Santa!!! I Know Him!!!

Elyse saw Santa Claus for the first time. It was a long day of shopping before she got to go into Santa's house but it was worth it. I couldn't believe how happy she was sitting on his lap by the fire.

Peeking through the window of Santa's house.

(And trying to avoid the angry elf)

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your families and a very happy and safe New Year!

9 months!

Elyse is 9 months old! I really can't believe it and I would give anything for time to slow down a little.

A little bit about Elyse at 9 months

Height & Weight: ?

(Elyse goes back to the doctor for her check up next month so I'll have an update then)

Teeth: 2

She got her two bottom teeth within one day of each other and did great. We noticed that she kept her tongue pushed into her bottom lip over Thanksgiving weekend but thought it was just one of her new expressions. Other than waking up once during the night for a couple of nights, she was not unusually fussy and never ran a temperature. I hope we're this lucky with all her teeth. Her new theme song is "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth."

Words: Momma & Hi (sounds like eye)

Favorite Foods: Still apples, pears, carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes but she now also loves prunes!

New Skills: Elyse started crawling last week. She can pull herself to stand in her crib or on the coffee table and already learned just how mean those corners can be. She points and will point to specific body parts like nose and ear when asked, waves, claps and gives the sweetest hugs and kisses. She also started dancing/bouncing to music and particularly like DJ Momma's beats!

Just For Fun: Elyse constantly cracks herself up. I always wonder what she thinks is so funny because she just starts laughing for no reason. She also LOVES to growl. We don't know why this started or where it came from, possibly growling like a tiger or dog???? She'll growl anytime but especially when a person she doesn't recognize approaches. It's hilarious... and a little embarrassing. Elyse had her 1st kiss this month from precious Asher! He went for the cheek but she turned at just the right time. Haha!

Major Accomplishment: Elyse has finally learned to put herself to sleep both at night and for naps!!! This is such a huge relief for me. She now sleeps 11-12 hours straight at night and takes two naps during the day for about an hour each. Thank you Lauren for recommending The Sleep Easy Solution! What a difference a good night of sleep makes!

Bravery

Thanks to Dee and Auntie Amanda for braving traffic, parking and Northpark mall with us. It was crazy!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... and hunting season

Elyse got an early Christmas present from her Auntie Amanda and Unca Chad, her very own miniature baby grand. It's pretty awesome!!!

Spending some time with Pawpaw.

Unca Chad came in town to go hunting with Pawpaw this weekend so Elyse wore her camo too.

She styled it up with her shearling booties though.

;-)

Visits With Family

Unca Chad and Auntie Amanda came over to hang out with us for the night and grab some dinner. We always have so much fun with them and we're so glad that they live in San Antonio now and we are able to see them so often!

Mimi and Grandpa came to visit today. It was their 19th anniversary so we all went out for a nice lunch and did a little shopping.

Elyse figured out that she can use the window frame on the door to pull herself up and look out. She watched Lola playing in the back yard.

Daddy got some great shots of her from outside looking in.

I love this picture of her and how her little hands are pressed against the glass. I don't think I'll ever wash those prints off the windowpane. They're too sweet!

Thanksgiving

This was a weekend of many "firsts" for Elyse. It was her first trip to the zoo, her first birthday party, her first Thanksgiving and her first Black Friday!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Memaw and Pepaw's house. Elyse spent the majority of her 1st Thanksgiving gumming on a carrot.

Yum Yum

Getting spoiled with attention.

Dee and her girls.

I think Caileigh would have held Elyse all weekend if she could have!

Elyse was very good about sharing her toys with her cousins.

Well, except her musical toy.

The Zoo!

We started off the holiday weekend at the Fort Worth Zoo to celebrate Elyse's cousin Braedon's 2nd birthday. Besides the wind, it was a beautiful day outside

We stopped to take a picture with Sophie's family.

clockwise from left:

Unca Chad, Uncle Soapy, Dee, Elyse, Braedon and Caileigh

Who knew a leaf could be so entertaining!

Playing with Caileigh...or trying to pull her hair.

A Weekend With Papa and Nana

My parents were in town for the weekend and helped us put up all of our Christmas decorations. It's the most wonderful time of the year and even more wonderful now that we have Elyse!

Nana and Elyse

Sweet hugs!

Playing on the floor with Papa.

I'm going to crawl any day now!

I posted this picture for Bryan. He loves her facial expression and how cute she looks sitting up straight.

Patient Lola

Lola has seemed much more comfortable and patient with Elyse lately. She'll sit and even lay right next to her and doesn't jump up and run off the second Elyse reaches for her.

Elyse loves pointing to EVERYTHING.

New Skills

Elyse was trying to show all of her new skills to my parents while they were in town.

She can now get herself to a sitting position from her tummy or back and can pull herself up to her knees and then stand. She stopped at her knees to do a little teething on the crib rail.

She's also trying to wave. Hi!!!!

She claps all the time now.

She's trying so hard to crawl! She actually started crawling yesterday but went backward instead of forward. She also pivots and scoots a lot.

She backed herself up so far she ended up under the crib. Momma saved her!

Fall is here!

We had a beautiful fall day here today. It was cool and breezy so we broke out Elyse's warm booties and hat, took a stroll through Southlake and spent some time swinging. What a great day!

8 Months Old

Where is the time going? Our little birdie is 8 months old!

Protesting Peas

She's been very cuddly at night lately and we're enjoying it!

Elyse has been practicing standing, bouncing and baby steps.

The weather was cool enough the other day that it was chilly downstairs and we got to break out the fuzzy jammies. I could have held her all day. She was like a cuddly, little teddy bear.

A Happy 1st Halloween

Elyse was a little owl for Halloween. This was the perfect costume for her since she is naturally such a night owl. She sat happily on the porch all night in her swing and helped hand out candy to all of the kids. It was a fun night for us!

"who who"

Our little cat burglar!

My good friend Lori etched small pumpkins for each of her boys with their age this year. I loved the idea so much that I decided to do one with an E for Elyse's 1st Halloween. Next year she'll be one so we will etch a 1 on her pumpkin and so on every year. It's a great way to document her age on each Halloween.

Head Woes

Let me just start this post by saying that Elyse is ok.

This picture pretty much sums it up.

It's one of the warnings that you hear from every other parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or anyone that's had any experience with children starting from the day your baby is born. Never leave your infant unattended on an elevated surface. If you turn your back for a second they can roll off...

We started off having a great day. Elyse was her typical happy, smiley, lovable self. We went "hunting" for some fall decor at Hobby Lobby and World Market. Unfortunately, most stores have bypassed fall for Christmas. Aside from not being able to find the decorations I was looking for, I don't really mind since Christmas is my favorite time of year. I hope Elyse feels the same as she grows up. I'm getting her started early as you can see by the picture above. She didn't seem like she was loving the antlers though.

We ended the day with a trip to the ER. As I got ready to give Elyse her late feeding, I sat her in the glider as I always do while I strapped on my nursing pillow. Then I did what everyone warned not to. I turned my back to pick up a couple of toys. Then boom. Then wail. Instead of going for the roll that we were warned about, Elyse dove off the chair head first. We noticed a bump on the top of her head but aside from that and being scared she seemed ok. I called my mom and the pediatrician's answering service. They recommended that we take her into the emergency room to be checked anyway. We started to wonder if we should have just stayed home when Elyse was hamming it up with all of the nurses and other patients. We knew we should have just stayed home when she started laughing hysterically at a woman throwing up in the waiting room. Before we could leave they called her name. Thankfully her bump was just a bump. We checked on her throughout the night to be safe but she slept well and is back to her typical happy, smiley, lovable self...with a bump.

Update:

Elyse started to wave this weekend. She waved to Bryan for the first time yesterday. Her hand was actually reversed so she was waving at herself but in her mind she was waving back to him. It was so cute. She's also giving kisses. She'll nuzzle and cuddle and then give you a kiss. And she's been giving lots of kisses to the girl in the mirror during bath time. It's hilarious!

Cutie Pie

Here are some random pictures, mostly off my iPhone, that I thought were too cute to not post.

Meow

We're getting in the mood for Halloween.

Elyse and Daddy got to eat lunch together the other day. He got pb & banana with Cheetos and she got apples. It doesn't really seem fair...

But she loved eating with Daddy.

Elyse and I made cranberry oatmeal cookies. They are delicious!

(Oh yes, Sophie helped too)

Elyse had fun modeling some of her new fall and winter accessories.

I love her little wet curls! She gets these curls in the humidity too. Must be from the Kelly side of the family.

Having a ho-hum day and not feeling so great.

A good friend of my mom's gave Elyse this shirt. "I'm here for the candy." She knows our family too well!