Happy 10 Month Birthday, Elise!!

Can you believe she's 10 months old already?!  Elise is truly an amazing little girl.  Soon, the fact that she was a 2 pound, 11 ounce preemie will be nothing but a memory.  She's progressing wonderfully, gaining weight like a champ and developing right on track!

We go in later this month for her 8-month (adjusted) physical therapy follow up to ensure that there aren't any areas of physical development where she needs extra work.  I'm looking forward to being able to show off all that she can do for the physical therapist.  Every day she gets a little more mobile.  It's so much fun!

Although there isn't technically a 10-month well child check up, Elise saw her pediatrician on Monday for her Synagis shot.  Her pediatrician (who is getting ready to have her first baby in a couple of months!!) was very pleased with how well Elise is doing and was the one who pointed out to me that she's getting very close to not having any signs of having been born prematurely.  When I put her on the scale, I expected to see a little gain but nothing compared to what I saw - Elise is 16 pounds, 9 ounces (with a onesie and diaper)!!  She's over 16 pounds!  In 10 months, she's gained nearly 14 pounds.  A-mazing!

Oops, I almost forgot that I normally do these with little bullet points.  Here's the rest in bullets.  Elise...

• Still wears size 2 diapers but is getting to long for them.  I still have to strap them as tight as they can go, but soon they'll be too short.
  
  
• Still wears predominantly 6-9 month clothes.  But again, she's getting too long for the onesies and her legs are getting too long for some of her pants.  I've taken to buying her cute leggings from Target in 12 months because, although they're a smidge loose in the area meant to hold a big belly, the elastic stays up and then the legs are just a little bit long.
  
  
• Is getting too heavy for her pregnant mommy to carry in her car seat.  We plan to use the infant seat until she's either too tall or until the baby comes, but plans are in the works for an umbrella stroller for those errands where I can't simply put her car seat in the cart at stores or doctors' appointments.  Some places I carry just her into on my hip, but that doesn't always work.
  
  
• Rolls like crazy.  Here she is on two different occasions having rolled over onto her belly in her bouncy seat.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Scoots her self in circles using her arms and tries to pull up on various objects while lying on her stomach.
  
  
• Occasionally gets up in the crawling position for a few seconds while on soft surfaces like rugs, the couch or our bed.
  
  
• Rolls off the rugs we've purchased to give her soft places to learn to crawl because all of the exciting (aka non-baby) stuff she wants to touch is on the hardwoods/vinyl.
  
  
• Has her two cute teeth, as shown on the last post.
  
  
• Loves eating her baby food in the evenings.  Applesauce is her favorite so if she's not into something new, I add a small bit of applesauce to it for a feeding or two until she gets into the flavor of the new food and will eat it on it's own.
  
  
• Has eaten peas, carrots, applesauce, green beans, guava, sweet potatoes, squash, mango and maybe a couple of other things that aren't coming to mind.  And likes everything so far!
  
  
• Makes lots of smacking sounds with her lips and tries to imitate us eating.
  
  
• Thinks her pug is absolutely hilarious and fun!  The other night she was on Kit's lap in a chair and Coco was either on his lap too or on the floor right below them.  Coco would move around and Ellie would just giggle and giggle.
  
  
• Enjoys playing with her toys but has found that her favorite three items are a small spatula that she has claimed as her own, a clean baby spoon and a clean (aka washed in the clothes washer) thick hair tie of mine (the ouchless kind without that little metal piece that she could choke on).  Here she is enjoying a noisy, musical toy her Nana bought her for Christmas.
  
  
  
  
  
• Isn't too sure about people she doesn't know at places like the store and the doctor's office but loves people at church.  Although she still exhibits some fear of men with dark hair and/or dark beards, she generally loves to people watch at church.  And she thinks it's incredibly fun during the service to look around and smile and squeal at people, even those she's never seen before.
  
  
• Enjoys riding in her jogging stroller when we go on walks around the neighborhood.  (And mommy enjoys not having the extra weight of trying to carry her in the front pack on walks.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Is starting to get more hair.  It's about Kit's color and seems to have the coarse texture to it that Kit's does.
  
  
• Still loves bouncing like crazy in her bouncy seat.  It's the only feasible place to bottle feed her most of the time because she moves so much.  To watch video, enter bouncing01022010.  (And don't mind my super congested voice.  Elise and I are on cold number two in the last 3-1/2 weeks.)
  
  
  
  
• Giggles, coos, grunts and screeches. "Dada" and "ha"/"hi" are still her only consistent words.  And she uses "dada" as a name for her dad in addition to a word for many other things.
  
  
• Tells herself jokes or something because she randomly cracks herself up when nothing else is happening.