Fashion Show

Eliza has gotten some great outfits from people and now seems like a good time to showcase them. As always, huge thank you's to all!

First off, from her birthday we have a stunning ensemble courtesy of Carolyn. The embroidered jeans are hipper than hip and she's all that in her pink hoodie. You can see this was taken back in the warmer days!
Another birthday gift came from Aunt Barbara and Uncle Bob (my godparents). This gorgeous yellow sweater has smiley face buttons that Miss E. just adores. And who wouldn't?
We also got a huge box of stuff from Cynthia. I haven't taken pics of all of it yet, but here's a sampling. Black and white gingham overalls with a rose embroidered top:
Seriously purple overalls (Daddy loves these - go Williams) with a matching lavender onesie:
More overalls, this time in red, with a festive holiday shirt (click on it to see bigger):
Another view of the overalls, so you can see the fabulous plaid pattern on them (as Heather pointed out, it must be nice to be a baby and not care about wearing plaid pants that make your hips look huge!). She's also modeling her heavy winter ensemble, courtesy of Target.Nice to see that she's trying to earn her keep by helping Daddy rake leaves.

Where's Waldo?

I've gotten a lot of notes from people asking where was Aunt Leslie in all the pictures from cousin Jack's visit. Did she really come? The answer is yes, she did, but I, as principal photographer, was mainly concerned with getting pictures of the cousins. In hindsight, we should have taken a picture of the two sisters with the kids, but alas, we didn't. She WAS in a picture that we posted...she's the one pushing Jack's stroller in the pic where they are holding hands, but since her head is cut off, I don't suppose that does anyone much good.

Anyway, here is the only picture she is in, trying to help Eliza understand the drumming chaos that Jack and Mac are up to.


Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Eliza enjoyed her stuffing, but wasn't so enthused by the turkey. She definitely enjoyed dessert...brownie trifle from Heather's oh so yummy recipe!

Mini Me's

These are our friends, Mark and Katie. This picture was taken at our wedding...I have no idea why I don't have a more recent picture of them, but I don't. Anyway, Mark and Mac went to high school together, so have been friends for a long time.

Mark and Katie just had a baby girl, Alice, and last week little Alice and her mommy came over to play with us. Pretty fair to say that both these little girls look just like their daddies...a couple of little mini me's!
(It's amazing how much babies grow in a year, isn't it?)

Deceptively Delicious

Deceptively Delicious is a new cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld, wife of Jerry. Apparently she was on Oprah and talked about it, but I, oblivious as always, missed it. However, suddenly this book kept cropping up in every food conversation I had with anyone, especially our various babysitters. Eliza had just entered into what I'm sure is the first of many phases of finicky eating, so the principles behind the book caught my attention. Basically, it's about sneaking healthy food into "regular" food so that kids will eat it. Think lots and lots of purees. I'm sure it's mostly geared toward the older picky eaters in the world, but since we were really moving away from any and all baby foods, I decided to pick up a copy.

One of the best decisions I've ever made.

Seriously, we've tried several recipes at this point and haven't hit a dud yet. Eliza has loved all of them: macaroni & cheese with butternut squash; pink pancakes made with beets; twice baked potatoes with cauliflower puree; and most recently, turkey lasagna with sweet potato and cauliflower purees. She's in a no-meat phase, but happily chowed on the turkey at lunch today. It was amazing. As an added bonus, this stuff all tastes so good that Mac and I eat it too (well, we were a little "eh" on those pink pancakes, but we don't like beets, so what can you do? I froze the rest and Eliza still loves them). Nice to know that when she is old enough for family dinner, there will be food we can all eat!

I also count us lucky that Eliza already enjoys many interesting foods, like quiche and broccoli (preferably with cheese). She also appears to realize that American cheese is not, in fact, cheese and should not be eaten. She'd much rather have some cheddar or muenster or those cute little Babybel cheeses. Yummy! And the girl does enjoy a grilled muenster cheese with avocado. Who wouldn't?

For those with kids, go buy this book. For those who know someone with kids, buy them this book. I think that should cover everyone. :-) If you want to sample a couple of recipes, Oprah has those too!

Now if only there was a comparable guide to good napping every day.

And since we weren't blogging when Eliza first started solids, here's a pic of her first "meal" - really watery cereal (rice?). Such a baldie!

Self Image

Call me crazy, but I think maybe, just MAYBE, Eliza knows she's cute.
She definitely knows how to work it these days.
And speaking of working it, sometimes the mamas can get in on the action too. This is me with Gen (mother of Sam) and Heather (Connor's mom) all dressed up and looking good at the Infamous Commonwealth gala last week.

Jack Attack!!!

This weekend, Eliza met her cousin Jack! Jack and his parents (Aunt Leslie and Uncle Friz) flew in for a whirlwind visit, arriving Saturday night and leaving Monday afternoon. Sadly, the first part of our visit on Sunday was spent at Navy Pier and the Children's Museum where a grand time was had riding the carousel and train and playing with all the cool stuff in the museum...but no one brought a camera. Oh well. Next time.

So on to Sunday post naps, where Jack took an immediate shine to Eliza's drum set. Here's the handsome devil:

And then Eliza wanted in on the action:

Jack and Uncle Mac, too cool for words!

A whole lotta noise!

Eliza wasn't sure what to do with all these goofy guys.

On Sunday, we all walked to the park, where Eliza and Daddy experimented with a tire swing.

Jack and Uncle Friz rode their mighty steeds.

And Eliza learned that slides are lots and lots of fun...she signed "more" as soon as she got to the bottom.

Cousins swinging along.

After lunch, Eliza walked home with two handsome fellows...
...who can lift her REALLY high!!!

And here are the happy cousins, holding hands (although Eliza's foot is blocking the view a little). Awwwww!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween, everybody! I'm counting this as Eliza's first Halloween because, let's face it, last year she was neither aware of it nor enjoying it, as this photo shows. She had already outgrown her "Baby's First Halloween" outfit, but I jammed her into it anyway. She reciprocated by looking a bit like Dr. Evil.


So, this year, much more fun, if not any more photogenic. We went to Lincoln Park Zoo on Saturday for their Halloween celebration (one of the sad things about living in a city is that kids can't really trick or treat, so there are lots of these kinds of events to go to instead. Fun, but really crowded). Here's our ladybug, eyes half closed in a picture b/c she is her father's daughter.
She walked the whole time by herself, sometimes not even holding anyone's hand, which made it that much more challenging to keep track of her in the crowds!

When it was all over, she showed off her big girl skills by pushing the stroller along on her own.


And another one for the desktop wallpaper collection...

On Halloween proper, we went to a playdate at Kerri's, where we met up with an awfully cute cow outside (Connor):

Inside, it was pretty much impossible to get a good photo of anyone, so here is the bug again, pondering the mysteries of a block:

CHAOS!!!

There were some guests at playgroup this time, including Alejandro - the lion with the reflective eyes in the center of the picture. He gave Eliza a goodbye kiss that rendered her absolutely Marcia Brady "I'll never wash my cheek again." Look out, Connor!