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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Daycare highs and lows



IMG_7496, originally uploaded by griffey.

Poor Eliza ended up with a double ear infection, thanks to the RSV. This coincided with her first week in a new room at daycare. Needless to say, the transition hasn’t gone smoothly.

She seems to be missing her old classmates and teachers. She asks for a few of them by name every morning. And she isn’t sure about her new teacher, whose tone of voice is a little harsher (even to my ears). She’s also a little intimidated by the bigger, faster, more mobile kids.

She cries at drop off, and she cries a little bit throughout the day, although we hear she’s crying a little bit less than before. Who knows how long it will take her to get comfortable in her new surroundings. Eliza is bright and intuitive, which means she’s also quite sensitive (to change, to others’ feelings, to chaos). I am beginning to see glimpses of the special challenges involved in raising this kind of child. But I am also seeing the joy.

Eliza is simply mind-blowing. She can now say some of her numbers in the correct sequence. I was helping her climb the stairs, counting them as we go. I said “One…” and she said “two…” Flabbergasted, I continued: “Three…Four….Five…” and she said “Six…” I almost fell down the stairs. So I kept going: “Seven….eight….” and Eliza added “nine…” and I shouted TEN! And scooped her up and hugged her, amazed. I don’t know where she learned this. Wasn’t from us.

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Brand_New_World Sickness

I guess that’s why they call it the blues

IMG_7478.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

RSV, you are the bane of our existence.

Eliza’s RSV turned into a double ear infection plus sinus infection so bad that she has yellow gunk pouring out of her eyes. Yay! The fun continues.

Meanwhile, she is loving the piano Daddy got her. As much as she likes to wear sunglasses and anything she can put around her neck (like a boa), we call her our little Elton John.

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Brand_New_World Learning Milestone

Mommy…out…walk



IMG_0338, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza is now refusing to be carried, pushed around in a grocery cart, or anything of the sort. She can walk and so she wants to walk. Everywhere. All the time.

In the store, she started asking, “Mommy…out? Walk? Out? Walk?” So we let her lead me around, looking at all the fun things on the shelves. Her favorite is cat and dog food (with pictures of the animals on them) and bottles of shampoo and body wash that she carries around and then puts back when we ask her to do so. She LOVES leading me and Jason by the hand. If it’s too cold to go outside, we just go laps around the house, Eliza in the lead, yelling “walk! walk! walk! walk!” as we go.

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Brand_New_World Sickness

Sick Day




IMG_7452.JPG

Originally uploaded by griffey

Eliza’s sickness continues. With her, a sick day is one long rollercoaster. She feels ok, then plays, gets tired, gets grumpy, then wants to rest. You hold her for awhile, then she’s rested, and feels ok, and wants to play.

Rinse, repeat.

Since we’re not taking her out this weekend, the day became a “what can we play with” day. She’s bored out of her mind with her regular toys, so today we played with balloons. She seemed mildly interested.

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Brand_New_World Sickness

Attack of RSV



IMG_0778, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza was having a banner week at daycare, practicing for her transition (Monday) to the toddler room. She loves it over with the “big kids,” and seemed to be extremely happy with the idea of moving up.

Then, bam! Sick yet again. I think she had three healthy days? Maybe four. Now she’s got a horrible cough, runny nose, and is very contagious.

We are sooooo over this whole winter thing.

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Brand_New_World Profile

Eliza profile: fourteen months!

Hobbies: pretending to feed people, pets, stuffed animals, dolls, even pictures of people in books; pretending to cook; playing on playgrounds; looking at books and magazines; pretending to write; putting stickers on paper; learning new words; looking at photos of people she knows; talking to Pop and Nana on the phone

Favorite toys: bowl/spoon combo; pens, pencils, crayons; shape sorter; Little People school bus; anything she’s not supposed to play with (like mommy’s underwear and the toilet scrubbing brush)

Favorite books: her newest one by Matthew Van Fleet (Cats); any book that has Elmo in it; any book with animals

Favorite foods: cheese of any kind; yogurt; bananas; chicken noodle soup; mandarin oranges

Favorite music: she is currently in an Elvis Costello phrase and demands to hear the song “Radio Radio” at least once a day; also enjoys anything by Laurie Berkner (from Jack’s Big Music Show on Noggin)

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Brand_New_World Learning Milestone

You can almost see the wheels turning



IMG_7388.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

She learns to say new words almost every day. This week, she added “boots” and “apple” to her vocabulary, as well as another classmate’s name, Addy. She can also say “bite,” when she wants a bite of something, which I forgot to put in the list below. Yesterday, she repeated “hummus” when I asked her if she wanted it for dinner, and she also repeated every single syllable of the phrase “cracker with cheese.” No kidding. Her best “sentence” to date has been: “Cookie …más (more in Spanish)…peese (please)”? She said this on her own, with no prompting.

The amazing thing she did yesterday: we were looking at a book, she pointed to a picture of a man, and I told her “farmer.” She immediately started singing “e-i-e-i-oh” (from the song “Old McDonald”).

Yet another story: Indiana (our dog) was in Eliza’s way the other day and I said, “Indy, go lie down. Go to bed.” Eliza looked at Indy and said “Night night!”

This kid blows my mind. She is not quite 14 months old.

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Brand_New_World Learning

Go away cat!




IMG_7382.JPG

Originally uploaded by griffey

Best story of the week: Betsy was in Eliza’s room with her, reading books. Our two cats, Cola and Hootie, came in to see what was going on, but we don’t usually let them in Ellie’s room. So Betsy says “Get out, cats!” and chases them out.

Eliza takes a beat, stands up, walks over to her stuffed animals. Picks up her stuffed animal cat, walks to the door, and throws it into the hall.

She’s far too smart for her own good.

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Brand_New_World Learning Milestone

Eliza’s words



IMG_7307.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

For posterity’s sake, and because I love lists, and because I’m procrastinating my work…here is a list of Eliza’s current vocabulary. I think we’re up to around 40 or 50 “words.” And these are just the ones she uses consistently and with real meaning. There are other words she has said a couple of times, but I didn’t count them because they’re not in the regular rotation (yet).

People: Mommy, Daddy, Pop, Nana, Ally (friend at daycare)
Animals: cat, duck, fish, bat, bee, mouse, “Tiggy” (her fave stuffed tiger)
Objects: ball, bowl, box, hat, seat, baby (for dolls), keys
Body parts: Nose, knee
Meal time: eat, más (“more” in Spanish), cracker, cookie, cheese, juice, water (wa-wa)
Social words: Hi, bye-bye, night-night, please (“peese”), no, uh-oh, tickle, ow (for ouch)
Verbs: eat (already listed above), write, cook
Other: bath, socks, shoes, “e” (what she calls all letters)

She can also do lots of animal sounds: meow, moo, hoo hoo (owl), ssss (snake), growing for tiger/lion/monster, quack, tweet (for bird), etc.

I’ve heard her say a couple of times: bubble, Addy (another friend from daycare), jacket, tick tock (for clock), cup. Jason swears he has heard her say “music.” I think we’re heading to explosion territory where we’re going to start losing count.

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Brand_New_World jason Learning Milestone

She’s a Genius!

Just watch this!

Oh, wait a minute:

Maybe not.