She definitely has personality!

They say children belly laugh 400 times a day, but adults only laugh five times a day. Well, God must have provided children to help adults laugh more. Watching Elise's personality emerge makes us laugh over and over. Here are some of the funny things Elise is up to.

One evening she kept putting Wes's stocking hat on, covering her face, and trying to walk. Of course she just kept bumping into things and falling over. But, if you know Elise, you know she is a very tough kid. She doesn't cry unless she is really hurting! Here are a couple of pictures of her with the hat. The first one her face isn't covered, but I just adore the expression on her face - pure glee!

Elise, being a social Erwin kid, is facinated with phones (it isn't limited to phones - she also loves remotes, iPods, etc., but she holds them all up to her ear like a phone). Here is Elise playing with her very own cell phone (no, she doesn't have her own plan - it is just one of our old phones). She is surely saying, "Hhhiiiiii!" She has also picked up that Wes and I always say "talk to you later" at the end of a phone call. Right after we say this, she'll say, "Bye!" How cute?! And smart! Elise loves all of her grandparents very much! She is especially fond of Papa T right now. She will wriggle out of my arms to get into his. It is so fun to watch her ability to love people grow and grow. Here she is reading with her Papa T. The girl loves books, but gets obsessed with one or two and just wants to read them over and over.

Okay, so this next picture has a hysterical, yet kind of sad story. All the books about parenting babies tell you to develop a bedtime routine. Our bedtime routine is nothing special - books and then a bedtime song. I started out singing "Jesus loves me" to Elise every night. After several nights of this, though, Elise started having a negative association with "Jesus loves me" because of course, she is sad to be put to bed. So, now whenever we sing "Jesus loves me," well, we get this reaction (see photo below :)). Needless to say, we have stopped singing "Jesus loves me" before bed.
Okay, the last three pictures are just Elise's sweet little smile.

It turns out January is a boring month....

Well, I've received some slack for no recent posts - I apologize. I just seems like after the excitement of the holidays, the picture-taking went on hiatus. Actually, though, Elise made a big transition from baby to toddler this month. Last week she drank her last bottle. I decided that it was time - she could suck water or juice down in her sippy cup in no time flat. So, one morning the sippy cup was all she was offered. She refused and went down for her nap without any milk. When she woke up, she was ready for her milk and was willing to take it in a cup. After that, it was just all cups for her. I am glad to be done weaning my little girl!

Elise is quite a talker these days. She says all animal sounds, hi, bye, down, help, baby, and others. She is also very good with her signs (she signs about 5 or 10 words) and uses them constantly :).

Here are a few pictures I took of Elise playing.

One of Elise's favorite books is an Eric Carle book that has motions about what animals do. Here Elise is bending her neck like a giraffe. Playing with Abby.

Going in for the kiss Getting the kiss! (Yuck!) Sam is waiting her turn :).
Elise has a new face, which we have named "Cross-face."

Wish I could take a better picture....

I didn't get any good pictures of Elise in her Christmas dress, so Wes and I got her dressed up for a second take. Still, I didn't end up with any great shots, but here are a few of the best ones. I sure wish I was a better photographer!
Elise's personality seems to grow every day. This is such a fun age - I love watching her explore new things! The other day, she decided to put her feet into my shoes. There was no prompting - she just did it on her own. Luckily, the camera was in arm's length, so we captured a few pictures of it. Now, the picture in daddy's shoes we posed afterwards, but she could stand in these better (no heels :).Elise loves the phone and pretends any toy that looks remotely like a phone is actually one. She puts it up to her ear and says, "Hi!" Well, for some reason she has been doing this with food. She puts food up to her ear... in her ear, and says, "Hi!" It is absolutely adorable and annoying all at the same time. So, after one of these occasions (pineapple in the ear), we had to give Elise a quick hair washing before we left the house. This is what her hair looked like post wash.