Growing up...

Eliana has changed alot the past couple of weeks. She has discovered her hands--that they are actually hers. She'll watch her hands move and occasionally notice her feet moving as well. Also, although she has been grabbing things for a while now...we think that she might actually be purposely reaching for things now. Not sure yet though. Eliana is definitely less fussy than she was even 3 weeks ago. The 1 to 2 hour crying sessions in the evenings are now 15 or 30 minutes.

And...(drumroll)...our baby has slept through the night for 3 days straight now! On a typical night, she'll be in bed by 9am or so and not get up until 6am or 7am.

Trip to Mile High City...

Last weekend we went to Denver to visit Emily's sister and brother-in-law, Jen and Darin. We saw their new house, did a little sight seeing, and most importantly, Eliana got to hang out with her aunt.

And what happens if you need to change a diaper at 30,000 feet, you might ask? Well, it takes two tray tables and some quick hands. The kind gentleman sitting next to us volunteered his Ziploc bag to put the old diaper in. I think there was some self-interest involved.

Fun activities

A co-worker told Elvin that when her son was 2 months old, her son really enjoyed looking at books. Eliana has not really shown interest in books, but we decided to try again. She thought the books were ok, but not that interesting...

What she really enjoys, though, is her monkey friend. If you hold Monkey in front of her face, she squeals in delight and will have a whole conversation with him.

Harvest time

Although we had a cool and wet spring, summer has extended nicely into September. The hot weather has allowed the tomatoes, strawberries and cucumbers in our backyard to ripen. Eliana joined Elvin while he was in the back grabbing some veggies.

Also in our backyard, we have some sort of a squash-bearing plant growing. The squashes are in the shape of a zucchini, but the color of a pumpkin. The plant was a volunteer and it might be a hybrid between the two. It grows monstrously large squashes, as you can see below. This must be what it's like to have twins (just kidding, to all those parents out there who actually have twins!).

Learning to sit up...

Eliana loves to be carried around in a sitting up position, facing out so she can she what's going on around her. But being able to sit up by herself, however, is another thing. Watch her attempts at sitting up (with mommy's help)...

Back by popular demand...

Because of all the positive feedback last time I did this, here is another graph showing Eliana's weight. Two days ago , she had her 2-month check up and weighed in at 12 lb. 1 oz. Needless to say, she is fattening up quite nicely. She also got her shots. She turned beet red and let out a scream that I'm sure could be heard for miles. We didn't think to take a video of that, so you'll just have to take our word for it. Anyways, she was pronounced healthy and fine.

Happy

Eliana is definitely a morning person. She is grouchy in the evenings but chipper when she wakes up...between 6 and 9am. In the morning, she always greets you with a contagious smile that brightens the room.

We have amassed a bunch of video clips in the past two weeks that show off the best of her laughs...