Eliana's Half-Birthday

Eliana's half-birthday was last weekend. Just for the fun of it, we decided to celebrate it. It was the first weekend in a while where we had no big events planned and could just take it easy the entire weekend. We got a coupon for a free ice cream from Cold Stones. So we told Eliana she could get ice cream on her half birthday. She was very proud of her coupon and pretended that she could read what was on it...


On Sunday afternoon, we visited Petsmart, which is closer than the zoo and almost as interesting. We saw dogs, kitties, and birds. She didn't like the snakes or lizards.

We also made cupcakes in the evening. She thought all her cousins were coming over for her half-birthday party (they came over for her 2-year party), but we told her this party would be a small one, just our family. We put two candles in the cup cake, plus another one sticking out halfway. She blew them out all by herself (during her 2-year party, she didn't have the coordination to do that.)

This past week, Emily also took Eliana and Karina clothes shopping. Eliana has always admired her girl cousins' night gowns. Now, she has one of her own. Here she is modeling it.

Karina got some new outfits as well, since she is growing like a weed. She is now wearing 12-mo. pajamas!
Karina has, thankfully, stopped her raspy throat sound, and makes more normal, baby-like noises. She makes a pitiful sounding whimper when she is not happy. Elvin thinks it is very cute.

Karina continues to be her happy self. She can kind of sit up by herself already and has a grip as strong as anyones. Elvin has had his cheek grabbed by her and felt like she almost tore his skin off. At the same time, she can't roll at all; she wouldn't be able to roll if her life depended on it.