Wow! Have almost seven months already gone by? Some days I just want to bottle Eliana up so I can remember her and enjoy her and have more time together. Other days, not so much, but most of the time I definitely feel like life is just flying by. I can't believe Eliana is 3 1/2! That is amazing to me! She is such a blessing to us and fills our days with joy and struggle. What a little girl!
Eliana is a little over 30 pounds now, which catapulted her to about the 25%, and is around 39 inches (if I remember correctly), which is still around the 55% mark. She has gained over 2 pounds since we got back in July. Amazing! Almost all her 3T pants are on the verge of being too short. This is the first time this has happened so I was pretty surprised and a little bummed. Fortunately little kids don't care too much about pants length so we are just rolling with it. Her appetite is still up and down but she always wants to eat osh, her favorite Tajik dish and honestly, I think her favorite food overall. She also has a refined palette for it and will even tell me when she thinks the osh we are eating isn't so good. Funny girl!
Eliana still loves wearing skirts and dresses and picks either one of those most every day, sometimes both. She loves wearing tights now and we just got her some nice, thick ones for the winter. She loves dancing and twirling and swishing her hair "like Queen Elsa." She is certainly all girl! She can hop on one foot now and climbs on her bed to get to things on her shelf. I certainly never expected that from her! She has a step stool she takes around the house and uses to get things she needs. She loves to show me how she can run really fast. How do kids have so much energy?
Eliana is really interested in learning her letters as they relate to people. For instance, she'll say "What letter is Grandpa?" or "That letter is me." She is starting to pay attention to letters on shirts and boxes and has mostly learned how to write an "E". She is still very stubborn and really only will cooperate for these types of things if it is her idea but I have been very encouraged at how her interest in growing and hopeful that I might actually be able to teach her something!
The girl loves her some pretend play and always has an elaborate plan of what we are doing. We often go on the airplane to "North Carolina" or "South Carolina" and we have to watch movies and eat food from the "airplane ladies" and then we go and pick up all our family so we can go to the beach house. This is just one of her in-depth plans. She makes up names for us and plays with her friends. When she is really playing with her friends I have to remind her that they are real and not pretend and have real opinions. Only child problems!
Eliana still loves her bunny and loves sucking her fingers. I don't let her suck them while we are outside because people here freak out about it. I am just trusting she'll stop someday soon...hopefully! She night-time potty trained after we got back in about two weeks. She decided she was done with diapers so we let her try it and really, after about two or three weeks maybe, she was trained. Amazing! I am so glad it went so well and easily.
We have started doing some memory verses associated with our Sunday group and she does a really good job remembering. I also started making her a personalized monthly calendar and we have worked on learning the days of the week. She enjoys looking at the pictures and talking about what we are doing each week. She enjoys looking at books and working on puzzles some but mostly would rather pretend play. She does love listening to music and the "Mickey music" station we have on Pandora is her favorite. Eliana is doing a great job this year of taking in the Christmas story as well. It's just so fun to see how much more she can do as she gets older.
We have our fair share of melt-downs and discipline sessions. She knows what she wants when she wants it and anything other than that can elicit quite dramatic responses that can leave me feeling exhausted at the end of the day. I am trying to stay focused and consistent and trust that one day all the hard work will pay off. On the other hand she is so sweet and funny and loving when she wants to be. She is definitely a mama's girl and we have lots of fun times together. She loves to be out and about and wants to know what we are doing and where we are going after every nap time and bed time. I love my little social butterfly, even though it's tiring for me!
What a sweet blessing this little girl is! I love being her mama and feel so privileged to have been chosen for this job. As she gets older things are harder and better. I am just so thankful to get to witness her life. Eliana now sometimes asks about having a brother or sister and we just tell her to pray and ask God to give her one. We hope he answers her prayer but until then we will take joy in what he has already given us, the perfect gift of a child for us!
Eliana is a little over 30 pounds now, which catapulted her to about the 25%, and is around 39 inches (if I remember correctly), which is still around the 55% mark. She has gained over 2 pounds since we got back in July. Amazing! Almost all her 3T pants are on the verge of being too short. This is the first time this has happened so I was pretty surprised and a little bummed. Fortunately little kids don't care too much about pants length so we are just rolling with it. Her appetite is still up and down but she always wants to eat osh, her favorite Tajik dish and honestly, I think her favorite food overall. She also has a refined palette for it and will even tell me when she thinks the osh we are eating isn't so good. Funny girl!
Eliana still loves wearing skirts and dresses and picks either one of those most every day, sometimes both. She loves wearing tights now and we just got her some nice, thick ones for the winter. She loves dancing and twirling and swishing her hair "like Queen Elsa." She is certainly all girl! She can hop on one foot now and climbs on her bed to get to things on her shelf. I certainly never expected that from her! She has a step stool she takes around the house and uses to get things she needs. She loves to show me how she can run really fast. How do kids have so much energy?
The girl loves her some pretend play and always has an elaborate plan of what we are doing. We often go on the airplane to "North Carolina" or "South Carolina" and we have to watch movies and eat food from the "airplane ladies" and then we go and pick up all our family so we can go to the beach house. This is just one of her in-depth plans. She makes up names for us and plays with her friends. When she is really playing with her friends I have to remind her that they are real and not pretend and have real opinions. Only child problems!
We have started doing some memory verses associated with our Sunday group and she does a really good job remembering. I also started making her a personalized monthly calendar and we have worked on learning the days of the week. She enjoys looking at the pictures and talking about what we are doing each week. She enjoys looking at books and working on puzzles some but mostly would rather pretend play. She does love listening to music and the "Mickey music" station we have on Pandora is her favorite. Eliana is doing a great job this year of taking in the Christmas story as well. It's just so fun to see how much more she can do as she gets older.
We have our fair share of melt-downs and discipline sessions. She knows what she wants when she wants it and anything other than that can elicit quite dramatic responses that can leave me feeling exhausted at the end of the day. I am trying to stay focused and consistent and trust that one day all the hard work will pay off. On the other hand she is so sweet and funny and loving when she wants to be. She is definitely a mama's girl and we have lots of fun times together. She loves to be out and about and wants to know what we are doing and where we are going after every nap time and bed time. I love my little social butterfly, even though it's tiring for me!
What a sweet blessing this little girl is! I love being her mama and feel so privileged to have been chosen for this job. As she gets older things are harder and better. I am just so thankful to get to witness her life. Eliana now sometimes asks about having a brother or sister and we just tell her to pray and ask God to give her one. We hope he answers her prayer but until then we will take joy in what he has already given us, the perfect gift of a child for us!
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