Elise is one year old! - May 2008

My girl girl turned one in May. This sounds cliché but it really seemed like just yesterday I came out of the hospital with her all teeny weeny in my arms, and here she is walking talking teething dancing and making funny faces at her brother. She walked 4 days before her first birthday, tweeters "twiddle dee, twiddle dee" when she is happy, and follows her brother everywhere. She likes music, dances with one hand holding on to the leg of the piano when I play, claps her hands and shouts. She likes dogs. She barks at them, or pictures of them, or anything that looks like a dog. She started baby signs around her birthday, or at least I only realised it then (first time on 15 May), and now signs for eat, more, all done, hot, sleep, please, cat, 'horsey', pig, and of course, dog. She's a light sleeper, she still wakes us up some nights, julien calls her our little terrorist for the sleep deprivation she causes us, but she's too cute for him he can never bring himself to be angry with her the next day. She is very affective she likes cuddles kisses both giving and receiving them. People remark that she is very girly because she likes shoes bags dolls and will keep her hairclips on if we keep saying to her "pretty pretty". But she also likes cars. She imitates Etienne and would crawl around with one car in her hand going vroum-vroum blowing bubbles through her lips, and she loves playing with the toy garage. One of her first words is "car". Also papa, mama, "tien-tien" or "kor-kor" (big brother in chinese), "doo-doo" (her comfort blanket), "bo-bo" for ouches, "pee-pee" when she sees someone going to the toilet, "bee-bee" for baby or dolls, and of course, "no!!!" (exclamation points essential). She loves tearing up tissue paper, pulling bits off toilet rolls kitchen rolls tissue boxes or packets, then saying "uh-oh" when I frown at her amidst the fluff. She stands on her tiptoes to try and reach something and it's usually something she shouldn't play with. She has long conversations on her toy phone, and says "hello!" if she hears the real phone ring. She climbs everywhere on her bouncing chair on the sofa the stairs any steps everywhere! She seems to have a highish pain threshold, barely whimpers with bruises or bumps, a kiss from mama papa or big brother usually enough to dry her tears. She does creative teething: with Etienne it was very orderly two front bottom two front top etc, with Elise it was one here one there one at the back oh one in the front again and so forth! Voilà our Elise, or "lee lee zette" as her brother calls her :). Happy birthday dear girl!

Elise's birthday May 2008

[To see the photo slideshow click on the photo above or go to the link http://picasaweb.google.fr/everyday1/EliseSBirthdayMay2008#]

More Etienne quotes!

Quotes from Etienne around April/May 2008 (age 4 yrs 2-3 mths):

Ok I confess I get lost a lot I will ask for a GPS this Christmas, anyway one driving trip Etienne asked,"Mummy mummy are we loose?" I said yes don't worry, then he said, "Follow that car!"

He likes the radio and always asks what the name of the music is, we would say oh it's jazz it's rock it's pop music it's classical... Once I said I didn't know, and he exclaimed, "I know, it's called Pork rock!"

This is when he was younger, I remember telling him to go and call the lift (in french appelle l'accenseur), so he walked up to the lift and called, "Lift!!"

I asked him one day, "Do you love Elise?" "No..., I love police cars, ambulances, fire engines, all the cars that have a pin-pon (siren). But girls don't like police cars or fire engines." "So, do you think girls like dolls?" "Noooo, girls like cars, but not cars with pin-pon!"

On guilt: Etienne was playing in the living room with Elise, I went to another room to get something, suddenly heard Elise cry, called out, "E-tieeennnne..." wanting to ask why Elise was crying but before I could finish my sentence Etienne replied,"Can you see me?"

How to keep a secret: "What did you do at school today?" "We painted something for our mamas but I can't tell you it's a secret!" Then on mothers' day he hid the gift behind his back after school, refused to give it to me because it's a secret, then decided to give it to his daddy to hide for me to find... (too many easter egg hunts)

On love: "Mama, I love you...(mama melting, until he continues...)...and I love my pillow,...and I love my car..."