September fast forward

I have fallen really behind so I am going to do September and October in one entry each and start fresh for November.

Reality Returns:

Life returned to normal when we got back from Maine. Elise had no problems adjusting to Pacific Time. Her sleep went back to normal and she was just fine. Stephanie enjoyed her last week off and enjoyed coming back to work even more. Elise was finally able to start wearing her warmer clothes. We were thinking that she would never be cold enough to wear them, but the weather turned pretty quick. It never rained during September or October, so if we bundled up a little (it was only in the mid to high 70s) we could still walk down to the park.

September 22 – D-day:

In this case the D stands for something “Daycare.” Stephanie finally goes back to work after 4 months off. Elise is finally going to meet some new people that are not family. We made a movie of her first day at daycare. You will never see it because we screwed it up. Elise loves daycare. She sleeps most of the day, but she has always done that. We pop in unexpectedly for random inspections, because we have been made paranoid by the media.

More Daycare:

Elise has made some girlfriends already. Evie, Claire and Remy seem to all like each other and the older girls (they are all older) will actually bring Elise toys to play with. Fortunately there are still the stereotypical boys in the room that crawl in a straight line and if Elise is in the way she gets crawled over. Usually the daycare ladies are there to save the day, but sometimes they are not. It does not hurt Elise because she rolls mostly out of the way, plus she is super tough like her father. Elise is also learning from the older kids. She has learned to roll, attempted to crawl and can almost hold her bottle. They have a mirror near the floor, kind of like a dance practice mirror for babies, that Elise loves to talk to the baby in the mirror in the mornings.

Four Month Check-up:

Another Doctor's appointment and more shots. Elise actually loves the Doctors office. She has not learned to associate it with shot, illness and pain yet. Stephanie had a meeting during the appointment, so Mark and I are going instead. Don't worry Stephanie gave me a list of things to ask. The appointment is going great. Elise is now 50% height and weight for her age group. Her head is only 40% but it is up from her 25% at the last measurement. She is generally very average. We like average. Dr Ward was checking her out when she asked if she can roll over yet and on command she rolled over in front of the Doctor. She may have a small head, but it is stuffed with smarts. During the appointment Elise was getting hungry, but I only have one bottle and I wanted to save it until after the shots. The plan was scrapped because Elise had already made a lunch date and I was late. the good news is that we didn't need it. She was fine about the shots. After the first one she looked at the Medical Assistant and the look conveyed "That really hurt! What did I do to you?" The next shot Elise looked at the Medical Assistant and the look conveyed "One day I will be older and I will hunt you down and will pay for this indignity". Then Elise fell asleep and it was over. Dr Ward was pretty impressed with Elise. She said her motor skills were ahead of the curve and everything else was progressing normally.