Elle's expanding vocabulary

Elle's very first word was "dada" followed by "mum" back when she was around 11 months old. When she turned 12 months old, she started saying "up" (ahh), "down" (daaaa) while raising her hands up and down. Now at 14 months, her vocabulary is ever expanding :). It's amazing to see her learn new things everyday. Her brain is like a sponge right now and she learns things very quickly. Just this past weekend, she has started recognizing the photos and say the words for "apple" (ahhh-pel), "ball", "socks" (ssssshucks), "shoes" (soooos), "dog", "cat" and "outside" (aaaw saaah). 

This was taken Saturday, the first time we taught her "apple" and "ball" and "outside".

This was taken the next day, Sunday and now she can recognize the photos herself.

Taken Monday. New word for the day: bubbles!

We officially have a walker!

A couple of weeks ago, Elle was just making a couple of steps but two weeks later, she's become a pro in walking! Her teachers at day care told me that Elle's been busy walking around the place all day. Now, she's been taking more than 8 steps which was the most steps she has taken a week ago. I do not even count how many steps she can take since she can pretty much walk across the room now. That said, if she wants to go somewhere faster, she goes back to good 'ol crawling :-).

Elle takes more steps!

Since Elle started "walking" a couple of weeks ago, she has not taken more than 3 steps. The other day, her teacher at day care told me that Elle tried to walk and took more than 3 steps! Too bad we did not see it though. However, last night as I was playing with her, she took not only three, not only four but EIGHT steps towards me :). Daddy Jarbs wasn't home yet so he wasn't able to see Elle walk but when he got home, Elle showed off her new skill ;-).

Here she is at day care today practicing walking with the help of the toy walker.



11 month photos!

Finally, here are her 11 month photos!

It's getting harder and harder to have her look at the camera!

Of course, her monthly shoot won't be complete without her cupcake photo!

Fun facts @ 11 months:

* Elle now has 8 teeth! 4 at the top and 4 at the bottom.

* She now wears clothes for 12-18 months although some of her 9 month shirts still fit. Since she has long legs, she wears pants and footed pajamas for 18 months now.

* Still sleeps from 8 pm to 630 pm -700 am. Sometimes, she sleeps in on weekends and wakes up around 8:00 am or so. She has longer awake times now.  We think she's slowly transitioning to having only one nap a day.

*When she wakes up in the morning, she will quietly sit and wait for Daddy Jarbs to wake up and come inside her room.  A few times  we've heard her call "dadadada". Daddy Jarbs usually gives her first milk bottle in the morning so it's kinda funny that she knows to call for him instead of mommy.

* Attached to Mommy Jarbs. I am not sure if this is just a phase but she wants her mommy pretty much all the time, even if Daddy Jarbs is holding her! She cries when I leave her in the living room to play and calls "mum mum mum". On rare occasions that she wakes up at night, we can hear her say "mum mum mum". Of course, I couldn't help but come to her room.

* She is attached to her stuffed bunny who she sleeps with every night. She nibbles on the bunny's ears and hugs the bunny all night. I must admit, the bunny kinda stinks since she puts in her mouth lol. We do wash it but after a couple of days it stinks again lol.

* Climbs on the couch. Initially, she needs the help of a pillow to help prop her up but now, she can climb up on her own.

* Shows all her tricks (touching her "ulo"/head, touching her "ilong"/nose, clapping her hands and turning her head on one side) when she knows she's in trouble.

* Has figured her way out to escape from the baby gate in the living room.

* Shakes her head when she's done eating, done drinking her milk or when she does not want to eat. She pushes the food away too.

* Elle can stack and unstack her stacking cups and put her musical egg into the cup when you ask her to. 

* She likes picking up and flipping through her books.

* When we are busy doing something, she grabs our attention by putting her face right in front of our face and plants a kiss on our cheeks. Yeah, she's an attention hogger :).

* Can walk when you hold her in one hand. Sometimes she steps sideways (instead of going forward) and it's pretty funny.

* Her teacher at day care said she's very independent. She does not want to be held, rocked to sleep and be fed. She likes doing things on her own.

* When you say "bye", she puts her palm against her mouth and gives a flying kiss. 

* Is into throwing things! When she's on her high chair, crib or changing table, she throws all the stuff she can get a hold of and watch it fall down.

* Changing her diapers is getting to be quite a challenge. She wriggles free and want to sit up. I have to come up with different things to distract her.

* Can stand for more than a couple of seconds without holding unto anything. She has also taken a couple of steps and is on her way to full on walking!

* Can go up the stairs (with us right behind her)

* She still loves to feed herself. We have given her different kinds of food. Recently, she has tried tuna and a couple of scoops of ice cream.

* Her teachers at day care have commented a couple of times that she is very smart.

* Elle loves playing in the outdoor playground at day care. Her teacher told me that her and her bff Lucy cry when they take them back into the baby room.

Elle took her first step!

For the last couple of days, Elle has been experimenting balancing herself while standing and not holding on to anything. She would stay balanced for a couple of seconds and then fall. Finally, last night she took her first step! I am glad Daddy Jarbs and I were both home and were able to witness this milestone! At first, Elle would just let go of whatever she was holding unto and stay balanced for a few seconds. She kept practicing and practicing and each time, she would stand still a bit longer. She would flap her arms like a bird as if it would help her to stay up lol. Finally, after some practice she had the courage to take one step! She tried it again and would fall, tried it again and would fall. She never got tired of practicing though.  The falling part did not even phase her! She would actually giggle whenever she would fall, stand back up and try it again. And then the next time she tried it, she took 2 steps and fell :-).I was SO excited to see her take her first step. I never felt so proud! It was bittersweet though. My baby is not a baby anymore :(. She'll definitely be a pro at walking by the time she official turns one year old. This also means she'll be walking around when we go on vacation to Hawaii and Manila. Oh boy...wish us luck! lol.

I will try to upload the videos tonight!

Elle climbs on the couch!

Now that Elle is very mobile, she is all over the place! She has mastered crawling and cruising around. Now, she's into climbing! She has figured out how to climb up the couch! At first she needed the help of the throw pillow to serve as a stepper but now, she can climb up on her own. Here's a video I took of her climbing up the couch. She gets frustrated at first but I just let her be. I want to teach her to trust in her own abilities and if she perseveres, she can achieve her goal :). I do admire her determination though!

Elle climbs up the stairs!

Elle now knows how to climb up the stairs. I showed her a couple of times how to do it and during the 3rd time, she got it :). I figured, she'll eventually explore going up the stairs so we might as well teach her the right way to do it. She's been climbing up the stairs for a couple of weeks now. She'd get lazy though and stop midway so I can carry her lol. I have yet to teach her how to go down the stairs. That's next in the lesson plan :-).

This is a not-so-good video of her climbing up. I couldn't take a good video since I was right behind her making sure she doesn't fall down. You get the idea though :).

Elle loves clapping her hands

Elle has learned how to clap her hands a few months ago but recently, whenever we say "Yay", she starts clapping her hands. So last weekend, we were at Great Beginnings to buy her convertible car seat (yes, she is about to outgrow her infant car seat). I was talking to the sales guy and having him price match the exact same car seat that I found cheaper online. The sales guy said it shouldn't be a problem and that they would be able to price match. I was so happy to get a discount so I said "Yay". Well, Elle, who was in the stroller, heard me say "yay" so she started clapping her hands lol :-P. I did not see her do it but Daddy Jarbs and the other sales guy saw it and it cracked them up.

Elle's new trick!

A few weeks ago, I taught Elle where her "ulo" (head in English) is. This time, I taught her where her ilong (eeeh-lawng) is. Ilong is nose in Filipino. I had to show her first where my ilong is and let it touch it over and over again. It cracked her up. I repeated it to her several times and now she knows where it is! :). It's funny how she'll show us her tricks one after the other. Sometimes out of the blue she'll touch her head, which prompts us to say "ulo" and then she'll touch her nose and we'll say "ilong". Umm yes, she has trained us well! lol. I'd have to catch it on video one of these days :-).

Did Elle just say "water"?

This morning, after Daddy Jarbs gave Elle her first bottle for the day, he asked if she wanted to have a sip of water (her straw cup was sitting on the side table). She took a sip of the water and then said "wowwa" . We think she just tried to say water!! lol.

Elle is 10 months old!

Seriously, time is really flying by fast :-(. At 10 months, Elle is a TON of fun and shows a lot of personality. It's amazing and fun to watch her grow and learn new things everyday.

Fun facts at 10 months:

* Elle is VERY mobile now. She would not sit still anymore. She's either crawling, pulling up and cruising around the living room.

* Elle responds to simple verbal requests. She points to her head when we ask where her "ulo" (head in Tagalog), kisses her stuffed animals when we ask her to or looks for her baby doll when we ask where it is.

* Continuously sleeps from 8:00 pm - 6:30/7:00 am. When she wakes up in the morning, she would sit up and wait for Daddy Jarbs to come in. At day care, she naps 2 times/day which goes anywhere from 45 mins to 1 hr at a time. At home, she naps 2 times/day which goes anywhere from 1.5-3 hrs at a time.

* Elle LOVES to eat. She eats breakfast, lunch and dinner and drinks about 30 ozs of milk each day. She has been eating table food since the pediatrician gave us the green light during her 9-month appointment. We can now order food for her when we go out to restaurants! She has had pasta, pizza, egg yolk, toast with cheese and egg yolk, mac & cheese, cut up fruits and veggies. She has good eye-hand coordination and likes to feed herself. Sometimes, she would grab food that is already inside her mouth so she can feed it back to herself! lol. She gets really cranky when hungry but completely changes her mood once she's had a bite of food. I admit, she got that from me :-).

* Elle loves to drink water! We do not want her getting used to drinking sugary juices so for now, we'll stick to water.

* She generally wears size 9-12 month clothes. Since she has long legs, she wears a few 18- month pajama footers.  She still has a few some 6-month shirts/dresses that fit though.

* Her favorite toys these days are her musical table (she loves pulling up on it and dances to the music), stacking blocks (she'll knock it down over and over again), sock puppet, stuffed animals (she loves all of them!), and the Comcast remote control! lol. She is obsessed with remote controls so instead of buying her a toy remote, we gave her our extra Comcast remote control to play with :-). Of course, we took out the batteries. It's funny to see her press the buttons while looking at the tv. As if she knows what she is doing! lol.

* Elle likes her lift-the flap books! She enjoys lifting the flaps :-). I recently got her a handful of flap books - thanks to Borders' closing out sale!! Her favorite flap book is called Baby Talk. There is one particular baby in the book which she kisses all the time lol.

* She has mastered pulling up and sitting down from a standing position.

* Recently, she likes to spin around the floor while sitting down

* Makes the "indian" sound by putting her back of her palm in and out of her mouth

* Still loves to give kisses!! I love when she would just plant a kiss on our cheek out of the blue :-).

* Elle moves to the big kids section at day care starting next week :(.

* She has a bff at day care named Lucy. Lucy and her are almost the same age. Elle's teacher told me that both of them like playing together. Elle grabs Lucy's toys though lol (We gotta teach her how to share lol). Last week, Elle did not go to day care for a couple of days and her teacher said Lucy was sad :(. Lucy also moves to the big kids section next week along with Elle.

* Has 5 teeth so far (central incisors on top and bottom and one of her top lateral incisors). She's been teething forever and still pretty much puts everything in her mouth! I think her other lateral incisors will come out soon.

* She still exhibits stranger anxiety from time to time.

* Her teacher told me Elle has really good balance. At day care, she would always practice standing up and cruise around. She is starting to experiment with letting her hands go and stand up on her own for a few seconds. Daddy Jarbs is guessing she'll be walking by the end of September.

* Elle loves the babies (those younger than her) at day care. She would crawl to them and start caressing their heads. Awww. Her teacher thinks Elle has seen the teachers do that to the babies. Sometimes, she would playfully hit their head (lol) but good thing the teachers are there to make sure no babies are being harmed lol.

* Now, she can now say "mum-mum" especially when she wants Mommy Jarbs. She also says "deh" when referring to Daddy Jarbs.

* Loves looking at herself in the mirror so I got her this baby-safe activity mirror. She picks it up, looks at it and gives herself a kiss lol.

* Elle has a good throwing hand. We would play catch the ball with her. She would throw the ball (we use her fabric or oball rattle) with force. When we throw it back, she'll crawl to it and throw it back. Grandma Jarbs has observed that she throws better with her right hand so maybe she will be a rightie?

* She gets really angry when she reaches her arms out and we don't pick her up :-P.

* Very observant and nosy at times :-). She likes to eavesdrop on other people's conversation when we are out in restaurants. Good thing she is cute and can get away with it.

Fast crawler! (video)

It's amazing to see how fast Elle can crawl now. She has mastered pulling up and sitting back down. I wonder what new "trick" she will learn in the next few weeks.

Elle drinks from a straw cup!

Last Saturday I was at Target and decided to grab a couple of straw cups for Elle. She has gotten really good in drinking from her big girl sippy cups so I thought eventually, I want to teach her how to drink from a cup using straws. Last night, I decided to have her try out her new cup and see how she will take it. I assumed it will take her a few days or weeks to figure out how to use it. Daddy Jarbs thought we should wait until she can talk so we can instruct her what she needs to do to suck the water up through the straw. Of course, I did not listen to Daddy Jarbs and had her try out the cup anyway :-P. I wanted to see what her reaction will be and what she will do with it. The first time I put the straw in her mouth, she just bit it like a teether :=P. I showed her how to suck the straw but of course did not expect her to understand what I was trying to tell her. Well, lo and behold, after a few tries and biting in the straw, she figured out how to suck the water up the straw! Yay! Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised she learned that quick!!! I got so excited and happily shrieked to Daddy Jarbs "oh my gosh, she sucked the water!!" :-P. Everyday, Elle continues to amaze us with all the new things she learns and how fast she learns them :). My next goal is to get her out of the bottle just after her 1st birthday :-). We still have a few months go so I'll worry about that later. For now, I'll let her enjoy her new straw cups :-).

We have a crawler!

Finally! We thought this day would never come :-). For the longest time, Elle showed no interest in wanting to crawl so we thought she'd skip that and go straight to walking. For the last couple of weeks she's been crawling/scooting backwards and even able to sit up, lay back down and vice versa. She has tried to get on all fours but her right leg always gets stuck underneath. I knew it will just be a matter of days before she would be able to figure out how to really crawl and move forward. Well, she surprised Mommy Jarbs yesterday and showed off her new skill :-).

Time to install the baby gates on top and bottom of the stairs, buy an enclosed entertainment center, remove all breakables in the living room, install security locks on all kitchen and bathroom cabinets, etc, etc...Let the fun begin! :-)

Elle is 9 months old!

 Fun facts @ 9 months:

* Elle now weighs 18 lbs 8 ozs (50th percentile)! She's been called "chunky" by a few people. What can we say, she has inherited Daddy & Mommy Jarbs' love for food. She is also 28.75 inches tall (90th percentile).

* Elle can pull up to standing position

* Can play while standing up and holding on to something

* Can sit up or lay down intentionally
* Claps hands when she is excited and when she hears her favorite music

* Gives us "five" when we say "hi-five"

* Waves her hands when we say bye bye

* Raises her hands/arms when she's dancing

* Completely weaned off of the pacifier! Yay!

* Sleeps from 8 pm to 6:30 am. She used to wake up at 7 am but has moved her wake up time to 6:30 am. She would quietly play in the crib though and then start fussing when she is ready to be picked up. During the past couple of days, we found her sitting quietly in her crib while waiting for Daddy Jarbs to come get her.

* Still loves to give kisses both on command and voluntarily. She LOVES making out with her stuffed animals. She's such a sweet girl :-)

* Loves music. She has great memory and recognizes all her Filipino kids songs. Her eyes light up and get excited whenever we play her favorite songs. Elle's teacher at day care told me that she starts clapping her hands once they start music time :-).

* She hates the sports radio channel. She would complain whenever Daddy Jarbs listens to the sports radio station but would start smiling when he starts playing the cd of Filipino kids songs :-).

* Her favorite toys are her piggie lovey (which she plays while on the changing table), mini Elmo doll, board books (she loves eating them!), stacking cups, musical table, squirt/bath toys, baby doll, all her stuffed animals and the all time favorite, Sophie! She also LOVES to play with our remote control and would fight to get it lol.

* Grabs everything she can put her hands on. She either puts them straight in her mouth ot throws them away!

* Gets excited when we put her in the car seat or sees us grab the BOB stroller. She knows we're going somewhere outside the house.

* She finally cut her two top teeth! Her gums were swollen for a week now. It did not really seem to bother her as much as I thought it would. I'd like to think that the amber teething necklace I have her wear is helping alleviate the teething pain. Now, she would grind her top and bottom teeth together which sounds awful.

* Blabbers a lot..says dada, daddy, tata, baba, papa...but not mama :(. I know she is saving the best for last! :-)

* Her hair has grown a tad thicker so we can now put hair clips/barrettes. She loves to grab and eat them though :-/.

* Can play independently but wants Daddy & Mommy Jarbs to be close by. Sometimes she even plays using one hand while resting the other hand on our lap to make sure we're not going anywhere.

* Recognizes her name. She turns her head when you call her name.

* Gets so excited and starts giggling when we put her down on her crib for a nap/bedtime

* She can crawl backwards. I am expecting her to start crawling forward any day now.

* Can hold her glass milk bottles and feed herself. She also loves drinking water from her big girl sippy cup and hold them on her own. She still needs help in tilting the cups up though.

* Eats solid food 3x a day. She eats pretty much everything that we give her. This month, she has tried watermelon, yogurt, eggplant, butternut squash, broccoli, green beans, tofu. Her least favorite is green beans.

* Mastered her pincer grasp

* Tries to get on all four but one leg still gets stuck :-)

* Wears 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes and a few 12-month pajamas. She now wears size 3 shoes.

Elle pulled up again! (video)

Elle's day care opened a couple of hours late this morning (due to the same a/c issues they had yesterday) so we were able to hang out at home for a little bit before driving to day care/work.

I put Elle in her crib while I walked away a few steps to grab something from her dresser. When I looked back, she was already in a standing position while holding on to the side of the crib! She was smiling and looked so proud of herself. This is the 2nd time she has pulled up inside her crib! Of course, I didn't have my camera phone with me so I ran downstairs to the living room to grab it. I got too excited and forgot to turn my camera phone sideways (sorry, you got to turn your head sideways to watch the video) :-/. Here you can see her trying to figure out how to go back down to sitting position. She tried holding on the crib bumper but it was a bit too far down.

Here I finally realized I had the camera phone the wrong way :-). Elle started getting frustrated and scared that she can't go back down. Bad Mommy Jarbs started to laugh :-P. I thought it was funny.

Calling Daddy Jarbs...time to lower the crib... again!!

Day care is closed today and another video!

This morning we got an email from day care informing us that they are having problems with their cooling system. Originally, they were going to open 2 hours late. Two emails later, we were informed that the day care will be closed for the day because they were not able to solve the problem. Ugh. Good thing Daddy Jarbs was able to stay home with Elle today. Hopefully, the a/c problem will be solved by tomorrow!

This was taken when I woke up this morning. Elle was already awake and playing in her crib. Here she is looking towards the door, waiting for somebody to come get her.

Looks like she's practicing getting on all fours. She may start crawling soon after all :).

I took this video before I left for work. I was getting some clothes from her armoire when she pulled up to standing position! It was the first time she has done that while in the crib. Too bad I did not catch it on video. Of course, when I got my camera phone, she did not want to do it again :-P. Here you can see what she loves doing inside her crib. She pulls the crib bumper, looks through the slats, and bites/licks them! Towards the end of the video, you can see her do her fake cough :-).

Pulling up!

Today, we finally had to adjust Eleiana's crib to the next lower setting. We put Elle down for a nap on her crib this afternoon. She won't stop fussing so we checked on her through the video monitor. Well,  when we looked at the monitor, the little stinker was pulling up halfway on the side of her crib and peeking down the floor! Daddy Jarbs and I both got excited and scared at the same time. We ran up to her room to make sure she doesn't fall off the crib! She has also started biting on the crib railing! She has probably been doing this for quite some time because there were a few teeth marks on the crib railing which we have never noticed before. Daddy Jarbs immediately went to work and adjusted the crib. We put Elle back down to see how she likes. It seems like she enjoys the lower crib setting better! Now she enjoys peeking in between the crib slats. She would put her face in between the slats and smile lol. It was pretty funny. She also keeps pulling on the crib bumper :-/. Daddy Jarbs and I have been in denial that we have to start childproofing our house. Now, we really have to seriously start working on it!

Elle's new facial expression

Elle has started sucking her upper lip a couple of weeks ago. Now, she does it all.the.time. It actually looks pretty cute and funny. I wonder if her gums are itchy or if a new tooth will pop out soon?

Video of Elle "walking"...

Well, with Mommy Jarbs' help :-). This video was taken a week ago. Elle has now learned to take steps when you hold her in a walking position. She's been practicing "walking" since and has gotten better at it. She still does not crawl but we're starting to think that she'll skip that and go straight to walking.