Elsie's 11 Months

This week our little girlfriend hit her last big milestone before the one year mark.  11 months!!!!  Every month I find myself asking how we got here and this month is no different.  I feel like I have done a better job of cherishing every moment with Elsie than with other two, knowing she is my last baby and yet time is still slipping through my fingers.  So here is a rundown of Elsie at 11 months.

Elsie still does her hybrid "wild animal" crawl and I have given up on her crawling any other way.  She pulls herself to stand on anything and everything and sometime barley anything at all. She cruises along on furniture and will walk with her walker or a chair or someones finger.  She has taken a couple steps a few times but typically sits down as soon as she realizes what she is doing.

Elsie has a handful of words that she says.  Her most favorite word is "mama" and she loves to say it both day and night.  She also says "more" and "dada" and "baba" (for water bottle).  I think she has also said "bubba" (brother) a few times.  I have been trying to teach her "water" because she loves water but usually just screams when she wants it.

Elsie has become pickier lately with the foods she will eat.  She has decided that she is more or less done with baby food, but loves big people food and to feed herself.  Her favorite foods are bananas, cheese, graham crackers and anything in a squeeze pouch.

She has two teeth on the bottom and three and a half on the top.  She has more teeth and less hair than either her brother or sister at this age.  Her hair still has a little bit of a red tint to it, but is more blonde than red.  I feel like her eyes still haven't settled into their final color yet, but they are more brown than anything else  at this point.

On the sleeping front, we have seen some improvements lately.  Elsie is now falling asleep on her own for both naps and bedtime.  This has thankfully translated into some increased self soothing skills at night.  Several nights this past week I only nursed her once during the night.  She is often still waking up a few other times in the night and needs me to talk to her on the monitor, but at least I don't have to get up every time and for the first time in the long time I am hopeful for the future.

More than anything what defines Elsie is a happy, sweet, and easy going disposition.  She is such a joy to have in our family and we can't wait to celebrate her big first birthday, now just around the corner.

B-baller

Have I written at all about basketball this season?  Merrick spends the year rolling from sport to sport so sometimes they blend together and it is difficult to keep track of what I have talked about.  In case I have neglected to mention it, Merrick is playing basketball right now.  The season started in early December, but with a few week break for Christmas/New Year's, it feels like it is just really getting going.

Can I just say that basketball is my favorite sport that we play?  What's not to love, it is inside (out of the rain and cold and yuck) and it is a fast paced, intense game to watch.  This season has been particularly fun to watch.  The boys on Merrick's team have really improved over the course of the season.  Merrick is no exception to this.  While he has always had the advantage of height, he has really come into his own and developed his skill.  This past game he had several key blocks, countless rebounds, and about 6 points.

I have not been good about taking pictures because I am usually too engrossed in the action (I am telling you, the games are intense for 3rd grade basketball).  Consequently, my only pictures from the season came from tip off at the first game.  They chose Merrick to do the tip (for obvious reasons).  It seriously cracks me up because he got the tip with his feet flat on the ground and his knees bent, while the other kid is in the air.  It is good to be tall, especially in basketball.  I am trying to enjoy the season while it lasts because up next is baseball (and softball for Carrigan) undoubtedly in the rain. Oh joy...

New Year, New You

2019 is in full swing and we are all back to normal life.  Since it is the new year, I have been thinking a lot about goal setting.  We have set some goals for our family and each member of our family has set personal goals.  Some of our goals are big and life changing and other are small, but I think that the whole point is just to move forward and become a better version of yourself. 

About 8 years ago I was having a small meltdown as we prepared to make a life changing move to Oregon so Jeremy could start law school.  I was worried about essentially starting over at that point in life and worried about the fact that Jeremy would be 30 before he graduated.   I was talking with a woman at church and expressing my concerns.  She said something that has stuck with me all these years.  She said, "well he is going to be 30 either way so he can be 30 with a law degree or 30 without".  How right she was!  Time marches on whether we learn, grow, and improve ourselves or not.  I for one am really excited to make 2019 the best year ever and make myself the best me so far.

So this particular blog topic doesn't really lend itself to pictures, but I am including some random photos from this week and a family picture from Cali that I never got put on here just for good measure.  Oh and remember all those cards that Merrick got a few weeks back? Yeah, that's Elsie playing with a big stack of them on the trampoline.  The fun never ends!

Family Fun Rolls On

This week was New Years but for the purposes of this blog and future blog books, in many ways 2019 has yet to really start.  We are kind of in this weird place where, while 2019 has technically started, the kids and I have not yet gone back to school or work so we are still in party mode.  Emily and her family are still here until early tomorrow morning and so this week has, once again, been all about spending time with the family. 

On Monday we spent the day with the whole family (minus Tala and Lauren) at Wing and Waves waterpark.  I know I have talked about Wings and Waves, the aviation themed water park, before.  This time Carrigan was willing to try a few of the smaller slides and Elsie and I spent the day laying pretty low.  I did manage to get in three slides with Merrick and I know he and Jeremy did a lot together.  At the end of the day everyone was exhausted and ready to go except Merrick and Colvin who had to be convinced to leave.

After the water park, we spent the evening at my parents, eating pizza, playing games and watching movies.  We ended up calling it "midnight" about and hour and an half early, again to the disappointment of Merrick.  It was a good thing we did though because we had barely made it home when the day's events caught up with Merrick and he ended up throwing up several times.

Like I said, the the rest of the week was a blur of family time.  We hung out, we played games, we ate, we crafted (Carrigan of course) and we shopped.  We may or may not have purchased Emily's wedding dress (eeekkk!!!) and Merrick scored about 10,000 baseball, basketball, and football cards from a thrift store.  Merrick, Kai, and Kalani spent one entire day sorting cards and they are 1/5 of the way done.  Poor Merrick is going to be on his own now to work through the rest.

It has been a great way to wrap up 2018 but I am ready to get on with 2019.  I always get a little nervous at the start of a new year because who knows what the new year will bring, but I am optimistic for 2019.  I have big plans and I'm excited to see them happen.