Thanksgiving weekend...

On Thanksgiving weekend, Eliana had alot of fun. For Thanksgiving dinner, Eliana wore her brand new dress. She spent time with her cousins and helped decorate the table cloth with Crayola markers (it was butcher paper.)


She must've worked up quite an appetite, as she ended up eating 4 pieces of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls. All watching were amazed.
The next day, Eliana met up with her cousins at the community pool. Splashing around was quite fun.

Eliana spent some time with her Aunt Jen.
In the evening, Eliana hung out with her cousins some more. They love carrying her around, and sometimes Eliana doesn't have a choice about it.

Ever since the weekend, we hear about "Abbeeee" (Abby), "MeeeeMeeee" (Millie) and "Leeeena" (Lena) - her three girl cousins all day long, every day. They were a hit!

Her favorite things...

Our little girl is a non-stop bundle of energy. When she is not running around or banging things together, she follows Mommy and Daddy and watches them intently. She copies everything we do...so we are quickly learning to be careful what she sees us do! (NO cleaning toilets while Ellie is watching!) On thing she currently likes is putting on Mommy or Daddy's shoes.

One current favorite food is shredded cheese. It can be at room temperature, straight from the fridge, or even frozen, it's all the same to her.

Eliana is obsessed right now with bags, especially hanging them around her neck. You can see that she has a purse around her neck. She is also carrying three other bags or toys with handles.When Emily was a kid, she used to play with a tub of cornmeal. So we got the same thing for Eliana, who likes to scoop it from one cup to another, or just let it run through her fingers.

Eliana has recently discovered Ranch dressing, or "auce" as she calls it. (her way of pronouncing sauce - which can also mean ketchup or steak sauce) She asks for it at every meal, regardless of whether or not it is a Ranch dressing-appropriate food. She dips foods in the sauce, but merely as one way of getting sauce to her mouth - she just licks it off. More to the point, is to just run her fingers through it...

Although Eliana still likes being read to, she also enjoys flipping through the pages herself. She has a few animals that interest her and she has memorized which books has that animal. So Eliana will flip through the pages until she finds the animal she wants.

And of course, Go-go, the neighbor's cat, is still her favorite thing besides Mommy and Daddy. Go-go, however, is not as fond of Eliana as in the past. Although Eliana wants to pet Go-go, the cat is always one step ahead of her...

And while Eliana enjoys bathtime, getting her hair washed is NOT one of her favorite things. She doesn't like even the remote possibility of getting a drop of water in her eyes.

Acting crazy...

The other day, Eliana was playing with her toy that plays music. She had also seen some other kids jumping around and wanted to copy them. Even though her feet never left the ground, she had alot of fun jumping around.

Visit to California

Last weekend we made another trip to visit Ye-ye and Nai-nai ("grandpa" and "grandma") in San Jose. Eliana, who likes to run around freely about the house, did not like being confined to Mommy and Daddy's seats on the completely full flight. So we brought a bunch of new toys, trinkets, and treats for her and would whip one out when she was about to go crazy. Besides the fact that Eliana poured 1/8 cup of water onto Daddy's lap, the flight went fine.

What did Eliana do in California? The weather was beautiful, so she explored the backyard and Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai looked on. She wore her backpack and ran around the house.
Eliana pretended to talk on the phone.
She now know's how to say "Yeh-yeh" and "Nai-nai", much to the delight of Elvin's parents. She also doles out hugs if she feels like it.
We walked to Elvin's old elementary school to visit the playground.The slide is always a hit.

And last but not least, Eliana has her first In-N-Out milkshake. She also had a bite of Mommy's cheeseburger and fries.

No pictures of the flight home. Southwest overbooked the flight and bumped Elvin off the flight. Unfortunately, they didn't tell him that until they closed the door to the airplane--with Emily and Eliana inside. Needless to say, Elvin was a little peeved at Southwest for getting left behind.

Happy Halloween!

The weekend before Halloween, we met up with Emily's brother and sister and their families at the local pumpkin patch. It's a large farm, complete with a petting zoo, cider press, and corn maze. The weather was perfect and there were pumpkins galore.

Eliana's cousins love spending time with her.

Always the copy cat, Eliana tried pushing the wheelbarrow.

Of course the petting zoo was a favorite. She says "boc boc" when she sees chickens.

On Halloween night, we mostly spent the time at home answering the door. We did venture out to visit one house. Eliana dressed up in a Yoda costume that Elvin's co-worker contributed.
She wasn't very impressed with the Boba Fett carving on the pumpkin. She was actually afraid of the jack-o-lantern for some reason.

More calculator...

As we said, Eliana likes to use calculators as cell phones - and she especially likes Aunt Jen's calculator. Today, she had a whole conversation with someone....

From baby to little girl...

Our baby is rapidly turning into a little girl. Her likes and dislikes are becoming more pronounced, and she is very determined to do what she wants. She is an expert at saying and signing "No", and uses it regularly. When really upset, she flings her head and arms back and forth, like she is shaking her head no, but using her whole body.

She is starting to copy everything we do, in her own way, and to also play pretend with her dolls and animals. Her favorite activity, though, has not changed - to go outside, rain or shine.

Ellie has always loved water, and a new favorite activity is washing hands, with a fresh dab of soap, on EACH hand, every 5 to 10 seconds. We were having wraps for dinner, so Eliana had a tortilla while we were cooking. She uses her mouth a bit like a third hand, to store things, feel things, touch things, and to carry things around the house.

Once we started eating, and she saw our food, she of course needed her own "wrap". Her's is a cucumber and chicken wrap -- something that is easier to eat now that she has 3 molars!

One of the "toys" that seems to be a favorite of all kids is a cell phone. Ellie has expanded her "phone" category to include anything with a screen and buttons. Here she is with Aunt Jenny's financial calculator...it is one of her favorite phones right now.

Now it is the monkey's turn to talk...

Eliana has scorned bananas for a long time, but now that she can hold it herself, and knows the sign for it, they have great new appeal.

And again, playing pretend...this time sharing her banana with one of the many many bears that live in our house.

Ellie just got some new (to her) spoons from her cousin Lena, so she wanted to eat yogurt with them. It took too long, so she opted to just "drink" the yogurt, straight from the carton. It left a bit of a ring around her face, though!