Mama Bird! Mama Bird!

So far this year we have had two nests of birds in our tree in the backyard. Evalee was beyond excited to see the first nest. The not-so-bright Mama bird built her nest in the lowest crevice of the tree, which meant Evalee could look in on the three little blue eggs Mama bird nestled inside when Mama Bird was off getting food. Every night for a week, Evalee would sit on the steps of our porch, watching the Mama Bird sit on her eggs and telling her she was a good Mama. Unfortunately the eggs never did hatch, so we had to tell Eva that they moved to a new tree.
Luckily, another much smarter Mama Bird built another nest higher in the tree a couple of weeks later. Although it was too high to see the eggs before they hatched, it was just at eye level when we sat on the porch so Eva could see the little baby birds when they were born. She was beyond excited and visited them several times a day before they grew big and flew away. Now every time Eva sees a robin -- whether she is playing outside or riding in the car -- she calls out to it, "Hi Mama Bird! I missed you!"

Evalee Ann turns 3 years old

It was a beautiful day when Eva was born on April 8, 2010, and it was the first real beautiful day around here this year in 2013 as well. We celebrated her birthday as much as we could. We had her zoo themed birthday party over the weekend before. We had so many friends and family stop by to celebrate with us. The weather was warm but very windy, so we couldn't have our weiner roast like we had planned, but Daddy grilled us hot dogs instead and they tasted just as good. Eva got so many cute clothes to wear this spring and summer and lots of Brave and TMNT toys to fill the living room with.

On Monday it was her actual birthday, and Daddy took the day off to take his girls to the Children's Museum in the morning to play. Once Mommy got off work, we opened presents (more Disney princess dolls and a few princes for them to dance with) and then took advantage of the warm weather by going to play at Camden Park. Eva couldn't wait to run and run and run, and that's exactly what she did. She loved going down the slides -- which she is usually hesitant about -- and climbing up the ladders and staircases. She had to go to the bathroom and we found that the bathrooms were locked at the park, but our big girl held it all the way to Happy Joes for her birthday dinner without an accident. Grandma and Papa met us for pizza and birthday ice cream and made the day even more special.

I am amazed by how much our little girl has grown in the last six months. She has really learned to listen and calm down when she is upset, and the terrible two temper tantrums are slowly becoming fewer and farther between. She has very good manners, usually, and always asks with a "please" and "thank you", even if her request is something like, "Ummm four cookies. Please."

What I am most proud of her for is her memory. She has a memory match card game and a few different memory games on the iPad, and she can fly through them at an impressive rate. She only has to listen to a book a few times before she can finish most of the dialogue or important sentences in the entire story, no matter how long its been since we last read it. She loves to use lines from books, TV shows, and movies when she is playing with her Barbies, princesses, or stuffed animals. I often hear, "I'm sorry, but I just don't deserve you!" coming from any number of the princes, delivered exactly as Belle does in Beauty and the Beast, or "This is the best day ever!" as delivered by Rapunzel.

Her hair is getting very long and beautiful, and the natural curl she used to have is even starting to come back this spring. She is even starting to have enough patience to let us comb it well, put it in ponytails, and clip her bangs back without too much of a protest. She still refuses to wear headbands, but we're taking baby steps.

She is a fantastic big sister. She is always trying to make Izzy laugh or offering one of her toys to her so they can play together. She constantly showers her with hugs and kisses and tells her, "I love you baby Izzy." I hope the sisterly love continues as Izzy gets big enough to crawl around and pick her own toys to play with.

She has grown up so much, and I can't wait for all the fun things we'll get to do together once school lets out!

Izzy at 6 months old

People always talk about time flying by when it comes to their children, and with Isabel Grace that couldn't feel more accurate. Maybe it's because we find ourselves so much more busy now with two children, but she has changed and grown so much, it feels at least, overnight.

She doesn't have any teeth yet, but that doesn't hold her back from having a keen interest in food. In particular, whatever we're having. She loves her baby food -- especially peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes -- but that doesn't stop her from reaching and reaching to get whatever is on the supper table at her high chair. She is chewing, chewing, chewing non-stop on anything she can find: toys, blankets, hair, people's chins. We keep thinking those teeth are going to pop through any day now, but we've been thinking that since February and there's still no sign of those little pearly whites.

She is very tickish, especially in her chubby little thighs and under her arms. She loves to be tickled on the changing pad when she's down to just her diaper. In fact, lately she seems to expect it and insist on it, as she positions herself for the tickling as soon as those pants come off.

She loves her big sister so much. Evalee can always make her laugh or calm her down when she's crying in backseat with her, "It's okay, baby. I know. Just close your eyes and go to sleep for a while, baby" talk. Eva wants so much to be able to carry her around the house, but she's just too darn big.

She is a very strong baby and can sit up by herself pretty well. She can usually hold herself up for a few minutes before she gets too excited leaning for a toy or too startled by a noise and plops over. She does NOT like that too much.

She is a pretty good sleeper, and usually sleeps from around 8 or 8:30 until midnight, and then she wakes up again around 3 to eat again. Some nights, she skips her midnight feeding and goes all the way until 2 or 3, so I think we're pretty lucky. Unfortunately her crying in the night almost always wakes up her big sister, who doesn't fall back asleep quite as easily.

Whenever strangers come over to check her out in stores or friends comment on her pictures I post online, their compliment is always in those big beautiful eyes. Those two little stars shine through the whole day - happy or angry, sick or tired, hungry or giggly. They keep changing color from brown to greyish blue and back to brown again, so who knows what color they'll end up being. It doesn't matter to us though because either way they are going to beautiful!

Potty training champion

This week, Evalee finally decided she was done with diapers. She started taking an interest in going potty again, and we went with it as much as we could. She had a few accidents where she couldn't hold it all the way to the potty, but she tried and always got the majority of it in there so we called them successes. After a few days, we even braved up enough to go shopping, drive to Grandma's, and sit through church in underwear and she always did a great job of telling us when she had to go. In fact, she usually goes better in public than she does at home!

She still hasn't quite mastered pooping in the potty, which has lead to a few disgusting afternoons, but we're slowly but surely getting there. Luckily, she usually goes at naptime and bedtime when she's wearing a Pull Up, so  we haven't lost too many beloved Merida or Tangled underwear in the wear against diapers.

It has been a stressful and frustrating process on and off over the last 10 months, but I'm very proud of her!

A visit from our cousins

Over the long President's Day weekend, we got a special visit from some of our favorite people: Alex and Amelia (and Aunt Molly and Uncle Adam too, of course). We played hard and had lots of fun at Monkey Joes and the new Children's Museum exhibit.

4 months old

Izzy lately

We can't believe how strong Izzy has become. For the past couple of weeks, we've been able to carry her on our hips like a big baby, which definitely helps out when it comes to getting things done around the house! She loves to chew on her toys and kick her feet. Her most defining characteristic though is by far how attached she is to her silk blanket. In order to fall asleep at night, she has to nuzzle down with her blanket and rub it all over her tiny little face. This isn't the most ideal way for a baby to go to sleep at night for any mother's standards, but it's hard to say no to the peace and comfort it seems to bring her. (But don't worry, once she's asleep that blankie comes out of those hands!) She is very ticklish and loves to giggle her deep little belly laugh.

She has been eating slow foods for a couple of weeks now, and so far she seems to love squash the most. Some days I can't shovel it in fast enough for her. She also seems to love sweet potatoes and carrots. The only thing she refuses to eat is peaches. Girl has her standards.