Elise turned 23 months last week and I made a list of some funny comments from the last few weeks. The girl is such a chatterbox and she makes us laugh all the time. In no particular order...

#1
We were playing at the park...
Steph: "Did you poop?"
E: "We need to change my diaper."
E: (looks around the park) "I don't know where changing table is!"

#2
Pop and Elise were playing in the living room
Pop: "I'm going to lay on the couch to take a nap."
E: "No, Pop sit there!" (pointing at the seat that he was getting up from)
Pop: (sits back down and keeps playing for a few minutes)
Pop: "I'm going to lay on the couch for a little while." (moves to couch and lays down)
E: (grabs Pop's hand and tries to pull him off the couch) "No, Pop take a nap later!"

#3
We pulled up to Gram and Grandpa's house, which has a divided garage with two doors and an exterior door to the house... We've never talked about them having "two garages" before.
E: "I see two garages! And one door!"

#4
For a while, Elise went through a phase of wanting us to hold her cup for her to drink. Thankfully, she seems to be out of that now, but this happened at dinner a few weeks ago...
E: "Mama hold water!"
Steph: "Elise, can you hold your water like a big girl?"
E: (hands cup to Mike) "Daddy hold it like a big girl!?"

#5
Pulling into the Walmart parking lot...
E: "We need a parking spot. How about right here?"
(we pull into the spot)
E: "We parked! Eeesee go in Walmart?" (she refers to herself as Eeesee or Eyeese)

#6
Watching for squirrels at Gram and Grandpa's house... (a variation of this monologue occurs every time)
E: "I see a quirl!" "He's playing in the trees!"
(squirrel disappears from view)
E: "Where did he go? He'll be back."
(squirrel reappears)
E: "There he is! I see him! He's running on the rail."
(squirrel disappears from view)
E: "I don't know where quirl is. Let's look for him."

#7
driving in the car on the way to Texas (after lunch)
E: "Hungry? We're going to eat soon."
(a few seconds later)
E: "Silly goose! We already ate!"

She is getting a lot more accurate with the use of your/my but still needs some work with you/me. She likes to repeat the sentences that we say to her and you can tell that she is thinking about the order of words and grammar. It is interesting to see the wheels turning in her head as she formulates new combinations of words. She is aware of things that we need in certain situations ("My hands are cold. I need mittens." or "Mama needs a jacket too" or "We go outside. Boss needs a leash.") She also asks a lot of questions like "What is this?" (sometimes comes out like "What this is?") and "Who is that?"

She has a great short term and long term memory. For example, she remembers the order that you plan to go to different places, and when you leave one place, she will say "We're going to (next place) now." She also remembers things that she saw/did/played with at a certain place, even if it happened months ago.

She is not interested in peeing or pooping on the potty unless she has a diaper on. We bought some snowman panties for her (she LOVES snowmen) and she knows that she can wear them "when I pee pee on potty. And poop."

She is still a great sleeper and a great eater. She sleeps for 12.5-13 hours at night and 2-3 hours for a nap (totals about 15 every day) and is still very happy in her crib. We think we will turn it into a toddler bed in a few months. It is already getting uncomfortable for me to get her in and out of it and we want to make this transition before her brother is here. We considered getting a twin bed (to give baby the crib) or converting her crib to a full size bed, but she is pretty resistant to change and I think the toddler bed will be the best option for her. I also like that she'll have more floor space in her room than she would with a bigger bed. I already bought the toddler bed rail that matches her crib and I know she will love climbing in and out of it. I really want to get a video monitor before we do this :)

Here is one example of her resistance to change... At home, she takes baths in her little bath tub (I have the Primo Eurobath and it is AWESOME... thank you to Maryanne for the recommendation!) Anyway, she loves it and still has enough room to sit in it. We love the fact that it uses less water and fills up really fast. The only problem is that she HATES taking a bath in the big bath tub. When we went to visit the Majors earlier this month, I had to get in the bath tub with her so that she would get in. The same thing happened earlier this week at Mike's parents' house and it even happened back in August when we went to visit Sarah and John. I can definitely foresee a similar reaction if we tried to put her in a bigger bed right now.

She loves to read books and likes to help read them to us. She also enjoys singing songs (including the ABCs) and counting random things. Her favorite toys continue to be the "pretend" type toys, like her tea set and dishes, duplos, cutting board with fruit, etc. We were playing with her duplos and she stacked a bunch of blue pieces and then put a circular red piece on top and said "This is a radio tower!" (we see a lot of real radio towers but we have never talked about making a pretend one before). I thought that was pretty smart! She is going to LOVE playing with her kitchen in a few weeks. She also enjoys putting her stacking cups back together as quickly as she can. She is really good at it and I need to get it on video.

Stay tuned for posts on Christmases #2 and #3, 22 weeks (I have grown a lot!), and Elise's 1st 2nd birthday party! If I am feeling motivated, I will edit and post some videos.

We celebrated our family Christmas on December 20, a few days before coming to Texas. Elise got some new chairs for her table (that match the kitchen that she will get for her birthday) as well as a Plan Toys cutting board with wooden fruit, a set of Haba rolling turtles, and some Christmas books. She loved the chairs and the toys and I would give them all 5 stars. It helps that I have been researching different toys for a long time and got really good deals (about 50% off) on all of them! When she walked into the room, she made a beeline for the wrapped presents and picked them up one at a time, saying "This is for Elise!" and "This is for Elise too!"








This wasn't a Christmas present but I thought it was a cute picture anyway... she got this for her first birthday from the Bundts. She was very focused on it!

I am now past the halfway point...assuming baby boy doesn't make a fashionably late entrance like his big sister! I've been able to work out quite a bit lately and I feel really good. Running is starting to get uncomfortable because the baby (or something) is pushing on my bladder and I feel like I have to pee the whole time I am running! Ugh. I've been VERY hungry the last few weeks and have managed to gain a few pounds... so I am now at -4ish. It might have helped that Mike and I just finished our second half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream (in two weeks). It is a good thing that vanilla is the only flavor in our freezer right now because it doesn't tempt me at all, haha. I go back to the doctor tomorrow for my 20 week checkup. Here are the 20 week pictures that we took yesterday. I woke up this morning and felt waaay bigger (and my pants aren't nearly as comfortable to button today as they were a few days ago!) so I think the belly might actually be popping out.

This week we decided on two very important things. Baby Boy has a name now and it is perfect for him! We are super excited about it but we may wait until he is born to announce it. I will let you know. I also decided how I want to decorate his room. I can't find any bedding sets that I love, so I am going to decorate the room around some toys that I love instead! It probably won't be really decorated until we move in August since his room will also have a guest bed in it while we are in this house.




Here is our first purchase for Baby Boy! I have wanted a rocker recliner for a LONG time and I am so excited to have one for this baby. It was delivered today and we are going to keep it in the play room while we are living here. At our next house, we'll either put it in the living room (it matches perfectly), play room (hopefully we will have one) or maybe one of the kids' rooms. It is super comfortable and will be great for reading books, nursing, rocking, cuddling, etc.



I have a bunch of Haba toys that I love and we plan to use some of them to decorate his room. I'll probably buy a few wall shelves to display some things. Here are some fun things I am eyeing to complement what we already have. This play rug looks like SO much fun.
I love this cute mobile and it hangs from the ceiling so you could put it over a crib or changing table.


These wall shelves are also adorable and I think it would be fun to put one by the changing table. I like the second one better because the little creatures are detachable but I don't think it matches as well.





My next task is to figure out the drape and sheet colors that will best match these things. I'll try to do another pregnancy update in a few weeks while we are in Texas.

Earlier this month, Elise and I got to fly to Nashville to visit my dear friend Laura and her little boy Braden! Laura and I have been friends since before our husbands deployed the first time and it has been so much fun to share in the pregnancy and parenting stages of life together. We do a pretty good job of keeping up with each other even though we haven't lived in the same state in two years. They are stationed at Fort Campbell. Elise and Braden are 3 months apart and they had a wonderful time playing with each other. We enjoyed hanging out, eating some yummy food, watching the kids play, and catching up while they were napping or sleeping. Here are some pictures from the trip. We look forward to seeing them again while we are living "close" (a 6 hour driving trip).

This isn't a great picture but you can see the remnants of Elise's first encounter with the sidewalk. It happened about 3 days before the trip.

I finally scanned in some pictures of the big ultrasound last week. Sorry that they didn't make it in with the correct post!

I am now 18 weeks so I had to take another belly picture to compare with my first pregnancy. The baby is getting more and more active every day and I've even felt a few kicks from the outside with my hand on my stomach. I know it doesn't look like I've grown much, but I can definitely tell that the uterus is moving up higher. I usually feel the kicks around my belly button or slightly lower, so you can imagine where the baby is by looking at the pictures. I'm still able to comfortably button most of my pants. I've been feeling a lot better with a lot more energy but I'm still 6-7 lbs under my prepregnancy weight. This is even after eating chicken enchiladas, chips, queso, and ice cream for dinner last night! I'm starting to get a little frustrated. At this point with Elise, I was back to +0 after regaining the weight lost in the first trimester. I'm sure that the weight gain is coming soon because I've certainly gotten my appetite back! I even bought 2 half gallons of Blue Bell this week to help :)





On an unrelated note, Mike and I were very excited to go to a Third Day concert last night! They are one of our favorite bands and we've actually gotten to see them live during both times that we have lived in Alabama. They played at a civic center about 15 minutes from our house. Our friends Jen and Norvel came over to eat dinner with us and babysit Elise. They got a little more than they bargained for when she refused to go to bed and kept trying to climb out of her crib (this is VERY unlike her) but they persevered and she eventually went to sleep. We are thankful to have friends in the area and look forward to meeting more people in the future.

Here are a few pictures of our house. Elise is so lucky to have 4 playgrounds and 3 swing sets within sight from our house and when the weather is nice, we love to spend time outside. We live pretty close to the gym on post, so I enjoy running to the gym, doing a few weight machines, and then running back home. I'll post some pictures of the inside in my next post. I've also been meaning to send out an email with our new address, so if you would like to have it and I still haven't done that, feel free to email or text.

I am soooo excited about the 2010 Holiday Card Collection promotion that Shutterfly is offering for bloggers! Go to this page for details and you can get 50 free Christmas cards!

Shutterfly has a great selection of flat and folded Christmas cards and they are printed on great quality cardstock. If I choose a flat card, I would would have a hard time deciding between this classic 5x7 card and this adorable square card. I love the cards that allow you to use multiple pictures. You can even go to the Shutterfly website and play around with your own pictures in your favorite cards before you make your final selection.

The folded cards would also be fun because you could insert a Christmas letter or a personal note to your recipients. My favorite folded card designs are this one and this one.

I'm also in the process of creating the 2011 calendar for our parents and grandparents filled with family pictures from 2010. This is a Christmas tradition that we started last year and a great gift idea! There are so many different options for backgrounds and photo layouts and you can even insert pictures into specific calendar dates. To start creating your calendar, click here!

Thank you, Shutterfly, for making it easy to create Christmas cards and gifts!

BOY! We are so excited and can't believe it! Elise has been saying "It's a boy! It's a boy!" all day. I jokingly said "Daddy made a boy!" and (you're never going to believe this) she responded with "Daddy made a football player!" No idea where that thought came from! What a strange connection. We've been watching football a little over Thanksgiving but we certainly haven't talked about having a football player. I'm not sure if Mike and I could produce a football player... maybe a basketball player or golfer though. Ha.

I'm 17 weeks now and I have been feeling pretty good. I started feeling the baby move during our drive to Alabama and now I feel him many times throughout the day, especially when I am sitting or laying down. I’m still able to comfortably button most of my jeans but I do use a rubber band to hold the smaller jeans together at the waist. I’ve been running and lifting weights 3-4 times a week since we’ve moved here and it has felt good to get back in that routine. I'm still down about 7 lbs but the doctor isn't concerned... the baby is growing great and my tummy is certainly getting bigger! I'll take an 18 week picture and post it with my 18 week picture of Elise and we'll see who's bigger. Have a great day!

This month has been pretty abnormal for Elise, since she spent about half the month with her grandparents before we headed to Alabama (lucky girl!). It took some time for her to recover from all of the spoiling, but we are happy to report that she is back to normal. At the beginning of this month, it took about a week for her sleep schedule to adjust to daylight savings time. On November 15, we closed on our Harker Heights house, and then drove from Austin to Biloxi, Mississippi on the 16^th. Elise did phenomenally well in the car. We brought a variety of snacks and toys and planned a stop about every 2-2.5 hours to eat or play at a park. We also brought a DVD player for the car so that Elise could watch some Sesame Street. Somewhere in Louisiana, she started coughing and her voice became somewhat scratchy. By that night, she was very congested when laying down and had a hard time breathing while we were at the hotel. Add the fact that Boss found it entertaining to bark at his little hotel friends and we had a rough night. The next day, we arrived in Alabama and got settled in our new house. Thankfully, she slept well aside from coughing in her sleep but ate very little for the next several days. I took her to the doctor on the 22^nd and we found out that she had a mild ear infection. One day of antibiotics and a few days to adjust back from being spoiled while she was sick and she is as good as new. She goes to bed around 7­-7:15 and wakes up around 8. She starts her nap around 12:30-12:45 and normally sleeps for 2.5-3 hours. She’s had a great time playing in her new playroom and thinks it is very cool to see helicopters and airplanes all the time. There are FOUR playgrounds and swing sets within 50 yards of our house (including one right outside our back gate). The commissary (grocery store), post office, and neighborhood swimming pool are just a short walk away. This will be a great place to live with small children.

Elise still eats well for her age. Sometimes we have to bribe her with fruit to eat her vegetables, but she doesn’t put up a fuss (and I would give her the fruit anyway, haha).

She is starting to get interested in her lowercase letters. I bought the Leapfrog magnetic fridge set and was pleasantly surprised to discover that it also works with the capital letters that we already have. She pointed out a lowercase “e” on a store sign last week without being prompted, which is the first time she’s done that with a lowercase letter that doesn’t look like the corresponding capital letter.

Her favorite toys are her Duplos and her Green Toys tea set and chef set. I bought her some wooden HABA play food awhile back and she loves to play with it all together. She has actually stopped carrying her purses around with her and doesn’t seem too attached to any one particular thing. She has a set of 12 stacking cups from Discovery Toys and she can now nest them inside each other in the correct order without assistance. She’s so funny to watch when she does it because if she tries to put the wrong cup in, she’ll say “too big!” and then try another one. Our video camera broke a few months ago but we’re going to order another one and we’ll have to get it on video. She gets very proud of herself when she is finished and usually exclaims, “I did it!” She’s also started using one hand to hold something in place while she does something (like zip) with the other hand. She uses he/him correctly to refer to Mike and Boss and uses she/her correctly to refer to me. I will leave you with some funny things that she has said since we moved to Alabama.

(while sitting in the car in traffic)

“I see a cement mixer up there!”

(walking into the playroom the morning after Mike and I organized it with her toys that had been in boxes)

“I have toys to play with!”

(while playing in the playroom)

“I’ll go check on Boss.”

(walks into the living room to find Boss and pets him)

“Good boy, Boss.”

(at night, driving by the airplane display on post)

“There are the airplanes! It’s too dark to see them. They are sleeping right now.”

(driving through Fort Rucker where you alternate being able to see trees and houses)

“I see tall trees! I see houses! Where did they go? There they are!”

(after getting dressed in her red and pink dress… referring to the ladybug bow that she has never worn with this dress)

“Put on this bow. It matches.”

(seeing a book with strawberries on it)

“I like strawberries.”

(putting the small toys back in her learning home)

“Triangle! Pretty sure that goes right here.”

(sticks it in the triangle hole)

Before we got all of our furniture, we often sat in the playroom to eat because the carpet is more comfortable than the tile. One time, Elise kept walking back and forth from my puff-filled hand to her toys. After she had eaten a few puffs, I decided to try them and ate 4 of the remaining 8. When she came back to get more, she stared at my hand for a few seconds, gave me a funny look and said “Mama ate my puffs!”

I'll get some pictures up soon!