Dancing Eva

Apparently our camera doesn't adjust the video when taken sideways so sorry for that...but I wanted to still post Eva's most favorite thing to do now, besides hug Doggie... Dance!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Tree

We decorated the tree about a week ago! Eva loves it. We come down every morning and she says "trrr". :)

It then decided to fall about a week ago :) Luckily, Eric and I were home so we were able to salvage the damage pretty quickly. I still somehow managed to have the tree fall a second time on me and hit my head on the banister! Eric then showed me the true engineer in him by measuring the inside of the stand and the trunk of the tree to tell me that I needed to cut off many branches. Doing this would have resulted in a Charlie Brown looking Christmas tree so instead of listening to my husband, I decided to put foam in the bottom of the stand. And then tied the tree to the banister! HA!

Happy Holidays!

I'm a big girl now

For breakfast lately, Eva will no longer eat the pancakes Mom heats up for her. She has to be a big girl and have a cereal bowl, a spoon, and some cereal with milk, just like Mom. She also lately would rather have Mom's toothbrush instead of her own. Mom is trying hard to stop this one :)

She's been walking very well! And is so proud of herself. She loves to walk back and forth from different people.

This past month she has seen lots of family, Aunt Naomi, Uncle Brian, Gigi, Grrreeggg, and Grandpa! She's lovin it!

TA DA

And we are walking :)

One...Two....Three...Boom!

Eva finally and I stress FINALLY took some steps without any "hands". Tonight after her bath and pjs we had her stand up and walk between Daddy and I. She would go about three steps before her feet couldn't keep up with her excitment and she would fall :) She did it multiple times. My princess might FINALLY be walking soon! :)

Dabadabadabadaba.... (do!)

Lately Eva has been making this sound that sounds like she is one of the Flinestones. Instead of Yaba...she says Dabadabadabadaba... I finally got it on record for everyone else to enjoy but the video won't load on blogspot :( Annoyed.

I also recorded her putting her puzzle pieces back in the right spot of the puzzle! She knows which animals go where based on the pictures! So cool.

Puzzles

Eva loves puzzles! She has a safari animal puzzle that she plays with every day. Today all the pieces were off of the puzzle and she put everyone back in the right spot without any help! I was so proud of her!

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, Eva didn't have the best day. She was really sick last night and had a rough day today. She did dress up like a strawberry though, and helped us pass out candy. She was amazed at all the crazy creatures that came up our doorstep. She was so excited she even wanted to venture outside for a bit. We ran out of candy an hour in! 150 pieces gone!

There's No Place Like Home

Which I'm, sure Mom is thinking after finally wrapping up two weeks away from home. Yes, this is Eric's first and probably only post on Eva's blog. I thought it would be fitting since Mom has been on the road in Crotenville, NY for the past 2 weeks (including weekend) for some leadership training!

A summary of the past two weeks while Mommy's been gone:

5+ = days of G.G. helping supplement parental care
13 = days Mom has officially been out of town
2 = meals of Yaki Soba for dinner
1 = trip to the Farmer's Market
7 = walks out around the neighborhood
3 = trips to the Grocery Store (Costco/Giant Eagle/Whole Foods)
1 = trip to the JCC Children's Park
2 = trips to the Library/Book Store
2 = meals out on the town (Lopez with G.G., Cheesecake Factory with Natsumi/Matthew)
2 = accidents in the tub
12 = total baths
1 = crying incidents in the middle of the night
2 = take-out meals
1 = attempt to take crocodile jig saw puzzle piece into the tub with Eva

All in all, a fairly smooth 2 weeks. Helped by the fact that Eric's travel was somewhat light and Eva is easily entertained as long as it involves with going out, jig saw puzzles, rocking chairs, and select foods.

Welcome home Mom!

Knock knock

Recently I've been teaching (or trying to teach) Eva the difference between open and close, using the door as an example. I have been having her knock on the door before opening it. She's been catching on pretty good.

Tonight we were reading in Eva's room and for some reason Eva decided to notice she had a window. She kept watching the cars drive back and forth. She gets off the chair and walks to the window holding onto the sill. She then proceeds to knock on the wall and look at me...as though she wanted me to open the "door" to get outside.

I gently explained to her that it was a wall and not a door but for some reason that girl kept on knocking :)

Words

Eva is starting to try to talk a bit. We have heard her say "hi", "all gone", and "cheese". She has also started to seem to correlate "mama" and "dada" with me and Eric. It's been a ton of fun to hear her try to say some words.

She absolutely loves dogs, both her stuffed doggies and the real ones. She gets very excited everytime she sees one!

She isn't walking by herself yet but is doing wonderfully when you hold her hands. She also is a big fan of step aerobics!

Labor Day Weekend

I have to say I think this was one of the best weekends this year. We started out early Saturday morning wiht a 9am flight to Chicago. When we arrived we met my cousin Lucy and her husband Brad for brunch. Then it was off to the hotel for naps (yes all three of us took one :). My cousin Allison then stopped by in the afternoon and we were able to catch up. Eric and I went off to his friend Joy's wedding while Allison was kind enough to babysit Eva. Sunday morning we woke up to Dunkin Donuts coffee and then drove up to Milwaukee to visit Uncle Brian, who made us an amazing brunch. After some play time in the park it was off to Jessica's house for an afternoon nap and then time to see Tracy, Jason, Megan, and Ryan, plus all the kids of course! Monday we headed back home. It was so nice to catch up to family and friends and Eva simply had a blast. She slept on the plane ride in and out and was just an absolute angel!

(Jessica if you are reading this apparently I still don't know how to make multiple photos line up, I think you will have to give me a lesson :)

Latest Discoveries

Eva's latest discoveries include:
The hair brush and how to use it (somewhat)....
Eating toliet paper.... (don't worry we don't let her really eat it)

Giving you something....

And brushing her teeth....

13 Months

Can you see her two teeth? Standing up without holding on!

This was last weeks post but I had trouble posting it.

Wow that last month went fast :)

Eva's latest thing is to try to stand up by herself with no support. Though she cannot do it yet so it's funny to watch. A shot of her trying is below. She's not walking yet, but she takes steps side to side when holding onto the couch or in the bathtub.

We had a nice weekend though it was way to short. Eva got to go to the farmers market with me. I think she really enjoyed it.

She is very much into animals lately. At the farmers market they had a booth with kitty cats which she got to see. Then on Sunday we were taking a walk and we saw a cat in one of our neighbors yards. Eva got to watch it for a while. When I started to move the stroller away she started to cry. She wanted to keep playing :)

Eva Update

Sorry it's been such a while.

Eric was out of town, then Aunt Naomi came, then I was out of town, then GiGi came, then Eva got sick, then I got sick....work got crazy! Ahhh!

Things are better now though :) And Eric just replaced the camera power cord he had lost so I can start taking photos of princess again!

Eva has two bottom teeth now. And I think a top one on the way.
She is standing up all the time.
I'm working on the walking thing but so far she only likes to walk in the bathtub, of all places.

She is making what I consider more recognizable verbal sounds, or repeatable I should say.
When you say Doggie, she normally trys to say "ruff ruff" though it comes out more like "rrrr"
When you say Bottle or Baba, she alway says Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma
She loves the book The Busy Little Spider. The goat and sheep go BaBa and MaMa and Eva repeats those when you are reading the book. She goes "rrr" with the doggie and then tries to make other sounds with the other animals. Maybe my peanut will be talking soon?

She is also following some commands :)
She turns off and on the light switch.
She puts certain things back where they were when you ask her to.
She hasn't figured out no yet though!

More to come soon....

"Can't Stop...

Believing!!!!"
The highlight of my day was dancing with Eva to Journey :)
Eva is standing up on her own!! She can pull herself up and stay up. She can even go down again. No walking yet!
She had a good checkup, I'll post the stats later but she is around 45th percentale for height and weight.
Her favorite toy right now is her new lion that she can sit on and move around the room with, though she hasn't figured out that part yet. She likes to make the lion sing and give it kisses. Her second and third favorites are her new peak a boo eggs from Grandpa Downes and elmo alphabet bus from Aunt Naomi.
She loves to eat :) She started trying to feed herself with a spoon. And we are slowly trying to transition her to a sippy cup. She loves being a big girl with her plates and real food. She finally started eatting fruits and vegetables, before that it was all carbs!
She loves giving hugs and kisses now. She is very animated, always talking or making faces.

1 year old

my evening wrapped up with my neighbors shooting off fireworks at 10:15...only 22 minutes before my princess was born. i cannot believe it has been a year. it's amazing how time moves so quickly. eva has quickly turned from a baby to a little girl. it has been so much fun to watch her grow.

Eva's Surprises

Eva surprised us both this morning with not only her "long distance" Army Crawl but also he two new bottom teeth starting to poke out of her gums! Two big momentous achievements only a week before her first birthday!

We are at Gigi's house today and heading Up North (for those of you non-Michiganders this means up north Michigan to Charlevoix/Traverse City area, which is not in the Upper Peninsula). Looking forward to a nice week of R&R.

Swimming

This weekend the skies looked like rain any minute, unfortunately it deterred us from doing too much and didn't really rain. Eric and I did take Eva to the pool on Saturday evening around 5pm. We were amazed that no one was there because the sun had cleared up and it was an 80 degree day. We swam in the big pool and also took Eva to explore the kiddy pool. We decided it was time to leave when Eva starting to drink the water and cough :)

Doggie

So I swear Eva can say Doggie. I will have to tape it and find out what others think. My dad got her this stuffed animal dog and everytime I give it to her she goes "doggie" and hugs it. At least that's what I hear :) .... I'll record it and get votes!

Eva's Butt Scoot

Eva and Daddy

11 Months!

11 Months old! I cannot believe my baby is almost a year!

What's new in Eva's life...
Eva is still not crawling but she gets around pretty well all the same. She scoots on her butt to get to where she wants to go and rolls on her tummy. She just hasn't figured out how to use her legs to crawl. She sticks them straight out like airplane arms so she does not move forward. She does push herself backwards on the wood floor. Funny girl!

She loves to eat. We've tried out some more finger foods though I'm under the impression that there is more I could be giving her...I just don't know what else is the right choice. She has had cheese, graham crackers, bananas, pears, peaches, tofu, mushrooms, tomato, eggs, pancakes. Tonight I think I'll try pasta.

No teeth yet, I know I wrote a blog in Nov thinking she was getting teeth but nothing! My baby is a late bloomer :)

Anyway here are some shots from this morning, though she wasn't giving me any smiles :)

Eva wouldn't let me take a good shot this morning....These were the best!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had amazing weather this past Memorial Day Weekend. We kicked the weekend off by cutting out of work early and going for a round of 9 holes. Eric and I had a good time. Saturday and Sunday was a bunch of outdoor yardwork on our house. I was able to clean up the rest of the garden (my mom helped me with most of it the other weekend). Eric washed all 3 cars, hung up my window boxes, and hung three hooks for hanging plants. The yard looks great! Monday Eva decided to wake up late and then her nap schedule was off so we missed the parade but we did make it to our neighbors cookout! Overall a great weekend!

The Evo came out last weekend...Eva got to test out her driving skills!

We sat outside in the yard and played with some toys!