She's ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille

Eliza is on YouTube!!!

Since everyone who comes over these days gets treated to Eliza's interpretation of "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees, I thought it was high time those of you farther away enjoyed the show too. So I shot some video of her dancing and posted it to YouTube. I had to reduce the frames per second a wee bit to get the file size down (if there's a better way to compress, someone please let me know!). It's funny to watch her short attention span at war with the driving rhythm of the music - should she dance? Play with her phone? Touch the stereo? Dance? Too many choices!!

And at one point, you'll see her stop and kind of look up and behind her. Our obsessive compulsive upstairs neighbor starting vacuuming. Again. Even Eliza is tired of it.

Instructions: hit the play button and wait a few seconds for it to load. The direct link is above, in case it's not working.

Also, the final frame of the video (if you last that long) goes by way too fast for my taste, so here's our girl:

The Must Have Toy of the Summer

In Eliza's playgroup anyway. The toy in question is the Fisher Price Gymtastics Activity Wall. One mom had it and everyone else said, "oh, that's really cool." She proceeded to tell us that it is impossible to find. So of course we all looked. Yes, online it is nearly impossible to find. There was one for sale on Craig's List, which another mommy almost purchased, but her husband insisted that their child have it new. They happened to be at Babies R Us (a haul for those of us in the city proper, btw) and found one, so snatched it up. Then she hosted playgroup and we all went, "ahhhh..." at their activity wall. Another mommy and I discussed it and its difficulty being found. I casually said that if she ever saw them, she should pick me up one and I'd pay her back. About a week ago, she emailed me and said she thought of me b/c they were at the same Babies R Us and scored one, but she didn't have my number with me, so didn't call to see if she should really get one. Then she hosted playgroup and again, we all oohed and aahed over the fun of the activity wall and lamented the difficulty of finding them. Hostess thought there were still a couple left and I finally succumbed to the frenzy. I threw Eliza in the car for the unpleasant trek to the suburbs, hoping and praying there would be one lonely activity wall left on the shelf for my beautiful daughter.

There wasn't.

There were at least 20. On the shelf. On the overstock shelf above. Probably in the backroom. I didn't have to take down any other moms to snag one for my beloved. There wasn't even anybody else in the section. All in all, I felt a bit sheepish. And perplexed about why we all bought into this concept that it couldn't be found.

Anyway, it's here, it's assembled, and Miss Eliza loves it. Exhibits A, B, and C.

Wiggleworms

Every Tuesday at 11AM, Eliza and I attend our Wiggleworms class at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I think there are twelve pairs of babies and caregivers total in the class, but usually about half that show up. Our instructor, Tisa, plays the guitar and all the grown-ups sing along, rock the babies, help them clap their hands, and so on. Sometimes we stand up and walk around in circles while singing. Or we stand in a circle and swing the babies in and out. The babies do whatever they feel like doing - laugh, cry, look alarmed, wave their arms, clap their hands, poop their pants, and so on. At the end, Tisa blows bubbles (from Gymboree, which apparently has the best bubbles ever. Ever. Must buy some.), much to all the babies' delight.

Eliza generally enjoys her time at Wiggleworms. She likes clapping and seeing other babies and having bubbles land on her face. She's not so keen on the song at the beginning that has everyone's name in it - or rather, she likes the song, but not the part when we're singing about her and the whole room is looking at her. I find this odd, especially in light of her behavior today.

We were a little late because she was napping so we actually missed the first song. Everyone looked at us b/c we were late, which Miss E. did not enjoy. For the first half of the class, I'd say, she was very shy and almost fussy. Once we got to our feet and starting swinging the babies in and out for "Bingo" (B. I. N. G. Ohhhhhhh), she cheered up immensely and became her usual happy self. Then came the rhythm portion.

Wiggleworms requires shakers of some kind. We bought the baby maraca from their store, but Tisa also passes around big maracas and you are also welcome to bring any kind of shaker from home (shaker being a fancy word for rattle, of course). As Tisa was doing the passing, Eliza took it upon herself to crawl up to several of her classmates and take their shakers. Sometimes right out of their mouths. Nice. No interest at all in her own maraca, but plenty in everyone else's - even if everyone else's looked EXACTLY LIKE HERS! I corralled her back just before Tisa starting playing, but she was having none of it. She took off toward the big shakers that were in the middle of the circle and started playing with those. Then she got up on her knees and starting vigorously dancing to the music, while still holding onto a maraca that was about the size of her head. One little boy joined her in the center, but he didn't dance - merely clapped his hands at her to keep her going. She did this for about three songs and seemed mighty disappointed when the music finally ended.

Tisa laid her guitar on the floor for the babies to touch and strum and whatever. They all went for it except Eliza who just tried to dance again every time one of them successfully produced a sound from the strings. However, their rhythm was not acceptable so eventually she gave up and crawled over to bang on the guitar herself. To make amends, after lunch I put the Bee Gees on the Ipod and she immediately started grooving to "Tragedy," which is, I think, her new favorite song. She actually has a very good sense of rhythm and can almost clap in time to the music.

Up next? Contact Improvisational Dance, of course!

Some Eliza stats

Since we went to the doctor on Wednesday and got measured and weighed and all that good stuff, here are a few fun facts about our girl:

• Height: 29 1/2 inches (97-100th percentile)
• Weight: 20 lbs. 1 oz. (75th percentile)
• Head: 45.2 cm (80th percentile)

So she's tall and thin with a nice size head.

Other stuff:

• Number of teeth: 2 1/16 (not a scientific measurement, but her first top one is coming in)
• Number of hairs: many more each day
• Rate of growth of fingernails: too fast
• Opinion on baths: love 'em
• Opinion on washcloths: hate 'em
  
• Favorite foods: avocado and yogurt (not necessarily together, but sometimes)
• Favorite book: Alice the Fairy (still)
• Favorite activities: dancing, blowing raspberries, clicking, babbling, and pulling the cat's tail

I'll never let go, Jack

I need to start this post with the end of our Michigan trip, which will explain the title. Well, if you've seen the movie, Titanic, it will explain the title. If you haven't, then I hope you are enjoying life under your rock.

The last part of our trip was spent on Mackinaw Island at the Grand Hotel (featured in the treacly film, Somewhere in Time, starring Jane Seymour, whose picture, BTW, is everywhere in that freakin' hotel). There are no cars on Mackinaw aside from the fire truck and the ambulance. Everything else is bicycles and horses. On Sunday morning, when we were leaving, it was raining something fierce and everyone, it seemed, was trying to leave the hotel at the same time. Horse drawn taxis are slow and they didn't arrive in a timely manner so the crowds waiting kept growing and growing. It was getting pretty ugly when a taxi would show up and it all reminded me of people trying to get onto those lifeboats when the Titanic was sinking.

A long winded explanation for a not very funny joke.

Anyway...we're back and, as usual, Eliza had a great time. Rich and Sally joined us for the first few days and Rich proved himself a master at trading raspberries with Eliza (her new favorite game, so it's a sign of affection if she sticks her tongue out at you. Truly.). He apparently also has an eminently grabbable nose.

She's a bit back in the NOTMOM zone, but Sally persevered and eventually won her over.
She's getting quite accomplished at pulling up on everything in site and can now even stand unsupported for maybe a minute at a time. All this work to learn to stand and then all she's going to want to do is sit down. Let's face it - standing is tiring! Here she is seconds before floomping over on Daddy again.


In Mackinaw, she unfortunately slept through her hay ride experience and missed it entirely, but we felt a good nap was probably more important. She did partake of the other fine activities, though, such as boccie ball on the lawn and the requisite rocking on the porch.
Mac took her in the Esther Williams swimming pool and she loved it, but we left the camera in the hotel room, so you'll just have to take my word.

As is pretty obvious to most people, Miss E is something of a ham. She also has taken a dislike to getting her diaper changed...unless someone is willing to photograph her while in action. Cheers her right up!
Before:

And after:

The trip back, once we finally got in a taxi and then to the ferry and then finally to our car, was looong and certainly not helped by our getting lost. Yup, that's right. We both have advanced degrees, yet when confronted with an option to go east or west to get home, we both opted for east. 40 miles later, we realized that we do, in fact, live WEST of Michigan. Well done. In my defense, I've lived on the east coast nearly my whole life so home is always east. Civilization is also generally east - no offense to the LA denizens out there. Chicago traffic was not so civilized, so that slowed us down as well as our stupidity.

But now we're here and Eliza is recovering slowly but surely. She had a doctor visit today where her progress and development are excellent. She enjoyed her travels, but is happy to be home. I think, though, that she might soon be ready for another adventure. What do you think?