18 months

Eliza is such a blast at 18 months old! She is getting chatty and is hilarious and smart!

The two things that she is the most obsessed with in the whole world is shoes and food. If there are shoes left out, she will inevitably get into them. She loves her own shoes so much, but really enjoys putting other others' shoes as well. When she sneaks upstairs I will usually find her either trying to get her binky in her crib or in my closet trying on some of my shoes. She still loves food and eats really fast. She is always down for a snack. If I offer her a snack such as crackers she'll then say, "bowl!" because she loves getting to hold her own bowl.

Eliza can say lots of words such as more, bowl, duck, uh-oh, ouch, yes, mama, dada, bro, sis, Josh, papa, grandma (am-ma), no, please, thank you, lollipop, (pop) up, shoes, cracker, water (wa-wa), pig noises, and ah-ah-ah, which is what she says for dog. (She's making a barking noise.) She will attempt to say lots of other words.

She is still a total mama's girl. If someone tries to take her from me, even Dad, she will totally flip out. (She does much better with other people if I'm nowhere in sight.)

If we raise our voice to Eliza to tell her to stop doing something or because she's just done something naughty, she will immediately look at us and say sweetly, "Hi!"

Eliza loves dogs. She will immediately point and start making her barking noise if she sees one. She also loves birds and calls every bird a "duck."

She loves her binky but is mostly only allowed to have it in her crib. She calls it a "boop" and will ask for it if she sees it. Sometimes she'll sneak upstairs and try to get it from her crib.

Eliza is still a dancer. She will start rocking out every time she hears music. She likes the bath if a sibling is in there with her, but gets bored pretty quickly if she's by herself. She likes books and sitting on my lap while reading. Her favorite books are "Row Your Boat," "Goodnight Beach," and Minnie Mouse books. She also likes books with animals. She loves bubbles.

Eliza is a nightmare at stores because she always wants to stand in the cart. Super dangerous! I strap her in but she can get out of that no problem. And since she's way too young to walk in stores, shopping is hard. I feel like I spend most of the time sitting her back down.

Eliza is easily spooked. It is so funny to sneak up behind her because she always screams SO loud. Unfortunately, she also has started screaming when she's mad. This is less funny. Ha!

If you ask Eliza where certain body parts are, she is able to show you most of them. She especially loves belly buttons and finding other people's belly button.

Eliza takes one nap a day around noon. Her naps are usually a little over an hour. She goes down around 6:30 and sleeps about 12 hours, which is amazing. She doesn't often wake up during the night anymore unless she's sick.

We love Eliza SO much and are so happy she's ours. She completes our family and makes life more fun.

ONE YEAR!

Can't believe Eliza turned 1!! We love her so much!

Here are her 1 year stats:

Weight: 19 lbs, 13 oz (50th percentile)
Height: 30 in (77th percentile)
Head Cir: 18 1/2 in (92nd percentile)

At 1 years old, Eliza isn't walking but can stand. She crawls all over the place. She pulls up to things all the time. She only nurses when I am uncomfortable, which means she will probably only nurse about five more times ever. She drinks milk from a sippy cup in the morning and then usually has water the rest of the day. She eats everything that's not a choking hazard and especially loves it if it's someone else's food. :-)

Eliza still goes to bed at 6 whenever possible and is up for the day around 6:30. Her naps are typically pretty short, but at least her nights are often awesome. She likes her binky and soft dolls to hold at night. She doesn't typically want her binky during the day unless she's super tired. She is bad at napping on the go.

Eliza says "mama," "dada," "duck," "uh oh," and shakes her head no. She loves to read and loves bubbles. She likes the bath, especially if she has any siblings in there with her. She is a total mama's girl and gets very very upset if I hand her to someone else. She hates strangers.

Eliza has two bottom teeth and two top teeth. She still loves dancing to music. She is in size 3 diapers and size 18 month clothes. She is smart and always wants to be entertained. We love her SO MUCH!

11 months

I seriously cannot believe Eliza is 11 months old!

Eliza is crawling everywhere and doing it fast! She is pulling up to things and just barely started standing up in the crib and the bath. It makes me nervous because she's still unsteady and can easily get hurt when she tries to stand in these places. She'll be sturdy soon though!

She is nursing only about three or four times a day. She doesn't take milk from a sippy cup very well so we are going to try to transition her off of nursing by giving her milk in a bottle and then wean her off the bottle after that. She definitely prefers to nurse, so hopefully the weaning process isn't too terrible.

Every now and then Eliza will give a big cuddle or a "kiss" (open her mouth and put it up to your face) and it's the cutest thing ever. I make sure to heavily praise her afterwards because I can tell she gets excited about how happy it makes me. She will sometimes say "mama" or "dada" on command.

Eliza has almost no interest in baby food. She likes cut up fruit, sandwiches, cereal, vegetables, quesadillas, beans, noodles, pizza, and anything sweet. She likes to snack on Goldfish and Veggie Straws. She drank from a straw this month! It might seem late, but it was only about the second time she'd ever tried so I was impressed.

Eliza still goes to bed suuuper early, at around 6pm whenever possible. I was hoping to move her bedtime to later by now but she's usually such a wreck in the evenings and it's tough to get her to stay up even that late. Sometimes her naps are pretty good and other times they're terrible, but even when she naps well she still tends to go to bed by about 6:30. She sleeps really well at night and often sleeps through the night. She sleeps with her binky and likes to hold a soft little toy/doll thing. She's usually up for the day around 6 or 6:30.

Eliza is still the best dancer. Any time she hears music she'll start dancing. She loves to roll balls back and forth with us and gets super excited when the boys are playing catch and then let her have a turn. She hates the feel of grass. She goes swimming a lot and doesn't seem to love it, but doesn't hate it either.

I can't believe she'll be 1 in just a month!!! I love this cute, fun girl!

10 months!

Eliza is 10 months old!

The biggest thing she learned to do this month was crawl! She is getting faster and more efficient at it, and has also learned how to crawl over to cupboards and open them. When she starts pulling things out of them, her siblings think it's hilarious and cheer her on. Ha! She has become our human vacuum cleaner and we have to watch carefully to make sure she doesn't put every little thing she can find on the floor into her mouth.

Eliza LOVES to dance, and is the danciest baby we've had. If she hears any type of music or even if one of us starts singing, she immediately starts dancing. (Mostly by nodding her head.) It's so cute and funny!

Eliza babbles a lot, and has started to be able to say "mama" on command. Yay! She loves Peek-a-Boo and can hide her own face now. She loves This Little Piggy (with her toes) and Patty Cake. (with her feet) She sometimes likes the bath, depending on her mood.

She's in size 3 diapers and size 18 month clothes. She doesn't love dresses since she can't crawl very well in them. She nurses 5 times a day. (when she wakes up, 10am, 12:30pm, 3pm, and 6pm) She usually goes to bed right around 6pm. She is still a pretty bad napper, hence the super early bedtime. She sleeps through the night more often than she doesn't. She loves food and prefers grown up food to baby food. She's good at self feeding, though she usually ends up SUPER messy. :-)

Eliza is getting better at imitating us, and loves to smack her lips back at us when we kiss her. She is good at charming everyone around her. She has started to hate her headbands and tries to pull them off all the time. She doesn't really like being on grass. She likes the pool and being in her float. She likes being outside but doesn't get to hang out outside for long if we're not on the pool since it's July in Phoenix, and SO HOT.

Eliza is learning like crazy right now and it's so much fun to watch! She's so fun and sweet and I can't believe we're only two months from her first birthday!

Crawling!!

On Saturday, July 7th, 2018, Eliza crawled for the first time! She'd been very close for the whole week leading up to that day. I could see that she was finally starting to get it, so I got the whole family together and brought her into the front room with some Goldfish so we could all witness her crawling for the first time. And even though it took her a couple more tries to fully figure it out, she did it! She had quite the cheerleading team. Yay Eliza!

9 months!

Eliza is 9 months old!

Here are her 9 month stats: (taken at 9 1/2 months)

Weight: 18 lbs, 4 oz (44th percentile)
Height: 28 in (48th percentile)
Head Cir: 18 in (87th percentile)

Eliza slept through the night for the first time just after turning 8 months old! Since then she has slept through the night maybe half of the time. It has been amazing! She has just barely started taking just two naps a day. These naps are at about 9 and 1. She wakes up around 6:30 (sometimes closer to 6) and goes to bed around 6 pm. Her early bedtime is mostly because her naps often aren't very long.

Eliza claps! She does it spontaneously but will also do it on command if you say, "Yay Eliza!" She loves her new trick and so do we! She doesn't like being on her belly, and still doesn't have a huge interest in crawling. If she attempts to move around while on her belly, she'll either roll over or move backwards. I can tell that it is starting to bother her that she's not mobile.

Eliza's first two teeth just barely popped in! She doesn't seem to notice them or care. When it comes to food, she likes both baby food and table food. She is great at self feeding. She nurses 5 or 6 times a day. I still wake her up for a feeding around 9 or 10 pm about half the time. I am slowly cutting out this feeding. She is wearing size 3 diapers and size 12 month clothes.

Eliza babbles a lot and says Mama and Dada a lot, though still not on purpose. She likes to play by hitting you in the chest and having you say, "OUCH!" really playfully. She likes to knock over block towers and likes when people are super animated with her. She likes Peek a Boo and Patty Cake with her feet. She hates when she topples over. She also hates when there's a ton of commotion, especially in the evening when she's tired.

We love this girl!

8 months

 I can't believe Eliza is 8 months old!

Eliza has no teeth or even any sign of any teeth. She is in 12 months clothes and size 3 diapers. She has yet to sleep though the night, though she has been pretty dang close a couple times. She definitely can't crawl yet and doesn't seem to have any interest in learning. She can stretch and reach pretty far though from the sitting position. Good thing she's pretty flexible! 

She still takes about 3 naps a day and usually wakes up around 6:15 am. She still isn't the best napper. She likes lots of foods. She eats both table food in little pieces and baby food. She will eat almost everything that I give her and very much enjoys meals and snacks.

Eliza likes the bath. Since she goes to bed around 6:00, she usually takes her bath by herself. (Her siblings are usually still downstairs playing.) I put just a little bit of water in and she likes to splash and suck on rubber ducks.

Eliza is still a good nurser. She nurses about 6 times in a 24 hour period. Her last feeding is at about 10 pm. I usually wake her up for this feeding and do it so that she doesn't need to eat during the night. Just after she turned 7 months old I dropped her middle of the night feeding and she adjusted easily.

She said, "mama!!!!" I was so excited, even though she doesn't know what she's saying. :-) Shortly after she said, "dada." She says dada more often, but I like to point out that she said mama first. Ha!

Eliza is ticklish and likes patty cake and peek-a-boo. She really likes textured balls. She also loves baby crackers and Puffs. She is still so much fun! She is growing up way too fast!