Working on It

Eliana has been working overtime around here, at being a toddler!



Seriously, Eliana has developed an interest in being part of the household and doing all of the things we do. She's not too proud to clean the floors, and has expressed interest in sweeping also! We let her know that she's exempt from chores until at least age 2.

She's even trying to carry a baby on her back: Last week when Marty was away, we went over to our neighbor's house for a playdate. Eliana was fascinated with the baby in the backpack, a little like the backpack that she often travels in on mommy's back.



We missed getting a picture of the baby on her back..she wore the baby on her back for a little while, but the baby was a little big for her.

One thing that Eliana has gotten into is mixing. Mostly she just stirs her plastic spoon around her plastic cup, but when we make eggs, we let her do some beating:



What happens after this photo is that Eliana tries to eat the raw egg...we keep telling her that you have to cook it, but she's so interested in putting everything into her mouth. We're looking forward to doing some basic cooking with her in a few months.

As mentioned before, our little girlie has gotten into numbers and counting a bit. We try to incorporate math into the routine. For example, Eliana LOVES cranberries and asks for them every morning as she's having breakfast. Now we ask her, "how many do you want?" This morning she said, "five. " We gave her five, she ate them, then she said, "More please." So we asked again how many she wanted, she said, "five" again. We counted out 5 more cranberries onto the tray. "More please." Again, she said she wanted 5. So she got 5 more, for a total of 15 cranberries, and we had to stop the math lesson to prevent a stomach ache.

Eliana is also very interested in the mechanisms of things. I tried to capture something that I see her doing a lot these days, opening and closing the "seatbelt" on her high chair. She likes to close it, then asks us to open it, then she closes it again...



But lest you think we never got out, we were out a lot this past weekend. On Sunday, Eliana had swimming lessons, then came back for a nap. In the afternoon we went to the park, and then took her to get new shoes (she's size 4.5 now!) , then to frozen yogurt. Eliana was pretty into that frozen yogurt:





Remind us to order a larger size next time.

Eliana is pretty delicious these days, continuing to surprise us with all of the wonderful things she does. We'll share more soon.

Comings and goings

It's September and things have been picking up so it has been harder to find time for blogging. Not to mention that Marty was away for the past 5 days and it was all I could do to get the dishes washed and toys put away by the end of the day. Anyway now he's back so I'll take a moment or two to post an update.

Nene and Bampi were here last weekend on their way to Italy. We had fun!



On Monday Nene and Bampi took over all babysitting responsibilities for the day. They took you outside to play and aparently you had a great time.



Bampi and Nene stayed in the building, in the garden apartment of our neighbors Melissa and Aaron, who were on the honeymoon. The thing is, now you think that Bampi and Nene live there! We went by yesterday to welcome them home, and when we knocked on the door, you said, "Nene?" I had to explain that Nene and Bampi were there only temporarily...

On Sunday we went to the Wassermans for brunch. They gave you the Pat the Bunny book, which you love and have read 5x a day since then.



You even did some dancing on Nene's feet, although it took you a while to get the whole foot coordination thing.




We are so enjoying watching and experiencing the new things you do every day. Over the past few days you've been humming the alphabet song! Marty says that you have the rhythm but not the tune, but I hear the tune too. You're putting a lot more words together into 2 or 3 word sentences. For example, we went on a walk the other day and you said, "Hat off.." or you'll say, "Fix it!" Today I think I heard you say, "Why Shiloh bark?" You have also started doing some counting, "one..two.." You know a lot of the numbers, I've heard you say them at different times although not in order together.

Last Tuesday Nene and Bampi left for Italy, and Marty left the same day for LA. When you got home from the babysitter, you asked, "Abba?" So I said that Abba had gone on an airplane. Then you asked, "Nene?" and I had to say that Nene had gone on an airplane. Then you asked, "Bampi?" and I felt like the bearer of bad news to say that Bampi had gone on an airplane too. Anyway as I said at the beginning, the good news is that Marty got back last night, so our little family is together again.

Labor Day

Yes, you love the swing! For some reason it was making you giggle, even more than usual. We went with it, and giggled along.
This weekend we hung out in the neighborhood; it was great to have the bonus day to spend as a family. On Saturday we picked up our CSA vegetables and I whipped up some summer minestrone soup at the end of the day. Also our street was closed for a block party with a waterslide for the kids and some shared food for the adults. You helped us meet some neighbors by "borrowing" a toy from a few different stoops--you borrowed a ball from one house and a stroller from another. Don't worry, we returned all of it.
On Sunday we went to a farmer's market, and then took you out to the Park towards the end of the day. And today we looked for a picnic that our friends had invited to...amidst the thousands of people sunning and relaxing in picnic park, we didn't find them. Good news was you didn't seem to mind as long as we had grapes for you and you could meet some nearby babies and try their toys.
We walked home; you actually walked about two blocks on your own. You get pretty focused on the goal, "Home, home!" On the way home we ran into little Lozen and her parents Mara and Tracy, who were in our birthing class. You said hello, but kept walking towards home.

We got home and briefly stopped by the next-door neighbors BBQ. We couldn't stay, since you would have knocked over the beer bottles and other stuff. But you did get to meet their cat, who you were pretty excited about. Oh, and another neighbor has a little pug puppy that you met today too. But you haven't really learned to defend yourself, so the pug puppy almost chewed on your nose. We're working on teaching you how to get along with many different creatures, lots to learn.