For our part, we flew in on Saturday afternoon, were picked up by our good friend Matt, and whisked down to Orange County where we had dinner with my friends from UCI and then we drove back up to Oxnard. Sunday we had lunch with our friends BJ and Kim who we hadn't seen in six years, and we got to meet their 5-year-old son John, then we had dinner with Grammy (Seth's mom), and Jill and Madi. Monday we hung out more with BJ before they headed back home to San Bernardino, and then tried Korean BBQ with our friend Wolfie. Tuesday Wolfie, Matt, and the two of us went down to L.A. to the California Science Center and went to The Endeavor exhibit. Wednesday we went sailing just me and Seth with Seth's sister Madi and her dad Mark - that was so much fun - and had dinner across from the movie theater where we had our first date almost 11 years ago. Thursday we went to L.A. to meet up with our friends Dan and Tisha and their son Dante who was kind of disappointed we didn't have Evie with us. Friday we packed up and headed to Orange County to come home. We got a lot of fun activities in, saw a lot of people, enjoyed being with friends, and it was a great trip for us to just enjoy being Emily and Seth rather than Mama and Daddy.
While I didn't exactly worry about Evie while we were gone, I did miss her. I knew she was in great hands and would be having a wonderful time. So I think I did pretty well with our first trip away from our baby. For her part, she seems to have had a great time! Granna, of course, had her blog post all ready to go, so here's the account of Evie's week from Granna's perspective (with me adding captions to videos and pictures):
What a great week we have had with Evie! She has been so easy to entertain and
enjoy. We met Emily at mile 108 on I-40
last Friday to eat supper and then drive Evie to Memphis. Not a whimper or upset moment occurred! Evie rode in the back seat in her new car
seat with me there to entertain her. We
played with her new Winnie the Pooh characters—Pooh, Tigger, Owl, Kanga and
Roo, Eeyore, Piglet and Rabbit. I will
try to write how she says them, but I have forgotten IPA! Pooh is Pooh, Owul for Owl, Eeyo for Eeyore,
TaTa for Kanga, Roo for Roo, TiTa for Tigger, Pi Pi for Piglet, and RayRay for
Rabbit, is the way I remember them all.
We read a new Pooh flap book too.
She was adorable.
Here's a video showing Evie's pronunciation of the Pooh characters
The only minor problem during the week was that she did not
want to go to sleep. At home, she will
decide she is ready for bed and tell whoever is there, “Night night” and head
to the stairs. Here she has said, “No
night night, Dee Dee. No bed.” She is willing to be rocked and sung to, but
she protests being left in bed. I think
her parents must be boring and she doesn’t want to leave our fun presence! After a few minutes protest, though, she
goes on to sleep and stays there all night.
What more could you ask for!
Evie exerts her opinions
Saturday we stayed around the house all day, watching Pooh
and the “Backs” Pooh with the Backson character, playing with toys and reading
a stack of books. I cooked some
spaghetti and butter beans and Evie enjoyed them for lunch. We were going to
the church for the Palm Cross making dinner, so I left some of the noodles
plain for Evie and added some butter, and I took those and some beans for her
supper in case there was no other food she would like. She ate well including pasta dishes others
brought, but loved the buttered noodles best.
She began warming up to people before we left. We played on the playground for a while and
were joined by Cole. Evie enjoyed
roaming around and sliding especially.
When we went back in, one of the ladies suggested we go in the nursery
to play, so we stopped outside the door, and Evie began protesting – “No, no,
Dee Dee” – so I told her we could walk in the hall. We even walked up toward the choir and she
rambled around like Addie did at her shower with Grannadaddy, such a sweet
memory on both occasions.
Sunday we went to church, and Evie fell asleep on the way,
so I drove a little more to give her a 30 minute nap. She sat through most of the service. I told her when we went to children’s time
that she would be coming back to sit with me.
She really does not want to go in the nursery. I had put her Pooh characters in a small
purse, and she enjoyed putting them in and taking them out. We didn’t leave till the reading of the
Passion narrative when she began speaking out, just words, but I was afraid she
might be disturbing some people. We went
to Harmony Hall and played and then Kathy came out to join us and followed Evie
up and down the hall. When Grannadaddy
came to the door after the service to greet people, she let him hold her for a
while. We went to the Cooke house for a
lunch from Backyard Burger, and Evie tried to get Angel to follow her like Chu
Chu does. Evie ate most of her 2 chicken
tenders and several bites of fries, and of course a little catsup. Evie fell asleep on the way home, and so
these 2 short naps were it for the day.
But even with little napping, she was cute and lots of fun.
Monday was a cooler day and rainy in the afternoon. We hung
around the house until Kathy came to stay with Evie while I went to a meeting
at school. Evie was really attached to
me, so she cried after I left. Kathy was able to console her and sang her
“Evie’s song” which she made up when Evie was a baby. They continued the Pooh extravaganza with
watching the Backson. After I got back,
I spread out her cardboard car to create the play mat, and we drove cars and
arranged the Pooh characters on it. Evie
walked down the long part and sat on the pink and said, “Slide” and then
“Whee.” She was so cute pretending to
slide several times, followed by letting “Owul” slide. We spent the remainder of the day much as the
first part – reading, watching Pooh and the Woof Woofs (101 Dalmatians), and we
carried that over to Tuesday.
Wednesday we went to UM and visited Granna’s colleagues in
Scates Hall. She began to warm up to
them but then saw the sun shining outside and couldn’t resist. We walked all the way to Wilder, but there was
a crowd of people gathered for the tour at 11:00, and Evie was overwhelmed.
Rather than going up to see Granna’s friend, Lorie, we went back to the
car. I checked with Grandma Jeanne, but
she had things to do, so we went home.
We did go to Kroger for a bit, and Evie dozed off in the cart. We played with some different toys – the zoo,
blocks, and the newer version of the Etch a Sketch. Evie played hide and seek by running down the
hall and “hiding” in the doorway to the carport. She wants Granna to push her
on the trike, but not Grannadaddy.
However, she did stay with him while I went to Kroger this evening with
no problem at all.
Here it is Thursday, our last full day together before Addie,
Will, Ryan, and Aimee come. She has
loved looking at “pictu’s” on the computer in her bedroom and identifies Addie
and Wuh easily, so I think she will be glad to see them. She was a good helper with the little red
vacuum while I vacuumed the living room and hardwood floors. And Grannadaddy watched her some of the time
too. We went to church for the Maundy
Thursday dinner, and Evie enjoyed the beans from Kathy’s bean soup. She preferred the darker brown beans to the
navy beans. She was tired of being
cooped up by the end of the meal, so I didn’t try taking her to the
service. Instead, we went out to the
playground, and Evie played with the rocks and had fun sliding again. On the ride home, she was not too thrilled to
be strapped in and protested. I tried
singing different songs, but she would tell me “no” when I began singing
them. For example, I said, “What about
singing Old MacDonald?” she responded,
“No, Dee Dee, no donal.” “What about
“Baby Bumblebee?” “No, Dee Dee, no bubble.” “What about Itsy Bitsy Spider?”
“No, Dee Dee, no itsy.” She finally
began singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” herself, and when I tried to sing too, she
responded, “No Dee Dee. Evie.” I think
it is so great that she is able to express her preferences so well when she is
only 22 months old!
Ryan, Aimee, Addie and Will arrived about 3:45 on Friday
morning, and Evie slept right through the night. When Addie came down, Evie was thrilled to
see her and called her by name. In fact,
she and Addie became good buddies for the day, with Addie walking her down the
hall and playing with toys with her. As
I feared might happen, Evie considered all the toys hers at first because,
after all she had been with them all week!
When Will came down, he often wanted the toys she had, and of course,
she didn’t understand about sharing. She
also didn’t particularly want Will on my lap.
But by later that day she was a better sport about it all.
The kids dancing together (the video looks like it's in the wrong orientation, but that's just the thumbnail)
Kathy and Grandma Jeanne cooked supper for
us, and we went over about 5:30 to visit and eat with them. At first, Evie was
overwhelmed by Boston, Tia’s dog, but by the end of the evening, she was
willing to walk around and hold up her hand to tell Boston to “back off.” None of us ended up going to the service
except Grannadaddy, and he came back and ate there before we all went back to
our house.
When we got back, we moved
Evie to the “Pack and Play,” and put the crib in the room for Will because Evie
apparently jumped or fell out of the crib at naptime. I had put her in the crib and she didn’t fall
asleep, so I assumed a 2 minute cry as has been the case this week. But there
was a thud, and when I opened the door, Evie was jumping up off the floor and
wanting me to hold her. Ryan came in and
looked at her, and thank goodness, she appeared to be fine. I rocked and sang and then put her in the
bed. She promptly lifted her right leg
and had it on the top of the crib rail, pulling herself up. Therefore, I took her out of the bed and
rocked her to sleep and held her for about a two-hour nap. Not wanting another fall, I knew we needed to
swap their beds. Once we got the beds
exchanged, I rocked and sang, and Evie went down without a fuss. What I loved the most about rocking and
singing is how she reaches up her little hand and rubs your chin, or turns her
face to give you a kiss. She is the
sweetest baby – except when she is exerting her independence vehemently! But that is what babies do when they are
nearing two, so even then she can be cute in her persistence that what she
wants is best for all involved.
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