Elsie's World

This week Elsie joined the 8-month old group. Here are some of the things we love about Elsie this month:

* is sleeping through the night (most of the time)

* smiles more than ever before

* laughing on her own. We often wonder what's so funny!
* tumbles, rolls, and stretches, no crawling yet - Sören predicts it will happen sometime this week.
* plays a mean game of peek-a-boo

Friday night date night at El Tequila, our favorite Mexican restaurant! The food is surprisingly good for a restaurant that is attached to a gas station:


Elsie is showing off her do to her cousin Gabe who likes to sport a Mohawk:



Elsie enjoying a good read:

Every (little) person makes a difference

This afternoon, Elsie said this: "Rwalad. Rah-lah. Bah-bah-bah-bah! Gru-lunmph."

After much discussion, debate and careful decoding, Anne and I believe this is an approximate translation of her statement: "I want to do the MS Walk on May 4. You can push me in my stroller since I don't know how to walk yet. What's more, I think you should use my blog to ask people to donate money to sponsor us. Make it happen."

Well, who are we to say no to such an adorable, selfless and intelligent young woman? So we bundled Elsie up in some warm clothes, pulled one of Anne's MS Walk T-shirts over the top, and went for a "training walk" to our local park.

You can make a donation — large or small — by making a Paypal payment to soren24 at charter.net, or mailing a check to us (payable to National MS Society) at 17224 Finch Path, Farmington, MN 55024. Whatever you can give will help. Elsie (and Anne and Sören) appreciate your support and promise to post photos of the big walk. Thanks!

The Best Medicine

I'm making my Elsie blog debut to share this video of Elsie's first swimming pool experience during our trip to St. Louis. I don't know if she's enjoying the water or the faces Anne was making at her, or both ... but this is priceless. Watch and enjoy:

Road Trip!

We (Sören ) packed up the car and headed to St. Louis for Spring Break.

I have to admit that a nine-hour drive with a 7-month-old did not sound like much fun, but turns out Elsie and Sören are great road trip companions.

I had no idea my husband was such an expert road tripper ... Did you know the passenger should be able to reach the cooler, garbage, and food box while keeping his/her seatbelt buckled?



Elsie enjoyed a Budweiser tour, going to a museum, and checking out the Gateway Arch. We also had a fun dip in the pool.

Springtime?

As I post this, there is six inches of fresh white powder and much more on its way. Oh, and yesterday was the first day of Spring. However, a few days ago it was dry and sunny, which meant time for a walk with the stinker! As you can see by her tongue-out smile she really likes seeing the sights in the neighborhood.

Elsie's Baptism

In my mind Elsie's baptism was a parenting "milestone." It was the first time we had both families together at our house to eat together and stay somewhat entertained for a few hours! Luckily, Elsie was in a fantastic mood so entertainment wasn't a problem. We had plenty of food and Soren and I were still talking after the last guest left. Here's Elsie with her godparents, Aunt Stacey and Uncle Matt.

Elsie was the hostess with the mostess. Here she is in her pretty party dress. It was a two outfit type of day!

Six Month Pictures

Here are a couple pics from Elsie's photo shoot Saturday with our friend Mitch. I've mentioned this to Soren before: "No offense to us, but how did we make such a pretty baby!" Elsie lucked out in the gene pool!



























I'd also like to note that the family picture above made me feel like we are officially a family. Soren gave me a very odd, I think you are crazy kind of look after mentioning this. Go to our shutterfly link if you'd like to see more photos. I know, how much can I bug you to look at my baby?!