A Detailed Update on Leaps and Bounds

First avocado.

Stewie getting early guitar lessons.

Our first kids table! Dinner on Birthday Weekend Extravaganza!

Pinata time at Stew's birthday party.

Eliza got to hang out with her boyfriend Lucas at Stew's Birthday Party.
She's one week older, he's two times bigger!

Sledding at Stew's Birthday Party.

Happy Girl Claps.

Sad Girl Pouts.
That bottom lip is just tooooooo cute!

Look at that tongue!
Just like her mom.
I have this exact picture of Stewart. You could barely tell the difference, except she's all girl!

Eliza has grown by leaps and bounds in the past month. I mourn her sweet coos, which she still makes, but she's moving on to "baba" and "mama" and "dada"(unintentionally it seems). She's now sitting up on her own, and army crawls alllllll over the place. My mom says I did the same. She just doesn't bother to pull up to her elbows and knees! She's like a snake. We've taken to calling her "mia coda di arogosta piccolo" which means "my little lobster tail" in Italian. Even when you hold her she just flips her legs back and forth with such strength! She loves to throw herself back when you hold her and hang upside down. Peek-a-boo is also her new favorite game, and she will clap! She even pulled up to standing in her crib the other night to play with Stewie, who was hanging off the edge trying to get her attention.

They are so beautiful together. Eliza has been enjoying her first independent rounds in the bathtub with Stew, and adores it. She loves to splash and grab at toys, but mostly she likes it when her goofy brother splashes at her, and draws her pictures with his bath crayons on the tub walls. Sometimes he will be so sweet and just hug and kiss her out of nowhere, or give her Cheerios or a toy. But often he gets annoyed, and is bothered by the fact that he's not allowed to have his choke-able toys around her. Today we moved them upstairs and allowed him to have "private" play time in his room. He has three rules, and can repeat them to you: 1) No water 2) No closet 3) No crib. So far so good. Of course, now there's a disaster in another room! He has been getting better about cleaning up his toys since he's gone to school. But not tonight. I guess its better than in the living room.

After Stew's own unending birthday extravaganza, he went to a friend's birthday party yesterday, and has another one to attend in a week or so. He was so exhausted after yesterday's party he ASKED to go to bed at 7PM.

Eliza is also eating bananas and avocados, in addition to Cheerios. We're teaching her to sign "more," and she's trying! Other than that she's still nursing, having a formula bottle once or twice a day, and eating jarred, soft food. It is still hard to leave her everyday, but we nurse at 5:45AM and snuggle before I leave, and then she goes back to sleep until about 9AM. This has proven problematic for Michael, as he has to get her up to take Stewie to school at 8AM twice a week. She smashes around (arogosta picollo!) when I get home from work, and nuzzles in... so we nurse, and then she nurses again before bed. She also loves reading stories in Stewie's bed. He's asked once or twice if she can sleep with him?! But usually he tells me its time to put her in "my old crib" when we're done reading. She has also attached herself to one of the numerous beautiful blankets so many wonderful people have given her; I wonder, will she call it "me-me?" She doesn't demand it, but she always pulls it over her and wraps it around the thumb that she is sucking (which, by the way, she is ambidextrous... she'll suck which ever is convenient). On the same note, Stewie is now able to leave his "me-me" at home on short trips, but has managed to rub a nice hole into his favorite corner.

Unfortunately I do not have a positive potty-training update. Things were going so well... and the past week or two he has begun to totally protest. So many seem to say just let it be; he'll do it when he's ready. ARGH!!!

Stewie is loving school! Its hard for me to get much out of him about his day when I come home. Just the other day Michael dropped him off and he started telling his teacher about the bears that were attacking us in our yard. Michael looked at the teacher and gave her the nod that this was a totally untrue story. Maybe he'll be a fiction writer?

In other news, it hasn't stopped snowing here in three weeks. Everyday. The weather-people have been so off... they keep saying we weren't getting the storms hitting the east coast, but alas, the Jay cloud always happens. One day we did get about two feet, but the rest of the days we continually gained 3 - 6 inches. I love the winters in VT, but even I am beginning to crave the sun. At least it has been warm, but tomorrow we are due to dip down to -30. Reminds me of Chicago! We'll see what happens.