Mother's Day 2010

This was by far the best of my two Mother's Days. The morning began with Jared waking up first to change Evey Bug's diaper while I turned on the TV and got comfy. We all snuggled in bed for about 5 minutes and Jared couldn't contain himself any longer. He and Evelyn rushed out of the room returning with 2 cards and a present. Since we misplaced my camera a few weeks ago and I've been in agony not being able to take a picture every 30seconds, Jared and Ev got me a Nikon touch screen digital camera (like the one from the commercials with Ashton Kutcher). It has an awesome zoom and all kinds of neat features including built in photo shop. It also came with a very nice leather case and tons of accessories. After breakfast in the living room (not bed as I do not want to get crumbs in my freshly changed bed) we relaxed around the house until nap time. I relaxed anyways as the roles were reversed and Jared did the dishes and cleaning. After naptime, we drove to my parents where we exchanged gifts, played outside, and had a delicious roast. It was such a relaxing, family filled day. It couldn't have been better.

Three lovely ladies.


Evey's adorable outfit.


Me and Daddy.


Daddy using photo shop on the camera.


Mommy trying the photo shop. Doesn't he look great?


Here's Ev pushing around her baby.

Today we had a small family party for my step-brother Garrett's birthday. Evelyn was delighted to eat cake but confused when the candles were lit and it wasn't placed in front of her. She also enjoyed shouting, "Birthday! Birthday!" in Garrett's honor.

Her favorite part of the day was definitely exploring outside with Grandpa.

Gary found this horse from an old playground at a garage sale and put it in his garden for Evelyn.

Another garage sale find!



Pretending to be asleep on the way home.

Vroom

In potty news, I don't remember the last time Evelyn has gone on her big girl potty. It was just a phase...unfortunately. But she does understand the concept. Last week we put her in her new big girl carseat in a dry diaper. While we were strapping her in she said, 'potty'. By the time we got to the babysitters not even 5 minutes away, she had gone #2 in her diaper. There have been other times where she has pointed to the bathroom or says 'potty' so we try and put her on but she cries. Then pees when she stands up. So...we'll have to figure out another route in potty training.

Her vocabulary is growing by the second!! A few of the many new words are sock, shoe, duck, nose (and knows where it is), ucky, Mom (instead of mama), and please and thank you and knows when they are appropriate which is awesome. So many children don't have common courtesy anymore. So I'm glad she is polite. Another word is vroom. She says this while she vacuums....all. day. long. Levonne gave her a vacuum cleaner for her birthday and it is suddenly her favorite toy! Friday we even had to take it to Grandma Nancy's because she refused to give it up. She loves to think she is helping us and it is quite adorable to watch. She keeps her new house very tidy...

The Many Faces of Evelyn

Mischief—if I find her amongst a pile of food she has drug out of the pantry, she quickly throws her arms up and shouts, "oh no!" I understand her! Who could be doing this? I know it wasn't her.

Sorrow—when told she cannot dig things out of the trash her bottom lip quickly pouts out while she scrunches her nose trying with all her might to force tears.

Jubilation—she learned this week to sit on her bottom and use her feet to scoot herself down each stair. She quickly celebrates yelling, “Yay!” while wildly clapping her hands in celebration and forcing an adorable smile.

And last but not least, anger. If things don’t go her way, she now responds by pointing her finger and shouting, “No! No! No!” This is sometimes followed by a slap. I hope this attitude is just a phase!!!

Facing Forward

Evelyn's finally turned around! We just got her a big girl carseat and she loves it. I feel like she's so big facing forward.



She became a little attached to the box that it came in so we decided to keep it and I created this humble little abode...



Complete with doorbell, flowerbeds outside the windows, and a "NO Solicitors" sign by the front door.

It's nothing compared to Riley and Renee's 3 bedrooom, 2bath deluxe ranch, but she likes it :)

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As far as the big girl potty goes, she hasn't gone for a few days. Once I set her on it and she even cried. I thought she would stick to it but I guess it was only a phase :( We're still trying though!

Fresh Air: Does the Body Good

Evelyn and I spent the entire afternoon outside today. Right after daycare we played with my girlfriend Amy and her kids who also happen to be our neighbors, went on a fast paced walk, then ran into a friend and took the kids to park where we played for just shy of 2hours. After this we had an outside dinner and walked back on home. She was asleep before I even covered her up. The fresh air did her little body good.

Being at the park made me realize how fast she is really growing. She was playing with all the kids while me and the other mothers discussed the kids. It was so much fun and made me feel like I was a part of the community, not just a kid. It was nice. I look forward to more days like these.

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Evelyn did not pee on the potty once today. I guess yesterday was a fluke! I know she's so young, I just expected her to catch on and do it early like everything else. My little baby genius :)

Good News & Bad News

Bad News:
Evelyn took a little spill landing directly on her adorable little face this morning. Here are the results:

The picture does not do her poor face justice-it looks awful in person!

Good News: (And very good news it is!)
We have officially began potty training. Our pediatrician wrote an article saying when your child is 1 everytime mommy or daddy has to go potty, take baby in and put him/her on their potty. By age 2, baby will have basically trained him/herself. So we started today! Evelyn has a totally awesome potty that plays music when you go in it and then plays congratulations music when you stand up from the potty. Today she went 5 times with only 2 barely wet diapers in between. This has GOT to be a world record. Hopefully she keeps it up because, if so, we just saved a lot of money on diapers!

Evil Knievil

Evelyn has been testing her limits for the past few months. She is invincible...so she thinks. If sitting on the couch she thinks she can just walk over the edge to get down. With stairs, she just sticks her leg out like she can run right down them like us.

For her birthday she received a bike. You sit on it and use your legs to push yourself around. As for Evelyn, she mainly uses it to store miscellaneous things in the seat-pacifiers, books, cups, etc. But her favorite thing to use it for is her balancing act.

Evelyn's First Easter Egg Hunt

Nona (what Evelyn calls my mom) has recently purchased Evelyn a shiny, new bouncy ball. She will be busy for hours tossing that baby along the hardwood floor in Nona's kitchen, quivering with laughter. This comes in handy when you're trying to get homework done, or the dishes, but definitely not during an Easter egg hunt.

Upon finding her first egg, Evelyn reached out her hand with delight. She gently studied the egg before yelling, "Ball!" and forcefully throwing the egg on the cement sidewalk. Jelly beans and sweet tarts scattered everywhere while Jared and I hurled over in hysterical laughter.

After finding each of her 7 eggs she would toss them in her adorable bunny Easter egg basket, fish around inside for a few minutes, and her hand would return with a previously found egg. Because she carried this process on for several minutes she only found a small percentage of the eggs. But it didn't matter to her, or us. We had such a great time! Each time she was pointed in the direction of a new egg you would see her face proudly light up once she laid eyes on it.

It was great to spend time with her cousins and we had a wonderful feast. Not to mention how stinkin' adorable Ev looked in her Easter dress :)

Go Low

Here is Evelyn's audition for the new Ludacris video. I don't know who's been letting her watch BET (kidding!) but she choreographed her own moves.