catching up. sorta.

Things have been a bit crazy around here lately. I feel like I begin every post that way. We've had visitors the last couple of weekends, so the blog, and the dishes, and the laundry, and my schoolwork have all been taking a backseat lately. This is, of course, coming back to bite me as I now have a stack of papers on my desk that is no less than 20 inches high.
But, enough about that. On to more interesting things :). Our little Boo is growing and growing. She has started army crawling all over the house lately. Last night Travis and I watched as she chased a cat down the hall (fruitlessly), journey into the bathroom for a tick, then head on into the kitchen to play with my skillets (a favorite toy of hers, unfortunately).
We also had a little bit of sickness last week. I woke up one night to the sound of Evalee clearly her throat repeatedly, so I immediately rushed to her bedside and picked her up just in time to get covered in projectile vomit. So, I called Travis and he took her while I changed clothes, only to then get covered in vomit himself. She threw up 4 or 5 times in a half hour, so we called the 24 hour on call doctor for a bit of direction. Since she wasn't running a fever, he didn't see a need to bring her in. I was afraid to lay her back down again, in fear that she would choke again, so we slept together in the ol' lazyboy.
Since then, she hasn't really been herself some days. Sometimes we think she's teething, other times maybe an ear infection, but it's still a mystery. We have also started transitioning her to formula, more out of necessity than anything, which also may be the cause of her upset tummies lately. The formula thing is truly breaking my heart, as I continue to try to keep up with her demand pumping at work, but it's becoming more and more apparent that my efforts aren't quite enough. I know my goal was originally only to make it to 6 months, but I'm still kind of depressed that it's coming to an end. It's funny -- something that I dreaded so often and loved sometimes, and I'm holding onto it like it's my last refuge. Hormones can do funny things I guess.
Evalee also had a sleepover this weekend with Grandma and Grandpa so we could celebrate our anniversary this weekend. It was a fabulous day filled with shopping, couch buying, massages, and lots and lots of sleeeep :).

Boo at the Zoo

After racking our brains for a while wondering what to do with a baby on Halloween, we decided it would best to take Evalee to the Boo at the Zoo at Niabi for her first trip to see the animals. I had heard it was crazy, but never did I imagine just how crazy it would be. I wish I would have taken a picture of the parking lot/street jam packed with cars to show you all, but I wasn't thinking at the time. Needless to say, we were very relieved that we decided to take the shuttle bus instead (and Evalee enjoyed getting to ride in Mama's lap instead of her car seat for a change!) She was the world's cutest bumblebee, even though she wasn't feeling her usual self for the first part of our trip around the zoo. We first stop at the WQAD booth -- sponsors of the event :) -- to say hello to Jason and Rachelle, and to get a couple pictures of course.


Then we made our way around to the animals. We visited the elephants first, and Eva didn't really care one bit about them. I began to think the trip was a bit premature for her. But then we went further into the Africa exhibit to find the emu area. She was very excited to meet them. They were just roaming around the area with nothing but a rope seperating us, so she could get very close to them. We pulled our the camcorder, only for her to immediately but less excited about them in front of an audience. Then we went to the petting zoo, where she got to lunge at the goats and cows there like she does the poor cats. She had a good idea taking in the whole day -- all the kids in their costumes, the sunny weather, and the animals (and their cages). She liked the emus, lions, eagles, leopards, and goats at the petting zoo most. We will definitely have to go back again in the spring when it's warm again. All in all, good first Halloween :).

sniffling and scooting

We have had ourselves some very eventful past couple of weeks. Evalee's love for books has grown as of late. We put her board books on a shelf that she could reach in the living room, and one of her favorite things to do at night is to pull them all off the shelf one by one, looking and the covers and tossing some aside until she picks the one she wants to roll around with and chew on.

Her love for our cats has also intensified. I'm pretty convinced that she's far more excited to see the cats when we get home than she is to see me at the end of the day. She squeals with delight whenever they are nearby, and believe it or not the cats are even warming up to her a bit. They'll occasionally let her have a couple love tugs on their coats before they run into a dark corner and brood. Gadget, in fact, was the catalyst that inspired Evalee to "crawl" across the kitchen floor Monday night so that she could catch the kitty off guard. I say "crawl" because she's not up on her hands and knees, but she's moving forward and using both her arms and legs so I think that counts as crawling in some form. She still prefers to roll to her destinations because it's faster, but if you put something tempting enough in front of her she'll show off her new skills with a smile.

She has really been scarfing down the food lately. Her favorite is by far her Mixed Fruit Oatmeals (thank you, Aunt Molly). She usually eats at least double the suggested serving after her bath before she goes to bed at night. Monday night, she ate four whole bowl-fulls! Every time I make it I think - man, this is way too much -- but then she gobbles it all down with enthusiasm. It's sure fine with me, as this week she has only woken up ONCE each night. I am so excited, hoping this trend continues. Getting up once doesn't bother me much, it's that second, third, and fourth time that get tough.

She has had a little bit of a cold this week. Her nose is a little cloggy and she has a little cough. It hasn't affected her mood too much though, just made her want to snuggle with Mommy a little more than usual (which is nice).