pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures since I've been so terrible about updates - some older and some more recent. (Forgive the quality, a lot of them are phone pictures.)

 5/22/14 - Looking at pictures in her rocking chair. This girl LOVES reading books.

6/2014 - We went to the San Diego County Fair with some friends from our apartment complex.

6/2014 - Riding the little kiddie tractors at the fair.

 7/13/14 - We wanted a picture of her wearing this adorable dress before she outgrew it, but she passed out on the way home from church. Our Brazilian friends in Columbus brought it back for her from a trip to Brazil.

8/23/14 - I ran the Color Me Rad 5k with some friends. I think Elise was less than impressed. Brian was the only spectator on the course, and people loved it (and his sign).

8/23/14 - These lovely ladies encouraged me to train for and run this race.

 8/29/14 - Watching BYU football with friends. We're pretty sure Elise is the cutest BYU cheerleader around. Go Cougs!

 9/13/14 - Playing at the beach with Grandpa Casaday.

9/28/14 - Rockin' her awesome birthday dress/outfit from Aunt Tami.

10/18/14 - Rock, paper, scissors at our ward's Trunk or Treat.

10/27/14 - Swinging at the park. 

 10/27/14 - Riding the zebra at the park. She had ridden it for the first time a few days before and knew exactly what to do when she got on this time.

10/27/14 - Painting pumpkins for FHE. She caught on pretty quickly.

10/31/14 - My secondary Halloween costume. :) (This is how we announced the baby due in May. I was about 13 weeks here.)

11/14/14 - Our little stinker hard at work spreading hot chocolate all over the kitchen floor. Could've been much worse, I suppose.

words

I can tell Elise is growing up because she's talking more and more every day. Much of what she says is unintelligible, although she seems to know exactly what she's saying. :) She frequently comes up to me and starts babbling conversations. I usually respond by nodding or saying, "oh, yeah?" or similar things.

Off the top of my head, Elise has at least 19 spoken words we understand (whether or not they sound like the actual word) and another 5 words or phrases in sign.

Spoken: uh-oh, yeah, daddy, mama, dog, cat, up, hot, hat, sock, shoe, sit (sounds like a certain 4-letter word, if you know what I mean...), go, cracker (one of her favorites), water, cheese, Jesus, keys, stuck
Signs: more, please, thank you, all done, milk

body parts

We've been working with Elise on learning various body parts, and she's getting pretty decent with some of them (there are still a lot she doesn't know consistently). One of the ones she picked up recently was "hair."

Last night, I was reading some books to her. I noticed in the the middle of one of the books, But Not the Hippopotamus, she started putting her hands on top of her head. I was trying to figure out why and just assumed she was being silly. Then I realized it was around the time I said, "while the moose and the bear and the goose and the hare are doing their best to keep up with the rest." Hare? Hair? Sounds the same to our cute little girl. ;)

P.S. I love that book. And almost anything else by Sandra Boynton.

Scofield

new calling

I was recently called as the Primary chorister in our ward since the previous one was moving. I actually found out about a month before I was sustained, so I was able to observe in Primary for several Sundays before having to do it myself. That was especially helpful since I have never had a Primary calling, haven't been in Primary consistently since I graduated when I turned 12 (I'm 28...) and have little to no experience with kids (youngest child who didn't like babysitting).

The previous chorister majored in dance and was just a fun little ball of energy. After watching her with the kids, I did have some good ideas but also felt I had some big shoes to fill. I've been doing a lot of research online, looking for fun ideas for teaching songs and other music activities. Here are 2 I've used so far that have been pretty popular with the kids:

Ellie the conducting elephant

I saw this idea when I subbed in Primary in the Worthington Ward (Columbus). It's a poster (foam board) of an elephant with a hole for the nose. The child puts one leg of a pair of tights on their arm and conducts the song with the elephant's nose. I'm pretty proud of my Ellie (definitely wouldn't normally call myself artistic...).

Primary remote control

This was more of a hit than I realized it would be. We were learning Baptism (the song for July) and I was trying to figure out ways to repeat it over and over without the kids realizing it and getting bored and rowdy. I came across this idea and thought I would give it a try. I just made the buttons out of construction paper, but I'd like to laminate them and reuse them since it was so popular (the Jr Primary especially loved it, which surprised me). Instructions/explanation below:

one year

I know every parent goes through this, but it's hard to believe Elise has been around for a year now. It's even getting harder to remember what life was like before her. Silly, I know.

I was telling Brian the other day that it's hard believe how much you can love such a little person (ok, she's really not that little...). I loved her while I was pregnant, and immediately fell in love (again) when she was born, but that love has grown tremendously in the last year. Who knew?

Anyway, here are some fun pictures from her birthday/celebration.

 going down the zip line for the second time - first time was with Dad (3/29)

(yes, we're the crazy parents who took our one-year-old on a zip line)

playing with some new toys (3/29)

 pink turtle cake! (3/30, inspired by her pink turtle stuffed animal)

 she didn't seem to realize she could dig in or smash it, she just kept

grabbing frosting and licking it off her hands (3/30)

 

 finally figured out how to dig in after a while (3/30)

 wearing part of her new shape sorter toy (3/30)

she won't keep hats on when we put them on her, but

she'll apparently put them on herself now (3/30)

learning

Things Elise has learned/done for the first time in the last week:

1. How to sit up from laying down (2/25/14 was the first time) - several times, I've looked over when I could've sworn she had been on her back, and she had sat up. I think this has actually contributed to her waking up in the middle of the night lately too, as she's often sitting up in the crib when I come in.
2. How to walk along a couch or other solid object - Daddy likes to stand her up against the dining room chairs and see if she'll walk around them. I didn't actually see it, but she apparently walked along the couch the other day.
3. How to pull herself up - the other night, I thought she was going to army crawl over to the laundry basket. Instead, I watched her get on her knees then WALK on her knees over to the basket (not far away) and use it to balance so she could get on her feet and stand up. Since then, she's also used me to pull herself up.
4. How to say "hi" - I doubt it was intentional, but she said "hi" to the Bishop in the hallway at church the other day. He stopped and asked if that was what she said, and I told him I thought so even though she's never said it before. (He was enamored, probably because he has a granddaughter around Elise's age, but I like to think it's because Elise is so adorable.)
5. How to fall asleep on her own - ok, we've had to do sleep training for this one, but it's been going pretty well after the first day or two. Bedtime was getting more and more difficult recently, and I blame myself for nursing her to sleep until now. Anyway, I knew I wouldn't be able to do cry-it-out sleep training, so we went for pick-up-put-down. Considering how old Elise is, I'm actually surprised at how quickly she's adjusted to it (the Baby Whisperer book I read said it would likely take a while to train an older baby).

It was an eventful week! (Her first top tooth also broke through a little over a week ago, and she cut her second one a couple days ago. It looks like a bunch more teeth are getting ready to come in too.)

flying a helicopter with Daddy at the San Diego Air & Space Museum

Other things she loves:

• drinking from straws (I was so excited/glad when she learned this skill)
• clapping
• waving and flapping her arms
• crawling (she hasn't quite figured out the hands and knees thing yet, but she's good at army crawling now - it has morphed even more so she uses her feet to push a little instead of just dragging her body with her arms)
• eating dust and strings and things she finds on the floor
• playing with power cords and the router
• shoving handfuls of raisins in her mouth (I'd rather she didn't, but it's hilarious to watch her when I put 5-6 on her tray and she puts them in her mouth one right after the other)
• sharing - toys, books, my phone, food, etc. (she likes to hand them to me and then take them back)
• eating yogurt - she can down a whole container by herself!

I was watching a friend's daughter and Elise wanted to share her monkey.

(I couldn't get a picture of her actually handing over the monkey.)

One of my favorite conversations to have with Elise:
Amy: Can you say dada?
Elise: Mama.
Amy: Dada?
Elise: Mama!

 flying a Gee Bee

Elise on camera

I need to edit these videos, but you get the unedited versions for now.

playing the piano

 

 

laughing in the bath

 

army crawling

food

Brian and I have had trouble thinking of what to make for dinner lately. Tonight...

Amy: I'm sorry I'm a vegetarian. Why did you marry me?
Brian (sadly): I thought I could turn you into a meat lover.

overheard

*Note: Elise doesn't really have a "vocabulary" and most likely didn't know what she was saying. We thought it was hilariously cute though.

Brian: Should I go for a run?
Elise: Yeah.
Brian: Should I take Elise with me?
Elise (excitedly flapping her arms): Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

*****

While we lived at Cresta Bella (temporary housing), I went to the office at one point to ask how much it would cost to rent out the clubhouse for a football party. I don't remember how much it was, but it was some crazy amount - maybe $300, including a $200 deposit or something. We decided that option was out.

A week or so later, I went and used the business center in the clubhouse. I printed a few pages and looked for a place to pay for them but couldn't find one. I went back the next day to ask about how to pay, and I talked to the same guy who had told me about renting the place out. When I asked him, he looked like he was confused or I was crazy. He told me, "You don't have to pay for the printed pages. That's part of what we provide here at Cresta Bella."

*****

When we found the place we're currently renting, we had to apply and pay an application fee ($40 per adult). I was excited to find out that we'd been approved. Brian's response? "Of course we are! We gave them money in order to ask permission to give them more money."

any resemblance?

Elise was almost 9 months in the picture on the left. The right picture was taken when I was 7.5 months old.