A busy week...

We've had a busy week--Elise went to the doctor, James started a new physics class in school, and Julie and Elise visited the YW girls at camp...it's been busy.



We took Elise to her 4 month check-up on Monday. She is doing very well and growing so fast! She is now 13 lbs and 14 oz and 24 1/4" long. She is still in the 50% for height and weight. The doctor said she should be ready to start solids if we wanted to, and since she still isn't very fond of the bottle, we thought we'd see if she liked real food. Perhaps it will keep her from getting so hungry while Julie's at work. So, Friday, Elise tried rice cereal. She seems to like it!




Tuesday, we had a reason to celebrate because for the first time since Julie went back to work, Elise didn't need to visit to eat! After James picked her up from daycare, where she had almost 8 ounces of milk, they went straight home and she took another 3-4 ounces of milk from the bottle! Elise was even happy when Julie came home and seemed completely satisfied. Soon, we won't have to plan every day around when Elise can visit to get in a full meal. Hopefully that will be soon.

Elise has discovered her tongue this past week and all the many different sounds she can make when she uses it. She loves to make the "thh" sound, and in the past few days has discovered she can blow raspberries. She stops eating to "thh," she "thh's" to get our attention, and she says "thh" while we read stories. Here's a little video that shows her talking and playing with her tongue.

Wednesday, Julie got off early from work to drive up to Gloucester to visit the Young Women at Girls Camp for the evening. Elise loved seeing all the girls and being outside with them for the evening. It looked like the girls were having so much fun, it's too bad we couldn't stay the whole week!

Saturday James didn't have to work, so we spent the day together. James got in a good bike ride, about 25 miles, in the morning. We spent the rest of the day running errands, cleaning the house, reading with Elise, and preparing for Sunday. James had to substitute for the Gospel Doctrine class in sunday school and he also had to prepare his lesson for the teachers quorum--he had a lot to prepare for!

It's been a good week for us.

A few pictures...

This weekend was our stake conference. It made for a busy weekend, and Elise did relatively well for having to be good through the 3 sessions we attended. The theme was all about how we can become disciples of Christ and help teach our families. Here's a picture of Elise and Julie after we got home from church. I love Elise's dress, and I was afraid this was the last time she'd fit it, so we had to get our picture taken!

I wanted to post a couple of my favorite pictures and a video of Elise, even though they not all extremely recent, I thought they were too cute not to post.

Elise at the zoo for the first time. We went about a month ago with one of our friends. Elise didn't even seem to notice the animals, but she enjoyed riding in the stroller.

Here's one of our favorite pictures of Elise playing with her toys. James was working on a bicycle in the living room, and decided to entertain Elise at the same time by hanging her toys on the bike wheel. She loved it!

This is a video I took of Elise talking one morning while she played in her bouncy seat. She loves to babble and talk to herself and to us. She's fairly quiet in public, but when we get her home she talks up a storm!

Elise's first bike ride

Today James and I took Elise on her first bike ride. James loves bicycles and cycling and he bought a trailer to attach to his commuter bike so he can ride with Elise. It just came in today and so we thought we'd give it a spin. I don't think Elise knew quite what to think about it as she rode around inside of it. She just kept looking around trying to observe everything around her! We only rode a few blocks, but it was enough to see how she likes it.








Elise also had fun playing with her stuffed ferret...I know, what girl needs a ferret for a stuffed animal? This one does :)

...and she likes playing "Super Baby" with her Daddy.

Trying a blog so you can watch Elise grow

My friends have been telling me how fun it is to use a blog to keep in touch with family and friends who are far away. I thought I'd try it since so much of my family is far away from us and missing Elise grow up. Now we just have to see if I'll keep updating the blog!

Elise is growing so quickly! She is 4 months old today and is a lot of fun. She knows where her hands are, can laugh and smile, and babbles a lot! She's trying to figure out how to roll over, but can't quite seem to get her body to do everything she wants it to do.

Elise is a very friendly, happy girl. She'll smile at just about anyone and loves to have people talk to her. She's been so much fun to have in our family.

Father's Day

We celebrated James' first Father's Day today. Elise gave him a very fun present, a card with her hand stamped on it and...she peed on him! What more does a dad want? James got a new tie to wear to church, we made lunch for him, and I made him an apple pie for dessert (his favorite!). We had a really good day.