Hangin' with my Daddy

Eva loves to be tickled by her Daddy. Others can get giggles out of her, but nothing like the giggles you hear when Daddy gets her tickles in just the right places!

Our funny little lady

Eva has been doing some pretty funny things around the house lately. She finally figured out what her sunglasses were for last week and wore them around the house giggling madly. She now tries to put our sunglasses on, sometimes her own face and sometimes ours. It's always very helpful.
She also has taken to having long, amusing conversations with her Sesame Street guys, whom she carries around in different mix-matched pairs every day, as if she wants them all to be friends and doesn't want to discriminate or show favoritism.
She has also become very good at finding the snacks stashed around the house and likes to bring the container to us with a shy smile, which I am ashamed to admit I fall for every time.

Most excitingly, she has started to prove that she understands what we say to her. If I ask her, "Would you like to read a book? Go pick out a book for Momma to read to you." She will happily bound over to her shelf and bring one or two or three books into your waiting arms. She will also hurry to the closed bathroom door as soon as you say, "Evalee, it's time for your bath!" It seems so simple, but it's so exciting to begin communicating with her. She's growing into such a fun little person!




I think she is trying to blend in. Sorry, Gadg, there aren't any grey Muppets.

All we can say is: Seriously? Again?

When we got home from the book signing we took Eva's temperature to find it had reached 101.8. We put her to bed with Tylenol and kisses and hoped she feel better in the morning. We found out our babysitter was sick and couldn't take kids on Monday, which caused a slight 5 a.m. panic at first until it all worked out in the end when Eva woke up and was still sick herself. I had taken Friday off for the surgery and couldn't really afford another sub day at school and Travis was working on perhaps the biggest story of his career, so Super Grandma came to the rescue and took care of our little Ernie as closely to the way Mommy would as she could :). When her temperature wouldn't subside we got her an appointment with Dr. Moen for 5:30 p.m. We arrived for our appointment leisurely; I was proud of our punctuality, in fact,as we strolled in at 5:25. That pride was quickly deflated when I checked in to find that I had gone to the wrong office and Dr. Moen was waiting for us, i.e. his last patient, at the East Moline office. Which I had never been to. Awesome. Luckily he told the girls to send us over anyway and we were off. I grabbed the office's address from a business card, put it in my GPS, and spun off. The GPS took me right and then immediately regretted its decision and started to turn me around. I was slightly annoyed. Then we proceeded to go on a 15 minute pointless loop filled with side streets and frustrating circles, leading me always back to the road I started on, and by 5:40 I called (who else?) my mother in a panic. I didn't get any further than, "We are so, so late and I have no idea how to get there ---" before I started sobbing right there on the Avenue of the Cities. My mother's rational attempts to calm me down didn't do much in the way of stopping me from blubbering in fear that I would lose the appointment, waste the doctor's time, and at the worst, get severely embarrassed. She used her phonebook and looked up the other number to call them. I called and, since they were waiting after hours, their phones were already off. So there I was, lost in a city I absolutely never drive to with a cracked out GPS and a crying baby in the backseat.
I called my husband. His stupid news job that I hate with nearly every fiber of my being afforded him the position to say things like, "About now you should be passing a Subway, right?" and "Go through the stoplight and count 2 side streets and then you'll see it." which are the kind of directions my GPS needs to be able to spit out for me. Although I hated to bug him on his big, busy day, there he was: my knight in shining armor taking me where I needed to go.
The staff was very kind to me, which was ridiculous since I was 35 minutes late. Dr. Moen told me to not think twice about it. I assured him I would. Eva got in a fistfight with the nurse trying to take her temperature (101.6) and then took it to a new level with Dr. Moen during her examination. Prognosis? Ear infection in her right ear and a swollen throat, quite possibly strep throat. He said the fever could have been caused by the infections or by her vaccines from her well baby visit. He wrote her a strong prescription of antibotics, got a smile out of her, and sent us on our way. I really love our pediatrician.

Uncle Adam: Published Author

We drove down for Uncle Adam's book signing over the weekend. On Saturday we met up with Uncle Trevor and Aunt Ashley in Bloomington so Daddy could get some things done for work. We had a fun afternoon playing with Alex and his cool toys and catching up with everyone. Aunt Angie and her friends joined us later on that evening and we had lots of fun laughing and watching strange television. Daddy finally got to join us after Eva had already passed out for the evening, but he still got a chance to spend some time with his brothers. On Sunday we went to Grandma Kershaw's house for a quick lunch before heading over to the Sly Fox for the book signing. Evalee was in heaven when we walked in -- there were 5 or 6 rocking chairs just like the one she has at home AND she was in a room filled with books. I took a deep breath and thought, "Well, I hope we don't end up buying too many books today." We didn't have to worry about it, though, because Eva started to act peculiar while we were there and I knew something just wasn't quite right. I was kind of sad that she was in such a crabby mood because we got to see so many people that we hadn't seen in months. But, I guess that's life. Still, it was nice to catch up with the Popes and Aunt Jody and so many family friends.
After the signing we spent so more time with the family at Grandma's before hitting the road for the long drive back home. Eva was again pretty crabby for the drive, but our stop off at Daphne's Family Diner put her back in good spirits and she was good for the rest of the drive (mostly).
It was crazy for me to realize that this was probably the last time we would see Aunt Molly before Baby Kershaw arrives! We are all sooooooo excited to meet you, little baby!!

Tear Duct Surgery

Last Friday we all got up on the bright to head into Trinity for Evalee's tear duct probe. We got taken back to her room pretty quickly after our arrival where she changed out of her pajamas and into her tiny little hospital gown. She snuggled up with Daddy on the bedchair and watched Sesame Street until it was time to go down for her procedure. I was so thankful when she gladly left with the nurse without a blink of her eye. No tears for Eva = No tears for Mommy. She came back, however, a couple minutes later because the anesthesiologist was called to the maternity ward. I laughed and told them I couldn't even begin to act like I was upset by that in any way. So, we watched some more Sesame Street and she left, again, with no tears. Whew. I worked on some things for school while Travis passed out in a chair and before we knew it our smiling little girl was back to us. She was so excited to get her apple juice and Cheerios from the nurse, and we sat and ate them while the staff waited to make sure she could keep her food down. Once we got the go ahead to leave our little wobble foot lead the way out to the lobby and to the car. Once we got home a family nap was in order.
When Daddy left for work it seemed as though Evalee felt totally normal, so I decided to take advantage of the free afternoon and I went shopping. Grandma met us at Kohls and helped me pick out a couple things and then we headed back out to the car. Just before we got to the car, Grandma said, "Hm, I think her eye is bleeding." Sure enough, by the time we got to the car she was blinking away blood from her eye. It bothered her enough that she let us wipe it away without a fight and we headed home while Grandma finished up her shopping. I took her temperature when we got home, and it was at about 100.9. After several slightly worried phone calls to the eye doctor and pediatrician, we came to the conclusion to watch her closely over the weekend and to monitor her temperature. Thankfully, her eye seems to be doing great now! I'm so relieved that it seems to have cleared up without any problems, and I'll be all the more relieved when we are done administering her eye drops!

Happy Easter!

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For Easter we decided to have a small gathering here at our house, so we invited the Adams side of the family over for some burgers, brats, and hotdogs and we watched Evalee hunt for her eggs filled with cheerios, crunchies, animal crackers, and yogurt melts.
She understood the concept of getting the eggs in her Elmo basket, but she had a much better time hunting for her eggs again around the living room. Once she figured out how to open the eggs and get her snacks out herself, she had a blast paddling around the house and shrieking with delight when she got another one cracked. She had such a good time I almost kept the eggs out to do another hunt, but I resisted. Leave Easter to Easter, Mr. Bunny. :)

Blocked Tear Duct Blues

We knew it was probably going to come, but I was still truly bummed to find out last week that Evalee has to have surgery on her blocked tear duct next Friday morning. It's a very routine surgery and not something a rational person would be concerned about, but I'm freaking out. I feel it's my job. I know it's a fluke when things go wrong on such basic, everyday surgeries like these, but the very thought of my baby girl under anesthesia makes my stomach hurt. I just keep telling myself she'll be much happier once it's over and her eye isn't bugging her anymore, and I'll be much happier when I can finally stop explaining to every new person we talk to (and now that Evalee has taken to saying "Hi!' to every person that makes eye contact with her, this number continues to grow) that it's a blocked tear duct and not some crazy contagious baby infection. Still, I'm not feeling ready. But, if I know Evalee, I'm sure she'll be the strong one making me smile before we head in so that I can feel a little more brave that day. Who knows, maybe I'll even walk out with a Dora sticker if I play my cards right.