Future Costco worker?

Elle is into pushing things these days. Look at her pushing the cart at Costco in Hawaii Kai. Before we took this video, she was also pulling the boxes of macadamia nuts out of the pallets lol. Daddy Jarbs had to pull her away from the macadamia nuts because she was putting the boxes on the floor. As soon as he set her down, she walked right back to where the macadamia nuts were :-P.

Elle pushing the stroller and Pororo!

I previously mentioned Elle is into pushing things these days. Look at her pushing her stroller while we were waiting for our flight to Honolulu at Seoul airport.

See her backpack? Elle fell in love with the Korean chartoon character Pororo while we were on the flight from Korea to Manila. Elle does not care much for cartoons but when she was fussing on the plane, the flight attendant went to our seats, turned on the video monitor and tuned it in to Pororo. As soon as Elle saw Pororo, she started waving to the video monitor and kept kissing it lol. This was the first time that we saw her ever like a cartoon character. Since she LOVES Pororo, we made a note to get her anything Pororo related when we had the layover in Korea. We got her the backpack along with a Pororo toy mic from the store at the airport. I cringed when I first saw the price ($48 for that tiny little thing!) of the backpack. As soon as Elle saw the bag, she kept waving, hugging and kissing Pororo. I was on the fence paying that much for a tiny little bag but after seeing her reaction, Daddy Jarbs happily paid for the bag for her little princess! :)

My little pumpkin

Since Halloween is just around the corner, I had Elle try on the pumpkin costume that Grandma Jarbs bought for her. It's a family tradition that all the grandchildren have a photo taken wearing a pumpkin costume on their first Halloween. Elle's older cousins Kaitlin, Zach, Ryan, Kelly & Kyle all wore the same pumpkin costume for their first Halloween photo. Well, except cousin Ryan. Grandma Jarbs said they had to get a new one for him coz he was a chunky baby. We couldn't find the same pumpkin costume that the older cousins wore so Grandma Jarbs bought a new one for Elle. Hopefully, she will pass it down to her future sibling :-).

At first, she looked at me as if saying "what's this thing you put on me mommy?" lol



And then she warmed up for the camera :-). She normally does not want anything on her head so I was pleasantly surprised she did not take the hat off.



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 :-).

Big girl car seat!

We finally transitioned Elle to her big girl car seat. She was getting too small for her Chicco infant car seat. The weight limit for the infant car seat is 22 lbs and the height limit is 30 inches. We have not weighed her recently so I do not know for sure what her weight is. When we went to the doctor last month, she already weighed around 19 lbs. Now, just looking at her belly, I bet she's close to 22 lbs lol. As for the height, she was already 28.75 inches during her 9 month appointment so I bet she's at least 30 inches by now. The straps in her infant car seat were already in the highest setting. They were sitting below her shoulders so we knew it was time to move her to the convertible car seat. Last night, Daddy Jarbs finally installed Elle's new Britax Boulevard convertible car seat. It looks big and comfy. I feel even I can fit in there :). Elle is one baby who does not like change so she fussed the first time she sat on the car seat. She was fine afterwards though.

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.



Elle babysitting the baby at day care

I logged on to the day care webcam and I saw Elle walking towards the baby section (for those that are not mobile yet). She walked over to the baby sitting in the swing and started pushing the swing. I couldn't help but laugh!

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

In the mornings, Elle hangs out in our room while Daddy Jarbs and I get ready for work. One of the things that Elle likes to do while she's in our room is check herself out in the mirror. She's such a girl :).

Took these photos this morning. Thanks for the pretty skirt Tita Elie :).



My little Redskinette

Yesterday was football Sunday so Elle was donned in her Redskins cheerleader outfit while Daddy Jarbs was wearing his Redskins jersey. We walked to the neighborhood Farmer's Market and stopped at Boundary Stone, a new neighborhood tavern, to get some lunch. While we were there, several people commented how cute Elle looked in her cheerleader outfit. There was a Redskin & Eagles game that day and the owner of the tavern, who was an Eagles fan, stopped by our table. He told Elle, who was eating a slice of apple,  that she'll look cuter in green and white. What did Elle do? She threw the piece of apple that she was eating towards him!! lol. No kidding! :-P. A little later, a family of three walked in, with the dad wearing an Eagles jersey. The mom walked up to me later and introduced herself. They also live in the neighborhood. The mom asked where Elle got her cute football leggings. She said they did not realize there are other babies in the bar so she and the baby walked home to change the baby to her football outfit. When they came back, the baby was wearing her Eagles cheerleader outfit. Of course, we HAD to take a photo of Elle & baby Lily (her real name is Liliana) together. As you can see in the photo below, Elle was too busy playing with the straw to even look at the camera. Don't they look adorable? Good thing we left the bar before the game started and did not have to watch the Skins get crushed by the Eagles :-).



Elle's "new" walker

I've been meaning to get Elle a toy walker to help her practice her new found skill, which is walking. Now, I don't need to get her one. My friend Barbs offered to have us borrow her daughter Lara's toy walker. Lara is now an expert in walking so she does not pay much attention to the toy walker anymore. Glad we do not have to buy a toy walker anymore and it saved us some $. Elle will probably only use this for a few weeks before she's full on walking. Thanks Barbs & Lara! Elle promises to take good care of it :).

Elle loved the toy walker! Since I brought it home, she's been playing with it and walking back and forth the living room and kitchen. It's funny how she easily figured out how to maneuver it especially when she's stuck in a corner. It's also kinda cute having this little person (well, aside from me) walk around the house on her own.

More videos of Elle taking steps

Here's a couple of videos that Daddy Jarbs took last Monday. It was Columbus day holiday and his office was closed for the day (ours wasn't!) . Elle's school was also closed so Elle and Daddy Jarbs got to hung out at home all day.

Daddy Jarbs took these videos of Elle standing on her own and taking steps. If you noticed, we have moved the baby gate/play yard in front of the tv. The tv stand and the glass stands are now enclosed so Elle can't reach into it. Now, Elle has more liberty to crawl around the house and she loves it :-).

Here's another one of Elle taking steps. You'll see her trying to walk away from Daddy Jarbs and then laid down on the rug to take a nap lol. All the standing and walking tired her out!! lol

Elle goes to a birthday party at My Gym!

Elle got invited to a birthday party at My Gym last Saturday. It was Julia's 4th birthday party. Elle had a lot of fun crawling and cruising around at My Gym!

Elle loved playing in the school bus :).

She also played in the ball pit but eventually got overwhelmbed

 with all the balls so she wanted out! lol

Then we all sat in a circle and played games!



My friend Stacy took this photo of Elle.

Thanks for the cute sweater vest Tita Elie!

Here are my circle of friends' kids with one coming soon!
L to R: Bella, birthday girl Julia, Hayden, Elle, Lara, Hayleigh and soon-to-be born Caleb!

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.

Stacking cups! (video)

Recently, Elle has been playing more with her stacking cups. She loves unstacking them! Daddy Jarbs also taught her to put her musical eggs inside the cups. She's such a fast learner!



Videos!

As promised, here are the videos from the other night when Elle took her first couple of steps! She is not officially "walking" but in a few days she may!

So the night started with Elle pulling up to standing and letting go of whatever she is holding into. Here's one of the few video clips of her standing and balancing.

Sorry for the very poor video quality. For a change, we used our Canon handycam vs our trusted cellphones. We barely use this videocam so we may have it on the wrong setting. It is suppose to be an HD videocam but my cellphone takes much better/clearer videos!

She kept doing and doing that until finally she got brave enough to try and make her first step.



As you can see, I was much more excited than she was :-). There is one more video I forgot to upload. I'll add it tonight!

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 is 11 months old today!

Took this photos before Elle left for school this morning. Yes, she is 11 months old today *sniff* :(. 11 month photos to follow!

Here she is wearing her Under Armour shirt for school

 Fall weather is here so she's dressed in layers!

Checking herself out in the mirror

I think she liked what she saw coz she kept kissing herself in the mirror lol



Minor car accident

Yesterday we got into a minor car accident. We were driving home after running errands. We were a couple of blocks away from home when all of a sudden this car came out of nowhere! Daddy Jarbs was driving and saw the car pop out of nowhere. He tried to slow down and hit the brakes but it was a bit too late. It was raining so the roads were a tad slippery too so that did not help. The impact was not very strong but enough to cause damage to our car and the other person's car. Everybody in the car was safe, most especially Elle. I was sitting at the back seat with her when it happened. She just looked at me with a concerned look when I said "oh my gosh!". The other car came from the opposite lane and was making a u-turn into our lane. The woman driving the car said she did not see our car. Anyway, we waited for the police to come which took forever. Elle became bored and restless while waiting. In hindsight, I am just thankful that Daddy Jarbs, Elle and myself were fine.

Our car

The woman's car. See the dent on the door?

Escape artist!

Since we put up the baby gates in the living room, Elle has figured out a way to escape! We normally put an ottoman to serves as a "door" but recently, she has figured out how to push the baby gates out so she can cruise or crawl her way out. Before we know it, she's already crawling to the kitchen!



Here she is trying to push her way out to escape. This time, she did not have any luck. As you can see, she gets frustrated when she doesn't get her way.

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!