17 Months Old!l!

(the classic high chair pose!)

• Eliza will always be my baby, but she has definitely made the transition to a toddler.





• Eliza can communicate quite well. She verbally tells me more, eat and no on a very regular basis. Lately she has been informing me when she's pooping (and when I'm pooping for that matter). Poop is a very fascinating topic for her, but she has zero interest in sitting on the potty chair. I'm not pushing the potty, but the option is there for her.




• Eliza's favorite thing is her belly button. She shows it to me many times each day. Onsie outfits are very frustrating for her due to the fact that she cannot access her beloved belly button.





• She will still (reluctantly) let me feed her, but only if she has a spoon in each hand to help.





• I have a basket of Eliza's shoes sitting in the living room. She loves to say shoes and insists that I put them on her. The other day she had 3 shoes. I put 2 of them on her and she was having a fit that there was not a foot for the 3rd shoe. I tried explaining that she only had 2 feet. I guess she didn't want the 3rd shoe to feel left out?





• In June Kiddie Kandids (a local photography shop where I get Eliza's pics done) wanted to take pics of her to use for their Christmas advertisements. I thought this sounded so fun. I took her for pics and Eliza didn't crack a single smile the entire hour we were there. Little stinker!





• Eliza has always preferred me, but has taken it to a whole new level this summer. The good news is she is developmentally on target. Apparently extreme separation anxiety begins right about now. She's not shy about making her opinion known. I leave her as little as possible, but she objects every time.





• Every time Eliza sees a picture of me she says and signs mama. It's quite cute.





• Eliza is running. When she started walking she would run, but only because she didn't quite have the muscle control to walk. She now runs on purpose...to get to where she is going faster!





• She LOVES music. When we are in the car and a song is about to end she tells me "more" immediately. She does the same thing at the end of a Signing Time episode.





• It's so funny to hear her talk. I often think to myself, "Ah, that's what you wanted to tell me all along!"





• The girl is down to 1 nap a day. Her schedule goes something like this: Wake around 7 am, nap around 12:30, sleep 9 pm.





• We had to switch back to size 3 diapers. When Eliza started walking the diapers were sagging to her knees. She wears size 4 at night because she tends to wet through the 3's.





• Swim lessons are going swimmingly. The class is supposed to be for kids 6 months to 3 years with little or no water experience. It's an interesting class...the girl is teaching the kids the breast stroke. I feel like yelling, "Are you kidding?", but instead we just kind of do our own thing. Eliza isn't quite ready for the breast stroke.





• My girl can throw a tantrum. Woooooweeeee! I try to ignore the tantrums. The other day she was in her high chair whining. I was ignoring. She finally realized that whining was getting her no where fast. I guess she thought she would try a different approach and said, "mama?" I said, "yes, baby" she then said, "more". The girl wanted more banana, and more banana she got!




• Eliza can drink from a big girl cup.




• My artist loves to color. I turned my back for a split second the other day and she got a hold of a pen and scribbled all over her legs.




• I don't know how it is humanly possible to love someone as much as I love my Eliza!