A year and a half of Eliza Jane Smith!

Eliza is 18-months-old today. We've come leaps and bounds in the past month. She'll now mimic pretty much any word we say (which is both a good and a bad thing - Brian and I are working on this) and she likes to mimic our actions. She's learning her letters by pointing to them as the credits roll at the end of TV shows and movies. No kidding. She names them (not always correctly)and then will look back at us for applause. The other day she was prancing around the house saying "seven, eight, nine!" in a low whisper over and over again. Just like the cliched observation everyone makes about babies - she's an information sponge.

She can walk down the stairs with a little help from the banister (and Mom) and she'll stay in the living room without the baby gate up. She's gotten very social and yells "Hi!" at everyone in the grocery store. Loudly. She now eats with a fork or spoon all on her own and has acquired a taste for pot pies. She even eats her morning cereal with milk in it like a big girl.

She sings along with TV shows and the radio. She generally picks one syllable and repeats it over and over, but it's still singing! Her new favorite TV show is Blues Clues. The very old version, with Steve. She gets all worked up when it's mail time and will always try to sing the mail song.

Today was her 18-month half birthday so we decided to get her a cupcake to eat after dinner. I think the size was a little overwhelming, so it took her a bit to dig in. We snapped a couple of pictures of her eating her cupcake, and of course we have a few more to share. Look at this big girl!

A!

Tonight we were reading a book with Eliza. We always read her favorite and seasonally inappropriate book "Easter Bunny". Eliza was pointing out the eyes on all the animals and saying "eye", which is wonderful. Then she did something that stunned us all, she pointed to an "A" in one of the animal names and said "A". Clear as a bell. We were shocked. She's always pointed to the letters on people's t-shirts and we name them for her, but we didn't expect her to retain it. Brian decided to see if it was a fluke. He said "Eliza, where's the A?" and she pointed to an "a" all alone in a sentence.

We turned the page and she pointed to an "A" and said "A!" again. Then she pointed to an "L" and said "L".

I hope she'll be an early reader like her Dad!

Bop!

Eliza has been bickering with me about my name. Her speech has picked up a bit over the past week and, in addition to long time phrases "who's that?", "what's that?", and "oh wow!", she's added "eyes" and "cat" and started mimicking words when we say them. Now when I asked her to say "Mom" she very loudly says "Bop!", as though she's arguing with me. I don't think she'll ever say "Mom" on a regular basis. Some people think I should just go with it. Can you imagine a 16-year-old Eliza calling her mother Bop?

This weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day with Eliza by taking her out for her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese. While not the magic experience Showbiz was when I was a kid, it still seemed like fun for a kid. The pizza, however, is just about the worst I've ever had, and half the games were broken in some way.

Eliza didn't know the difference. She had a blast watching all the older kids play. She even shouted "Hey!" at them as they'd run by. We got a little video of Eliza riding her first baby ride all by herself. If you pay close attention to the first video, you can hear her call me Bop.