Words to play by

Elise is well into the grab-anything-within-sight stage, so we're having to move plates, glasses, picture frames and other household items out of her reach.
She is particularly fond of reaching for the TV remote, the iPod and my cell phone.
In response, Anni came up with a good phrase, even if Elise does not understand it yet: "If it's black or gray, it's not for play."
Look around you and think about that for a moment; it makes perfect sense. In our house, that puts off-limits electronics and remotes, my camera, the phones and music equipment. Oh, and the black-handled Wusthof knives in the kitchen.
Yeah, I would say that's a good policy.

Old tradition, new additions

We made it a tradition: Anni and I would head out to the orchard each fall for apples -- and so Anni could tell stories of when she had worked at the orchard years earlier.
Several years passed and then we started inviting our pals Dan and Erin to wander with us among Regents and Cortlands. It always was a good time for the foursome, and I would get my share of apples, apple donuts and cider.
And then there were five.
Last year was Dan and Erin's daughter Avery's first apple expedition. Again, a good trip, and I got my fill of cider and donuts.
Now, there are six.
Today was the annual orchard trek. Considering that last weekend the ground was covered in snow and it was sleeting just a couple of days ago, today's highs in the upper 50s, sunshine and a breeze made for stellar conditions. The apples and donuts weren't bad either.
Elise would concur -- about the apples, at least. It was her first apple trip with Dan, Erin and Avery, and she spent most of the orchard visit gummin' a juicy Haralson.
The '09 expedition highlights:

Elise does not give up easily.

Camera flare from the sun. Darghh!

Four at six

Here are our favorites from Elise's requisite six-month photos.
OK, so technically they are seven-month shots -- by a day or two -- but the first attempt at home-studio photography didn't go well, so a second was needed. Why not do the second right after the first? Well, you have to wait for a seemingly impossible pairing: good natural lighting and a happy baby. She was quite happy -- until this photo shoot got old, as you'll see.
(A quick note: I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Maxine for the pumpkin hat. It's getting lots of use.)

Back to Old English -- and not the polish

A brief departure from normal blog topics:

One of the many anecdotes sure to be included in my yet-to-be-written-but-always-threatened childhood memoir is what my Dad would say when Bryan and I were verbally lazy and slangy: "English is such a wonderful language. Why don't you use it?"
I thought of that tonight after Anni strongly suggested that I drop the occasional use of lazy English on the blog, even if it's conversational and used for a certain effect.
"It belittles everything else you do on there," Anni said, protesting my recent use of the word "'cuz," among other grammatical nightmares.
Anyway, her point was well taken. In fact, I always thought of this as your go-to site for highbrow, scholarly passages. Consider, if you will, this literary gem from an entry about Elise's bath a few months ago:

Everything was going swimmingly -- until someone had a bowel movement in her bath chair. I told Anni that we're definitely parents now when we have an exchange like this:
"There's crap all over the bathtub," I said while cleaning the tub.
"Well, it's one less diaper to change," she said.

Highbrow, indeed. Now back to writing about the baby.

In one ear...

The photo does not suggest it, but for the past four days we have been caring for Captain Crankypants.
Elise just has been acting out of sorts. Happy one minute, unusually fussy the next. Content to play by herself if you tell her you're walking across the room, but royally peeved if you just get up and walk across the room. Drinks a bottle of formula, then insists on turning the bottle into a chew toy. Asleep for a few hours at night, then awake and screaming.
So at the clinic's urging, off we went Monday for a visit with Elise's pediatrician, who Anni and I are growing quite fond of for her compassionate-without-the-frills approach.
The doc stuck the otoscope into Elise's right ear, then into the left ear.
"Well, her left ear looks fine. Her right ear doesn't look fine," she said.
You guessed it. She's got her first ear infection, or otitus media for all of you who dig medical terms. That, of course, explains her rough past few days.
The doc prescribed an antibiotic -- the ubiquitous amoxicillin -- and sent us on our way.
However, no trip to the clinic would be complete without a stop on the baby scale. At seven months, she is 18 lbs.
What's the mean, 18 lbs? Well, one way to look at it is she now weighs more than the heaviest ball allowed in regulation bowling. Huh.

They're posted because I like them

A sign of intelligence and...

The other day Elise figured out how to open the door to the entertainment cabinet. (Those Swedes at Ikea can give you mediocre furniture at a reasonable price, but don't expect it to come with child-proof devices.)
It was interesting to watch as she tried to pull open the glass door.


Then you second-guess that sign of intelligence, if only for a moment, when all she wants to do is play suction cup with the window.


Just stay away from stop sign poles in the winter, kid.

Silverware? Nah, I got pincers

There are certain obvious developmental benchmarks you watch for in kids. Even the oblivious notice them: Rolling over; sleeping through the night; teething; making sounds with the mouth other than burps; and crawling.
You know, the major stuff.
Well, there is another important developmental accomplishment. And by important I mean that, well, you kinda need this skill: picking up stuff with your fingers, namely food.
I fully admit that this was not on my list of things to look forward to Elise learning. It's not that I wanted her to go into childhood sans dexterity; it just never dawned on me that finger coordination is a learned skill.
Well, it is, and Elise is catching on.
She's getting pretty good at using those little pincers. She gets practice each day when, after her evening feeding, she gets a small handful of Cheerio-like puffed grain snacks. Yeah, I know, they sound horribly bland, but they're flavored and really quite tasty. Well, that's overselling, but they're not bad.
Anyway, it took her some time to figure out that when Mom and Dad are not going to shovel food in the mouth, maybe the thumb and index finger do the trick and make quick work of those puffed morsels.
I'm ready for the next developmental feat: eating real food with the hands. Maybe that will mean graduating from puffed grain snacks to a bucket of wings.

She's just so tactful

The other day we were marveling at one of Elise's new tricks (maybe it was turning on the light switch from her changing table, or maybe it was opening the entertainment center door) when Anni asked me the following -- with a straight face:
"Think of how much she has learned in just seven months. I mean, what have you learned in the last seven months?"
Huh. Good question.

And....we're back

Our computer situation is not entirely squared away, but clearly I have Internet access now, so it's time to update the blog.

An observation about this bottom photo: My hair suggests I shouldn't take photos right after I wake up -- yikes. Good thing your eyes are drawn to the little creature trying to crawl up my back.

Little arms, big embrace

You know what's swell?
A hug from your child, even if those little arms don't quite reach around your neck yet.

At Month 6, a safe bet

At the doc: It's all fun and games
until somebody gets their thighs poked

We walked into the doctor's office the other day for Elise's 6-month checkup and commenced with the routine:
Pull off her clothes, let the diaper-clad child try to rip apart the butcher paper on the exam table and then set her on the plastic measuring tray.
The measurement: 28 inches.
A few minutes later her doctor came in. She gave us a new set of those interesting yet somewhat meaningless growth comparison charts. Turns out our child still is comfortably above the curve -- is it possible to be in the 110th percentile? -- for her length. I can only assume we'll see a similar placement after her first IQ test.
Anyway, back to length and height. The doctor cannot properly estimate Elise's adult height until she is about 2 years old.
"But it's safe to say she will not be short," the doc said.
Yes, that's probably a safe prediction.
Everything else checked out just fine. The heart beats, the eyes still move, the ears aren't oozing. She got another slew of immunizations -- three to the thighs, one in oral liquid form -- and Anni and I each got poked for a flu immunization. (In the arms, not the thighs. That'd be odd.)
When we put Elise in her car seat at the end of the appointment, we were reminded of her length. At 28 inches, and with toes dangling over the edge of the seat, she is an inch short of requiring the next "child safety and travel restraint system," which she'll grow out of sooner than we expect.
And that's definitely a safe prediction.

Inky prints: Get 'em while you can

A few weeks ago we were at my parents' house digging through old photos, trying to find documented evidence that I was a cute child. Contrary to your assumptions, we found the evidence. But in the process, I'd stumble across a photo of me that would prompt a question like: "Why did you let my hair grow so long?"
Well, for the sake of storytelling, let's imagine photos still exist in 25 years -- apparently my stories are fictional -- and there comes a day when Elise is flipping through pictures of her childhood.
If she ever catches a glance at these photos, I imagine she'll have only one question: "What the heck am I holding?"

Best sticker she'll ever have

We took Elise with us when we went to vote in the primaries on Tuesday. No, we didn't use her to somehow cast an extra ballot -- after all, I was born in Chicago, but I don't live there -- but good habits start young, right?
Anyway, turnout was ridiculously low -- no surprise there -- but I think the old guy handing out "I Voted" stickers was glad Elise turned out. He almost did not let us leave; she was dishing out big smiles and he was just thrilled.
Next year I'll teach her to stay up and track poll results as they come in. How exciting!

Baby. Sitting. Up.

This is from a couple of weeks ago. She's now beyond needing support to stay sitting upright.

Dude, my Dell is a piece

Elise reached several milestones in recent days, but you wouldn't know it by the look of the blog.
I haven't been able to post because we had problems with our home computer and then more problems -- it's tough to use a computer when the screen suddenly craps out.
I plan to get blogging again soon because there are developments to share, not the least of which is that Elise turned 6 months old last weekend.
And, she goes in for a routine checkup next week and will have something to show the doctor: her first tooth.
More on that -- and why she has sounded like Keith Richards in recent days -- soon.

Four on the floor

I suppose these represent the test run for the upcoming 6-month shots. It's nice having a baby who poses without instruction.

Getting saucered

The other day Anni unearthed the Exersaucer that was gifted to us months ago by her cousin.
Elise has been using a saucer at school in recent weeks and gets a kick out of it.
Imagine the look on her face when she saw Anni set up one for her at home. It wasn't a look of excitement. It actually was a look that said, "Well, would you look at that. So where have you two been hiding this thing for the past couple of months? What other toys have you squirreled away?"
Anyway, as the photos suggest, she enjoys the saucer at home, too.

Patches

It was only hours -- minutes, maybe -- after Elise was born that we noticed she has a distinguishing mark: a small patch of blond hair on the left side of her head. We like it, especially when a breeze catches the long, whispy hairs and they stand on end. It was a fun early discovery.
She is now almost 6 months old. In that time we have changed hundreds of diapers, bathed her dozens of times, watched as she rolled around endlessly in just a onesie, nibbled on her toes -- she thinks it's hilarious, as all babies probably do -- and rubbed plenty of lotion and sunscreen on her lanky shanks.
So imagine our surprise when we got back into town after our vacation and it was mentioned to us that Elise has a birth mark on the back of one of her knees.
Yeah, right. We're her parents; we would have noticed that.
Wait, really? Sure it's not just dirt? There's a birth mark?
Yep.
Now, she's a big, long baby, but so big and long that we failed to notice a birth mark the size of a silver dollar? No, apparently we're just not very observant.
Does it matter? Of course not, but we're just amazed it took this long for us to notice.
On a related note, I learned last week that Anni has a peg leg.

Sideways