Happy Valentine's Day!

Evelyn picked out this card especially for mom last week. We drew pictures on the inside with her new washable markers and decorated the envelope in bright happy scribbles. (We tried crayons, but she kept biting the tips off.) The funny wiggly jiggly googly eyes were so appealing that I was barely able to get the card into the envelope intact.

Needless to say that upon opening, Evvie remembered the owl's famous gaze and his poor peepers weren't long for this world. Mama was kind enough to allow her to experiment a bit with her ocular fascination, and low and behold, she has perfected her eye transplant skills and given daddy a gift of his own for V-day.

Movin' Out

Another good weekend in Turner- Evvie got to spend some quality time with her grammy and grandpa while Hal, Ruby & I got out on the snow for some good X-Country skiing. Evvie's shown that walking around really improves her mood and she's living in the moment like we all should.

(The red tongue in the next post, by the way, is caused by the cold icicles that she was obsessing over after daddy pulled one down to sample)

BLOOD!

Evelyn had a 15month checkup today. No shots this time around (yayyyy!) but don't get too excited. You see, they had to draw blood for labs.

Evelyn did wonderfully, though. She didn;t flinch, whimper or cry. (If only the same could be said for dad.) She watched the red tube siphon off her blood with a bit of wonder and fascination. She definitely gets that from her mother.

Dr. Tracy was impressed with Evvie today. She was walking abour and babbling a comfortable conversation with the doctor. She also enjoyed putting her finger over the little light on the ear-peeker.

New Stats:

Weight: 19 lbs. 2 oz
3%

Length: 30"
34%

Head: 18.24"
61%

I mentioned my concern at the 3%, and how it doesn't necessarily jibe with her pudgy belly, double chin and cheeks. Dr. Tracy agreed and basically said not to worry about the numbers- Evvie is very healthy. She was also impressed by Evvie's taste for curry and garlic.

Refining the Palate

Lately, Evvie's been prone to not eating as well as she had been. She's suddenly unwilling to try new things, which is moderately frustrating. A new trick we've learned, though, is to have her watch us take something off the stove and eat it. She's always interested in food that way. I took last nights refused chicken bits and cooked them up is a pan with a it of milk and curry. Now, the food was warm, yellow (her favorite color for food ie:mac & cheese, scrambled eggs, banana bits, etc.) and fresh off the stove. She really strained to get to it after I tried a piece, so lunch today was curried chicken- and a lot of it.

In other news, she's walking all over the place now. No more tentative 4 and 5 step meanders- she's got to travel living room to back bedroom on just two feet now. She's been taking several steps for months now, but finally made the big leap to it being her primamary way of getting around. We've been waiting for her to really make the move to being a walker...she has just been too efficient a crawler to care! Now she's discovered that she can walk with items in both hands unimpeded, though (try that on all fours!)

Sledding in the Backyard!

It wouldn't be "wintertime childhood" without a few runs down the hill in the backyard. Contrary to this picture's pretense, Evvie did NOT go solo down the hill (did you hear that grandmas?). However, she was tired of pictures with my big face in them (a la XCountry skiing), so we staged this shot to look like she wasn't riding in my lap.

The apparatus attached to the sled makes it a homemade pulka- a sled you can tow while skiing. It's seen two winter trips to the northwoods, and hopefully many upcoming shorter adventures hauling one enthusiastic marshmallow.

As close as Evvie can get to a wave

No Pictures, Please

Here's Evvie putting the lens cap back on the camera that I, admittedly, may use a bit too often...

Evvie's starting to loosen up a little bit in music class- this being our fourth session. She warms slowly, though. It's a 45 minute class and usually by the last two songs she's interacting and moving away from me. It's almost too bad, because another 15 minutes would really bring her out, I think.

She has been showing signs of becoming a pretty shy kid. We were at the library children's room yesterday and when a 16 month old toddled over to play nearby, Evvie buried herself in my chest. She does seem to be comfortable with the other children at daycare, and we're going to just keep exposing her to new enviornments to show her it's exciting to be involved with life.

First Tracks with the Marshmallow Baby

It was too cold over the weekend to play outside as we had planned, but today, after an overnight dusting of fluffy powder, Evvie & Dad set out on a ski adventure at Reid State Park. Evvie acquiesced to being crammed into her puffy suit that constricts her movement and makes her the "Marshmallow Baby". Once in the pack and underway, she promptly fell asleep for the entire hour.

We made "first tracks" in the snow and I was grateful to have the moment. It's been a long time since I had excercised after having been ill for over a month, and today was a great reward.

The skiing was great, and the ocean was magnificent. Evvie had a rosy hue to her for the next hour or so from the fresh air and the cold, but moms, don't worry- her hands and feet were warm when she emerged from the pack. The baby long underwear plus a hat, boots and mittens inside the fold-down cuffs of the down suit kept her snug.

Pbbbtthh

No Hands Flute

I've been practicing for tomorrow's class- as you can see, my hands are free for percussion instruments. A skill I intend to show off!

Today we took a trip to my office to say farewell to outgoing CEO Patrick. Evvie snacked on a bagel and stared wide-eyed at the throngs of office people eager to coochie-coo and oooh and ahh over her. Evvie did her best to trash Roxy's office and otherwise charm everyone who works there.

Here's a picture with Jeanne, a coworker who is learning how to hula by Evvie the sweet wahini.

Music Together

Yesterday, we had our first Music Together class, and boy did we have fun! Evvie spent the first third of the class leaned up against me and watching, but by the time the instruments were broken out, this little girl was rockin’!

It was a really interesting experience for me, as the only dad in a group of twelve. I was glad to have spoken to the teacher ahead of time so I knew how much participation was going to be required on MY part. We did some singing, clapping, dancing, echoing, shaking of percussion- you name it. Although a bit self-conscious, both Evvie and I are looking forward to next week.