"Taumafai": Happy One Year, Eliana!

My baby is ONE! And she is the most adored little thing in our family. Eliana is everyone's favorite--the kids fight over her attention. Aiya likes to be the first one to greet her in the morning, eager to use the step-stool to pull her out of the crib. Logan tries to beat her to it, and when he does, he will either climb in the crib and play with (also read as "harass") her or fill the crib with stuffed animals until she's almost buried in them. (We are still working on playing safely with her.) Aaron loves to play with her away from everyone else, and gets really upset when he feels like the other kids are stealing her attention from him.

Eliana, baby, it's safe to say you will never lack for attention!

Highlights:

She doesn't talk a lot but she communicates well enough, usually with lots of sounds. Lately she's found her screaming-voice, which can often be found around Logan. He loves to be in her face and "exchange" toys with her, and she is often on the major-defensive when he's around!While in the shopping cart together yesterday, she was adamant about taking items from Logan and full-blown screamed a long high pitch sound as she glared at him. Then proceeded to take both little fists and pull his hair! I was shocked by this toddler-behavior, both laughing and dismayed. It's starting too early! She's definitely building up some sass this past month or so, and displaying entitlement as the youngest way too soon. =) As for words, here's what she's got:

Dada
Mama, which is not be confused with "Mah!" or "Mah-Mah" for MORE. The difference can usually be understood through her tone or persistent eye-balling of the food in your hand.
She can say Aiya and some form of Aaron, which sounds like, "Arr-rah", which also sounds like her version of Aiya so... depending on who's around helps us figure out and celebrate who she's calling for. Not attempts for Logan yet. ;) She also says Ty's name sometimes when we point to pictures. One time, she pointed to a different photo and recognized it as Ty and said his name. Made all of us smile.
New word: "Ba", like "bat" without for the T at the end for bath. She loves bath time! She will try and take off her clothes next to the tub, lifting her shirt up to expose her cute belly.
"This" but pronounced like "Dis". Usually she's pointing her finger and say "Dis...dis" at Ty's picture because I often say, "Who's this?"

She pulls herself up all the time now along the couch, tables, toys... There's a toy car that we bought for Logan when he was her age. That's her favorite to climb into, sometimes face-planting into the carpet in her attempts.
As much as she loves her mama, she super loves her daddy, too! She expects his attention when he walks into the room. Big smiles and opening her arms for him. Dan just melts! The other day, he had to hurry to work so he threw out "goodbyes" to everyone and shut my bedroom door. She started to cry loudly, and within seconds, Dan was back in the room to scoop her up and apologize for not saying goodbye and for having to leave. Sweet moments.
She's not interesting in walking yet, or even standing on her own. We try to place her on her feet and Eliana just bends them. ha ha
She's about 29 inches and 20 lbs, a little less than average. We've started to call her "Teapot" because she's "short and stout". he he Dan also likes to call her "Ellie-Nay" for (Eliana Nadine) I call her Lia a lot, but I'm about the only one who shortens her name to that. Others call her Ellie, and that makes me mentally cringe.
Last night she slept all through the night! That's only happened a couple of times, although as of late she will usually go to bed at 7 PM and wake up once between 10:30 and midnight, giving her demon-cry for a bottle. (Which she snatches out of our hand with both of her cute, anxious little hands!) and that's all it takes to calm her down. So I haven't been too worried about it. Gonna start letting her cry it out for 15-20 minutes now if needed... (ok, maybe just to 15. I can't take it!) She's easy and predictable during the day, waking between 7:15 and 7:45 and will play for a bit before we go get her by 8. She naps around 11 AM until 1:30 or 2 PM. We dropped the second nap a month or two ago.