Nene and Bampi visit

We have some great photos taken by my dad and mom of their visit last weekend.

On Friday morning, my parents joined Eliana, Lucy and me for story time at the Brooklyn Public library:





They do story time and sing some songs--that book on Baby Bear Chairs was great, maybe I'll get it some time if we ever run out of things to read. Then, they bring out boxes of toys for the toddlers to play. Although Eliana loves reading books (at home), Lucy loves running around the room during story time, and Eliana gets excited to run around the room with her. So we tried to bring them back to the story circle, but they're toddlers, and if you try to bring them back, they just scream. We got a few dirty looks from the other parents. Last time I went, the librarian made a comment like, "parents, please have your children sit down during the stories!" This librarian was a little more tolerant. Hopefully no one will put this on Eliana's report card.

We also had plenty of time to hang out at home, and Eliana got to show off her favorite toy:



Here are a few more good ones:





Bampi got to read Eliana a few bedtime stories. Note that we were joined by a few eagerly listening stuffed animals:



My parents also bundled Eliana up and took her out for a walk. Our neighbor has the "Retirement Home for Well-Loved Stuffies," we make a point of saying hello to Elmo and the bears when we walk by:



Eliana also went over and hung out with my parents at "their place" while I did some work..here's a picture they took. She looks so grown up--you can imagine what she might look like as a teenager:



On their last day, my parents went over and spent some time with Eliana, Lucy, and the rest of the gang. Here is Nene, Eliana and her friend Archie. Apparently Nene went home with Archie's cold (and still has it)...wishing both a speedy recovery!



Eliana continues to do all kinds of new stuff. We have heard her count up to 11 (why 11? Don't know.)..I forgot to report that last week. She can also identify the number "3' and sometimes the 1s as well. (Maybe 2 is harder?) She is very interested in counting and does it a lot. She likes looking at pictures of all animals, but is especially interested in cats.

One of Eliana's favorite rhymes these days is the teddy bear rhyme: teddy bear, teddy bear, touch your nose...touch your toes...turn around...touch the ground, etc. She has fun doing the motions, but really got into it when we had the teddy bear do the motions himself (okay, maybe with a little help...). That cracked her up. Toddler humor!

Thanksgiving is coming up in a few days..we feel blessed for our wonderful family, good health, and prosperity. We're enjoying watching our little girl grow and change, and try to remember to be as present as we can for each special moment with her and with each other.

Lucy's Birthday and more words

Yes, I've been lax in my blogging..I could give all kinds of excuses, but I'll just get on with it. I have a lot to share.

First, some great photos from Lucy's birthday party last Sunday (okay, a week ago Sunday but who's counting?). Lucy turned two!

A long time ago (in fact, two years minus one month), I was sitting on the subway, 4 months pregnant, and struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me, who had her one-month old baby (little Lucy) in a sling. We had a lot to talk about and ended up getting off at the same stop and even walking to the same street. It turned out we lived literally across the street. We kept running into each other in the neighborhood, and a number of months later, when Eliana had emerged and was five months old, Lillian (Lucy's mom) and I set up a babysitter share that is now in its second year. And Lucy and Eliana are best friends. Lucy, being 5 months older, has taught Eliana all of the important stuff: how to color with crayons, who Elmo and Dora are, and how to jump. (Well, Eliana's still working on that one even though Lucy's got it down.) Not to mention all kinds of words, such as, "mine!" (a favorite of toddlers everywhere.)

Anyway, the Sunday before last was Lucy's birthday, and we had fun! Eliana arrived ready to party:



All right, she fell asleep on the way there, and we wanted to let her get some rest so she slept through the first part of the party. But soon she made up for lost time and got right into the party spirit:



In the middle of the party she also found one of her favorite activities:



Here is the birthday girl. She had some work to do with all of the candles.



Fortunately she got some help from her mom and some others, since the whole candle-blowing-out thing is a little new:






And then the opening of the gifts! Eliana helped her friend to organize the wrapping paper:



Here are a few more shots of our families.





Eliana came home singing "Happy Birthday to you!" which she has been singing intermittently since then. Not sure she exactly knows what it means, but it's a nice song.

Since then, Nene and Bampi came to visit and I have more photos that I have to share in another post.

Eliana continues to impress us with her language skills. In the living room, she has a library of all of her board books--probably 30 or so, maybe more. The amazing thing is that she knows all of them by name and sight. We'll say, Eliana, do you want to read "Who Moos?" And she'll look though the books until she finds it, take it off the bookshelf, and bring it to us. She's also started to memorize some of the rhyming stories...so I'll read the book and wait for her to finish the last word of the sentence. She also knows a lot of the words in the books, e.g. one of her favorites is, "What happens in the kitchen?" and when she sees the picture in the book, she knows the word. Not just "mixing" and "eating" but also "cracking," "grating" and "peeling." At least 500 times a day, she'll ask, "What's that?" and she seems to retain a lot of it. And she's putting sentences together. Here is one we heard recently: "it's raining outside, right there." It is so wonderful to see how curious and expressive she is, we just want to keep encouraging it.

Halloween!

I know, you've been wondering for days what Eliana was going to be for Halloween! Mystery is revealed here:



That's right, a zebra! The back view is pretty cute too:



We've been busy. Eliana got a chance to try on her costume the weekend before Halloween at her friend Stella's party:



The Under-2 set definitely got into the holiday spirit. Eliana's friend Stella is sitting next to Eliana; her babysitter is friends with our babysitter Carol. Eliana doesn't look so happy in this picture...we just walked in the door and before we could barely get acclimated, our arrival was the occasion for the all-toddler picture! Things calmed down a bit once most of the cameras were put away and Eliana could play with the balloons:



Our neighborhood gets festive for Halloween itself. There was a pumpkin-decorating contest across the street, with food, drinks and prizes. Earlier in the week there had been a stoop-decorating contest, with more food, drinks, and prizes. Plus the highlight: a family parade that started at the end of our block and marched though the neighborhood. Once the parade came by, we were invited to tag on and march with them, which we did. Eliana got to stay up past her 7:15 bedtime which was exciting also. It turned out to be perfect weather for Halloween, not too cold and comfortable to be outside.

The funny thing is, Eliana is too young to understand that it's Halloween. We dressed her up as a zebra and she didn't mind too much, but didn't understand the reasons for all the excitement. Our neighbor (who has some older children) said that next year, she'll know, and then insist on a particular costume...so we should enjoy this time now.



Today was a beautiful sunny day..but the weather is changing and we're getting more bundled up. Here are some pictures...we went to the park to meet our friends Francesca and Nico after swim lessons, and later in the day Eliana walked ALL the way around the block with Shiloh (and Mommy and Abba)...on her own two feet.





Eliana continues to be very concerned with small particles. She likes sweeping, A LOT. Many times a day, she'll say "Shiloh's hair, Shiloh's hair" and then walk over and grab the broom:



It may be difficult to see in the picture above that she's sweeping..but she is! I'm sure that she'll ask to sweep again, so I'll see if I can get the whole broom in the picture next time.

Similarly, Eliana is not happy when she finds small particles in her bath. We're pretty clean, but there is an occasional piece of lint or two. If it's there, she'll find it and tell us to take it away, or possibly get a little upset and even fearful that it might get her. Yes, this is where the irrational fears come in. From what we've read, the WRONG thing to do is tell her not to be afraid of the piece of lint. So we're trying not to tell her not to be afraid of the piece of lint...this is good practice for a lot of other aspects of parenting that feel somewhat unnatural.

Apparently her friend Nico is the same way and does mopping in addition to the sweeping! Not only that, his mom says that the vacuum is his favorite toy. Funny how we think so much about what will entertain them, and then it turns out that the everyday things are the most interesting.

We've noticed that Eliana is improving at sitting and doing one thing. One of her favorite things to do now is to play with the crayons. She'll sit and color for a number of minutes before losing interest. And today we played in the sandbox with Nico for quite a while, maybe 20 minutes or so.

Eliana's new favorite book is "One Fish, Two Fish." She requests that we read it to her many times a day, probably once an hour or so. Sometimes we'll read it and then she immediately wants to read it again.. or she'll say, "Elie's turn" and then "read" it herself. We haven't gotten to the end yet (although Mommy did read ahead to find out what happens), we just read a page further every time we read. We hope to finish it soon!