15 Months

Well, our baby has made it to 15 months now (and a few days)!  Eliana is growing up so fast.  It's amazing!  Sometimes I look at her and just think she looks so big.  I'm realizing all those things other parents said are true!  They grow up fast!

We took Eliana to the doctor on Monday to get some shots and weighed her and she's made it to 20 pounds now!  That brings her to 9% and her height is around 30.5 inches, which is still around 49%.  I had a feeling that once she started drinking cow's milk she'd gain some weight and it seems to be true.  She's drinking 20-30 ounces a day so it's obvious why that's helping.  I'm also glad that we are almost done with shots because she knows what's going on now and it wasn't fun!  

Oh yeah, we also weaned this month!  I was quite torn about when to do it but when I went away for the weekend we just stopped and she did fine so I figured we'd just roll with it.  I feel so blessed to have been able to nurse her for so long.  That was a deep desire of mine and I'm so thankful.  I pray I get to do it again someday, but if not, this was a great experience!

As you can see from this picture Eliana now has four teeth.  The most recent one came in last week.  We definitely see a pattern than when a tooth is coming in she doesn't really eat much.  Everything else seems to be normal though so I'm thankful for that.  You can also tell that her hair is getting pretty long now.  I mostly still use the rubberbands because she just pulls her bows right out.  I'd really love that phase to be over soon because they are so cute but we'll see.

Eliana is still such a people person and just loves being out and about and talking to people.  She'll go up to people and put her hand out to shake it, she'll stop and yell at people if they don't acknowledge her and she loves to wave bye-bye and blow kisses.  People eat that stuff up here!  She gotten into a bad habit of hitting (people, things, her head on the floor- I think she has a bit of a temper), though so we are working on disciplining that.  Local people laugh at her but I really don't want her thinking that is an okay behavior.

Eliana is still taking two naps a day from 1-2 hours each and goes to bed each night around 7:30 and gets up in the morning around 7:30.  She is an amazing sleeper!  I really think the sleep training we did at the beginning helped and I'm so thankful.  Even on our vacation when we traveled and stayed in several different places she slept great.

Eliana is quite the talker though she doesn't say a lot of words yet and the words she says aren't completely pure, but we know what she is saying.  So far we have:

• All done
• Da-da
• Belka (our friend's dog)
• Ba-ba (Mama, and only when asked to say it)
• Amen (sounds a lot like all done)
• Bye/hi

Belka is actually the word she said most passionately and most clearly.  She just really loves the dog and enjoys being near her and calling out her name.  She can also bark and meow.  So cute!  People often ask us if she understands Tajik.  I don't know how much she understands yet but we try to let her be around a lot of Tajiks so hopefully she will soon.  She understands us quite well these days and can follow many simple commands including getting her shoes and bringing them to us, putting toys away, going to brush her teeth and others.  We've been amazed at how much better she can comprehend now.  She also can sign "please" and is doing that well now.  

Meal times are up and down.  She's very much into carbs right now but every now and then surprises me and eats some veggies.  I'm thankful we have vitamins!  Eliana is doing a little better playing by herself but still wants to do everything I'm doing so we're working on her learning how to have time by herself while I'm working.  We spend lots of time outside walking and playing at Aladdin.

Oh yeah...walking...Eliana can walk and has walked and does walk on her own some but is still not really a walker yet.  She is just very cautious and maybe even fearful and it got to the point where the more we talked about it the more she retreated and didn't want to do it.  So we've started not talking about it and the past few days she's willingly walked on her own each day and it's more and more each day.  So we'll just keep that tactic and see how it goes.  It's so fun seeing her walk!

So yeah, we have a growing, healthy, active toddler on our hands.  Amazing!  We are so thankful for Eliana and blessed to be her parents.  I just can't wait to continue to see her develop and learn.  It's so fun!