My little pumpkin!

Don't know where the time has gone. I was shocked that my last post was in August. September flew by. We had an unexpected extended visit from Grandma & Grandpa courtesy of one of those pesky hurricanes that hit their area of TX. Thankfully they had no damage to their house but some of the surrounding towns had a lot of flooding and damage (5' of water in their houses). Evvy loved spending time with both of them (Grandpa went back home for a week to help out with cleanup but then came back and spent 3 days with Evvy. She had a great time going to an apple orchard, riding in a "corn tractor" and riding in Grandpa's airplane (they didn't actually go flying, just taxing across the airport. She was thrilled though. Everytime she sees or hears an airplane overhead, she says "granpa?"

Evvy started going to a different babysitter this week and seems to be really enjoying the change in pace and surroundings. She is with another little girl about 6 months younger than her and another little boy that comes a couple of times a week. On Friday, they went to the pumpkin patch and had a great time. Each child got to pick a pumpkin and they had some that were just the right size for little kids. Evvy has been carrying hers around the house all weekend.

Here are a few pictures from this week. I have a lot more that I need to get off the camera and maybe I will get caught up on blogging :)

Enjoy!
Susan

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."

Camping with a 2 year old!

Not as bad as it might sound. Much better than I expected.

Our parks & rec department put on "an itty bitty campout" for children under 7. We signed up and were joined by 2 other 2 year olds, a 3 year old and a 5 year old. We setup camp about 6:00'ish. Evvy thought the tent and air mattress were neat. She immediately knew that the fire was HOT and steared clear of it.

We roasted hot dogs, marshmellows and made s'mores. The kids did a small craft (scrapbook page to put a picture on) and then were visited by Sally the Turtle who talked about turtles. The little kids weren't so interested in that but the 5 year old had lots of questions and answers. Evvy really enjoyed picking up rocks and throwing them over a little bridge and hearing them clatter on the rocks below. Before bed, we took a short hike to the restrooms. Then it was bedtime. Evvy surprisingly went to sleep pretty easily. It was warm but not unbearable. She rolled all over the air mattress all night long. I didn't sleep very well due to the rolling and also my back was hurting me. I then woke up super early with a need to go potty. It was a bit of a hike to the bathrooms and Evvy woke up while I was putting my shoes on. She wouldn't go back to sleep so I got to carry her up a hill with me.

In the morning we had breakfast and then closed up camp. We were home by about 9:30 (we woke up around 5:30 I think--before the sun was fully up). Evvy and I went back to bed and slept for 2 hours and then got up feeling much better.

Here are a few pictures from our first camping trip. Oh yeah, we also got our pictures in the newspaper. We are famous!

Take the Quiz here!

Co-Sleeping

Evvy has been home a little over a year and just turned 2 last month. She is starting to get into baby dolls. She was given a stroller for her baby this week and loves it. She told me today, "baby tired" so I went to her room and showed her the Moses basket that I bougt in Guate 15+ years ago. I took out all of her stuffed animals and extra blankies and told her that her baby could sleep in the baby basket. She carefully put a blanket in the basket and laid the dolly down and put a blanket over the baby and carressed it's face. She then proceeded to climb into the basket with the dolly and pull the blanket over the baby and herself. It was so sweet. I told her to snuggle the baby like mommy snuggles her and she did. Of course, I didn't have my camera so I told her to sleep with her baby while I went to get the camera. I fully expected her to be "done" when I got back but she was just laying there bonding with her dolly.Here are 2 pictures. One of her cuddling up to the baby and one of her "sleeping" with the baby--she is totally faking the sleep here but it looks real.We mostly do not co-sleep but we went through a few months where we did a lot of co-sleeping. She is finally back in her crib and sleeping all night! YEAH!

PS As a side note when we were getting ready for bed tonight, her baby got put to bed again. Bella (the cat, see a couple of posts ago) climbed into the basket with the baby. Evvy got very upset with Bella and told her "no Bella" "out" She then tried to pickup Bella to get her out. Luckily mommy was there to save Bella from Evvy's wrath :) Evvy then had to get her baby resituated.

Stroller Dancing!

Last night we had a really fun night with our friends. Our city is having Thursday night music and movies on our town square. The local movie theater has an outside "screen" painted on the side of the building. From 6-8 we listened to some great music (50's type music--Elvis, Stray Cats, etc). W ate our picnic (Subway sandwich) while we jammed to the tunes. Then the kids all played in the dirt for a while before the movie started. The movie was Shrek 3 which I hadn't seen. It was Evvy's first non-DVD movie on the big screen. She loved it and stayed awake the whole time. We didn't get home until almost 11pm. My sweet girl sang herself to sleep on the way home (less than 10 minutes) singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star along with our CD. She was doing the hand motions and everything and then all of a sudden she stopped as her eyes closed with her hands still in the air. Very cute.

Here is a video of my crazy stroller dancer. She LOVES music. A policeman on a bike came up to us after the music and before the movie and said, "who's little girl is that?" I thought, uh oh what is wrong, does he think she is kidnapped or something or that she wasn't being properly supervised (I did let her play in the dirt behind us with her friends). I said, "she's mine." He said, "well she is just the cutest and has the greatest dance moves." He said his little girl that is 2 also so I think he was just comparing their stages because he said that she loves to dance too.

We will probably go to the music again next week but not stay for the movie because it is Princess Bride and probably not as interesting for my 2 year old sweetie.

Susan

Here kitty kitty!.

OK. Don't fall over. Yes, another post. I must be getting caught up on life. Things have settled down now after getting a new roof, new fridge, car troubles, travels, etc.

Evvy LOVES her kitty Bella. Bella is an almost 4 year old black and white kitten. I think she will always be a kitten at heart. Bella is pretty playful. She "tolerates" Evvy but deep down really adores her too I think. She comes in for story time every night and sits on Evvy's or my lap. Evvy likes to sing rock-a-bye baby and rock Bella on the floor. Evvy likes to show her love for Bella by hugging her. I am really working on her to be a little more gentle. She puts her in a choke hold often. Bella likes to hang out on the back of the couch looking out the picture window. Evvy likes to pull Bella off the back of the couch into her lap and hug her and kiss her. Bella has been pretty tolerant so far. I think she has only nipped at Evvy a couple of times because Evvy has come to me and say Bella bite. But she never cries about it.

Here are a few of pictures of Evvy & Bella loving each other (OK Evvy loving Bella and Bella trying to escape).

Susan

Awesome!

Evvy's language continues to amaze me. Well she just amazes me in general. Last week after being a very good sport shopping for a new fridge, I rewarded her by taking her for a ride on the carousel at the mall. She had the biggest grin on her face and was just giggling going up and down on the horse. I was standing beside her and asked if she was having fun. She quietly answered "awesome!" Not fun but AWESOME! I did a double take and thought I had imagined it but then the next time we went swimming at the waterpark again she said "AWESOME." She really must like my reaction to it because now she is really experimenting with it. I say, "want to watch a movie?" She says, "Awesome" with a cute giggle.

I can't even begin to write down all of the words and phrases she says now but her vocabulary has exploded and she really gets the context. She is picking up some Spanish too although I have slacked off on the Spanish. I am trying to be better. We were looking at one of her picture books and she said a pretty hard Spanish word "espalda" which means "back" (body part). I was pretty impressed because I hadn't really pushed that one on her much. She knows most of her body parts and most impressively she counts almost to 20 in spanish spontaneously. She counts into the teens in English also. Love Sesame Street and Plaza Sesamo. She is just a big sponge.

Her physical development is pretty amazing also. She climbs, jumps and gallops. I went into her bedroom a couple of weekends again and she was sitting on her changing table petting her kitty cat (with a big grin on her face). She had climbed up the shelves of the table. She is also becoming a pretty good little swimmer. I have started putting her in a life jacket at the water park and we spend the first 30-60 minutes in the "big pool." She is off and swimming before me often. She jumps in from the edge and just takes off paddling and kicking. She flips from front to back and back to front and isn't afraid to get her face in the water. She really likes it when mommy goes under the water. She will push on my head and say "under!" and giggle when I go under and blow a bunch of bubbles. Maybe next year she will be old enough for real swimming lessons because she is way beyond the mommy & me classes. She wants to do the real thing.

Here are a few pictures from tonight at the water park. Unfortunately, there are none of her swimming but she is enjoying her treat after swimming. The girl LOVES ice so I bought her a snow cone. She ate it all and has the red mouth to prove it!

Susan