Nine months old!

Health and Growth

Elsie now weighs 16lbs, 2oz (8%) and stretches to 27 inches (30%- I think they short-changed her when they measured her, though).

Elsie consistently sleeps 2-3 hours at a time at night, with a few 4-hour chunks thrown in, too. We put up black-out shades in her room last week, and those seem to be helping her sleep better at night (we think headlights might have been waking her up). She is now reliant on one nap a day, usually lasting about 2 hours (HOORAY!).

Her hair continues to grow in slowly, and appears to be a curly auburn. Her first tooth came in shortly after her 7-month birthday, and in the last few days she has sprouted one more on top and another on the bottom. We're hoping that the teething is over for now, and her sleep might improve even more!

Communication

Signs Elsie does: milk, good-bye and hello (waving), no (shaking head)
Signs and words Elsie recognizes: all done, more, kitty, duck, bird, cow, horse, diaper change, poop, food, water

We have been working with Elsie on animal noises, which she LOVES, and simple words like kitty, Daddy, Mama, Pongo, milk, and nap. She gets excited when we say them, but hasn't tried to reproduce any of the sounds yet.

Activities

Elsie eats three solid food meals a day, a combination of baby purees and whatever Mama happens to be eating. She seems to like just about everything she tries, including salmon, plain lentils, and simple spices like pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Elsie loves to walk while holding on to Mama or Daddy's fingers, and has recently started walking with a push toy. She is pretty proud of herself for being able to move on her own, and often stops walking to look back at whoever in "spotting" her and grin!

Now that the warm weather has melted most of our snow, Elsie is having fun exploring outside. It's a challenge to keep leaves and twigs out of her mouth, but it is worth it to see how curious she is about everything around her. We are excited for her to be able to walk barefoot in the grass and splash in the puddles!

Watch Elsie Grow! Comparison Photos:
One Week


One Month


Two Months


Three Months


Four Months


Five Months


Six Months


Seven Months


Eight Months


Nine months

Elsie likes to walk...

...with her push toy. I recently remembered that we were given a push toy back before Elsie was born (thanks for reminding me, Katy!). When I pulled it out today, I found that not only does Elsie love it, but she is perfectly capable of balancing and pushing it around the house by herself (aside from getting hung up on walls and door frames occasionally). She isn't moving too quickly in these videos, but trust me, when she gets going, she flies down the hall! Oh, and according to Elsie, it is MUCH more fun to walk naked than with clothes!

Bouncing!

I also love bouncing with my Dad and Mom!  I get super excited, I was a bit nervous because of the video camera for this one but I still loved the silly song!

A Day at the Madison Children's Museum

Mama took me to the Madison Children's Museum this week, and we met my boyfriend Nico there. He knows all the fun things there are to learn about at the museum, and he was happy to show me around. First he taught me how to stand up and play the bongo drum (I loved it! So much noise!).




He showed me how to "plant" turnips and carrots in the "garden." I liked crawling on holey ground!



And Nico showed me how to play "ball" for the first time. It was alright, but I think balls are more fun to eat than to throw.



The museum was lots of fun- I can't wait until I am a little older and can play with all the fun things on the "big kid" floor. I hope I get to go back again soon!

Elsie loves Dancing!

These days whenever Elsie hears music she loves to bob her head at the very least.  When she really gets into it she flaps both arms up and down so vigorously you can hear her hands slap her knees quite loudly.

She still isn't sure about the video camera, thus the "tilted head" look she gives mom.

Here she is a couple days ago!

My First Protest

I've been voting three times with Mom in my short life, and on Thursday Mom decided to show me another side of Democracy- the right to assemble. We headed to Capital Square with my friend Nico and his mama, followed the crowds, and laughed at the funny signage.



We joined WI firefighters, police, teachers, nurses, and other citizens to protest outside of the "locked-down" capital building. We listened to speakers, cheered a lot, and even got to chant.



Mom and I especially thought it was great to see all the post-it notes that citizens have left on the door for Walker to read, since he won't let anyone come in the building to talk to him.




Our hard work protesting must have been effective, because the judge declared the "lock-down" illegal and they opened the capital doors a few hours later! Hooray! It's fun to exercise my civil rights!

Genealogy 101: Some help for Josie and Elsie

It's no secret that I am constantly confused by Andy's family. I've been involved with them for almost a decade now, and I still have trouble remembering Andy's approximately 50 aunts and uncles, who belongs to which family (is she a Koch or a Cooper? Who are his parents again?), and the names of his 3 gazillion cousins. A few months ago Gbert was visiting for dinner, and decided that it was time to make me a Cooper Family Tree that I could study before family events.

It contained important things like cousin's names and Ann and Brian's sibling's birth order and occupations (and I have to admit that I felt somewhat justified in my ignorance when Andy and Greg had to phone Ellen to get some of that information because they couldn't remember, either!).

I studied it for a few days, got overwhelmed (Have I ever met this person, Andy? Are you sure?), and stashed it behind the buffet for a rainy day (or the next big family wedding).



Well, Elsie was rolling around on the floor the other day and found the family tree. And boy, was she confused!



Eventually, she even rolled over and looked on the back of the paper to see if there was a key to help her understand it all. There wasn't.


I'm afraid, my dear, that his family (and your family!) really is just that big. Luckily, they are very understanding when you don't know who they are. We'll keep working on it, and we should have it all down by the time you graduate from high school.

Playing trains with Grandpa Todd

Grandpa Todd came to stay with me last week when Mama was sick with pneumonia, and we had lots of fun together.


He showed me how to set up the train set he had when he was a baby, and we played and played and played!


Whenever we got bored, we listened to Jason Mraz and Elmo. Then we played trains some more! Thanks for taking such good care of me, Grandpa!

Playing "Laundry" with Mama

Mama spends a lot of time playing "Laundry" every day. She puts clothes in a big basket, takes them downstairs, plays with them, then folds them and puts them back in the basket. I like playing "Laundry", too. I take my sock basket and pull all the socks out, then play with them. Dumping out the basket is my favorite part. I haven't quite figured out how to put the socks back IN the basket yet, but Mama always helps with that. It's a really fun game!

Quiet time with Daddy

My nighttime routine starts with quiet time with Daddy. He reads me books and we rock-a-bye in our rocker. Sometimes I really like reading with Daddy, and sometimes I'm a little too squirmy to pay much attention to what he is reading. And sometimes I just want to eat the book.

Eight Months Old!

Health and Growth

Elsie now weighs 15lbs, 6oz (8%) and stretches to 27.5 inches (59%!).

Elsie consistently sleeps 2-3 hours at a time at night, with a few 4-hour chunks thrown in, too. She usually takes two naps a day, one lasting 30 minutes and one lasting 45 minutes.

Her hair continues to grow in slowly, and appears to be a curly, auburn brown. Her first tooth came in shortly after her 7-month birthday, but no others have come to join it so far.

Communication

Elsie now signs "milk" with some regularity, plus recognizes the signs for "all done" and "more". She waves "good-bye" and "hello", and also shakes her head "no!" on a daily basis.

Activities

Elsie eats three solid food meals a day, a combination of baby purees and whatever Mama happens to be eating. She has tasted almost everything her parents eat, and seems to like just about everything she tries!

Now that the weather is getting nicer, Elsie and I have really enjoyed taking long walks in the afternoon. She also enjoys "walking" on her own- we spend hours every day scooting around the house, me bending over and Elsie holding onto my fingers.

Comparison Photos:
One Week


One Month


Two Months


Three Months


Four Months


Five Months


Six Months


Seven Months


Eight Months

I'm learning to walk!

Mama took this video of me over a week ago- I'm much more stable now! No tipping!

Elsie progresses in her jumping- Elsie dancing!

Snow day!

With the 14" or so of snow that rolled in this week, Mama and I spent a great deal of time outside enjoying the crazy weather.



Mama bundles me up really warm (two snowsuits- I can't put my arms down!), and lets me play in the snow. I like to sit in it and kick.



I also like to practice my standing. It's the perfect time, since the plethora of snow in combination with all my extra snowsuit padding makes for easy falls!

Tooth, tooth, where is the tooth?

Elsie is really proud of her first tooth. She likes banging it on spoons and sippy cups every time she eats, and she REALLY likes brushing it (well, chewing on her toothbrush, anyway). The only thing she DOESN'T like is letting us actually look at her tooth. Can you find the tooth in the following series of pictures? It only appears once, and it is camouflaged by a string of drool...

Reading (and chewing on) books

With all the cold weather and blizzard activity outside, Elsie has been enjoying reading in her sunny nursery more than ever.



She especially likes her Christmas present books (thanks, Uncles Matt and Adam, and Aunts Manda and Ellen), though sometimes she spends more time trying to open them and chew on them than she spends actually reading them.



Elmo's googly eyes and his ability to move his arms (he's a puppet book) confounds Elsie daily. The teething pretzel that came with E and A's book is really getting a workout, though I am concerned that the copious amounts of drool that the pretzel chewing produces will seriously decrease the lifespan of the book...