Eliana - 18 months

Eliana keeps growing and is starting to get the hang of this mobility thing.  She's crawling everywhere, pulls herself up on everything, and has even mastered going up and down the steps!  Now she just has to get the courage to stand on her own and take some steps.  She's tried out the nursery these past few weeks and usually settles down the second half after mom or dad leaves.

When it comes to opinions, Eliana definitely has been gaining her own!  At mealtimes, if she is not excited about what we're eating, Eliana will scream and point to the fridge expecting a specific food to appear that isn't already on the table.  I think she's starting to realize I'm not catering to everyone's food wishes, so she's starting to be a little better at eating, but we have a ways to go.

Words are not anything Eliana is concerned about right now.  She points, grunts, and shakes or nods her head.  Every once in a while she'll repeat "Mama" and "Dada" and even gives a little roar when reading about a dinosaur in one of her books, but she is perfectly content not trying to build any type of vocabulary.  A few tantrums have occurred due to her lack of communication skills, so I'm hopeful she'll be motivated to start verbalizing things.  She definitely understands a great deal, she just doesn't want to talk about it.  ;)

When Eliana sees her picture is being taken, this is how she 'smiles'

And, of course, it's time for some side-by-side pics of when Geoff and I were her age.  It's pretty obvious who Eliana is getting her amazing looks from--she looks just like Geoff did when he was little.  In fact, when I showed this picture of Geoff to Hylie, she asked when Eliana was wearing that outfit, ha ha ha ha!