Fairfield & Sisters 2012.

Brian sent me and Elna to Fairfield for the last two weeks of March because he was working like a crazy man (tax season).  The first few days I was in Fairfield we also had our Sisters weekend.  Ofelia came from Hawaii, Rebecca from Virginia, and Annie from Utah.  We had a great time together.  We visited our Grandpa Clark at his home with lunch one day.  We (and I don’t mean me because I mostly was chasing my little girl around) did a lot of heart crocheting.  We ate yummy food and talked a lot.  I love my sisters and mom!

On our way to Grandpa’s.

With her Aunt Annie.

With her Aunt Ofelia (left) and Grandpa Clark (right)

The sisters and Elna with Grandpa Clark.

Playing with her baby doll—a friend of ours in my home ward (Marian Peterson) gave this doll to Elna.  Elna loves it!

Lots of crocheting.

I think this picture is funny—Annie and I are trying to get Elna to be happy (Elna is having a full on tantrum!)

After church and with our Sisters gifts—Me (coconut oil), Mom (Keep Calm and Carry On necklace (x2—she made one and bought one), Nauvoo temple star charm for our charm bracelets, and a little temple envelope to carry things like chapstick and mints), Ofelia (beach cover-up/wrap & a Jelly Belly charm), Rebecca (a bag of fun things that she had used coupons to get and a personal lesson for me on how to coupon!), and Annie (a tea set from England)

After the girls all went home, Elna and I stayed another week and a half.  Mom and I had a great time trying and creating fun recipes.  We cleaned out and reorganized Mom’s kitchen cabinets, I organized and labeled all of her spices while she did some mending for me, and we made a cookbook of all of the recipes we use all of the time with room to add to.  It was a very productive time.

Elna spent as much time as possible doing this:

“How big is Elna?” This is her putting her arms up in response—“so big!”

Elna’s first haircut—and my first time giving a girl a haircut.  Her Grandy entertained and distracted her long enough for me to get a pretty good cut.

I realized when we got to the airport to fly home that Elna had no pictures with her Grandy, so we took a quick picture.  We were excited to go home to Brian, but we really miss having wonderful company all day while Brian is away at work.

Random pictures in March 2012.

If this was a video of Elna you would be able to tell that she is shaking with excitement, hyperventilating, and repeating “bah bah bah” as fast as her little mouth can move. 

This little girl loves her bath time!

We usually barricade the shoes off, because she’s a little tornado when it comes to our shoe shelf.

Celebrating Grandma’s birthday at Red Robin.

10 months!

Our little Elna did it again.  She grew another month older.  This month seemed to go especially fast because we spent half of it in Fairfield.  She is a special little girl full of energy and a thrill for life. 

So far this has been the hardest month to get a picture of her sitting where I wanted her to sit (next to the pillow and in such a way that when the year is up and I compare all of the monthly pictures it will be easy to see how she has changed from month to month.)  She would not sit still!

Elna reading her recent favorite book, Marianna May and Nursey by Tomie DePaola

At 10 months, Elna:

-loves books!  She says “buh buh buh” over and over again whenever she sees one.  Funny story: when we visited my parents she took naps in my dad’s study where there are thousands of books.  My mom walked by the room when she was supposed to be sleeping and all she heard was Elna going “buh buh buh” over and over again.  She’s never seen so many books!  Her favorite books are: Marianna May and Nursey, On The Day You Were Born, and A Baby Is Born.

-loves baths even more!  We have finally started doing a pretty predictable bedtime routine with Elna.  After dinner she takes a bath, so when she thinks she is done with dinner she starts saying “bah bah bah bah” as much as she can possibly can.  It’s darling!

-loves climbing stairs!  We don’t have stairs at our house, but my parents do.  She bee-lined for them any chance that she could while we were in Fairfield.

-will eat almost anything: oatmeal and applesauce, bananas, tomato soup with quinoa, creamy enchiladas, quinoa and gravy, crackers, teething biscuits, polenta and spaghetti sauce, corn chowder, and broccoli cheese soup—basically she wants to eat anything I am eating. 

-has 4 teeth now.  Her top teeth finally came through!

-throws a pretty amazing tantrum. 

-can recognize herself, me, and Brian in pictures.

-when asked “how big is Elna?” she will put her hands high above her head when we say, “so big!”

-is sleeping 7 pm – 7 am almost every night.  I wake up usually one time to stick her pacifier back in (yes, I need to wean her from it, but I’m not ready to), but I never feed her before 7 a.m. now.  Hallelujah!

-is stingy with her kisses to us, but will kiss her baby doll all the time.  It’s cute—she pretty much just sucks her doll’s face.

-still hates to lay down for her diaper changes.  It’s a feat!

-has a fresh new haircut.  I cut it a few days ago while I was home while my mom entertained Elna enough to keep her still. 

The next six pictures show a persistent progression of her trying to get her books:

A determined little one!