Neglected Blog.

Hi blog, we are sorry we have neglected you.  It is fun to look back and see all the changes from the past couple of years.  Stupid Facebook and stupid iPhones have ruined everything (we love you iPhone, kind of sort of like you too Facebook).  Anyway here is a picture of Eliza and her favorite ice cream just so we feel like we are kind of paying attention to you, blog.

Our last post was in March?!?!

So much has happened with Eliza in the past several months. She's walking all over the place and her vocabulary has absolutely exploded. She says just about everything we say which has, on occasion, proven dangerous. Here are a few videos to catch you up on all things Eliza.

Fig newtons are her faves.

Eliza and Abby's moms have known each other for a looooong time. Over 25 years, in fact. And though we didn't know each other when we were this young, it's great that our girls can be buds from the start.

After what can only be described as a complete meltdown, Eliza relented when she made it clear that she wanted to put butter on her own roll by HERSELF, thankyouverymuch. The evidence:

We had a great summer!

There's Something About Eliza

Eliza has not yet had a haircut. 16 months without a trip to a stylist? Wow! That's a long time! Her current style is au natural. No product, no conditioner, no gel. Just straight up California Baby shampoo. And some self-applied yogurt once in awhile. Her bangs are kind of getting a little out of control maybe. Wait, are bangs the part of your hair that's in the front of your head, or do bangs only mean a certain type of haircut? Anyway, the hair in the front of her head is getting out of hand. We've tried clips, but Eliza enjoys removing and hiding them.

So imagine our surprise when I picked up Eliza disguised as Cindy-Lou Who! Form follows function, we guess. That Frank Lloyd Wright definitely had this in mind when he coined that phrase.

Oh, and when we removed the hairtie thing Eliza looked like an extra on a Farrelly Brothers comedy. The one with Brett Favre.

What's so funny?

We don't know, but Eliza sure enjoyed it!

Fine Motor Skills > Gross Motor Skills

Some wise parent told us to be prepared for an onslaught of colds this winter. Eliza got a few last year, but we were entirely unprepared for this epidemic. She's nice enough to share some of them (sorry, grandparents). This latest one has her on some antibiotics that make for some rather, er, messy side effects. So we have instituted a diet based on the well-known BRAT method that we are calling the BRA diet: bananas, rice and applesauce. Eliza doesn't really seem to dig white toast at the moment. But that isn't the reason for this update. Beginning yesterday, we gave her a spoon to use with her applesauce/rice cereal/banana mixture and she picked it right up. We still have to work on the proper handling of the spoon, though.

Fun in the Snow

Parenthood would have been nothing like we thought it would be, had we had any idea (accurate or otherwise) what parenthood would be like in the first place. Some stuff makes more sense. Some stuff has more or different meaning. We could get into some deep, philosophical/meta examples, but instead, let's turn to the old reliable cultural satire, The Simpsons.

Now, from time to time on The Simpsons (which, by the way, we haven't watched in several seasons for no particular reason whatsoever) there would be an episode set in winter and Maggie donned her snowsuit. The suit, which looks like a starfish with a baby face poking out of one of the arms, looked stiff, immovable and not entirely comfortable. I always thought it was a cute little depiction of a baby's snowsuit. NOPE. It's pretty much dead on, which I should have realized earlier, given the frequency that The Simpsons nails pretty much everything. I give you exhibit A, and exhibit B.

Maggie Simpson's snowsuit:

Eliza in her snowsuit (with friend Kelsey):


So while that doesn't look too comfortable, we assure you, Eliza is very much at ease in her new toboggan. While this next shot is from a more recent tobogganing expedition, Eliza is obviously perfectly happy being immobile in her toasty warm snowsuit. Not pictured - when the toboggan tipped over and Eliza found herself face-down in the snow. She did not like that. At all.

Birthday Slideshow!

Just head on over to housechapin.blogspot.com and see the slideshow we premiered at Eliza's First Birthday Partay! Just about, oh, 250 carefully selected photographs from the thousands that have been taken over this past year. Just click the pumpkinhead below to see the pics!