Merry Christmas!

We hope that everyone had a fun and enjoyable holiday season!

Preparation for our's started several weeks ago when we went down to our local evergreen doug fir forest to cut down our Christmas tree. Just kidding! (Actually, we went down to our local Lowe's.)

The reason we go to Lowe's is because it's very close to our house. Given that we can only drive 15 mph as the tree is precariously tied to the roof of our sedan, we think buying the tree from the closest place possible is best.
The next day, we set up the tree and Eliana helped to decorate.
And here is our tree all decorated. Every morning, Eliana reminds us that there's a "shtar" on top of the tree.
At first, Eliana was fascinated by the lights on the tree. She would touch them and say "hot." Here she is inspecting them while snacking on a cup of milk.


She is really into hugging things right now, whether they be her stuffed cat, her book, or even...the Christmas tree.
We let Eliana open one present early. The Sunday before Christmas, she opened a present that Uncle David and Auntie Christina sent from Indianapolis.
On Christmas Eve, we went to church. As part of the tradition at church, candles are passed out and lit. Because this service was being held at an elementary school multi-purpose room, they passed out glow sticks instead.
On Christmas Day, Emily's parents came over and Eliana opened presents. She didn't quite understand the entire present-opening routine, but got the hang of it after a/while. Here she is with her stocking. A present she really liked was a stuffed dog.Another present that was a hit was a miniature cooking set from Ikea. Having watched Daddy cook dinner countless of times, she immediately knew what to do without any prompting from us. Our little monkey has been watching very closely...



And though this wasn't a present, but rather a hand-me-down from her cousins, Eliana has been asking for something with "pedals" for a long time, since she has a little friend who has a bike with pedals. We whipped this out and even though she doesn't know how to pedal yet, she's willing to brave 40 degree weather + wind chill to ride her bike.

Eliana is changing and growing every week. Some of her recently acquired words are "pease" (please), "zebra", "baboom" (vacuum), "ropa" (which means "clothes" in Portuguese), and "help". Her favorite food continues to be "sauce" (i.e. Ranch dressing) and her favorite activity is still watching her sign language DVDs. She also spends a bit of time looking at her fish or flipping through books.

She is just now beginning to understand what the telephone is all about. Today, Daddy called home from work and she realized who was at the other end of the phone.

Here she is playing around with the rice cooker, which she can lift and carry around the house. She also likes to pull on the retractable cord/plug on the rice cooker.

She loves playing with Scotch tape by pulling out a bunch and then pulling some more.Eliana enjoys a handful of ramen.

For the past several weeks, it's been either very cold or rainy outside. So Eliana is on "outside withdrawl" and when she does get a chance to go out, she never wants to come back in.

Sometimes she likes to hang out inside her crib. Here she is enjoying a book.

And when she is spending time in her crib, she ALWAYS asks for a drink of milk.

Now 17 months old...

Eliana continues to entertain us with her new words, her new skills, and her new antics. When she's awake, she is in constant motion--running around, getting into things, picking things up, and knocking things down. Elvin is seriously considering putting a pedometer on Eliana to see how many steps she takes per day. If you have suggestions on how to attach the pedometer to her body without her knowing (and pulling it off), let us know.


Here's a taste of what we get to experience...

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!