Is it just me or should these ‘laura loves…’ posts be called ‘laura loves elodie’ from now on? Because really, our world pretty much revolves around her!

This month, Elodie has decided she LOVES to be outside. Playing in the dirt, picking flowers/grass/weeds, carrying the watering can, and walking up and down the sidewalk make her the happiest.

What I love about all this outside time is that she takes AMAZINGLY LONG NAPS!!!

“Say bye bye to chunky baby thighs.”

Since Elodie loves to walk now, she has taught herself to squat in order to pick things up. If she lands on her butt, she must either crawl or walk on her knees to the nearest piece of furniture to pull herself back up to a standing position. With all these squats lately, I’m seeing her rolls turn in to muscle!

Her favorite part of the day is watching out the window for daddy to come home for work. Sometimes we’ll see someone walking a dog, and she’ll point and say “ruff, ruff!”

We hope you all had a wonderful beginning of Spring and Easter weekend! It finally happened, Miss E has begun walking. She is officially a toddler! She also has five new teeth this month, has learned a couple new animal noises and the motions to ‘itsy bitsy spider.”

Aside from breaking into tears when I leave the room, she is generally great at saying goodbye. She waves and blows kisses to strangers at a distance, and about three seconds after I hang up with anyone on the phone. Gotta start working on her timing. :-)

February was great this year, mainly because our family went to Kauai to celebrate my parents’ 40th anniversary!

We enjoyed checking out several local shops, coffee houses, scenic drives, and beaches. Basically, we tried to blend in with the locals (but our pale skin and my giant camera clearly gave us away). :-)

Elodie LOVED the beach, and if it hadn’t been for the amount of sand she consumed plus the extensive clean-up involved, we would have taken her every day. She was always the first to point out any birds around, and when I asked if she saw the waves in the ocean, she would wave.

She traveled so well, we are already thinking of where we should go next! What’s your favorite vacation destination?

Turns out, delaying this blog post doesn’t change the fact that our daughter has turned one.

As much as I try to hang on to all those special moments each month (and week and day), our baby is still growing and well on her way to toddlerhood. But that just means that now there are more fun moments to cherish – like eating cake! :-)

This month, she has unlocked the expert level of peek-a-boo: using her skirt/shirt/hands to hide her face. Who needs a blanket? Not this girl! But she will use her blanket to play peek-a-boo first thing the morning before I pick her up out of her crib, as well as the last thing at night before I turn the light off.

We’re working on animal sounds, but so far she’s only mastered the pig’s snort. She also knows a few body parts, and will show us her ears, tummy, toes, and tongue when asked. Waves and kisses are getting her lots of smiles and attention at church – apparently she isn’t as shy as her mommy was!

She definitely knows what ‘no’ means, she just chooses to do what she wants anyway. For example, she will shake her head ‘no’ as she crawls towards our shoes or puts something in her mouth that she knows she shouldn’t. It’s so cute, and I’m learning the whole ‘scolding instead of smiling’ trick is hard work!