Playground fun and more...

Last week Elise discovered how much fun the local park and playground can be. There's wood chips to play with, things to climb, and best of all a slide to go down! Whee! She loves going down head first, she has no fear! We've taken her to the park a few times now, and she cries like her heart is breaking when we decide it's time to leave.

This week has been full and busy already. James did well in his classes last semester and started his summer classes this week--they are online, so we'll see how he likes them. Ben, James' brother, came to visit us for the past few days with Kyle who is Elise's age. Elise loved having her cousin Kyle here--when you put the two of them together they can make a lot of trouble!

I had some of the young women come to our house this week to learn to bake cookies, which was fun. The girls did great learning how to follow the recipe and working together. I realized how small our kitchen is when we tried to fit 7 girls and me in it at the same time!

Elise had a follow-up EEG test this week, we'll meet with the doctors next week to get the results. Hopefully all will be well and they'll take her off the medicine she's been on as a precaution ever since her February hospital stay. She did NOT like having the EEG though, you could tell she remembered what it meant when she saw the room and the hospital staff. She's strong for how little she is and she can put up a fight!

Here's a few pictures from our week...

Elise in her ladybug dress I couldn't resist buying when I found it...

Playing in the laundry basket

Having fun at the park...

...climbing up to the top of the playground equipment...

...and finding the slide! She LOVES the slide, and even more, she loves going down the slide head first!

Here's a little video of her climbing to the top of the playground equipment...

...and here's a little video of her gleefully going down the slide.

Phones, Bikes, and Birthday Parties

We had a fun and busy week! James finished up his classes for the semester (Yay!) and Elise has been perfecting her walking skills. Her confidence is rising, and she can now turn while walking instead of just going in straight lines! I think she's figuring out that walking can be much faster than crawling. Elise also has discovered the joy of pulling toilet paper off the roll and pulling tissues out of the box. I think all children discover this at some point, and now she's reached this milestone, too. She also likes to shred it into itsy bitsy pieces...so small that it looks like fake snow you buy at Christmas time.

Saturday I took Elise to a birthday party at the local natural living museum for a boy from her daycare who turned 2 years old. It was a fun party. She got to see a bunny and an owl close up and then they opened presents. Elise quietly sat and watched all the other kids tear into the birthday boy's presents, until the last gift was opened...a tricycle. Then, she couldn't help herself and raced over to it and tried to get on it before the dad even had it on the ground! Elise loves bicycles (like her dad) and is always trying to play with his bikes and help fix them. When James is working on a bike Elise will go pick up a tool and help fix it too, so when she saw the bike at the party she was all over it. It took me a while to tear her away! After the party Elise and I went through the museum and she loved it--she could get right up close to see the animals and fish in the aquariums. Her favorite to watch were the stingrays, the jellyfish, and the otters. She insisted on doing most of the walking (and falling...) while we went through the museum and did really well.

Here are a few pictures from the week...

Elise talking on the phone...she loves to hear a voice on the other end!

Trying to help Dad with his bike...

Just one of her many toilet paper escapades...

The bunny from the birthday party

Elise and her friend Benjamin

Elise looking at an exhibit at the museum

Crawling through a log display at the museum...as soon as she saw the other kids doing it she had to try too!

...with some of the fish...

...sitting on a turtle shell...

Here's a little video of Elise helping James with his bicycle, and also showing off a little of her walking skills.

What a tired girl

We had a busy week with youth activities on Tuesday night, James had class on Wednesday night and Elise and I went visiting with my Young Women's presidency, James had some final projects due for school, and the library has kept me BUSY!

Midway through the week Elise either caught a cold or started suffering from seasonal allergies, we're not quite sure what yet. It's worn her out. Friday night Elise was miserable (and so were we!) and didn't sleep more than 10 or 20 minutes at a time the whole night. She cried every time she woke up. It was never this bad even when she was a newborn! James and I took turns sitting up with her and holding her all night. Needless to say, we were all exhausted on Saturday. Elise and I took a nap Saturday morning (Elise slept for 4 hours...why couldn't she have done that at night?) and I got to nap for an hour or so. James actually went on a 50 mile bike ride Saturday morning, and then came home and took a nap to recuperate. I think we all needed it!

Church was good today. I think I'll be grateful when Elise is old enough for nursery--3 and a half more months! She spent most of Sacrament meeting trying to sit backwards on the folding chair and kick her legs without falling through the hole between the back and the seat. Sunday school was spent walking back and forth on the pew and pushing mom and dad out of the way so that she had unblocked access to the entire pew. I taught all the Young Women today, I was supposed to teach next month but the other counselor is sick so we switched weeks. I taught about covenants and ordinances and it went pretty well.

Saturday morning Elise crashed watching Sesame Street after her sleepless night. She originally fell asleep curled up with the crackers in her hands.

Elise asleep amidst the chaos she caused while playing...

Later on she discovered how fun it is to play Uno, even when you play by yourself!

She carried around an Uno card in her hand the rest of the day!

We went shopping and found a cute little swimsuit for the summer. It has a strawberry on the side. I had to try it on her when we got home, but she was NOT happy about it. We had to give her some socks to calm her down. (Some children have a favorite blankie or stuffed animal, our child just needs a sock for each hand and she's happy again.)