Getting into the swing of things these past few weeks has definitely been a challenge. Travis and I have never been on such polar opposite ends of the schedule spectrum, and I've never missed him more. With Eva waking up sometimes one, sometimes six times in the night, I tend to go to bed as soon as I can at night, which means it is even less likely than before that I will be awake enough to have a short conversation with Travis by the time he gets home. This means we only get to talk while one of us is at work during the week, which isn't exactly the best recipe for a quality conversation. I know many, many families deal with this kind of thing for years and years. I know even more families deal with it "in the beginning" as we have. I also know that God is providing for us exactly what we need right now. But I've been praying like crazy that this "phase" of our lives is over soon because I feel like we are missing out on so many family moments together. Stupid things too, like tonight for example. I was giving Eva her nightly bath (which is quite the process by myself, I still think!) and she experienced her first under the water bathtub fart. That's right, it's an experience. Her reaction was hilarious - memorable, and the first thing I thought was, "Man, I wish Travis was here." But I remind myself of the bright things -- we are both experiencing time alone with Evalee, which is quite different than time with her when others are around. We are both learning to do things that need to be done while still taking care of her (I haven't loaded the dishwasher with both hands in a long time!).
Despite my own inner struggles, Evalee is doing brilliantly. She seems to really enjoy her time with Jesi, her babysitter, and she's learning to interact with the other little babies there. She plays very well on her tummy now and rolls over when she's done with ease. She likes to jabber and make faces and gets very excited if she steals your attention away from something with a silly sound. She's getting better and better at eating every day -- some days almost polishing off two entire jars of food in one sitting. She is still quite the astute observer and needs to have a view of us at all times, even if we are just eating dinner or cleaning up the living room. Her love for books is growing more and more, and she is also enjoying playing with some new toys. She has one of those knobby puzzles I found at a yard sale, and she loves to take all the pieces out of their holes and then bang them against the board they set into. Once (by a fluke, I know, but still...) she even picked up a puzzle piece and slid it right where it was supposed to go!
I have even started making our own baby food a little bit. Last week I tried bananas and sweet potatoes, and this week I braved up enough to make some pears, carrots, peaches, green beans, and squash as well. Not only does the coupon-cutting penny-pincher in me enjoying the savings ($7 worth of fresh produce probably made me over $30 of baby food), I get an odd satisfaction out of making the food on my own.
Tomorrow is Friday, and I am so looking forward to the long weekend with friends, family, and hopefully a couple of cuddly naps.
Evalee has sure been working hard and getting big and strong this last week. On Sunday she sat all by herself with no help from us or pillows for over 5 minutes playing with her puzzle. And each day she gets closer and closer to crawling. She will flip over onto her stomach and rock and push to get things, but hasn't quite moved forward yet. Tongith she even got up on her hands and knees for a moment or two, but quickly plopped back down. She has figured out that she can turn herself sideways and roll several times to get where she wants to go though, and several times this weekend she rolled across the room after some toys and kisses. We thought it could be any day that she takes off on those little knees, so we went out and got a gate for the stairs this weekend and Daddy installed it with almost no swearing. :)
