Category: Brand_New_World

Formerly the blog for my daughter Eliza, where we posted from her birth until she began Kindergarten, now all the old posts are integrated into Pattern Recognition.

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Brand_New_World Learning

Let’s Get Physical



IMG_0420, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza has started catching up with her playmates in terms of physical prowess. Suddenly she wants to climb onto anything and everything: stairs, chairs, boxes, computer monitors daddy leaves lying the floor. It’s a little scary.

She’s also trying to jump, which basically means she stands up on tip toes with her arms in the air and yells “jump!” Once in a while, one foot will come up off the ground.

Besides climbing, her favorite movement is stomping. She goes around yelling “Stomp Stomp!” while she does it. Also does “march march march,” which is a little disconcerting. And of course, there’s “wiggle wiggle” and “shake shake shake,” which she gets from the only TV show she watches these days, Yo Gabba Gabba.

And, she now runs like crazy. It’s amazing to hear her giggle so hard she nearly falls down as she’s getting chased by the daddy monster.

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Brand_New_World Milestone

Not much smaller than this panda



IMG_1137, originally uploaded by griffey.

I forgot to blog about her checkup the other day.

She is enormous. 97th percentile for height (!) and 90th or a little higher for both weight and head circumference.

And while the average for her age is saying about 10 words, I lost count at 75 and I’m pretty sure she says over 100, including “sentences” like “Mommy hold it,” “Daddy do it,” “mas (more) appy sauce (apple sauce),” etc. She’s also starting to sing, and it’s recognizable enough that we can identify “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” (sounds like “tickle tickle li sa” but with the right melody), the alphabet song, and “Ashes ashes we all fall down!”

The doctor joked that she would be a genius basketball player.

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Brand_New_World Sickness

More reasons why we should put her in a bubble



IMG_1146, originally uploaded by griffey.

She has had a runny nose and watery eyes for almost three weeks now. And yesterday she was extremely cranky at daycare, so I finally took her to the doctor. It doesn’t seem that anything is infected, so we got the green light to try Zyrtec. Although her doctor thinks she is technically too young to have allergies, it seems that once again she is ahead of the curve. So we’re going to try it and see what happens.

It was an eventful weekend for little E: National Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburg and Sewanaroo music festival on Saturday; Chattanooga zoo complete with carousel ride and a visit to the farmer’s market on Sunday (see picture of her playing in the kids’ area). We all had a great time, but we were exhausted by Sunday night.

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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

National Cornbread Festival



IMG_1086, originally uploaded by griffey.

Took Eliza to another festival this weekend, and she seemed to get more attention than all the cornbread. Wherever we go, people want to talk to her and touch her. Or we hear them talking about her. She has no idea how powerful she is. Yet.

We ate lots of yummy fair food (freshly fried potato chips, barbecue, hot dog, ice cream, kettle corn). Eliza was in heaven. Heard some decent bluegrass music, watched some juggling on stilts, looked at John Deere tractors and giant cow statues, and played with rubber ducks floating in a fountain.

We didn’t ride any rides, but she had a blast looking at all the bright spinning things. She kept saying “Wow! Wow! Wow!” It was clearly a feast for her little tummy AND her little eyes.

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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

For my Blueberry Girl

I think everyone with a daughter should hear this…we all have our own Blueberry Girl.

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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Turtles and chickens and llamas, oh my!



IMG_1030, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza got to go to her first “petting zoo” environment this weekend at a local festival. She had absolutely NO fear whatsoever and picked up the turtles with an ease and grace that astounded me. She also had fun stopping the mice on their wheel with just a powerful little touch of her finger and lifting it so they could spin again. She did this over and over.

We also took a hayride, which she thought was funny and fun. Although we were going about 5 miles an hour the whole time, she kept saying “wheeee! wheeeeee!”

And there was live music, which she enjoyed, and a cookout. She had an entire hot dog plus some of mommy’s food. But the best part of all was just seeing her walking all around, very independently. Someone asked us, “Is she a runner? Some kids just see an open space and take off.” Well, I wasn’t sure until Saturday, but yes. She’s a runner.

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Brand_New_World Profile

Eliza Profile: Sixteen Months



IMG_0973
Originally uploaded by griffey

Favorite hobbies: Climbing, especially stairs. Dancing. Trying to jump. Basically, she’s learning lots of physical things right now. One of her favorite pastimes is wrestling with Daddy.

Favorite foods: Fish, sweet potatoes, bread, yogurt, cheese, tortillas (she calls them “tias”), freeze-dried fruits, toast with peanut butter.

Favorite toys: All her Elmos. Daddy’s Guitar Hero drum set. Mardi Gras doubloons and beads. Plastic eggs. Puzzles.

Favorite books: Her first Dolly Parton Imagination Library book, the Little Engine That Could. Hop on Pop. Birthday Monsters. Apple Farmer Annie. Carnival.

She’s basically becoming a toddler, and learning to assert herself. She will now ask for books by name, request specific bedtime friends (“Elmo! Elmo! No, Bunny!”), and foods. She can basically ask for anything inside the house at this point…she asks for things, and to do things (“Outside!” or “Up!” to go upstairs). She’s learning that she can effect the world with her voice, which is both awesome and scary as hell.

She’s also becoming far more cuddly. She will actively seek hugs, and insists on getting kisses in the morning when Daddy gets her up. The normal wake up kisses go something like “Blankie! *kiss* Baby! *kiss* Eliza! *kiss*”. We taught her that she can pat the dog and cats to show them love, and now she pats everything and everyone to show that she likes it: the phone, a book, Mommy…doesn’t matter. “Pat, pat, pat.”

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Brand_New_World Profile

Eliza profile: fifteen months!

Favorite hobby: talking, talking, and more talking! She now says 2 and 3 word sentences on a regular basis. The funniest so far? When a program we were watching on the TiVo got to the end and stopped, she said “Daddy fix it”! If she can’t reach something she wants she now says “Mommy get it.” She’s becoming quite the bossy little thing. She can also name all of her daycare classmates and tells everyone (and everything, including her breakfast and the dog) “Morning!” when she wakes up.

Other favorite hobbies: Sitting. A relatively new skill, she tries to turn everything into a “seat” (another favorite word): her toy piano, a basket full of books, the stairs, anything. Also likes drawing and “writing,” putting stickers on paper, playing with Play Doh, taking things out of the refrigerator, organizing bottles of shampoo and lotion in the bathroom, dancing.

Favorite foods: #1 by far is her “wogurt” (yogurt), which she would eat five times a day if we let her. Also loves pumpkin butter on bread, any kind of cheese, pizza, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Has recently figured out how to dip foods, so she’s into ketchup and marinara sauce.

Favorite toys: Everything is a toy at this point. Loves her bubble machine from Uncle Kevin, sidewalk chalk, balls, stuffed Elmo’s (she inherited a bunch from mommy), and shape sorter.

Favorite books: Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop, which she can now request by name at bedtime and does so often. Also loves his Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? And still loves the Matthew Van Fleet books, especially Cats and Dogs.

Favorite media: We do let her watch TV, but only three shows: Yo Gabba Gabba (her favorite), Jack’s Big Music Show, and Sesame Street. She also still loves music, particularly Laurie Berkner and yes, the Elvis Costello phase continues.

She’s a fun little monkey with a great sense of humor. Life with Eliza is certainly never boring!

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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Latest language insanity




IMG_0364

Originally uploaded by griffey

Just keeping up with Eliza’s increasing language acquisition is insane. The latest: Every night when her evening episode of Yo Gabba Gabba goes off (we watch it after dinner as a wind-down for bedtime), the DVR stops and she says “Uh oh!” Last night, it went off, she said “Uh oh!”, then paused and shrugged and said “Daddy fix it!”

Indeed, Daddy fix it.

She’s 15 months old. I’m scared of her at 2.

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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Linus



IMG_7513.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

She’s turning into Linus, which is something I always feared would happen.

The sacred pink blankie used to live only in her crib or be brought out for naptime at daycare. But now that she can say the word “blankie,” she can ask for it whenever she wants. Today, she demanded to take blankie and Minnie Mouse for a ride in the stroller. She went to her room, pointed to the crib and shouted “blankie!” I gave it to her. She then carried it into the living room, where the stroller was parked, and tapped it, saying “ride! Mommy…ride!” And so we went on a walk, despite the 58 degree temps. And then blankie stayed outside with us and got nice and dirty as she dragged it around the yard. When I protested, took it from her, and told her no, she FLIPPED OUT. Will she be one of those kids that has her blankie in the grocery store, on the playground, at the doctor’s office? Gah, I hope not. Well, at least it’s “blankie” and not “binky.” She has classmates at daycare who are much older than her who still suck on the “binky” all day long.

Me, I pick my battles.