Seven months!

Today is Eliza’s “birthday” and she is another month older. She can’t crawl yet, but she works on it every day. She loves to stand while holding onto furniture or one of us. And she is pulling up a little bit, particularly from our laps. Can’t quite do it all the way from the floor yet.

She’s becoming a little person with clear emotions and desires. When she’s happy, she laughs with her whole body and smiles so big it looks like it might hurt. She yells when she’s angry or frustrated at not getting what she wants. She even flirts now, and hugs, and waves “hi.” A little afraid of strangers, sometimes she cries when people get too close. But she knows her mommy and daddy and lights up when we come into view. She’s working really hard on language right now, and has mastered “ba ba ba ba” and “ma ma ma ma” and sometimes manages a “ga” here and there. Still no “da,” much to her dad’s dismay.

What new skills and changes will this month bring??

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Heading out




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Originally uploaded by griffey

I’ll be in the jungle if you need me. Going to find some elephants and giraffes. Be back for lunch. Ciao!

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Fooooood!



IMG_4441.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza loves to eat, just like her mom and dad. She’s good at stage 1 foods, so we’re heading to stage 2 soon and trying some finger foods along the way. So far, she’s not into anything too sweet. She prefers her veggies. And she doesn’t like juice, she wants water in a sippy cup instead. Dream kid so far, right?

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Eliza's first Fourth of July = the suck



IMG_4379.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Sewanee pulls out all the stops on the 4th, but the festivities just weren’t meant to be enjoyed by us this year. The dog show was okay this morning, but Eliza was sleepy and a bit grumpy. We only got to see about three floats of the parade before it started raining. The arts and crafts fair shut down before we could make it, due to the rain and Eliza’s nap schedule. We were invited to a barbecue, but we had to leave before the food was served in order to get Eliza to bed. And no fireworks because, well, little E goes night-night at 7 pm. I’m disappointed, of course. It is usually one of my favorite days of the year. Well, here’s hoping next year is better. Eliza will be 19 months old then. Crazy!

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Eliza's profile, 6 months



IMG_4290.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Favorite foods: carrots, oatmeal with apples, maple teething biscuits

Favorite toys: stacking cups, links, anything that rattles, balls, spoons, bowls, rubber ducks

Favorite books: Tails (Matthew Van Fleet); Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Eric Carle); First Words; Moo, Baa, La La La (Sandra Boynton)

Favorite music: mommy’s special Eliza songs; “Splish Splash” (sung while taking a bath, of course); the oldies station; “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”

Hobbies: standing while holding onto furniture or mom/dad; playing with Indy (the dog) and Cola (the cat); sitting by herself; pulling leaves off trees; checking the mail with mom

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Betsy's Thoughts




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Originally uploaded by griffey

Here’s what Betsy does while we listen to Eliza scream and cry going to sleep the last 4 nights.

To be fair, last night she cried for 22 minutes, then drifted to sleep, and slept all night until 7am. So something is definitely working.

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Six month challenges



IMG_4204.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

So the bottom teeth have broken through. Huge sigh of relief! Now, there’s at least one of her top teeth trying to come through as well. We had one glorious grump-free day (yesterday), and now she’s fussy again. Poor girl. I know it must hurt.

Another recent challenge: sleeping in her crib. She has decided she’d rather be with us, wherever we are. So she cries when she wakes up in the middle of the night and we’re not there. It has gotten so bad that not even our patting/shushing works anymore. It used to work perfectly, and she would barely wake up. Now, she is completely awake, thrashing about, crying and screaming unless we pick her up. All this means one thing: it’s time for the dreaded sleep training. We’ve been putting it off for months. We’re not even sure we agree with the whole idea. But here we go. Desperate times, desperate measures.

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Eliza is six months old



100_1843, originally uploaded by griffey.

Had her checkup today, and she now weighs 17 lbs, 5 oz and is 26.5 inches long. She is still in the 75th percentile all the way around, so she continues to be a big, healthy girl. I can’t believe she is 6 months old already.

She had a great weekend floating in Aunt Jenna’s pool for the first time, which she absolutely loved. She had a great time “swimming” with Dad, Nana, Pop, Jenna, and cousin Parker.

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Father's Day 2008




Father’s Day 2008

Originally uploaded by griffey

Not only was it Father’s Day, but yesterday was Eliza’s 6-month birthday. Her two bottom teeth are finally through the gums, and that seems to have helped her mood enormously. Now the top two are on the way, but we hope they won’t be the hell the bottom two were.

Can’t believe she’s a half-year old. I know that everyone says time flies, but to experience it is something different. She’s completely awesome, though, and only gets awesomer. 🙂

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Rice crackers…tasty



IMG_4116.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.

Eliza fed herself for the first time yesterday, some rice crackers that dissolve in your mouth and get really, really sticky. It was more for play than for nourishment, and she definitely needed a bath afterwards. We’ve found that she’s not happy watching us eat dinner…she wants to eat with us. So these little crackers are a good way to keep her occupied. Granted, they became toys instead of food by the end of our dining experience. Especially fun was the game where she pushed them off the Bumbo tray onto the kitchen table so mommy and daddy had to get their hands sticky picking them up and putting them back on the tray.

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