Eliza Goes to Arkansas

Eliza's first out-of-state trip -- to our 42nd president's home state -- went well. Though the drive was long, Eliza couldn't wait to meet her Great Aunt Judy and Uncle Dan and see her Grandma Memsa again.

As most of you know, Mommy and Daddy love their road trips. On this trip, we learned some handy tricks for long car rides with an infant. Generally these included frequent stops and having one parent periodically ride in back to entertain Eliza and snap pictures of national landmarks, including:

...the St. Louis arch as seen from back seat:


...and Yakov Smirnoff's headquarters in Branson, MO:


The drive was fine, but the real fun was spending time with family. First, Eliza met her Aunt Judy -- they bonded immediately:



Then, Eliza cuddled with Memsa:



Eliza just melted in her Uncle Dan's arms:

...and they immediately entered into a Mutual Admiration Society with one another:


We spent some quality time sitting out on the back porch (which felt like a tree-house: Judy's timeshare was absolutely beautiful), just hanging out.


We were all entertained by playing the "is she falling asleep?" game:

Quick pics

Here's a fuzzy one of Eliza and her smile:


Sometimes she sticks out her tongue.


And here is Eliza at her baby-naming ceremony this evening at our synagogue. That's us with the truly wonderful Gail and Rabbi Ginsburg. Eliza's Hebrew name is Alitza Rivka.

First Bad Day

Yesterday Eliza got her first round of immunization shots. :(

She was none too happy about it...she cried for the following 7 hours and when she went to bed for the night she slept for 15 hours with only one feeding in the middle! Clearly, she needed to sleep off her first bad day. We all know how that feels -- some nights you just want to stay sleeping.

The good news is that she's still growing quite well: she now weighs 10 lbs., 6 oz., and is 21-1/2" long (tall?).

Her growth is obvious to us -- not only because she's getting heavier, but because she's quickly outgrowing all of her newborn clothes and moving up to the next size.

What else. She's sucking the pacifier more often now, which is terrific. It took her a while to warm up to the fake nipple. Can't blame her.

Anyway, she's doing great and we just wanted to post a quick report. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Here's a little video from last weekend. If you watch closely, you might see a quick little smile. (They're hard to catch on camera!)

Fun weekend

This past weekend, Aunt Rachel came to visit and meet her niece Eliza for the first time. Naturally, they hit it off. In fact, since Aunt Rachel left, Eliza has made it very clear to us that she misses her aunt -- she's been a little extra cranky.

Here is a picture of Aunt Rachel holding Eliza for the first time:


While Rachel was here, we had some fun adventures with baby..."Galvinized Baby Adventures," you might say...

We did a lot of hanging around the house with Rose (our cat):


...and we all went out to dinner (for the first time) with Eliza!


The next day, we left the apartment...


...And went for a walk by Lake Michigan.


We love having the beautiful lake and public parks right around the block. There are so many children in Evanston, stopping for a quick bite to eat in the park is nothing out of the ordinary:



Later, we spent more quality time at home:




And finally, here's a short video of Eliza and Aunt Rachel: