Eliza's had a busy few months. After a snowy Christmas holiday, we returned to the unseasonably warm Houston weather. She started going to "It's Playtime" on a regular basis while mom and dad were busy at work. The nice ladies at the daycare have been teaching E fun stuff like using a fork, snapping her fingers and coloring.
In January, a new President was sworn-in. The photo in front of the Houston Obama mural made it into BET's inaugural coverage. Eliza seemed glad for the excuse to wear her "Obama Baby" onesie. About the same time, Eliza hitched a ride on the 39 News parade float [video] for the MLK day parade.
February was a busy month. Mommy and E went on their first "girl's trip" traveling to PDX to see family and friends. Eliza stayed at Grammy Lew's house. She enjoyed playing with Grammy's dog, Scout. While in Portland, E made it to her pal Charlotte's first birthday party and met her girl cousins Natalie and Isabella.
In March, Eliza finally took her first steps [video]. After months of toddling along the furniture, she let loose and started walking on her own. At first Eliza wasn't sure what to do with her hands, so she held onto her hair kinda like a security blanket. Next thing we knew she was running all over the place. Around the same time that she became insanely mobile, she also figured out how to open the various doors in our home. Mom and Dad launched into lockdown mode purchasing all of the baby door locks at Target - seriously. We know we helped the economy by investing in all of those expensive door locks.
She's got eight teeth right now. Four on bottom and four on top. Two new ones are coming in on either side of her top gum.
Eliza's language skills improve each day. She's up to about ten words that include (in approximate order of those spoken):
1. Dada
2. Mama
3. Uh oh
4. Bye, bye
5. Dog
6. Up
7. No
8. Down
9. Baby
10. Hi
She seems to end each sentence with either an exclamation point or question mark. When asked what a doggy says, E replies "woof". When asked what a cow says, she replies "moo". E utilizes several baby sign language skills to communicate with us. She bumps her fists together to indicate "more" and points to her mouth when she's hungry. In fact, she's pretty good at pointing at whatever it is she wants. And usually we give it to her.
One of the cutest things Eliza does right now is love her babies. She has several baby dolls. She carries them all over the place with her. She likes to squeeze them, rock them, pat them and kiss them. She also feeds them bottles, although she occasionally tries to take a sip off the toy bottles.
She's pretty sweet when it comes to giving love. She showers us with kisses and snuggles. And she's very friendly even to strangers blowing them kisses and waving hi.
On the last day of March, Eliza got a new baby brother. Her birthmother Jerrica gave birth to a little boy, and is happy to be a parent again. We know Eliza will be a loving big sister to the little guy when she meets him this summer. Jerrica and baby Der'ion are in the hospital, but doing well. We wish her family all the best wishes we have to give.
It's now April and we've got lots of adventures planned for the months ahead. Aunt Karey visits in a few weeks, then Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Rocky. After that Grammy Lew is here. Then we go on our cruise. It will be Eliza's first "international" trip using her new passport. We've already stocked up on cute swimsuits and you can be sure we'll take lots of great photos.
