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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 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 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 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.

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Brand_New_World Milestone Uncategorized

Eliza profile: nine months

IMG_5388.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Favorite hobbies: creeping / army crawling all over the living room extremely fast; standing at her musical play table; chasing the cats; reading with mom or dad; playing peekaboo with Dad; clapping, sometimes for no reason whatsoever; pulling her own hair (because it’s there); splashing in the bathtub; putting things inside bowls, buckets, baskets, etc.

Favorite books: all lift-the-flap books she can get her hands on. Some of her absolute favorites are by Karen Katz (Where’s Baby’s Mommy? and Where’s Baby’s Belly Button?, for instance). She also likes the Caldecott winner First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger and Go Away, Big Green Monster, by Edward R. Emberly. And absolutely anything by Sandra Boynton, although Opposites, read in silly voices, is one of thebiggest hits.

Favorite foods: What’s not to love? It’s food. She eats pretty much anything, although she still prefers pureed to chunky. We’re working on that. Accidentally had her first Ritz cracker the other day (long story) and thought she had died and gone to heaven.

Favorite toys: She is into a stuffed animal phase. A little soft tiger, her “Ugly Dolls,” and a teddy bear with a red ribbon that her Pop gave her are her most beloved friends right now. Also enjoys playing with everyone’s shoes (even at daycare), pieces of paper that she can crinkle / tear, spatulas and other stuff from the kitchen, and “roll arounds” from Fisher Price.

Milestones and more: Has two top teeth as well as two bottom teeth now (whew!); just had her first cold and survived; can pull up onto just about anything from seated position; is still working on her sounds (she is trying out ga ga ga now).

Lots more fun to come!

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Brand_New_World jason Milestone

Oh hai!


IMG_2683.JPG

Originally uploaded by griffey

I’m four months old today!

I also just had my 4 month checkup, and I’m 14 pounds, 5 ounces and 25 inches tall! 75% for both, so I’m nice and proportionate.