Quick vid: She's growing soooo fast!

Weekend Fun

Here are just a few pictures from our weekend. On Friday night we went to the county fair and on Saturday, we went out on Lake Monroe.

Elise 's top two teeth are coming in, so she was a little grumpy at the fair. She did see the cows and get to pet a rabbit.
I just thought this was so cute - Elise looking out at the dogs and the dogs looking in at her.

Elise is getting so big - she pulls up on everything. I thought she looked like such a big girl, holding onto the front of the boat. Gotta love those thighs!

And she's off....

There is never a dull moment in babyland. In the last week, Elise has acquired two new skills. First, she has learned to pull up. I went into her crib one day and found her standing! Ahh! I was shocked. This picture is a reenactment - I tried to walk out of the room to get the camera when it actually happened, but Elise wasn't too pleased with that.

The other skill Elise learned is crawling. It is still pretty messy, but it is definitely a crawl. I took this video on the camera, so it doesn't have any sound. You can't tell in the video, but she is trying to get to the dogs. They keep moving to keep her away.

These last two are just pictures I thought were cute. She's such a ham!

4th of July

For the 4th of July, our good friends Michael and Julia Whiting visited with their daughter, Jaylin. Despite Elise have two ear infections and us not knowing, we had a great time. Elise loved having a playmate around and Jaylin was so good with her.

Still no crawling from Elise. She'll do a dive on her tummy crawl to get places. She is also very interested in standing, so she'll get in the downward dog position (if you are familiar with yoga - basically on her hands and feet), but then doesn't know where to go from there.

Here are a few pix from our weekend.Elise and Jaylin hanging out downtown. Wes worries that Elise's head is the same size as Jaylin's. I say babies have to grow into their heads.Jaylin sparkled her first sparklers. She was so cute because at first she was too scared to even hold the unlit sparkler. Trying to reason with a five year old is a little difficult.Jaylin loves her Uncle Wes! I think Wes looks forward to Elise being this age.

Swim Lessons

Elise is in the middle of her swim lessons, which are everyday for two weeks. She is a natural in the water - all the instructors say so. We put her in and she just starts kicking away. In this video, the babies and parents are doing the Hokey Pokey.

Elise has been sick for a couple of weeks. It seemed to be a cold, so I was just letting it go away in its own time. But she just couldn't seem to kick it. So, yesterday I took her to the pediatrician. It turns out she has ear infections in both ears. Poor little girl - she is a trooper, though. She really hasn't been very cranky for having painful ear infections. Hopefully they'll clear up in a couple of days.

Elise's Dedication

This weekend we celebrated Elise's dedication at church. The purpose of this ceremony really is to outwardly express Wes and my commitment to raising Elise in a household committed to our faith in Christ, and for the church to commit to assisting us in this endeavor. Elise was so cute during the ceremony - she is just learning to wave and made sure to do so for the congregation. I hope to put a clip of the dedication up, but that takes editing the video, so don't hold your breath!

Afterwards, we hosted a lunch in Elise's honor - I even pulled out the china for the first time. It was a great afternoon - we were even surprised by two of my college roommates showing up (from out of town!) I have to say, when everyone left, I found myself feeling kind of down. It is so wonderful when our house is full of people that we love and that love Elise. Here are just a few pictures.