Evie 21-month interview

Evie talks. A LOT. Unfortunately, a lot of it is just ramblings accentuated with mimicked facial expressions, gestures and tones. She whispers. She yells. She asks questions and gives us a battery of demands. All of it... in non-sensical gibberish.
But, she does know some things and here is what she does know (and how it sounds) cause every day she gets a wee bit better, the vocabulary expands and these days of babytalk are going to fade away...

Enjoy!

Do you want to go brush your teeth?

This wasn't really a question.
It was really a listing off of tasks that needed completion before going to bed.
I don't know why I said it in the form of a question.
Evie stands up leaning heavily into dad's lap as he sat watching the news. She rolls around on her shoulder blades against his knees. Moo-Cow in one hand, pacifier in mouth with her electric pink PJ's on... basically ready for bedtime to commence.
Evie looks up at me while arching her back against dad's lap, "Mmmmmm..... no."

Did that just happen?

An evening with a toddler

I'm really digging Evie's ingenuity lately. Maybe that's not the best word for it. I'm not very strong at articulating what I am thinking & feeling...
I'm enjoying Evie's boldness, her communication development, her creativity in conveying her message and her remarkable ways to resolving issues that sometimes seem way too big for a 20-month-old to problem solve.
Its also her brevity. Her way of walking up to me (as soon as I walk in through the front door after work), taking my first finger in her hand and leading me into the dining room where da-da is currently occupying one chair at her mini play table for two. Da-da looks at me, pained (this cute, directness Evie has recently adapted can also turn into demanding persistence that we sit with her at the little table until she releases us... which is never). "Deep be bah bah, da!" she points to the table. I sit. Evie furrows her brow, obviously I have misunderstood her very clear and articulate directions (how dare I?). I pull her onto my lap. Also not the response she wanted. I get up and put her on my seat. This is OK, for now... until dad sees an opportunity to escape. Evie is again unhappy until I quickly move in to the now vacant guest chair. All is, again, temporarily, right with the world.
To break up the chatter-chatter of Evie's nonsense, I make suggestions of what we could do at the table. She stands up and points to the wall (through it is a direct line to her bedroom), "Bah bah bleee kah kah? [furrowed brow again] Kah, KOW?!." I'm not understanding what a Kah-kow is so I suggest, "Do you want to color at your table?"
"Tay!" Off she scampers.
Evie has VERY recently developed this "Tay!" word. Rob and I think its her way of saying "OK!", as in "K!" but it comes out, "Tay!" She will understand nearly everything you say to her and respond in the affirmative, "Tay!" if it is something she wants.
"Do you want to help Mommy clean up your bath toys?" "Do you want to go brush your teeth?" "Go pick out some books to read." "Go give daddy a hug."
"Tay!" "Tay!" "Tay!" "Tay!"
Its all pretty spectacular.
Makes my heart melt and sing at the same time.
Not to go all Hallmark-moment on you - but this really is THAT moment in time you will later tell your kid about when she is 16 and just doesn't 'get it' when you want to know why she won't hug you g'night anymore.
So, Evie goes into her bedroom and closes the door. She has to then open the closet door that is directly behind it (old homes = bad layout). I can hear all kinds of noises from the dining room doorway watching her closed bedroom door. Its like listening to a muppet show in there - all these exaggerated noises. *scrap, drag-drag-drag* Evie must now be pulling out her plastic bin (She has a clear 1 1/2ft. tall case with lid that contains coloring books, crayons, markers, paper, etc. Its honestly pretty hefty for someone about 2 1/2 ft. tall). *grunt* [pause] *drag* *grunt* [pause] *c-r-e-e-k!* [that was the closet door closing] *grunt* *drag-scrap* [bedroom door flies open and slightly klonks the closet door behind it]. Evie emerges holding the case up against her chest. *huff! huff!*, she takes 2 steps and puts down the case. [pause] *grunt!* Evie picks up the case and takes 2 more steps before dropping it again. I finally break my gaze and lean forward to take the case from her.
"Ba-kah be blah bloh."
"Yup, that's right. We'll color."

Play tent

I snuck into Evie's li'l red tent when she was busy with her books. I grabbed her pillow and pretended to snore (*snore! shooooo... *snore! shooooo!). Evie excitedly tried to pull her other pillow through the crib bars and grabbed the comforter. She snuggled in next to me and snored right along (*snore! shoooo....!)

Rainy Day

Its amazing how having a kid makes you revert back to the type of things you did to have fun when you were a kid. In this case, going to the mall to hang-out! (Where else do you take a kid for low budget fun?).
Turns out Evie only stayed in the kid-pit long enough for me to snap this photo... the rest of her time was spent sprinting up the stairs and around the mall.

Mommy Dearest

Today, I actually said what my mom used to say to me [in regards to a display of bratty behavior], "Evie! Don't be so ugly!"
As soon as the words escaped my mouth, I knew I could never go back.
I am well on my way to becoming my mother.

One week later: HOT and SUNNY!

Evie gathers every cup she can find this morning... and then insists on carrying them everywhere.


Enjoying the park (on Park Ave) in the fan. What a beautiful day!


OK, Its actually HOT out here today! I'm stripping down...


Plastic kids' cars are downright HAIR-RAISING....

Playdate slash cook-out

Evie and Tyler got along swimmingly (and more importantly, the parents all get along well, too!)

Storytime

SNOW DAY!

What a great way to celebrate Evie's 20-month-birthday!









I am so glad our 1920's neighborhood still features a central area that has a coffee shop, wine/beer store, various diners, a yoga center and a florist! We walked down to enjoy a hot cocoa break mid-day today.

SNOW!

Here's what our place looks like at 7AM today!

Puck likes to shove his head in the snow (like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand), rev up and RUN!


I'm the snow b*tch. Yes, I couldn't wait so I am out there in bare feet + slippers and my hoodie housecoat I wear when I wake up. Rob finds my stupidity hilarious.


After shoveling a path to the sidewalk, here's what the house looks like this AM!


Here's my car! Notice the roads here. They do nothing here hence the Southern "freak-out" when it snows...


Here's looking down the street. Beautiful trees (although branches are starting to snap).

Baby's first SNOW!

If you've ever been to the South, this is considered a crazy deep snow.
I went to the movies with K while Rob stayed home with Evie. While exiting the theaters, we found snow covered cars in a thick, fresh snowfall. Upon entering my house, I snatched up Evie and threw her outside for just the 5 minutes before dinnertime.
"Whoa!" she exclaimed.
so distracted by the snowfall she actually wore a hat and kept her mittens on. And then, she treked straight for the park (this kid would swing in a hailstorm).

Bye-bye.

So, Evie has mastered "bye-bye."
I. mean. MASTERED.
CONQUERED.
Is currently destroying World Record for the most "bye-bye's" said in one week.
When Rob looks over my shoulder as I am changing her morning diaper & he leaves the room, "bye-bye!"
When I get a cup of coffee and exit the kitchen, "bye-bye!"
When she throws away a piece of paper, "bye-bye!"
When Puck walked through the room, the bathtub water goes down the drain, when her shows end.
BUH-BYE.

Asparagus

I made pork tenderloin and steamed asparagus for dinner last night. While cutting up the asparagus, Evie's hand ran along the edge of the kitchen counter, "mah-mah! mah-mah!*"
(*mah-mah is Evie's generic phrase meaning, loosely, "Excuse me mother, what is that you are working on and how might I get involved?")
I tossed a flowery tip her way to get her to stop & to sort of say, "Oh yeah? You want raw asparagus, do you? You want it? OK, here it is. Enjoy!"
Well, she did. She liked it.
Evie also later enjoyed steamed asparagus. By the end of the meal she decided on really enjoying just the tips. After demanding the only remaining tip on MY plate... I lobbed it her way muttering, "here."
Ah, the sacrifices of motherhood.
Its going to be stems and stalks for me from here on in, isn't it?

A parental rite of passage: the midnite run to ER

Evie dozes on me for a morning nap
Well, Evie's "cold" has become so worse - she is now inconsolable.
So was the scene at 1AM last night (Sunday night).
Evie's had a runny nose and "wet" cough for well over 10 days now and only recently (Tuesday and Wednesday nights) did it become dry. Those nights her cough was that sudden, relentless coughing spasm that sends you upright in bed gasping for air only to cough more. It was terrible. She's cry and we'd race. She's rub her eyes and we'd lay her back down. On Thursday we discussed taking her to the doctor Friday if things were still bad.
Of course! thursday night wasn't AS bad so she stayed home all day Friday. When I got home from work, I noticed she had a slight fever (100.1) and Rob said she had been cranky since her nap. Uh-oh.
Friday night was a little rough but we had also become use to rough from this entire past week.
Saturday morning, Evie just looks and seems sick. You must understand one thing - this kid is totally her father's daughter. When she is sick, you can tell but she otherwise tries to continue to act normal. When I'm sick, everybody run for your lives! I want attention, coddling and more attention still.
Back to Saturday morning.
I call the pediatrician at home who thinks it may be RSV (a baby upper-respiratory) as an over-the-phone diagnosis. I inquire about going to an ER or some emergency kid clinic. She recommends one but it doesn't open until 2PM.
By 2PM, Evie seems fine... sick but maybe I'm over-reacting. OK, here's my other sidenote. Rob's really more of the one questioning my over-reaction at this point. I mean, really, ER? She doesn't seem THAT sick but I'm telling you... my mom instincts were up and waiting till Monday could be really bad. In the end, I never went.
Saturday night is... OK. Sunday is OK and we even spend an hour and a half out front playing on the sidewalk.
Sunday night, Evie goes to bed no problem. By 11PM, she's up crying. I console her and leave. She cries again. I go in the room and she stops, so I leave. She cries again, I go in and she stops. She is actually there with eyes closed. Is she faking? I'm a little annoyed and leave. She cries again so I rock her until she falls asleep. I lay her down, she cries. This continues for quite awhile until all are in bed by midnight.
At 1AM, she is UP. Crying. Hysterically. Again, a note - hysterically for all kids is quite bad. This was an Evie hysterical.. much milder than the average tantrum throwing brats you may have witnessed. Evie is REALLY a great trooper when sick so when she cries without stopping.... sticking a spitty hand in her mouth... you know it is the REAL DEAL.
We are getting a little stressed and frankly, pissed at this point. Without knowing what to do, we pull her into bed with us. Terrible idea. She trashes and cries every 10 minutes until its now 2AM.
I tell Rob its time to go to the ER. We obviously are NEVER SLEEPING EVER AGAIN so we might as well get up and hang-out with all the insomniacs and severely sick while we are at it.
We get to the ER (its nearly dead, a good sign that things will move quickly).
Some fumbling for insurance goes on (again, I have only been at my new job for 2 weeks and have no insurance cards yet).
Evie goes through a series of crying spells after each poke & prod... rectal temp (nothing), ear check (nothing), throat swab (no flu or strep throat) and finally, a chest x-ray.
Turns out, bronchitis.
It was nice to have an answer and to justify our midnight run. It was nice to not spend the night resenting Evie for crying & wailing. It was nice to know that it was solvable and maybe now, we could all get some sleep.
One Yo Gabba Gabba CD & Walgreens prescription fill later, we were all home and in bed t 4:40AM.
I am happy to report that after a very listless morning (Evie snoozed on me for 45 minutes! she NEVER falls asleep on people!), she ran laps all around the house before going to bed SOUNDLY.
Phew.

sidewalk chalk

I picked up this little tub of sidewalk chalk for $1 at Target. A stupid impulse buy much like every weekly $10 expenditure I have at the Target Hot Spot area. Besides, we still have a whole cart of chalk from Evie's birthday last year... but this was only $1! I had to have it.
Evie's really been into going outside.
Sun, wind, cold, hail... it doesn't stop her. She's a driving force who insists on being out in nature.
We went outside Sunday after lunch despite this pesky cold she's had for over a week (she's been waking up all night coughing and, in turn, waking us up all night, too).
I thought she'd race for the park but she sat on the front steps instead. Tap, tap, tapping her toes (she can reach the next step with her feet now).
I went back side and got the chalk.
She loved it. Well, I loved it. I drew unicorns and hearts and stars... all the girliest stuff I could think of.
Evie then spent the next hour sitting on each drawing while defacing another... er, I mean to say, coloring in the shapes I had made.
Scribble, scribble, swipe, swipe! She doesn't have any form to her writings yet and she still switches hands but it is noteworthy that she didn't eat the chalk nor did she snub it like last summer. I can't wait till spring when we can do more activities like this!

happy valentine's day!

Delicious puzzle from grandma...

lazy.

baby baby BABY!

OMG.
I'm getting baby crazy. I don't know if its because all of my closest friends are recent new moms, my kid is now a toddler and beginning to become more independent or that its spring... but I am baby crazy. My clock is ticking and its absolutely WIERD. I feel like a crazy person. Who really sits aroun d crunching numbers in their head all day like I've been doing? Let's see, if I got pregnant in June then that would mean the baby would be born in March so Evie and it would be almost 3 years apart... ah!

New Park: Bryan Park