15 Months

Here is what Elise is up to these days:

*She sits and looks at books on her own for long periods of time. She also loves bringing books to you so she can snuggle into your lap to read together. I love this. Sometimes if we are laying on the floor in her playroom she will come from behind and drop a book on your head to read to her. I don't love this.

*She gets this uncanny energy whenever she is naked. She runs around like a crazy woman or a silly monster as Mia would say.

*She is starting to be a good helper in the kitchen and likes to be involved in what we are cooking.

*She likes to help clean. She will get a towel and "clean" the floor or broom and "sweep" the kitchen.

*She is saying a lot more words now. She is overusing the word "please".  I think she thinks if she smiles really big and says "peeese" she can have whatever she wants.

*She also likes to make animal sounds when we read books about animals. She is pretty darn good although most of the time all the animals say "Baaaa".

*She tries to sing along in the car to her music. She also loves to dance to music. Her latest fave is the chicken dance.

*She is a full fledged monkey. She climbs on everything. Everything. And, for some reason she feels the need to stand on everything. Even if it is her potty, a shoe on the floor, random toys, chairs, boxes, picnic tables, etc. It is like she has to test everything out by standing on it.

*She is very good at taking care of her baby doll and feeds her regularly

*She is still attached to her binky but now we are shooting for only nap time and bed time. When she is laying in her crib she likes to have one binky in her mouth and one in each hand. We are in trouble.

*Her favorite show is still Dora but The Fresh Beat Band is coming on strong. Which is just lovely because that show couldn't get more annoying.

*She gets so excited when her Dadda comes home. Sometimes she sees him through the window walking up before I do and she yells "DADDA"

*She doesn't weigh much but she is a very good eater. She loves going into the pantry and grabbing snacks. Sometimes she will just bring out 1 thing like some Ritz or Goldfish. Other times she grabs what she can get and her hands are full of things like soup, peanutbutter, pasta, oatmeal.

*She loves going to the park and climbing up and going down the big kid slide. People look at me like I am crazy letting her do that but she loves it.  She hates the swing. She goes in there, I push her once, and then she cries.

*She has such so much personality. Everyday is a blast.

We just had her 15 month check up and here are the latest stats:

Weight 18lbs 1oz - below 3rd percentile

Height  30 inches - 25th percentile

Potty Business

Mia is in full swing of potty training and pretty much has it mastered! Go Mia, Go Mia!
What does this mean for us?  It means that now Ellie is obsessed with toilets.  Yesterday while I was washing dishes after lunch, Ellie snuck into the pantry and grabbed a bag of Cheerios. I assumed she just ran around the corner and was eating some while watching Dora. When I realized it was way too quiet, I started to do a search for her. 
This is what I found:

She was sitting on the pot munching on her Cheerios.

I know she has a long way to go before we even attempt to potty train. But, I think we have a little advantage since Ellie wants to do everything Mia does. Ellie likes to hang out with Mia when she is doing her business. I think she is taking mental notes.
Hopefully it pays off in a year or so!

Another Race Day

We participated in a 5K race this weekend at Tempe Town Lake. It was a run to benefit one of our friend's non profit agency. Grandma, Grandpa and the Carusos all ran too! Ellie, Mia and Mikey participated via stroller. It might have been their first race together. It was a beautiful day to be outside and the girls had fun running around afterwards. They especially enjoyed when their daddies got to take them to stand on the podium since they were 1st and 2nd place in their alleged age group.

Way to go dads!

Lucky Bastard?

Greg did a 12 hour mountain bike relay today. He was the only guy on his team so they decided to call is team "Lucky Bastard."  They were all set up on the North side of the lake and rode loops in Papago. It was certainly a long and fun day for him. It made for a really fun day for Elise and me too! In the morning I got Elise all bundled up and we went down to visit Greg and say hi to everyone.  After a while we ran over to the south side of the lake where there was a running event happening.  We met Auntie Angie, Mia, Mikey and Grandma over there to help Angie hand out fliers for the new Achilles track club she is trying to start. When we finished handing the fliers out, there was a little time for Mia and Ellie to play. They jumped around in a bounce castle, enjoyed fun slide and ran around in the grass.

 We went home for a quick nap and then headed over to Grandma's for some more fun.  I tried to get Elise to take a longer nap but it just wasn't happening. All the excitemet of the day was too much.  We went back to hang out at Greg's race for a while and was able to be there for his last loop.  We are so proud of him! He is a big reason why his team did so well.

 I think the team should have been called "Lucky Chicks" instead of "Lucky Bastard."

Belly Buldge

We took Elise to the doctor last week for a lingering cough that has lasted quite a while. We just wanted to check and make sure everything was okay. Sure enough she is just fine. He did mention her lack of weight gain over the past few months. She's even lost a little bit.  So he gave us some information on helping her gain some weight along with some samples of Pediasure supplements.  She is below the 5th percentile in weight now, but judging by her belly buldge in the pictures below...do you really think she needs to gain weight? We think she is doing just fine!