Pitt Street Bridge

The other day, we ventured out into the chilly weather (which is not quite the case this week!) to the Pitt Street Bridge in Old Mt. Pleasant. It was our first trip there, but it certainly won't be our last. It's about a half mile trail with beautiful views of downtown Charleston, the harbor, and Sullivan's Island.

More Pictures

As promised (a while ago) here are some recent pictures of Eliza. I have so much to blog about, but I promise to update soon!

8 Months Old!

Eliza is now 8 months and she is VERY busy! She has such a sweet and happy personality, and she is almost always smiling. Her entire face lights up when she smiles! She giggles at strange things like dropping toys on the floor. She loves to play hide and seek, and she especially loves to roll around on the floor. She could roll across the house! She is just about crawling; she is scooting and rolling to her destination now. She is still trying to balance herself while sitting up.

She puts anything and everything in her mouth, and she loves to chew on books. Reading to her is very difficult with her hearty appetite for books! She also has quite an appetite for food. She eats cereal with fruit in the morning and then a fruit or veggie for lunch and dinner. I have found that she doesn't like green peas, but she will eat everything else. All of her eating has made quite a difference in her weight. She was 13 pounds at her 6 month visit, and she now weighs 17 pounds, 10 ounces. She is finally catching up to her friends!

She is a wonderful child and we are so blessed!

More pictures to come...

Thanksgiving

So, I am quite late in posting about Thanksgiving....better late than never though!

We went to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with the whole crew. We ate lots and lots of wonderful food, and Eliza finally crashed after too much fun!


Here's a great picture from the farm...

Funny Dog & Cat

Too much laughing...



Eliza could be the next E-Trade commercial baby :)

Shout it out!

For all of you out there fighting stains day after day, I have a solution! Shout Advanced Gel is fantastic. It even gets out set-in stains, and it makes carrots, green beans, and prunes disappear!

A Few New Pictures

Election Day

Eliza and I ventured out to the polls this morning to fulfill my voting duty. On our first trip there, we found the line to be at the back of the parking lot, so we went back home to grab a bottle and some other entertainment necessities. We set out again and after parking very far away, strolled to the end of the very, very long line. After checking (many times) to make sure I had my registration card and ID, I started hoping and praying that Eliza would make it through her first voting experience. I dreaded the thought of waiting in line for hours only to not vote because of a screaming baby.

As we trekked our way to the building, we met many wonderful people, and I think Eliza provided a bit of entertainment for the crowd. She smiled and laughed and checked out everybody. After about 1 1/2 hours, Eliza lost her temper a little. I struggled through holding her, feeding her a bottle, pushing the stroller, and moving slowly through the line. It was quite a feat!

We finally made it through the "check-in line", only to be sent back with our pink slip to the new "voting line", which was also practically at the end of the parking lot. I feared losing my pink slip and having to start this process over again.

Once we got back in the building and the voting booths were in sight, I let out a sigh of relief. We made it! Amazingly enough, Eliza survived the three hour wait without too much anxiety. We met many people along the way, and I was certainly glad to cast my vote!

If only parents with small children could be sent to the front of the line...

Funny Picture

Yes, I realize that this picture makes it appear that we torture our child, but that's not true! We took this picture as we were leaving the house today, and here's the explanation...

First, Eliza is the "One Sock or No Sock Wonder". I can't seem to keep socks on this child as she loves to eat them! The very second I put socks on her, she puts her feet in her mouth and manages to eat her socks off her feet. She then continues to stuff the socks in her mouth and practically gag herself. Talk about cotton mouth!

Second, Eliza does not usually wear rags on her head. I asked Andrew to bring down some burp cloths for the road (since we ALWAYS need burp cloths), and he thought it would be quite funny to put them on her head. She thought it was pretty funny too!

Fun with Daddy

Eliza loves hanging out with her daddy, and she usually gets quite a good laugh with him! I believe he was dancing in this video, and that always makes her laugh! :)

(Please excuse the Steve Spurrier Show in the first part of the video - it's a Thursday night thing!)

What a Mess!

Lately Eliza has been such a messy eater. She loves to put her fingers in her mouth after each bite, and then of course drag her other hand across her head (further spreading the food!). After all of that, she decides to eat her feet! As you can see, it turns into quite a mess.

She is quite proud of herself and her prunes....


And her green beans...

New Foods

We have added some more foods to Eliza's diet. She is now eating applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, and squash in addition to green beans and peaches. She is thankfully not a picky eater! After about two bites of a new food, she is loving it.

A few people have commented recently that she is getting chunky. I guess we have increased her diet substanially in the past few weeks. Maybe she can catch up in the weight department!

"Da Da"

Eliza has finally mastered saying "Da Da." It's so precious, and it just melts our hearts!

Just Peachy

I gave Eliza her first baby food the other day, and she wasn't quite impressed. Her first taste of peaches was obviously not appetizing. She scrunched up her face, and gave me this look to say "what are you feeding me woman?". However, after about the 3rd feeding of peaches, she started to like it.

Today I fed her green beans for the first time, and she was in heaven! She scarfed the entire jar down. I am surprised that she liked green beans more than peaches....hmm.

Tomorrow we will try something else!

Sundays

Sundays are a bit crazy in our household. Because church starts right about the time she would take her morning nap, it's a little tricky. We have just opted out of the morning nap on Sunday morning, but that leads to some interesting behavior...

This past Sunday, we got to church right in time for the service to start (it's also a little tricky throwing in an extra rice cereal and fruit feeding in the morning). We took Eliza into "big church" as we have been doing since she was born. However, she is quite a different baby as compared to when she was just born. Now she is very active and no longer satisfied hanging out in our arms...

Just about halfway through the sermon, she started babbling, so we took her out of her seat and held her. Then, she wanted to check out the people in front and behind us...especially the kids with the crayons (she really likes other kids). Then she spit up peaches everywhere....

This is very bad to say, but we couldn't have been happier when church was over. It might have been the longest service of our lives! I think we will take Eliza to the nursery from now on!

Babbling Baby

Lately Eliza has become quite the talker...very cute! She will babble on and on and throw in some squeals every now and then. I think she loves to hear her own voice! Her favorite "words" are "ah-blah blah" and "ah-gah-gah". We are trying very hard to get her to say 'da-da" but no luck so far...

My Funny Husband

I love my husband for many reasons, one being his quirks. Last night, he was watching Eliza while I was getting dinner ready. As I was about to serve the plates, he grabs a pack of crackers out of the pantry. I say "Are you going to eat those crackers right now?" and he says "Yep, I sure am". As this is pretty normal for him, I didn't think it was too weird.

I put the plates on the table and realized that he had only eaten two crackers out of the pack. About halfway through dinner, I asked him about his crackers. His response was "It's a tasty side item. Have you never had cheese crackers as a side item?" Ha Ha. Granted, my clam spaghetti isn't quite up to par with his mother's, but a side item of cheese crackers???

Funny, funny man. It kind of reminds me of when he eats his mint halfway through a meal at Mcallister's. :)

6 Months Pictures

My dear sister-in-law said I needed to add some more pictures, so here ya go :)

Feeding Time!

I finally got up the courage to give Eliza some rice cereal. I have been putting it off for a little while now, but this past Sunday, we got over our fears of choking and bit the bullet! She loved it, but I really didn't expect anything different. She is quite the eater! I think we will be those lucky parents whose child eats anything you put in front of her...food, remotes, paper, whatever...

We will be starting some fruits and veggies in about two weeks.



She was actually happier than she looks in this picture. She doesn't much like to smile for the camera!

Amazing Weight Loss Program

For any of you out there looking to lose weight, you can borrow my cranky baby. All you need is a stroller and a good set of walking legs!

Yesterday (and for a few days before that), Eliza was very irritable. Very little could soothe her - only sleeping (occasionally), eating, and strolling would do the trick. Hopefully this is just the teething stage. We took two rather long walks yesterday, and I found myself desperately seeking some other sort of entertainment, as I wasn't physically capable of walking ALL day long.

On a good note though, these walks did encourage me to do the things I have been meaning to do - return my movie and join the library. I certainly now appreciate the ability to walk to many places on the island!

As an addition to my last post...

The doctor did say that Eliza needed one thing: Rogaine :)

6 Month WBV

Eliza had her 6 month well baby visit this morning, and the doctor says that she is doing great. She weighs 13 pounds, 10 ounces (not quite a chunky monkey!), which is in the 20th percentile. She is 25 3/4" tall, which is in the 50% percentile. Her head circumference is also in the 50% percentile. She is on the same growth chart line as she was at her 4 month visit. She is going to be tall and skinny!

She was quite the happy baby at our visit until the nurse came in with the shots. It's like she could sense something bad was about to happen. She had to get three total shots (two in one leg and one in the other). She screamed bloody murder, and it was such a miserable experience. As she's gotten older, her cry has become more "real" it seems. You can really feel her pain when she cries.

We made it through now, and I am so thankful that she is a healthy, happy baby!

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

I am a little late in my post, but happy 1/2 birthday to Eliza! As of Sunday (September 21), she is now 6 months old! It's amazing how fast time flies.

She is quite the curious child, and she is interested in everything and everyone. She is constantly grabbing at things - from the water bottle in my hand to the remote on the couch. She loves touching faces, especially Daddy's. She thinks that he has a very interesting nose, and she even tries to shut him up sometimes with her hand!

She also loves to move around. While it took her a while to understand the concept of rolling over, she absolutely loves it now. I can't seem to keep her off of her stomach, and unfortunately, she rolls over right after eating and spits up multiple times. Speaking of eating, she loves it! She gets very excited when she sees a bottle and quickly reaches out for it. She can down about 9 oz in a heartbeat! I am surprised she isn't much bigger than she is. I will have to post a weight update after her 6 mos doctor visit on Friday.

Eliza is a perfect night sleeper. I couldn't ask for anything more! She goes to sleep (right away) around 7:30 or 8 and sleeps soundly until about 8 the next morning when we wake her up. She would probably stay in her crib for longer if we didn't wake her up. We are still working on her napping routine though. I think she is afraid to miss any action! On a perfect day, she will take an hour-long morning nap and a two or three hour nap in the afternoon. I certainly shouldn't be too greedy though. Sleeping through the night is a dream!

She enjoys taking walks (especially since it's cooler) and being outside. In many cases, she can only be calmed by being outside or swinging on the porch swing. She also loves her play mat and her teething toys. Eliza still thinks her swing is great, and she doesn't mind the bouncy seat either (even though she turned over in her bouncy seat one day - yikes!).

Most of all, I love Eliza's sweet personality. She is smiling and laughing more and more every day. She will smile when she sees us, which just melts my heart. She giggles occasionally, especially when we do silly things. She will sometimes get laughing so hard that she can't stop. She really is a wonderful child, and we are so blessed!

Dreading Winter

As much as I am looking forward to cooler weather, I will certainly miss the warm air that quickly puts Eliza to sleep. Something in the outdoor air will soothe Eliza in a heartbeat. Anytime she is crying (or screaming!), we can take her outside, and she is immediately calm. I can't figure it out, but I don't know what I will do when it gets cold!

Laughing with Daddy

Well, if you are having a bad day, I have something that will certainly cheer you up! If you have ever seen the laughing baby commercial, you know that this could add 8 years to your life :)

Tasty

Since Eliza has been teething lately, just about everything she comes in contact with goes into her mouth. Earlier today, she was sitting on the couch by Andrew (who had the laptop), and, as you can see, she was quite interested in what he was doing...


But she was actually more interested in tasting the computer... :)

Tropical Storm and Teething

Last night we "survived" Tropical Storm Hanna, but we didn't quite survive Eliza's teething pains...

Tropical Storm Hanna turned out to be quite a dud, but while the rain was pouring down, Eliza was feeling pretty crummy. She has some teeth coming in, which keeps her awake, which escalates her crankiness. We can usually take her outside to swing or rock, but last night we had to hunker down in the corner of the porch to avoid the rain. It was not a good night for Eliza to be upset.

Thankfully though, the storm was very mild...

Beach Visit

This past weekend we took a quick trip to Litchfield to visit Lauren, Chad and Oliver. We had a wonderful time visiting with them, and it's so nice to be close to the beach now!

Eliza and Oliver had a blast (at least a baby blast) catching up! We haven't seen them since Oliver was first born, and he has grown quite a bit. He is bigger than Eliza! They enjoyed sitting on the couch together and hanging out in their bouncy seats.


We took a boat ride, and Eliza enjoyed every minute of it! It was a great napping atmosphere! We rode around Murrell's Inlet and had lunch along the water.

As a side note, Eliza was wearing her turtle onsie, which for some reason always seems to be her poopey outfit (in other words, she always has an explosive poop when she wears that outfit!). Eliza didn't let us down this time either! We took her out of her carseat at lunch, and she was covered in poop. Lauren and I took her over to the grass (in front of all the people eating) to change her. We finally found a grassy spot without a dead possum. Crazy story...


We had a great time at the beach, and thank you to Lauren, Chad and the Cartners for having us!

Bottoms Up!

Well, Eliza is officially growing up...

She has now learned how to hold the bottle on her own. She has not quite mastered the entire feeding, but she's working on it :)

3rd Time's the Charm

Last Saturday after our huge rainstorm, we took Eliza to the pool. The weather was just perfect, and the pool was completely empty (well, other than the 30 12-year olds having a birthday dance party USA under the pavilion). Since we didn't have to worry about someone knocking the car seat over, we put Eliza by the edge, and Andrew and I both got to swim.

After we swam for a while, we decided to give Eliza one more go at the water. We went to the shallow end and put her legs in. She loved it - or at least didn't cry! Another victory! Maybe next summer she will be ready to go all in. We sure hope so!

Help Me!

So yesterday I posted about Eliza's new skill: rolling over. How fantastic, I thought! Well, today I found out that this skill isn't as exciting as I thought. I tried to put Eliza down for her nap, but she just kept rolling over in her crib. This wouldn't be such a problem if she didn't get so angry when she rolled over. She isn't much of a stomach kid..

So, needless to say, Eliza didn't get much of a nap today. I am open to any suggestions on coping with an angry roll-over kid :)

Oh, the Things You'll Do

Eliza has finally mastered the art of rolling over! Yesterday, she was on her play mat, and I saw that she was attempting to roll over. Being the worried mother, I was slightly paranoid that she had not rolled over by this point, so this was quite an exciting time! (I think the Olympics motivated her to improve her athleticism.) I was cheering her on as she finally made it over to her stomach...such a proud moment! Of course later on that evening, when I wanted her to show off her skills, she was very reluctant. Oh well. Maybe she will prove herself tonight for daddy...

Funny Moment

I have a funny moment to share (at least it was funny to me...)

I put Eliza down for her nap and turned on the mobile. I went back downstairs, and a few minutes later I heard a strange noise on the monitor. Paranoid as I can be sometimes, I ran upstairs. I went over to Eliza's crib to find her trying to eat her mobile. Because she was pulling down one of the animals (and hence the mobile wasn't moving), the mobile started clicking. I took the animal out of her hands, and she gave me this look like "what the heck did you do that for?". It was quite precious, and I couldn't help but laugh. Needless to say, she wasn't sure why I was laughing at her either. :)

How Funny!

On Sunday, Andrew, Eliza and I were coming back from a quick milkshake run (which has to stop!). We got back to the house, and as we were getting Eliza out of the car, she just started laughing out of the blue. It was so precious, and we got a little bit of it on video.



She is laughing a lot more now! Every day we make it our goal to get Eliza to laugh...no matter how silly we look!

Here's another one, but she's not really laughing in this one...

Big Boy, Little Girl

On Saturday, the Dennis clan came over for a cookout. We had a wonderful time, and it was great to see everyone again! We put Eliza and Parker beside each other, and as you can see, Eliza is still so little....
(Sorry for the sideways picture. I can't figure this one out...)

Eventhough Eliza is 6 weeks older than Parker, he weighs 3 more pounds! I don't think they quite knew what to do with each other. Maybe soon they will interact!

Cheer Me Up!

I have to share this great moment....

Usually, Eliza is a happy baby. She smiles very often and rarely cries (knock on wood!). Last night though, she was pretty cranky. I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, and Andrew was trying to entertain Eliza. Nothing seemed to calm her down though. He tried singing, rocking, walking around - none of these worked. But then, he started dancing....

Eliza was quite thrilled (or thought he was silly) with Andrew's dancing. She immediately started smiling and cooing. It was very cute!

4 Month Check-Up

Today I took Eliza to her 4 month well baby check-up. She is growing well, and the doctor expects her to be a tall & skinny little girl. She weighs 11 pounds, 12 ounces (20th percentile), and she is 24 1/4 inches tall (50%). She did well at the appointment until the dreaded shots. She was screaming and so pitiful. I felt so bad for her! I don't think she really calmed down until about 30 minutes after we left the doctor's office. Thankfully, she is feeling a little better now, and we are so blessed to have such a happy, healthy baby!

First Driving Lesson

Andrew is already giving Eliza driving lessons! She learned how to turn the car on, adjust the radio volume, and put her hands on the wheel. She isn't quite big enough to reach the pedals, but I am sure Andrew will have her learning a lot about cars!

Visiting with the McDonalds

Yesterday Chris, Tina and Madison came to visit us. We had a wonderful time, and it was great to see them! After lunch at Queen Anne's Revenge, we took a harbor cruise on the Spirit of Charleston. Eliza enjoyed the breeze, and it was a true relief from the heat!



We hope they will come back very soon!

Beach Week

The week before last we spent the week at Folly Beach for our annual beach week. We had a wonderful time! Here are some of the highlights....

Nap time with Daddy on the porch....
When the wind didn't blow us over *which was very rare), Eliza took a nap with Daddy on the porch

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Fascination with Benjamin...
Eliza loved spending time with Benjamin, and she certainly missed all the activity when we got home!


Sharks!
We walked to the end of Folly Beach to check out the Hammerhead sharks. We certainly didn't swim after seeing these...



Sunsets on the back porch....
Our beach house had a wonderful view of the sunset over the river. We enjoyed the relaxing evenings on the porch before Eliza went to sleep.