Then she proceeded to start playing in the dog's water bowl (which was full of fresh, untouched water, so I let her play in it). She always gives me this mischievous grin when she's doing something new or that she thinks might land her in trouble.
Although, here she looks a little more innocent.
Saturday we stuck around until our new carpet was installed in the bonus room and then Evie and Daddy had a date at the park while the install was being completed so that I could clean the rest of the house in case of showings and finish packing things in the car for our trip to Memphis. Evie didn't nap until very, very late for her, as we were pulling out of our neighborhood around 3:45pm, and she slept the whole ride until we pulled into Granna and Grannadaddy's driveway. Granna came to the garage door as we were pulling in and Evie smiled a big smile. When I took her to the doorway, she lunged from my arms and into Granna's.
Since she hadn't been awake too long because of her late nap, she stayed up pretty late. For whatever reason when we are at Granna and Grannadaddy's, Evie has a really hard time going to bed. She stays up and cries for at least 20 minutes, something she never does at home at bedtime. Occasionally at home she'll cry if it's nap time and she doesn't want to go to sleep, but at bedtime, it's rare to hear anything more than one whimper from her as I close the door, and even that isn't a usual occurrence. She cried both nights over the weekend, but since we've been home she goes to sleep happily without a peep. Maybe Granna's right and we are just too boring and Evie's more interested in staying awake when she could be playing with Granna and Grannadaddy.
Anyway, Sunday Evie slept in late and so she was awake for all of church which is unusual because a lot of times when we go she is ready for a nap halfway through the service. I haven't been taking her to the nursery lately because she protests going and that's just not a battle that I feel is worth fighting at this point, so she stayed in the sanctuary for the whole time and was very good. I had bought some memory cards and crayons and paper and some snacks, so there was plenty to entertain her. Evie also loves to look through the hymnal, and she is interested in Granna's jewelry too.
After church we went back to the house and had lunch with Kathy, Rickie, and Grandma Jeanne and Evie showed a new kind of interest in play: she was playing pretend! She used several bowls and spoons and pretended to get soup from Kathy's bowl and then distribute the bowls to her Daddy and me, wait for us to pretend to drink our soup, and then go back for more. It's so fun to watch her entering a new phase of play!
After lunch my friends Cristal, Amanda, Rachel, and Megan came over and there was never really an opportune time for Evie to take a nap (plus she kept saying no every time I offered for her to go night night) so she just stayed up and played until we drove to a restaurant for dinner. She fell asleep almost as we were backing out of the driveway and slept through most of dinner on my shoulder.
Monday we went over to my cousin Daniel's house to play History of the World and Granna brought Evie over later in the morning. Evie got to play with Daniel's girls, Nyla and Naomi and they had a blast. They all had their own baby dolls and were pushing them in strollers around the house in a big circle. Both Daniel and I had a moment, at the exact same time, where we thought, "Those are our kids playing together." In fact, when Daniel said that aloud, I had just had that exact same thought. Daniel and I were always playing together anytime my Mom's side of the family got together and he is definitely the cousin on that side that I am closest to, both in age and in relationship. He is a year and 5 months younger than me so we were at the right age to be interested in the same kind of play activities and we stayed close as we grew into teenagers and young adults, talking through instant message and facebook. It's odd to see our own children playing together like we did 30 years ago. I love that they have girls that are close enough to Evie's age that they'll be able to play together well for years to come. Nyla is 2 years and a month older than Evie, Naomi is 8 months older, and their youngest, Natalie, will be born in September, two years younger than Evie. I love thinking about those 4 plus Addie and Lydia all being within 6 years of each other and enjoying their time together, and I'm sure the girls will be happy to include Will too, who is between Nyla and Naomi.
After some time playing together, Granna and Evie went back home so Nyla and Naomi could get their naps. It occurs to me as I write this (and I was aware of it at the time) how much of the weekend Granna spent entertaining Evie. It was a lot. So, thank you, again, Granna, for all of your help! I am told that one of Evie's cute moments from Monday afternoon was saying "Addie, Will, Evie" while pretending to write their names on a magnadoodle, no doubt as she had seen Granna do earlier. So sweet that she remembers the other kids in the family.
I should mention that Monday morning before we left for Daniel's Evie and Grannadaddy were playing quite a game of ball. Evie had a football and a baseball and was enjoying asking Grannadaddy if he was "weady?" and then throwing them for him to catch. She enjoyed trying to catch too. Clearly Evie was enjoying her time with Grannadaddy too because when we got home that night, after she spent some time running around our newly carpeted bonus room and having me chase her in circles, she sat down to make a "phone call" to Grannadaddy.
Tuesday Evie went back to school and we went back to work. She did cry a little when I dropped her off, but I didn't get her there until about 9:30 because of our off-kilter schedule over the weekend, so Miss Kedren was there instead of Miss Marita and Evie does better with Kedren. When I went to pick her up, Kedren said, "Evie's just been in the best mood all day. She was running through the playground giggling and making everyone else giggle too." Sweet girl.
I mentioned last week that Evie loves melon. I should mention this week that I picked up a melon "variety pack" - honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon, and asked her to tell me which kind she wanted by naming the color: green, pink, or orange. I have found that "orange" is one of those words that every kid seems to say differently in an adorable way. I remember Addie called it "ocean", Will said "oh-gee", and Evie says it more like "au jus".
One of the things that I love to do when we go to Memphis is look through my old photo albums from when I was a kid. Because Evie's 29 years and 51 weeks younger than me (i.e., her birthday is 30 years minus one week after mine), I can look at myself from 30 years ago and see the resemblance between me and Evie, see what I was doing developmentally, and see what's coming with Evie in the next few months based on what I was doing. I was absolutely floored when I saw this picture:
This is me on May 12, 1984 and Mom's caption in my book is "movie star". I think I said the same thing when I posted a picture of Evie in her sunglasses in the grocery cart, but at the time, I didn't share this picture, which I took the same day as the grocery cart picture, May 13, 2014, 30 years later almost to the day!
I wish I had captured a shot from an identical angle, but the mere fact that we were both enjoying wearing sunglasses at the same age is enough to make me appreciate the coincidence of two moms snapping pictures of their cute toddlers 30 years apart.
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