Where did my baby girl go?

Every day I keep finding myself asking, "where has my baby gone?" She took another step towards little girlhood last night by starting to sleep in a "big girl" (toddler) bed. Her BFF got a real big girl bed (twin) for her 4th birthday so Evvy became the recipient of her toddler bed. She slept in it for about 1/2 the night last night and then decided to go back into her crib (2am). So I thought that I would just put the little bed in a corner of the room and wait til she was ready to try it again. I stacked her basket of babies and stuffed animals on it and put the mattress back in her crib. Well tonight after story time, she was trying to pull the basket of babies off of the little bed. I asked if she wanted to sleep in the crib or her big girl bed and she chose the big girl bed. So I took the basket off and put the mattress back on it. I then made a big deal about putting her quilt from grandma on it (just the right size for her toddler bed mom) then her other two blankies that she always sleeps with. I then tucked her in and we read one more book and she cuddled in to go to sleep. So far so good.

Last night we went to the mall and had Chinese food (I think this is Evvy's favorite cause she LOVES rice) and to ride the merry go round and just play. We were supposed to have a little friend over to be babysat but she got sick so we changed our plans on the fly. While we were at the mall, I decided to give Build a Bear a try again. I don't think I posted this before but Evvy got a gift card from her BFF for her birthday back in June. So we went back in June to choose an animal. We went through the process of choosing it and getting it stuffed and then Evvy decided she didn't want to bring it home. Their were tears and everything. The staff was very nice and said that it does happen sometimes and that we didn't have to buy it and take it home. So I was a little worried of a repeat of this scenario. We looked at all the animals and she finally decided on the Elephant. She loves elephants and has a little one at home from Christmas last year. I asked her if she wanted to take the elephant home and she said she did. She then proceeded to walk out of the store with her non-stuffed elephant. I told her we had to get him stuffed and she started crying. I finally used a little child psychology on her and told her that elephant was hungry and we needed to fill his tummy full. She thought that was a good idea and so we went to the stuffing station. We listened to several of the different sounds that you can put in your animal and decided the elephant sound was a bit loud. When I pressed the button for the Brahams lullaby, she laid down on the floor and said night night :) I said, "we'll take that one!" She chose which hand to put the song in and then she stepped on the peddle to stuff the elephant. Last time we tried, she wouldn't step on the peddle. She then got a heart, kissed it and put it in the bear. We then went to the "bath station." She gave her bear and air bath (stepped on the peddle and it blows air out of the shower spouts). She then brushed elephant and was very pleased with herself. She didn't want to put the elephant in the box so mommy carried the box and Evvy carried her elephant around the mall. It was really quite sweet and she had the biggest smile. Sorry I didn't have my camera cause it wasn't a planned trip.

We then ate and went to the Merry Go Round. She kept saying "Mary Poppins" cause she loves that movie and the scene where the horses jump off the Merry Go Round. She had a little temper tantrum when our turn was over. I just moved her out of the way of the other people exiting and let her have her tantrum. I stood a few feet away from her and just ignored her. Surprisingly, I think it worked. She got over it and then got up and went to the play area to run and climb on the toys.

I just marvel at how quickly she changes. I can't believe the summer is almost over. I am a little sad about it. We had a great summer of swimming and playing in the sun and playing with our friends. She has changed in front of my eyes this summer. My baby is gone and I now have a little girl. Makes me a little sad.

We had an AWESOME weekend!

I took a day off of work on Friday so that Evvy and I could head down to the 2nd annual MOGUATE weekend at the lake. There were close to 100 people this year which was about double over last year. We met so many wonderful families and saw so many wonderful children who were all adopted from Guatemala.

At the end of this post, I will embed a photoshow of our weekend. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures. In the restaurant where we ate breakfast, there are tons of stuffed animals including bears. Last year when Evvy was still pretty small (not walking yet) I posed her with a bear. I decided that this will be where I take her picture every year to show how much she has changed.

You will also notice the new profile picture. The organizer of the event is a fantastic photographer also and was gracious enough to take family pictures of everyone that wanted them. Evvy and I both were wearing Guatemalan clothes (just the top for me). The outfit that Evvy is wearing is one that I bought for her in Antigua when I went down to visit her when she was 5 months old. A good friend gave her the headband for her birthday this year. Thank you Cindy for the great picture!

So here is last year:

And here is this year:

Here is the photoshow of our weekend.

My little swimmer

Evvy LOVES to swim. She had a great time this past weekend swimming in the pool. She also discovered the Hot Tub which she really liked also. She even got daring and went down a big slide on my lap. It was probably scarier for me than her cause I had to make sure she didn't get sucked under the water when we hit.

Here are a couple of videos of Evvy "swimming."