We interrupt this all Elise all the time blog to introduce my niece, Vivian Marie. Vivian was born this afternoon, March 3, 2010 to my sister, Claire, and my brother-in-law, Roy. Here are the pictures I received today to announce Vivian’s arrival. (Now we are just waiting on my sister-in-law to have her baby; she’s due March 18.)

So I was all set to write my update for February…I uploaded the photos to my computer and realized I never shared our Christmas festivities: cookie making, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Snow, etc. How could I deprive the world of all these cute pictures?

WARNING: THIS CONTAINS A HUGE AMOUNT OF PHOTOS

l saw my 10 year old cousin recently, and she made a clever observation about Elise. She said, “She’s not small. She’s fun size.” All that to say we took our fun size to see some Dallas sights on Saturday. We drove to the West Village, met some friends, and caught the McKinney Avenue Trolley (http://www.mata.org/). Then we rode the trolley to the the Arts District, and we walked to The Trammell Crow Museum (http://www.crowcollection.com/). When we got to the museum, we discovered it was Family Day, AdventureAsia, so we got to see Asian art and do some Asian crafts. It was a fun Saturday, and best of all both the trolley and the museum were free.

Almost time to catch the trolley

Riding the trolley

Elise's favorite piece of art, the lion

Making a shuttlecock

Playing with the shuttlecock

Making origami with Angela

An orange sunflower and a red lotus

A little green bean snack

All tuckered out from a fun-filled day

My plan all along has been to try potty training Elise over spring break, and if she wasn’t ready, we would have the summer. Well last Thursday when I picked Elise up from school, I was greeted with the message that Elise had asked to go potty and had used the potty twice. So what’s a mommy to do? I had to see what there was to this baby asking to go potty. I got her all the appropriate doggy accoutrements (Disney dog character panties and beagle potty seat) and decided to make a go of it on Sunday and today, Monday. I have one word to describe this experience – exhausting.

Here is my experience via Twitter:

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14

Momentous Day. I picked Elise up from school, she said, “I potty!” with a big smile. Peer pressure works, her friends are doing it. 3:44 PM Jan 14th from Echofon

SATURDAY, JANUARY 16

My mission today, buy Elise all the accoutrements she needs for potty training. Should make for a fun filled 3 day weekend. 7:18 AM Jan 16th from Echofon

DAY 1, SUNDAY, JANUARY 17

Day 1, a little confused

2 hours in to potty training day 1. Elise loves the potty, but prefers to pee on the floor when I’m not looking. Then announces it, “uh oh.” 9:45 AM Jan 17th from Echofon

Success! Five accidents and one nap later, Elise said, “pee pee” and went. Now, if we could just keep repeating the success part… 1:33 PM Jan 17th from Echofon

Our success was fleeting. Elise is on her 9th pair of panties post nap, making a total of 14 panties. I think we need to mop the floor. 5:00 PM Jan 17th from Echofon

Correction, now 15 panties, all in a day’s work 5:06 PM Jan 17th from Echofon

And 16 and I thought 28 pairs might be too many, ha. 5:20 PM Jan 17th from Echofon

RT @scottmcclellan: What advice do you give to a toddler pottytraining? “Let go and let God,” & “Let my pee-pee go!” haven’t worked. // LOL 6:00 PM Jan 17th from Echofon

Well, 19 panties and 11 hours later, we called it quits on day 1 of potty training (bath time), but tomorrow is another day… 6:26 PM Jan 17th from Echofon

So bottom line — if a girl is asking to go pee, you have to listen to her and see what she will do even if she’s 19 months old. about 22 hours ago from Echofon

DAY 2, MONDAY, JANUARY 18

Day 2, some cause for celebration

Yeah for progress. 3 accidents and one “successful” poop in the potty. I won’t go into details, but Elise and I counted it as a success. about 8 hours ago from Echofon

Won’t you all be glad when I go back to work tomorrow and stop talking about poop and pee…my how life has changed. about 8 hours ago from Echofon

This potty business is hard work. Elise needed to let loose and celebrate her post nap potty success. http://twitpic.com/yptqr about 2 hours ago from Echofon

Day 2: Pre-nap peed on floor after I took her & one poop in potty. Post-nap everytime finished peeing in the potty, started on me or floor 41 minutes ago from Echofon

In summary, Elise needs more time. If it was spring break she probably would have gotten it; we will just have to wait and see.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, what a year it has been. Believe it or not, one year ago today we arrived at DFW airport with little Elise in tow. Here’s the last video from our Vietnam trip:

One year later, we celebrated our first traditional Christmas morning (no international flights). Elise came downstairs to discover a new kitchen and a backyard blanketed in snow. Naturally, we captured everything on video:

What a difference a year makes! We hope your Christmas was a great one.

So Christmas is great and all, but all I have heard these past couple days is “Mine!” and “No, mama,” and “Back, mama.” She does let me help when she can’t her baby in or out of the highchair, bouncer seat, or carrier, but only when she asks. Elise definitely loves her new gifts.

One year ago today, we were in Danang, Vietnam meeting Elise, and our lives were forever changed. (Post from December 18, 2008 http://mcclellantown.com/?p=513) It is such a joy to celebrate the beginnings of our family during the Christmas season. And while we don’t know the circumstances that brought Elise into our lives, we are grateful and blessed to be Elise’s parents. We pray that her birth parents know that she is healthy, safe, loved, and definitely spoiled.

Happy baby

A wooden turtle instrument

Books!

Mommy and Elise

This is a video that Scott’s company made, and Scott helped write the script. Pretty cool.

Around this time last year, our lives changed pretty dramatically. It has been cool to think about what a difference a year makes. Where we’ll be one year from now … we have no clue.

Anyway, I wanted to give you an idea of what our life is like these days:

Elise (eating at the table): “All done!”
Me: “Oh, you’re all done?”
Elise: “No.”
Me: “OK …”

For Thanksgiving, we went to my parents’ house in Houston. Elise had a great time using all my little brothers’ toys; they are 20 now, but the toys were still in good shape. See for yourself…