Eliana's newest antics...

Eliana continues to learn new things, and surprise us with the funny tricks and antics she comes up with. Her food favorites continue to change - right now rice is definitely at the top of the list. You can see her eating it at the beginning of the video. She pretty much walks everywhere now, although she still falls down a lot. And, she is starting to try and run! Her vocabulary, spoken and especially sign language is growing daily...but there is still a lot of jabber that we don't understand at all! Enjoy...

Camping at the San Juan Islands...

We left last Wednesday for a 5-day camping trip to the San Juan Islands. All of Emily's five siblings and their families came to celebrate Grandpa and Grandma Rice's 50th anniversary. The trip there involved a 4 hour drive to Anacortes--a small town north of Seattle--where we got on board a ferry. Overall, Eliana did very well and had lots of fun with her cousins.

The day before we left, Eliana was helping us pack the cooler.

We made three stops on the long car ride up. To help pass time, she read books, played with her toys, slept, and screamed.

The ferry ride to the island took about 1 hour. As you can see, the weather was gorgeous.

We bought a ginormous tent just for this trip. Pre-Eliana, we used to use a 3-man backpacking tent but with our wiggly worm, the small tent just wouldn't do. This 12'x14' behemoth from Costco.com did the trick.

We hung out inside the tent some. Her cousins Abbie, Millie, and Lena would come over to play.

But during the day, it got much too hot to be inside the tent. So we would chill out underneath the shady trees. Here she is sitting on Aunt Jenny's lap.

We celebrated Eliana's birthday again with Emily's family. Just like before, Eliana was perplexed by the cupcake with the candle on top.

Bedtime was later than usual. Since the sun set so late, and we had not way of going "indoors", closing the blinds, and making everything dark. So Eliana only went to bed after the sun set.

The sun rises early at about 5am or 5:30am. Luckily, Eliana was tired enough that she did not wake up with the sun.

What else did we do there? We went hiking...

Our campground was right next to a lake. While others went kayaking, Eliana dipped her feet (and most of her body) into the water.

We visited an alpaca farm. Eliana did the sign for "cat" and called the alpacas "Go-go", which is the name of our neighbor's cat that she loves.

We visited a lavender farm.

On the ferry ride back, Eliana wanted to copy her cousin Lena, who was hanging upside down on the bench. So Eliana did the same thing.

And we finally made it back home on Sunday afternoon. She was tired after her first (but not last) camping trip.

One year old!

We can't believe it, but Eliana is one year old today! Needless to say, this past year has flown by.

Eliana is walking, talking some, and all in all becoming a little person... As far as walking goes, she walks more than she crawls now, and prefers to be up on her feet. For talking, besides "bird," "book," "ball," and "woof" (she means dog), she now says "bye-bye" and "hi!" and also does signs such as "eat," "please," "bath," and "monkey." She likes climbing up the stairs and going down too. She also enjoys making one of her toys play music and dancing to that.

This is what she did on her birthday...

After waking up, she rode on her scooter.

Before taking a nap, she spent some quality time with Mommy...

In the afternoon, she spent time playing with her new ball. (By the way, you may have noticed the black eye she gave herself by bonking her head on our bookcase.)

Then Grandma and Grandpa Rice came over to watch Eliana open her many presents.

The book with kittens was a big hit. No surprise since she loves cats. (Here, she is about to do the sign for cat.)

This toy plays notes if you press the keys!

We had a cupcake with a candle, which she had no idea what to do with. So Mommy blew out the candle for her.

After a full day, it was time for a bath. We don't use the plastic tub anymore because she always climbs out of it.

So Eliana had a full day! Tomorrow we leave for a camping trip at the San Juan Islands. We'll be there for four days of hiking and relaxing. We'll let you know how that goes!

Not-so-first steps...

On the 4th of July, we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's house for a BBQ. While the delicious ribs were still roasting in the oven, Eliana decided to celebrate Independence Day by exercising her own independence: walking! After a night of raucous fireworks (yes, they are very legal here in Vancouver, WA), she kept on practicing.


And while she's had seven teeth for a long time, her eighth tooth is finally coming in.

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.