Phoning it in with some pictures!

Sorry about the lack of update for the past two months. Christmas has been busy and I've been working on a personal project, which has been sucking all of my creative juices. So instead of writing about what happened, I figure I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Jeff with Mali. Mali for some reason, really loved snuggling up to Jeff's beard and it helped her sleep sometimes. Definitely an awww moment.

Evie with her new kitchen, cooking breakfast for everyone.

Snuggled up on the couch with her dad and Charlie on Christmas morning.

Storytime on Christmas Eve with Jena, Ally and Sami.

Christmas Eve dinner. For the first time, all the girls sat together for Christmas dinner.

The four girls -- Ally, Sami, Evie and Jena -- stop their action for a moment for a picture.

Relaxing with Aunt Susan.

My daughter, the self-rescuing princess and her father.

Painting her father's birthday present -- a new coffee mug!

Uncle Eric, Aunt Karrie and the girls came up on New Year's Day to drop off the kitchen (it didn't fit in our car) and they stuck around for lunch. Evie I think is attempting to serve appetizers.

Monthly newsletter: 28-29 months

Again, apologies for not updating last month, I have no excuses except laziness. But I have pictures! And pictures are awesome!

This Halloween was the first time Evie went trick-or-treating. She was a princess this year:

Her royal highness and her lady-in-waiting, aka, Momma

Evie had a blast going out at night. She didn't get a lot of candy at all (we only stopped at the neighbors' house to show off her costume), but she had fun walking in the dark and looking at the moon. Every few feet she would stop and point at the moon, "THE MOON!" she'd yell.

With the peanut allergy, we had an easy time -- I picked out any candy that could possibly have peanuts in it and replaced it with Starburst. She's still working through her candy stash too, which is a good thing really. I like that she likes candy, but she's not so addicted that she wants it all the time.

However, she has become a fussier eater -- she has skipped dinner a few times because she just doesn't like what being served. But she's not as fussy as other kids, thankfully. I just sometimes get the feeling that she's too busy having fun to eat or something.

For Grandma O.: This is how long her hair is!

She's gotten chattier lately too. Evie's been doing sentences and asking questions about the world around her. It's kind of exciting to hear her talk (as witnessed by these videos):






This last week has been pretty rough over here -- Evie's been sick for a long time (she got the same head cold I had and was feverish, cranky and clingy) and she's finally getting over it. It's been odd -- I haven't seen her this sick in a long time.

It was hard because it was a basic chant of "NO!" and "I.WANT.MOMMA." all day and night. She wasn't my little explorer. But this weekend, things have been looking up. I knew things were going to be alright when she actually asked Jeff a question and talking to him instead of screaming, "NO! WANT! MOMMA!" over and over again. Then she held a conversation with me. Today she colored in her coloring books. It's small steps, but they're good steps. Hopefully she'll be back to wreaking havoc, with her usual charm, in no time.

For Abby: The hat fits perfectly! Don't mind the facial expression.

Monthly report: 26th and 27th month: No excuses

Sorry about the lack of a newsletter for August. I have no excuse except that I'm lazy sometimes and that I didn't have pictures. Frankly, I think the whole point of this thing is more the pictures than anything else and whatever I write is just gravy on top of everything.

Typical Saturday morning at our house.

But it was a rather busy summer. Jeff and I went to Gen Con again this year, leaving Evie behind with the tender loving care of her Grandma O. The amusing thing is that while we were gone, Evie got to meet Aunt Sandy and Uncle Marv (Jeff's aunt and uncle). She held court like the little empress I know she is -- she demanded everyone read to her, pay attention to her and love her.

Which obviously, her grandmother and great-aunt and great-uncle did in spades. It was amusing hearing the reports from Grandma as to how she was behaving, because it was much better behavior than what I usually get from her. But I was also relieved to know that during those five days, Evie started testing her grandmother's boundaries. That's a toddler for you.

The next week, Evie and I headed back to Milwaukee to visit my sister and her family. During this time, Evie had a BLAST playing with her cousins.

I swear, Maddie and Evie are like partners in crime sometimes.

BUBBLES!

Evie took this picture. Ansel Adams in training.

We had a couple of rough days after the visit because Evie got a head cold, I was feeling out of whack and we all were in grumpy moods. Fortunately, that passed and then it was time for Cousin Jena's birthday party. Jeff went with Evie (I had a U2 concert to go to, which was great fun) and got some pictures of the tea party. Sadly though, Evie got a wasp sting, which put a bit of a damper on things.

Evie adored her new hat and still wears it around the house.

Evie and Sami sharing a laugh with Grandma.

Perhaps the biggest news for me is that on Saturday, Evie jumped for the first time. It wasn't a huge jump -- maybe a fraction of an inch -- but the excitement that she had, along with Jeff and I made it feel like she touched the sky. Little things like that blow my mind because I remember two years ago and how tiny she was, and now she's a little girl who runs everywhere, explores everything fearlessly, talks in full sentences, puts her own shoes on and climbs into her car seat.

People are right. You have to savor these moments, because before you know it, they're gone.

Monthly report: 25th month -- big news, but not great news

In the last post, I alluded to the fact that Evie's was tested to see if she was allergic to peanuts and other nuts. Well, a couple of days later, we got the news -- Evie is allergic to peanuts. The results were a "moderate" reaction, but that doesn't really mean anything, because she could have one of those reactions that everyone dreads, or she could break out in a rash (which is what happened when we gave her peanut butter).

We're in the process of basically telling everyone we know what to do in case Evie has peanuts. It hasn't been a big problem and as one person told me, "It's a new version of normal." We're meeting with a pediatric allergist in the near future, so we'll learn what we need to do. I hope this is the only food allergy that she has. I'd hate to see her lose out on the joy of seafood and shellfish.

On the whole, it's not terrible news. We've survived skull surgery, so this should be easy. My big fear is that Evie will suddenly demand Nutella for breakfast because, "It's the only thing I can have! I'm allergic to peanuts!"

Other than that, Evie's progress continues to astound and amaze me -- she's fearless and active. Running around, climbing up slides, swinging on normal swings like a big girl and making friends wherever she goes.

However, she does need to learn how to share. Evie will engage in tug-of-wars with other kids as well as screaming her head off when she wants something. This often leads to the opponent dropping the toy with a "OK! OK! I DIDN'T WANT IT THAT BAD ANYWAY! RELAX!" expression.

It's been tricky at times because I don't want to leap into the middle of this because I feel like the children should settle these things (as long as there isn't blood or tears), but at the same time, I do find myself going, "Evie. Manners. It's not your turn right now." between clenched teeth.

She will learn. I am sure of that. She'll pick up on things like that. Like I said before, if she learns manners and keeps her outgoing personality, she will take over the world.

Other than that, it's been pretty much the same things going on here. So I'll end now and offer you a picture of Evie test driving her new umbrella and rain coat:

Here's a movie!

It took me forever to do, but there's a little movie chronicling the first two year's of Evie's life:




Also, I have a little story to tell. Recently Evie had a blood draw taken to test and see if she's allergic to nuts (we gave her peanut butter recently and she had a rash on her torso, so we decided to settle the issue with the blood test). It was a hard blood draw -- her left arm had no easy to get to veins (and the tech was doing the digging around technique which always sets my teeth on edge). After trying the left arm, they went for the right arm. During this entire time, Evie is screaming, "EVIE SAD! EVIE ANGRY!"

Then I started singing songs, which helped calm her down and the blood was drawn. What was amazing to me was after the blood was drawn, Evie immediately calmed down, turned on the charm and smiled and waved, "bye-bye" to the techs. I told her she was hardcore. "HARDCORE!" she repeated. My kid is a tough cookie.

24th month: TWO YEAR PARENTAL ANNIVERSARY!

Evie turned two today! I am still amazed that she's been in our lives for this long. How on earth did we get lucky enough to get a confident, extroverted, curious, sweet, funny and charming young lady (with a will of iron) in our lives?

This is the face of a two-year-old who will someday RULE THE WORLD.

She's gotten more chatty these past two months. Evie often does three world sentences like, "Evie do this," "Momma do this," "Dada go work." She's also participating in conversations, letting us know about where she would like to go, what movies she'd like to see, how she likes the library and that she would like to eat, "sausages and tomatoes."

Speaking of food, she's got a monster appetite. Evie's not a fussy eater and she enjoys eating many different things -- especially tomatoes and fruit. I've taken to nicknaming her the "fruit bat" simply because of how she begs for fruit.

Her will has also gotten stronger. I've found she likes to test me by running pell mell away from me laughing the entire time. That's perhaps the most frustrating thing for me right now. I've contemplated getting a harness, but I'm hoping to hold off on that as a last resort.

Despite her pushing the boundaries, she also knows when I'm serious about something. When I do the count of three, she will stop what she's doing. Of course, it's by three, but she still obeys.

All in all, we have a very bright little girl on our hands who is a voracious reader and loves life. What more can one ask for?

Enough schmoopy talk, here's some picture from the birthday party:

Opening presents with the help of Ally and Sami.

Testing out the water table with Sami.

This is what Sami changed into after the waterfight. She looks fantastic in it.

Blowing out the candle on her cake with family and friends.

It's not truly a successful party unless you're a little messy at the end.

Montly report: 22nd month -- Face of an angel, attitude of a diva

Last month was a doozy -- we went to visit my sister and her family in Rochester, NY, and celebrated Easter there, which resulted in Evie experiencing her first Easter egg hunt. That means that while her cousin Elliott was running around like a loon trying to get all the plastic eggs with a single jellybean or Starburst in them, Evie meandered around and every egg she found, she attempted to crack open, then ask me for help, eat the jellybean and then look for another egg.

Evie with the spoils of the hunt.

In other words -- she really didn't eat that many jellybeans. But she had a blast.

During this time, Evie had a great time with her cousins and family. I heard a lot of giggling and laughter between Evie and Maddie. But it was also reinforced that Evie is very sensitive when it comes to other people being angry or upset. Whenever Maddie or Elliott would squabble over something, Evie's face would contort in pain and then she'd let out this HUGE YELL and start sobbing.

If she ever had a superhero power -- I'm convinced it's that. The girl's got the power to take strong emotion and redirect it into a scream that could shatter glass.

Future skatergirl.

She's also been communicating more. Today when we were visiting a friend, Evie was terrorizing their cats. After one cat fled to hide, Evie entered the room and I heard her say, "Where is kitty?" "Kitty where are you?"

That just blows my mind. I'm amazed to know that she's starting to speak so well.

The other thing is that she's gotten braver as of late. She likes sitting on swings (not the little baby ones, but the ones big kids sit in. She will tolerate the baby swings only because I can swing her higher) and will head to the nearby park to swing on them. She also started climbing up our neighbor's HUGE Rainbow play structure to go down the slide. To give you a picture of what I'm dealing with, here's a picture of the play structure:


Look at it closely. There are no steps leading up to the slide. Evie (with the assistance of her older friends and me spotting from below) climbs up the chain ladder and then slides down the slide with a friend. As I have joked with my neighbors, I now know where I'm going to spending much of my summer. Camped up in that blasted thing.

She's also becoming a television fiend. Her current favorite shows are Ni Hao Kai Lan, Pingu, anything on Animal Planet, and Mythbusters (The "BABOOM" show). She's also showing that she's a fan of Lilo and Stitch, Wallace and Gromit and Peter Pan. I try and limit her television, but it's getting harder and harder. At least it's only an hour or so.

Evie's still a book lover and one way you can tell if she likes you is if she DEMANDS that you read to her. She'll ask questions about each book and then pick out the ones she likes. So far, she's really interested in dinosaurs.

The tantrums also continue -- most of the time it's frustrations over the fact that she still can't do some things by herself. Or it's something completely strange like how I wouldn't sit in THAT spot, but instead chose to sit a couple of inches NEAR THAT spot.

To date, Evie's pitched fits in the mall, at home, during various visits, at the grocery store, Target and I think one time at State Street. She'll often bend at the waist, stomp her feet and then the wail bubbles forth. I just tend to stand there and roll my eyes when she pitches these fits. Or if I'm at home, I head off to do something else.

What's funny is if she sees me upset. She'll stop what she's doing, offer a winning smile and say, "Mama sad? Mama hug? Mama kiss?" and then hope that I'll forget whatever hijinks she's gotten herself into. Sometimes I think that she's lucky she's so charming and sweet.

But in retrospect, it's hard to get angry for too long at a face like this.