Bundle of Joy

Eliana - what a sweet child she is! She is growing to be a bundle of joy, laughter, and goofiness. She loves to waddle about everywhere, but will often come and check where mama is, laugh to get my attention and give me a hug. As you can see, she loves to put our shoes on. She loves to dance and will start swinging her arms and swaying or bopping whenever she hears music. And she is still a cuddly baby (wow, do I feel blessed!). One of her all time favourite activities is to nuzzle her bottom into our laps and to sit and read books. Church nursery workers often tell us what a sweet personality she has and we sure do agree. Thank you Lord for this bundle of joy.

Winter and walking

Hoorah! I can finally update videos! Here is the most recent video of some of Eliana's tricks. Enjoy!

14 months

Wow, has it been 2 months since my last Eliana update? Actually, I'm not too surprised. The last 2 months have seen me out of action while battling that hard but blessed first trimester of pregnancy. I'm 15 weeks now and feeling much better. Eliana certainly makes this pregnancy much more tiring than the first. She is a little go-getter. So... here's how she's grown (and my has she grown!)

She is doing sign language for just about anything we teach her now. She just started saying "Dri" for drink and "no no" while pointing at things she's not allowed to touch so Nate and I have claimed that she is officially saying words. "Doh" for dog was her first word while we were around animals at Grandma's house for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving around extended family in Michigan and then church families in Louisville was a huge blessing. It really helped her learn to be ok around strangers. She still is delighted whenever she sees other children - especially the mobile ones. She loves to follow them and chase them.

She started walking the day before she turned 13 months. She then took about 3 weeks to fully walk and boy do I love that she can walk! No more crawling around on strange floors while we're out. I wish I could figure out how to upload videos on this because she is so adorable!

She is eating anything we eat now (although I tone the spice down for her - poor daddy). Yesterday I discovered that she LOVES peanut butter sandwiches.

Not too long ago I also discovered that you never turn your back on your baby while paint is out! Eliana is usually pretty good when I tell her not to touch something - but this green blob was too irresistible. I came back to find her shirt front, the floor and her teeth covered in green. Her poos where bright green for 2 days afterwards!

She finally loves to read books. She will only let us read books that have bright pictures and few words, (and gets cranky if we stop - even after 6 times through!) but she'll flip through anything on her own.The weather has turned very cold so it's hard for me to take her outside (I think I'm more afraid of the cold than she is) but we loved going for walks and bike rides together while the weather was still nice. We sure are looking forward to March!

1 year check up

Eliana had her one year check up a couple of weeks ago. Here are her stats compared to 9 months:

Weight:

9 months - 16lb 7.5oz/7469g = 10-25th%

12 months - 18lb 12oz/8550g = 10-25th%

Height:

9 months - 28"/71.2cm = 70th%

12 months - 30.5"/77.5cm = 90th%

Head Circumference:

9 months - 17"/43.18 cm = 25th%

12 months - 17.5"/44.5cm = 25-50th%

So, as you can see, Eliana had pretty steady growth except for a decent jump in her height! She has slown down a lot in how much she eats but apparently that's normal for this age. I weaned her from nursing a couple of days ago. I thought it would mean a lot of tears from me but, surprisingly, Eliana seemed to take it harder than I did! She got over it after a day or two though. Breast feeding, or more specifically, struggling to produce enough milk for Eliana, brought me more tears than anything else has in my life! Why did I keep it up? Because I absolutely loved it. It was so kind of the Lord to allow us to make it this far!

What else has Eliana learned this month? She's still not walking but took a few steps on her birthday (after great encouragement from and practice with her mama). I'm not sure she'll be walking any time soon but I'm lapping up the last of these 'baby' days. She has learned to sign "up" and "all done". She has been a constant finger sucker up until now but her 2 favourite fingers are calloused, dry and swollen so Nate and I have started saying "not now" and limiting finger sucking until bed time. To our amazement, she has been wonderful at obeying us in this area! She has spent the last month with congestion and coughing and colds (and fussiness). She is finally starting to get better and I'm so glad to have my happy girl back. I almost forgot how much fun she is when she is at 100%!

If you want to see more photos of Eliana's last 6 months you can go to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=281097&id=543241773&l=fa43473c23

Eliana's Party

We had Eliana's 1st birthday party yesterday. I made her the red and white dress, hoping to have her look nice and summery, but had to transform it into a winter outfit at the last minute. It turned from 25C/75F and sunny in the morning to about 12C/55F and rainy in time for her 5pm party. We planned to have the party at the local park under cover and didn't have a wet weather plan as it hadn't rained for about 3 months. I guess we forgot there was such a thing! Praise the Lord for life giving rain :).

It cleared up enough to go ahead with the outdoor bbq plan though. Thanks to all the troopers who turned up! We shared Eliana's day with 2 friends that just turned one, Eowyn and Grace.

Below we are blowing out their candles after singing happy birthday. I made Eliana a pumpkin cheesecake, as cheesecake is one of my favourite desserts (and I figured it had a tad bit more nutrition than a cake :). It didn't look the greatest but I guess it was a hit as I came home with an empty tray!

My champion husband mastered the bbq and faced the cold with bare arms as he selflessy lent his jacket to someone else. I love that man. It turned out being a really great time, despite our hopes and prayers for the weather to be nice. God always knows what's best :)

Happy Birthday Eliana

Thank you, Lord, for one wonderful year with our sweet Eliana.

May each year see her grow to know and love the Lord Jesus.

May she turn to Him each day.

May she know Jesus - the Way, the Truth, the Life - for no one comes to the Father but by Him. May she bear the fruit of the Spirit with a glad heart - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control.

Father, thank you for making her ours. Please also make her your own.

Amen.

Eliana 6-11 months

Eliana 6 months:7 months:8 months:

9 months:

11months: ( Apparently I never took any of her during her tenth month!)