Halloween(ie)

Evie ended up having such a severe ear infection (Rob recently told me the infection may have ruptured her ear drum?!. Ah, men never ask doctors enough questions!) that she required both an oral medication and drops for her sore ear. Halloween was the day she went to the doc and by nightfall - she was having NOTHING TO DO WITH TRICK-OR-TREATING! No sirree! I tried to get her into her costume ( a fairy ladybug) but she was over it all after I velcroed the wings in place.
Oh well.
It hurt mom more than Evie. She doesn't know what she is missing - but I do!
Next year.
Dressed for action. Moo-cow in hand and pacifier in mouth aren't good signs that this camper will venture outdoors...

No pictures! Forget it, she's down for the count.

Trip to Ohio (Why-o, why-o, why-o)

Before a trip to Ohio, we think its going to be great to catch up with family, friends and all the junk-food places in which Rob loves to dine. Halfway up, we quickly begin to talk down the trip and end up already sick of the entire idea of travel by the time we reach our destination.
Each time we leave, we are sad to go and a little piece of us wishes we could take back the things we love about Ohio.
The weather is never one of these things (*wink*). Although, the weather was pretty awesome while we were there this time!

We drove up Wednesday night after a full day of working. We arrived at 2:30AM after much fussing from Evie the second leg of the trip. It was rather hard.
Thursday we hung-out and recooped while getting ready to attend the PEnguins game in Pittsburgh. The game was great (we won!) despite arriving a little late. We left to discover I left my cell phone in the arena. After running around loose inside (can you believe no security guards assisted me throughout the empty arena?) I found my cell nestled between our used napkins and nacho cheese tub. Phew!
Friday we again relaxed with family and prepared for a large family dinner.
Saturday we gathered the troops for a 9:30AM family portrait at the photo studio. Eesh, this was my idea. Although it all turned out OK, I don't know how great this idea was. Evie was a bear the whole time and only happy when we rewarded with the opportunity to sit in a little red chair off to the side. She's turning into a bit of a defiant turd these days. ;-). The rest of Saturday was spent at The Geldhof's for an afternoon of kid playtime followed by the pre-Halloween party at Crookston's for the Kent area bash. We did walk around Kent to gaggle at the college kids dressed in all kinds of outlandish (and some rather uninspiring) costumes but we only stayed for about an hour before realizing it was much more fun catching up at the party (where we talked until 2AM! this trip is nothing but late nights!)
Sunday we packed up Evie is a red dress & tights to go visit her Great-Grandmother in Toledo for the afternoon. Unfortunately, Great-Grandma was so excited at us coming that day that she fell, which, resulted in her getting rushed to ER for a cut to her head. It all ended well after visiting her in the hospital, taking a break for lunch with my brother & his wife and later returning to see Great-Grandma one last time in her nursing home room. We didn't stay long (the excitement was too much for her and was making her blood pressure sky rocket) so we headed back home to Rob's folks' place for an early night to bed.
Monday we ran errands and shopped (Gabriel Brothers!) and then hopped in the car at 6:30PM for another night of driving... home.




Evie's Uncle A. Her red hair matches. *wink*








Yes, I have a brother. Well, sort of. R is from my dad's former marriage and we were never raised together. But hey, a brother is a brother, right?

Richmond's First Folk Festival

After 3 years of hosting the National Folk Festival, this year was Richmond's own festival. And I am thrilled to report, we had more fun than last year, the weather was GORGEOUS and it was the best attended folk festival for us... yet! Yippee! I can hardly wait until next year...

When at the folk festival, its important to blend. Grab yer straw to chew on...


This troop played flutes atop a 90ft pole before "falling off" and unwinding downward - cool!



Dad replicates spinning in the air


Yeah! There's nothing like a picnic (and with the Gill-Gordon's, too!)


Evie, wait up! Where are we going?


Signs that Evie is winding down



OK, all that's left is Texas-style polka. Sign that its time to head home

Richmond Zine Fest

Evie attends her first comic show. Correction, first of MANY shows...
poor thing.... she never even had a chance.

Picnic with mom: Bryan Park

We are fortunate to live, literally, across the street from a park. Bryan Park was one of those WPA projects so it contains some nice stonework and features beautiful azaleas. A nice park to job, dog walk or... picnic.

Evie and I strolled on down while dad attended the Richmond 'Zine Fest. A gorgeous upper 70's fall day was best played outside.
We shared a PB & strawberry jam sandwich, gold fish (of course), crackers, grapes, an apple juicebox and carrot sticks. Well, Evie took off with all the carrot sticks but we shared everything else.

Evie dives right in to the sandwich squares.
Would you like a goldfish?
I'm sure that piece of sandwich was meant for me, I'll just lean over and eat it right out of your hand. Thanks!
I just love goldfish, don't you?
Mmmm, this cracker is good but what I'd really like are some more goldfish.
OK, I just want goldfish! They are so darned good. Don't you just love them?!.
Alright, here's my belly button. Why do you keep asking me to show you?
Hey, these carrot sticks ain't half bad either...
Mom, you should bring some carrots for yourself next time. I got 3 sticks here, where are yours?

pumpkins

Hello? Grandma? Come visit me, right away!

Yes, that's right. The first two ARE phones... the last pic is Evie shouting into the TV remote. Brilliant.

Treasures

Evie is into collecting things BIG TIME.
Her newfound hobby is cute and not at all troublesome except she's begun collecting "like" objects. I don't know if I should rejoice that she is this smart and particular about what she grabs. Or, should I be freaking out and researching autism?
Evie started actually collecting things in the last few weeks (more than just picking up oddities and shoving them in her mouth, she would pick something up and carry it around with her). She started by picking up one of my round rocks out front. She carried it around the side of the house and back again. This went on for a good while. The average person would have lost interest after carrying the rock to its new home but she carted this thing back and forth a few times (ok, a near dozen) before I put it away for fear it would drop and break a toe.
Then she started picking up sticks. At first, any stick was fascinating. Very recently I noticed all the sticks were about the same size. She carried them in a tight fist (her right, which is worth noting because I swear she is right-handed) while gathering more with her left hand. She will carry things like this until we wrestle them away and distract her with other objects. She does, typicaly, return to gathering what she began collecting moments before.
At our picnic, she took all 4 carrot sticks and carried them around while munching away.
At home, she will carry multiple objects that are small and unsimilar (since she doesn't have multiples of anything) like a Mr. PotatoHead arm, one light-up bouncey ball, a tupperware lid and, of course, moo-cow. She will carry these things off and on throughout the day. We put them on the table while she eats and then she grunts to have them back when she is done.
While downtown on Brown's Island, she gathered rocks. She would also gather long grass blades and switch between the two passions. She kept one rock nearby throughout the entire day before losing it to the river (I showed her how to throw rocks in the water and she mistakingly chose her prized rock. Lesson learned: throw things in the river and they will not come back).
One girl at the Richmond 'Zine Fest recommended that I get her a bag to carry all her prizes in.
I'm actually considering it.
I'm getting a little concerned though when she noticed she had 2 of the same pink bath toys. She played with these two and wanted to carry them around the house when we were done. She's smart - she knows what matches. But, is this good?
Is this a milestone or is my kid just a nerd?

Feed me, Seymour!

I'm out of ideas. What can we feed this kid? Tonite's dinner was half of Saturday night's pizza slice, some cooked carrot slices (I think she ate one whole slice), some corn bread hand-outs and a couple of blue-corn tortilla chips. I should be locked in jail, I know.
Evie is fussy about things served on spoons (we can't really give her things like applesauce, yogurt, rice or beans). Then again, she loves things like succotash and will eat a good portion of it off a fork. I can't figure her out.
Breakfast is no problem: cereals, bananas, toasted waffles, organic cereal bars, toast with jam... got it.
Lunch is half-baked: PB&J, ham and cheese slices, mac & cheese, green beans, hot dog... the list runs a bit dry then.
Dinner? No ideas here. I am more than happy to feed her stuff we eat: pasta with spegetti sauce, chicken, broccoli, etc. But, she eats dinner at 5:30PM and I don't have time to prepare decent meals in 10 minutes. And, a lot of what we eat is spicy... or hot, even.
*sigh*
Any other "fast" dinner ideas out there?
Suggestions welcomed.
I looked online - it looks like we've hit many items on the toddler "hot lists."

Other dinnertime hits include: black beans, fish sticks, garden burgers, Vienna sausages (we lovingly refer to this as "low grade meat"), eggs (she isn't too into eggs), and hand-outs from our own plates.

Crazy levels

Evie's love for Moo-Cow is at immeasureable levels.
Last night, while giving her a bath, she glanced out the tub and around the wall. Part of Moo-Cow was visable. Crumpled on the floor in a mix of the day's clothes. He sat there. Waiting. Waiting for her to once again hold him. The thought of this turned her into an immediate wreck and she was inconsolable. Tears and everything. She wanted him in the tub with her.
We quickly exited the tub (I had just begun sudsing up her hair and had to dump cupfuls of water on her head to hasten the pace).
I threw a towel on her and gave her Moo-Cow while she was still wet.
*sniffle* Sniffle* *sigh* Calm...
Wow.

I have the right to party

Evie was running a 100.9 fever (most likely due to the many shots she received late day Thursday) and I am currently on a Z-Pack (fighting something I contracted from being rundown due to allergies and stress). So, the conditions were not ripe for attending Tyler's 1-year-old-birthday-party but we needed to get out of this house. The gorgeous 77-degree day was calling us, too.
Evie and I attended for just an hour-and-a-half (if you have ever attended a kids birthday party, anything over 3 hours is insane).
Evie did GREAT. She hung out on my lap mostly (which is rare when we are out. She generally likes to explore). She played in the ice bucket a little and tried to eat some decorations.
Evie then ate one whole hotdog (no bun), a handful of potato chips, one of those small plastic individual servings of vanilla ice cream, half a piece of cake (the kind with the sugary icing you can feel the grit of sugar in, yum!) and half of a Capri Sun.
Holy crap. I had the other half of the cake. My kid's a tank!
She then got in the car and slumped over. Asleep.
I have one photo to post later.

I'm Gonna Getcha

Evie loves to be chased by daddy. I typically become "home base" during these games.
She has also taken some affinity to wiggling her tongue side-to-side. No idea where she got this but the video opens with it after I asked her to show me her tongue.
Enjoy!