What a difference a week makes.

It's true. It really seems like since her birthday, Elianna has started to come into her own as a person. She's been developing this personality (I should say showing us the personality, I think she always had it) over the last few months but now she's shown us she is a person with her own wants, needs and desires. Know how I know this? We've had our first tantrum. I'm pretty sure that on the scale of tantrums this was mild compared to what's to come but it was impressive. We were outside, not doing much (at least in my mind but she must have thought differently) and she was headed to the door anyway so I picked her up and brought her inside. At first she just cried so I realized I'd misinterpreted her inclination and brought her back outside. She immediately stopped the tears (and we're talking theoretical...there's still no water coming out of her eyes) and resumed playing. When it really was time to come in, I again, waited until she was headed indoors and finished the job. Oh. My. God. The rage was spectacular. She cried, screamed, banged her fists together (more!more!), started the hitching crying that to the untrained observer sounds like someone just kicked her puppy and she is completely and utterly bereft. About 15 minutes passed before she was relatively calm but even then she had this wounded look on her face as if someone just told her Santa Claus doesn't exist. Thank God we're raising her Jewish.

Her evolving personality isn't limited to tantrums, thankfully. She's discovered there's a whole world out there and she wants to know what EVERYTHING is. She's always pointing at something, asking what it is and she'll try and repeat it. Her words don't sound like words yet but there are subtle differences. Flower sounds a lot like Da, stars sounds like ders, dog sounds like dat....get the picture? You can tell that *she* thinks they sound different which is, I guess, the first step.
Speaking of steps...but that's for another post.

Happy Day Day, pretty girl!

Elianna's cousin coined this phrase for a birthday and it's too cute not to use. So, 372 days ago, little Miss came into our world with a bang and the cliche rings true; our lives have not been the same since. Of course, some of that has to do with a move 1200 miles up north (did yoo know it stays light until 1030 in the summer?) but most is due to her. Looking back, we really were in a fog until about 3 months ago which is just funny because I thought I was so on top of things when she was 4 months old, ha!

So her day was pretty uneventful. We were more into the day than she was. We put a pretty outfit on her, smothered her with kisses a lot and high fived each other that we made it. But the party? It was off da hook! Well, as much as a one year old's party can be with a bunch of middle aged chaperones.

Mike's mom, Marilyn aka Nammy, arrived on Wednesday and she was immediately put to work. With her help we bought dishes and silverware for the party, figuring it was really more of an adult's party that happened to have a couple kids there, shopped out the local grocery stores, decorated and cooked. Man did we cook. Here's the final menu:

Pulled pork sliders with curry mayo and green chile mayo and mustard as condiments
potato salad with smoky bleu cheese
red pepper/sour cream dip with vegies
guacamole with tortilla and pita chips
spanish tortilla, regular and with soyrizo
smoked salmon with rye bread, creme fraiche, capers and red onion
mac n cheese
chinese chicken salad
pigs in a blanket
cookies wrapped around Reese's peanut butter cups
CAKE!!!!! (which I totally forgot to get a picture of and it came out so good! )

It looked like an army was coming to store up before heading out on a week long patrol; there was so. much. food. We could probably eat the leftovers for 2 weeks if it wouldn't go bad. People seemed to like it though. We also had lemonade made from lemons from Marilyn's tree, sparkling and still water, beer and wine. I think 3 people drank wine, everyone else did the water/lemonade thing. I've never met so many people who don't drink wine as here in Spokane. Doesn't strike me as a particularly tee-totaling community but I guess it is. But I digress.

Elianna was a champion. She was a little shy but had no stranger meltdowns, even let a couple people hold her although she kept a close eye on Mike or me. She showed off a few of her steps (next post!) and waved a lot. When it was birthday song time she had this wary look on her face and then realized, ' this is for ME!' and a huge smile broke out. Our little diva.

Overall, a huge success I'd say and now we can start planning for next year. Kidding, kind of.

Almost here...

Her 1st birthday, that is. Craziness, I tell you!
Today was a rough day for some reason. Morning and early afternoon were all smiles and giggles. She woke up from her afternoon nap and she was a different baby. She didn't want to be put down, she'd cry and cry at the slightest frustration and it wasn't just crying. It was the hitching, sobbing, my heart is breaking and you don't care, crying. Poor baby! I ended up wearing her for awhile, just getting some things done (her dinner, packing up to go see Mike at work) and that seemed to help.

So, words she knows: cow, dog, flower, book, daddy, water, more. Words she'll sign to us: more, dog. Words she knows but acts like she doesn't: No, stop, mama.

Oh, swimming! Yesterday was just amazing. She hadn't passed her test the day before because she couldn't make the flip from being pushed off face down to a face up float. Everything else was easy breezy but the one she couldn't do is the most likely scenario for a pool/lake drowning so we're in it for one more week. But yesterday she did it! She was underwater, we could see her trying to flip one way and not get it...I was getting anxious because she'd been under a long time (3 seconds, heehee!) and all of a sudden she flipped the other way and got into her float!!!!! I was jumping up and down on the side of the pool screaming, 'Go Elianna!' Mike was laughing and clapping. It was so awesome to see her problem solve and get herself saved.

Of course, now I understand the whole soccer mom phenomenon but that's for another post.

Our daredevil girl

She really is. At any moment you can find her climbing on her chair, standing up and rocking for all she's worth. When that becomes boring she'll try and stand on the arm rails and up any piece of furniture within reach. One of her favorite games is launching herself backwards when we're holding. She just assumes we'll catch her and fortunately thus far she's been right; she doesn't usually give us any notice. One second I'm holding her and whoop! Launched backwards!

She's talking a ton but it all sounds like dada, hmph. There is a bit of variation, sometimes I think she's saying that (dat? dat?) as she points (she points!) to something. She knows many things: toes, hair, her cow, ball, her bear, etc. It's cool to see the wheels turning as you ask her to show you the (insert object here) and she looks around and motors towards it.

Speaking of motoring! She has started standing in long stretches and is taking steps. She has to be in the mood for it but when she is it's hard to stop her. She'll stand up, go up and down on her toes and start walking! The most I've seen is 5 steps but they're pretty solid. No video yet but when we get some I'll be sure and post it.

The swimming is going wonderfully. It is so hard to watch her when it takes a long time for her to finish a roll but she is floating like a rock star. Her instructor thinks she'll be finished next week; she'll work on it all week and Friday she'll do everything she's learned in full clothes and a diaper (which, alone, can add 7 pounds to her weight!). The organization Infant Swim Resource does some wonderful work. You never think it'll be you in that situation but stuff happens, people get distracted, abilities are underestimated (she'll never get out that door, she's too short to climb over that fence, etc.). I feel the slightest bit more secure knowing she has this training.

New names

Elianna has a new Indian name (yes it's politically incorrect, I know) and it's Elianna Many Steps. Today she took at least 4 and maybe 5 steps before losing it and falling down and conking her head on a chair rung. Many tears ensued but it wasn't long before she was trying again and made it the same 4 or 5 steps. It's so funny to see this baby that is the size of a 5 month old doing 11 month old things. She's not going to be 11 months much longer; her birthday is around the corner which is just crazy.

Dinner last night was at Sante and was quite lovely. This place makes all their own charcuterie including most of the cheeses. They also make their pasta and their gnocchi was the lightest I've ever had and was to die for. My family will know what a big deal this is: the dish was in a mushroom sauce and I still ate every single bite. Them are some good gnocchi! Dinner was a parpardelle pasta with a beef bolognese sauce and dessert was a to die for bread pudding. Note to self, need a good recipe for this! Mike brought one of our favorite Pinot Noir wines, Kosta Browne. It's so good I almost hate sharing it; one glass just isn't enough. Sante is one of about 4 restaurants we've tried since coming to Spokane. It's not a foodie town by any means but it blows doors on the options we had in Flagstaff. I'm looking forward to trying new places.

Our little conniver...

She's learned how to get our attention if she wants it. She can go up the stairs no problem but since she could get hurt if she were to misstep, we don't let her go up by herself and apparently she knows this. If I'm doing something other than playing with her and she wants me (or Mike) she goes up 3 or 4 stairs and stops and waits. When we start looking for her (because it's quiet and that's never good) we find her staring at us. She then giggles and takes off up the stairs like a bat out of hell, knowing we'll be right behind!

We have friends from Flagstaff in town who are thinking about moving to Bend, Oregon. It's nice to see people who know us and like us; we haven't made any friends here yet. I'm okay with it, I've got my internet friends, yo! and Mike doesn't seem to care but it would be nice to meet other people with kids around Elianna's age. I know she doesn't truly play 'with' them but she loves looking at them at the park; it'd be nice if she had a regular playmate.

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!