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She's One!

Has it really been a year?  It is hard to believe a year ago we first looked into the eyes of our sweet little girl.  She is just lovely and completes our family beautifully. 

It has been so fun to watch her grow over the past year.  After having two boys we have enjoyed seeing the differences in Eliza.  She is truly a little girl and is currently sleeping upstairs holding the hands of her two new dolls, yet at the same time she can hang with the boys - evident in the fact that spider (or as she says 'der' has been one of her first words.)

She is a ham and gets giddy if she knows she has an audience.  Her brothers can really get her going to the point that she rolls around on the floor giggling like crazy.  We can tell she is going to be trouble as sometimes she will sneak up to them, grab something from them and take off crawling away (while saying no, no, no) or she will stick a Lego in her mouth, look right at me and say 'yuck' and spit it out.  She totally knows how to get a reaction. 

Eliza definitely has a streak of drama in her that neither of the boys had.  She knows what she wants and there is not much that distracts her and she has been known to throw a pretty big tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants. She's got some fight in her too.  Whenever we go to Target she weasels her way out of the belt in the cart and insists on 'standing' in the cart while I try to unsuccessfully strap her down.  She is also giving the nursery workers at our church quite a time with staying in Sunday school.  The coordinator has worked for months using their separation protocol to get her to stay...they are learning that Eliza is a strong willed girl to say the least. 

Eliza is not walking yet which is so surprising for us.  Both the boys were full time, proficient walkers well before their first birthday.  Eliza takes a few steps here and there (from the table to couch) but is not walking yet. I guess we will have that to look forward to in the next couple of months.  She will be racing with the boys in no time.  

She still loves to look at herself in the mirror, brush her hair, kiss her dolls, play with her toes and bellybutton, climb the stairs, listen (and dance) to music,  watch for birds, airplanes and squirrels and just being in the mix with everyone.   

She loves babies, dogs, squirrels, birds, spiders, flowers, dolls, Katy Perry's song "Roar" (yes, weird I know- we credit Uncle Nathan for that one) and after a taste of cupcake tonight...icing.  She currently says mama, dada, daw (dog), der (spider), no, and, yuck, ada (all done).  She is so expressive and just jabbers away non stop as if we should fully understand every word she says.  She can be very affectionate and snuggly but at times definitely wants her independence.

We feel beyond blessed to have our sweet, loving, funny, curious, strong, dependent, intelligent, precious little girl.  Happy first Birthday Eliza Kate!






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