Elsie meets the Campanas

Elsie met many of the Campanas (J-Ma's side of the family) while in PA.

She met her great-grandparents, G-G-Ma and G-Papa. Elsie is named Elizabeth after her G-G-Ma, who goes by Betty (yes, our cat is named after G-G-Ma, as well). G-G-Ma was actually named Elizabeth after her own mother, so I guess Elsie is named after her Great-great-grandmother, as well.

Four generations of beautiful women.

Here is Elsie with her great-aunts Mary and Denise.

Elsie meets the Bullards

Elsie took her first trip to Schwenksville, PA to visit J-Ma and Papa Pete.



Candice and Becky came into town for the weekend to spend time with Elsie! Elsie met Aunt Candice and her boyfriend, Josh, for the first time.




And Elsie also met Uncle Pete and his girlfriend, Kate.



We all enjoyed hanging out in the 90+ degree weather!!

Elsie's first flights

This weekend we took Elsie on her first plane ride to go visit J-Ma, Papa Pete, and the rest of the Bullard family. The first flight to PHL did not go as well as we had hoped (or as well as my fellow moms said it would go). Although she was looking hungry shortly before boarding, we thought it would be a great idea to wait until we got on the plane to feed Elsie. We had been upgraded and were some of the first people on the plane. We settled into our front row seats and tried to feed, but Elsie did not like the new accommodations. Instead, she cried loudly throughout the entire boarding process. Every passenger passed by watching mom, dad, and Elsie struggle to figure out what to do next. Ultimately, the Gloworm saved the day, calming Elsie to sleep. Needless to say, my face was flushed red until a few hours after we landed!

The flight back to ORD was much smoother. Elsie enjoyed the bottled we had prepared in advance and enjoyed playing, pooping, and sleeping during the flight. She even received her first wings!

Here are a couple pics of Dad and Elsie at ORD and PHL.

Elsie at US Cellular

On Thursday, we took a trip to visit Jack at work. Mom got to have Potbellys for lunch, and Dad got to show off Elsie!

Elsie is 10 weeks old!

Wow! We are in double digits already! Here is Elsie at 10 weeks:

Elsie is really enjoying looking at her toys now, including rattles, stuffed animals, and the fish on the jungle gym. She can entertain herself for about 15 minutes in the jungle gym talking to the fish. In fact, her hands have even made contact with the fish a few times - not sure if that was intentional or not.

As for sleeping, Elsie has slept through the night for the last few nights!! Elsie falls asleep somewhere between 8:30-10:30, and then she wakes up again at about 6:30 in the morning!! We are all very excited about this. The only downside is that Jack is missing some prime time Cubs watching while convincing Elsie that she is tired and ready for sleep. On the upside, he gets to spend some good cuddle time with Elsie!

Yardwork

It was a beautiful day on Saturday, so we set to work cleaning up our yard. More importantly, it allowed us to test out a new toy - the Pack 'n Play. Elsie seemed to enjoy it just fine.

Elsie also helped us fill up our leaf bags by smooshing down all of the leaves.

Elsie is 9 weeks old

Not only did Elsie experience her first Easter (see previous post) in her ninth week, she also had her 2-month well visit with the pediatrician. Elsie now weighs 12 lbs, 2 oz and measures 23.25" in length - both around the 65th percentile. Her head circumfrence is 39.1 cm, which is in the 40-something percentile - this may help explain why the hoods of her fleeces appear so large! Elsie did really well with her full set of vaccinations, crying only for about a minute and sleeping very well over the next 24 hours.

A lot of people inquire about well Elsie sleeps at night. In fact, this is the third most popular question from strangers after:

1. Is it a boy or a girl? (even when decked out in full pink) and

2. What is her name?

Elsie sleeps well most nights, and the duration has been increasing. Jack gets her to finally go to sleep somewhere between 8-10pm. Then she sleeps until 2-4am. I feed her, and then get her to sleep again at 3-6am. She will then sleep another few hours until 6:30-8am. We really can't complain - since Elsie's third week, she has only been waking up once / night.

Easter at the Phipps Farm

Elsie took her first roadtrip down to the farm this past weekend for Easter. She did great, sleeping the whole way down to Chrisman and back. Elsie got to meet Uncle Aaron, Aunt Kris, and her cousins, John (5 yrs) and Leah (8 mo).

On Saturday, we all watched John at the Easter egg hunt.

On Saturday evening, Elsie put on her Easter pajamas in anticipation of a visit from the Easter Bunny. Fortunately, the Easter Bunny was able to find Elsie at Grandma Jan's house!

On Sunday, we got all dressed up for church and took a nice family photo:

Aunt Becky comes for a visit

Aunt Becky came to cold, snowy Chicago for her Spring Break. She was a great help with Elsie as I tried to get a few things done around the house! Becky helped name our lion puppet - he will now be known as Leo the Lion.

Elsie is 8 weeks old

Here is our beautiful Elsie at 8 weeks.

Elsie has continued to improve on some skills learned earlier, including sucking her thumb, interacting with some toys (her favorite is the gloworm), and smiling for mom and dad (and any other visitors).

Here is Elsie playing in her jungle gym, including some quality tummy time.

Elsie spent her first evening with babysitters!! Our friends, Jill and Scott, volunteered to take her for a Friday evening while Jack and I enjoyed a delicious meal and a few drinks!! Jack and I enjoyed it very much, and Jill and Scott did a wonderful job with Elsie.

My appologies for a lack of posts this week. In Elsie's eigth week, she specialized in not sleeping very much (and, therefore, being more cranky than usual). Here is a photo of cranky Elsie and our poor cats hiding in the office together.