Elaina's extra hand

Elaina has figured out how to crawl around and take what ever it is she is playing with with her - in her mouth. It's pretty funny to watch. She carries all kinds of toys, clothes, objects, and whatever fits around in her mouth. This particular day, she was carrying this purple block in her mouth. I found it kind of funny so I took a picture. Hope you enjoy!

What's Elaina been up to....????

May 21st - It's been a while since I've posted anything. Sorry about that - it's been a busy couple of weeks. Here are some recent pics of Elaina to show you what she's been getting into lately...

Elaina has a riding toy that she can push around. She doesn't really push it around too much but I put her on it and was surprised at how well she stayed balanced. So, I took her outside and I pushed her up and down the driveway and sidewalk. She loved it. We did it for a while - mom's back hurt after that. Guess I better get used to it :)

At dinner time tonight, I fed Elaina spaghetti. I intended on feeding it to her, but she had other plans. After a battle with her, I remembered that it was bath night and said "what the heck!" When I saw these pictures, all I could think of was "Wow, she looks like a blue eyed Oompaloompa"

I couldn't post the picture above without including some cute ones of her too :)

Elaina is 10 months old

May 6th - Elaina is 10 months old today. She continues to grow and develop into a little girl. Everyday I am amazed at how much of a baby she is NOT anymore. It's exciting and heartbreaking all at the same time. She was at the doctor the other day and weighed in at 18 lbs, 5 oz. She is healthy and happy and her eyes and smile light up our life. Here are a few shots.. Enjoy!

Gimme that camera, mommy

Don't I look great in mommy's sunglasses???
I love it outside!!

Fairy Pictures and Play Date

April 26th - Today, Elaina and her friend Caitlin went and had their pictures made together again. The photo studio was having a fairy event so the girls got to put wings on and pose as fairies - it was very cute. Below are some shots:

Then after the pictures we went to Caitlin's house for a play date. Caitlin has a kiddie pool with balls in it - here are some shots of the girls playing. They both really loved it.

The highlight of the day was when the girls were standing in front of the window. Caitlin was knocking on the window and making noises and it was cracking Elaina up which was in turn making Caitlin laugh. Also, if you look closely, a man jogged by and this cracked the girls up too. We could hardly keep from laughing while shooting the video. You can only see the backs of their heads in the video - Caitlin in on the left and Elaina is on the right - but I hope it makes you smile! :)

Inside Out/Backwards Day...

April 17th... This week at Elaina's day care they had spirit week. On Tuesday it was "Pajama Day" and all the kids wore their pajamas to day care. I did not know about this since Elaina does not go to day care on Monday but since I always send her in her pajamas, she was dressed for the festivities. Today was "In-side Out/Backwards Day" at Elaina's day care. That means that the kids and teachers wore their clothes either in-side out or backwards. Well, the outfit I put Elaina in had feet so she couldn't wear the pants backwards. So, she wore her pants in-side out and her shirt backwards. Just thought I'd share a photo of her in her garb (from behind so you can get the full affect)...

Also, Elaina had her 9 month check up yesterday. All is well and she's growing and developing well. She weighed in at 18 pounds, and measured 27 1/4 inches tall. She is in the 31st percentile for weight, the 33rd percentile on height and her head... well, it continues to be a monstrosity. It registered in the 99th percentile. Geniuses need a lot of room for their brains :)... we still think she's adorable - big head and all.

Elaina is 9 months old

April 6th - Elaina is 9 months old today. Elaina continues to grow. She doesn't have her 9 month check up until the 16th so I don't know how much her percentiles have changed since her 6 month check up. I'll post those after her appointment. She did have a doctors appointment last week and weighed in at 17 pounds, 5 oz. This is actually 5 oz less then the last weigh in but the doctor said more then likely it was a mis-read since she supposedly gained over 2 pounds in 2 1/2 weeks at that visit. Anyway, he wasn't concerned and said she is growing fine. Some milestones over the past month are:

• First ear infection
• Crawling (as you know from the previous post)
• Pulling up on everything - she doesn't know how to sit back down (unless she falls) so when she is done standing or can't move anywhere else, she'll cry until you help her. Hopefully she'll figure out sitting down soon.
• Taking steps and moving herself along the couch, table, or whatever she can

Here is a recent pic.... Enjoy!

Elaina crawls

Let the fun begin, boys and girls, because Elaina figured it out today. She has been getting gradually closer over the past few weeks. She first figured out how to get from her stomach to a sitting up position. Then, she would do this lean forward from a sitting up position until she got almost all the way to her stomach and realized she couldn't get her legs to move. She got around this way pretty good for a while by leaning from a sitting up position and scooting her legs underneath her (kind of hard to explain). Well, today, after she got up from her nap, she leaned forward and her knees moved with her. One knee in front of the other, one hand in front of the other and she was off. And in a hurry too - she wasted no time getting used to it :) take a look - this was taken during the first 30 minutes of her crawling....

Now we need to baby proof - not so smart putting that off :)

Elaina's first Easter

We enjoyed our first Easter with Elaina. It was jam packed full of family, Easter dresses, and a visit from the Easter bunny. Here some shots of her day....

Elaina's Easter basket

She enjoyed diving into her Easter basket. She eventually picked it up and turned it upside down :)



A shot of her in her Easter dress

Elaina with her daddy - he has not been home very much at all over the past 2 weeks because he has been at church a lot of long hours preparing for the Easter drama. He was glad the production was over because he really missed Elaina. He enjoyed the day with her.

It's true what they say...

....give a child a box and they will be entertained for hours. Well, Elaina is no exception. We had an empty diaper box that we placed in the middle of the floor and she LOVED it. She even managed to back her way into it. Here are a few shots....

Pre-Easter Festivities

We got together with family to do some "pre-Easter" festivities. My mom (Elaina's granny) always gets the grandkids (the ones who live in town) together on Good Friday to dye/paint Easter eggs. She called to make sure Elaina would be there for her first egg dying/painting day. We had a good time - Elaina didn't do much other then watch but maybe next year she'll be able to get more involved...

Elaina's with her Aunt Kate (my sister) dying eggs

Cousin Quentin steps in to help....Elaina with her GrannyCousin Alexandra busy painting eggsHere a shot of the eggs that we painted. Aunt Kate made Elaina a lady bug egg... so cute

Just another day in the Stringfellow household

Saturday morning, we all got up and did our normal routine. Nothing special - just relaxing at the house. While Erik read the paper, Elaina decided to grab a section of it too - not to read, but play with. Anyway, I snapped this cute picture of her mimicking her daddy reading. Too cute not to share....

Also, I had this wooden rocking chair when I was little that a friend of my dad's made for me. My mom had it cleaned and fixed up and gave it to Elaina for Christmas. She is still way to little to really be able to play and sit in it on her own, but I put her in it and snapped a few shots - just wanted to share....

Elaina is 8 months old!!!!

It's March 6th, 2008 and Elaina hit the 8 month mark today. Needless to say she is still growing and doing new things every day. She had a doctors appointment last week and she weighed in at 17 pounds, 10 oz. So, she gained 1 pound in less then a month. That solid food is bulking our little girl up. This past month was a big one for Elaina as far as developmental milestones. This past month she has:

• started sitting up completely unassisted
• scooting (backwards) and spinning on her belly
• pulling herself up from a seated position (when she can get a good hold of something sturdy)
• cut her two bottom teeth
• clapping
• waving bye-bye or hi (whichever way you chose to see it)

Here a couple of recent shots of Elaina.........

Standing ----- that's all she wants to do lately

Wearing her daddy's hat

Just a video of her clapping... I tried to get her to wave but all she would do was clap. Oh well!

Play date with Cousin Liana

We had cousin's Cassie and Liana over on Saturday for dinner. Liana and Elaina got to play together. Liana is 2 years older then Elaina so it was fun watching those two interact. You could tell Elaina thought that Liana was so cool because she could walk and talk and do all these really "big girl" things.

Elaina has recently started clapping - Cassie got a good shots of her doing that. There is something so cute about seeing a little baby clap.

Just a good shot of Elaina that Cassie took.....

And a not so good shot of Elaina.... ;)

Bath time gets a little more fun

Now that Elaina can sit up unassisted, bath time has become very fun for her and for us. She enjoys splashing and playing with her toys and we enjoy watching her. Here are a few shots of her latest bath time....

Flapping her gums like an old lady...

Elaina just picked this noise up - I'm sure every kid does it but for some reason it cracks me up. She looks like a little old lady smacking her toothless gums together. Hope you can see it - it's from my cell phone. That's the quickest way I can get her captured on video.