...the Wise, the Witty, and the Waste of your time...

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

There Was Screaming...






* Braids were made possible by my baby girl's amazing amounts of GLORIOUS hair!!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Happy Birthday Evanie Josephine!

EVANIE IS ONE!!

I'm not even going to say how I can't believe how fast the year has gone and how it was just yesterday that she was tiny and floppy and newborn. I'm not going to say it.

Actually I can't even write that without completely choking up so it's more like: I CAN'T BELIEEEEVE mmmbbmmfmfbb GOOOOONNEEE phmmmmgg *hiccup* my BAABBBEEEE eeeevvmmmm WAAAAAAA!

Oh dear.

What I'm trying to say is that my little Evanie is 1 year old and this is awesome even though it makes my life flash before my eyes and I'm already weeping in part over her wedding day. I'm afraid the future will come zooming in and steal my little munchkin (or troll, depends on the hour) from her crib. I guess this should be my continual reminder to make each moment count.

I would love to be all "tech-savvy-mother-who-finds-the-time-to-make-a-meaningful-photo-montage-or-sweet-video-for-the-baby-I-love-most-in-the-world" (while also decorating M. Stewert-esque cupcakes and handcrafting eco friendly gifts and goodie bags!) to post here for you all to see but as it turns out, I'm not that mother. She's actually quite lucky to have gotten a cake -because she's one, she doesn't care.

However, as much as she neither knows or cares that she just reached a whole year old (...or to put it in another 4 yr olds words, "she's not zero anymore!"), Justin and I care so we celebrated the day by taking her to a petting zoo and ended it with cake and icecream and good friends. And balloons. Which I think were the highlight. Or maybe it was her Nana flying all the way out from Saskatchistan to be here. That was definitely OUR highlight.


Allow me to give you another of my riveting Evanie updates and end it with a lot (I already know I'm going to overdue it so you may as well prepare for it) pictures of the big day. I do have about 200 of the event.

Evanie seems to have 'grown up' a lot in the last month. She's looking and acting more like a little girl than a baby every day. At one year Evanie is enthusiastic, cheerful, energetic, determined, loud, social, funny, hungry, and busy. She also hits, screams, manipulates, and pinches...but that part is a secret.

She loves fruit, the water, her daddy, her blanket, visitors, strangers, babies, and balls. But I do think her greatest loves are holding our hands and walking, dogs of all shapes and sizes, and her mom. In that order. Multiple times a day she scoots her little bum over to me, grabs my thumbs, says "gak gak gak (walk)," and bolts for the stairs. She loves nothing more than for me to walk her down the road to the neighbors dogs. I don't think she'd ever need food or sleep if we stood out there all day and let the dogs lick us! However, as much as she loves to "gak" with our help, she's gone from taking 3-5 steps on her own to absolutely refusing a single step. I have no idea what that's about.

She just got her seventh tooth... and it's crooked. She's 28.5 inches tall and weighs 17.2 lbs. She signs, blows kisses, counts (it's the cutest thing ever...she has no idea what she's doing...), and says I love nana, daddy, mama, puppies, and garlic. Yes, she says I love garlic. Her dad taught her that. She's also trying to mimic other words and has made up an entirely new language of her own.

She has her dad's 'insta-tan' abilities, a few hours in the sun and she has a bathing suit tan. She also has his internal thermostat which means that at night, I'm the only one in the house who uses a blanket. She is almost constantly happy, smiles so big it brings tears to my eyes....and still rarely laughs. Last night she actually belly laughed and it may have been the first time. She hates her carseat and loves her stroller. She hates formula and loves cows milk. She still nurses twice a day but honestly, I don't know if she'd even notice if I quit cold turkey-she doesn't ask for it or care anymore. She's way more excited about cups with straws and solid food. She loves iced chai....shhhh....don't tell anyone I give sips of caffeine to a one year old. Don't worry, it's not a habit. Now when I have my chai I put milk over ice for her and she sips it with a straw; as long as I don't let her first taste what I'm drinking she never knows the difference.

When I'm working in the kitchen she's constantly there, pulling herself up on my legs, hugging my feet, and singing her "mama" song. I love it. It's incredibly inconvenient because every step I take she just repositions and pulls herself up again but I love it anyway.

Actually that's kind of what all parenting is like, incredibly inconvenient but I love it!

And now....700 pictures:

All ready to go....clearly bursting with excitement.


What better way to begin than with a little sheep riding...or mutton busting as I believe it's called. That's right, I'm from Montana. We do this (on real sheep) with our kids for fun there.


Daddy is teaching her how to pet the animals. There were signs on every pen saying "Caution, animals may bite" but we ignored them. I mean what kind of animal would bite a tiny baby girl anyway?!


Seriously, if I liked animals, I would have to have a long eared rabbit! SO cute! And floppy!


I love her baby softness!


Loooooook......how can baby animals be so CUTE!


Evanie was very unsure about this bully!


So we fed the smaller ones.


Our non walking "gak-er."


I took a moment to just bless all of Farmer John's animals. It felt like the thing to do.



As you can see, the wart hog was not exactly her favorite...



...but who can blame her. It's ridiculously ugly!


Justin noted our postures and expressions in these pictures. You'd think we were related or something....


She actually fed a few animals!! Without losing fingers!



A little unsure of the squeaking guinea pig...


Trying it out...


Annnnd going in for a giant open mouthed kiss!


The classic, "OOOOO-oooooooo!"


Awwww....seriously kids and baby animals are just precious together! Look at her little hands holding the guinea pig!



Checking out some of her new toys. She did not like Auntie Sally but when she got her the purple car she warmed up a bit. You can see her checking out aunt Sally, wondering if she deserves a second chance!



Why wait for a piece of cake when you can dive into the whole thing!?



I think she liked it!

You are not allowed to hate me for my 'many pictures all in a row' technique. It's my blog and I can do what I want. Also I don't know what I'm doing so this dictates the "rules" of lame picture posting.