{tee: Carter’s // shorts: Target // rubber duck (from dentist)}
{week 51} ah, how is it possible that eloise is going to be one next week? it’s been the longest & shortest year of my life!
eloise is so chatty these days, except when a stranger comes up & says “hello” & then expects her to say something. nope, not gonna happen. but most of the rest of the time she is happily babbling to herself or chatting with me or aaron. I thought for sure the other day she was saying her first word “ball” because I was saying “ball, ball, ball” when eloise had a ball in her hand & she would say “ba, ba, ba.” turns out her second favorite sound is “ba” & that is what she calls everything! & for those who are curious, her favorite sound is “ma.” she particularly loves to say it when she is sad – “ma ma ma ma ma” in the saddest little voice ever. eloise does say more sounds than just these two though & is really starting to mimic intonation & can repeat the sound “ba” the same number of times you say another sound. soon enough she will be chattering up a storm!
walking is still a work in progress & she is so close. she can stand for a few seconds unassisted, but immediately squats to the ground when she’s run out of something to hold onto but wants to continue moving. she is usually pretty graceful about dropping down from standing (much more controlled) & isn’t just falling on her bottom like she was in past weeks (that is the good thing about big cloth diapers, right?). her crawling is almost exclusively up on all fours now & boy is she fast. like lightning fast! keeps me on my toes all day.
as I would expect with most kids this age, eloise is much less interested in her toys & much more interested in everything else. specifically she loves the remote controls, cell phones, DVDs, a box of wine (it has a lid that she can open and close) & the kitchen cabinets. I used to be able to set her down during playtime in her little corner of the living room & she would play by herself (or with me) for 20 or 30 minutes. it was a magical time that I had to prep food, check email, etc., but is quickly diminishing. she will still entertain herself for quite a long time, but it usually involves taking the DVDs off of the shelves, pulling everything out of the kitchen cabinet (I have designated one for her that has her stuff in it – bottles, bibs, spoons), & sadie’s dishes (the waterbowl & dog kibbles are the BEST!). as much as it can be a headache to keep her from destroying everything in the house (or at least flinging it all over the place), it has made shopping for her birthday easy & will make toy rotation (& minimization) more of a thing in our household.
eloise’s newest bottom teeth have pretty much made a complete appearance, rounding her total tooth count in at eight. yep, eight! based on her friends, she has the most. she is also really starting to use them when she eats. I have noticed that she uses them to rip food or nibble, though it is amazing what she can gnaw on with her gums!
eloise is growing, though not quite as quickly as she was in early months. she is still comfortably in size 12 months clothes & even 6 to 12 months. in anything new I have been getting her 18 months, though the length is a bit too long. I also just sized her up in her Freshly Picked gold moccasins (from a size 2 to a size 3). the new ones are so shiny! it will be fun with these particular moccs though because she will be walking in them & her feet will leave an imprint in the leather sole. such a good keepsake! I am hoping she can make it in this size until FP’s Black Friday sale… what are the chances?
happy 51 weeks eloise!
M