Elsa is Seventeen Months

Elsa is seventeen months old as of today, and is battling what seems to be her first major sickness. She has had fevers here and there and a very short bout of the sniffles awhile back, but she has been sick about a week this time around, and it has been quite the nastiness. Just so you can experience a bit of the gross factor yourselves, here is a lovely photo from lunch today. (Yes, those are snot bubbles coming from her nose, and, yes, I realize she will someday kill me for posting this photo of her.)


She had a high fever Friday evening and a bit of a fever yesterday, but by yesterday afternoon seemed to be past that, and now we are just continuing to fight the stuffy/runny nose. The mommy part of me hopes she is fully recovered soon, as I hate to see her feeling miserable, and the selfish side of me hopes she is better soon so I can get back to the gym on a regular basis, as the Y does not even want runny noses in their childcare facility. Jarrett and I took turns at the gym yesterday, and it felt great. And this morning he stayed home with the little sickie and let me go to church.

I cannot believe in just another month our little girl will be a year-and-a-half old. Really, how is that possible? Elsa is at such a fun stage right now with the walking (speed walking at some points now!) and talking. Her list of first words has really expanded. As I was noting some of them down in her baby book the other day, I was amazed at the length of the list: "daa" ("daddy"), "up," "work," "shoes," "sock(s)," "bye," "snack," "book(s)", "fa fa" ("coffee"), "food," "hat," "fiff" ("fish"), "hot," "cat," "moo," "woof," "meow," "duct" ("duck"), "cook" (for "cook" and "cookie"), "upside down," "bib," "whoops," "eat," "bus," "sa" ("Elsa"), "whoa," "woosh" ("swoosh"), "bu bu bu" ("bubble bath"), "eyes," "bah bah" ("baby"), "down," "da" ("dog"), "puh puh" ("puppies"), "sit," "seat," "sake" ("shake"), and "es" ("yes"). If she knows the sign, she will still usually do sign language along with saying the word.

Elsa loves saying goodbye to Daddy when he leaves for work in the morning. If she is in her highchair, she will wave to him and say "bye" and "work" from there, but if she is finished with breakfast, we watch Daddy get in the car and wave to him as he drives away. She gets so excited when he comes home now too. I've learned to time this pretty well now... when I hear Jarrett get out of the car and hit the fob to lock the doors, I give it just a few seconds and then say, "Elsa, Daddy is home!" She will immediately drop whatever she is doing and run for the front door, exclaiming, "Daa!" I really need to capture this on video sometime soon. It melts my heart every time.

Elsa is also enthralled with airplanes as of late. If the sky is clear, the girl can spot a plane before I even think about noticing one. And then -- the best part -- she signs for "more" as if I can simply make more airplanes appear out of thin air.

Elsa and Merckx are starting to play a bit more, with Merckx usually running away and hiding from Elsa, but at least it seems like he is tolerating her antics slightly more. Elsa has always found it funny when I have Merckx do tricks, such as sit and shake on command, and in just the past couple of days she has started going up to Merckx with her hand outstretched, asking him to "sake" ("shake").

Our girl loves the outdoors, and if I let her walk around in the yard outside, she never tires of it. It is always a kicking and screaming match when it is time to come indoors, and one I am actually okay with. If it would only rain a little less and warm up a little more, we could spend many an hour having fun out in the fresh air.

Overall our baby continues to bring much joy and laughter into our lives. We love you, Elsa Boo.