Tuesday, August 16, 2016

13 Months

A few days late but here are some highlights of Eloise at 13 months!


  • Still loves to dance and her record player. We listen to Michael Jackson often!
  • Understanding more and more verbal language and communicates her wants to us
  • Can follow simple directions like "go find your shoes", "let's go down/up stairs, " can I have that", etc.
  • Can ignore simple directions like "sit down in your high chair", "don't eat that dirt", "stop spitting out your water/milk" and "leave Walter alone when she is growling at you"
  • Has learned how to shut Walter in her kennel
  • Climbs on everything including trying to climb up her high chair the past few days
  • Loves walking to our neighborhood park and going down the slides by herself
  • Eating raspberries off her fingers
  • Playing outside, even in the heat and humidity
  • Building with her blocks and Legos and not just knocking down what we build
  • Tickling Mama and Daddy
  • Giving kisses
  • Skipping her afternoon nap so we are working on the transition to one nap
  • Her fifth tooth broke through a few days ago with the sixth one not too far off
  • Helping in the kitchen, she loves to stand on the stool and watch what I'm doing in the kitchen and gets frustrated when she can't be in there when I have the oven open or something hot on the stove
  • Reading her books, especially peek a boo books
  • Swimming...we even got to take in the new Goodhue pool before Great-Granny's birthday
  • Saying "no no", "mama", "dada" "da" (dog), "nana" (banana)











Happy Birthday Great-Granny!

Two weekends ago we got to help Great-Granny celebrate her 87th birthday! Eloise enjoyed dancing to the record player and eating everyone's ice cream. We were so happy to be able to celebrate with Granny and wish her a wonderful 87th year!






Miss Madyson didn't want to be in the picture but you can't even tell.

Granny and her greats

Granny opening her present from Eloise....two pictures she colored herself!







Random Pictures from July

Here are some pictures from the end of July.

Organizing the kitchen


First sweet corn


Watching the neighbor's cat enjoy our patio


Climbing the elephant



Wisconsin/Illinois Trip

At the end of July, Matt had a training to be an AP mentor that was being held just outside Chicago. We decided to make it our second family vacation of the summer! Our first night was spent in Madison, WI where we explored the campus of UW Madison a bit and visited their free zoo before heading to Chicago on day two. Our hotel was near O'Hare Airport so we didn't have to drive into the city which was nice! Eloise and I ventured in on the train and had a great afternoon in Millennium Park including Shake Shack for lunch, mmmm! When Matt's training was over we headed back towards home stopping in Freeport, IL to check out the monument commemorating the second Lincoln Douglas debate and staying overnight in Galena IL. This trip added states six and seven to the places Eloise has visited.

Here are some photos of our trip!

visiting Granny before heading to Wisconsin 


Time to swim!



UW Madison campus



When your hotel only has a shower you get a bath in the sink


ah-choo

CHICAGO!




















Learning about the debate