A few of her favorite things ...

She LOVES my water bottle. She can be in a full-out my-teeth-hurt cry and I'll bring out the water bottle (only the Fiji one works) and she stops crying, grabs it, and stuffs it in her ginormous mouth. I've stopped actually using it for drinking water. Instead we keep it empty in the freezer so it's always cold for her and her poor little gums, but light enough that she doesn't drop it too much. Dropping the Fiji bottle is the tragedy of her young life. :)

We've let her play with her spoon after feeding her the rice cereal -- which she loves. Chiara gobbles that stuff up like nothing else. She's been refusing to nurse for very long these days, so we're compensating with lots of rice cereal. :)

We sit up by ourselves now!!!

And again!! :) Note the classy cheetos-in-a-bag toy. I brought it home for Eldon from a work BBQ and he doesn't like them. I didn't know that. So we let Chiara play with them and it is now one of her favorite toys. I think it's second only to Mommy's water bottle. Oh, and my Sleeping Beauty bookmark.

Daddy's knees are a comfy place to relax these days. She always covers him with drool. :)

I made the headband with my friend Brittanie. I LOVE it ... so does Chiara, apparently, because it's the only one she pulls off. Maybe it's the only one so big she can see it when it's on her head.

Nap hair! She woke up with this delightful hairstyle. That is some impressive volume. I couldn't capture it, but there was a lot of fun curl to her hair too. Gosh she's a darling child.

I bought her this lamb blankie when she was the size of a golf ball in my womb. I love lambs and have a little bit of a fetish. I thought it only fitting that my child be a part of it. I'd seen one of these years ago and after a diligent search on Amazon I found one. She loves it.

She is absolutely the light of our lives. Her personality is so fun and easy-going, she just delights us. Everyone who sees us together can't believe that she's such a "copy" of me. Eldon and I just laugh and agree. It really is fun to have my baby look so much like me. She has certain elements of Eldon, for sure, but the look-alike points go to me. :) The Rule Book points go to him.