A Visit from Nana and Pop Pop

Eliza had a fun day today with her nana and pop pop.  They drove down for the day just to play with her, and she had a great time!  She got a lot of attention, entertaining everyone with her antics; she was quite the little social butterfly today.  

Eliza showed pop pop one of her favorite books, Cats:

Then she and nana read one of her other favorites (a lift-the-flap book, those are big in her world right now!):

"Who's that hiding under there, nana?"

We enjoyed hanging out at home, playing, and talking about Eliza and how smart she is :), and hubby took his parents to a local burger place for lunch while Eliza napped.  After lunch I got the rare chance to run a couple of errands alone, which was really nice, even though the errands were rather boring (sometimes it's the small things, isn't it???).

It was a fun day and we hope nana and pop pop come back again soon!

Who needs clothes?

All you really need is a diaper and a hat:

It's finally happened.

I never thought it would happen, but I've become a coffee drinker.  Yup.  I blame Eliza (sorry, honey - I love you!)  She MADE me.  Now that she's down to just the one nap a day, I don't get to take my morning nap (I know, I know, I was spoiled), and I am SO TIRED ALL DAY, OMG.  I see now why people drink the stuff.  I honestly never really understood it before - but that was when I was sleeping 9-10 hours straight each night.  Bahahahahahahaha.

I still don't actually like the taste of coffee, though, so I'm more of a faker - I fill my mug half way up with coffee, and then I fill it to the top with milk, and put at least two spoonfuls of sugar in it.  So, yeah, it ends up not actually tasting much like coffee when I'm done with it.  I'm considering buying some caramel syrup to go in it, too... might as well do it right!

14 Months

Eliza is 14 months old!  Er, well, she's been 14 months old for, like, a week now... and I'm just now getting around to this post.  Go me.

At 14 months old, Eliza....

-says several words like "up", "mama", "dada", "fish", "duck", "hi", "eye" (those last two sound very much like the same word... but I SWEAR they mean different things), and can tell you what the cow, duck, owl, lion, dog and cat say.

-can say her own name!

-walks almost everywhere, but is still a bit wobbly.

-is a sweet, caring girl who gives kisses and hugs to her mama, her daddy, her grandma and grandpa, her dolls, her kitties, and her little plastic playmobile safari man.

-will play independently for several minutes at at a time, but prefers to have someone playing with her.

-takes one nap a day, which is usually about 2 hours long.

-loves string cheese.

-wears the same old CDs (Large BGs, Large FuzziBunz, OS BGs) and is still in size 4 'sposies.

-weighs 28.5 pounds!

-has bright blonde hair that is really starting to grow... and refuses to wear any sort of barrette or clip or headband.

-still dislikes the car seat.  Not quite as much as she used to, but still quite a lot.  She's started sometimes - rarely, but sometimes - falling asleep in the car IF it is around nap time and IF she is really tired and IF there is no sun shining in her eyes. 

-has a WILL 'O STEEL.  She knows what she wants and when she wants it, and if you disagree with her, she will tell it like she sees it, which is usually: UNFAIR/DON'T LIKE THIS/NO MAMA.  Heheh.  In other words, there are often tears and dramatic episodes of head-pounding on the floor (her, not me).  Sorry, chica, it's like the song says: you can't always get what you want!  It's my job to say no sometimes, but it's still hard.  Oh well, I guess that's what she has grandparents for - they get to be the ones who always say yes!

-is busy from the time she wakes up to the time she falls asleep - always on the go and exploring everything.

-is still nursing.

-is down to only waking up twice at night!  

-has never once slept through the night.  Someday...!

-has a smile that will brighten your day no matter how crappy you feel :)

-sings!

-still prefers to eat crayons rather than draw with them.

-loves to listen to music and dance.  Mumford & Sons is her favorite.

-LOVES her baby dolls.  

-HATES cow's milk.

-has started playing pretend with her dolls - she makes them give each other kisses, she holds her water bottle up to their mouths, and she tries to feed them.  ITISSOCUTE.

-has been pretty healthy.  She's had a few mild colds and just recently got her first ear infection.  

-is a very flexible baby - she can be cheerful even when she is tired and sleep is long overdue, and she will play anywhere and with lots of different people, even if she has just met them.  

-is a total daddy's girl.  Today when I put her down for a nap, I heard her say "dada" in her sleep.  Those two are like peas in a pod.

-is a total mama's girl, too ;)

-is crazy smart. 

-doesn't eat a whole lot - there was a sharp decrease in her food intake at around 12/13 months.  I've read this is fairly common.  We still offer her lots of different foods and let her decide if and how much to eat.

-loves her grandparents.  We spent much-needed time with family over the holidays, and Eliza had a blast playing with all four of her grandparents.  It was wonderful.  She is such a lucky girl to be loved SO much!  Being the first grandbaby sure has its perks!

-will forever be my heart and soul.  I love her so much it makes me want to cry with happiness sometimes.

It's the little things.

Today I'm celebrating five little things that make me happy:

1. Eliza slept until 7:00am this morning!  Since going down to one nap, she seems to be sleeping in later on a semi-regular basis.  This is cause for major celebration around these parts - she has historically been a 5-5:30am waker.  Now excuse me while I go knock on some wood...

2. A fun coffee "play date" this morning that Eliza and I had with a good friend from school.  We got lattes and played in the kids' section of a bookstore and chatted.  She doesn't have a baby, so she helped me wrangle mine!  It was fun to catch up with her and watch Eliza play.

3. Afternoon nap time today: me, my two kitties, a (mildly) sicky husband (who came home unexpectedly from work today) and my laptop (of course!), allllll curled up in bed for a couple of hours while Eliza naps.  

4. My new boots!  My dad totally surprised me by offering to buy me some much-needed winter boots.  We get a lot of snow around here (especially this winter - holy hannah!), and I need some heavy-duty boots that will be up to the challenge.  I got these.  Heavy duty, but with style!  Those people at Sorel sure know their winter boots...

5. My favorite new Aveda product.  This stuff smells sooooo good.  I love using it to massage Eliza's legs or arms after bath, and I use it along with my favorite hand cream (which is unscented) to relieve the really dry hands I seem to get every winter.  You can also use it for scalp massage or whenever you need a relaxing scent.  I love it.

Happy Monday everyone!  What little things made you happy today?

**updated to add a 6th little thing: I passed my critical exam (which is actually a paper, not an exam) today, one of two preliminary exams required on the road to my Ph.D.  That's a not-so-little thing to be happy about today, too!

Pulling Teeth!

Getting a good half-decent photo of Eliza is getting harder and harder these days.  She is a busy girl and has many more important things to do than to sit still and smile for mama's camera.  But the other day, I was DETERMINED.  I was going to get a photo of her in the cute outfit from her Auntie/Godmama Ashley.  And, for your viewing pleasure, instead of just giving you the ONE winning photo (out of 29), I'll delight you with a few outtakes.  

Here's how it went...

 1) Here she is in mid-whine, mad that I took away her My Little Pony brush.  I tried to reason with her: "but dear, the pink plastic brush really clashes with the red shirt..."

2) "Wait, wait, what's that...?":

3) And here she is attempting to placate me... most likely hoping that if she agrees to at least LOOK at the camera I'll let her go.  NO SUCH LUCK, CHILD.  This is why I had you - to dress you up and take your picture!  Muahahahahahaha!

 4) And then things turned ugly... 

5) I... I really have no words for this:

6) "WAT? You haven't gotten a good one yet?  How is that possible, Mama?"

And finally, here was our winner:

But if you ask this mama, I think they're all pretty dang cute. ;O)

[shirt by Speesees]

Hooray for Celine!

I just read an excerpt from an interview with Celine Dion (who delivered twins in October) and was pleasantly surprised by her candor in regards to the early postpartum days that every mother - in or out of Hollywood - experiences:


“In reality, I’ve had almost no time getting a shower and feeding myself. My preoccupation has been eating sensibly,” she shares. “My only worry has been to be able to open and close [my tops] quickly for breastfeeding. It’s been out of the question to even wear a blouse!”


How many celebrities do you know who openly talk about breastfeeding and the difficulties of new motherhood?  It's quite refreshing.


[Read more here]

Wordless Wednesday

Learning to use a fork!

2011

It's January 1st!  The beginning of a new year.  And as with any new beginning, there are feelings of hope and excitement for what lies ahead.  I am looking forward to watching my baby grow into the toddler that she is quickly becoming and seeing her engage her world even more than she already is.  She gets smarter by the day - I can't even imagine what she will look like and what I will be writing about her one year from today at the start of 2012!

2010 was an amazing year for us; such a full, happy year - I can't wait to see what 2011 holds.  I hope it measures up! ;)  As hubby said this morning: "each year has just gotten better and better" (with the exception of 2008 - that year kinda sucked), and he's right.

Though I've never been the type to set new year's resolutions, I do have a few modest goals for 2011, including staying on track in my program (writing my Special, finishing my coursework this year, hammering out a plan for my dissertation), focusing more on my relationship with hubby, being more present in each moment (and not worrying about what else I should be doing), building up our savings account, and last but not least, taking more time for me (now that Eliza is becoming a bit more independent and can stay longer stretches with Daddy or Grandma and Grandpa!).

Thank you for following my story and reading about my little bunny, Eliza - I've appreciated every single comment over the past 2.5 years!

Happy New Year, everyone!!