Easter

This year we spent our Easter holiday on a retreat with our church family. Elisa had a great time playing with some of her little friends. There were great facilities for children were we stayed. She had a ball playing on the playground equipment and running in the open space.

I think that Elisa especially enjoyed making her Easter nest this year. She is at the age where she can grasp putting stuff like an Easter nest together. We had a great Easter and hope you did too! Here are some great pictures of Elisa throughout the weekend.

Elisa loves playing with her best friend, Ana Luisa.

Elisa mastered the big-wheel in no time over the weekend! I think I know what she wants for her birthday...

Hanging out in the hammock is a favorite past time of this sweet little girl.

Elisa worked hard on putting together her Easter nest...

...with just a little help from Mommy.


The finished product.

Elisa discovers her Easter nest is full of goodies! (a Pez dispenser and a couple of bunny books)

Elisa and Mommy read a new bunny book.

Elisa checking out the loot!

Awareness Test!

This is the first time I think that I have put something on this blog that doesn't relate to Elisa in some way. Of course, I could say that if she saw this video she would yell out "BAULLL!" or even "BABY!"



By the way, "baby" is Elisa's word for bear.

Cute Video

This is a video of Elisa reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" with me. You can really see how much she is learning by the names and sounds of the animals!

Rice, Waterfalls & a Pretty Dress

I think that it is necessary for me to start this particular post off by saying - don't skip anything! There are a lot of pictures (16) that you don't want to miss! I thought that it would be fun to show some recent fun activities with Elisa. Here we go...

Rice: Jennifer got the idea from our teammate, Benay, to have a rice box for Elisa to play in. It is kind of like a little sand box. Let me tell you folks - it has been a hit! One of Elisa's newest words is: RICE! She loves getting in there and digging around.

Monopolizing the rice!

"You know the rules Daddy. Keep it in the box and no throwing!"

Waterfalls: If you read our "work" blog then you know that we spent this last Sunday out at some waterfalls nearby with some house church folks. Elisa had such a blast. She wants to be in the middle of anything that involves water. Here are some really fun pictures of her splashing about and getting soaked.

We did take the time between splashes to enjoy God's creation. Check out these three Monarch butterflies!

Pretty Dress: Elisa, being the little girl that she is, has lots of cute clothes. We put this dress on her for the first time this week and thought she just looked darling. Her fun personality really comes out when she is dressed cute. It is hilarious to see how she reacts when she likes an outfit and knows that she is the prettiest thing around. I know you will enjoy these!

Giving Daddy sugars!

New Words, Sounds and Such...

Well, our little ball of fire is not only into everything constantly, she is also learning new words on a daily basis. It is so cool to watch and hear her language develop. Jennifer like to sing the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" with Elisa while they do the movements together. It is pretty cute to watch (unfortunately, Elisa won't let us film it yet). Anyway, doing this song has really got Elisa going on some of her body parts. So, to start off Elisa's new list of learned words we will start with:




feet & toes
paws (she calls her hands "paws". She got this from the "That's Not My Puppy" book.)
montey (monkey)
bo-bo (belly button)
mo-mo (movie or video)
nA-no (Noah)
bass (as in the instrument - from Baby Einstein's 1st instruments)
amen (she got into praying big time today. I think we prayed for lunch 3 or 4 separate times!)
up! (she likes to say UP! UP! UP! while climbing the stairs)
doan (down)
no!no!no! (she says this when in the act of doing something she knows she shouldn't be doing!)
HI! (this one is usually repeated several times, and happens a lot when she is holding a real or make-believe phone)
bye-bye, car?
koo-kee (cookie)
rice
ouchie
tootuh (turtle)
tar (star)
sun
moom (moon)
heart
circle
pees (please - usually in a sentence "more pees")
pizza
cuh-cuh (color)
fo-fo (flower)
pool
poon (for spoon and for shovel)
fork
cacáca (this is actually Portuguese and it means "yucky")
xixi (this is Portuguese too - pronounced "she-she" it means "pee-pee")

She has been doing the sounds for a doggy (dog-dee) for quite a while, but just recently added the sound for a kitty (key-key) with "meeooow" and for a lion "rrrrear". Let's not forget the sound for monkey "e-e-a-a". That good "Old McDonald" song has really been paying off.

Elisa riding her turtle doorstop!

Two things to know about Elisa and eating: she loves bananas and you can't keep her feet off the table!

She loves playing with her toy laptop, despite the headache that it gives Mommy and Daddy.

Coloring with Mommy!

Talking on the calculator! "It has buttons, so it must work like a cell phone - right?"

Watching a "mo-mo" after a long day. Notice our first major ouchy on our knee. :(

Elisa loves to swim - especially with Mommy!