First steps...

Eliana has just starting taking baby steps (literally). She'll take one or two if she knows that mommy is waiting for her at the end. Her record right now is four steps, but we haven't been able to catch that on film.

This weekend, we went raspberry picking. At $1.25 per pound, we were able to bring home 6 pounds for a little more than $8. Eliana ate about a pint of raspberries at the farm yesterday, but today refuses to eat any.

Her fascination with all things telephone continues. She likes to punch the buttons on the answering machine. So if you call our house and the answering machine never picks up, you know why.

Eliana's current favorite foods are scrambled eggs, mac and cheese, and watermelon. She used to wolf down waffles, but now they often get dumped on the kitchen floor. Yogurt is also "so last month." We've also started her on cow milk, which she thinks is OK, and she seems to like Aidell's meatballs.

And Eliana's lunch was interrupted by a visit from her friend. She has lately been trying to step on the cat's tail, and even succeeded once. But this cat has a very un-cat-like personality and keeps coming back for more lovin'.

Eliana's antics...

Eliana is now getting very creative. This has made "Eliana watching" an entertaining hobby for Mommy and Daddy. For example, the plate that used to hold scrambled eggs also doubles as a fun toy. If you look through it, it turns the entire world yellow!

And after you do that, naturally, you're going to have bits of scrambled egg stuck to your face.

She has also been doing a forced laugh, which includes doubling over and covering her mouth with her hands. She puts it on display as Daddy tries to spin coasters on the coffee table. We're not sure where she learned this...

Eliana's been learning how to stand up without holding on to something. She usually does it for 2 or 3 seconds at a time. But every once in a while, she'll get inspired and decide to stand for a long time. Something came over her while she was taking a bath, because she had a lot to say.

Eliana loooooves the phone. She loves holding it, sucking on it, and biting it. Our answering machine is just barely within her reach. So she'll knock it down, then press the "Page" button, which makes all the phones ring. Not sure how she figured this one out...

Eliana has been learning a lot of sign language from Mommy. In addition to "all done", she now knows how to do the signs for "milk", "more", "eat", "outside", "car", "book" and "Daddy" (although this doesn't necessarily mean she knows what the words mean). We've been trying to teach her how to wave goodbye and here she is humoring us...

A day in the life of...

Whenever we pick up Eliana, we use the Chinese words bao-bao, which means to carry. She has caught on to that and will use it too. At the end of the video, you'll also see some of her tongue-flicking. Ever since her top teeth came in, she does this snake-like action.

Eliana loves to say "bye!" She doesn't say it to people at the socially appropriate times, but only when Mommy is on the phone. It's her way of saying, "Now that you're done with the phone, I want it!"

Eliana loooooves her soccer ball. She'll hug it and do a face plant in it (I'm sure taking the opportunity to lick it at the same time.) If you're interested, here's a two minute video of her hugging her soccer ball over and over.

And of course, now everything shaped like a ball is a "ball" to her now--such as the watermelon. (As you saw in the previous post, she says "woof" now. But not just to dogs, but also to cats, horses, and squirrels too.)

Eliana inherited some toy refrigerator magnets from her older cousins. It used to be that she would take them out of the container and soon they'd be scattered all over the kitchen floor. Our darling daughter is now capable of gathering them all up as you'll seen. We did not teach her this, it was a self-taught skill.

And our garden has finally produced its first crop of the season. We are now awash with snow peas and we'l be eating them for dinner every night for the next fortnight.

Our cruise to Alaska

We came back from our 7-day cruise to Alaska this past Saturday. We left out of Seattle and stopped at 4 towns as we cruised up and down the Inside Passage. The weather was unseasonably sunny and warm, to the point where we were putting on sunblock everyday.

Eliana did reasonably well on the cruise. The first couple of days she was a little overwhelmed with all the people around her. But she eventually got used to it and even started smiling at the waiters in order to get their attention. She slept well some nights, and not-so-well on other nights. If you look closely, you'll see her 6 teeth. And two more are sprouting this week.