10 months old!

Our baby girl is now 10 months old!  We are only two months away from Eliza's first birthday!!! Let the freak out mode begin :)  I continue to look back at pictures from her birth all the way up to this point and can hardly believe how quickly she has grown and changed.  Eliza continues to make us laugh and smile and brings so much happiness to our family.  Here is what ten months is looking like for our Liza bug.

Clothes: 12 months and some 18 months (although they are long)
Diaper size: 3
Sign Language being taught to Eliza: no, eat, drink, milk, bottle, all done, doggie, bath, pancake, thank you, please, more, book, bye

Sleep:  Eliza sleeps through the night pretty well. Granted we had a rough go when nursing went down from two to one time a day.  We took out her "before bedtime" nursing and are just doing morning.  Who knew that small change could totally mess up her routine!?!?!  Well it did.  She woke up every morning around 2:30 and would fight going back down to sleep.  We then entered into to sleep training where we would lay her back down and let her cry it out for increasing periods of time till she FINALLY would fall back asleep.  UGH!  EXHAUSTING!  We are past that now and after a week she was sleeping through the night again.  Bedtime is around 8:30 pm and she usually sleeps till 6:30-7 am.  Liza takes a small cat nap (30-45 minutes) in the morning and then her longer nap comes in the afternoon.  Typically she will go down around 2 and be up by 4 (as we don't want it to interfere with her sleep at night...and it will!).

Daddy holding his sleepy baby girl

So tired :)

Eating:  Like I said before, nursing has decreased to one time a day in the morning.  I'm hoping to be done nursing once the holidays are over.  It's been harder than I thought it would be as I enjoy nursing and having that time to spend with my baby girl, but I also feel like it's time.  I have made it a lot longer then I ever thought I would!  So YEAH me!  Eliza eats three solid meals a day and has water (sometimes with a spritz of apple juice) to wash it all down :)  She continues to take 2-3 bottles of formula/day as well.  Amounts vary on what she will take, but usually 4 oz. before nap time and sometimes up to 7 oz. before bed time.  Foods we have tried this month include blackberries, turkey (Thanksgiving), boiled eggs, broccoli, veggie burgers, green beans.  She loves toast, eggs, peas, cottage cheese, applesauce, and shredded cheese.  She will even say "OH" when she sees the shredded cheese bag come out.  It's pretty funny!  She is drinking/holding her sippy cup all on her own too.  Eliza loves feeding herself and wants to be as independent as she can...also known as being stubborn!

Liza's favorite time of day...MEAL TIME!

New Discoveries/accomplishments:  Eliza is pulling up on EVERYTHING!  She is able to balance independently for longer periods of time and can walk when Mommy and Daddy hold her hands.  She still can crawl around quickly everywhere and I mean she goes everywhere.  When you ask if she wants to read a book she will crawl so fast to sit on your lap and look at the pictures.  She actually crawled up a few stairs at Nonni and Pop-pop's house with some assistance and was super proud of herself.  Eliza is also waving bye-bye to Mommy when she is at the sitter's house.  Melts my heart to see baby girl saying bye-bye to Mommy, but I love seeing her smile when I come to eat lunch with her or pick her up.  Eliza is now in her convertible car seat.  It was hard for us to transition to the new one as the infant carrier is just so easy to snap her in especially when she's sleeping, but it was time as her little legs were well past the end of the carrier.  We are still getting used to it, but enjoy being able to take her out of the car seat and into a cart or stroller when we go shopping.  I think Eliza likes it too!

Special memories made:  Eliza made her first road trip to Branson to see Aunt Lala and Uncle Luke.  We drove down in a 15 person passenger van with Nonni, Pop-pop, and Unca T.  It was a long drive, but Liza did great!  We had a wonderful time spending it with our family and taking in some fun activities.  Eliza also celebrated Christmas with the Moffett side during our trip to Branson.  She wasn't quite into opening presents though.  Maybe by Christmas she will get the gist of tearing paper (and at least be interested in that!).  Auntie Jen also babysat Eliza this month so Mommy and Daddy could attend a birthday party.  We all went and met baby Marshall Jefford.  Liza loved playing and watching big brother Brayden move all over the place!  We went to the city to walk down to Daley Plaza and see the big Christmas tree with the Ripke crew.  Liza loved watching and taking in all the sights and sounds of the city.  We celebrated a small Christmas with the Ripke clan after the walk and she enjoyed watching her cousins wrestle and play (she wanted to know what they were doing at all times!).  And FINALLY-Eliza welcomed her newest first cousin Hope Elisabeth Mae Menard on December 7th at 7:12pm.  We are so excited to meet and love on her, and can't wait to watch Hope and Eliza grow and become best friends :)

Grandma reading to Liza and Easton

Odds and Ends:  Eliza continues to be such a happy baby.  She loves observing others especially other children.  She can be entertained watching little kids run around or talk to their parents.  She loves watching her buddy Owen (who our sitter watches on Friday's).  She now wants to do everything Owen does, which I think annoys him at times :)  She also continues to grunt when she is frustrated.  Eliza has quite the personality as she will be smiling at one moment and the next giving you the "stank eye."  HA!  That's the term Aunt Lala gave this look when she furrows her brow.  At first I wasn't sure where she learned this from, but then I caught myself making that same face at her the other day!  oops!  Eliza continues to drool and make raspberries.  At times we have thought she was teething again because there has been SO.MUCH.DROOL!  No sight of teeth cutting through though.  She just likes playing with her spit apparently.  She imitates vocally more and more.  She will watch the movement of your mouth and try to emulate it.  It's very funny to see her try out different sounds, noises, and movements.  For some reason, she also continues to pull her hair when she nurses.  I don't get it!  I block her hand at times because I feel like she's pulling incredibly hard on her hair, but she also pulls hard on Mommy's hair (YEAH!).  Eliza loves her doggie, Chief.  She gets a little rough when petting him at times (aka she pulls his hair--very.hard).  He is such a good pup as he will just get up, walk away, and move to another part of the living room.  Then the cycle continues as Liza crawls to his new location and does the same thing until he moves again.  Oh baby girl.  I laugh when I think about bringing her home and saying to Chief "No Chief...don't get too close...yada yada yada" and now I find myself saying "No Liza, be nice to Chief."  HA!  How things change!  She is going to give him a run for his money once she's up and walking.  YIKES!  As I mentioned before, Liza LOVES books.  She will sit in her little "corner" (aka where all the books are stored in a basket) and look at all the pictures and "read" to herself.  It's HI-LARIOUS!  She loves playing with her stacking cups, the shapes from the shape sorter, her standing table, and push toy that she can lean against and take some steps.  She also likes puzzles, but tends to put the pieces in her mouth so we rotate those in every so often.  

A partial "stank eye" look

My 10 month birthday cake...yum!

Bath time with Mr. Ducky

Look at that Daddy!

Shopping with Mommy

Only two more months until our sweet Eliza Marie turns one!  I can't believe how quickly these last few months have gone.  I get so teary eyed when I look back at pictures from when she was just born or a few weeks old.  She is changing daily and find myself having a hard time keeping up with all the new things she is doing!  Happy ten month birthday baby girl!  We love you so very much!