Merry Christmas!

Eliza spent yesterday with her cousin Gryff and her aunt and uncle. Eliza gave Gryff lots of hugs and kisses. Pretty different from their interaction last Christmas! (see above)
Hope everybody out there (what do we have, 3 readers?) has a Merry Christmas! XO, S, T & E

zapato

Two things I forgot to mention yesterday... Eliza has also started saying "choo choo" but I think she's just repeating us and not associating the sound with trains yet. Still, it's awfully cute. And she says "shoe". Not only does she say shoe but she likes to carry our shoes around. S's shoes are almost as big as she is! Wednesday in the middle of the night I hear movement and realize I forgot to close the closet door and there's Eliza, slowly taking one shoe out of my closet at a time and putting each one on the bed. I sleepily said "come back to bed, Eliza!" I sort of thought it was a dream until Thursday morning when I woke up and there were still a couple of shoes in bed with us.

Belba!

Eliza is at such a fun age! When she wants a bite of something you're eating she says "mmmmhhh!!!" very loudly. Expose your midriff and Eliza will blow a raspberry on your stomach. She says "cheese" and poses for pictures. She hides in her fort and then pops out and says "Ta-da!" She walks around holding her shirt up and yelling "belba!" to show you her belly button. She brings you books she wants you to read to her and sometimes "reads" them back to us. She's always on the "phone" (I really don't recommend letting her borrow your real phone... mine has never been the same :)) or dancing around to her CDs. ~T

Oh Christmas Tree!

Since our last installment we've been getting into the Christmas spirit. We picked out and decorated our tree, visited the lights on 37th Street and met Santa for the 1st time. Eliza loves Christmas lights and has learned to say tree. (She's also learned to say car, cheese, papa, and belly button, which sounds like "belba.") Eliza had no interest in sitting on Santa's lap, so, rather than traumatize her, we made it a family shot, which looks pretty hilarious and awkward. At least she looked cute! ~T

A few more favorite pics

Happy Birthday Eliza!

At this time one year ago we didn't even know yet that today was the day, and yet, there she was at 11:40 pm on November 17th! Eliza, you have brought such happiness to everyone you meet. I've been awake more in the last year than I have my whole life and still the time has flown by! Here's to our smart, sweet, sassy and beautiful girl and here's to the best husband and father of my child I could ever ask for! All three of us are very blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives. Thanks to our family, friends and Eliza's teachers for helping us through our first year of parenting. XO, T

Obamanos!

When Eliza looks back on her digital baby book (i.e. this blog), I want her to know what she was doing the night Obama was elected. The 3 of us went over to Tara, Troy and Phin's to watch the results roll in and by midnight we were in bed watching Obama's acceptance speech with Eliza asleep between us. This is the first time I've felt this hopeful about politics in a very long time! Here is a shot of Eliza from the primaries.

Eliza's first halloween

Any Age Minutes

 It's crazy what babies will mimic.  Here's Ellie practicing her phone etiquette.  

Next time a telemarketer calls I should try these techniques or just pass the phone to her.

Tailgating

Hi, How are you?

Three years ago S and I were at Waterloo Records when we saw the T-shirt below.  We were just starting to think about kids and decided we had to get this Daniel Johnston shirt based on a mural he had done on the Drag.  I think you'll agree it looks pretty cute on her!  Also check out S's face in the background.  We were a little tired of getting whacked by her gravity tube (aka pink stick) that day :)

What a difference a year makes!

As I was getting Ellie dressed in her leg warmers yesterday, I remembered she was dressed almost exactly the same as when she was 4 days old. The top picture was my favorite newborn shot of her and you can see that she's changed quite a bit in the past 11.5 months! Yes, those are the same leg warmers! The newborn sized onesie was huge on her then and now she's wearing stuff size 18 months! Crazy. ~T

Anyone need a hug?

Just an update for Eliza's digital baby book...
Last night Eliza grabbed a framed picture of herself, kissed it and said "baby." Earlier this week at school she also patted one of the younger babies on the back and said "baby." She's gotten very good at giving hugs and blowing kisses (Miss Donna taught her that!). She still loves to dance and is pushing her little blue buggy all over the house. She gets very frustrated when she runs into the wall though and isn't very good at steering the buggy yet. She takes up to 15 steps unassisted. She also hates to have her face washed and hates changing clothes. Recently she started trying to feed us and holds cups up to our mouths so we can drink. She loves to turn light switches on and off (and constantly does the sign for light) as well as the volume on the stereo. She is also such a social butterfly and loves to be out in public. Going to the grocery store is a lot of fun for her= she waves and says bye to everyone and gives huge smiles. The other day she and I were playing in the living room and she abruptly stood up, said bye and walked out of the room to go find her dad. It's so weird to see she's really her own little person with her own free will!

Amblin'

As many of you know, Eliza took her first steps over a month ago.  However, as of tonight she's really walking.  She took over 40 unassisted steps tonight, up to 7 at a time.  And we finally got a few on video!  S persuaded Eliza to walk by bribing her with a very expensive toy- his iPhone. 

Pumpkin

Here's a lesson I've learned since becoming a parent.  There are only a few real reasons for family outings.

1. guilt
2. sanity
3. shameless photo-ops

So here's some shots from a fall festival we went to this past weekend. 

alright alright.....and 

4.  because we love our children unconditionally and want the world for them (but the three above still apply)

~S

jammin' out

Sometimes Eliza just likes to groove with her music.  She gets this Ray Charles sway going when she's really diggin' it.  

Here's a candid moment we couldn't pass up.  And yes, she turned the music on by herself!

~S

elliephant

When we first found out we were having a baby I made sure to get the rocking elephant my grandpa built for us boys.  I figured  pachyderms were pretty gender neutral, and they eventually set the theme for the Ellie's nursery.

Now she's old enough to enjoy her elephant by herself!  ~S

Check it out.

sign of the times

Tonight we think Ellie signed the word "light" as she pointed to a lamp, and "more" when she wanted another go-around the kitchen in her cardboard box.  Pretty cool!

Although this is a common language technique for babies these days, I wish her great grandpa was alive to see this.  He was a CODA (child of deaf adults) when ASL was far less socially acceptable.

~S  

High Five!

Eliza is at such an entertaining stage! It's crazy to think that when she was born she couldn't even control her limbs or hold up her head! Now she loves banging things together and she's gotten really good at pointing (she points to an item and says "dat?" so that we can tell her the word). She can also point to our noses when we ask where mommy and daddy's noses are. She takes a couple of steps here and there. She claps constantly, waves and says "bye bye" (with a huge southern drawl... where did that come from?!) and she's started giving high fives! S always teases me for asking for high fives; he says it's cheesy. But, it looks like Eliza is a high fiver, just like mom! Oh, and the other night she kept pointing and saying "ball" the when S and I had meatballs for dinner. We broke off little bits for her, but she really wanted a meatball all to herself. It was pretty funny watching her go at it... I'll post a pic later. Oh, and here are a couple of shots at Babies R Us the other night. Eliza's first pony ride (she wasn't that thrilled) and trying out a tricycle.

Road trip

S went to ACL fest last weekend (he's been every year since it started!) so Eliza and I opted for a road trip to Zac and Julia's in honor of Zac's birthday. I didn't really take any pictures, but Julia's blog has plenty. This was our 1st weekend apart since we became parents. S got to sleep in and had fun at the festival. Eliza and I had fun in Midlothian once we got there but unfortunately she got really sick on the way- like vomiting all over the backseat sick. Poor Eliza. And poor Mommy. She also promptly pooped in the bathtub as soon as we got back home (Zac & Jules, you guys dodged a bullet on that one. :)) The good news is she's feeling better and my stomach isn't as weak as it used to be. ~T

p.s. S sat next to an actor from that show Bones during the festival. That's him in the white shirt for any Bones fans out there.

Dancing with Elmo

Eliza got a couple of new toys recently. I finally caved and got her an Elmo puppet because every time she sees Elmo in public (he seems to pop up a lot), she cracks up. We also got her one of those activity tables and although the songs are incredibly obnoxious and constantly stuck in our heads, she loves to dance to the music. She sways back and forth and bops her head. I'm afraid she may have inherited our lack of dancing skills. ~T

On the Ball

We spent this weekend on playgrounds and hanging out with friends. Friday we got to see Marshall & Janet's awesome new house and Eliza got to play with Kennedy again. Saturday we went to Phil's Icehouse with Jim & Michelle and Eliza and Ethan had a lot of fun hamming it up on the playground with the bigger kids. Eliza had her first ride on a slide and today at the park she loved the swing. She continues to be fearless with one exception. We blew up the yoga ball for her and it took her at least an hour to get up the nerve to touch it! She's also learned how to say dog and bye over the past few days. But, mainly, she's constantly pointing out balls for us. She must have said "ball" over 50 times today! ~T

Those vocabulary flashcards are really paying off...

Just kidding, we don't make Eliza use flashcards, but she understands a lot of words now!

Words she understands but doesn't say yet: dog, up, splash, bite, drink, peek a boo, diaper, spoon, bye bye, hi, jump, dance, and no (She grins every time we tell her no. It's so hard not to grin back!).

Words she says: Daddy, Mommy, ball, bear!

She's waving and clapping like crazy now, plus when we say "jump jump" she jumps up and down in her Exesaucer. So cute!

She also knows how to crawl traditionally now, but spends most of her time army crawling or cruising. She's taken a few more steps here and there but she's much faster crawling. And she does this thing when she wants to change directions while sitting- she uses the heels of her feet to pivot herself around. It's hard to explain; I'll try to get a video of it.

It seems like she learns something new each day! ~T

Steptacular!

We have a very special announcement to make! Eliza took her first step just a few minutes ago! The 3 of us were sitting around the dining room table and Eliza crawled onto the table from my lap. We watched her crawl around a bit (of course being careful not to let her fall off) and then she and Daddy practiced standing for a while. I wouldn't say she's walking yet but she definitely took an unassisted step while trying to get to her dad! Hopefully soon we'll get a video. We're completely shocked and so glad we were both here to witness it! ~T

How do you spell barrett?

Having help raise my little brother, I consider myself a fairly practiced parent. But I was thoroughly stumped when asked to put some hair clips in Ellie's hair. How do they fasten? Where do they go? Is there enough hair for a clip? I don't even know what it's called!

So either she'll have a crew cut for the rest of her life, or I've got a lot of learning to do when it comes to raising a daughter.

~S

Ball?

This could just be a fluke but 3 times tonight Eliza said what sounded like "ball"! She has several she likes to play with and each time we hand her one we say the word. I guess only time will tell if she means what she says or not but you should have heard how excited we were! It's crazy how proud we are of every little thing... ~T

Shout out

Aunt Jules loves to bring Eliza cute clothes! Check out some of the latest garb!


Yeah, she's fru fru, but don't cross her when she's got that maraca.

Excuses excuses

We haven't updated the blog that much lately because Eliza is moving around so quickly that we can barely take our eyes off of her! She's constantly crawling somewhere, trying to climb something or walk somewhere. She can't actually walk unaccompanied but that doesn't stop her from trying. We're afraid Curious Eliza has a lot of bumps and bruises in her future. Half the time she laughs when she falls anyway. This girl is fearless!

Hey Dad, aren't you glad you installed these outlet covers?

Check it out- I can do a push up!

hello, goodbye

Every day on my way off to work I wave goodbye to Ellie.

Today she waved back!

It's All Happening at the Zoo

This year's summer catch phrase is "staycation"  The idea is to take excursions that are close to home and save on gas.  For those of you who didn't spend your childhood summers at the vacation home in Aspen, this is nothing new.  We just called them day trips.

We decided to staycation this weekend at Hamilton Pool, the Austin Zoo, and San Marcos.  Here some snapshots and clips.  Notice how Ellie is actually trying to out growl a Bengal Tiger!

GOYA GOYA GOYA

Eliza's only 8 months old but the time is passing fast. It's easy to forget the little things that were once part of her infancy. So before we forget forever, here's a not-so-entertaining post with her most notable phrases and actions.

porpoise speak (or dolphin girl): Was what we termed her high-pitched babbling as a newborn. We have no idea what it meant, but would like to have had it analyzed by a marine biologist. Besides Dolphin Girl, I also used to call her Baby Burrito and Squeakers.

goya-goya-goya: At about three months this meant that she was content sucking on her pacifier and ready to calm down. A slap of the hand or a pat on our arm/person also means she's contented with her surroundings.

da-da: At five months "da-da" could have meant anything, but she figured out who I was by Fathers Day. Da-da started after I began tapping her mouth as she hollered to make a war chant kind of noise. She started imitating and the word emerged, as well as a lot of other noise.

ma-ma: This came later as 7 month teething set in. She began biting her tongue as she cried and the sound came out. Now by 8 and a half months she'll turn and address her mama directly.

the growl (aka roaring, the exocricist voice): At about 6 months the growl livened up conversation around the house. It just comes and goes as the spirit moves her. Occasionally she'll stiffen hers arms outward as she growls (like she's throttling a chopper motorcycle).

Nee-nee or Neer-neer: At nine months this is Eliza's call for some "intimate blouse time" with her mother.

Baa or baw: We're not completely sure but we think she's caught onto the word "ball" 8/25/08

More to come...

She's mobile!

Recently Eliza has gotten pretty good at retrieving toys she wants.  Still, she wasn't technically crawling.  But today, the day before she turns 8 months old, she decided to make it official and give us a glimpse of the real thing.  See for yourselves!  

Here's how she was getting around a week later...

Cruising Through Life

So "cruising" is the official term when babies walk while holding onto something.  Eliza's been cruising a lot lately; she especially loves doing laps around the coffee table (babies need their aerobic exercise, you know).  Here's a shot of her kissing herself while she cruises around on our full-length mirror.  

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Great skills but questionable rhythm.

Get Up

Overcome with the funky beat, Eliza takes to her feet.

The M Word

So this week Eliza has been teething. At one point she was fairly miserable and reached her arms out to her mother and said "Mama Mama Mama". While it was terrible to see her in such distress, it was great to hear her finally say Mama! She's been saying "Dada" for over a month!

Baby 4th

I had to wait until a until a year later, but I finally got to feel Eliza kick on Independence Day.

Here's some footage.

Just Giggles

Oh good times with party favors.

The Force is Strong in this One

For her it was Dad's brown T-shirt, and a promotional pen that lights up.

To her father it was a New Hope, the perfect baby Jedi costume.

See for yourself.