Silly mom- silly girl!

I call this Eliza's theme song. It gets her laughing and smiling every time. Of course, she was much more animated right before Bruce turned on the camera. We try and try to capture her cuteness, but have come down to one conclusion. No lens of ours can truly capture Baby Cakes. Although her smiles and giggles are great, and her face is so beautiful, her real beauty and character lies in her personality. She does something new every day that keeps me laughing. These personality traits can't be captured on camera. Although there are no words to describe her, I'll do my best to document her personality.

1) I recently started watching another baby girl who is only 6 days older than Eliza. Baby E comes over for 8 hours a day 3 days a week so her mom, who is a nurse, could go back to work. She is on medication for acid reflux, so she naturally cries more than Eliza. Her crying is not excessive - just natural for a baby whose stomach is often uncomfortable. When Baby E begins to cry, Eliza will gaze in her direction with a look on her face that clearly says, "What is your problem?" It makes me laugh. Then I will look at Eliza and say, "Little Miss E is sad." Eliza will then give a half smile which shows how comical she finds the situation. When I pick Baby E up, Eliza gives her a look that says, "Hey, that's my mom. Don't take away her attention." There is a tiny bit of animosity in that look.
However, Eliza keeps right on playing and being the happy girl that she is.


Me and the girls

2) The first day Baby E came, I laid the girls on their backs side by side. Eliza didn't pay attention to Baby E at all. Baby E started hitting (you know how babies do that) Eliza in the chest. After 5 or 6 hits, Eliza hit Baby E back. This caused Baby E to cry. I told Eliza she shouldn't hit and she gave me a look that said, "she started it."

Eliza and Baby E.
Eliza is stronger than Baby E. Baby Cakes has a lot more control over her body and limbs than Baby E does. Since then, every time Baby E comes over, Eliza looks at her like, "you again." I'm sure it won't be long before either girl gets upset on the days they can't play with each other.

In her jogging suit

3) Eliza is content sitting propped up on the couch observing what goes on around her. She reminds me a lot of her dad when she does that.


sitting on the couch


Baby Cakes watching General Conference

4) Lately, she likes to turn her head to the side so she can make full eye contact with me while she is nursing. I will smile at her, she'll give a sigh of relief and contentment, laugh and coo for a little bit, then get back to the task at hand. Later she will slightly tilt her head, give me a half smile, lick her lips, and once again turn back to the task. When she is finished eating, she will smack her lips with a sigh of satisfaction and giggle at me. It is CUTE!!

5) We have to be careful now what we put in her reach while she is sitting on our laps. A couple of days ago, she tried to put her hand in Bruce's hot soup. When he moved it, she lunged and reached for it again. She wants to sit up at the dinner table with us, but it is getting more and more difficult to hold her while we eat. She tries grabbing our silverware too.

6)A couple of days ago she started playing peek-a-boo with her blanket when I put her down for a nap. She pulled her blanket up over her eyes, pulled it down again, saw me and squealed with delight as she coyly turned her head. She did it three times, and we both started laughing. Then she looked at me as if to say, "aren't I cute?" I responded, "yes! Now its time for sleep." She pulled her arms out did her little turtle face, then went to sleep. It was adorable!! Wish everyone could have seen it. She hasn't done it since.

Pulling the blanket up


Looking to see if I'm watching

It seems like she sometimes gets in these silly moods like when she flicked her toy away with a flick of her wrist, or when she yanked a fist full of coupons out of my coupon book. I'm still not sure how that happened, she did it in about a second. Sometimes she will be looking out the window and randomly start laughing. One time she took her binky out of her mouth and threw it across the room. I had to get out of the rocking chair to retrieve it. Sometimes I wonder if it is merely coincidence or if she does it on purpose because she wants to be silly!!

She will laugh, smile, and talk to Bruce and I for hours on end. She isn't to the point yet where she will do that for other people. She will occasionally sneak in a smile or two for others, but she mostly sits and stares at them with a serious expression on her face as if she is trying to figure out what to think about them.


I took this picture because she looks like a football players with shoulder pads in this shirt