7 months!

Here are some pictures from Elise's 7th month of life.  We're so thankful for her: her sweetness, her curiosity, her health, her chubby cuteness, and more.  She adds lots of joy to our lives.  She's moving too much to get the red chair pictures like the ones before, but here they are.  Watch her grow!

She's making big strides this month.  She's using her body a lot more.  Sitting, reaching for things farther away, up on her hands and knees rocking back and forth, scooting backwards, so curious, wanting to get her hands on everything so she can put it in her mouth, eating lots of new foods, but the texture has to be just right or her extra sensitive gag reflex is put into action, using new sounds, and definitely loving attention which we gladly give her.

Enjoying Nashville

Dane had to go back to work this Friday, so we made the most of the past week.  We spent some good time together at home and out and about.  Dane has been wanting to go to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to see their treehouse exhibit.  He wants to build one in the backyard, so hopefully he got some inspiration!

Our favorite: Walden Treehouse

 

My second favorite: Rainbow Fish

The fish scales were made out of old CDs!

 

In the fountain at Public Square Park

Random Picture from our visit to NC.  Elise's Great Great Aunt Christine: 94 years old!

6 Months

Elise is already 1/2 a year old!  Enjoy the pictures.

Note the sequence of events...

Anything within reach ends up in the mouth!

Let's see, new things this month are: standing with support, sitting on her own until she loses her balance, saying "da-da", getting mad when things are taken away from her, rolling over from her belly to her back daily, eating food (she's loving it so far, all two days of it) and I'm sure a lot more things that I'm not thinking of at the moment.  Elise's disposition is as sweet as ever.  We're very proud of her and completely in love with her.  As her personality shows more it makes us think about parenting more.  Thinking about how to love her, teach her and discipline her well as she grows seems overwhelming at times.  The immensity of it draws me to relying on God to give us wisdom and love to do it day by day.  He loves her more than we do and knows better than we do what is best for her.

On the boardwalk

Miriam, Adam, Dane, Elise and I visited my parents in North Carolina last week. Our days were full of cheese-making, food-cooking, goat-milking, bean-picking, river-swimming, board-walking, game-playing, movie-watching, etc.  I commented that if sleeping in is what you want to do for vacation, then the house of my parents is not the place to come!  There, we get up early and go to bed late, except for Dad, who goes to bed early too.

Elise's first time in salty water...her fingers tasted good!

Dad went home early

 We got to visit with James and Stephanie and three of their kids on Saturday.  A covert operation in the form of Miriam receiving a Siamese kitten from James's family was exposed, but within an hour Adam was won over by the kitten's blue eyes.  James's youngest, Emily Grace, is hoping for a baby sister, especially after spending time with Elise!

Time with James and Stephanie's family.  Notice the kitten!

We visited with Grandpa and Grandma Haas on Sunday

 We left on Thursday July 5th (Mom and Dad's anniversary) after spending the 4th with them.  We enjoyed some fireworks from a bluff along the river.  Besides the mosquitoes, it was great.  The highlight may have been Dad's homemade orange sherbet.  Yummy!

Happy 4th!

 We are happy to be home after a good visit.  We came home to a land with no rain for 3 weeks!  We're so thankful for the rain the past two nights.

They adore each other

One of Elise's favorite places to be.  Swinging with Daddy on the porch.

Dane, you're a sweet, gentle, loving and fun Dad

Sadly, we had to put Dane on the bus to Chattanooga this morning.  But we got to do some Father's Day celebrating yesterday.  We already miss you Dane

5 Months

Elise is growing like a weed (a cute weed).  She weighed in at 18 lbs 14 oz this week.  We've been getting several comments lately like "She's a healthy girl!" or "She sure doesn't miss any meals!".  And now that I think about it both of those comments are very true.  This past week she has: 1) Discovered her feet and pulls her little legs up to her chest whenever she wakes up or when she's getting a diaper change so she can grab on to her feet  2) Started to suck on her tongue and lips and make smacking noises, it seems to coincide with when it's time to eat.  We plan on starting to let her try some real food soon 3) Begun swinging her right arm around, especially when she has a toy that makes noise.  We think she's going to be right handed.  She is growing and changing so much all of the time.  We're savoring every minute.

She's starting to kind of sit, although she hasn't yet mastered rolling over

I have to say that Elise is the sweetest little girl around.  She's been in a little bit of weird mood the past couple of days.  I'm not sure why,  but I think it might be because she's changing and growing.  She's grabbing her toes and pushing up (like the pics below) much easier and she's slept through the night (9 hours) the past couple of nights.  Dane finally saw her roll over yesterday.  It was her third time to do it.  Her eating and bowel habits are changing.  I thought she'd never poop, but she did this morning without difficulty, much to my relief.  She just takes everything in and it's times like these that I realize just how much babies and children take in and learn and wish desperately that I spoke another language or played the piano.  I just have to settle for spending time with the neighbors across the street and asking them to speak to Elise in Spanish or having friends and family play music when they come to visit.  But I kind of like how that works out too.