That’s my girl.

And that was my Facebook announcement on November 13. She’s since progressed to several halting steps in a row, but crawling is still her preferred mode of transport when she really needs to be somewhere. But. She’s getting so good on her feet. She wants to be up and is starting to realize how much she can do when her hands aren’t otherwise occupied in acting as stabilizers.

She’s a semi-walker. Her skills get madder day by day. And she loves it. I’m so very proud of my littlest girl.

I’m thinking her “lazy baby” status is much like Maia’s. She just doesn’t do things until she can do them. She doesn’t spend much time in the pre-stages, I guess is what I’m saying. Friday morning after changing her diaper I was watching her get up on her knees one moment and the next she had taken three little steps forward on hands and knees.

Today, just over a week later, she came scooting out of the playroom (looking for lunch I think) slap-slaping her little hands across the floor with knees not far behind. She can go several feet now and it will only get, um, better? from this point on.

Now I have to hurry up on a better baby-proof of the house. Elsie is a very mouthy child. After her crawl across the living room floor I managed to pull a cat-hair wad (ick) and a rubber door stopper out of her mouth. Sigh. So this is what “normal” babies are like.

While she isn’t trying to move like Stella, Elsie is developing her own very sweet “big girl” talents. Elise sits. And sits very well. I do put a pillow behind her in case she falls, but most times she’ll sit and play until she gets tired, then cry until I lay her down again.

She loves to sit and mouth toys. Then reach for her toes or just watch Maia play. I’ve taken to giving her larger toys that she can manipulate as she sits. She loves this little play set we have and she’s figuring out the sorting boxes and bead puzzle. She sits. And is quite happy.

Today I had her on the kitchen floor just laying there and she was highly entertained by watching me wash dishes and talk to John and just go about our business. She’s a watcher and observer. My favorite thing in the world is when she seeing something that makes her smile, because she still has the full body smile of her tiny infant-hood.

That’s something I hope she never loses.

She woke up from her afternoon nap in a mood to kill. Crying and inconsolable. It wasn’t until I noticed the bit of blood from her gums that I realized what had happened, then it was teething gel, tablets and them the big guns…Motrin. After all that and a quick watch of a baby video (bad mom) all was right.

I know I’m going to be up tonight with additional medicine. I hope she wakes up feeling better…otherwise we might not make it through.

Elise’s current stats:

Height–25 1/8″

Weight–15#8oz

Head Circumference–16 5/8″

She’s about 25th percentile for everything…in other words: perfect. I’m glad to note that Elsie is closing the gap on Stella in weight. At their four month appointment Stella was exactly one pound heavier than Elsie. Now Elsie is 14 oz less. I now they are totally different babies, but I worry about Elsie being too small.

In any case, Dr. Don was very pleased with how both girls are doing. Elsie is warming up to solids. They now get two meals a day and while she won’t open at the mere sight of a puree laden spoon, she does give it a shot and after a few bites she gets into it. With the exception of the puree apples, she hasn’t turned her nose up at anything. She loved the peas we had the other day. The peas caused her to give me the “You’re not shoving food fast enough Mom” grump. That’s one grump I can totally live with.

Elsie is working very hard on tuning her fine motor skills. She’s not so interested in rolling anymore but she has become toy obsessed. She wants to pinch, pull, poke and taste every object that comes her way.  She is loving the small rattles…as long as one part fits into her mouth! Today I found new balls (!) for the girls. They are lightweight plastic and constructed to be open spheres. Very easy to hold for babies. These have little shakers embedded into the design. Elsie was transfixed and that makes me smile. Because I so totally need another excuse to buy baby toys.