There's alway so much to talk about with Elianna but it's more difficult to not make it a litany of her latest and greatest accomplishments. This is especially true because *every* mother goes through the same wonder and amazement about the things their child is learning; even though it's amazingly special to me, it's not that special. Every kid goes through the same basic things.

That being said, Elianna really is starting to just explode with new things. The biggest thing is how she's communicating. We've been signing to her since she was about 4 months old, just a few here and there: Mama, Daddy, milk, and once she started eating food: more. She started signing 'more' back to us a few weeks ago but she's not at all consistent with it. Yesterday she woke up much earlier than usual. I stumbled into her room, not sure what I was going to do, try and get her to go back to sleep (ha!) or feed her. She looked at me, smiled and very distinctly signed; 'milk'! `She somehow makes (some) of her wishes known without talking at all. She's taken to walking, holding onto our hands but if she doesn't want to do that and wants to be held instead she makes it very clear and won't give us her hands, pulls them away.

Mobility has increased too; she's standing alone a few seconds at a time and has mastered going down stairs as well as up. I could see her starting to walk tomorrow or it could be a few months. We'll see!