Week 34 – Evel Knievel

Elise is the new Evel Knievel. Now she’s not riding any motorcycles or jumping cavernous holes in the ground, but she is fearless and she could well have a future as a stunt double. Last Wednesday in daycare we arrived to pick her up and what do we see, but Elise with a bloody nose, a gash and a bruise. She was a mess (but you should’ve seen the other kid.) Actually, it wasn’t the fighting Irish in Elise; it was the daredevil. Meredith was worried (of course) and a bit aghast, and while I wasn’t the picture of composure, I must say that there was more than a twinge of pride in me when I heard the story.

Here goes: So it’s been a couple of weeks now that she’s been mobile and that means freedom in a place like daycare. Think, 16 with the keys to the car and a full tank of gas. So she has quickly made a new friend, named Olivia who is a 13 month old and walking around. So Elise has been following this older woman all over the joint, up over obstacles, pulling up on furniture and she even followed her into the playhouse. The playhouse has a small slide which is about a foot in length and Elise even managed to follow her in her own way) down the slide.

As you can imagine, Ellie’s confidence is pretty high at this point. So she’s holding onto the side of the house with Olivia when Olivia walks off to retrieve another toy. Elise naturally follows her. One problem though – she can’t walk! I picture it like the cartoon character that walks out into thin air… looks down and realizes, uh-oh. Elise comes crashing to the floor and is so upset that she then digs her face in the carpet rubbing her nose to the point of rug burn. So on top of the blood, she’s aggravating it with a rug burn. It’s funny, she is already, at such a young age, so frustrated when she can’t do something, I try to tell her not to be so hard on herself, but she doesn’t listen. I don’t know where she gets it.

While she is MUCH more interested in standing and walking, she does occasionally give in crawling, and she is getting to be quite speedy. She is generally a happier baby now that she is on the move, free to explore. She is the most excited about pulling up (it always comes back to her bizarre love of standing which she developed at two weeks!) and has become quite a pro at pulling herself up, particularly using Meredith’s pant leg.



I have a feeling that this newfound Evel Knievel status is going to stick around for a while… she doesn’t seem to be learning the lesson that certain actions cause pain and therefore you shouldn’t do them. For now, it just requires us to hover over her a little more than necessary to make sure that she doesn’t do something that will require her to get stitches or a cast. Boy do we have a long road (full of cavernous holes) ahead of us!