I've been longing to blog...Mostly because Elsa seems to be growing up and learning so fast, that now I feel like I need to keep a record of all the wonderful things she is starting to do. I am amazed everyday by how quickly she is learning and developing her own personality!
Before I get started with all that, I need to write about Elsa's surgery. A few weeks ago, we found a little bump which turned out to be a hernia while changing Elsa's diaper. Apparently, this particular type of hernia is much more likely to appear in little boys than girls (90% of the cases are boys) but since my mom and I and Tumi all had them in our own childhoods, I suppose maybe Elsa was just destined for this fate! Elsa had a successful operation, including general anesthesia and the whole package. It was so hard to watch them put the gas on my little baby...I sobbed. It's weird how even though you understand that these doctors do this all day everyday and have gone to school for years and years, and the real risks to your baby's health are so low, that somehow watching her just fall asleep like that taps into something really deep in your parent-animal brain. It's a powerfully terrifying thing!
After about 1/2 an hour, the surgery was done, and we were allowed to come into the recovery area and wait with Elsa while she was waking up. It took her about an hour to come out of it completely, and she was still pretty groggy stoned for the next few hours. She had a worrisome fever the next morning, and wasn't moving around at all like her normal active self, but it turned out to be unrelated to the procedure and she was back to normal the next day (we still took her to the hospital just to be sure!). I'm very proud of my strong healthy little girl for going through such a weird and probably very uncomfortable experience...
I feel the need to document how much Elsa can do, because it seems like she is learning so fast these days! Since we came back to Iceland from our trip to the US this Christmas time, Elsa has learned to walk...first with a few hesitant steps between creeping along the furniature, and then eventually she mastered the full-on Charlie Chaplin waddle! She also likes to help us with the laundry, and is just generally adorable in a lot of ways.
She is getting better at 'talking' and can now say stuff like Mama, Pappa (it's supposed to be 'Pabbi' but we're headed in the right direction there!) and 'GunnGunn' (Gunnhildur). She says 'kkkkk' when she sees the clock, and 'ba' when she sees the bath (or a picture of a sheep). She says what sounds like 'skeeees' for keys, cheese, teeth, and peas. She says 'baby' quite clearly...sometimes. She attempts to meow like a cat, but this usually sounds like a very high-pitched 'mama' (we still understand the meaning, of course). She is quite fond of a carved lion statue we have, and will point to it when you ask her where the lion is, or if we are reading a book with a lion in it.
She likes the clock and the shower and the pictures on the wall, but mostly she loves her books. One of her favorite passtimes is to waddle up to us with a book in one hand and demand to sit on our laps and read with us. Sometimes she wants to hear the story, and sometimes she is more interested in just turning the pages and then bringing us a new book. We can (and often do) clear off all the shelves this way.
The coming months are full of big changes for this little family. Elsa will turn one year old on April 2nd, and then we will move into our new apartment sometime in the following week or so. Then, our little lady will start playschool sometime in the middle of April. We will probably only have her there for a couple of hours to start, but we were quite fortunate that they were able to take her in this spring, since the waiting list is very very long. Then sometime in late-ish May, we will get a brand new family member! Whew!
I feel the need to document how much Elsa can do, because it seems like she is learning so fast these days! Since we came back to Iceland from our trip to the US this Christmas time, Elsa has learned to walk...first with a few hesitant steps between creeping along the furniature, and then eventually she mastered the full-on Charlie Chaplin waddle! She also likes to help us with the laundry, and is just generally adorable in a lot of ways.
She is getting better at 'talking' and can now say stuff like Mama, Pappa (it's supposed to be 'Pabbi' but we're headed in the right direction there!) and 'GunnGunn' (Gunnhildur). She says 'kkkkk' when she sees the clock, and 'ba' when she sees the bath (or a picture of a sheep). She says what sounds like 'skeeees' for keys, cheese, teeth, and peas. She says 'baby' quite clearly...sometimes. She attempts to meow like a cat, but this usually sounds like a very high-pitched 'mama' (we still understand the meaning, of course). She is quite fond of a carved lion statue we have, and will point to it when you ask her where the lion is, or if we are reading a book with a lion in it.
She likes the clock and the shower and the pictures on the wall, but mostly she loves her books. One of her favorite passtimes is to waddle up to us with a book in one hand and demand to sit on our laps and read with us. Sometimes she wants to hear the story, and sometimes she is more interested in just turning the pages and then bringing us a new book. We can (and often do) clear off all the shelves this way.
The coming months are full of big changes for this little family. Elsa will turn one year old on April 2nd, and then we will move into our new apartment sometime in the following week or so. Then, our little lady will start playschool sometime in the middle of April. We will probably only have her there for a couple of hours to start, but we were quite fortunate that they were able to take her in this spring, since the waiting list is very very long. Then sometime in late-ish May, we will get a brand new family member! Whew!
So, while I was pregnant with Elsa, we took a tummy picture every week. I guess part of being the 2nd child is that your mama can somehow manage to make through 29 weeks of pregnancy without really remembering to take those adorable belly shots to document your growth. I'm sorry, tummy baby boy. When we did finally get around to taking the belly picture, Tumi suggested that I suck it in so we could at least attempt to fake a 'before' pregnancy picture. I did my best, but this is all I could manage...
Elsa working on some cucumber
Watching out the window
This was in the waiting area before Elsa's surgery
And (slowly) waking up after the surgery with Pabbi
And with Mama
Elsa reading her favorite book (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) in her favorite room (the bathroom)
Elsa going over Mama's Icelandic homework...Looks like she founds some mistakes.
