First Birthday

We recently celebrated Elizabeth's first birthday. Grammy and Papaw Cline were here for Thanksgiving and we had a little "party" for Elizabeth. Some how it seems that she knew that she should get excited when opening her gifts!

Elizabeth continues to amaze and entertain us. We just can't get over how smart she is. She pretty much understands everything that you say. Her verbal vocabulary consists of: hi, kitty, Mama, Dada, hello (when she's pretending to answer a phone), tree, and thank you. (I think that's it!)

She plays very well by herself. One of her most recent favorite things to do is to put ornaments on the Christmas tree. We have soft/plush/non-breakable ornaments toward the bottom of the tree. She takes them off and then puts them back on by setting them on a branch and hoping they stick. She also likes to get the real telephone and press the numbers. We're waiting for a phone bill that says that she's called Brazil or something. Elizabeth likes to give the kitty hugs (sometimes the kitty doesn't mind). She also likes to throw objects through the cat door that leads to the basement. Whenever I go to the basement where our washer and dryer are, she will sit and look through the cat door at me...it's so funny!

Our little piggy eats anything (and everything). She seems to have a hollow leg these days. She no longer gets bottles during the day--only one bottle at night. She's not the best sleeper in the world, but she's better than she was at one time.

She goes around saying "hi" over and over when she sees you. She puckers up when she gives kisses now, but she's a little stingy with the kisses at times! If you hand her a tissue and tell her to blow her nose, she puts it up to her nose and makes a blowing noise through her mouth. It's pretty funny!

At this moment, she's got the TV remote and is pressing the buttons and pointing it at the ceiling fan! I'm not sure where she got that idea from, but it didn't work. I just asked her if she was hungry and she went running to her high chair! Got to go!!

Fall Fun

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted anything. I've been quite busy with work and my administration internship. Elizabeth is growing up fast! She makes us laugh all the time with the things she does. We've done many fun things with her this fall. We took her to the county fair where she got to see all the animals and even pet a couple. She just finished swim lessons at the indoor pool. Mommy and Daddy really liked swim lessons because they wore her out and she slept very well those nights! She does not like her face to go underwater and she lets you know that she's angry if you put her under! We hope to go to the pumpkin patch sometime this weekend.

Elizabeth eats just about anything. She walks/runs around everywhere and it seems that she would rather play with anything she's not supposed to play with than her toys! In fact, just now I was uploading some photos from the camera and she pulled the camera off the desk, interrupting the process. She's also chewing some address labels (everybody can use a little extra fiber, I guess).

Elizabeth is going to be a pumpkin for Halloween. We'll probably make our rounds to a few neighbor friends and grandma's house. New pictures are here!

Walking!

We knew she'd be an early walker--Jason walked at 8 1/2 months and she's always been very strong. Yesterday, she took about 4 steps. Today, she took about 7 or 8 steps at a time. Unfortunately, along with this new milestone, she has also learned to climb. She's been climbing up Grandma and Papa's fireplace step. However, she has no concept of the step going down, so we have to be right on top of her all the time.

As always, she's a lot of fun! We'll post pictures when we can!

A Summer of Fun

Although my goal was to update our blog more frequently this summer, it didn't seem to happen! We did have quite a busy summer and it went very fast. Elizabeth and I joined Grandma and Papa Updegrave and Grandmama for a vacation in VA Beach at the end of July. Elizabeth especially loved swimming in the pool at the hotel. She kicks her legs and paddles her arms when you say "kick, kick, kick". She had fun relaxing and getting into everything. Less than a week later, we met up with Grammy and Papaw Cline in Myrtle Beach. Elizabeth's cousins, Olivia and Lauren, were there too. The three of them had a good time together. Olivia and Lauren enjoyed "helping" with Elizabeth, including feeding her, changing her diapers (well they didn't exactly change them, but they watched), and helping her "walk". When cousin Lauren (4 yrs. old) fed her, she tended to shove the spoon all the way back in Elizabeth's throat! She also liked to hold Elizabeth. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is quite squirmy most of the time and "holding" her meant holding her down (as you'll see in some of their pictures).

Elizabeth says "hi", "daddy", "kitty", and we think she actually said "organic" in the grocery store last week! Sometimes she just "talks" and we're not sure if she's preaching or cussing us out (arms and hands go flying and she tends to get a serious look on her face).

She'll be walking soon, but we're not encouraging it too much! More to come....

What were we thinking???

We wanted her to crawl? We encouraged her to crawl? What were we thinking? Imagine this: There's a cute little baby sitting in the middle of the floor, surrounded by lots of cool toys--some that sing, some that light up, some that are made of wood, and all with lots of colors. You would think that this cute little baby would be entertained by all these neat, expensive toys, right? What does she actually want to play with? The gum wrapper that fell out of daddy's pocket.

She's keeping us busy! We had her pictures taken this week at Picture People.
go to http://smilestore.picturepeople.com

enter email address rebeccacline2000@gmail.com

enter password picturepeople

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Enjoy!

Lots of New Tricks!

New tricks in the past couple of weeks include:

* waving bye-bye (grandma-ma taught her)
* clapping (favorite song is “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”
* singing in the car
* kicking while she’s swinging
* eating finger food
* writing her first name (just kidding)
* blowing raspberries with a mouth full of food

We're glad to have daddy back home (he was out of town for work last week). Mommy already knows what she wants for Christmas--a full night's sleep, coupled with sleeping in until about 7:30. Keep an eye out for that in the stores, I hear it can be hard to come by!

A Summer of Firsts

The past few weeks have been full of firsts for Elizabeth. We’ve found that, unlike some babies, she seems to just take in any new experiences and does not let new things scare her. Our neighborhood has a beach and playground close to our house. Elizabeth sat in the sand in her bathing suit for the first time. As she sat in the sand and felt around a little, mommy started “burying” her legs. Several other kids were around and one little girl asked if she could help me. Before we knew it there were 4 or 5 other kids helping to “bury” Elizabeth up to her waist. She ate it up! (Unfortunately, I mean that literally and figuratively—there were several mouthfuls of sand ingested that day.) She also sat in the water and enjoyed it. She enjoys the baby swing at the playground, too.

Friday night, we all went to a minor league baseball game in Waldorf. Elizabeth wasn’t too interested in the baseball game, but had fun listening to Uncle Cody’s iPod and eating a snowcone (we held the syrup—just shaved ice). After the game, there were fireworks. We were curious as to how she’d react to them—she did fine.

Elizabeth has also recently begun to eat Cheerios. Her favorite thing to do with them is to have Mommy throw them at Luther (grandma and grandpa’s dog). She cracks up laughing every time Luther catches a Cheerio in his mouth! She has developed a sudden interest in Luther as she stands at the door of his kennel and talks to him. He’s not sure what to think about her, but he’s just keeping a low profile.

Finally, our little busy-body is crawling—well, kind of. I guess you could call it crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees and ends up moving forward, somehow. I have a feeling that in the next couple of days I’ll be regretting ever trying to get her to crawl.

Wild Woman!

She’s a wild woman! Elizabeth has been so much fun the past couple of months. She’s been on the move—almost crawling. She get’s around, though. She rolls and scootches to get to where she needs to go. She’s also been enjoying getting around in her walker. Mommy introduced Elizabeth to some measuring cups the other day and they seem to be her new favorite toy. Two of her other favorite toys include her Leapster Learning Table that was a hand-me-down from her cousins, Olivia and Lauren. We think she likes it so much because she likes to show off that she can stand by “herself”. She also likes her “Exploration Station” that Olivia and Lauren (and Aunt Danielle and Uncle Curtis) got her for Christmas. She will play for long periods of time by herself. Her babysitter, Maria, says that she plays much better independently than most babies her age.

Mommy is finished with work for the summer. She’s looking forward to spending the summer with Elizabeth. Maria is insisting that Elizabeth come visit her at least once a week during the summer so that Elizabeth doesn’t forget her.

A few weeks ago, Grammy and Papaw came to visit from Ohio. Elizabeth enjoyed being spoiled by them. This past weekend, Becca’s Godmother, Jan, came for a quick visit. It was great to see her and for “Aunt Jan” to meet Elizabeth. Yesterday was Daddy’s first Father’s Day. The neighbors are going to think that mommy is a slave-driver because Daddy was out mowing the lawn in the heat on his first Father’s Day! (He likes his yard to look nice.)

Elizabeth is eating solids three times a day. Yesterday she tried guacamole and refried beans for the first time. Last night, grandma, grandpa, grandma-ma, and Cody came over for dessert. Grandma and Grandma-ma brought some berry cobbler, which Elizabeth tried. It wasn’t until afterward that we realized that the cobbler may not have been a great idea. She was very hyper. . . I didn’t think about all the sugar in the cobbler!

Right now, she’s watching her Daddy wash the deck from the sliding glass doors in the living room. He’s “playing” with her by squirting the hose on the sliding door.

I will try to update the site a little more often, now that I’m off for the summer.

New pictures are here

Another tooth and croup

Elizabeth gave us our first big scare last weekend. Friday, I picked her up from the babysitter at 4:00. Jason and I met for a quick bite to eat, then we went to Target. When we were in Target, Elizabeth coughed a couple of times. It was one of those deep, croupy sounding coughs. We sort of looked at each other and hoped she wasn't getting sick. We got home around 5:45 and her cough seemed to be getting worse and more frequent. We read in our baby books about croup and coughing and considered taking her to the ER. She wasn't too bad. Jason went outside to mow the lawn, but after about 10 minutes, I became even more worried about her breathing which had become loud and noisy. I went outside to get Jason and we decided to go ahead and go to the ER. We were collecting ourselves to leave and she just got worse and worse. We were then starting to rush to the ER.

When we got to the hospital, we checked in and we went to triage within a few minutes (there was a waiting room full of people--Jason was worried we'd have to wait awhile, but I didn't think we would by the way she sounded). When we were called to triage, Elizabeth's breathing was very loud and hoarse sounding. Despite her difficulty breathing, she gave the nurse a huge smile. The nurse said, "You sure are happy for someone who can't breath!" She took us straight back to the ER and a doctor was there soon after. He listed to her and said she had croup. Her trachea (windpipe) and larynx (voice box) were swelling. They gave her a breathing treatment of some type of epinephrine, then a cool-mist humidifier and steroids. After all that and after consulting with a pediatrician, the doctor decided that she needed to stay overnight to be monitored.

It was about 2:45 am by the time I finished answering all the questions and they got her breathing treatment set up in her room. She sounded much better by morning.

It just so happened that she got a tooth that same day. Fortunately, she's fine now. She has a little cough but it's not croupy at all.

Today, Elizabeth has us a little worried with the new sound she is making. It's sort of a bratty, squealing, demanding sound. We're hoping this new sound passes quickly. Jason said, "She sounds like one of those autistic kids." (I'm not exactly sure what an autistic kid sounds like, but maybe you can relate to Jason's description.)

Have a great week...Becca

New pics are here

First Tooth!

Today, Elizabeth's first tooth broke through. We knew it would be coming soon, due to all the fussiness, drooling, and chewing lately. She'll be 5 months old in a few days. . . time flies! I just wanted to share the news...I'll try to post more this weekend. It's bed time!

She just might be a genius!

Well, not really a genius, but we like to think that she's pretty smart! Yesterday, Elizabeth learned how to sit up (not the act of sitting up from the floor, but staying sat up once put in that position). She can stay up for a while, but eventually topples over (a little top heavy, I guess).

If you hold her hands while she's standing, she'll now take steps. She's definitely going to be an early walker! (Good--I'll have a reason to buy shoes soon!) She devoured a jar of applesauce yesterday and she's getting better at keeping it in her mouth. She prefers to eat off of mommy's finger, but we're working on the spoon.

At this moment, she is sleeping in her jumper that hangs from the doorway. I guess getting ready for church wore her out this morning.

Jason and I have really had fun with her this weekend. Her colic seems to be over with and she's been much happier lately. She loves to "talk" and has added squealing and yelling to her repertoire.
I'm posting photos for April here.

Raspberries, Squeals, and Giggles

This weekend, Elizabeth discovered raspberries. She's been blowing bubbles and making new noises ever since. She loves to be standing (she's been able to hold all her weight since about 2 months). I'm sure she's going to be an early walker, like her daddy was. Tonight, I had her standing and she was taking "steps" as I was holding her. Jason can't wait for her to walk, but I tried to tell him that he doesn't know what he's asking for!

I'm posting some new pictures on the slideshow. I'll try to post more this weekend. New photos are here

4 months

It seems as though every day Elizabeth is doing something new. Mommy has enjoyed being off this week for spring break and spending time with her. Daddy was out of town for work and missed her a lot. Elizabeth did talk to him on the phone everyday, but sometimes was more interested in licking and eating the phone than talking to Daddy.

She went for her 4 month check-up this week. She now weighs 13 lbs. 2.5 oz. and is 24 ½ inches long. She’s in the 50^th percentile for weight and head circumference and is a little over the 50^th percentile for length (hmmm….could there possibly be a tall gene in there???).

Elizabeth loves to “pet” the kitty, Maui. Maui loves her attention. Fortunately, Maui grew up with my 10 year old niece, Kaylee, who now lives in Guam. Kay used to carry Maui around by her neck, pull her tail, and lay on her. Maui doesn’t mind when Elizabeth pulls on her fur and ears, pokes her in the eyes, and yells in her face.

We are looking forward to our first Easter with Elizabeth, celebrating the resurrection of Christ!

We missed it!

For days, we've been trying to record Elizabeth rolling over for the first time. I was afraid it would happen at daycare, but it didn't. This morning when Jason went to get her out of her crib, she was on her tummy! Up until now we have swaddled her, but I guess that ended today (since she can't get her arms out to hold her head up). Between not being swaddled and the time change last night, I hope mommy and daddy can get some sleep.

Big Changes!

This past month there have been lots of changes in our family. Jason got a new job as a database administrator at the local Navy base. This has allowed him to spend much more time in the evenings and weekends with his girls!

At 3 1/2 months, Elizabeth has been "talking" constantly, smiling a lot, reaching for objects (including mommy's food on her dinner plate), putting everything in her mouth (usually her hands), drooling, and she's been busy growing! She is almost rolling over from her back to her stomach. She loves to kick her legs in the morning when her daddy is dressing her to give him more of a challenge. Elizabeth has discovered the kitty cats and likes to watch them and try to touch them. She still likes to watch T.V. (yikes!) and some of her favorite shows are Miss Spider's....(I don't know the whole title). She likes to watch movies with Uncle Cody after school such as Nacho Libre and The Matrix. (Don't worry, she won't be watching those movies for long!) Elizabeth adores her daycare provider, Maria and enjoys watching all the action during the day. She's known by the other kids as "Lil bit" and by Maria as "Liz". She usually sleeps well at night (waking up about once), but challenged us last week with the growth spurt she's going through (waking up several times to eat). She's been such a joy to us!

Jason is a good daddy (and husband) as he continues to help around the house and with Elizabeth, and putting up with mommy (God bless him).

I'm going to try to talk Jason into putting some video on this blog, so we'll see!

More photos

Added some more new photos, including some pics from our January Christmas in Ohio with Grammy and Papaw. Click here to go directly to the newest photo album.

New Photos

We've added some new photos to the picasa site, including Christmas pictures and some pictures from Matt, Dawn, and Kaylees's visit. Also added a folder that has some pictures from Grandpa Steve's camera (from newborn to the present). Just click the 'photos' link to the right to go there.

I'll add some more content to this page when I get the chance - it's been pretty busy around here lately, and we had a few days where the computer was down. Hope everyone is well and had a great Christmas and New Years.