Elise's First Word!

I'm fully convinced now that Elise has said her first word. She says it in context, unlike "dada," which she babbles all the time and doesn't seem to associate specifically with Husband.

Elise says "Hi!"

She uses it as a greeting. She sees a cat or a baby or Husband coming home for lunch and she says, "Hi!" She often waves when she says it. She rarely says "hi" at random times.

I think that "hi" is a good place to start. Friendly. She'll be able to form alliances. Perhaps she'll turn out to be a diplomat.

Dear Formula Makers

One of the things I hate about formula is that it so often leaves stains on fabric when babies spit it up. Elise spit up all the time when she was smaller. She spit up like crazy! But her clothes aren't stained from breast milk. What ingredient in formula leaves stains, I wonder?

With all of the advances they keep making in baby formula science, you'd think the companies would have developed a stain-free, pleasant smelling product by now. Good Start brand formula is the stinkiest. It smells awful. Ethan used Good Start, both the regular and soy formulas mixed together. The regular smelled like crayons and the soy smelled like dehydrated potato flakes. Breast milk is sweet. Why doesn't formula smell and taste sweet?

I know that formula now is about 100 times better than what people used to give babies in place of breat milk. They used to feed them sweetened condensed milk and stuff like that. Poor babies.

I bet condensed milk spit up is the worst.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Elise saw her baby boyfriend, all of her grandparents, one of her great uncles, all of her cousins and uncles, and all but one of her aunts. She got LOTS of attention.

Elise actually had three days worth of Thanksgiving. This year we spent Thursday with Husband's dad, Friday with Husband's mom, and Saturday with my parents. It just so happened that it was most convenient for everybody to do it that way. And it was AWESOME for us. No running from house to house, a few hours here, a few hours there. Instead, we got quality time with everybody. And I was sure thankful for THAT. Scheduling our trips can be tricky sometimes, but this weekend was perfect.

We also found out this weekend that one of Husband's cousins is pregnant. Yay! Elise's Great-grandma will now be twice as great!

Maternity Clothes and Cantalope

I'm glad that my sister can use some of my old maternity clothes. Maternity clothes and baby clothes just don't get enough use if only one person wears them.

Also, Elise had her first taste of cantalope yesterday. Since it's a fruit, she liked it. I hate melon. All melon. But Elise thought it was great. I'm proud of myself for not being the kind of parent that limits what my child eats based on my own personal taste preferences. (Personal beliefs, however, are different. No meat for now. Sorry, Elise.)

Stand Up to Be Tall

Elise stood up all by herself on Wednesday, Thursday, and today. I don't mean that she let go of some furniture for a second. I mean that she was in the middle of the floor and without any help or support she raised up and stood there.

She sits with her legs to either side like a squatting position. Then she un-squats and stands up. My girl's got some kinda thighs on her! Strong!

I thought it must be a fluke at first, but Elise keeps doing it. She's got it figured out.

First steps by the New Year. That's my bet.

Baby's First Cheese

Elise had her first cheese yesterday. I read that it's best to give babies a mild cheese at first, so we got American. None of that "cheese food" crap, either-- we got Baby Baby REAL cheese. And she totally liked it.

I realized today that since she's had both bread and cheese, I can make her baby grilled cheese sandwiches. AWESOME!

Four Front Teeth

Welcome, welcome! Toofie # 4 has arrived. Elise now has all four of her front teeth. Her smile looks so different and it's changing every day! Her top teeth have a little gap between them. I assume it will close up when she gets more teeth in. But it's so cute. She's the cutest baby bunny I've ever seen.

Third and Final Day with Farah

At the end of the last day that Farah was with us, we packed up her few belongings and brought her to the adoption agency so that she could meet and go home with her new family. We thought we'd just be dropping her off, but the case manager asked us to meet the adoptive family and answer any questions they might have.

Wow. What a beautiful moment to be a part of.

Farah is the first child for her parents. They looked nice, middle-aged, and well off. They were so happy. The dad didn't know how to burp her-- it was cute to see him bumbling and trying to figure out how to hold her.

Husband and I feel so special to have gotten to see this whole process, from leaving the hospital with the baby, to Farah saying good bye to her birth parents, to meeting Farah's forever family. Not many people aside from the case managers get to see so much of the private adoption process. What an amazing experience.

For all of the crummy parts there are to being foster parents, experiences like the one we had with Farah make it all worth it.

Farah Day Two

Keeping Farah gave us insight into the private adoption process that we didn't have before.

On the second day that we had her, we were to bring Farah to the adoption agency so that her birth mother and father could see her one last time. They would also be signing the papers terminating their parental rights that day. There's a day between leaving the hospital and signing the papers so that the birth parents can be sure about their decision. I like that rule.

We saw Farah's birth parents. We didn't meet them-- they walked right past us on their way in to see the social worker-- but we saw what they looked like. They were both tall. Thin. Young... I'd say college-aged.

Little Farah slept through the whole thing. The only time she'll probably ever meet her birth father, as he didn't see her in the hospital when she was born.

I feel so sad for the birth parents. But at least they were empowered to make the best decision they could for their baby, unlike most of the parents of children in foster care, who have their kids taken away. So it's sad, but not half as sad as it could be.

Little Foster Baby

We recently took a newborn foster baby into our house. The agency here that helps manage kids in the dependency system (foster kids) also does private adoptions. We were asked to be foster parents to a new baby who will be privately adopted. It was just for a few days while all of the paperwork gets straightened out so that the adoption can go through.

This is our 5th foster care placement and our 6th foster child. Here's what happened the first day that the baby was with us.


After lots and lots of phone calls to get everything set up, Husband, Elise, and I met the case manager at the hospital. The same hospital that Elise was born in just 8 months ago. Before the baby could be released, the nurses had to go over basic baby care information with us (don't shake your baby, clean the umbilical cord stump with each diaper change, etc.) but they breezed through it because it was pretty obvious that we'd just heard that same speech not too long ago.

My only questions were about feeding a newborn formula. I've given formula to lots of older babies, but never a newborn so I wasn't sure how much to give.

The baby is very cute. I'll call her "Farah" on this blog. She has a tiny little newborn cry and skinny newborn legs. Elise was a little jealous, I think, and acted kind of needy when Farah was being tended to.

Since I'd already taken care of a newborn baby before, a lot of the nervousness was gone. I feel more confident with Farah than I did with Elise. Plus, I wasn't recovering from childbirth, so it didn't feel like getting up to check the baby was a major effort on my part. About half way through the first day I thought to myself, "I forgot how easy newborn babies are to take care of!"

Then about half way through the first night I thought, "I forgot how hard it is to take care of a newborn baby!"

Climbing and Eating

Today was a day of firsts for Elise. First successful climb. First time feeding herself.

For a week or so now, Elise has made little high-stepping motions with her legs when she's wanted to climb up onto something. For example, she'll pull up from the floor to the edge of the couch. Then she sees a cat on the back of the couch, so she makes some I'm-trying-to-climb-but-have-no-idea-how-to-do-this movements with her feet. Well, today there was a tupperware box on the floor-- the kind you use to store sweaters under your bed or whatever-- and she climbed it and sat ontop. Yay! Baby Baby king of the mountain!

Oh! And today Elise had her first kiwi. Not impressed. She didn't spit it out, but she sure didn't like it. Serious stinkface. We'll try again tomorrow.

This evening I was feeding Elise little pieces of bread, and when my head was turned she reached and grabbed one out of my hand. I watched to see what she'd do and she brought it to her mouth and ate it. Guess I was taking too long. 'Scuze me, missy! Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I guess she needed bread, so she figured out how to get it to her little mouth.

Gettin' Her Nails Did

Elise now sits still and lets me clip her nails. Fingers and toes. All in one go. While she's wide awake. She'll just sit there and watch. It's pretty cool.

Elise Takes a Tumble; Newborn Foster Baby

Elise had her first big fall this evening. Husband even had his hand on her, but she twisted free and fell off the couch. We don't have carpet in the living room. She bonked her head pretty hard.

Husband and I freaked out. In retrospect, she was pretty sleepy before she fell. After she hit her head she was upset for a while, but as she calmed down she started getting drowsy again. Husband and I were like, "Is it safe to let her go to sleep? Oh my god! Don't let her go to sleep! WHY IS SHE GOING TO SLEEP?!?!"

We kept her awake for a little bit. No vomiting. No disoriented looks or unusual amounts of fussiness. She was alert while she was awake. So eventually we let her nap. But we monitored her the whole time.

She's fine. Although I plan to blame any future misbehavior on "that time your Daddy dropped you on your head."

Also today, we got another foster care placement coming up. The case manager who helps keep our foster license current was visiting our house today and she was telling me that they need to find a temporary home for a newborn that's going to be placed with its adoptive family soon. There will be a couple of days between when the baby will be discharged from the hospital and when the adoptive family can take the baby. So I volunteered to let the baby stay with us.

If the birth mother goes through with signing over her parental rights, then we'll pick the baby up from the hospital. Wow. I can't even imagine what that birth mom must be going through tonight.

So, this could be another situation that changes at the last minute. We'll just have to wait and see.

Onions, Super Taster, Aunt Flo

Elise had her first onions tonight! I diced some onions up real small and sauteed them in olive oil this afternoon. I sprinkled some into her green bean, carrot, and rice cereal dinner. She definitely tasted them. Elise made a stink face at first, but then she ate them just fine. No tummy upsets so far, so I think she's tolerating them.

I suspect that Elise may have a heightened sense of taste. Last night, Husband and I followed the instructions for a test to see if we're super tasters, normal tasters, or non-tasters. It basically determines with what intensity you taste certain flavors, as indicated by how many taste receptors you have on your tongue. Well, both Husband and I are super tasters. So I figure Elise must be, too. Cool!

In other me related news, my period started today. Sigh. Welcome back, old friend. Eight months period-free after the baby was born. Party's over.

Baby's First Toothbrush

We bought Elise an infant toothbrush. Have you seen these things? It's a rubbery tube that has soft little rubbery bristles on the end. It came with flouride-free, safe-to-eat toothpaste for babies.

Elise was pretty much like, "Yum! Toothpaste tastes great! But please stop rubbing my gums now."

I'm not sure how much benefit Elise will get from toothbrushing at this point in her life. But I figure it can't hurt. And it will also get her used to adults helping her brush her teeth. Bo was not used to an adult brushing his teeth and so we had a hard time making sure his teeth were clean. A 3 year old just isn't coordinated enough to do a good job of cleaning all the surfaces in his mouth.

Husband has less than perfect teeth and I have bad gums, so Elise definitely needs to take really good care of her mouth.

Pregnancy Top 5

Tonight Husband asked me what I LIKED about being pregnant. He certainly got to hear me complain enough, so I guess he was trying to remember the good stuff.

I told him that I liked the very beginning. I liked when I first found out I was pregnant-- that was exciting (once I got over the initial shock).

I liked the time before I started showing, when I felt like I had a wonderful secret that strangers couldn't know just by looking at me. I felt special.

I liked the time before I started showing when my boobs got really big. That was pretty awesome.

I liked when I first started feeling Elise kick. Eventually it got old. But at first it was cool.

And I liked when my water broke. It was soooo exciting! I wasn't in pain from labor yet and it was just this wonderful feeling of "we get to meet her soon!" It was a very happy time.

Those are the parts I'd want to do over again if I could do JUST those parts.

Baby's First Parsnips

I made Elise some parsnips tonight. Peeled them, sliced them, steamed them, then put them in the blender, just like carrots. She liked them.

I must admit I've never been an eater of parsnips. I'm sure I've had them cooked in dishes, but my family never had roasted parsnips with dinner when I was little or anything. I hated cooked carrots when I was a kid... have I mentioned that? Spinach, brussels sprouts, broccoli-- I'd eat all of that stuff. But cooked carrots grossed me out. I can eat them now if they aren't too soggy. I like a bit of crunch left in them.

Anyway, I read that the ancient Romans thought parsnips to be aphrodisiacs. Hope that worked out for them. Elise seemed uneffected.

A Natural Leader

Today was a good day, hanging out with family. Elise also made lots of new friends this afternoon.

We went to a mall with an indoor kiddie play area. Elise got right to exploring, unconcerned about all of the bigger kids. After a short while, a group of 3 kids took an interest in Elise. They were probably between the ages of 2 1/2 and 5. She let them pet her head and they let her tumble over them.

Elise would crawl across the ground and they would crawl after her, going where she wanted to go. Four little kids crawling across the ground, even though three of them could get up and walk. It was funny to see Elise being the leader of her own little pack of kids.

One of the moms there even picked her up and played with her. Elise is a charmer!

Mommy Fail #1

My first big mommy mistake.

I found a cat toy under my bed earlier and rolled it to the middle of my bedroom floor. A plastic ball with a bell inside. Elise was crawling around on my floor and she discovered the toy. Jingle, jingle. She was shaking it and having fun so I let her play with it.

While she played I set to cleaning out a bag I used to carry to work. Oh, look at this! And I remember this! I was engrossed. Then the jingling stopped.

I peeped around the edge of my bed and saw Elise sitting there WITH THE ENTIRE BALL IN HER MOUTH! She was trying to close her lips around it but it was too big and I could still see the clear blue plastic.

There's no way she could have swallowed it... but I don't think she could have gotten it back out of her mouth without some help. Oh man, I felt bad. Thank god it was something too big to fit down her throat. Something with a bell, so I could tell she was up to no good.

I distinctly recall on more than one occasion when I was little when my mother called to my sister and me from another room, "What are you girls up to? It's too quiet in there!" Well, we weren't swallowing cat toys, but we were probably doing something just as silly. I'm thinking about outfitting Elise with a bell all the time now. I know the cats will appreciate it, too.

No Tomatoes

When we go to the grocery store, I always take Elise through the produce section and let her smell everything that's fragrant. Onions, peaches, ginger... whatever's there. She smells it and often opens her mouth as if she wants to eat it. Today was the first time she seemed to dislike a smell. I held a tomato to her nose (as I've done before) and she turned away. I tried to put it to her nose again, and she turned her head back the other way.

Stinky tomatoes!

Toast and Bruises

Elise had some whole wheat toast today. Loved it. I ripped up little pieces for her to eat. She still doesn't get how to feed herself finger foods. Humorously, today she brought her hand with food in it to her mouth, but simply stuck a finger in and let the food drop on the floor. So close, Baby Baby.

She is collecting bruises like little battle scars now. Her forehead, her knees. Her skin is so pale and that makes them easy to see. She's tough, though.

I am not. She's still bruising me with her mean lobster claw pinches on my neck, arms, and breasts. So I guess we match.

Hello Fearless Drool Spice

Elise has got the hello thing DOWN! She waved hello all day today. This morning I woke up and she was already awake in her pack and play. I said, "Hi, baby!" And she waved at me. My girl is so smart!

Elise is developing all sorts of skills. Today she started letting go of the furniture once she pulled herself up. She stands there for a second and then falls on her butt. She wants to walk so badly!

Another much appreciated new found skill is this: she can suck her drool back into her mouth. Yes! How lucky am I? A baby who doesn't like to drool! She's done it several times. For example, earlier I was holding her over my head when a string of spit started to drip down-- and then all of a sudden SLURP and she'd sucked it back up.

What else is new? Oh! She's had nutmeg now. I put it on her pumpkin yesterday and today. I want her to try spices and lots of different flavors. I think we'll introduce mushrooms and onions as seasonings soon. Oh! And mint. Very exciting!

Baby Cats Commotion

Baby + Cats = Occasional Craziness

I was in the kitchen today with Elise on my hip when I heard a familiar cat noise. Sometimes one of the cats will "catch" something and make this very certain sounding cry to announce his or her joy. Of course, usually they've only found a misplaced hair tie or a rubberband off a stack of mail. But they mew and mew to let the whole house know.

Well, my old lady cat, Beanie, was making the noise in the living room, so I peeked around the corner to see what she'd found. Holy cow! She had a lizard!

Beanie has no teeth. She was trying to bite at the lizard to no avail. In trying to bite it, she would take her paw off for a second and the lizard would scamper for a few steps before she would catch it with her paw again. I don't know if the lizard was hurt or just scared, but it wasn't running very fast.

I needed to save the lizard and to do that I had to set the baby down somewhere. Fast. I started saying in a loud, firm voice (not quite yelling), "NO! NO! Beanie! NO!" This made Elise scared and she started screaming and crying. Which attracted the attention of my meanest cat, Toesie.

So now I had two cats trying to eat the lizard and a baby crying in my ear. The high chair was just out of reach. I fended off the cats from the lizard with my feet while my hands were busy strapping the baby into her high chair and my mouth was yelling at the cats to keep their attention sort of kind of diverted. I'm yelling, the baby's yelling, the cats are mewing.

By the time I got everything under control and bent to scoop the lizard up, it was in total shock and went with me completely willingly. The panic subsided once I tossed the lizard out the front door. The baby calmed down immediately and the cats patiently stared for the next hour at the spot on the floor where they expected the lizard to reappear.

Murders prevented today: 1. You're welcome, lizard.

8 Months Old!

Today is Elise's 8 month birthday. I say it every month, but I can't BELIEVE that so much time has passed already. She's such a cool little person and I feel so lucky to have been able to spend all of this time with her.

Hello Pumpkin

We're working really hard on learning to wave hello. And Elise is doing well-- she's starting to understand. I'd say that as of now she waves about 25% of the time. We give her tons of positive reinforcement. She does best at waving hello when she's looking at herself in the mirror. Elise LOVES Mirror Baby. She even kisses her reflection now.

Today Elise had pumpkin for the first time. I cheated on this one. I bought a can of it. Not the pie mix, just straight pumpkin. No sugar, salt, preservatives or anything. So it could be worse, I just feel a little bad that it's not fresh.

Elise liked it, though. But she likes anything orange, so I was pretty sure she'd eat it. It's going to taste awesome when I mix it with her vanilla yogurt.

Baby Shoes

There are a lot of things that I just didn't "get" until I had Elise. Take baby shoes. I used to think that putting shoes on a baby before it could walk was silly. I put it on par with Halloween costumes for dogs. I would think, "Oh, you just want to dress something up?"

I still think that $80 shoes for a two month old are an insane waste of money. However, now that it's cold I see the value in a pair of baby shoes for my 7 month old. They are an extra layer of warmth. She doesn't lie passively in a blanket in my arms when we go out. Her little feet kick everywhere and I need them covered by more than a pair of socks.

Now I understand baby shoes better. Turns out that they can be about more than just dressing your baby up... Unless you're buying baby Air Jordans, and then you're just being materialistic.

#3

Third tooth! Elise's third tooth has busted through. Top front left. The right one doesn't look like it will be far behind, but it hasn't officially ruptured her gum yet.

I can't wait to see what she looks like with a mouthful of teeth!

Baby Posture

Husband pointed out the other day that Elise has really good posture. It's true! She sits up so straight and tall. I guess it takes time before one starts to slouch.

Click! and Zucchini

A couple of days ago Elise figured out how to make click noises with her tongue. It's pretty cool. If you click at her, she'll do it back. She does it over and over again, so it's not a fluke. If only we spoke Xhosa, she'd be saying her first words now.

As for words, Elise says "da da" all the time. Nonstop! It's a toss up whether "ma ma" or "ba ba" will be next. She'll shout MA! or BA! at random, but she doesn't babble those sounds the way she does dadadadadadadadada.

She hasn't associated her sounds with any particular object yet, so I don't think dada counts as a word. We're trying to help her make the association. She'll shout DA DA! and Husband will jump into her field of vision and say something like, "Here I am!" or, "Here's Dada!" She'll get it eventually.

In food news, we keep giving Elise new foods every three or four days. She had zucchini today for dinner. Liked it just fine. So we mixed in some yellow squash and some rice cereal. Squashy dinner.

It seems like new things are happening all the time with her. Starting at 6 months, babies get very exciting. They go from cute and helpless to becoming these fearless explorers. It's amazing. Like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.

No Twins

The twins won't be coming to stay with us after all.

If there's one thing you should know about working within the foster care system, it's that things can change at the last minute. And they often do. We got a phone call half an hour after they told us the twins would be arriving at our house, letting us know that the plans had changed.

Honestly, one of the hardest things for me to deal with is all of the uncertainty that goes along with the foster care system. Things can change so suddenly and unexpectedly. But then I think of the kids and how they must feel even more unstable because they don't understand what's going on at all.

In this case, the twins are getting to stay in their current foster home, which is probably best for them. So that's good.

I've heard lots of other foster parents talk about situations where they thought kids would be coming to stay at their house and then something happens-- a relative agrees to take the child or whatever. I guess that's a pretty normal scenario. This is the first time it's happened to us, though.

Well, back to our regular routine for now!

Two New Foster Kids Tomorrow, Also Let Me Tell You About the Last Two

The foster care placement office called us today. We agreed to take in three and a half year old twins tomorrow. Girls. This should be interesting.

They have older siblings being put in a separate placement. I think it's really sad that the kids in foster care are not only being separated from their parents, but sometimes families get broken up even further and siblings get separated from each other. We're only liscensed for two kids at a time-- they never even asked us to take the whole family of kids, since we wouldn't be allowed without an update to our license.

Our last foster kids had older siblings, too. "Dolly" was almost 2 years old and "Ethan" was 2 months old when they stayed with us. Having so many babies in our house at one time was rough. It lasted less than 3 weeks, as a relative agreed to take all of the kids. I think it's good that the kids got to live together again.

I'm really glad that we won't be making bottles or changing diapers for these twins. When Ethan and Dolly were here, between them and Elise I felt like I was on a constant feed-diaper-feed-diaper-feed-diaper treadmill, with a few baths and books and changes of clothing thrown in there. Three year olds are more self-sufficient. And you can have real conversations with them. I hope that taking care of the twins feels less monotonous.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes!

Yogurt!

Elise had yogurt for the first time on Monday. Of course she liked it. Of course! I ate yogurt like crazy when I was pregnant. And I still eat a lot of yogurt. She probably thinks breastmilk is SUPPOSED to taste like yogurt.

We gave her vanilla flavored Yo Baby yogurt. She made a little bit of a stinkface at first, but then she ate it right up. She always acts uncertain at first with a new food, but she still hasn't outright rejected anything but green beans.

Elise's breakfasts just got a whole lot more delicious!

Halloween Sales

Now that we're living on a tighter budget because I want to stay home with Elise for as long as possible, I've decided to take advantage of all of the after-the-holiday sales that I can find. If we buy stuff on sale 364 days early, we can save some money in the long run. I love me a good sale, anyhow.

Today I got Elise a Halloween-themed outfit in the size she should be wearing this time next year. Pants and a t-shirt. $1! Beat that! And tonight Husband and I picked out a costume for her to wear next Halloween. She will be a little brown puppy dog. So cute.

I think I was a witch for my first Halloween. I've seen pictures. Maybe the pictures were from my second Halloween, now that I think about it, because I looked maybe 2 years old. I was a witch this year, too. I wasn't going to dress up at all, but then I bought a witch's hat and dressed in all black. Husband came up with a last minute costume and I didn't want to be the only one not dressed up. I have a strong suspicion that I will be a witch again next year, too.

Elise will be 19 months old next Halloween, which is still too young to care what her costume is. Or to even realize that she's wearing a costume. Eventually she'll want to be (fill in the name of the main character of whatever popular new children's movie is out), but for now I get to pick the costumes and I'm sticking to cute and cuddley.

And who knows. Maybe by this time next year I'll have her trained to fetch my slippers.