Hand Turkeys and Playing in the Park

As I've written quite frequently in the past few weeks, I'm attempting to prepare for Evie to go from "only child" to "older child."  At this point, the transition is harder for me that it probably will be for her.  I am just worried.  I want her to be happy, and I don't want her to feel like we are not giving her the attention that she has always had from us.  However, I know that is impossible.  All of our lives are changing in a big way, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. 

I didn't know I'd feel this guilty about it all though.  I've probably been coddling Evie a bit more lately that I had in the past, and I feel like she's been more clingy that before too.  She needs me to do things that M used to do for her.  Honestly though, it hasn't bothered me.  I am happy to know that she still wants me, and as much as that might be a burden in the near future, I'm cherishing this time when I can indulge her.

For me, I feel like so  much is changing already, and the baby isn't even here yet.  My maternity leave sub started on Friday, and I'm having a hard time letting go of my kids at school.  I had a particularly rough day on with him being there, but when I got to daycare to pick up Evie, she gave me this. 

Evie's first ever "hand turkey"

My heart melted.  An older kid helped trace her hand, and then she colored it (in spectacular, two-year-old fashion).  Evie was so proud of herself!  It is now displayed on our fridge.  :)

I'm also grateful that the weather was beautiful here in Wisconsin over the weekend (highs in the 50s!), and we were able to spend time outside.  M put up the outside Christmas decorations yesterday while Evie and I did some yard work.  After her nap, we were able to go to the park for a while too.

Going down the slide

Just running around

We have no idea how much time we have left like this (two weeks at the most!).  As much as I'm excited and ready to meet this baby, I'm also enjoying every moment that I can just me and Evie. 

Halloween 2012

Halloween was definitely more exciting this year with Evie than it has been for the past couple of years.  She knows what candy is, and she wants it!!

Mi bailaora de flamenco (My little flamenco dancer)

This year, Evie was a flamenco dancer.  I found the outfit on our trip to Spain over the summer, and I couldn't pass it up.  Bonus: it was only 10 euros (about $13)!!

No one really got the costume, and many people looked at me funny when I told them that Evie would be a flamenco dancer for Halloween.  But I guess that's the burden of having a Spanish teacher as a mom.  I'm sure she'll encounter more moments like this in her life.  : )  I tried to teach her a few flamenco moves (see clip of Sevillanas flamenco here), but she wasn't really interested.

She loved wearing the dress...once she found out that people would give her candy if she was wearing it.  We didn't trick or treat too much, we just walked around our small, suburban block and stopped at the houses of neighbors that we know fairly well.  Evie had just as much fun handing out candy to other kids when we got home.

I'm sure we won't be able to get away with that much longer.  Next year, she'll probably understand there is much more candy to be had if we stop at more houses.  M and I wanted to put that off as long as we could though.  Next year, we'll also have her little brother with us, and I'm sure she'll be more than happy to take his share of the candy since he will be much too small to eat it himself.

I'm sure that Halloween will become a bigger deal as Evie (and little brother) begin to understand it better.  For now, M and I enjoyed the relatively quiet evening of seeing our neighbors and taking Evie trick or treating.

Stuff my kid says, Part 2

I wrote about Evie's talking a few months back, but this kid just keeps saying more and more stuff.  Everyday she seems to come up with something new.  It used to just be words for actions and objects, but now she is putting together complete thoughts and scenarios. 

Talking to Evie is the highlight of every day for me.  Part of it is just seeing how she learns new words and phrases (language nerd here!), but more than that, it's hearing what she thinks and how she feels.

And, oh boy, does she have opinions!!!!  And she's not shy about letting me know what they are!  She's been pretty insistent on wearing her pajamas (specifically the monkey ballerina pajamas) all.the.time.  She wants a freeze pop for breakfast every day.  She wants to go to the park at bedtime (that's just a ploy to put off bedtime...hasn't worked yet, but she keeps asking). 

Monkey ballerina pajamas...the current favorites.

Other conversations that have happened lately...

On a walk:
Me:  Evie, do you see the squirrel?
Evie: Yeah.
Me: Is it gathering nuts for the winter?
Evie: No, chicken nuggets.

Playing with her toy camera:
Evie: I take picture of my dinosaur.  Points camera at her dinosaur ride along toy.  Cheese!!
Evie: I take picture of Keeka.  Runs to take a picture of the dog laying on the couch.  Cheese!!
Evie: I take picture of toys.  Runs into her room and points camera at her toy box.  Cheese!!
Evie: I take picture of nigh-nigh.  Points camera at her crib.  Cheese!!

Playing with my purse:
Evie: I have purse.  Bye bye!!
Me: Where are you going?
Evie: I go Target.....bye!!!!!
(Like mother, like daughter.  I have a serious Target addiction....)

Eating breakfast (blueberries and yogurt...not a freeze pop):
Me: Can you please sit in your chair?  I'm going to get your breakfast ready. 
Evie: No, sheep in chair.  Buckle in.
Evie buckles her plush sheep into her booster seat, then sits in the chair next to it.
Evie:  Sheep eat too.
Looks at me and smiles. 

Eating breakfast with the sheep.

Hearing her ideas and listening to her begin to pretend and imagine is possibly the coolest thing about being a parent (so far).  I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!  :)

Boy or Girl???

I love all of the old wives tales associated with determining the gender of a baby.  When I was pregnant with Evie, we did not find out the gender at our 20 week ultrasound, so we tried all of the tricks and 2/3 of them said that we were having a boy.  The Chinese gender predictor chart said that we were having a boy, and in my gut, I was sure that we were having a boy.  In my mind though, I thought I had seen the tell-tale "three white lines" (aka: it looked like lips, if you know what I mean) at the ultrasound, so a girl wasn't a huge surprise to me. 

With this pregnancy, we are finding out, and tomorrow is the big day.  We (potentially) find out if this baby is growing a peen or a vag.  Since the time to try out all of the fun old wives tales is running short, I thought I'd try a few and determine today, what will be proven by science tomorrow.

Chinese gender predictor: It depends on which month we conceived.  That's iffy, it was either the end of February or beginning of March.  If it happened in March (more likely), we are having a girl.  If it happened in February (less likely), we are having a boy.

Old Wives Tale Quiz:  This predicts that we have a 60% chance of having a girl and a 40% chance of having a boy.  That's not much better than 50/50....


Acne while pregnant: The tale goes that if you have more acne, you will have a girl.  My skin has been the same as always, so I guess that means boy??

Cravings: Salty cravings mean that you're having a boy, and sweets means a girl.  From this post, I think that predicts a girl. 


Previous kids: If your older child's first word was momma, you'll have a girl.  If it was "dadda," you'll have a boy.  Evie said "dadda" long before "momma," so, boy it is with this one!

Moodiness: If you are moodier than usual, you are having a girl.  That definitely means a girl for me!!!!  I have had to keep myself in check more than once this pregnancy!

Boob size: Supposedly, a larger left breast means girl, and a larger right breast means boy.  Righty has always been a little bigger, but I guess this still points to boy. 

Morning sickness: If you have little or no morning sickness, it predicts a boy.  I had some morning sickness, but not nearly as much as I had with Evie....boy???

Dreams: The tale goes that that you dream about what you will have.  I always dreamed that I was having a girl when I was pregnant with Evie.  This time, I've dreamed of having a girl 1 or 2 times, but just the other night, I had a dream that it was a boy. 

Finally, what do I think???  70% of the time, a expectant mother's intuition is right about the gender of her baby.  I'm really not sure.  I think that I'm being swayed a little by the fact that I know that M wants to have a son.  (Disclaimer: He would love any child that we had, but I know he would feel like he was missing out if he never had a son, and I think two babies are as much as our family can handle.)  I keep thinking it's a girl, but maybe I just want Evie to have a sister because I'm so close to my sisters.  I think there are too many outside influences at play here for me to make a rational decision.  (Also, that's a really good cop-out because I have no idea!)

Conclusion: I am having a hermaphrodite.   Of the wives tales I listed, four say girl, four say boy, and two are inconclusive.  In the end, whether this baby is a boy or a girl (or other), he/she will have two loving parents, an adoring big sister, and an extended family that will love the crap out of him/her.  :)

I found a great list of old wives tales here at www.hisboyscanswim.com

Summer Fun!

It may seem that we've had all of the summer fun that we can handle here with our big trip and all, but we're just getting started!!  We have tons of plans this summer for when we're actually in this country.

To recap a bit: our Spain trip was amazing!!  We saw a lot of the country that I hadn't seen before, and lived with a great host family (I will not be posting their pics, as I did not ask permission).  We started in Barcelona, where we spent 3 days.

Chasing pigeons in a plaza in Barcelona

Then we moved on to Valladolid to stay with our host family.  While we were there, we took a few day trips.  We went to a city called Ávila which is a walled in city that is about 1500 years old.  We went to a city called Segovia with a 2000 year old Roman aqueduct, and we also were able to visit Santander, a beach town on the northern coast.

Skyping with M from our homestay

Our remaining summer plans are quite as exotic, but at least we'll be able to do (most) of them as a family.  Well, after I get back from Panama on the 15th that is.  I am taking a group of students to Panama for 9 days where we'll stay with Panamanian families to learn more about the language and culture there.  We will also be doing some work in a Panamanian orphanage as a service learning project.  We leave on Saturday, and as much as I'm looking forward to the trip, I'm also looking forward to coming home to stay for a while.  ;)

M is on vacation for a week and Evie's birthday is coming up!!  We plan to take her to Bay Beach amusement park in Green Bay during that week.  I went there a ton when I was a kid, and I can't wait to take Evie too!  I have such great memories of it, and it's so exciting to pass that on to her.

[source]

It's going to be a busy summer, but I'm looking forward to spending some time just the three of us before the new baby is born.  Next summer will be a whole new adventure!!

This post was written for Toddle Along Tuesday, sponsored by Growing Up Geeky.  This week's topic is Summer Fun.  

Link up and join the fun!!

Cheap Entertainment

We aren't too fancy around here, so most of our entertainment (spare all of the Brewer games) is pretty cheap.  Some of Evie's favorites are the most simple things we do, like:

Going to the mall play area.  I discovered this on a cold winter afternoon, and it's one of Evie's favorite things to do.  This is inexpensive as long as I stay away from the baby clothes at Kohl's on the way to the play area.  ;)

Walking the dog last summer.

Taking the dog for a walk.  Evie loves going for walks, and last summer we went for several jogs too.  (She loved going fast!!)  The stroller was a little pricey up front ($100, so I guess not too pricey by stroller standards), and I bet we put on around 75-100 miles last summer alone. 

Reading books.  We frequent garage sales this time of year, and most of Evie's books are garage sale finds that cost us less than a $1, and many others were gifts.  Books are always on her Christmas list!!  She could look at books for hours and they help keep her entertained when we are out and about.

Swinging!

Going to the park.  Now that it's nice out most of the time, the park is where it's at!  Evie loves the swings, the slide, pretty much everything about it.  Seeing her laugh while she swings and saying "whee!!" when she goes down the slide melt my heart every time. 

It doesn't get much more simple than that!

What are some inexpensive activities that you do with your child?  

Link up with Missie at Growing up Geeky!

Stuff my kid says

Evie is talking more and more lately.  As a language teacher, it amazes me to watch how she learns each new word and the order in which she learns them, what is important for her to communicate and how she expresses herself.  She can tell me what she wants and what she doesn't want (not that she gets her way, but she can tell me nonetheless!).  With all of the new communication, her little personality is exploding.

"Listen up! I've got important things to say!!"

Some of my favorite things that Evie has said:

• "Ava, Kloe, fun!" In response to M asking how her day was.  (Ava and Kloe are two other little girls at daycare.)
• Yes and No...sometimes indiscriminately.  When we went to the doctor's office last week, she said yes when the doctor asked if she had chocolate ice cream for breakfast.  Then she said yes when he asked if she had cereal for breakfast.  She also said yes when he asked if she had yogurt for breakfast.  (Only the yogurt was actually true, lol!)
• Eye, ear, nose, and toes. - She can be a little violent with this one.  She jabbed me in the eye the other day trying to show me that she knew where my eye was.  
• Cow, sheep, cat, dog, horse, duck...  She loves to point them out in books or on TV.  However, she thinks they all say, "moo."  I guess we'll have to keep working on that.
• Last weekend she pointed at my sister's LARGE pregnant belly (she's due the 24th) and said, "ball."  My sister was less than impressed, but I thought it was pretty funny.  :)

I can't wait to see how she does in Spain.  I speak Spanish with her when it's just the two of us at home.  She usually understands me, but she hasn't said many words in Spanish.  Just "pato" (duck) and "hija" (daughter...which I always call her). 

Seeing her learn to talk in the most exciting thing I've ever experienced!

Spring Break '12

I was on spring break all of last week, and it was so nice to have more time to spend with Evie.  I've been feeling guilty (yes, already) about the fact that in a few months, I'm going to have to divide my attention between her and a newborn.  I'm really going to cherish my time off with her until then.  :) 

We did quite a bit over the course of the week.  The weekend before Easter, we went to visit M's parents at the farm.  They babysat while we went to a concert in Dubuque, Iowa with a group of friends.  We saw Shooter Jennings with Cody Canada and the Departed.  It was a GREAT concert!!  Anytime Shooter Jennings is within two hours of us, we always go see him.  We told our friends that I'm expecting again.  We didn't plan on telling, but I didn't feel like doing the fake drinking/lying about taking antibiotics all night.  They would have been suspicious of any reason that I gave them for not drinking anyway.  ;)

Self-portrait from the concert.

During the week while M was working, Evie and I just hung out.  The weather was cool, but sunny, so we were able to spend a lot of time outside.  We went to the park every day and we took the dog for walks.  It was just really relaxing. 

Evie swinging

Evie gets into EVERYTHING these days.  I told M we need to build shelving about 6 feet high around our entire house because I feel like I run out of counter space putting things where she can't reach them.  Here she is taking things out of the fridge.  Apparently she wanted to celebrate spring break college style.

Don't worry, the silo can of Miller Lite was closed.

Thursday night we drove up to my parent's for the holiday weekend.  M and I left Evie with them on Friday while we went to Brewer's opening day in Milwaukee.  There is always a huge group of our friends that go to opening day.  It's been a tradition with M and his friends for the past 10 years, long before the Brewers were any good.  It was much easier to get tickets back then...lol! 

After the game (which they lost), we drove back up to my parent's.  We spent the day there on Saturday, then drove back to Milwaukee on Sunday to go to another Brewer's game (which they also lost).  Evie came with us to that one.  She does very well at events like that.  It gives me hope that our 8 hour plane ride in a few months will go smoothly. 

It was a great spring break.  I think we made the most of it.  I was able to spend some quality time with M and Evie.  That's all I could ask for!!

My favorite picture

Mama G at Growing up Geeky is having a photo contest for her weekly Toddle Along Tuesday blog hop.

Let me start by saying, I'm not a great photographer.  I try.  I prefer candid shots over staged, posed photos, and my favorites are often for sentimental reasons, not for their excellent photographic composition. 

Here is my favorite recent picture of Evie. 

Bath time!  About 19 months old. 

My dog hates my baby...but not really.

Before Evie was born, my dog, Keeka, was my baby.  We are totally those people that treat their dog like a human, and she truly is part of our family.  Keeka is a dachshund mixed with something.  We adopted her from a shelter in 2008.  She was found stray, so we're not really sure about her origins.  She is slightly obese on the heavier side, and she is the bossiest dog I've ever met.  It's Keeka's way or the highway (at least that's what she thinks), and that doesn't always mesh with a toddler around.

Keeka...very cute, but not exactly slim

• Keeka was outside to do her business and Evie was standing at the patio door watching her wander around the backyard.  M asked Evie, "How big is Keeka?"  She put her arms in the air and said, "Big," in a very serious tone.  We know Keeka's a little portly, but we try not to bring it up for Keeka's sake.  
• We have an invisible electric fence so that Keeka doesn't wander off into the neighbor's yards.  She has a special collar that she has to wear for it.  We got home from a walk last Sunday, and of course, Keeka didn't have the collar on because we had left the yard.  Evie picked up the collar from the coffee table and started chasing Keeka around the living room and kitchen trying to put in on her.  Evie was very upset that Keeka wouldn't hold still, and Keeka was upset that Evie was even attempting to do this.  M and I just watched and laughed!
• Evie loves dogs in general.  Anytime she hears one of the neighborhood dogs bark, she stops whatever she's doing, runs to the window, frantically looks for the dog and yells, "Doggie!!"  
• Evie often tried to hug and kiss Keeka with mixed results.  Keeka mostly just tries to run away from Evie.  I think it's cute that Evie obviously cares about her so much.  
• But in the end, Keeka loves Evie...I know she does.  When M and I were gone once and my mom was babysitting, Keeka laid in Evie's room by her crib the entire time she napped. 

Keeka laying in Evie's room while she naps

Linking up with the Toddle Along Tuesday.  This week's topic is babies and pets.  Join the fun at Growing up Geeky!

Top 5 Laughs of the Week

The weather has been spectacular here in Wisconsin.  We've had record-breaking high temperatures for the past 9 days, and the highest recorded temperature in March (83 degrees) too.  I was WAY sick earlier in the week, but we managed to have a few laughs (and one BIG surprise - more news to come on that!).

In no particular order:

• Evie LOVES to read, and she's wanted to be read to even more than usual lately.  Yesterday morning, I was sitting in the rocking chair in her room trying to put her shoes on her.  She ran away from me, pulled her blanket out of her crib and brought it to me.  I placated her, and wrapped her up in the blanket.  Then she said "Uppies" (translation "Up, please"), so I put her on my lap, and then she pointed to the books on her shelf and said "reet" (translation "read").  Apparently, she wasn't quite ready to go to daycare.  
• Evie has a caterpillar toy that will roll on it's own when you wind it up.  It's in the basement den with a lot of her other toys and our treadmill.  Evie often sits on the treadmill to play.  She was playing with the caterpillar, and I was sitting on the floor next to her.  She stood up and handed me the caterpillar.  I wound it up, and sent it down the treadmill between her legs.  She thought it was the funniest thing!  Her giggles always make me giggle!
• We went out for dinner last night, and Evie was being a total crab.  M started walking his fingers across the table towards her to "sneak" up on her.  She thought that it was so funny and it totally snapped her out of her funk.  (Whew!!!  I thought we were headed for full meltdown!)
• I was painting my toenails the other day and Evie was very interested in what I was doing.  She sat down next to me and watched me for a few minutes.  Then, she looked up at me, and held her foot up, like "Do mine next!"  I painted her toenails for her...maybe she's too young, but it looks so cute!

Evie's and my pink toes

• We have a set of bathtub toy letter that stick to the side of the tub.  Evie didn't show much interest in them, until M made up a new game for them.  He slaps them on the side of the tub and says the name of the letter.  It makes a loud bang, and then Evie repeats the name of the letter.  She thinks it's a riot, and I never thought that she would learn the alphabet by screaming the letters in the bathtub.  LOL!
  

What are your top 5 laughs of the week?  Link up at The Mommyhood Chronicles!

Reading, Reading, and More Reading

 Evie LOVES to read.  She loves books and everything about them.  I've always tried to read to her, even when she was very little, but she didn't take much interest in books until she was about 11 or 12 months old. 

Reading in her bedroom last summer

She pulls every book off of the shelf, and then she looks at them each over and over again.  Now that she's a little older, she picks up as many books as she can carry and brings them to us to read to her.  I never thought that I'd be able to read the same children's book 13658512968454163 times in one day without going crazy...but she loves it!!! 

Don't bother me!  I'm reading!!!

She also pulls her books into her play tent, just to have some privacy while reading.  I think this is adorable, but she never lets me in with her.  :( 

Evie with Jingle, one of her current favorite books

I love that Evie loves books.  It gives me a chance to put her on my lap and snuggle and read.  

I'm happy that she has an appreciation for books.  I hope that it lasts her whole life. 

My Baby's Baby

There's a new baby in my house, but good thing, it's just a toy.  Evie received a baby doll for Christmas from a little friend at daycare.  I was amazed at how quickly she took to "taking care" of her baby. 

Giving Baby a hug.

Baby does not have a name; we just call her "Baby."  (It makes me feel very "Dirty Dancing."  M and I joke about not putting Baby in a corner.  It's tons of fun.)  Evie loves to hug, kiss, and feed Baby.  She also reads books to her in our rocking chair. 

I was actually a little hesitant about the doll at first.  I've tried to limit the amount of princess-y pink things that Evie has.  I honestly don't really know why.  I was never a super girly-girl, and I just want Evie to play with whatever she wants to play with, not be bound to playing with Barbies and (God forbid) Bratz dolls just because she's a girl.  Then I saw how much she genuinely loves this doll.  I guess that's what she wants to play with.  :)

Evie putting Baby in the stroller. She always buckles her in.  Safety first!

M's parents gave Evie a doll stroller when they found out how much she loves Baby.  It's so cute to watch her strap baby into the stroller and cruise around the basement with her.  She also likes to take her grocery shopping. 

Shopping sans Baby, but Baby often goes with her.

I just love seeing Evie's imagination beginning to come to life.  I guess if a doll has helped that, maybe they aren't all bad.  :)

P.S.  I apologize again for the terrible picture quality.  Our camera in on the fritz, and my phone camera is ok, but not great.  Oh, and I am a terrible photographer.  I promise I'll get better soon. 

Something I said I would NEVER do as a parent

Okay, well, it's not that big of a deal.  My title may have been a little dramatic, but it is one of the few  parenting opinions I had before becoming a parent.

I swore to myself that I would NEVER take my child into one of those play place things at the mall.  I walked past them in disgust: the yelling, the crying, the screaming, the kids wiping their noses with their hands and then touching everything. in. sight.  Nothing about the play place seemed like a good idea.  

Then, just a few short years later, I became the parent of a toddler.   Now I know why parents love these things - because kids love these things.  I'm over the yelling, crying, and screaming; that just comes with raising a toddler.  They will do that at the play place in the mall or at home or wherever they are.  The noise distributes better at the mall. :)

As far as the germs, I'm kind of over that too.  Toddlers are kind of gross sometimes.  I clean her up as best as I can, and always wash/sanitize hands when leaving the play place.

Climbing on some giant dominoes.

Am I letting my former self down??  Maybe, but I don't really care.  Evie loves the opportunity to run around, climb on things, and play with other kids.  She is so excited about it that I get excited too.  Plus, it's so much fun to see her interacting with the other kids. 

Crawling through a tunnel to greet my sister on the other side.

The weather is turning spring-like, even here in Wisconsin, and we'll be going to the park a lot more in the coming months, but the mall playland helped us through the winter when the park wasn't an option.  I have learned my lesson, and I'll never say never again.

What have you said you'd NEVER do as a parent??

Top 5 Laughs of the week

It was the least busy week we've had in a while...thank God!!!  I didn't have parent teacher conferences or meetings or fundraisers or anything of that extraordinary stuff that goes along with being a teacher keeping me at school until 7 or 8 at night.  Luckily, this coincided with a week that M didn't have any late promotional meetings either.  Woot woot to quality family time!!!

So, we managed to have a few laughs.  In no particular order:

• We have been trying to teach Evie the words for the parts of her body for some time now, and she has had a real problem with "nose."  Whenever you ask her where her nose is, she points to her ear, eyebrow, or chin.  I always laugh when she does this...it probably only encourages her to point to the wrong spot.  :(
• Related to the "nose issue,"  I recently started pushing her nose and saying beep, and then saying, "nose."  (I don't know if I thought this might help her figure it out...I'm not really worried that she'll never figure out where her nose it or anything...but it was just something goofy to do.)  Anyway, so the other day, I was holding her and she pushed my nose and said, "beep."  I cracked up.  Now she pushes everyone else's noses and says beep, but she still doesn't know where her own nose is.
• We keep Evie's toys in an old laundry basket in our living room.  Lately she has been into emptying the basket and then climbing into it herself.  I just think it's cute.
 

Please ignore the gray part at the bottom of the picture...still figuring out how to edit pics from my new phone. :(

• She has also figured out how to climb into her princess chair that she received for her birthday last summer.  I think she just likes to have a place of her own to sit!  She pulls herself onto the chair, and then she yells for one of us to give her a book.  She will load herself up with 5 or 6 books, and just sit in the chair and look at them.  

Again, ignore the gray thing...uuuugggghhh!!!

• M and I refuse to let the other one do the grocery shopping.  I know he'll miss some of my food, or I'll miss some of his and it causes a monster fight.  (We're protective of our food around here!), so the solution is to go grocery shopping together.  We went shopping last night and Evie was being a major crab.  She wanted to walk with us, not stay in the cart.  So, we let her try it in an aisle without too many other people.  She was in heaven, and then she heard the piped in grocery store music.  She started dancing in the middle of the frozen food section.  HILARIOUS!!!! 

A new trick

Evie has a new word, "uh-oh."  It was cute when she said it when things accidentally fell, or when she fell down.  However, this morning, she took it to a whole new level.  She was sitting in the bathroom with me while I was getting ready for work.  She pulled a hairbrush off of the counter, threw it on the floor, and then yelled, "Uh oh!!" 

I told her it only works if it happens by accident, but I'm not sure she understood.  At least she hasn't figured out how to flush things down the toilet yet....

Another weekend away...

Well we returned home this afternoon from another weekend away.  (That makes 6 out of the last 7 for those who are counting, i.e. me.)  Most of this time spent away has been to visit family for the holidays (we were gone the weekend of Christmas, New Year's, and the week after New Year's all for holiday/family stuff), or to visit friends, and there was our weekend in Wisconsin Dells.  This weekend, my mom, my middle sister, Evie, and I drove 4 hours south into central Illinois to visit my youngest sister. 

M decided to stay home to give us our "girl time."  We didn't do much.  We actually spent most of Saturday afternoon vegging out on my sister's couch watching "Legally Blond."  It was nice just to hang out with my sisters and my mom.  My sister who we were visiting got married last April and her husband is currently working on his Ph.D.  (That's why they live in Illinois.)  He was in and out all day from studying and working in his lab.  My other sister is pregnant with her first and due in April, so this will be the last time we could all go visit for a while. 

Evie entertained her aunts and grandma with her crazy toddler antics all weekend.  They were able to see her try to dress herself in person for the first time.  And they witnessed her game where she tries to scare people by running at them and yelling boo.  They were also really great by taking care of Evie for a while this morning so that I could sleep in until 7:30...I haven't slept that late in months!!

Evie was very good on the drive.  She really does pretty well, and I can't complain.  I was also fortunate to have the help of my sister and my mom in the car with me this time.  It's great to be able to visit family and friends, but I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed the next few weekends.  I'm just really happy to be home!!

Top 5 Laughs of the Week

This week was SUPER hectic at our house...late meetings for both me or M depending on the night, and the end of the semester for me, which is always crazy busy.  We did manage to have a few laughs in the meantime though.  :)

In no particular order...

- Evie has started saying "good" when you ask her how she is doing or how her day was, etc.  M figured out that she'll say good to any question that starts with the word "how."  So, he has spent the week trying to come up with goofy questions to ask her so that she'll answer "good."  It's cute to watch!!

- Evie loves to try to dress herself.  She is INCREDIBLY bad at it.  For the most part, she just manages to get the shirt over her head so that her face is peeking out of the head hole.  This morning, M was eating a bagel, and he tried to share it with Evie.  The shirt was covering her mouth, but she tried to push the bagel piece in her mouth through the shirt.  She just ended up with a mouthful of shirt.  We were both laughing pretty hard.

Example of Evie's excellent dressing skills

- M won me over by making me laugh, and he continues to do it pretty much every day.  The other night "Footloose" was on TV.  Of course, I had to watch it even though I've seen it about a million times.  (Who doesn't love Kevin Bacon, seriously?!?!?!!?)  It was the scene where they play chicken on the tractors, and M, being the farm boy that he is, said, "He'd be able to go a lot faster if he unhitched the corn picker."  He said it so matter-of-factly, I just about died laughing.  Only he would think of that!

- Evie has figured out that she can sit in "big people" chairs, and now that all she wants to do.  She likes to sit in our glider rocker in the living room with a pile of books on lap and her baby doll with her.  It's so cute to watch her "reading" to her baby.

- Last weekend in the Dells, M's company paid for a fancy dinner for everyone who was there.  Several of M's coworkers had brought their families, so there were quite a few kids there.  However, there were also quite a few people that did not have young kids, so it was an interesting mix.  The families with young kids designated some kids tables right away when we arrived at the restaurant.  Immediately, all of the moms moved the candles to other tables, moved the silverware to a big pile where none of the kids could reach it, and rearranged the chairs to maximize space for the high chairs.  I thought that it was funny how quickly we all reacted, and it was so apparent how much life has changed in the past 18 months....we used to be the couple that headed straight for the bar.

Hopefully next week will be a little less crazy and we'll be able to enjoy a little more time as a family.

Linking up my top 5 laughs with Melissa over at The Mommyhood Chronicles.  Click on the link if  you'd like to link up too!!

Weekend in the Dells

  Sorry for the bad qualilty...Evie and I are the ones going down the slide!!

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to have a free weekend getaway in Wisconsin Dells!!  M's department reached a sales goal for the end of 2011, so, as an incentive, his company put us up at a HUMONGOUS indoor water/theme park for Friday and Saturday night.  They also bought dinner both nights and we had free waterpark passes for Saturday and Sunday. 

I was very angry with myself because I thought that I had forgotten the camera.  Then, on the way home on Sunday, I found the camera in the console of my car.  AARRRRGGGHH!!  M was able to get a few pictures and videos on his phone (hence the crappy quality), so at least we have this.

Evie LOVED the water!!!  The resort had a great play area for little kids with plenty of tame waterslides and fun water squirt-y things to play with.  It was so much fun to see Evie enjoying herself.  She always says "wheeee" when she goes down a slide, but she was so excited that she just walked around the kiddie pool repeating, "Wheeee....wheee....wheee..."  It was so cute!  :)

Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to go back to the Dells sometime soon!

Weekend Getaway!

M's company won a sales incentive, and as a result, our whole family gets to spend the weekend at a resort in Wisconsin Dells!!  It's one of those awesome ones with an indoor water park and the whole works.  Evie loved swimming in her tiny whale pool last summer, and I can't wait to see what she thinks of this. 

Fun with the whale pool!

We're leaving this afternoon after work.  The only downside is the huge snowstorm that is also supposed to hit us this afternoon.  Oh well, the Dells are only an hour away...and let's be honest, I'll drive through pretty much anything to get a free weekend away!!! 

Hopefully I'll have lots of wonderful pictures to share next week!!