Elise 2.5

"I love you too, back." - Elise

When Ryan was born, he got all of me. All of us. All of the time. Then along comes Baby K2. And most day's I feel like she gets only a small fraction from her parents that Ryan did. Granted, she does get the love of an amazing big brother, but it's very different than the vacuum that Ry was raised in. So her perceived "neglect" is what I remind myself of right now as I see the "uneven" posts of pics of my baby girl in comparison to my growing boy. 

Though I was warned that the second child gets unfairly forgotten in the stream of documentation, I've found that to be just the opposite in our case. Be it that I am a different mom this time around or that I'm taking my photography much more seriously, you can't help but take note that Elise is very well captured on film! And thankfully, she enjoys it.

Right now Elise is as much questioning the world as trying to be "in it." She's constantly observing the world, mimicking, but pushing the limits too. My very favorite "Elise-isms" right now are the way she says, "Cute," in affirmation of just about anything. The way she is so interested in my hair and likes to gently comb it with her fingers. And her singing. She catches just about every 10th word when we're listening to the radio, but she does her very best. And when she's not trying to catch up, she's belting our ABCs or Twinkle Twinkle. She spends a lot of time at the windows either watching Max and Ryan when it's too cold for her outside or observing the birds, which she calls Eagles. (We're just now seeing her ornithology lineage kicking in :)

Lately Elise's favorites consist of a rotation through:

• "Where the Wild Things Are," 

• asking to watch "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," 

• reading "Peter Pan," 

• trying to steal Ryan's cars for her own, 

• begging to read the longest, most culturally inappropriate version of Curious George ever written,

• wearing and picking out all things purple,

• and making "soup" in her kitchen set.

And let us not forget the whining, leaving the dinner table without being excused, telling her parents, "NO!" and acting like a drama queen when she has an owie...you know, normal 2.5 year old stuff. It can't all be sunshine and light, right? She's too cute for this to be easy.

On Tuesdays and Fridays it's just me and my girl...another reason why she's so well documented. Here, Ryan had picked up all his stuffies in this awesome pyramid and Elise wanted nothing more than to play in his big boy bed. It made for the cutest photoshoot. So here is Elise, being the tiniest bit naughty and the biggest bit cute!

There's nothing better than catching Elise after waking from a nap, her hair wild and he spirits high. She generally wakes up happy. Though sometimes going down for nap is a challenge. (The other day she hit me while putting her down, so I left her in her bed to cry. I heard her calling my name and then she asked, "What am I suppose to do now?"...I went in, covered her up and she was done.) 

We're in the midst of trying to prevent her from becoming the class nose-picker. The bottom two photos shows her pre-class outside of Milestones as her classmates heckled her from the window (maybe for being the class nose-picker.) Her 2.5 year Well-child appointment when really well. She's in the high 70th percentile for height and weight. She's healthy and has exceptional hearing and vision (we may need to get her ear plugs since she complains things are too loud often.)

Everyday is an adventure with this one. And though some days it's a challenge as we learn the definition of the "Terrible Twos" from Elise (since Ry skipped that and became a "three-ager" right away), the joy and laughter we receive from her is way greater than the occasional frustration.