Halloween 2011

Eliza makes a very cute Minnie Mouse.

Wrapping up year three

We're wrapping up Eliza's third year on this planet. She'll be three-years-old on August 28th. We can't believe what a big girl Eliza has become. She speaks in complete sentences, she has a huge vocabulary, she starts preschool in two weeks and she is fully and completely potty trained.

Potty training was a huge ordeal. She didn't respond to any attempts to bribe and she mostly just screamed and cried when it was potty time. She complained that her potty seat was really uncomfortable. We bought her a new Princess potty chair and she suddenly was a little more interested. We took her to my Mom's house for the weekend and decided against bringing her big potty. We took her Dora potty ring and she decided that weekend that she would start going. My Mom decided to give her quarters each time she went and by the end of the weekend, she was trained. So, two months shy of age three and we have a fully potty trained little girl. It was extremely stressful.

Brian begins his second year of law school next Monday. We're, once again, packing to move. This time to a bigger but cheaper house. We're really excited because we'll have some room to spread out at the new house. The kitchen is well organized and the carpet in the family room is so soft I just wanted to stand around and squish it all day. Also GIGANTIC CLOSET!

Lots of big changes coming up, but hopefully all of the good. I can't believe we've had three years with our little big girl. Time flies.

Eliza's new swing set!

Thanks for the new swing set, Papa and Gaga! Eliza LOVES it.

Such, bad, bad, bad bloggers

Why yes, it has been forever since we've updated the blog.

Who knew that being a family with a law student and a work-at-home Mom would be so very lacking in time to actually update Eliza's blog? Oh, that's right, pretty much everyone but us.

We've had a pretty eventful first part of the year, but I've completely given up on trying to catch up. Let's just start fresh, shall we?

First of all, Eliza is getting HUGE. She's 36 and 1/4 inches tall and 36 lbs. Since we're amusement park season pass holders, we've learned this year that Eliza is tall enough to ride some of the good rides. She LOVES riding the Monster and will always request that she ride that ride as soon as we get to the park.

She has also turned into quite the articulate little lass. We've been painting the house recently and she told her doctor the other day that her house is only "partially painted" and we were stunned. She's also a big fan of using adjectives like colorful, sparkly and her favorite word for people's breath which is misgusting. Sure, she coined the term, but I wouldn't expect to see that on urban dictionary anytime soon.

Her favorite TV shows these days are Jake and the Neverland pirates, Phineas and Ferb and Doctor Who, which she watches with Daddy. I'm still not so sure that last show is a good idea, but Daddy needs someone in the house to watch Doctor Who with him. Eliza can read some of her favorite shows on the TV Guide and we'll just add that to her freakish early reading ability. I swear, we're still not actively teaching her to read. I have no idea how she does it.

Eliza also likes to watch YouTube videos. Her favorite is the video for They Might Be Giants' Istanbul. She also likes this avant garde performance art video called I Am Your Grandma. We've spent hours on end watching Hakuna Matata and Banana Phone on YouTube, too. We've recently started looking up karaoke videos on YouTube and singing at the top of our lungs. This kid is a joy to have around.

Eliza has had some health concerns lately, but so far all the testing we've done has come back okay. She does have a type of cyst at the base of her tail bone, but we're checking in with the doctor tomorrow to see what can be done about it. Aside from this, she's thriving and we couldn't be more pleased with her progress.

The one point on which we haven't made much progress is potty training. It's the only time Eliza's disposition can be characterized as anything other than lovely. She screams and cries and begs not to go. Her most recent claim is that the small potty hurts her posterior, so we're going to try to go with a potty ring. She'll need to be potty trained to go to preschool in the fall, so fingers crossed that we can master that skill soon.

We've been having fun in the backyard and out and about this summer. Our neighbors were getting rid of a soccer goal that had never been assembled, so Brian put it up in the yard for Eliza to play with. She LOVES kicking a soccer ball around the yard. She also likes swimming in her baby pool. We went to the drive-in to see Super 8 and Kung Fu Panda 2 the other night and Eliza seemed to love it.

So far, Eliza has had a great summer. By the end of it, she'll be three-years-old. Our baby is growing up.

Disney World, Halloween, Christmas

I never recapped the end of last year.

We went to Disney World between our collective last day at work and Brian's first day at school. It was fun, but insanely hot. I implore you, DO NOT go to Disney World in late July/early August. It felt like we were swimming in humidity. I was really thirsty the entire visit, and they never warn you that the water at all the Disney properties (except Hollywood Studios, actually) tastes like sulfur.

We still had a good time, but I feel like we need to go back sometime soon when the weather isn't so hot.

Brian started school and I started plowing through 60-70 hours a week working at a giant insurance company during open enrollment. We still managed to squeeze in a trip to Halloween Haunt at Kings Island and a trip to the Halloween party at the Louisville Zoo. Eliza also had two different costumes. She was a Renaissance Princess for Halloween Haunt and Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba for the Zoo party and Tick or Treat. She'd be cute even if she'd dressed as Glenn Beck, so she was all set.

I feel like I missed the entire 2010 Christmas season. My work hours were such that I left the house at 5:40AM and didn't return until 7:00PM. Luckily, my last day at work was the week before Christmas, so we had lots of time to spend with family for Christmas. The annual trip to Mayfield yielded lots of Christmas cheer and togetherness (and so many presents for Eliza that we nearly couldn't get everything into our tiny KIA). We had a fantastic time. Thanks to everyone for the fun.

We spent the New Year at home because I was sick, sadly. We still had a good time watching various New Years Rockin' Eves. Eliza didn't even want to stay up until midnight. She asked to go to bed at 11:15. What a good girl!

We thought 2010 had been a pretty challenging year until we actually stopped to look back on it. We had lots of adventures and tons of fun!

Potty time!

Inspired by a Blues Clues bedtime book in which Blue goes to the bathroom before she goes to bed, I decided to let Blue wear one of Eliza's pull-ups today.

Tonight, Eliza seemed to have potty envy when I put Blue on the potty to demonstrate what going to the potty really means. I even decided to sneak in a little water so Eliza could see what pee pee was supposed to look like.

Eliza decided she wanted to take a turn and VOILA! She went to the potty for the first time.

YAY KID!

Okay, so we haven't posted since Eliza's birthday...

I'm a bad blogger, I admit. Toward the end of last year, we had too much going on. I was working insane hours and Brian was finishing his first semester in law school.

Right now, though, I'm taking a little break from work and Brian is cruising along with school. I thought I'd catch you guys up on the goings on.

Eliza is so verbal. I was so worried about her being physically behind when she was younger. It never occurred to me that she was just going to be less physical and more verbal like her parents. She loves to sing and tell knock knock jokes. Her fun party trick is singing the commercial jingles she picks up from TV. Sometimes I think people are taken aback by how well she communicates. A couple of months ago, she started requesting specific things by putting "I need" in front of it, and it's just adorable. She's like a tiny little adult.

She's so good with shapes and colors. Books, puzzles and Sesame Street have been great with teaching her advanced shapes. We went to a friend's house and drew some shapes on a piece of paper and she correctly identified a pentagon, octagon, etc. Our friend was terribly impressed and I was so proud.

When you can get her to focus long enough, she can count by tens. Usually, though, she'll say 30, 40, 50, 60, ONE HUNDRED!

The next thing we have to tackle is potty training. I have to admit, I'm not all that interested in starting too early. I don't think it's worth putting us both through complete misery when she's isn't showing signs of readiness. She won't even be 2 and a half until March, so we may revisit the issue then.