It's hard to believe that my Eve just turned 1 and a half! She's my baby. I'm a little sad because I miss the baby cuddles, little toddling steps, sweet coos and toothless grins. But it's also been so much fun watching her personality develop. She's funny. Here are some words that have been used to describe her: ornery, sassy pants, stinker-pot, mischievous, proud and fearless. With the exception of the last two, those all sound similar don't they? That's because she's quite the little handful. She figures out which buttons to push on people she loves and then pushes them for her own amusement. She figured out at about 12 months old that if she spit food at my mom, then my mom would act disgusted. So Eve has had a blast spitting at my mom, with or without food. She knows I hate it when she takes her pretties out and that her aunt Bo can't stand it when she tells her "no" when Bo reaches for her. She also loves to tickle people and give raspberries. She can get aggressive and hit but I've found that the best way to deal with that is to ignore it and walk away from her when she does that. She only does things to get a rise out of people because that's what ticks in her little one year old sense of humor. She's still a sweetheart, just an ornery one.
Now you might ask how a one year old can be proud. Just tell Eve that she's cute and watch her face light up, in a smug little way at that. Talk about her and watch her prance around with her little nose in the air. She puts on quite the show when she knows people are praising her. She's also proud when she accomplishes something challenging to her. For instance, when she puts the right shape in her shape shorter, she will clap for herself and say "yah!" Then she'll look around to make sure everyone saw her great feat.
The last term I mentioned, "fearless", might not be a word that some people would choose for Eve. There are lots of people who have seen her shy, momma's girl, side who might not agree. Yes, she is a momma's girls and can be shy around new people. This is especially true at church, when she knows I'm going to "abandon" her in the nursery for a couple hours. She's never apart from me, except when we are at church, so she gets very nervous when we are there. However, anyone who has seen her at a park would agree that "fearless" is a good term.Other parents at the park are always shocked to see this tiny little girl climb all the big equipment, refusing any help from her nervous momma, and do just fine with all the stairs, slides, wobbly bridges... In fact, strangers at the park always seem to have the same thing to tell me: "She's fearless." And I always agree. She's completely wild at playgrounds. She's funny: she's a momma's girl when I want her to be independent and fearless when I want her to be more cautious.
Her growing up has been bittersweet. When she was born, I felt as though Kylie was my big girl and Eve was my baby. And that's the way it would stay, right? I didn't expect her to leave the baby stage quite so fast. She's now starting to hit her language explosion and learns new words every day. She's keeping up with her older sister as they play chase and wrestle through the house. She eats all of our foods. She finally has some teeth. She calls me "mommy" instead of "momma." Really the only baby things about her is her attachment to her "ya-ee" (her word for her beloved paci) and the fact that she still wears diapers. But she's also so much fun at this age. She's a ball full of lovable energy and turning into the prettiest little girl. I love my "baby" so much!
Good for Eve! Samantha was SO scared of the wobbly bridge up until her third birthday. Seriously, the day of she decided she would walk across it without any help AND no hands. She was so excited when she realized it wasn't scary and she even ran across it. She also went down the tube slide. The other day, she went all the way to the top of the McDonalds play place and down the slide. She had always been too scared before even tho we tried to encourage her. 3 was a big step for her and she realized she was a real big now. :o) I cannot believe how quickly Eve changed in such a short amount of time. She is so precious!
ReplyDeleteThanks Bethany. Eve is just crazy at the playground. Kylie has always LOVED wobbly bridges too, but Eve just runs across them. It scares me because she is small enough that if she fell and somehow rolled over, she would fall off. But if I try to help her, she throws a huge fit. So I just hold my breath each time. Both girls have gone down some huge slides as well, they are just fearless when it comes to that. I sometimes wish they were more timid so I wouldn't have to worry so much haha!
ReplyDeleteApparently, I was the child, like Sam, who was afraid of big slides. My parents have shown me a video countless times, where I was almost 3 (or maybe I was 3, I can't remember) and refusing to go down a slide. I was bribed with candy and everything. My dad was even just trying to get me to go down on his lap and I refused. But good for Sam for realizing that it's not scary!