Besides moving in, we've had lots of "firsts" and "changes" around here, so I'll just go down the list of family members to update everyone:
Eve
A couple of days after turning 11 months, Eve started WALKING! That's right, it really surprised me. I had given up all hope that she would be walking by her first birthday because she just wasn't interested. She could cruise around and she could stand up in the middle of the room without holding on to anything, but she never made any efforts to take any steps. She really enjoyed (and still does) dancing, so I would watch her stand up and wiggle her body around and wonder "If she can do that, why won't she take steps?" She even jumped a couple times, with her feet off the ground and landed perfectly before taking any steps. Finally one day, she just decided to go for it and really didn't have much problems. She's been working so long at her balance, I guess she finally felt ready. She still won't let me hold her hands and practice walking; that makes her so mad! She still crawls when she wants to go somewhere fast, but she enjoys practice walking all over the house when she's not in a hurry. Kylie thinks it's very special too, she loves to encourage her little sister and always tells me: "Look, baby Everz is walking! Go baby!" It's very special to watch Kylie get so excited for little Eve. Although sometimes, Kylie will push her down, so I never know what to expect. (Generally speaking, Kylie is lovey dovey with her little sister)
Here are some "first steps" pictures; isn't she the cutest?
Eve has also seemed a lot less baby-ish lately. She plays more seriously with her toys, she loves to pick up by putting things in containers, she pays attention when you read books... It's so sweet to watch her grow up. I treat her so much more like a baby than I ever did with Kylie. Part of the reason I think is because Kylie was always so much more fiercely independent and Eve is a cuddle bug. But I'm sure the fact that Eve could possibly be my last baby has a lot to do with it too. She's just also just seems like she should be younger, since she's so small and she still doesn't have any teeth. I can't believe that she will one in just 3 short weeks! That doesn't seem right.
Here she is helping Kylie pick up her blocks:
Another "first" in Eve's life: we took her to a pool for the first time and she loved it. You can read about our gym/pool membership later on in this post. Eve first squealed and splashed and squealed some more in the water. Then she just got a big smile on her face and closed her eyes and completely relaxed as she floated on her back in the water as Jason carried her around. We thought she might have fallen asleep, that's how relaxed she was. But I don't think she sleeps with such a huge smile on her face.
Wait, I just realized that Eve HAS been to a pool last summer when she was 3-4 months old. But she didn't really care at all about it one way or another, and so let's just say this is the first time she played in swimming pool water.
Kylie
I have so many things to say about this cute little 2 year old. She's been saying so many funny things now that she can actually have real conversation with us. But this is a blog post about "new" experiences, so I will blog about her funny conversations later.
Well... the biggest change in Kylie's life right now is that we are potty training now... ummm... I don't really want to talk about it because I hate it. So just know that we have started the process and I'm not happy with how it's going. I've been told it will get better and I know that Kylie is a smart girl, she will eventually be potty trained. That's all I'm going to say about this subject.
We went to the library for the first time together. We made a special mother/daughter trip and left Eve with Jason. Kylie loved the library. She was so excited that she could pick out any book that she wanted. You'll never guess what book she found and just HAD to have... it's called "Wonderful Worms" and it's all about earthworms. She's so silly. I told my mom how weird she was for picking out that book and my mom just said "She's her mother's daughter." Oh yeah, I had completely forgotten about how I went out one rainy day to dig for worms to keep as pets. I just wanted any kind of pets I could get when I was little, and worms were easy to catch. Oh well, maybe it's not so strange then that Kylie wanted a book about earthworms. It's a children's book, not a science manual, so we've read the book many times since bringing it home. Kylie now knows that worms eat dirt and that they have a mouth but they don't have eyes, ears or a nose. We picked out some other books, but that was the one that Kylie picked out all by herself. When we got home, she asked to see her "lion books." I asked her if she meant her "library books" and she said "yes, library books." I don't know why she thought they were "lion" books, but she has figured out the word "library" now.
She has also discovered painting for the first time. At first, after every stroke, she would say: "Look, I did that!" Pretty cute:
Ignore the mess in the background of that first picture; that was the day after we moved.
Her new way to nap is now mostly on the couch. She used to be the best napper and sleeper until she turned two. She still sleeps great at night, but her naps have been a struggle. She will usually fall asleep if I put her on the couch and I'll take naps wherever and whenever I can get them!
Jason and myself
The semester started back up again and Jason is taking some online classes along with a night class. This was so that I could get a full time job, and he could stay home with the girls. THAT hasn't happened yet, but I'm still hopeful and praying.
We bought a gym membership at North Kansas City Community Center because they offered discounts for seminary students. It's amazing. They have free childcare while we work out, shower, sit in the hot tub... whatever as long as we stay in the building and pick them up withing 2 hours. The girls both love the childcare there, so I don't feel bad about leaving them there while I work out. We've also taken the girls a couple times to the swimming pool in the same community center. They have a kiddie area with a slide and they both love it.
We also just bought a bread machine this week. That is a whole adventure in itself. I love cooking, but I'm not much of a baker, it always seems like too much work. Ever since we bought the bread machine, however, I'm always looking for a new recipe to try. So far we have made french bread, french rolls, chocolate chip sour cream tea loaf and I have a potato bread in the machine baking right now. I'm looking forward especially to making cinnamon rolls and pizza dough in the very near future. Jason found one on clearance at Sears, it's very cheap compared to all the ones we've looked at and it's very easy to use. The bread comes out really nice too, but I don't have any other machine to compare it to. Here's what it looks like:
The biggest adventure that's about to take place is Jason's trip to Europe this Summer. He will be studying abroad with other seminary students from Midwestern for two weeks in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland. He'll get 7 graduate level hours in just 2 weeks, so it's a great opportunity. I'm very jealous that Jason will be taking this trip, but I'm excited for him to explore new places. He has never been out of the country, so he applied for his passport yesterday. He took Eve with him and just for fun, they even took a passport size picture of Eve for him to keep in his wallet. Wasn't that nice of them?
French bread? Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly how they make it in France.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound yummy though.
ReplyDelete