Eliza at 13 Months

I'm going to continue the monthly updates on Eliza's growth and progress for my own record, if nothing else. So, you can count on at least one blog post a month, even if it is just talking about Eliza and showing pictures.

Eliza had a fabulous month. Now that the weather is getting nicer, we go outside more. Eliza LOVES the outdoors, just like her mom and dad. She is happy just crawling around and getting some fresh air. She is not a girly girl when it comes to dirt. The more dirt, the better. She even eats dirt. When she refuses to spit it out, I have to fish all the sticks and rocks out of her mouth so she doesn't choke.

If you know sign, you'll notice that Eliza is doing the sign for "more," referring to the dirt she just ate. I told her she couldn't have anymore, but I bet you can guess what happened the first time I turned my back!

Besides dirt, Eliza's favorite food is bananas. She eats 3 bananas a day, one for every meal. She always requests them using her baby sign for banana. She is so thrilled every time we get her what she has asked for. We can't give her bites fast enough.

We think it must be the increased banana consumption that has led to other monkey-like behavior. Eliza is climbing on everything. She hasn't had any big falls yet, so she is fearless. The other day as Mike and I were cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, I noticed that Eliza was gone. I found her in the living room climbing in the dark. I turned the light on so I could take a picture. Oh, and she's topless because her shirt got dirty during dinner and she was on her way to the bathtub anyway, so I just stuck it in the washer.

Just a few days ago, Eliza started walking on her own. She took her first unassisted steps a month ago, but only recently started walking without being coaxed. She is now using walking as a mode of transportation, even though she's still unstable. Today she took 15 steps in a row!

Earlier in the month, Eliza broke out with a funny rash. We're pretty sure she overdosed on pineapple. She just kept wanting more, so we gave it to her, not realizing how much she had eaten in total. She's had pineapple since without any problems, though.

Pineapple OD rash

Eliza is getting good at mimicking what we say, well at least the beginning consonant sounds. It's pretty cute. Her vocabulary is increasing. Her spoken words are: mama, dada, baby, bye, da (dog), buy (bite), duh (done), and ba (ball). Her signed words are: eat, drink, more, banana, all done, bye, change, and sleep. She understands a few others, like bath, but usually doesn't initiate talk about them, so she doesn't do them.

Other bits about Eliza:
-She loves to bop to whatever music is playing.
-By the way her clothes are fitting her, I'm pretty sure she has gotten taller.
-At the beginning of the month she got momma's milk 3-4 times a day. Now it's 1-2 times a day, just before naps.
-She had roseola virus this month.
-She loves shoes. She will bring them to us to put on, then she'll take them off and give them to us to put on her again and again and again. She also likes to get my shoes and try to put them on my feet.
-She wakes up between 6:30 and 7:00am no matter what time she goes to bed. The only exception of the month was today, when she graciously slept until 8:00!

Eliza just got done doing a pull-up from this bookshelf. She was holding on with her hands, with her feet dangling, but by the time I got the camera, she was done. I thought it was a funny, serious pose, though, and showed what a mess her hair can be without her piggies.

We took a short trip to Ohio to meet Eliza's newest cousin, Chelsea. Eliza had so much fun playing with a real baby.