Another Year for Eliza

 Eliza was lucky enough to have her birthday on Memorial Day this year so we made the whole day a party. The Hilton's and Aunt Heather even came to celebrate with us. Because I'm trying not to eat dairy, I convinced Eliza that a cookies and creme cake would be the best. (Thank you Oreos for being dairy free) Eliza was excited to get to be the only one to help make and decorate the cake. Usually any baking involves all of the kids taking turns but I only have the Birthday child help with their cake. It makes it more special. 

She loved helping pipe the frosting on the top and putting the Oreos on. 

Mariah, Chet and Austin each got her a little gift. Mariah got bubbles, Austin gave her a candy bar and Chet got her gum. Those have probably been her favorite gifts. 

After Eliza finished opening her presents, everyone pampered the "princess" in her new dress. 

This kids had fun playing hard all day and right before dinner we went down to the Welcome Home Soldier Monument and discussed with the children why we celebrate Memorial Day. It's so wonderful to have such a great place to teach our children about the sacrifices that have been made for our freedom. 

And here is Eliza's first official birthday interview:

Mom: What is your favorite color?

Eliza: I love purple (she is wearing one of her favorite shirts that is worn out, stained, and...purple)

Mom: What is your favorite food?
Eliza: Hot dogs

Mom: What is your favorite animal?
Eliza: Horses

I just love this picture of her with Gus

Mom: What is your favorite book?
Eliza: Harry Potter (Oh the influence of older siblings)

Mom: What is your favorite movie?
Eliza: Where he was like, "Oh, I got a hot dog and bun." (Pretty sure her favorite movie is whatever I let her watch.) 

              

Mom: What is your favorite song?

Eliza: I love to See the Temple

Mom: Who is your scripture hero?
Eliza: Jesus

Here she is putting on the Armor of God

Mom: What is your favorite dessert?
Eliza: Ice Cream

Mom: What do you like to do for fun? 
Eliza: I like to play. (Her real favorite thing is to follow me everywhere talking my ear off and insisting on doing whatever I am doing.)

 

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Mom?
Eliza: I like to cook

This cupcake shirt is another favorite. She lets me know that I need to do laundry once her purple shirt and cupcake shirt are dirty. It doesn't matter if she has other clean shirts. 

This was taken about the time the cupcake shirt obsession began.

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Dad?
Eliza: I like to work with him 

Eliza drew this picture of Tanner and I. I think it depicts our relationship accurately. Even the look of discomfort on Tanner's face...

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Mariah?
Eliza: I like to play Halloween. (Mariah is so great playing with Eliza. She thinks up all kinds of fun things to do with her: spa days for their dolls, dressing up, restaurant, taking care of their babies and more.)

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Chet?

Eliza: I like to make cars. (Chet loves to make different things for Eliza. The other day he worked hard in the garage hammering wood together and proudly brought it in and told Eliza it was a bed for her dolls.)

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Austin? 

Eliza: play with dinosaurs (Austin and Eliza have a lot of clashes, but when they do play together well it is real sweet and enjoyable.) 

Mom: What is your favorite thing to do with Vivi? 

Eliza: I like to hold her. 

Eliza has been so good with Vivienne. There has definitely been some angst with a new sibling but she's never directed her anger towards Vivi. She loves to hold her, talk with her and read books to her. 

Mom: Who is your best friend?

Eliza: My Aunt and Uncle (She has many amazing Aunts and Uncles so they can all just assume she is talking about them)

I would say that Jack (or Jacky-Tacky, as Eliza sometimes calls him) would be her best friend. They are the cutest together. 

Mom: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Eliza: I want to be a mom. 

She's already getting lots of practice in. 

Eliza says so many adorable things so this is going to get long and some of them happened almost a year ago but they must be documented. 

She used to call movies "boovies". While driving she likes to call out the things she sees, "I see a racoom! I see a wabbit! I see a kicket!" For thirsty she says "cursty". Hip-possum for Hippopotamus. She loved saying she could do things "easy peasy". "I ate it all all" is another common things she says. Eliza "yikes bamatoes" too. 

Right after she turned two she started commenting more on what I would read to her. She would talk about the characters: "He's sad, he needs his mommy. I hold him and tell him, it's ok and rock him" Or if someone was sleeping, "I wake him up!" 

During the winter she found her swimming suit and loved to get in it and tell us, "Did you know I hab a simming pool at my house? You want to come sim at my pool? I have a kitty cat in my pool." 

She still loves her babies and use to ask us, "Isn't my baby so tute?" but after we brought Vivi home she told me, "Mom, I want to throw my baby away." I asked her if it was because the doll wasn't as cute and fun as Vivi and she said yes. Then I told her that she should probably keep her baby dolls in case she changes her mind. She agreed. 

Eliza is the most strong-willed child we have had. She determines what she will wear and I am lucky if I can even run a brush through her hair. The girl does it all herself. And so she usually looks like a two year old dressed her and did her hair...because that is what actually happened. I just have to swallow my pride. She has a lot of clothes but cycles about four outfits each week. It was so fun to have a small say in what she wore on vacation...even though she still found a way to change things up. There was one dress that she would never wear, until it got too small for her. Now it's a favorite. Once she decided she wanted to wear dresses most days I thought some short kick pants would be good to wear under the dresses. Now she won't wear dresses but wears the tiny little shorts with t-shirts. You just can't win with that girl. 

Here she is "fixing" her hair and then sporting a nice combover she did on herself.

She went through a phase where a shirt with a ruffle at the bottom was her "ballerina shirt". No pants could be worn with it, and a tutu wouldn't work either. It could only be that shirt and undies. I wasn't sad when the shirt got too small. 

Whenever I turn on music she has to put a dress on to dance in. If she already has a dress on she still must change into another one. She usually goes through at least three outfits a day. 

She loves sitting on the counter while I do my makeup. I let her "do her makeup" with some of my brushes. That must always be followed with some chapstick. She tells me how when she's a mom she'll wear makeup. 

She's already got the awkward open-mouth down. 

Eliza does not like nicknames. It causes her great distress if I call her "baby" or "sister". "I not a baby! I a princess girl!"

Eliza decided she was going to stop wearing diapers around December. It was the earliest I have ever potty trained a child but she gave me no choice. She figured it out quickly and does pretty well. She loves to tell us "give me my pivacies (privacy)" when she is going to the bathroom. 

One day the kids were talking about what mom and dad's names were and Eliza said, "Dad's name is daddy...dad Cosswey." 

We went to a friend's Baptism and Eliza was ready to get baptized right then and there. She kept begging to go back to the font. "I get baptized in the water!" For weeks after that she would say, "When I'm 8 I get baptized." 

While stroking my face, "I love you...both of us love you. Can I touch your teefes (teeth)?"

She went through a phase where she pretended there was a monkey that was sneaking around our house. She would get herself so worked up that she actually would be scared. "Shhh! Dere's a Monkey!" 

I try to teach my kids to pay attention to what their stomach tells them while they are eating, or if they need to go to the bathroom. Apparently Eliza's stomach tells her more than just that, "My tummy says I don't clean up."

Eliza loves the Beatrix Potter books. One day she was holding a doll blankie and told Mariah, "Thats my pocket handkin!"

After spinning and getting dizzy Eliza stumbled over to me and said, "Mom hold me! You're falling!"

Eliza loves her dad, but come bedtime, if I'm there, she insists on me being the one to get her ready for bed. One night as I was tucking her in she gave me a big hug and said, "you're my best friend!"

Eliza has great older siblings that are already helping her to make good habits. Many mornings after breakfast she will ask me, "Mom, what's my chore?" She loves to feel like she is helping out. 

She loves to make up all kinds of crazy stories, much to the horror of her siblings. "Mom! She keeps telling lies!" Gus often gets blamed for all kinds of things, "I didn't kick my covers off, Gus came in in the night and scratched them off." Someday it's going to get her in trouble because I never know what is truth or her imagination. 

After a rough couple days with Eliza, I said, "I need a vacation." Without missing a beat Eliza said, "From me!" Yep...

One day the kids decided to give Eliza a spa day. They made "flower water" for her to soak her feet in, Mariah painted her nails, Chet fixed her hair, and Austin picked out an outfit for her to wear for her ball.

Here they are, dancing the night away. Eliza loved all the attention. 

She stopped taking naps a couple months before Vivi was born but every so often she'll fall asleep. And I try my hardest to keep her asleep just for the break I get. 

Lately she's loved taping pieces of paper together or taping up papers that she has "written" on. (She just writes M's over and over again, and then she asks me to read them. She gets really disgusted when I don't read what she has written correctly.) Whenever she finds yarn she cuts long pieces and asks me to tie them to different things or she uses the hole punch to make holes in paper and then haves me tie yarn to the holes. It keeps her busy but also keeps me busy...so I don't know if it's really worth it. 

We like to think that this strong personality of hers is going to make her a great person someday. As long as we channel it into the right things. She is learning and does try to be her best self. She adds a whole new dimension to our family that we didn't know we needed but couldn't do without. We sure love our Eliza Ann!