More of February

 Milford on the Sea, another town that is part of the New Forest. We discovered we have this lovely little "beach" just about a 10 minute drive away. 

 Eliana really enjoyed looking at the Big Water, and feeling the breeze.

 It was a beautiful day, and it got us excited about the soon coming longer and warmer days:) The days are already longer, and we have been enjoying that very much!

Below is Eliana's first time in the Big Girl bathtub. We decided Ellie was getting a little big for her inflatable tub, and also has more bath toys now that were also taking up space. Dad said she enjoyed it!

 Eliana and her friend, Isabella playing while the Moms had hot chocolate. This was Ellie's and my first solo car trip in the UK. I have been practicing driving quite a bit, but had only driven around with John in the car as well. I braved it up, and drove to meet a friend where we parked our cars, and then took a stroll around the sea. It was actually the parking lot where John and I run through towards the end of our long Saturday run. It is at the yacht club, and there is a restaurant called the Haven right there that we had never noticed. It was a nice walk, and then Ellie and Isabella enjoyed crawling around the restaurant, and looking through the big window to see the boats.

 Ellie has taken a liking to walking with Dino again recently. She had not been paying him much attention lately, and would usually choose to walk her Doggy from Nana and Papa. Eliana's walking seems to be getting stronger and more coordinated, but she has not tried to walk alone yet. She has more often been letting go though to stand freely for a few seconds.

 Yay for being back at play group! Eliana and I have been quarantined the past few weeks from being sick, so we had not been here in a while. Ellie's face lit up when she saw her friend Lewis, and seemed happy to be around all the action again. She took quite a liking to this see-saw. She really enjoyed riding with Lewis as her partner, but then just stood for quite a while rocking it back and forth by herself.

 Rocking the whale with one shoe off:)

 Ellie and Lewis playing with the baby. Ellie has a doll at home, and has just recently started paying her more attention. She and Lewis were digging this baby:)

Ellie had what might be her first fit towards the end of play group. She had two different things taken away from her (baby doll and plastic cups the fruit was passed out in) and started screaming crying laying on her tummy with cheek down on the carpet (yay) tensing her body, and wriggling away from me. She was a little tired since she had a shorter nap that morning, but yikes!

 Yay for the milk carton!! This is Ellie's new favorite toy from her cabinet. She could sit playing with this continuously for quite some time. I was surprised to find when I was cleaning up, that she actually screwed the cap on by herself!

 Two of my favorite things: Daddy, and yogurt!!!! Did you notice my cute bobby pin holding my bangs back? Daddy and Mommy thought it made me look like such a big girl!!

 Woo hoo for the sunshine! We stopped to take a picture in our yard on the way to church. It was a beautiful day! We drove out to Milford on the Sea, another town that is part of the New Forest, later in the afternoon and walked along the seawall. It was gorgeous! Will post a few of those pictures once we get them uploaded...

 Hugs...Ellie is still loving to hug lately, and she was giving her daddy lots of good love this past weekend...

 My Daddy is so funny! This was after I was in bed, but he made yummy calzones!

 More of play group. Ellie chose to play with the pots and pans, she hadn't played with these before.

This is looking out the window at all the boats from the restaurant. The two girls had fun. Isabella is about 3 1/2 months younger than Eliana.

So, what else has been going on the last few weeks...Ellie has been talking more and more. She LOVES her yogurt, and says "gogurt" now when she sees it. It is fun because she says it both for her yogurt package, but also when she sees the yogurt package mom and dad eat. She crawled toward the kitchen the other day when I asked if she was ready for dinner. A couple of times when I said are you ready for lunch or dinner, she replied "gogurt" even though she only has yogurt for snack. Wishful thinking? She is really absorbing more words than we thought. I was reading a book with a giraffe in it, and when I said giraffe, she turned and pointed towards her giraffe teether. I was talking about cookies for some reason, and she looked and pointed towards cookie monster, and said "co-co." She also says "Kees" when she sees the keys; which still LOVES. The other day I said bowl, and she looked down at her cabinet where her bowls are, and said "bu." She also gets very excited for her cottage cheese still, and says "chis" when I get it out, or ask her if she wants some cheese. When we say are you ready for your bath, she now says "ba." I asked the other day if she wanted to go swing at the park, and she looked towards the door, and said "g." Last week Daddy walked in from work, and he got a full on "Hi" from Ellie. I guess she learned her walking Dino is called Dino too, because I was talking about a new toy dino that she has that spits balls out and makes music, and when I said do you want to play with Dino, she looked towards her Dino Walker. She still likes her puppy dog walker, and seems to be trying to bark now sometimes when she sees real dogs out walking. She gets VERY excited when she sees dogs:)

Another thing she has been doing lately is looking at pictures constantly. She loves to look through her picture book of family members that I made for her when we moved here, and has been learning who people are, and associating them with skyping on the computer. The other day she pulle the book open, turned to Papa's page, and said "Papa," and then pointed towards the computer. We were talking about Grandma another time, and she pointed toward the computer. She has been ransacking our tote trays of pictures in the study, and just loves to look at them. The other day she picked up a picture of John, and said "Dad." She says mom mom mom to me, or when she wants me, but wouldn't point me out in a picture until just the other day, when I pointed to myself and said who is that, and she said "mom mom." She still won't say it as much as she says Papa or Dad to pictures though.

We are down to one nursing before bed now. We started this past weekend eliminating the morning nursing, and it has gone okay with John getting her up, and giving her cereal right away. We have had a couple of instances when she has pulled at my shirt and got upset, but not too bad. We are a little nervous about the before bed feed elimination. We actually tried a week or so ago, and she woke up crying around 10:30 pm, and just seemed restless and sad. I ended up nursing her at about 11:15 pm, so we decided to hold off on that one until we were completely well, and also decided to try the morning one first. Ellie has been doing a little better with drinking. We have been giving her one cup with milk, and one cup with juice mixed with water, and she will take some drinks every now and then. We have noticed the more we offer, and just place them by her toys, the more likely she will drink. She mainly does her drinking at random times rather than with her meals.

 We have our first Mommy and Me swim lesson on Friday, so we will see how it goes! Ellie is still liking her bath, and has moved out of the inflatable tub to the real tub just a few days ago. She seems to be enjoying more space. Let's see, we also had a babysitter come for the first time today. We have hired a babysitter to come Tuesday mornings so I can go to a class at the gym here. I was nervous to leave Ellie (silly I know) but it went really well, and Ellie had fun with her. She wasn't scared when someone other than mom or dad came to get her from her nap, changed her clothes (she was actually nicer for that part than she is with mom and dad) had her snack, and then played. I was happy to get a huge smile when I walked in the door!

February

 Eliana attended her first birthday party a few weeks ago. It was for her friend Lewis who is only 4 days older than Ellie. He celebrated his birthday a little late on Feb. 4th.

 Eliana seemed to enjoy herself, and she discovered this cool balloon.

 It sure is fun being around all these people my size:)

 Play date with Lewis. He liked the stairs, and wanted to catch up with Ellie. He doesn't have stairs in his house, so he caught on pretty quick.

 Ellie says, come on up the stairs with me...

 Hi friend:)

 Out on a run with Buggyfit. This is an exercise group where moms bring their "buggies," and go out for a run together, and then do aerobic type exercises at the top of this pretty hill. What a beautiful place to have a workout! Nobody else showed up this day, so I had a private lesson.

 Oh, how I LOVE the fridge. And look, I spotted my favorite thing, Mom's yogurt!!

 I didn't do it...

 Hi Mommy! Eliana enjoyed opening all her birthday cards that came in the mail. What a sweet family she has:)

 Hey, that is what I like to do. Open and shut the gate!

 I still fit in my baby bjorn! Mom and I walked across the street to the park to play in the swing, and go down the slide!

 More of the birthday party

 This was a play date with my friend Isabella over at her house. I met one of Isabella's friends named Toby. He is 11 months, but he looked bigger than me I think:)

 Happy Valentine's Day!! We didn't do too much. Mom and I are still trying to get well from being sick recently. Daddy is out of town in Italy for work:(

 We got snow! We got a little snow this past Friday. It doesn't snow often here, so it was kind of exciting!

Mom, Dad, and I took a walk to the park. Daddy got to see me swing!

So, what had been going on with me lately...Eliana is "talking" more and more. She seems to be trying to mimic words after we say them. Ellie also gets annoyed by noises lately. Like if you sneeze, cough, or drop something, she makes a disgruntled face, and makes a sad noise. Ellie is starting to show a liking to her stuffed animals now, and hold her arms out to them (lined on her shelf) when she gets up from sleeping. She is doing better walking with her puppy dog walker, but she still has to be in the mood, and will often just sit when I try to get her to walk. She does this when I try to get her to walk with me too. She is getting pretty fast at cruising the furniture though, and climbs the whole wooden stair case pretty fast. She actually learned to get off the couch by herself. I think I had only shown her a few times, and so she surprised Dad and me the other day when she turned and climbed down by herself. She LOVES keys, and always lunges towards them at the front door. She is lunging towards a lot of things now, and gets mad when she can't reach them, or you won't give them to her. She really likes playing with her empty yogurt containers too. She still loves cleaning the tables off, and throwing everything on the ground. I guess she is getting taller because she seems to be able to reach more now, and actually pulled a table down a few weeks ago.

 Eliana is being a bit for finicky lately eating/drinking. She often throws her sippy cup on the floor, and refuses to drink. She will hardly drink any milk, but now she is refusing water a lot of the time too, so that has been a struggle. We have experimented with different cups, and lately I have found that if I don't watch her drink, she will drink water from a sippy cup when my back is turned! She still loves her yogurt, and will sometimes cry when it is gone. Up until this point, ellie had been pretty laid back with eating; almost making it hard to tell if she was hungry or full. Kinda like, if you offer I take, you don't offer, I am okay too. Hopefully she will start to drink her milk soon. Ellie still won't feed herself. She just picks the food up, and throws it on the floor. We have tried little bite sizes of all the foods we can think of, but she just doesn't seem to want to do it. Good news is though, that we have two more teeth on the way!! The two little teeth on the bottom are still in the same position; maybe a little more visible, but now we finally have some on the top coming in! We have only been able to see them when Ellie is laying down with her mouth open, but I was able to spot them today when she smiled really big. Yay for teeth:)  We are still with two nursings per day, but are trying to wean off nursing in the next few weeks.

 Ellie still loves music, and still dances whenever she hears it. We have been singing Row Row Row Your Boat, (we row as we sing) and so now when she hears that song, she starts moving back and forth! Also, one line of the English version is after saying the Row Row Boat, you say, "if you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream," and then let out a scream. She started letting out a scream after I said the line, so funny! One thing I love is that Ellie is finally starting to hug and cuddle, it is so cute! She also tries to "kiss" now, she comes at you with her mouth open for a kiss:) She still LOVES my phone, and has learned she can make the screen move with her fingers. She got annoyed one time when it was in a position that the screen wouldn't move. Ellie is liking her bath more and more, and now will sometimes cry when she has to get out. Hmm, what else? Ellie absolutely HATES getting her diaper changed, and has been throwing a complete fit lately with changes. This has been especially fun lately given the diarrhea we have been having lately. Ellie actually came down with her first virus last week, and still has some diarrhea. We also seem to be having a little separation anxiety or something because Eliana has been crying when I leave the room lately. All in all, things are going well, and we are adjusting to our new home. Hard to believe we have been in England now for a little over 5 months!

Eliana's First Birthday, Paris

 Our girl turned 1 year old on January 28th, hard to believe!

 On our way to Paris for my birthday weekend. We are going to meet up with my friend Aven, and his Mommy and Daddy. They used to live there, and now own part of an apartment there, and they just happened to be there on vacation during my birthday! How convenient that Paris is only a little over an hour flight from where we live:)

 Hanging out with my friend Aven at a restaurant for lunch

 Watching my friend Aven run around with the birds after lunch. Looks like fun!

 Checking out the sights. It is cold, brrrr....

 We visited Notre Dame.

 Beautiful, huh?

 Hanging out in front of Notre Dame for a while..

 Seriously you guys, can we get the celebration over with?? I am so TIRED! You woke me up at 5:20 am, made me get on a plane, and then after a nap in a strange place, made me ride around outside in the cold. Geez...

 Ooohh, that is pretty. WHAT is it though?

 What is going on?

 Still tired...

 Oooh, I have a friend just my size sitting at the table with me. How cool is that?! I am digging my new high chair too. Mom and Dad found this cool travel one that folds up. Now I can sit at the table with the big people:)

 My cake that Mommy and Daddy got from the bakery in Paris.

 Woo hoo! Let the party begin...

 And end. Please put me to bed. I really don't care about this cake thing...

 Oooh, a present. Aven and his Mommy and Daddy got me a present, how nice!

 This is the coolest thing!

 What do you want me to do with this, Mom?

 Hanging with my buddy

 The next day we went to see the Eiffel tower, fun!

 It was pretty cold, but at least I wasn't quite so tired.

 We took a ride on the carousel.

 We switched to the teacup. I liked sitting with Mommy better.

 Daddy put me on this big bike!

 Okay guys, it is cold, and I am getting pretty tired too...

 Jess told Mom and Dad how my stroller lays down a bit. Makes it a little easier for me to snooze, nice!

 Eliana's first drink of cow's milk

 First cereal mixed with cow's milk

 Pretty tasty

 Hey, what do you have? I want some of that!

 She did pretty well with the milk. Only took several sips, but seemed to do okay.

 On the bus headed somewhere.

 Playing at the apartment with Aven

 It is so fun to have a friend here all day!

 Mom and Dad got to go out for dinner with Wes and Jess. Jess' nanny in Houston happens to have a friend here in Paris, so she came to stay with us (we were asleep, so I didn't actually meet her) while they had some adult time:)

 Ellie says, ooww, look at me! Dad striking a pose with Ellie at the Louvre

 Mommy and me at the Louvre

 The Mona Lisa. Since Mom and Dad couldn't spend too much time here, they decided to hit the hot spots. What can I say, this place is only interesting for so long...

 The Louvre is not kind to strollers, so luckily, Dad was able to borrow this baby carrier from Jess and Wes. I fit pretty good in here, but would still prefer to face outward. I am getting a little big for my baby bjorn, so I think dad and mom are going to look for one that faces out, but is also made for me to wear for a good while.

Pooped. I haven't slept this good in a carseat (in a public place no less) in I don't know how long. Here we are in the airport in Paris waiting to go home. We got here a little early, so Dad and Mom decided to let me snooze for a little while before waking me to go through security.