A visit from Julie

Last weekend, we had wonderful visit with one my best friends Julie.  Julie and I have been friends since freshman year of high school, and although we don’t get to see each other often, we always pick up right where we left off.  Evelyn just adores Julie and it’s easy to see why.  Julie is a kindergarten teacher and amazing with kids.  Evie spent most of the weekend sitting on Julie’s lap, when she wasn’t dragging Julie around my the arm to show her all of her toys.  While Evie napped, Julie and I went for coffee and a little bit of shopping.  It has been FOREVER since I had the chance to do that with a friend and I really enjoyed it.  We went for an early dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and Evie really had us laughing with her antics.  Julie couldn’t believe that Evie likes salsa.  Evie devoured quite a few chips and salsa without batting an eye, although she did pause to wipe off her tongue with a napkin when it got too spicy.  Then she decided that she really wanted to suck on the lemon from my drink.  Silly girl!  I wish I could say that she had the same appetite for her dinner, but she wouldn’t touch the chicken quesadilla that I ordered for her.  She did, however, eat most of the refried beans and rice from my plate.

After having so much fun with Julie, we were very sad to see her leave on Sunday.  Evelyn even looked around for Julie when she got up from her nap and asked ‘Where Ju-ee?”.  Don’t worry baby girl…Julie will be back soon!

These days

This winter weather is really getting to us.  We’re trying not to let it, but I can tell that it’s affecting everyone’s moods.  I’m looking forward to the brief respite that we’re supposed to get this week.  Maybe I’ll even be able to take Evie outside a long walk!  We’ve been spending way too time indoors and we are all going a little stir crazy.  The past few weeks have been spent at home.  Evie got a mild stomach virus, then a cold/fever and a double ear infection.  Poor baby :(  Then Pat got the stomach virus, followed by me.  Ugh.  We’re all feeling better now so hopefully that’s all the sickness we’ll have for a while.

Due to all of our indoor time, we’ve all been watching TV more than normal.  Evie currently has a small obsession with Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse.  Every day we hear ‘How ‘bout Pooh Bear?”  or “How ‘bout Mickey?”.  Over the weekend, Pat got Evie a Mickey Mouse balloon at the store and she was beyond thrilled.  She carried it around with her most of the day and would hug it occasionally.  If only it was so easy to please everybody!  Evelyn had several other reasons to smile over the weekend.  First, she got three Valentine’s Day cards in the mail – one from her friend Meg, one from Grandma Rita, and one from Grandpa Tim & Katherine.  She was so excited and loved them all!   Next she got to visit with Pops, Kiki, Aunt Shannon and PJ.  They came up on Saturday to hang out with us and watch basketball.  We had lots of fun and Kiki brought Evie a new toy – a monkey that shoots balls out of it mouth.  Evie thought it was hilarious.  After a delicious Sunday morning breakfast at Bob Evans, they had to head back to KY.  We are always so sad to see them go – Evie stood at the door with me and pouted as she watched them drive away.  2 hours isn’t that far, but sometimes it seems like it.  Especially this time of year when we are so bored and can’t travel as much.  I wish we could just pop over and hang out for a while.  Maybe someday.
Not too much else has been happening.  Baby Marker is getting big and sounded good at my last appointment.  I’ve been having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, which my doctor assured me is very normal, especially with a second baby.  I just try and rest when they get too bad (not painful, just uncomfortable).  This usually means more TV for Evie – not that she’s complaining.  She loves to grab a pillow and her blankie and snuggle up next to mama!  I love it too.  She getting so big so fast.  I can’t believe that we will be celebrating her 2^nd birthday in a month!  I wish I could slow down time a little.  She is such a little girl now.  She talks non-stop and we are able to understand more of what she is saying.  She knows most of the basic colors and she loves to read her books.  The other day she sat on a pillow in our room, turning pages of her book and mumbling to herself.  She got to the end and said ‘The End.  Now read hippo”, shut the book and then picked up her book about a hippo.  She remember her favorite pages in books and we cannot move past those pages until she points out everything that she likes and I acknowledge them too.  She can identify animals and knows many of the sounds that they make.  She one of those lift-the-flap books for Christmas and it’s one of her favorites now.  She will turn right to her favorite page – the bug page.  I have no idea why she likes this page so much since she scared of bugs, but she always goes right to that page.  As far as food goes, Evelyn has tried a few new things.  She loves Cincinnati-style chili and her daddy’s scrambled eggs.  The last one drives me nuts because if I make her eggs, she will only pick at them, but if Daddy makes them, she gobbles them up!  She loves bacon and pulled pork or beef.  She loves eating cereal with milk out of her special bowl (it has a straw built in so that she can drink the milk) and she really likes peanuts.  Now if I could get her to eat her veggies!  I gave her broccoli the other day and she put one piece in her mouth, spat it out and said ‘Ugh.  I not like that.”.  No amount of prodding would convince her to even take one taste of the mixed vegetables that I have her the other night.  I even broke my own rule and said I’d give her a cookie if she’s just take one bite, but she wouldn’t budge.  Our girl can the most stubborn thing in the world if she wants to be!

Skyline Chili...Yummy!

Pumpkin bread and bananas!

Pudding face

zzzzz....

I love my girl’s non-stop zest for life.  She’s like a caffeinated Energizer bunny most days, and while it can get exhausting, it’s also a lot fun and we love it.

That said, we also love the peaceful serenity of a sleeping babe…

And the award for craftiest mom... Will not go to me

Every time I get on Facebook or look at another blog, I’m bombarded with pictures of all the creative things that parents are doing with their kids and for their family.  Delicious dinners made from scratch.  Valentines painstakingly glued together and bedazzled to look like works of art.  Secret Agent birthday parties. Desserts that look like the came straight out of a boutique bakery.  I’m in awe at all of the innovation and creativity that so many of my fellow parents have, and more than a little envious.  I’m just not that person.  It’s not that I can’t be creative and have fun.  We play hide and seek and have dance parties.  We color and finger paint.  In warmer weather, we went on nature walks and collected rocks, colorful leaves and sticks.  We play silly, made-up games (what hand is the penny in?). We have even, on occasion, made cookies.  But when it comes to the really creative stuff, well, I think I’m lacking a little.  Evelyn is still very young so it’s hard to do some stuff with her.  Not to mention the fact that she has entered the trying and tiresome, yet sometimes terrific Toddler Phase ( I can’t say Two Year Old Phase yet – it’s still too soon!).  An attempt at making Valentines the other day ended up with her sticking them in her mouth when my back was turned.  Baking cookies turned into eating the sprinkles directly from the bottle cap.  Oh well, we had fun.

We are starting to get stuff together for Evie’s new room.  We thought about keeping the kids together, but ultimately decided to give Evie her own room, which will double as a guest room with family and friends visit.  I’m still dreaming of moving to a different house, but for now this will do.  We’re not in any big rush to get her room done since she’ll still be in her crib for a while after the baby is born, but we’re brainstorming ideas.  After looking online, I figured out very quickly that people are far more creative than me.  I’m talking huge wall murals, beds made to looking like princess castles and pirate ships and chalkboard walls.  I was thinking about painting the walls and getting a new bedspread and some safely sides for the queen-sized bed already in the room.  Uhh… am I not thinking big enough?  I’m just too simple and practical I guess.  I want Evie’s new room to look cute and to be a comfortable place that she can read her stories, play with some toys and have lots of sweet dreams.  But I honestly don’t feel the need to go crazy.  For one, she’s going to get older and have ideas of her own about how to decorate her room.  I don’t want to put a lot of time and money into something that will change so soon.  Not to mention the fact that I want move.  We’ll figure something out.  Daddy says he’ll give her the greatest room ever…I’m not so sure I should let him loose.  He has tendency to want to over-indulge our little princess. :)

But back to my original observation – I am not as creative as my fellow parents.  It’s something that I really envy.  I just don’t have that artistic touch.  My sister Holly – she’s creative and comes up with really neat ideas.  Me – not so much.  I decided the other day that it’s a good thing that Evie has creative relatives.  Hopefully they can pick up my slack in that department.  After all – it does take a village!  Not that I won’t try and learn some stuff.  I may take a cake decorating class and, when Evie gets older, I think it would be fun to take a craft class like pottery together.  If all else fails, hopefully Evie will make friends with children whose parents follow Pinterest. :)

Watch out for the nose

Last night Evie was eating her dinner and Pat was downstairs watching her.  I was upstairs for maybe 5 minutes.  I come downstairs to hear her screaming and Pat saying ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve gotta get it out’.  Apparently she had shoved a few pieces of the raw carrot she was eating up her nose.  He said he really had to dig to get one out.  Guess he didn’t dig far enough because as I was leaving for work today, I bent down to hug Evie and noticed that she had something in her nose.  I got a tissue and fished out… a piece of carrot.  I had to chuckle.  It’s not the first time she’s stuck something up her nose.  The day before she tried macaroni and she’s been known to try and color the inside of her nostril.  But this is the first time that she has been so successful!  Gotta love toddlers!

What do you mean pizza doesn't belong in my nose?!

20 weeks!

Halfway there!  This pregnancy has been a little different than the last one.  I’ve been more tired and felt a little more sick.  When I was pregnant with Evelyn, I feel really good most of time.  This time around has just been a little harder.  Could be because I have a little kiddo that never stops moving and I can’t just sit and rest all the time.  :)  Another difference is that my baby bump starting showing a little bit sooner.  When I was pregnant with Evie, I found out at the end of July and didn’t really start showing until early December, when I was about 6 months pregnant.  This time around, I found out mid-October that I was pregnant and started showing in mid-January when I was 4 months pregnant.  Perhaps the biggest difference is the time I spend thinking about being pregnant.  When I was pregnant with Evie, I thought about it all time.  Not just being pregnant, but all of the stuff that we needed for the baby.  I spent so much time researching cribs and car seats, deciding what swing to buy and which stroller was the best.  This time… not so much.  Not only do we not need a bunch of new stuff, but so much of that stuff is only used for a short amount of time.  It is seriously not worth stressing over.  The one new thing I’m looking into buying is a double jogging stroller to take the kids for walks.  I’m still debating on this because of the expense, but I love getting outside and walking with Evie – it’s good stress relief! -  and I’m not sure how I’ll manage it with our current stroller.  I’m hoping I can find a good deal on a double.

Perhaps one of the biggest differences this time around is that we decided not to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  That’s right – Baby Marker #2 will remain a surprise until June.  Pat wanted to find out, but I convinced him to wait.  We did have the ultrasound tech write down the gender and seal it in an envelope – just in case I change  my mind – but for now, it’s a mystery.

Evelyn really doesn’t grasp the concept of sibling.  She’s still so young, but she’ll get there.  Hopefully she’ll love her new brother or sister as much as she loves the younger babies at daycare.  Fingers crossed!  I imagine that she’ll be a little put out having to share her parent’s, grandparent’s, aunts’ and uncles’ attention, but hopefully she’ll figure out quickly that there is plenty of love to go around!  Pat and I are both oldest children so we understand how it is.  I always had a soft spot for oldest children when I babysat and I tried to make sure that they got some of my undivided attention after the little ones had gone to sleep.  Hopefully I can always remember to do this with Evelyn too.  She will always be my baby girl – no matter how many more babies we have!