Week 47 - The Toddler War Begins

The empire had been ruled peacefully for many years under the reign of Queen Meredith The Merciful and King Marty the Miraculous (it was a miracle he got her to marry him.) Almost a year ago, the Monarchs received a new princess in the kingdom. At the time, the polis celebrated the arrival of Princess Elise The Exuberant. Despite some disruptions and changes in the kingdom, as the months past, peace seemed to be secured as the Princess began to sleep through the night and get cuter with every passing day. But with the advent of self-propulsion by the Princess, everything began to unravel and the her powers grew almost as fast as her confidence in walking. In addition, she was able to expand her powers with that of speech this week. All leading to the breaking point of the Monarch's power. The crisis that was brewing came to head and we are sad to report that there has been a coup d'etat! The young Princess has officially deposed her parents and has vowed to never to let her parents rule again. She has trapped them in a prison of perpetual motion, hoping that the more they chase her, the less time there will be for them to rule over her.

The rebellion took root on Wednesday when the Queen was duped by the Princess' personal attendants at the daycare to pick her up early. The attendants claimed she had pink eye and the Princess played her part perfectly. Despite the Queen's insistence that there was no pink she made a doctor's appointment for her anyway. The doctor was unsure but played it safe (exactly what the Princess was counting on) and ordered a prescription of eye drops for the Princess. Why did Elise The Exuberant want this you ask? Well, she had traveled many times to the mythical land of CVS and she knew that the chaos that could be created would trap the Queen into making many mistakes. Allow me to elaborate.

The Queen went into CVS all alone (First Mistake) with the Princess. Once there, the Princess became VERY cranky. And while the pharmacist behind the counter assured Queen Meredith the Merciful that he would fill the prescription immediately, it turned out that mother and daughter were alone in the store for almost an hour waiting. Unconfirmed reports due suggest that the Pharmacist was on the payroll of the Princess. Needless to say, the Princess was not confined to a stroller as in past trips to the store and wanted, nay, demanded she be put down. At which point she used her powers of self-propulsion to rocket herself through the narrow aisles pulling things off the shelves and tearing the place apart. The Queen, thinking fast, picked her up, took her over the the card aisle thinking the bright colors and cards would keep her occupied. Instead, the Princess was able to reach the cards and throw them on the floor repeated. The Queen frantically tried everything, distractions, Cheerios, keys, cell phone, nothing worked! The Princess was focussed on creating as much destruction and terror as possible. The toddler war had begun!!!!

Unbeknownst to the Princess however, the King and Queen vow that they will one day break free from the Prison of Perpetual Motion and regain control. (As if this post wasn't cheesiest enough...) The Empire will Strike Back!
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In other news of the week -
Elise officially said her first word. While she has been babbling for months and occasionally has been able to put a series of sounds together resembling a word, there was little intention behind it. This is, until this week. Meredith took her to the park and while playing with another older child, Meredith asked Ellie to 'say hi' and well, she did. Clearly and repeatedly. "Hi." In disbelief, Elise repeated the feat for me later int he week and now has added bye to her repertoire. It's not yet consistent or always on demand, but she has definitely crossed a threshold of verbal communication. It's pretty exciting.
Ellie's Oma (Meredith's mom) and Gram (Marty's mom)
Lastly, for those of you that are interested, we started a 529 College Fund for Elise this week. The great thing about a 529 is that Elise can use the money on any college related expense in any state and others can contribute to it at any time. Tuition, books, car, tools and supplies, whatever. In addition, god forbid, if Elise decides college is not for her, we can transfer the money without penalty to another child or relative. So her cousin Kamryn's college fund might get a boost if Ellie decides to travel the world instead of going to college. (Let us remind you that currently the Monarchy is not in control. ;-))

Week 46 - Learning By Touch

Since she was a just few months old, Elise, like all babies, gathered up information about the world by putting objects into her mouth. You could always tell what she was “learning” by noticing what item was covered in a slobbery pool of drool. In recent weeks, she has stopped putting things into her mouth (Unless she thinks its food. She will eat any food that you give her whether or not she likes it. When you feed her something that she doesn’t like, she will cry as she is chewing and swallowing the offending food, and then ask for more. The kid just really likes eating.) she is now exploring the world through touch.

And she wants to touch absolutely everything. When she is being held, pushed in the stroller, or in the grocery cart (as I alarmingly found out this weekend) she sticks her little arm out grasping at everything she passes. We are embracing and encouraging this newfound curiosity, but this of course entails a lot more baby proofing and staying in the center of the aisle at the grocery store (she has a surprisingly long reach!) And though she tends to be generally rough with most things (she is always throwing, slapping and banging things with such force it makes her grunt) she is very gentle and deliberate with her exploratory touch. She gently strokes flower pedals, (has not even attempted to pull one off yet), tree bark, leaves, or any other exciting outdoor sensation.
Elise and her cousin Abby (4 years old)
She has also recently developed a love for putting things IN – a clean freak in the making? – though it doesn’t actually matter what the object is or what she’s putting it into. She puts everything she picks up into measuring cups, boxes, bags…whatever is available. In fact, yesterday Marty noticed one of our cd’s in the trashcan and asked why I was throwing it away. I didn’t throw it away; obviously Ellie was just helping us cut back on clutter. We obviously need to get a lid for our trashcan. And now that I am thinking about it, we should also get one of those snap guards for the toilet seat too, because I can see this “IN” phase turning into an expensive and/or messy disaster very quickly.

One last note from Marty. While neither Meredith nor I are betting people, there is one thing that you can be assured of and that is Elise will end up playing a sport that involves a ball. Basketball, softball, baseball, street hockey, field hockey, water polo, tennis, volleyball, golf, racquetball, dodge ball, kickball, handball, soccer, bowling, wiffle ball, tee-ball, and maybe even tetherball are all potentially in her future. We noticed at the playground that her favorite toy was a big (for her) green ball. So we went out and bought her a little soccer ball that is soft and bounces. She loves it. She can already throw – ON PURPOSE – and on the count of three (sometimes). Some people say that she is walking early, but c’mon, I’ve got the female Steve Carlton here. By the way, I am also secretly hoping she is a lefty.

Week 45 – Five Step, Six Step, Seven Step, More!

Last week, we mentioned that after a weekend of taking multiple steps, Elise inexplicably gave up on walking and went back to crawling. This was a very odd regression, especially considering that she has been trying to walk since she was like two weeks old. This week, however, she seems to have not only regained her walking abilities but she is now suddenly walking around like she’s been doing it for years.

On Tuesday, Ellie was sitting in the living room playing, then suddenly stood up without using anything to pull up on (a feat that I don’t think either of us knew she was capable of) and walked over to me (about 15 steps). And with that, her confidence was back and she hasn’t stopped walking since. In the beginning of the week, she walked a bit like a Halloween character, perhaps a mummy or Frankenstein, with her arms straight out, moaning and hobbling. It was like she was on a tight rope or balance beam, every step required extreme concentration. She would often stop mid-walk to re-center herself, sometimes squatting down, and then raising up again after finding balance.

It’s completely amazing how quickly her skills have improved in just a few days. Now she’s picking things up and walking around while holding them without a thought, and having very little problems with balance. Yesterday she was walking around in a sandbox at the playground! Some adults can barely navigate themselves around in sand!

In addition to becoming a full-fledged walker, Elise has also picked up other skills and a quirky habit this week. First up, on Wednesday, she suddenly developed the ability to wave good-bye. For weeks she has been flailing her arm around in response to our saying good-bye, and we called that waving (which maybe it was, but it was a crazy, spastic kind of wave that made people nearby duck to avoid getting smacked by her little hand). But on Wednesday as we were saying good-bye to someone at daycare, she opened and closed her hand, very deliberately, in a much less wild kind of wave. Again, we were blown away by this abrupt development.

Secondly, Ellie has begun to give high fives. I am not sure if this is a skill that she’s developed or something that we just began doing with her, but at any rate, anything that involves slapping or hitting is wildly fun for our little bully. So naturally “high five” is her new favorite game, and just saying “high five” makes her bust into a smile from ear to ear.

Her latest quirk is that now that her lone little tooth is completely up, she is fully aware of it, and is constantly feeling it with her tongue. This is quite hilarious, because she has been doing a lot of walking around with her tongue hanging out like a panting dog or Michael Jordan. Or maybe the sticking her tongue out phase is not about feeling her tooth, and more a statement to all of her non-walking buddies (“So long suckers! I’m outta here!”) Either way, it’s odd yet totally adorable.

Finally this week, in a disturbing discovery about her personality, Elise is quite clearly establishing her reputation as a bad girl. As we have mentioned before, she likes to climb the stairs, and when we tell her ‘no’ she smiles and shakes her head and keeps going. The other day, Ellie went over to the stairs and began climbing. Marty told her no, but went back to doing what he was doing. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Ellie turned to look at him and subsequently stopped and came back down the stairs when she realized that he was not watching her. When he looked back up at her, she started climbing the stairs again. What’s the fun of being bad if you don’t get caught? Oh boy – we are in some serious trouble.

Week 44 – One Step, Two Step, Three Step, Four…

Well, after weeks and weeks of “almost”, “really close” and “wants to” Elise took her first series of steps last weekend, two days before turning 10 months old! So can we officially classify her as a walker and ditch the stroller? Not exactly. Here’s the full story:

Last Saturday, I dropped Marty and Elise off at Marty’s parents house for the day while I attended a Bridal Shower in Maryland. Of course it was in those six hours I was gone that Ellie took those first solo steps! And of course even though Marty had the video camera with him that day, the battery died so he was unable to capture this monumental moment on video.

I know what you’re thinking, because I was thinking the same thing when Marty shared the baby-walking news: “Yeah, right.” I actually told him (and my mother in law who was insisting that it was true too) that I chose not to believe this crazy lie and that they were probably both hallucinating. Now, I am not prone to calling my husband and mother in law liars, but come on. How does a baby who can’t stand by herself for more than a second or two possibly miraculously develop the ability to walk in six hours? So to demonstrate that he was neither insane nor a liar, Marty stood Ellie up in the middle of the living room and let go of her. She stood there, holding absolutely nothing for at least five seconds before taking four steps over to me and grabbing my arm. Jumping Jesus, Holy Cow! Ellie walked! Guess I have to take back all that lying/hallucinating stuff (sorry Marty and Eileen!)

It wasn’t some kind of crazy fluke either. Our little one continued to take multiple steps, teetering around all evening and into the next day at her Gram and Grandpa’s house. She never got past the mark of 5 steps in a row, but didn’t seem deterred by the constant toppling over. (We now see why diapers are necessary! All that padding comes in handy.)

Just when we were ready to buy some Nikes and sign Ellie up for a 5k, a strange thing happened. We went home and Elise stopped walking. We can’t figure if Gram and Grandpa’s house has some sort of magical powers, or if she suddenly developed a very early onset of Alzheimer’s, but it’s like she completely forgot how to take steps the minute we got home. Suddenly, our confident little walker (who was SO pleased with herself for walking) seemed absolutely terrified of letting go and taking steps. Instead of walking to get something, she was opting to immediately drop to her bottom and crawl to get it. She was even refusing to stand with help, letting her little legs crumble beneath her! (she has been standing with help, no problem since she was like two weeks old!)

Over the course of the week, she did take a few steps again here and there, but it was nothing like it was last weekend where she was confidently strutting around, 4 and 5 steps at a time. At daycare on Wednesday, she took a tumble that resulted in a nasty bruise on her cheek, which has certainly not encouraged her with the walking. But we have no idea why she was walking so well at Gram and Grandpa's. Maybe it’s the soft carpeting there, maybe it’s the excitement of chasing after the dog, maybe all that walking wore her little legs out or maybe she finally figured out that walking = falling = pain. Whatever the reason, we can’t say that our daughter is an official walker quite yet. But that doesn’t make her series of steps any less exciting.