This could get sticky...

Literally. Lately Elianna has been eschewing her flatware and using just her hands. She frequently upends her bowl and tries to drink whatever's left, be it cereal, applesauce or tofu. We made minestrone and had to hose her down afterwards! Thank goodness Alex in Las Vegas closed because at this rate we'd never get there.

Her two year birthday is fast approaching and you can definitely tell. Little miss has opinions galore and she's not shy about sharing them. 'No' is high on the hit parade as well as " 'anna run away!". She gets frustrated when we can't understand what she's saying; I think we need to show her some more signs so she can express what she needs to. She'll look at us with this intense expression on her face as she repeats her phrase over and over until she runs away in tears because we just don't get it. Get used to it kid, just wait until your teenage years then we really won't get it. The dramatics are getting pretty out there: give her the wrong bib and you'll get this: "Fish bib, No fish bib, NO FISH BIB!!!!!" and more tears. Oy vey.

Elianna had her second stint without Mom and Dad as we left her with Nana and Poppa and jetted off to Las Vegas again. Thanks to Facetime, she was able to talk/see us everyday which made us (make that, me) less nervous. She handled it like a rock star, loved waking up every morning asking for 'Nanapoppa' or 'homertek' (the dogs) and demanding, "Fan on!" (asking for the ceiling fan to be turned on).

She still loves being read to, knows many of the books by heart. She even 'reads' to us the ones she knows best. She knows the alphabet almost by heart and still loves her Signing Time DVDs; seems like she learns a new sign every day. Despite her histrionics, this is such a fun time, we're really enjoying her right now.

Soupcase to Se-AHH-tle

Thursday we all drove to Seattle for the 1st time since moving to Spokane. We were a bit worried how Elianna would do; she hasn't done a long drive since we could pull over and have me breastfeed her to keep her quiet but she did awesome. Getting ready was fun, she loved packing and unpacking her soupcase (her word for it, is that not the cutest thing you've ever heard??) over and over again, kept bringing me books and toys to put in.

The drive to Seattle is less than scenic. There's a lot of fields and flat on the way. Once you get to Snolqualmie pass though, it gets just gorgeous. It still looks like the middle of winter there, though. Glad we are getting more temperate for sure. We made a couple pitstops along the way (courtesy of the fetus) and each time we'd ask Elianna, "where are we going?" Her response was always an enthusiastic, "Se-AAAA-tle!"

We rented a little townhouse in West Seattle. We didn't really know where to stay but figured it looked nice and if getting around was horrible we'd know. It ended up being just perfect. We weren't more than 15 minutes from any place we drove and it was a really cute area. Elianna played at a great park 4 blocks from the townhouse, coffee houses were all over (duh!) and the beach was a 5 minute drive.

Speaking of the beach, Elianna was not a fan. She loved the water, from a distance, that is. "See water, see boats, see beach" was what she kept saying but when we put her down and let her see the water, she was fine until the waves started her way. She's getting pretty good at running!

Once she was at minimum safe distance though, she was fine with watching the water again. She walked up and down the beach, picking up sticks, rocks, chasing dogs (see dog! pat da dog!) and had a grand old time.

Elianna with some of her treasures: "Dis, DIS!

Next day was a trip to the Aquarium. We probably could have chosen a day other than Saturday; it was pretty crowded. Elianna seemed a little stunned looking at all the people and we pretty much always held her to keep her from being trampled. I think she'll get more out of it when she's older (and taller!), but she seemed to like it. She seemed to like starfish the best and spent a lot of time looking at the seals.

We walked up to Pike Street Market next and if there ever was a bad place for a stroller, that was it. That place is crowded! I loved seeing all the flowers and fresh food; good thing we aren't eating fish anymore; we could have done some damage to our wallets! We did end up with $20 of cool pasta...not sure it'll live up to the hype but how can you resist sweet basil trennet, lemon parsley malfadine, or tomato cracked pepper linguine?

We found this amazing vegan restaurant north of Lake Union called Sutra where we had a four course dinner for less than $40 each. The first course was a wonderful salad with watercress, seaweed, fiddlehead along with a carrot, sunchoke/thyme soup. Yum. Next came 'ravioli' made out of shaved celery root and stuffed with cauliflower, fennel and saffron with a 'beurre' blanc that had some kick to it. Third course was my favorite and I'm going to astound my family with this. Here's the description off the menu: Pumpkin seed-nettle pesto, port braised onion, cashew cheese lasagna served with tamari and balsamic infused shitake mushrooms finished with oil cured olive-majoram marinara and fried capers. I started by just tasting them and not finding them horribly objectionable. I then proceeded to eat them first (they were scattered on top) to get them out of the way and ended the course by eating them in concert with the lasagna the way they were supposed to be and loving every single bite. The whole dish was so. damn. good. I didn't want it to end.

Dessert was almost a let down after that; it was a chocolate avocado pie with a pecan date crust and cacao brittle. Delicious to be sure but after the wonderful courses before it, hardly surprising.

So overall, I'd call our 1st Seattle trip a success, and hope there will be more to come!

Sucka nose!

I'm pretty sure Elianna may be one of the few children in the world who asks to have her nose sucked out. Her cold has been over for 2 months but every night: "Sucka nose?" There's even been a few times when she's woken up in the middle of the night and all that gets her back to sleep is a fake pass with the bulb syringe!

Her language is still off the charts. She'll hear something once and use it correctly in a sentence. She gets frustrated with us because we won't understand what she's saying because she's using a word we never taught her; she just heard us say it and picked it up for her own use. She's still watching Signing Time DVDs and learning like crazy from them too.

Socially she's still a 20 month old...the only reason she notices other children is if they have something she wants. Even then, it's not that she sees them, she sees them as the object in the way of the thing she wants. She does have a little friend, Addison, who is 4 months younger and will ask to see her frequently. Yesterday she actually giggled at something Addison did which is the first time she's ever really interacted with her. I guess we'll have to start teaching her to share next!

She's started pointing to my belly and when asked where her little sister is, will try and pull up my shirt. I'm pretty sure she has no idea how her world is going to change though, poor kid.

We have the sweetest baby. No, really, she is. She's not snuggly or cuddly unless she's exhausted but she is just...sweet. I love how excited she is to see us, even if we've just come downstairs from getting something in the bedroom. She *has* to wave goodbye out the window when one of us leaves. And today I was going outside for something quick but I put on my coat and she gave this soft little, 'byebye', like she wasn't happy I was leaving again but she wanted to tell me goodbye anyway. Just sweet.

I still check on her every night and yes, there are times that it's not a scene out of Terms of Endearment only by the grace of God. I have to make sure she's breathing and if I have to touch her to do it...well, like I said, grace of God.

She's a funny kid though. Only baby I've ever seen who ASKS to have her nose sucked out. Even now, though she's not sick, it's a nightly, sometimes multiple request: "Suckanose?" And she'll get onery if it's not met.

Even though I'm so excited about this new little one coming, I'm starting to get a little sad for when it's not all Elianna, all the time. I'm going to miss having her be my baby.

Up, up, up!

It's amazing the things that pass for toys considering what we spend our money on. $50 for a new tent/tunnel structure? No problem and she does like it. She has spent just as much time, however, on my shoeboxes that came with 2 new pairs of shoes. Her latest and greatest big fun time is spent with...wait for it...a fork. 'Tab, tab' is what we hear all day long and it's not her asking for that retro cola drink (do they still make it?), it's Elianna saying 'stab'. She will eat anything as long as she can stab it with a fork. She even tries to eat things I'd normally say called for a spoon but she makes it work.

Her latest thing is 'okay'. Not, yes but, okay. Elianna, do you want to go outside? Okay. Do you want to eat? Okay. Sigh, so much for not teaching her slang. But I guess I know what we say a lot. Only ourselves to blame...

She's starting to make sentences. Short ones and Mike, the stickler, would call them two word utterances but there're there. Mama up. Eat hungry. Dada work. Dada car work. It's so cool to watch her put thing together. She even knows words we haven't taught her: away, office, truck...she just picks them up.

So after being Elianna's mom for 18 months, here are some observations. I wonder if they'll hold true as she grows up.

She's an independent little soul. If she gets hurt, her first reaction is to go off, by herself and lick her wounds. She's not the type who wants to be comforted, to have mommy make it all better. She seems almost angry that she's been hurt.

That being said, she does seem to know who her people are. In the most recent plane trip in the midst of flirting with fellow passengers she was always quick to let them know who Momma and Dada were. She also loves being carried although I'm not sure if it's because she's interested in being with Mom and Dad or she likes the view. Either way she comes over and demands, "up up up!" and unless we're cooking or doing something else she usually gets her way.

She wants things to be easy. She'll try something once and ask for help instead of trying to figure it out herself. But, if we guide her to figuring it out she gets this big smile on her face like she's so proud. I have to remember this when she's asking for help with her multiplication tables.

She has no fear. She'll stand on her little rocking chair, stand up, start rocking, all the while admonishing us, 'Careful!' Upside down baby is a favorite game and she's still a climber.

More please!

Okay, I've got to start getting some of this stuff down. I know I promised I wouldn't make this a litany of Eliannaisms but some of them are just too cute so...

She has started saying 'Mmmm' when she eats something she likes. But it's not just 'mmm', it's: "mmmmMMMMMMMmmmm!" It starts out low, goes up an octave or two and then goes back down.

Bye-bye is now 'ba-bye-yah' and said for many things, including goodbye.

Mama and Dada are said very differently. 'Mama' comes out plaintive and questioning while 'Dada' is more like: DA-da!!!. The first syllable is very high and excited and the second is more calm.

She's almost running now and she does it all the time. She loves feeding her bear (cow, bear, doll, parents, whatever) and does it a ton. When she does it to Mike and I we have to pretend to eat and make yummy noises or she gets mad.

She figured the swimming thing out and will start actually learning how to swim in the next weeks. She finally likes being in the water and doesn't cry at all when we hand her to Jolene (swimming instructor). She still is a climber and has little to no regard as to whether she can get down or not; she knows someone will rescue her!

With all the snow we got over the last few weeks we tried to take her sledding. Major FAIL. She got dressed in all her cold weather paraphernalia, we went out, put her on the sled and she immediately started yelling, "all done, all done!" We got a few minutes out of her by carrying her around but that was it. I don't think I'd like being outside either if I couldn't move. It's warmed up a bit here (high 30's) so maybe we'll get outside more.

Sorry for the boring post, just wanted to get some of this stuff down. Love you!

Elianna yelling, "Anna!" as she sees the camera and makes a beeline for it!

I survived!

Okay, we all survived the trip to Nammy's with a subsequent leaving of the tyke while Mike and I went off to Vegas to party hard. Partying hard is all relative, you understand; I felt positively raucous for being out at 1030 with no real need to go to bed because there would be no 630 am wake up call from a little cutie. But yes we did leave Elianna with her Nammy and cousins who seem to be rather infatuated with their live doll. Zoe (Zisi) kept picking her up and swinging her around, legs a dangle which Elianna tolerated quite well. Mira (Mimi) yelled at Elianna for trying to go outside without an adult (no worries, we were right there) which was either a stunning display of protective instinct for her cousin or a feeling of, 'if I can't, neither can you!'

Elianna seemed to not be fazed by our absence which made me feel both relieved and a little mournful. My baby doesn't even notice I'm not there? What kind of crappy mom am I? When we got back, however, for the first day if I was out of sight, she would meltdown with frantic screaming until I came back into view. I wasn't happy she was so upset (what kind of trauma did I inflict on her by leaving??!!) but a teensy, teensy portion of me was glad that she had noticed and was worried. I know, crappy mom. Next day all was good and we've left her with Nikki since and she's been fine. She appears to have picked up a cold (4 plane rides, multiple toddlers, it would have been surprising if she *didn't*) but it's a small one and she seems to be riding it out okay.