From The Mouth of Evelyn

While being told to sit down at the dinner table- "I had enough!"

At daycare earlier when two men were in the basement fixing the telephone- "Men in nair...Hi men!" (in nair=in there)

When wanting a paci before bed- "Daddy, paci? Pink one."

And her new famous line in response to questions such as, "Evelyn, would you like some more juice?"-- "Yep,sure" or "Yep, 'ink so." (think so)

Gotta love toddler lingo :)

Our Weekend In Pictures

Friday Evelyn spent the day with Yaya and experienced how tiring it is to care for a baby.

She also snuggled up with her porcelain puppy.

Saturday we had lunch at the Olive Garden with Grandma Jo. And for someone who said they weren't hungry she seemed to enjoy almost her entire full order of chicken alfredo, a big salad and a breadstick :) I'm glad! Surprisingly, the only thing Evelyn was interested in eating was the salad! She ate two whole plates and a breadstick. We had such a relaxing lunch. Grandma was full of conversation and Evelyn was on her best behavior. Grandma Jo was pleased when they presented her with her surprise birthday dessert-she ate the entire chocolate dessert cup :) We all had such a blast! And when we were ready to leave, Evelyn gave Grandma a sweet kiss and said, "Bye, Jo. Love ya." Grandma was in heaven!

On the way home we picked up a huge bag of hand-me-downs...here is Evelyn's favorite new shirt.

And lastly, after a Saturday night slumber party with my cousin Kristen, my Aunt Lori, Uncle John and cousin Katie came to pick her up and we had a nice lunch at a Mexican joint in town. It was a great weekend but we are more than ready for bed tonight. And so is Evelyn after a very bubbly bath.

Bieber Fever

The greatest day ever! I burnt 734 calories at the Y, had a great day at school, aced a Math quiz and spent the evening quietly playing with my love. After a beef stew dinner date for 2 (Daddy was catching up on some sleep) Ehhnin and I enjoyed a splash-filled, finger-painting bath and snuggled up to watch Nemo before our bedtime routine.

We still rock before bed time and this is a moment I cherish. But tonight Evelyn had other plans. She started by asking me what foods I like...

Evelyn: Strawburries?
Mommy: Yep.
Evelyn: Me, too. Otdogs?
Mommy: Yep.
Evelyn: Me, too. Nanas?

...and you get the picture. After remaining quiet for what seemed like years I'm sure, she began singing under her breath, "Rooooock, baby, tops. Wiiiind, bwows, rock. Craaaaadle, fall. Doooown, baby, all." But here's where it became a hysterical duo of laughter...after another bout of silence I heard a whisper of, "Babe-uh, babe-uh, babe-uh oooooh. Babe-uh, babe-uh, babe-uh oooooh!" That's right, my 22-month-old was singing Justin Bieber!

Breaking News!

We have now gone through 2 consecutive days of Evelyn going tinkle AND poopy on the potty! The first day she said, "Mommy, potty". After a few minutes in the bathroom (alone-by request) she emerged screaming, "Yay, Ehhnin did it!" Imagine my surprise when I entered the bathroom only to find #2 in the potty!! If you would have walked in my house you would've thought I had just won a million dollars I was so happy! Later in the night she requested to use the restroom again where she proceeded to go tinkle. The next morning it was the same thing-poops AND pees in the potty! She even went all day through daycare with a dry diaper. Hopefully this is it! Cross your fingers.

Evelyn has also taken an interest in two other hobbies aside from bathroom use.....

1) Finger painting with this AWESOME Crayola "finger paint" that is honestly just colored soap...


2) And just kickin back, rockin some tunes...

Yes, sir

I was right! The day finally came...Last night, Evelyn woke up from a bad dream so I brought her into our bed for some snuggling. After about 2 seconds she rolled to the side, climbed down and quickly walked out of our room, turned the corner into her own room and pointed to her bed. She didn't want to sleep with us!? :(

This afternoon I caught her in some mischief and said, "Evelyn, what are you doing?" She replied, "Ummmm....ahh-choo-we" (Um...actually). Seriously? What is this junior high all of a sudden? Her other new line is heard when she is asked to pick up...

Mommy: "Evelyn, can you put your books away please."
Evelyn: "Yes, sir." Complete with scowling face and head bowed in anger. It's a riot!

Her wit and one-liners amaze me! She is quite the performer!

Big Girl

Apparently Evelyn snapped her fingers and decided to be a big girl overnight. This morning she went #1 & #2 in the big girl potty and was THRILLED to get 2 extra stickers for it. I had quick thoughts of no more poopy diaper changes and felt as if I had won the lottery! Better than that even!

After dinner, I asked her to open the cabinet our TV sits on. I was expecting her to look at me saying, "Huh?" but she gently tugged on each knob until she found the right one.

Then when we were playing before bed, she put Buzz Light Year in her school bus and said, "See ya Wednesday, Buzz". Plain as day! She has been rattling off some good 3-4 word sentences these days. While it is great to communicate with her to know her needs (and wants!) it is bittersweet. I'm realizing how big she really is getting and it kills me. I feel like every time I rock her it will be my last. She's growing up too fast.

Here is proof-we're playing our favorite game, telephone...

These Are A Few of Ev's Favorite Things

As you may know we have begun potty training in the Kern household. So far, so good! Evelyn has gone from going once in the morning to going 2 or 3 times a day. She loves to sit on the potty, legs crossed, flipping through the pages of a book. And quite honestly, I think she'd stay there all day if we'd let her! Here is a clip of her reading her new favorite book, "No More Monkey's Jumping On The Bed".


Another new favorite of Evelyn's is shortly responding, "Sure, sure, sure!" to most questions asked.


And her last new favorite is being videotaped. She is constantly asking, "Pitcher, Mommy? Tape, Mommy?" And she loves to watch herself afterwards, giggling at her own dance moves and responses. Here is an after dinner interview...

The New Year

Happy New Year! Jared and I celebrated by going to a fancy dinner, dressed to kill, then attending a party at a friends house. It was a great night!


Before leaving for dinner we had a mock countdown with Evelyn. She was pumped!

As you can see, Evelyn continued her own countdown...


Our New Year has gotten off to a great start! And there are a few NEW things going on in our house.

Evelyn has become open to (and even secretly enjoys) going on the big girl potty. She has only gone a few times but is fully open to the idea of sitting on the potty which is a great start. We made "Do Not Disturb" signs for the door, so she puts those on, sits on the potty and reads her 2 special books that are only for in the bathroom. So far it's going great and she has been a good sport! She is aware of the urge, telling us "poop" for both, but would rather hide in her room somewhere and go potty in her diaper than sit on the potty. Cross your fingers that it will happen soon!

With this New Year came a new favorite movie-a full on Toy Story 3 addiction. After watching it once she was hooked! She has been working hard all week to memorize the characters names-she found a little pamphlet in the DVD case with a picture of Woody (her favorite) and the gang. She would ask me who they are, I would run through the names a few times then she would go somewhere else to study. After a day or two she knows em all! Which she should, considering we watch the movie at least once a day.

Evelyn also acquired a new skill during this New Year-how to bargain! And let me tell you, it's not the greatest skill a toddler could possess. When waking from a nap yesterday I said, "Evelyn, do you want to go on the big girl potty then watch Woody!?" She replied, "No, no, no, Mommy (while waving her finger in my face). Woody first." Whoa. I'll stick to making the schedule, Ev, you just follow.

Lastly, we've used all of our Target gift cards from Jared's Christmas tips and a few we received from family to do a little renovating here.
To replace our cluttered toy box we got this shelf and it rocks!


We then moved Evelyn's dresser into her closet along with her old toy box that is now full of the gazillion stuffed animals we have. All of this reorganizing makes her room looks SO much bigger.

Since all of my pants were in piles on the floor of her closet, we then got this for the bedroom (my pants are in the boxes).


And to replace the big, boxy desk that no one uses in the living room we got this beautiful console table that I LOVE!!


Happy New Year!!!