It’s the Dawsons!

After months of crawling and the last month or so of traveling around the living room via the couches, Elliott is now walking.  She got her start right after the 10 month mark, taking a few steps toward a toy before crashing to the ground.  Over the next few weeks, she became more and more comfortable and before we knew it, she walks everywhere.  We’re still getting used to having a miniature person walking around our house, but its been just another fun experience with Ms. Elliott.

Ok, so we’re all a bit embarassed here at the Dawson house at how long it has taken to post an update to the site.  It has been a busy 2+ months here and despite good intentions, updates just didn’t make our daily to-do list.  It’s a new year and we hope to show better dedication in giving updates and information about our lovely little family.

As for Ms. Elliott, things have been changing rapidly for her.  She is developing at an alarming pace and it is hard to believe that the little lump we held those first few months is now able to do so much.  Watching her change and grow is one of the best parts of our day as she seems to learn something new every day. 

Since we last posted, she moved on to “normal” crawling after scooting around for six weeks, she’s standing up on everything and walks along furniture like an expert.  Her vocabulary is growing slowly, it currently consists of: “hi,” “Dada,” “santa,” and “baby.” If you listen closely, you’ll hear an “hi Dada” during the video.  She is an extremely affectionate little girl and gives kisses to everyone, especially her stuffed animals.  She will also dance to anything with the slightest beat and delights us with funny noises and faces all the time.

Please enjoy the video of our little Ms. Elliott showing just a bit of her new found skills.

So we’ve gone on and on about how happy our baby is, but we’ve only heard Elliott truly laugh a few times.  When she does, it is usually for just a second or two.  That all changed last night.  I picked her up before bath time and pulled off her socks.  Without really thinking about it, and because having a baby makes you do silly things, I put her socks to my nose and exclaimed, “P-U!” like her socks were stinky.

Elly lost it.  She started laughing like a mad woman.  Total hysterical laughter.  I recoiled from the stinky socks and did the “P-U” bit again - more laughter.  Molly and Brett are in town and were in disbelief.  Kari was in the bedroom and came running in to witness it.  She then grabbed the video camera to capture some of the laughter. 

Enjoy.

In the past few weeks, Elliott has been rolling from back to tummy and back again and has become increasingly mobile in terms of spinning herself around and rolling after things she’s interested in.  Well, at just over five months and two weeks old, she took the next big leap forward tonight.  Take a look at this video and watch Ms. Elliott show some determination in getting to the newspaper…

We’re backlogged with video clips of our little girl and need to find the time to edit more of them and get them posted here.  In the mean time, please enjoy our little girl discovering that her feet can reach her mouth…

So over the first few weeks, we were very excited to get more videos up on the site, but came to realize that babies as small as Elliott just don’t do a whole lot yet.  Well, all that has changed over the past few weeks.  She’s suddenly smiling and “talking” and reacting to us a lot more.  Not much in life is more rewarding than seeing that little smile from your child.

Elle seems to be the happiest on her changing table.  As soon as that diaper is clean and she’s redressed, she’ll just smile and coo away at us.  This video is a compilation of a few different changing table chat sessions.

I noted above that she seems to be happiest on the changing table, because this morning we fully set up her “Oceans of Wonder” activity mat and she’s loving the fish and octopus that hang above her.  Enjoy her having fun…