It's a girl!

So...Emily is pregnant again and expecting #2. We found out last week that it's a girl! She is due the first week of Aug. and according to the ultrasound tech, "She moves a lot!"
We've told Eliana about the baby. How much she understands, on the other hand, we're not sure. For now, she goes about her merry way, which includes figuring out new ways to have fun with her slide.

The other day we made blueberry muffins and Eliana helped to put the paper cups into the pan.
She scooped the mix into the bowl.

And mangled a raw mufffin by stabbing at it repeatedly with her spoon.

This past weekend, Eliana's cousins from Seattle were in town. She had fun on the swing with her cousin Lena.
Lena picked a few dandelions and tucked one behind Eliana's ear.
And for a midnight snack, Lena ate a Clementine orange. Eliana, always the copy cat, proceeded to eat one as well. Then ate another one, and a third.

And once in a while, we give Eliana a mochi ice cream. This is ice cream surrounded by mochi, which is a Japanese dough made of rice flour. Eliana uses her teeth to burrow through the mochi, and the sucks out the ice cream like a spider sucking the innards out of a fly. It's fascinating to watch.

Visit from Grandparents

Elvin's parents paid Eliana a visit last weekend. Much to her delight, she had two adults who were willing to play with her anytime and all the time, and lavish her with attention.

Eliana found someone to play the tambourine while she played the drums. She can't quite throw the ball yet, but likes watching it drop and roll away.

Ye-ye [grandpa] helps her watch videos on the laptop of herself. Meanwhile she pretends the financial calculator is a telephone. Multi-tasking already?

On Sunday, the rain held off so we went to the park.

She stayed on the swing for about 30 minutes straight. That's about 28 minutes longer than she usually stays on the swing.
When it was time for her grandparents to go, she even helped pack a box that they were checking in.

Eliana's New Tent

Actually, it's a hand-me-down from her cousins. But it's new to her and very fun to go in and out of. She likes to play hide-and-seek in there and also pretend that she is sleeping in her tent.

Making scrambled eggs...

Eliana is picking up new words every week. She is now stringing three and four words together in a row. For example, she'll say "Mamae car Elya Momma?" (Translation: Mommy is driving Eliana to Grandma's?) Some of her new words are "careful", "broccoli", and "band-aid." She is also saying many words in Portuguese now, whereas before she mostly stuck to English.

A typical dinner for her is a small bowl of steamed rice, frozen corn, scrambled eggs, and sometimes frozen berries and peaches for dessert. If we are having steak or ribs, she likes eating that too. She does not eat any vegetables except for corn and cucumbers.

Now that she is so good at copying what we do, it is fun to watch her pretend to fry scrambled eggs on her play frying pan.