New Sounds

It's been a long time since our last post! Too long.

Well, Eliza is now 3 months old, and growing into the most incredible little girl. In the last day or so she has started experimenting with some new sounds. She gets such a kick out of hearing them, and clearly thinks they sound really cool. Mom and Dad think they're hilarious (and of course beautiful) sounds. We liken them to the sounds a pterodactyl might make. (Yes, we had to look up how to spell 'pterodactyl.') Here is a little video of Eliza's new sounds (and Mom and Dad trying to coax them out of her...)

While in Connecticut...

Eliza met quite a lot of people on our trip to Connecticut for her dad's graduation! She had lunch dates with some very interesting people...

Here's Eliza with her friends, Nandini and Khurram:



And with her cousins, Steve and Dawn:

Eliza at Graduation

Here are some pictures from Dad's graduation...




Eliza with her Great-Grandparents Joe and Libby



Eliza with the whole Galvin-Flum Family


Eliza with her Great-Great-Uncle Louis


Eliza with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Irene



Eliza with Auntie Rachel


To watch a video of Eliza helping Dad get his diploma, click on the link below:
Video

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: