Eliza at 18 months

This has been a very exciting month for Eliza. At 17 and a half months old, Eliza became a big sister! That has definitely been the highlight of the past month. You can read about how she is adjusting to her new role here if you haven't already.

Eliza is at a really fun age. She is full of personality and has a fun (usually) way of expressing herself. We can't get over how quickly she is learning new words. She says things all the time that we didn't know she knew. She really is constantly learning and soaking in new info. Just the other night during our bedtime routine, Eliza grabbed the Illustrated Book of Mormon Stories book and said "read srishurs (scriptures)." She said "srishurs" over and over as she pointed to the book. What a little sponge she is!

At her well-baby check-up, she was just 1 ounce shy of 30 lbs, which puts her in the 97th percentile. It's exciting that she's back down onto the chart instead of off of it. I asked the doctor when we should be concerned and doing something about her chubbiness. It's not that we feed her junk. The kid has never even had a Twinkie. She loves fruits and veggies. The doctor said she is just fine. The only thing we can do at this age is just to establish healthy eating habits and not bribe her with food all the time, which we don't do. Since she is also tall for her age (33 5/8 inches, 94th percentile) she is proportional.

At her 18 month appointment, the doctor asked how many words she knew and used. I was anticipating the question, so I had been thinking about it and trying to estimate how many words she had command of. When I told him she knew over a hundred he seemed pretty surprised (especially since she was either mute or screaming in his presence), so I went home and actually counted, and yes, she has a vocabulary of over a hundred and fifty words. Since I typed them up to count, I may as well list them here (and because this monthly blog post is pretty much her baby book).

In alphabetical order (and surely leaving some out):
ah ah (monkey sound), amen, apple, Austin, baa (sheep, goat sound), baby, ball, banana, bath, bear, bed, belly button ("butt"), bib, bike, bird, bite, blanket, block, boat, bock (chicken sound), book, Boppy, bottle, bounce, bowl, bread, bubbles, buckle, bus, bye, Caleb, call, camera, car, cat, chair, change (as in diaper change), cheeks, cheese, chin, cold, color, coming, cookie, couch, cracker, crying, cup, Dada/Daddy, dance, Derrick, diaper, dog, done, door, down, dress, drink, ear, eggs, elbow, Ellis, eyes, fish, flower, food, frog, go, Grandma, Grandpa, grapes, hand, hat, help, hi, hold, hot, house, Jay, Jesus, juice, jump, Kermit, keys, kiss, knees, Liza, mac (as in mac and cheese), Mama/Mommy, meow (cat sound), milk, Minnie, moo (cow sound), more, mouth, nap, nay (horse sound), night night, nose, open, out, owie, pants, pear, piano, pillow, play, please, potty, push, quack (duck sound), raar (lion sound), rain, read, ribbit (frog sound), rock, rock, scriptures, shampoo, shelf, shirt, shoes, show, sleep, slide, slow, snack, socks, ssss (snake sound), stuck, swing, teeth, thank you, toes, tomato, too, towel, toys, trash, tree, tub, tweet (bird sound), two, up, walk, wash, watch, water, wet, woof (dog sound), wrench, yes

In addition to all these words that she uses regularly on her own, she also repeats things we say. She often echos the last word of what we say. She also says lots of things that we don't understand, but she acts like we should.

Eliza's favorite food lately is tomatoes. She calls them "totos" and has one at every meal some days.

Eliza pushed a chair over to the counter and grabbed this tomato, then proceeded to eat the whole thing!

Eliza really likes playing with other kids. She knows the names of all her little buddies. She still talks about Ellis (blue shirt) who moved three weeks ago.

Bath time is still a favorite time.


She still has a thing for shoes.


Eliza has become a real bag lady lately. She loves carrying around purses and bags. When we are leaving the grocery store, she always demands "bag, bag" and carries the grocery bags on her arm like a purse.


Eliza takes good care of her babies. Lately, she always uses the plural "babies" even when there is only one.