Birthday party and beyond

How lazy am I to get this up over a month after!! Oh well.
We have been very busy with having two more friends join us here during the day to be watched; 2 year old Brianna and her 4 month old brother Christopher. They are loads of fun and we love having them. Eva is adjusting to having more kids around and that can be tough, but I think there are a lot of good things that can only be learned through interactions with other children so I'm happy she is able to have that opportunity.
She is growing so fast and already not my baby any more! She looks like such a big girl. She loves to climb on top of things and is a total dare devil. I am trying to grow out her hair but its at this crazy stage right now. Its never been cut and I can't bear to do it yet! Hopefully she will have her first word soon....I think it might be 'cat'. She says something very close right now when she sees the cats. Lord knows she has enough opportunity with us having three of them!

12 month Bday

Finally one year old! It went faster than I could ever imagine. I'm so proud of her, she's doing so well. Walking, running and climbing like crazy, but no words yet. She's learning to make friends and share with the other children I watch at home and still loves reading books best. She's 30 inches tall and 21 lbs. Her favorite food is mac and cheese and also frozen green peas (thawed, of course!). She still hates bedtime so often gets up at 3 just for some company! So bitter-sweet, her growing up. I wish I could freeze each phase to have it forever, but I can't wait to see the person she's becoming.
She had a great bday party with all her family. She ate butterfly cupcakes (thanks michelle!) and rode around in her new Cozy Coupe car. She also had a great thanksgiving at her Boucha's (my moms) house and loves to look at the xmas trees up in our house now. Can't wait to post xmas pics!

11 months and Trick or Treat

One month to that magic one year! SOO fun. We trick or treated a little early this year, but I hope you enjoy the pics!!

Rocking out her leopard pants:

Right after getting dressed in her french poodle costume:


She was a little scared of her first candy giver!

Pumpkin Picking!

First time in a forward facing car seat!


Packer game with papa.

Pumpkin picking! Watch for pumpkin carving pics to come!

10.5 Months

Colder weather reminds me of last year this time when I was really starting to get excited for Eva's birth. I can't believe she's almost a year old!
I've started watching some children in my home and it's a lot of fun. Eva loves to have the playmates!
She is really walking now! It's very slow but she can walk all the way across a room. The other day I was in the kitchen and she walked in and it was just weird, seeing her turn the corner and just walk in!
Thanks to my sister Tricia we now have a play thing in our back yard with two slides. So fun! We'll try to get lots of use out of it before it gets too cold.

Apple Picking

Eva and her cousin Alayna

So my sister Kari and her family and Eva and I went apple picking today! It was so much fun! We got to walk out into the orchard and pick which apples we wanted and everything! We also got to see some goats, but Eva thought those were pretty scary.

Almost 10 months and walking!

It's official. We've taken our first unaided steps!!
It's only two or three at a time right now, but she's doing it! I love it.
She still crawls when she wants something fast, but she practices her steps all the time.
Other milestones....turning book pages as you read to her which is too cute. She's very impatient though and if there are more than a few words on the page she tries to turn it again right away. She has eaten lots more 'real' food now too! She had her first grilled cheese sandwich and her first mac and cheese. She LOVES peas and will eat them by the handful. I think my mom fed her pizza once (sigh, grandmas). She has three teeth, two tops and one bottom, which she has started to grind together. I'm a teeth grinder in my sleep so i wonder if she gets this from me?? The sound makes your skin crawl though! She hates sleep time as much as ever and fights it to no end. She has herself down to one nap already, usually midday and that one is less than an hour. It's so not cool. She should be sleeping WAY more.
She's doing so great though and looking more like a little girl and less like a baby every day. I love to watch her grow, but I lament her babyhood coming to an end!

9 months plus

Finally getting another post up!
Evalyn is now 9.5 months old. She is still totalling along furniture and standing on her own, but no walking on her own yet. Her little two front teeth come in more every day. She's eating so many new foods too....today she tried mac and cheese! She loves to eat! I think she'd chose to eat over a bottle almost always.
Her grandma Babb bought her a pony she loves to ride and a kitchen! She can only reach the lower cabinets so far, but loves chewing on the play food!
I live for her smile and feel her anger or sadness like my own. I can't believe there was a time when she wasn't here....how did I get up every morning without her insistent squeals or go to bed without checking for her steady breathing under my hand?
I can't wait to see what the next months and years bring for her.

Standing Tall

Watching Evalyn has been so amazing this month. She learns so fast, it's just incredible. She went from crawling to pulling herself up to stand in about 3 days. She's a master crawler now; I think she could do about a 7 minute mile, at least that's how it feels to try to keep up with her. She's pulling herself up on anything that will stand still long enough including animals, our legs, and typically things that will fall over and land on her. She loves standing and looking out our living room window. I think she probably knows all the neighborhood gossip from watching everyone out that window.
She loves being just a little scared and squeals with delight when she's spun around fast or swung high on the swing or when her papa crashes her little push cars into the walls.
She is sprouting two front teeth as well, just barely out of the gums as of this post. This perhaps explains some crabbiness and sleepnessless as of late.
She's been watched all summer by a mix of her grandmas and her aunt Kari (thanks guys!) but will be going back to Michelle's soon. I loved having her spend time with my family, but I'm sure she'll enjoy being with all Michelle's kids again! Next post she'll be nine months old! I can't believe I'm already thinking about her birthday party. Didn't I just have her yesterday?!?

Crawling!

Eva declared her independence this fourth of July by learning to crawl!

7 Months

Finally summer! Eva has enjoyed getting out into the world! We've been all over in our stroller on walks, and now we got a jogging stroller so we can go for runs too! She is such a great sitter. She can sit forever and just play. Now that she can sit so well she HATES to be on her back. It's either sitting or standing (with help on the standing of course!)
She eats both lunch and dinner now. Loves her some veggies and rice and that Yo-Baby yogurt. She's tried birthday cake at her cousin Brian's birthday and had ice cream too! She still doesn't want anything more solid though. I tried scrambled egg and she thought that was way yucko.
We tried to go into a little kiddie pool this weekend, but I think the water was too cold, because she didn't like it much. I think I'll try in my mom's big pool when the weather gets warmer.
My mom is watching Eva for me all summer, so that will be fun for all of us! My parents are also moving nearer to us within the year, so that's exciting too!
I love to watch all of Eva's little victories; her sitting and eating and getting so much better with her hands. She is trying to rock herself into a crawling position all the time, so I think she'll be crawling before the summer is over. She really has given me a different perspective of and a deeper appreciation for the gift that is our life.