Enjoying the warm weather tease

We knew the unseasonably warm weather wouldn't last long, so Evalee and I took advantage of it this week. We went for walks with the stroller, sat out on the porch with the cats, and even took a trip to the Orion park to swing for a little bit. Eva was a little hesitant about the swings at first, so we got on one together for a while and then I tried the baby swing again. The second time, she loved every second of it. I am excited to hang up the swing she got from Aunt Jodi for Christmas outside so we can swing this summer too (though as I write this I'm watching the snow fall outside and reminding myself that it'll be a while still).

We've had a busy last couple of weeks. Last weekend was Valentine's Day weekend, so Grandma and Grandpa Kershaw came up Friday night and stay the whole weekend so Daddy and I could go out on Saturday night. We went out to eat a couple of times, and Evalee enjoyed people watching as usual. Sunday we even took a trip back to Walmart, despite my hatred for the store, because I was in need of supplies that unfortunately are only available there. Happily, everything went smoothly and I left in a good mood this time :). It was nice to get out and have dinner with Travis, but it was also nice to come back home to hug and smiles from our baby girl.

This weekend Travis had to work another surprise Saturday shift, so we didn't get lots of time to be together as a family, but we made the most of what we had. We had a nice weekend filled with wrestling on the living room floor, snuggles on the couch, and lots of laughs all around over Evalee's sheer goofiness.

Last night we both felt like a million bucks as we watched her master new skills. Earlier last week she started mastering putting lids on containers. Once she mastered that, we started giving her more than one set so she could start figuring out shapes and sizes and identifying which go together. Watching her tiny little mind work as she flipped and turned, turned upside-down things right again, messed up, and started over until she got it right was truly amazing. Then last night she figured out how to get all 8 of her stackable cups together in the right order. Sometimes it took a few trial and errors until she got it right, but she never gave up. We made sure to clap and cheer for her every time she got it right, and the proud smile she got on her face from our cheers will forever be etched in my mind as one of the greatest things I've ever seen. To put it simply, she's brilliant. :)

And if that wasn't enough, we think she has started to officially say her first words with some consistency. She's been saying some things in an indistinguishable language, usually getting the right amount of syllables out for the item she was trying to talk about. Usually, she even gets the vowel sound she's going for correct. But lately she's been saying "kitty" when she sees the cats pretty well. Sometimes she leaves of the "k" and just says "itty" but I think it's close enough :). Then in the last couple of days she has started saying "mumumumum" whenever she is crawling toward me or when she is excited to see me come into the room. That one has kind of thrown us off-guard because we haven't even been working on "mom" very much, but she does it consistently enough that we figure that's what she's going for.

I'm hearing a little one waking up, so I'm off... :)

First day out in the snow

I don't know about this, Mom.


This reminds me of a look we get from the cats when we bring them back inside from the sunporch in the summer.
Forging through the drifts

Getting to know the snow.
Loving the fresh air.
What are you doin to me, Daddy?
Having a nice one on one time with Daddy.
Hey guys!!!
Our baby was here.

Snowed In!

How do you work this thing Mom? We need to start another episode of Lost...
Lovin' on her lovie.
Amazed by the snow.


We had a crazy week filled with snow! School was cancelled on Tuesday, anticipating the blizzard that was set to come anytime between 10 and 2. It started lightly snowing around 9:30 and by the time Daddy went to work at 1 the snow was coming down pretty steadily. Eva and I had a good time playing inside and looking out the window at the snow coming down. We watched the news and cringed at the projections, knowing Daddy was out in the thick of it (quite literally) driving on the very roads they were deeming impassable on the broadcast. There were a few (or more than a few) paranoid phone calls to my mother, but we made it through the night. The realization that Travis was not going to make it home started to set in a few hours before his shift ended and was confirmed when we both agreed not being able to tell where the road ended and the ditch began was a good indication that the road was bad. I was pretty bummed, but knew that it was of course what needed to be done.

So it was a little more sad when he made it all the way to our turn the next morning, only to see that the snow was taller than his car in the road and couldn't make it the final stretch. So, Eva and I hunkered down and chased the cats and each other and made the best of it. Our unbelievably nice neighbors banded together and plowed out our driveway so Travis would be able to get into the garage when he got off work, and I was so thankful I almost cried. The snow was up to their waists out there! Oh was a relief it was to see Travis's face around 11:30 Wednesday night!

We didn't have school again on Thursday because the roads weren't all plowed yet and with the wind chill it was supposed to be -30 in the morning. So we let Daddy go to work again and spent the day looking at books and watching a little Sesame Street.

It was nice to wear pajama pants for three days straight, but it was also nice to get back to the swing of things this morning. (Sorta. I mean, it was Friday so I still got to wear jeans to work.) The days off just really made me look forward to this summer all the more, when we have 10 weeks of together time to spend!

if I had bothered to learn the fight song, this is where I'd post a line from it.

Even though I don't know the NIU fight song, it doesn't mean I don't love my alma mater. This week we decided to sport our NIU wear in honor of Evalee fitting into her NIU outfit from Uncle Trevor and Aunt Ashley :). For some reason we didn't take any pictures of Eva and I, but we got lots of cute ones of Eva and Daddy, including a few belly bloops.

Simply breathing her in

That's what I've been doing lately. Evalee has become such a grown up little lady lately. I live in a whole new world now ever since she has been sleeping so well at night. I feel a little more like myself and a little less like the high strung crazy person I have felt like for the last 9 months. It seems like every day she finds a new way to amaze me, whether it's in the giant hug she gives me when I pick her up after school, the ridiculously huge dinner she consumes each night through gummy grins covered in juice and Cheerio bits, or the new things she figured out how to do. Small things that only a mother could get excited about. For example, tonight, when she started putting her stackable boxes inside one another for the first time. I found her to be a big enough genius that I had to call my mom just to brag on her. She has also built up enough stomach muscle to be able to push her Christmas toys around the house, walking around like she owns the place. That is, until she runs into a wall, veers to the side and gets the wheel stuck on something, or runs over a toy. Then it's a look of desperation until help comes. So okay, maybe not TOTALLY independent yet. With how well she can walk with her toys, I can not wait until she can go play outside! I think as soon as she can, she will be off and running. Literally. She is just too impatient to sit any longer :). I daydream about the days where we can just have fun together outside -- going to play at the park in Orion, using our season passes to the zoo just a few minutes away, and playing with all the outdoor toys I have already bought in my imagination for her for the summer!

Her front teeth are getting more and more prominent. You still can't see them when she smiles, but when you give her a good tummy tickle you can see both of those little pearly whites. I think her teeth have given her a little bit of a, shall we say, upset tummy this last week or so and as a result she has experienced her first really bad case of diaper rash. On Tuesday this week she felt so crummy all she wanted to do was cuddle with Mom in our chair, which sounded like a good night to me, so that's what we did. She is still going through this phase of insisting on being with Mommy instead of being her usual gregarious self, but I suppose I'll take Dr. Moen's stance on it as well as just call it emotional development. :)

We got two big bags full of hand me down clothes last week -- lots of it was adorable summer wear in the size she's in now, so we'll see if she gets to wear any of it. Clothes are getting awfully tricky to predict for her these days. Luckily we got nearly her entire wardrobe at yard sales, on clearance racks, and from bags of hand me downs from friends so it's not too much of a loss when sizes don't work out just right :). She loves to play with her clothes (I use the word play loosely... more like take them out of the laundry basket one by one, feel them, and then see how far she can throw them) so she was a great help to me when I was getting all of them sorted into sizes and boxed up!
Wearing her "one size fits all" hat we got in our bag of hand me downs. It's just a tad big still, but she wore it as a rally cap for the Bears.
Are you taking my picture or trying to steal my Cheerios when I'm not looking? Because it's the second one I'm not falling for it.
I see her and I think Naturally dainty. Flower-like. We should start the ballet lessons now.
Headed to the bathroom to see if she can't convince bathtime to come a little sooner...
"Hey, are you coming?"

Mama ain't no hairstyler

Today I attempted to get Evalee's hair off her ears because she's always pulling on it and getting frustrated because it tickles her ears. Anyway. It was unsuccessful. But she looked cute for a few minutes. We captured it.

ch ch ch changes

This weekend I feel like Evalee has made so many great steps. I felt a little more confident to start giving Evalee more table food after talking with the doctor on Friday. Wow can that girl eat. On Saturday, we went out to lunch because we TRIED to go to the DMV (closed on Saturday for MLK Day? Come on. ). Since kids eat for free at Steak and Shake on the weekends, we figured we had nothing to lose giving it a try. She ordered macaroni and cheese, applesauce, and water and had the best time eating and playing with her kids meal stuff. On Sunday she ate a whole bunch of softened apples, too many cheerios to begin to count, an entire banana, her leftover macaroni and cheese, applesauce, a jar of sweet potatoes, a few bites of Jello.... she was like the hungry caterpillar or something. We took off her shirt and let her feed herself for dinner. I think 80% of the meal ended up in her lap and smeared into her belly, but she had a great time.
Then this morning she ate a huge serving of oatmeal with applesauce and a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast. Travis was actually in the mood for breakfast food, so I made pancakes from scratch. I made us 3 pancakes and a little one for Eva, thinking she'd have to be full but would still probably want a couple bites just because we were eating. Wrong. She ate her entire pancake and bites of mine until the pancakes were gone. I'm not sure we would have ever found the cap.

Aside from that, she has also been getting so good at traveling around. She can take a few hurried steps with her push toys she got for Christmas before the wheels get away from her, and she's so darn proud of herself when she does it! She has also started taking an interest in trying to say words, although I won't make believe she's close to talking yet. She does make the "ahh" sound when she sees a picture of her Daddy and the "eeee" sound when she sees a kitty. But her concentration in facial expressions when she's babbling tell us she's letting us know something.

She has also started dancing when she hears music. Not always, but almost always if songs come on on TV she will stand up, hold onto whatever is nearby, and bounce. Her favorite song appears to be the iPad commericals' theme song. Good musical taste, her Grandpa should be proud. It's practically the Stones.

The one thing that we don't care for that seems to be happening lately is her clinginess. Lately she has been a total Mommy's girl and no one else simply makes the cut. Not even Grandpa. I know it's starting to frustrate Travis, but it isn't much better on my end either, constantly feeling guilty when I have to leave the room or hand her off. I am hoping it's been because she is cutting teeth (We are thinking both front teeth seem to be coming now!) and she will be back to her normal social self soon.

Like taking a picture with Daddy is pure torture.

Cheering on the Bears and sportin' a borrowed number from cousin Alex.

It takes sheer concentration to shovel macaroni in your mouth.

I DO have a Jello goatee.