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... :)