Jensen Mayhem: March 2017

I have slacked on blogging about anything lately...

Being a mom is such a blessing, and I cannot believe how much Elise has changed me for the better in just the 20 months she's been here. Time goes by so incredibly fast, that I find myself forgetting certain things because she changes so quickly!! Despite blogging feeling like too big of a hassle sometimes, I know I will regret not documenting the fun or special little things about Elise that I would like to remember! So I'll just get to it and write whatever comes to mind, I guess!

First of all, this girl is SMART. I know every parent feels this way about their child, but Elise truly blows my mind. I swear she has a photographic memory. She hears or sees something once and she has got it down.

She speaks in full sentences most of the time. She repeats everything she hears, a true parrot. It can be a struggle sometimes considering I want to say S*** way too many times throughout the day! I am still working on filtering...
She communicates so well that I usually know what she is saying and what she needs. It's very nice.

She calls marshmallows "marsh-a-loops", and she calls buffalo "buff-a-loops." (If you are wondering why she even knows the word "buffalo" it's because of the Monte Bean Museum lol. We go quite often because she really loves animals)!
She started saying, "I love you" last week. If we tell her we love her, she will almost always repeat it back to us. Priceless.
If you are out of her sight in another room she will hollar, "mom/dad are you?" and come looking for you.
She calls daddy her "best buddy".

She knows all of her colors, and she knows many shapes: circle, square, triangle, star, heart, and plus sign (thanks to the Fisher Price shape bucket toy)!
She knows all the letters to the alphabet. She actually recognizes each letter. She also knows the "abc's" song. This was surprising to me. It started when she was about 16 months. We bought her magnetic letters to play with on the fridge in hopes that it would give her something to do in the kitchen besides get into every drawer and cupboard that she shouldn't. Well, as we would play with them, I started to tell her the letter's name and then something that it started with that she could recognize. Like, "A is for apple, B is for ball, C is for Chey-Chey, D is for daddy, etc." I would identify them, mostly just as something to do, never asking her to repeat them back or quizzing her. One day we were playing and she grabbed the "Q" and she said "Q". I was stunned. I pointed one by one to many of the letters and she could tell me what many of them were! I mean, is that normal for a 16 month old?? From there we kept on working on them until she knew every single letter, and then I started singing the song with her. She also recognizes them written down on paper, not just the magnet form.
She has many of her favorite books memorized. She especially loves "Llama Llama Red Pajamas","Mr. Brown Can Moo", "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More", "No, David", "A Love Letter From God" (AKA The balloon book), "Bees and Wasps" (she is obessed with this bee book. I have to hide it because I get sick of reading it to her, lol!), and so many more. These are some that she always pick over and over, but she truly loves all her books. She will sit and read for an hour at a time. I get sick of it before she does ;)

We started reading to her around two months, and I really feel that was one of the best decisions we could have made, and a piece of advice I give to all those with newborns! I feel that has made such a difference in her learning and vocabulary, and it has helped her with memorization and recognizing letters so much!

She counts to ten. Dan taught her this in one day!
We say "prayer time" and she knows to fold her arms, close her eyes, and get on her knees. She doesn't always do it because she likes to watch other people during prayer time, lol. She can fill in the blanks with our prompts. We start off with "Dear" and she will say "heavenly father" and so on, and she says "amen" at the end. She makes sure we are praying on our knees too! One time Dan came in and just stood with his arms folded and Elise said, "knees daddy." :) Dan and I have not been very good about praying, but now that Elise is old enough we have made it a goal to say her prayers with her each night before bed.
She is still such a mama's girl. I really love that we are so close. She certainly loves her daddy. No-one can play like daddy can. He is so silly with her and I love watching them interact. It's clear to me that she has way more fun with daddy during play time than with me. BUT, that being said, mom is always the one she wants to tuck her in at night, the one she wants to go to first, the one she wants when she is sad or sick. I know it bugs Dan a little bit. I truly love it though (I'm so selfish lol) and I think my heart will break if she ever becomes a daddy's girl and goes to him for everything instead of me!
We love to dance. She loves her children's songs, like "Wheels on the Bus" and "head shoulders knees and toes." She has many of her favorite songs memorized and helps me sing them by filling in the blanks when I stop. She also LOVES to dance to the "Elmo Slide." It's a silly dance that she has memorized, and it is so cute watching her do it with Elmo.
She tells me when she has just pooped. Sometimes she tells me when she is needing to poop. She sees me sit on the toilet, so she has asked to sit on it a few times too. I let her just to get her used to the idea of it, but she is not quite ready for potty training. I don't want to rush it. Perhaps, around 2 years.
She refers to herself as "you". I assume because that is how we refer to her so often, "I love you" "that is you in the mirror", "thank you", etc. She will say things like, "help you?" and "hold you?" and what she means is "help me" and hold me?"
She loves to help me clean the house! She is the best dust-pan holder around! She loves to hand me the silverware out of the dishwasher, and I put her up on the counter tops and hand her the light weight cups and bowls to put in the cupboard. She loves it when I call her my "big helper"! She also loves to do little things like pushing the buttons on washer/dryer and dishwasher.
She loves to create "art." Coloring, drawing, and painting are some of her favorite activities.

It is definitely not always happy times and sunshine. She definitely challenges me and there are some days I think I am failing as a mother. But, overall, Elise is such a confident, independent, cheerful, playful, silly, loving, energetic little girl. She is the perfect fit to our family. She is definitely our daughter, personality wise. I could go on and on...How about we end here and post some pictures, or this might never get posted at all!

Picture Time: