Eliana's 1st Christmas...

Eliana's first Christmas was very eventful. We all flew down to San Jose, CA to visit Elvin's family on Friday, December 19. We ate lots of good Chinese food and Eliana got to spend time with her grandparents and Auntie Sue & Uncle Leslie. She also got to open some Christmas presents.

As we were about to fly back to Portland, we found out that our flight was cancelled due to the snow storm. We were able to get on a different flight 2 days later, just in time to be home by Christmas Eve. We made it home, to find our house completely blanketed in 12 inches of snow- it was beautiful!

On Christmas Day, we, and 18 other Rice's, went to Emily's parents' house for a Christmas dinner of ham and roast beef with all the trimmings. Eliana got even more Christmas presents from her cousins and aunts and uncles. We finally had our own "Christmas morning" on the 26th, with stockings and presents under the tree.

Bedtime reading...

Mommy and Daddy enjoy reading in bed. This happens before we go to bed or on a Saturday morning after we wake up. We hope to instill the same value into Eliana. So here she is with her book. But before reading it, she wants to get a taste of what it's like...

More new tricks...

Eliana has learned how to cough and how to scream--voluntarily that is. She coughs just for fun, or when she's annoyed, or just to make noise, it seems. Same for the screaming. She'll take a big breath, close her eyes, and let out a scream. Then repeat. Fortunately, she seems to be growing out of both of these habits, as they were funny and cute the first few times she did it. But after the 100th time...

New tricks...

Eliana has learned a couple more tricks that she'd like to share with you.

Her first trick is that she now realizes that she has feet. And she loves to grab them and chew on them. So, now she often has a wet sock or wet shoe. It is making it hard for her to learn how to sit up, since as soon as she is seated, she flips down to chew on her big toe. But it's a pretty convenient toy to have, as they go with her wherever she goes.

Her second trick is blowing bubbles, or blowing raspberries. This is a funny trick, but makes a big slobbery mess, as you will see...

Teddy bear suit...

Back when Eliana was 2 weeks old, her Aunt Jenny visited from Colorado bearing many gifts. One of the gifts was a full-body fleece suit, with a hood that had bear ears sticking out. At that time, the suit seemed incredibly large when compared to Eliana's little newborn body. But since then, Eliana has doubled in weight and fits into her suit quite nicely. And just in time too...although we have had a very mild fall, winter has set in. The low's this weekend will be below freezing and we are expecting some snow on Sunday.

Trimming toenails

Eliana's fingernails are cut on a regular basis--about twice a week. Even then, they are sharp and she sometimes scratches herself in the face. Her toenails are cut less often because they are always covered up and so we think about it less. But they were exposed tonight because she kept kicking her socks off. So Mommy decided to clip them. But as you'll see, Eliana wants to become involved in the activity. She's gotten a lot more grabby lately and pretty good at putting her hands in the general vicinity of what she wants to grab...

Eliana-ese

Eliana speaks a language called Eliana-ese. Neither Mommy nor Daddy can understand what she's saying, but she doesn't really care; she shares her opinions anyways. Mommy and Daddy wish they spoke Eliana-ese, but it's hard to understand as it's mostly vowels and squeaky noises. Also, Eliana is mostly comfortable talking at home. When somewhere else other than home, she gets a serious look on her face and usually doesn't crack a smile, let alone talk.