baby girl.

I'm obsessed with this child. I really can't handle it some days. She is beautiful and smart, and she is growing up to be such a strong, little girl. This one is determined to be a big kid this very instant. While I am desperately clinging to every little ounce of baby left in her, she is running in the opposite direction without even so much as a look over her shoulder. 

On Sunday, Eliza demanded to go to nursery. In our church, children have to be at least 18 months before they can attend nursery. This makes ages 12-18 months incredibly exhausting, because they can walk and want to have fun, but they aren't quite emotionally ready to be left in the nursery room. I used to serve in the nursery, and I remember when those new ones would enter. The parents, looking relieved, would pry their children off of their legs and push them into the room, where the child then erupted into tears. Well, on Sunday (at 15 months old) Eliza marched down to the nursery room and banged on the door to be let in. She never even looked back.

She wants to sit on big chairs at the table, walk down the stairs with no hands, and she only wants to color with a ballpoint pen which she surprisingly holds just like an adult. She has gotten really good at walking around in my shoes, and she spends a lot of her time trying to put her clothes on by herself. Lately, she's even showing signs of being ready to potty train- pulling her diaper down by herself, with her little crack showing like the Morton Salt girl.

Eliza has always been physically inclined, and so I was starting to get a little worried when she refused to copy sounds or words, except "Uh, Oh." But, in the past couple of weeks she has learned three new words! I feel like they show her personality very well, right now.

Eliza's new grown-up words:
(Must be spoken in a string, such as "no, no, no, no, no, no!")

1) "No"- My favorite. Yay. But, it's actually quite cute, because she doesn't yell it at me yet. It's a string of sweet little "no"s that she uses when she's very worried or doesn't like something.

2) "Go"- This is what she uses when she wants to get out of the house. She grabs my shoes or my bag and drags them to the front door, where I hear "go, go, go, go, go, go, gooooo!" while she bangs on the door. I mean, it's not like we lay around the house all day. This is like, 9 am and we are still in our pjs.

3) "Baby"- This word is only said in a soft whisper. We got Eliza a baby doll a couple of weeks ago. The second I took her out of the package, she gently reached over and gave her a hug and then the most perfect little kisses. She carries her around the house, and feeds her with a little bottle, all while whispering, "baby, baby, baby, baby..."

I love this girl.