Thanksgiving

Andrea played outside with Micah and Elisha outside on Thanksgiving day! They had fun running around in the leaves. We didn't do a good job of documenting our Thanksgiving activities: Melissa & Charleston's house Thanksgiving morning for birthday banana pancakes, Oma and Opa's house with Aunt Andrea for Thanksgiving dinner, and Thanksgiving dinner number two at Nana and Pop's on Friday.

Heather's Shoes

Elisha and Heather are good buddies. Elisha has been saying her name for months, always with a little sing-songy voice. She felt like such a big girl when she found and put on her shoes . . . with a little help.

And next comes . . . talking

The word of the day today for Elisha was, "play". It was clear and she knew what she was asking to do. In her highchair at lunch she pushed away her plate, said, "all done. play?" And she got what she asked for.
She also said "bye bye Piglet, bye bye Pap (her name for her pacifier)" as she left them in the crib this morning. I've been having her leave both of them in the crib and having her tell them bye bye for weeks. This morning she very clearly did it, too.

Yummy Treat

Aunt Andrea joined us this Tuesday during our trip to the Mall of Georgia. We go to the indoor playground and then eat our picnic lunch at the food court. Elisha loves the playground because she can do almost everything by herself. She was showing off her walking skills this time and trying to get folks to smile at her. After lunch Andrea treated the kids to a 'hot vanilla' from Starbucks. Elisha loved it and being able to drink out of the cup unassisted. Starbucks at 10 months - should I be concerned?

Worship

On Friday night during house church, Elisha saw Alice, aka Mema, clapping during worship. She started clapping, too. She got down out of my lap and started swaying and dancing a little like Saji. She tried to help Daddy play his guitar. She really interacted with the music and worshiped the Lord. It was precious.

She also remembered Saji playing with her hair and rubbing her head from earlier, because she looked right at him and rubbed her head and smiled.
(Please excuse her pajamas; I thought she was headed to bed when all this took place.)

Walking, walking, WALKING!

Elisha is walking everywhere now, even on the kitchen floor with socks on. On Friday she figured out how to get up without crawling to something to pull up on. I tried to get some good pictures of her walking, but she likes to walk right into the camera, so it's a little difficult.

Myself, please!

In the last two days, Elisha has eaten oatmeal, sweet potatoes and cottage cheese by herself with a spoon out of her bowl. It started when she pointed to the spoon and then signed please. How could I say no to such a polite request? She got the spoon into her mouth amazingly well. She just needed some help getting the food onto the spoon - and that with some convincing. In addition to walking and feeding herself with a spoon, Elisha is exercising her independence in other ways: she shook her head no, then turned and walked away when I asked her to come on Saturday. She's also been trying to take toys away from Micah. What next, little lady?

Piglet

Steps

September 4th - standing alone
September 16th - taking a few shaky steps
October 15th - took 10 steps
November 1st - walking across the room

I was just looking through pictures - the way I document and remember dates of events. Elisha is now toddling all over the place and trying to learn how to climb down the stairs. She has the up totally figured out. She's saying and signing quite a bit now and has learned how to shake her head no. She's becoming quite the little independent woman.

Little Ladybug