An Eliana first: She climbed a flight of stairs.

An Eliana first: She indulged a chocolate craving.

Learning not to raid the pantry to satiate the immediate desires is never easy, but it can be tasty. And there are blessings on the way. Besides watching her grow in awareness and dexterity, we take comfort in Eliana’s shared trait with her brother: a convenient satisfaction simply with pure cocoa, even without sugar or any other sweetener.

An Eliana first: She climbed down from a bed.

Unlike her brother at that age, Eliana is quite aware of heights and navigates cautiously near edges. For example, she can tell that our bed is raised high, leading to a careful blend of curiosity and sense of peril (she seems unaware of the arms ready to reach out and catch her). Ethan’s bed is lower, however—low enough that with well-planned seating and a little scooching, she safely made the solo transition to the bounty of Ethan’s toys awaiting below.

Ethan on use of royal authority

Why does a king hold a scepter?

“So he can scept a dragon. Boom! Boom!”

An Eliana first: She hid her face.

A benefit of expanding Eliana into new foods is they are often less messy. I shared with her some spoonfuls of the oats and yogurt in my breakfast concoction. She seems to really like the French vanilla. I like that the consistency is thick enough that it all stays in her mouth.

Eliana also enjoys one of my favorite types of buttered bread, a mixture of whole grains with nuts. Whether plain or toasted, she likes it either way, and either way it is a bib-optional experience.

With the bib not around her neck, Eliana quickly repurposed it as a toy. When she hid her face behind it, Ethan and I said, “Where’s Eliana?” She was already familiar with unhiding, so the “There she is!” part came easily. Again and again, Eliana led us in a game of peek-a-boo.

An Eliana first: She drank from a sippy cup.

Being so used to a bottle, Eliana had no interest in drinking her baby formula through a sippy cup. Still, she seemed to be ready to handle one. After some dodge and parry of her opposing hands and turning head, I got her started. After a few seconds, she realized it wasn’t so bad after all, held the cup, and enjoyed her early morning beverage.

An Eliana first: She climbed stairs.

Eliana didn’t start with the soft, carpeted stairs at home. Instead, she chose the hard, smooth (but fortunately, not too slippery) stairs of the children’s museum. Was it the bold, yellow stripes cuing her next steps? Or maybe boredom waiting for her brother to finish playing fireman?