Modeling

For a few days we enjoyed perfect spring weather and before we knew it back to the cold and snow. Saturday night it snowed and thankfully melted on Sunday and unfortunately more snow is predicted tonight. During the spring like days I couldn't resist breaking into the box of stored 18 month spring and summer clothes! Sis, my mother and daddy's good friend, gave Liza the precious pink outfit. It's still a bit big for her but I had to put it on her because it is so cute and the weather was perfect.

We went to the outlet mall on Sunday and while we were in Children's Place Liza started chewing on the headband I handed her. I gave it to her to play with and I had no idea she'd put it in her mouth. I know better now! There was no way I could put it back after that so I was thankful it was only $1.49. Liza chewed on it most of the way home and then last night when she saw it she kept trying to put it in her hair. If you think the bows I put in her hair look funny (because she has so little hair) you're going to love seeing her modeling her new teething toy/headband.


A video would be better than a picture but for now you'll have to try and picture Liza sitting on the bottom step, standing up, sitting down, standing up. Once she really gets going it turns into fast bouncing up and down and she starts talking up a storm! She is so funny!

Make Up Post

Ooops - we are posting less and Liza is doing more so we best try to catch you up. One of my college friends Liz sent the tutu that Liza is wearing in this picture. She enjoyed playing with it on and was really interested in what she could find under the bed!

Liza has learned to "pet" Kuma. Sometimes it's nice and gentle, other times she pulls his ear and sometimes it's the full force of her body landing on him to "play." Kuma is being so good with her and let's her get away with anything she wants - sooner or later she'll probably be putting bows in his hair too.

Our friend Julie gave Liza a swim suit and she included matching sunglasses. Liza doesn't like to keep them on but she certainly enjoys playing with them. She just laughs when we put them on her and then she likes for each of us to take a turn wearing them too.

Liza has also learned to give kisses - big open mouth kisses - in this picture she's getting ready to give her Daddy a big one. Last night Liza was going back and forth between Chris and me giving big kisses and getting lots of attagirls for doing so.

When Liza was little I built towers and she had fun knocking them over. Little did I know when she went to Rita's that this could be a problem. The older children build things and Liza knocks them over - whoops! Now when they see her coming they tell Rita that there is a busy baby around and Rita diverts Liza's destruction. Our friend Karin gave Liza these boxes that stack into a tower so we're trying to teach her to build rather than tear-down. It might be working...only Rita really knows!

Bows and Phone

Liza enjoys playing with her hair bows. Her favorite game is to have one of us put every one she can find in her hair and then she likes to pull them out. Then she sticks them on our head and pulls them out. I wish we had a picture of Chris with all the bows in his hair. There isn't anything he won't do for his little girl.

Liza laughs all the time and she makes the cutest faces. This is one of our favorite cheesy grins.


We sing songs a lot and even when we think Liza isn't paying attention she shows us she really is. She was happily playing with her animal farm on the refrigerator and Chris was singing Little Bunny FooFoo; when he got to the part about scooping them up and bopping them on the head she turned around and showed us her head!


She continues to love the phone and carries it around with her all the time. One of these days we won't be able to find a single one.

Keys

Liza loves keys - the real deal - not the ones made for children. I think we have tried just about every kid-friendly set made and no matter what she goes for ours every time. Redirection wasn't working this morning and since she looks so cute playing with them I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures. It is cold here today, 11 degrees, and since we are between clothing stages (12 months on the tighter side and 18 months won't stay up) we opted for a dress with warm tights. Liza's great aunt Ann and uncle Pete gave her this pretty dress - thanks so much!

Liza continues to love her Maisy books and this giant flip book is one of her favorites - thanks Mom!


What? What do you mean the keys don't go in my mouth?


I'll just walk out of your reach and keep chewing away!


Who can resist that precious face no matter what she asks for or wants to do? Guess I have to work on my Mom face so I'm not smiling and laughing when I'm trying to teach her no.

Talkative

Liza keeps us laughing all the time with the simple little things she does. When we ask Liza to dance she'll turn around in circles and just smile - we haven't captured that yet but we promise we will. Bair put together this video from footage yesterday and even though we've watched it several times it's likely a bit on the long side for some of you. When we talk about what to edit it's so hard to decide that we end up leaving it all in. If you fast forward through it try to see the very end. Liza is sitting on the floor playing with her finger puppet cow (thanks Abbey and Caroline)and without any prompting she makes the sweetest MOO sounds!

Happy Friday

Now that Liza is a walking fool we have so much fun getting ready for work and Rita's in the morning. She is particularly fascinated with socks and tries to put her Daddy's socks on over her shoes. This morning she carried around one of his socks like it was her new security blanket - I was just praying it was clean! I need to remember to bring the camera upstairs to catch some of those moments.

Liza loves to take all the pieces out of her puzzle and watch someone else put them back. This morning I could tell she was concentrating on trying to figure it out herself.


In order to let us know when she'd like to leave the floor she is on she goes over to her baby gate and shakes it. This morning she was giving me the signal for upstairs. We were on our way out the door so I tried to re-direct her attention; I knew she wanted to go back up and get that stupid sock.


Fortunately for me her Kangaroo did the trick. She was talking a mile a minute to her Kangaroo and seemed to be deeply engaged in conversation with him.


Then she decided to take him for a little walk.


I missed the best shot when she put both hands over her ears as if to say she didn't want to hear a single word I had to say. I'm just praying this doesn't mean ear infection...Auntie Em where is that otoscope?

I love the kitchen cabinets!

Liza loves to open the kitchen cabinets and she is starting to learn which ones she is allowed to get into. She also loves to test us by putting her hand on the ones she knows are a no-no and giving us a big old grin. This cabinet is where her cheerios are and she gets them out and walks around the house with them. This really frustrates Kuma because he wants her to learn how to open the bag and share with him.

Liza also loves keys and we didn't realize she was actually using the buttons to make the car horn beep or pop open Daddy's back window. We always check the cars each night to make sure they are locked and all lights are off.

Liza is a phone hog and she now knows where the bases are and she goes and gets them. If you call us on our home number and we don't answer it's because phones are "hiding" in Liza's special places and are likely in need of a charge. Now we just need to convince her to talk when people call and want to hear her voice.

The dishwasher is one of Liza's favorite places. Usually she and Kuma are competing for access. Liza is particularly fond of the silverware caddy and the detergent compartment.

We move Liza's Go Anywhere chair all over the house so she has a soft spot to land. Yesterday she opened a great puzzle from her friend Davis and his mother Rachel. I wish you all could have been there to hear her giggle as she played with the pieces. Thanks so much!