Anni is French-Canadian, Polish and a tad German. I'm Swedish and German.
Somehow, Elise is Italian.
She's got to be. At least that's what I suspect after watching her eat pasta. Tonight it was lasagna that Anni had made.
Elise ate an entire piece -- this was no dainty helping; who skimps on pasta? -- and then gestured for more. So I gave her another one-third piece. She inhaled that, too. In fact, she was eating it as fast as I was putting it on her plate.
Then I caught her trying to scrape up every last bit of pasta that was left on her plate.
In the end, there was a clean plate and a baby with a beard of pasta sauce and fingers full of ricotta.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sign, show pony, sign!
At 11 1/2 months, Elise has (mostly) mastered one dozen signs.
The full list includes: book, more, hat, baby, all done, milk, music, eat, shoes, toothbrush, light and puppy.
I think I've said this before, but when we started teaching her signs I did not realize how helpful they would be. For instance, it is much more of a pleasure to see her sign "all done" when she is done eating rather than to watch as she flips her plate onto the floor, cottage cheese bits and green bean nubs spilling all over the tile.
Clearly, though, one of the signs needs a little work. For some reason she unfortunately turned "baby" -- in which you're simply supposed to swing your arms gently in front of you -- into "baby with the shakes."
Still, we are obviously impressed. Now if only she can learn what I think is among the most important signs: "More ice cream, please."
The full list includes: book, more, hat, baby, all done, milk, music, eat, shoes, toothbrush, light and puppy.
I think I've said this before, but when we started teaching her signs I did not realize how helpful they would be. For instance, it is much more of a pleasure to see her sign "all done" when she is done eating rather than to watch as she flips her plate onto the floor, cottage cheese bits and green bean nubs spilling all over the tile.
Clearly, though, one of the signs needs a little work. For some reason she unfortunately turned "baby" -- in which you're simply supposed to swing your arms gently in front of you -- into "baby with the shakes."
Still, we are obviously impressed. Now if only she can learn what I think is among the most important signs: "More ice cream, please."
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Small sign she's getting bigger
Anni made Thai chicken stir-fry for dinner tonight. The three of us ate it.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
By the book -- or not
Elise still has the major crud -- hacking cough, runny nose, frequently tired, etc.
For some odd reason, we decided this would be a good time to cut out the evening bottle, that comforting 5 oz. of warm formula that tops her off before she slumbers.
This will not surprise some of you (that's directed at you, grandparents), but there generally is a lot of thinking -- overthinking? -- involved in just about every baby-related decision in this house.
This decision? Yeah, there was no overthinking this time.
Last night Anni suggested we try giving Elise formula with her dinner, rather than before she goes to bed. I agreed, deferring to her inherently wise motherly judgment. Frankly, though, my consent was as much the result of my excitement at the thought of having to wash just one (morning) bottle daily.
So this morning, after a surprisingly peaceful night of sleep (for all three of us) that was not preceded by an evening bottle, Anni was flipping through the baby bible when she came across the following suggestion about weaning from the bottle.
I'm going to quote it because it's so good: "Time it right. Don't wean your baby from the bottle if he or she is sick, very tired... "
Ha!
Now, we're only on night #2 without an evening bottle, but she went down just fine and is sound asleep.
Anni said that I should not get too excited, that Elise could realize tomorrow or the following night that we had pulled a fast one on her while she was doped up on antibiotics.
I doubt it. I'm prepared to bid the before-bed bottle adieu.
Now, about that morning bottle...
For some odd reason, we decided this would be a good time to cut out the evening bottle, that comforting 5 oz. of warm formula that tops her off before she slumbers.
This will not surprise some of you (that's directed at you, grandparents), but there generally is a lot of thinking -- overthinking? -- involved in just about every baby-related decision in this house.
This decision? Yeah, there was no overthinking this time.
Last night Anni suggested we try giving Elise formula with her dinner, rather than before she goes to bed. I agreed, deferring to her inherently wise motherly judgment. Frankly, though, my consent was as much the result of my excitement at the thought of having to wash just one (morning) bottle daily.
So this morning, after a surprisingly peaceful night of sleep (for all three of us) that was not preceded by an evening bottle, Anni was flipping through the baby bible when she came across the following suggestion about weaning from the bottle.
I'm going to quote it because it's so good: "Time it right. Don't wean your baby from the bottle if he or she is sick, very tired... "
Ha!
Now, we're only on night #2 without an evening bottle, but she went down just fine and is sound asleep.
Anni said that I should not get too excited, that Elise could realize tomorrow or the following night that we had pulled a fast one on her while she was doped up on antibiotics.
I doubt it. I'm prepared to bid the before-bed bottle adieu.
Now, about that morning bottle...
Monday, February 8, 2010
The walker
This is Elise and her walker. At least, that's what I call it.I didn't even know this type of toy existed, but now I'm excited that she has it. She likes it, too. (Thanks for the gift, Mary Kay.)
Here's why I'm excited: If she keeps using it and gets better at walking behind it, it is not unreasonable to think she could push a little golf club cart around the course this spring. Just 9 holes, though. You don't want to overdue it when they're young.
Looking rough
It was the throaty hack that gave it away. The kind that reddens the face and causes tears to swell in the eyes. Oh, the fever, exhaustion and all-around sluggishness also gave it away: Elise is sick.
She developed the robust cough last week and by Sunday night, was coughing hard and frequently and was generally unhappy.
By this morning she was hacking up small organs and looking just plain miserable.
Anni took her to the doctor, who said her lungs sound OK but she has a respiratory bug. Then the doctor peered into Elise's right ear and had this observation: "Ouch. That doesn't look good."
You guessed it: another ear infection. It's only her second, but this one caught us by surprise. Last time she had one, she had been rubbing her ear and tugging on it. Even I could figure that out.
This time, though, we didn't expect she would have an ear infection.
She's working her way through it all, with 8 ml of help from amoxicillin twice daily.
At least we know the hacking is from bacteria, not Basics.
She developed the robust cough last week and by Sunday night, was coughing hard and frequently and was generally unhappy.
By this morning she was hacking up small organs and looking just plain miserable.
Anni took her to the doctor, who said her lungs sound OK but she has a respiratory bug. Then the doctor peered into Elise's right ear and had this observation: "Ouch. That doesn't look good."
You guessed it: another ear infection. It's only her second, but this one caught us by surprise. Last time she had one, she had been rubbing her ear and tugging on it. Even I could figure that out.
This time, though, we didn't expect she would have an ear infection.
She's working her way through it all, with 8 ml of help from amoxicillin twice daily.
At least we know the hacking is from bacteria, not Basics.
Nibble me this...
Anni had this to say when she came home from work recently:
"Our child tried to bite another child again today."
Swell. Where to begin? The fact that she tried to bite another kid, or that she tried again?
I know, I know. It's not unheard of for young kids to bite or pinch one another. But what do you do when you have to use two hands to count the number of times it's occurred?
You turn to humor, I guess.
"If Elise were a Batman villain, she'd be The Nibbler," Anni said.
Wisecracks aside, we're trying hard to nip this biting habit. Again, I know, I know. Many kids do it and just because she did it a few times at 11 months doesn't mean she's going to chomp on her fleshy-armed fellow kindergartners. But still.
It reminds me of one of my greatest fears. (I have two; the other is an ice cream famine.) I fear that, despite our best efforts, we will raise a child who turns out to be that kid, the one who bites for no reason or commits other random bratty acts.
Am I getting a little ahead of myself, a bit carried away? Sure, but you would too if you saw Elise, agape with tiny chompers visible, lunging toward your neck.
"Our child tried to bite another child again today."
Swell. Where to begin? The fact that she tried to bite another kid, or that she tried again?
I know, I know. It's not unheard of for young kids to bite or pinch one another. But what do you do when you have to use two hands to count the number of times it's occurred?
You turn to humor, I guess.
"If Elise were a Batman villain, she'd be The Nibbler," Anni said.
Wisecracks aside, we're trying hard to nip this biting habit. Again, I know, I know. Many kids do it and just because she did it a few times at 11 months doesn't mean she's going to chomp on her fleshy-armed fellow kindergartners. But still.
It reminds me of one of my greatest fears. (I have two; the other is an ice cream famine.) I fear that, despite our best efforts, we will raise a child who turns out to be that kid, the one who bites for no reason or commits other random bratty acts.
Am I getting a little ahead of myself, a bit carried away? Sure, but you would too if you saw Elise, agape with tiny chompers visible, lunging toward your neck.
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