Mommy's Little Helper

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Mommy's Little Helper

I just had to chuckle at my little (big) girl tonight. I was making dinner and she found a way to entertain herself while waiting. She is all about opening drawers in the kitchen now and she will stand on her tippy toes and reach in and get whatever she can (doesn't matter what). Then she will walk around with whatever it is for a while and then go put it back and get something else. It is like a grab bag to her I guess--never know what you might draw out.

Well tonight she pulled her stool to the silverware drawer and opened it up. She often hands me the silverware from the dishwasher and I put it away in the drawer. Well tonight she decided to take all the silverware out of the drawer and stack it on the counter. Then she proceeded to put it all back in one piece at a time. She was so serious about her task. Then she would take it all back out and start over again. This went on for a good 30 minutes. She got to the point where she was just shoveling it into the drawer. If anyone looks at my drawers they will think I am super sloppy!


Here are a few pictures and a video of her working so hard in the kitchen.(I couldn't get the video to upload so I will try again later).

Pictures still to come

OK. I am too tired to post pictures tonight plus I am trying some new software. But if you are dyingn to see pictures, please feel free to visit our photo albums http://guatemom.shutterfly.com/action/

I will try to get some posted on the blog this week.

Where does the time go?

Another month (or more) has passed since my last post. We have been on the go. We took a trip to TX to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. While we were in TX, my parents took all of us around to where they grew up and told us more of their stories that we hadn't heard before. My parents were married when they were 17 and 18 years old. My mother was still in High School and finished her last year of high school as a married woman (she had to go to another school because she was married). My parents lived on totally opposite sides of town and my dad had to drive quite a ways to pick my mom up for dates. My dad had a paper route. It was a pretty long "car route." That is how he was able to buy gas to take mom on dates. Anyway 50 years later, they have 7 children (5 living) and 13 grandchildren. Four out of five kids are married (I am the only one still single). Starting this fall, they will have 3 grandsons in college. It was nice to get everyone together since we don't do it very often. Evvy was a little overwhelmed by everyone. She got to the point where she would cry (scream) if I left the room unless grandpa was there. She was pretty much glued to me by the end of the week.

Here is a brief (maybe) synopsis of our trip.

Day 1: drove to Ft Worth, TX (left 6am, arrived 3:30ish pm). Watched lots of Baby Einstein and Disney movies. Had dinner at my aunt Helen's house with my parents, sister and 2 of 3 of my aunt's kids (my cousins) along with some of their kids. Was really nice to visit and see people that I hadn't seen in a long time. Seems like the only times we have gotten together in the past was at funerals.

Day 2: breakfast at the hotel; short swim; even shorter nap for Evvy; off to the botanical gardens for family pictures. It was SO HOT and HUMID. I think we got some good shots though. This was our gift to our parents. We are having one of the whole family blown up and printed on canvas so they can have us nice and big to look at when they can't be with us. We then went to the restaurant where we had the dinner party to setup decorations. I think it all turned out very nicely. Evvy had fun dressing up in a party dress and running around with her cousins and grandpa. She really liked the beans and guacomole and tortillas for dinner.

Day 3 we toured mom & dad's old neighborhoods (mostly Mexican now). It was fun to see where they grew up. We then went for hamburgers and ice-cream. Evvy had her first ice-cream from a ice-cream parlour. She thoroughly enjoyed it and ate the whole scoop.

Day 4 we got up and swam with everyone. Then we packed up and headed from Ft Worth to San Antonio. We actually stayed in San Marcos. We swam again and ordered pizza for dinner. Then we all crashed.

Day 5 we went and visited Grandma Flora Mae (dad's step-mom) who is Evvy's great grandma. She is 94 years old and was very happy to have her grandchildren and great-grandchildren visiting her. Everyone but Allan's family was able to visit. Allan's kids were still in school and Anna is teaching so they had to be back at school. We had a nice visit and took some nice pictures. We then headed to San Antonio and went to the Alamo and then walked on the river walk and ate Mexican Food. Evvy tried to take a swim a couple of times. She LOVES water. We then got in the car again and drove to east TX (through Houston rush hour) and then 1 1/2 hours east to my parents' house.

Day 6 we got up and drove 1 1/2 hours to Galveston to go to the beach. Evvy took her first ferry ride and had beautiful wind-blown hair. Evvy LOVED the beach. The minute she was our of the car, she plopped down in the sand and would have been content to sit next to the car and let sand go through her fingers all day I think. I did convince her to move to the actual beach and introduced her to the waves. I wasn't sure what she would think but again, she LOVES the water and LOVED being in the waves. She wanted to do it all on her own though which was a little frightening cause she thought she could keep walking out in the water by herself. I got a good workout lifting her over waves. Finally we just went back to the beach and let the waves break over us. She had a great time digging in the sand and building with her cousins, uncle and grandpa. Needless to say, she slept very well that night.

Day 7 we pretty much just hung out at my mom & dad's house and did laundry. We also had a yummy dinner that night with birthday cake for all of the summer birthdays. The summer birthdays also got presents from Grandma & Grandpa. Evvy got a great v-tech laptop computer so now she leaves my computer alone. She also got a swing that we hung up in the back yard. She was very upset to get a swing though because she wanted to swing in it right then and there. So I let her sit in it and I held her up. That seemed to appease her somewhat. She swings almost every day now that we are home.

Day 8 we packed up and drove over to Louisianna to drop off aunt Aimee and cousins Ethan & Elise. We also went and visited the grave sight for cousin Ella Grace who passed away last year right after she was born. After having lunch with Grandma, Evvy and I started our long trip home. We drove until dinner time and then stopped in Paris, TX for the night. We swam after eating and then cuddled up in a huge king size bed and watched a movie on TV during which Evvy fell asleep.

Day 9 we got up, ate waffels at the hotel and then hit the road again. This was probably the hardest day of all. We both just wanted to be home. Evvy didn't want to be in the car seat anymore and was tired of watching movies I think. We made a couple of extra stops. My favorite stop was at an Amish cheese-shop and bakery. We ate lunch and bought some yummy cookies and cheese to bring home with us.

We were very happy to be home. We had a great time but home is always best I think. It took Evvy a couple of weeks to stop asking for movies in the car.

I am going to try to do a picture show. If that doesn't work, then I will post some pictures later.

There is more to come in my catch up posts!

Susan

Evvy's puppy

No, we didn't buy a dog. Several months ago I bought Evvy a pull toy dog. Lately, her imagination has started to really bloom. She plays with her toy farm and dollhouse and the people. But the funniest thing lately is that she really has developed a bond with this fisher price plastic puppy dog. She cuddles it, she walks it. The other day while I was cleaning the house, I came out and she had a q-tip. I didn't say anything, just watched to see what she was doing. She lifted the puppy's floppy ear and put the q-tip behind it to clean it. The only time I use q-tips for Evvy is to clean around her earrings with alcohol.


Then yesterday when we were playing outside, she wanted her puppy to come outside with her. She then decided that the puppy would like to slide down her slide. She carried the puppy carefully up the steps of the slide and then let the puppy slide down all by itself. She just giggled so gleefully. She would then slide down and pickup the puppy and they would go up again.


Here are a few pictures of Evvy and her puppy.

She is growing up too fast!

OK. I have been horrible about posting on the blog. Keeping up with an almost 2 year old just doesn't allow it. We are loving the nice weather that seems to be finally here.


Here are a couple of new things for my big girl...


You have heard of children starting to climb out of bed about Evvy's age but what about climbing INTO bed. It was the funniest thing to watch. Bella (her favorite cat) had jumped into the crib and she wanted to get in with her. She absolutely adores this cat and calls for her all the time. She won't do story time before bed without Bella being in the room to hear the stories. The funny thing is that Bella actually sits on my lap and listens to the stories (probably more about having her head scratched than the actual stories). Anyway, Evvy did not succeed in climbing into the crib.




I have to share this second picture too. Evvy is still working on potty training. I decided tonight to start bribing her with left over jelly beans from Easter and some star stickers we picked out at Wal Mart last night. It worked twice tonight! Usually she tells me an emphatic "NO" when I ask her if she needs to go potty (followed by her slamming down the potty chair lid). Tonight I got her to potty twice for jelly beans and stickers! But the girl does like her privacy. She has taken to wrapping the shower curtain around her when she is on the potty. I finally caught it on camera tonight.

One year ago tonight....

One year ago tonight (almost to the minute) we were touching down on our final leg of the journey to bring Evvy home. My parents and I left April 14, 2007 for Guatemala to pickup my sweet angel baby. She was brought to the hotel by her loving foster family and our new life began together. We spent 5 days in Guatemala and flew home on April 18, 2007. Evvy was a wonderful traveler and slept almost the whole way. She didn't fuss or cry at all. She was a perfect angel. I was so grateful to have my parents with me on the trip. Evvy LOVES her grandma and grandpa so much and it has to be because they were there to meet her and help her transition to her new home.

This past year has flown by so quickly. The previous year waiting for her to come home went so slowly so I can't believe how quickly this year has passed. My life will never be the same. I have never been so happy (or tired) in my life. I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

One year ago, Evvy was an infant who could barely sit up, couldn't crawl, roll over, pull up. She has come so far. She is no longer a baby. She is now an almost 2 year old toddler. She moved quickly past walking and now runs, jumps, climbs. She is always on the go and I love keeping up with her. We love playing outside together. She is a great little helper. She helps me with the yard work, even helps me vacuum, clean the carpet and has recently become my little helper in the kitchen.

Most of all, Evvy makes me smile, laugh and feel pure joy. Even as she enters the terrible two's it is hard to be mad at her. She is just learning the limits. She is very playful and just full of joy. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I know I am not a perfect mommy all the time but we do OK and I think becoming a mom after wanting it for so long and being "older and wiser" has helped me appreciate my little girl oh so much more. I think I have a lot more patience than I would have at any earlier stage in my life. She came into my life at the perfect time and I am forever grateful for her.

I think about her birthmother often and hope she is OK. I am forever grateful for her for the sacrifice she made. I can't imagine the pain and sorrow that she might feel. I hope that she has peace in her heart and knows that her daughter is loved and well cared for. I have sent pictures to her through Evvy's foster family and hope that they made it to her. I feel so blessed to have been entrusted to be a mother to this beautiful child. She has a beautiful, strong, smart loving spirit. I only hope she always knows how much I love her.

Here is a picture of my angel on the airplane one year ago tonight (looking oh so serious) and a few pictures taken this past week.


Susan

A long overdue update

I know I have been a horrible blogger this year. I won't promise to be better about posting but I will post when I have time. Having an almost 2 year old (yikes!) and working full time keeps us on the go a lot.


We just finished a month long session of mommy & baby swim classes. I have a fish on my hands. She LOVES to swim and be in the water. We did get sick in the middle of the classes and missed a day and then had a snow day which was good because we were sick that day too.


We met a new friend through our swimming class and we went to the zoo this weekend with them. The weather was gorgeous after some very cold and yucky weather. The weather only lasted for Saturday and 1/2 of Sunday and now it is back to winter cold with possibility of snow.


Evvy is getting big and learning new words every day. I need to write down all of her words & phrases because her vocabulary is really growing.


All done
All gone
I don't know
Grandpa
Grandma
Mama (the most important of course)
Hi Bella (cat)
Hi Duchess (cat)
No
Elmo
Cookie

Apple

Orange
Milk

Elephant

Cock a doodle doo (more like cocka cocka coo)
Nose
Arm


Signs she knows and uses:
Cat
Dog
Monkey
Fish
Bird
Elephant
Eat
Drink
Baby
more
all done


Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.


She knows most animal sounds and responds to questions in both English and Spanish when asked about animal sounds and body parts.


She is full of energy and spunk. She is going to keep me active and young. She is sleeping better these days but not perfect. She is down to one longer nap in the afternoon. This is nice especially on the weekends because it means that mommy gets an occassional nap with my snuggle baby next to me.


Here are a few pictures. Even though I am not blogging as often I am adding pictures to our photo albums . Oh and another thing. When I chose a new layout I lost all of my links so I will try to work on getting them back on the side-bar.


If I have any readers left, thanks for stopping by!


Susan

Checking out the chairs at the zoo deck.

Pitching a fit, I don't want to get back in the stroller!
New friends on the hippo!
This goose bit my girl trying to get her apple.
Asleep mid-bite.

Rockstar Evvy!

One of my nephews got a "rock star" video game that included a set of drums. They already had the 2 guitars and then there was also a microphone so that someone could sing along (sort of like Karoke). Four people could play the game together to form a rock band. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

Evvy decided that she wanted to give it a try also. I got a snipit on video and you can see her in action. I think this girl has music in her future. She liked the piano, drums and loves to sing and dance.

Our First Christmas Together

Fast forward one year. Evvy has been home for 8 months and is totally a part of our family. I can't imagine my life without her. She has brought so much joy and happiness to my life. We have so many more Christmases to look forward to together as a family. My life has been so blessed this past year.

Evvy was the first one up on Christmas morning. I don't think it had anything to do with being excited about opening up presents and seeing what Santa brought her. It is just that she is always up at 6:30 (if not earlier) so no sleeping in on Christmas. We went downstairs and put on a quiet video (Baby Einstein) and she was quite content. We waited about an hour and then my niece came downstairs and Grandma and Grandpa woke up. Then my niece woke up my brother and SIL. I am sure they were thinking that all of their kids are older and they should get to sleep in. The joys of having house guests for Christmas.

Evvy was actually pretty laid back. She just sat on the couch and had presents brought to her. She opened them. She didn't really know what do do because some of them required assembly and batteries first. She got the cutest little pink "cat pack" backpack that she really liked. She would walk around with it on.. Very cute. I think we/I did a good job of not going overboard. Of course I gave her two of her big presents several weeks ahead since I knew we couldn't bring them with us. She had also had a little present opening when we had our Christmas with P and her family. It was a very nice day and I just basked in the joy of having my daughter with me and tried to not think of the sadness of last year.

Here are some pictures from this year's Christmas joy.

Susan