First let's talk about language. Of course, the highlight of the second year of child development is in the speech and language department, and I've tried every week to add the new words Evie's acquired to show how quickly she's changing. I know she's added more this week, but right now the only ones that stand out to me are arm, octopus, and shark. But something I have noticed lately is that when she's learning a new word, she will whisper it first before trying it out loud. It's so cute; you can almost see the gears turning as she figures out where to make the sounds. And toddlers whispering is just pretty much adorable in and of itself.
Her two other new words from this week were Addie and Will, the names of her cousins.
One organizational thing I tried to make time for this week was getting out the rest of the 24 month/2T clothes that are appropriate for winter. I took her to daycare on Monday and didn't notice until we got there that her 18 month shirt was too short and her little belly was poking out from the bottom, so I figured it was time. I try to be good about putting the clothes away once she outgrows them, but sometimes it takes me a while, so I still had a pile of 12-18 month stuff to deal with. So I took about an hour and a half on Tuesday and sorted everything in her dresser and all the piles I'd already made, put them in their appropriate boxes, and got out the 2T box. All of the clothes we have came from Addie and Lydia, except for a few new things that Granna has bought and, I admit, I do occasionally see something that I think is too cute not to get. I mean, Evie deserves to get her own clothes once in a while. But the 2T box is enormous! It's the largest Rubbermaid bin they sell and it was 100% full. So, I got out everything that was winter appropriate and stuffed it into the dresser. I won't have to do laundry for months! Evie still needs 18 month pants, or at least the 18-24 months rather than the 24 months or 2T ones, but she is definitely set for the next year. This picture is just the pants drawer:
One of my favorite cute things that Evie did this week was walk around with Bambi. Evie's Aunt Julia sent it to her and Evie loves it! She loves to put Bambi on the snack table, in the shopping cart, and especially, in her favorite hiding place.
Then, the thing that really cracked me up was that she got upset because she couldn't see her toes. She had to sit down in the dress and lift up the skirt to make sure they were still there. She even cried out, "Toes?!" as she was doing it.
So we didn't play dress up for too long. As Granna said, it may be a little while before Evie's interested in being a real princess.
Now, let's talk about my crazy February resolution which has been to take the dogs and Evie on a walk on days when the weather permits. I mean, take them all together at the same time. Of course, Seth isn't exactly on board with this plan - he has some school work he's doing - so for my first attempt, I went solo. Let's just say it was not successful. The dogs were all over the place, getting their leashes mixed up, running over each other and across the stroller. At one point Herbie just stopped dead in his tracks right in front of the stroller and I ran into him full force. Good thing he's built like a barrel because I don't think he really noticed. And then not two minutes later, ChuuChu escaped her harness so I had my foot on the wheel of the stroller, Edgar and Herbie's leashes in part of my left hand, while trying to use the other fingers on that hand and my right hand to strap ChuuChu back in to her harness - with Herbie thinking I was giving out pets and trying to get between me and ChuuChu. It was a near disaster. Fortunately, Evie loved every second of it. The weather was nice and she got to be very close to the doggies who she just adores. She always wants to know where the doggies are once we come in the house. Here's a video from the other day of her talking about them. Well, mostly ChuuChu.
Speaking of dogs, on Sunday night we went to April and Jason's house and hung out with them and their 3 month old Ivy and their dachshund/beagle mix Peanut for the first half of the Superbowl. Evie was fascinated by Ivy, as usual, though she did get upset again when I held Ivy for a bit. But the highlight of the evening for Evie was definitely playing with Peanut. She had some yogurt bites and would lead Peanut from one end of the house to the other, at a pretty good clip too. She never rewarded his efforts at following her, so after about ten minutes, the poor old dog was worn out and gave up. When we were about to leave, I told Evie to say "bye bye" thinking she would tell April and Jason bye. No, instead she walked up to Peanut and planted him a big kiss on his head, completely with loud kissy noise. Adorable!
She gives kisses to me and Seth all the time, and one of the most adorable things this week was when I put her to bed Monday night. Our routine after brushing teeth is changing her into pjs, sitting in the glider and reading one fairly long book (long for her - mostly now we're on a Berenstain Bears kick), and then I turn out the side light, turn her towards me and put her head on my shoulder and rock while I sing one verse of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". Usually she has her head turned away from me while I sing. Well Monday night, she started singing with me. I sang, "What a friend we have in Jesus" and before it was time to sing the next line, Evie sang the word "all", which is the start of the next line: "All our sins and griefs to bear." She sang a couple of words with me throughout the song, and so I started singing a second verse sing I was enjoying it so much. Then she turned her head toward me so I moved my head away from her just a little to give her breathing room. But she pushed her cheek right up to mine, like she was seeking me out, and then planted a big kiss on my cheek and said, "Night night". Such a precious moment.
We had a death in the family this week. My dad's dad's cousin, Dolores, who went by DoDo passed away on Sunday. DoDo was like the female version of my Grandaddy: always smiling, always laughing, loved being around people and loved the people themselves, never met a stranger, loved family, and was just always fun to be around. She met Evie in 2012 and I know there's a picture of Evie at their house, sitting on the bed that was my great-great grandmother's, which was carved by my great-great-great grandfather. But I can't find that picture. Anyway, we were really sad to hear of DoDo's passing, and my parents and Grandma came up for the funeral yesterday. We went to the visitation and the service, then had lunch, and there was further visiting at the church. But Mom wanted to spend a little time with Evie, and it was getting to be the time of day that I normally pick Evie up from daycare, so Dad and Grandma Jeanne went to the church while Mom and I went to get Evie.
I let Granna be the one to go into the room to get Evie and the look on her face was priceless! Surprise, excitement, a big grin. Adorable. We brought her home and hung out until Grannadaddy and Grandma Jeanne came to the house. We visited some more, and my parents gave Evie her Valentine's Day present: a card with a dog on it, which Evie immediately identified as ChuuChu even though it's actually a beagle, and a book that they were able to record themselves reading, "Bright and Beautiful". Granna and Evie sat in the floor and Granna helped Evie turn the pages so that the book read itself to her, and she loved it. The book has bees, Evie's new favorite obsession, and birds, and other animals Evie can identify, and it was so sweet to watch her face as the pages turned and her grandparents' voices read the story.
Pursuant to my last blog entry about connections with grandmothers, Evie cried a lot when she realized Granna was leaving. She went from my arms back to Granna about 3 times during the whole event, and finally we had to turn on Elmo so that Granna could leave. Even still, a while later, Evie remembered Granna had gone and went to the door, crying for her. I resorted to turning on Winnie the Pooh and we got through the evening with no more tears.
Evie is 20 months old today. Seth told me after 18 months I wasn't allowed to count months anymore. So I don't, in public. But I will here. Happy 20 months to my sweet, bright girl.
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