a diagnosis & sent us home with muscle relaxers & anti-inflammatory pills. This seemed to work for awhile & we brought him back to the animal hospital to be kenneled for the weekend while we were away at the beach & on our way home they called & said that the meds were no longer effective & asked permission to give him morphine. After consulting with a dog neurologist, he was still somewhat unsure what was wrong & couldn't guarantee a perfect outcome with treatment. This helped us to make our decision. He was in so much pain & we didn't feel like it would be fair to keep him around when he was so uncomfortable.
We're still very sad & miss our little companion since this all seemed to happen so fast.

We adopted him as a 2 year old in 2001 & we were approaching our 7th year with him this fall. He would have turned 9 this summer.

It will take some time to get used to daily life without his pitter-patter across the hardwood floor, greeting us at the door whenever we came home, or his rubbing against our feet to get attention. He was a great little dog & will be missed!

Fun at the Beach!

We got back on Monday from a long weekend at Tybee Island, just outside of Savannah, GA. My parents flew into Charlotte last week Tuesday & we headed to the beach to meet up with my sister, Jodi, on Friday. We had a great 3 bedroom condo with full kitchen, living room, washer dryer & balcony - what a perfect way to vacation! Elise had her first beach experience & was intrigued by the sand, seagulls & waves, however, this time of year the ocean is still pretty cool & when she felt the water on her toes she squealed because it was cold. She much preferred the little "pools" of water that collected on the beach & warmed in the sun as the tide went out.


This past weekend was the first time Jodi got to meet Elise in person. She decided that this little one is a "girly-girl" because she let aunt Jodi put lip gloss on her & she didn't even lick it off her lips....too funny.
We ate out at the Crab Shack on Tybee Island where they advertise that you can see live gators - and we did see some, but they were very small, baby ones.


We toured the city of Savannah in a carriage ride & had a great lunch at Vic's on the River. After a little shopping in the city, we headed back to our condo & relaxed for the evening.

The next day we enjoyed beautiful sunshine on the beach & many of us soaked up a little too much sun - ouch! (Except for Elise, thankfully who was protected by 50spf + hat + umbrella & I think Jodi hid under her towel most of the time, too).

It was nice to explore that part of the coast - we haven't had an opportunity to visit Savannah & we were grateful to take it in with family as well. Now we're getting back into the daily routine of life & looking forward to our next visit to the beach in May as we head to the Outer Banks with friends.