Our Little A+ Smartie Pants

Ok, so I realize that Elyse is only 4 1/2 (almost 5!) months old, but it's my first Mother's Day weekend so I'm going to take a few minutes to just brag on her a little bit.  Of course Nick & I are both incredibly partial to her abilities, but we apparently really do have a little bit of a smartie pants on our hands.

Yesteday she had her first visit with our local Parents as Teachers organization. Yes, I'm a little bit behind but I honestly thought that our school district had completely cut the program due to lack of funding. However, after making a quick phone call they were able to quickly come out before the end of the school year to do an initial evaluation and get us enrolled for visits starting in August. 

Our teacher, Miss Tamra, went through the entire evaluation & Elyse scored perfect on everything.  She performed very well for each area of the evaluation...this momma was so proud!  We definitely thought she was doing really well, but it's always so encouraging to have someone else reaffirm what we thought as parents.

And just a few of the important milestones that she is achieving: 

~She is starting to move around on the floor as she reaches for toys just out of her reach during tummy time...the other night she rotated almost 180 degrees as Nick kept moving the toy~

~She is starting to sit up for a few moments unsupported (probably one of the biggest achievements that happened just this week)~

 ~She is starting to laugh & giggle more frequently when engaged by someone she's familiar with~

~She is starting to hold on to the bottle when Nick feeds her or on to me as she begins to recognize where her food is coming from~



~She will reach for toys when having tummy time & also when she's sitting up at the kitchen table or in her activity center~

~She stops crying when approached by someone she's familiar with if she's simply lonely or waking up from a nap~

~She's able to pick up a toy, bring it to her mouth, and also bring her other hand together to hold the toy with both hands~

~She's able to hold her body steady when being held on someone's hip or when sitting on our laps~

Our teacher left us with several activities to encourage further development and will be back to see us in August.  She even mentioned that we might have an early crawler on our hands because of how she likes to move around & reach for toys.  It's so exciting to watch her develop & learn new things each & every day. 

What a blessing it is for me to be home with her and witness those changes at least part time!