Miss Independent

Elyse has already started asserting her independence. Over the weekend she kept pushing Toby and me away when we tried to put her down for a nap as if to say "I can do it by myself." As a result, for the past couple days she is putting herself down for naps. She is doing a pretty good job with it too. I was a little scared that she would forget she wanted to be independent and cry for an hour, but she hasn't done that. She cries for a few minutes and then is out. (I hope this continues.) I am sure she will be declaring her independence on something else in the near future.

To continue with the theme of the blog, I have included a video of her feeding herself- independently :)

And The Cheese Stands Alone

The title of this entry is an ode to "Farmer in the Dell." The song has been running through my head for the past couple days. I don't know all the words, but I know there is a cheese reference at the end of the song. Anyway...

Today Elyse stood on her own for a second or so. It was pretty amazing. She was holding on to my fingers and then just decided to let go. When she was done, she sat down with a plop, but it was a graceful plop.

I am sure she isn't going to start walking anytime soon, but it is fun to see glimpses of it. To prime herself for walking, Elyse has been working on her leg muscles by doing squats. She likes to squat down and try and pick something up and then stand up. She doesn't need much help up from me. She just holds on with one hand for balance. With this sort of training she is going to make one heck of a soccer player (after she masters walking of course).

Exploring

Since Elyse has started crawling, she has become quite the explorer. For instance, I had put her bouncy seat in the corner thinking it wouldn't get used anymore, but she crawled over to it and started playing with it. Since she can pull herself up, she can now reach the little animals that she could only look at before. It has become a favorite toy.


Elyse also likes playing underneath the bouncy seat. Anything with tags grabs her attention.


We just got Elyse this new toy which she likes a lot. There are many things to push/pull, open, and roll. It says things in Spanish and English so I can switch modes when I get tired of hearing "green" over and over again. I can then hear "verde" over and over again :) Her favorite thing to do is turn the page of the book in the middle of the table back and forth.

We Want More!

Perhaps I am being greedy, but these are some things I would like to see more of:

1. Elyse sleeping longer for naps. She has been getting up after only 30 minutes. She needs more sleep than that. If anyone has suggestions on how to get her to sleep longer, please let me know. (Plus, doesn't she look cute asleep)

2. Elyse trying fresh food and feeding herself. Elyse doesn't seem to like food I make like mashed up pears or pureed carrots- she likes Gerber. The other day I was eating a plum and she seemed interested, so I gave her a taste- she loved it! In this picture she is eating plums in a little net thing. I hope she will start liking other fresh foods.

3. Bows that stay in Elyse's hair. (Really I just put this picture on because she looks so darn cute- even if she isn't smiling)

She's Crawling!

Today Elyse crawled for the first time. Elyse was going after a green Baby Einstein block and just decided to crawl. I think she saw some of her friends crawling today and wanted to move like them. She isn't consistent yet, but I'm sure she will be soon. I was lucky enough to capture her crawling on video. Enjoy!