Elise 9 months & July 4th weekend

19lbs 9 oz (57th percentile)

29 1/4 inches long (91st percentile)

Elise is now 9 months old and really starting to lose her "baby fat." She is very active and constantly on the move. She loves to crawl everywhere and pull up on the couch, tables, her toy buckets, chairs- anything she can get her hands on.

Her favorite toys are her blocks, balls, BOOKS, her phone and anything she can fit in her mouth to chew on. She seems to have lost interest in her "ball toy" but loves taking the balls and throwing them towards the floor to try to bounce them (a game daddy taught her). She likes to let you build up towers with the blocks so that she can knock them down. She loves playing and wrestling with her puppy- who sings songs and says colors and body parts when you press his paws, tummy and ears.

We don't watch much tv, but when we do- her favorite show is still Mickey Mouse Club House!!!!

Elise can say MaMa, DaDa, ADa (which she says when she sees Sieben- so I think it's "dog"), Ball, Hey, Hi, Bye (and waves). She loves to greet people and smiles and waves when we're at the store or restaurant- she loves the attention she gets when people notice her!! When she waves at someone and they don't respond- she starts yelling at them to get their attention (great- huh?!?!) She does "so big," plays "peek-a-boo" and claps when you sing "if you're happy and you know it."

She will try to walk if you hold her hands and has even gotten brave enough to try to take a step on her own. She will cruise down the couch by stepping side to side while holding on. She also moves from one toy bucket to the other, if you put them close enough, without falling down. And she has crawled up stairs- which MUCH supervision!!!!!

She's growing by leaps and bounds and seems to learn very quickly!

For July 4th weekend we went to Milwaukee to visit Grandpa Harry and Grandma Ellie (James' parents). We found a direct flight from Akron Canton to Milwaukee- so we took Elise on her first plane ride. The flight was delayed about 20 minutes, but other than that- Elise did great!!!!We took lots of "crunchies" and drink for the plane ride to help her clear her ears- and it seemed to do the trick. She didn't fuss at all on the plane!!

While in Milwaukee, we took Elise to the zoo. She got to see elephants, giraffes, bears, monkeys, peacocks and many other animals. She seemed more interested in people-watching than anything else. We had a great time!!

On Saturday afternoon Grandma Ellie bought a pool for Elise (and Lacey) to play in. Elise LOVES the water- so she was very excited to get wet- and it was nice to cool down because we were enduring some HOT weather!!!!!

Grandma Ellie found some ducks for Elise to play with in the water- which she of course had to have one in each hand while playing (and trying to stand up) in the pool.

We celebrated the 4th of July by watching, and eventually joining in on, the neighborhood parade. The parade is led by 2 police cars and a small marching band. Then, as the parade goes through the neighborhood, everyone joins behind and walks to the nearby park.

At the park you enjoy ice cream and the kids play games!! It was a lot of fun to watch the neighborhood kids decorate their bikes and skateboards and join in the parade!!

Elise entered her first foot race and, with daddy's help, won a blue balloon!!

We had a fabulous weekend and are looking forward to spending time with Grandpa Harry, Grandma Ellie and the entire Moseley family in August when we travel to Maine for the Family Reunion!!!!!

James' First Father's Day

Even though this post is a couple weeks late, I wanted to be sure to write about James' First Father's Day (or Father's Day Weekend)!!!!!


I let him know that we would do ANYTHING that he wanted- so of course the weekend was packed full of fun activites!!



On Saturday morning, Elise woke up at 8:00 and after we ate breakfast we went to Price Park. We walked around the path twice (about 2 miles) and then headed for the swings!


James pushed Elise on the swings. She's always seemed a little afraid in the past, but I guess she's gotten over her fears because she LOVED it!!!!! She laughed and squealed as daddy pushed her higher and higher. She even seemed to be pumping her legs to go even higher. I loved watching the two of them have so much fun.


Saturday afternoon we headed out to find a swimming pool for the back yard. Ever since Elise's swimming class- James has been wanting to get Elise in a pool to play. He's been dying to put a pool in the back yard- but for now we'll settle for a small plastic pool to play in.



They had a blast playing and splashing. Elise, of course, just wanted to find a way to stand up. She did do a few nose dives into the "deep end"- but I was happy to see that she didn't seem to mind her face getting wet and quickly recovered and wanted to play again. I'm soooo glad that we took her to swimming class so that she's comfortable in the water.



We had my mom and dad over for dinner- made steak kabobs and baked potatoes on the grill. It was a great day!!!!


On Sunday we headed out early to Metzger Park. We hadn't taken Elise for a ride in her Chariot behind the bikes and thought that it was a gorgeous day to give it a try. Elise did great and James and I had a BLAST!!!!!!!


The Chariot is just the right size for Elise and all her stuff- snacks, drink, toys, books... so she seemed to have a good time and we were able to get some good exercise (biked 5 1/2 miles).


Sunday evening we headed over to Grandma Leslie (Lisa's grandma) pool for more swimming. We put Elise into a raft and she kicked her way around the entire pool. She never stopped moving!!!!! She had a wonderful time and it was a great ending to a fantastic weekend!!

Elise and I made James a plate for Father's Day. We went to Glazed and Amused and they helped me make a butterfly out of her feet prints. She liked having her feet in the paint, but didn't like having her feet held on the plate to make the print. It was a bit of a challenge- but turned out pretty nice for a First Father's Day!!!!!!

Happy Father's Day to James- the most incredible man I know! Thank you for being such a wonderful father and example to Elise. Thank you for loving us both!!!!