Evie Update

Terrible Twos

/ Shane / 7 Comments

What happened to my perfect little angel?

Over the weekend a switch of some kind turned in her head, and she became a holy terror. Anything you ask her to do, she is guaranteed to do the opposite. Every little thing becomes the most difficult, frustrating thing in the world. Anything she can throw or knock over, she does, all looking you right in the eye with a little mischievous grin on her face, daring you to do anything about it. She has 15 minute hysterical crying fits when she doesn’t get her way. Keep in mind, this is the girl who will make herself puke if she gets too upset. And this is a girl with a lot of opinions too, not just on what she should wear, but on what you should wear, where you should sit, if you should take your shoes off or leave them on, etc. And God help you if you don’t do exactly as she says. It’s not like it was a surprise, per say. Obviously you hear all the stories about how difficult kids her age are. But the swiftness of the change was surprising.

One interesting aspect of it is bargaining. She has become a master staller and she tries to make deals with you. Like, if you tell her it is time to put her shoes on and she doesn’t want to, she will immediately start talking about how much she wants to eat. She knows we try to get her to eat all the time, so she thinks this will work as a diversion. She understands bargains that go the other way too, since the only way Sara could get her into the cart at the grocery store was to say, “Evie, if they ask me if you can have a cookie, do you want to say yes?” after which she became a perfect angel. Unfortnately, she didn’t go for my bargin of “be good or I’ll publish nasty things about you on the Internet”, hence this post.

It has only been about 3 days of this and I just can’t see how we can make it another 3 or 4 months.

It’s not all rough times though, there were a few highlights over the weekend.

  • Saying “Nala, that is not very nice!” when Nala nipped her hand for being too in her face.
  • Making up a noise for raccoons that sounds like “da da da da da” when she didn’t know what sort of noise they made.
  • “Smiling” on command by like squinching up her eyes and doing a sort of exaggerated face stretching with her bottom teeth sticking out.

In completely unrelated news, I had the most delicious smelling shower this morning! New shampoo you ask? No sir, baking bread! Sara programmed the bread machine last night so that it would finish the loaf by the time we woke up this morning. Around 3 a.m. Sara moved the bread machine to the bathroom in hopes that the “whirrrr whirrrr whirrrr” of the kneading mechanism would be quieter with the bathroom door shut and the fan on. So right about the time I was stepping into the shower a delicious smelling loaf of bread was baking on the counter about a foot away. Needless to say, my stomach was rumbling.

I’m contemplating inventing a combination bread machine / shower water heater that would provide you with an on-demand hot shower and delicious loaf of bread. The only thing I’m missing is a catchy name. Suggestions?

Baby’s first movie

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Over the weekend we took Evie to the Museum of Science and Industry and she had a blast. She loved seeing the trains and the chicks hatching. She learned a new train word, caboose, or as she likes to put it “kaboom!” But of course, being a little kid, she enjoyed other things such as walking up the stairs just as much as the actual exhibits. When recounting all the best parts of the day, she always made sure to include “Red stairs!” in the list. Unfortunately the children’s area was closed for renovation, but on the other hand had it been open I’m sure we wouldn’t have been allowed to leave.  All in all a highlight of the weekend and a great way to spend a rainy day.

While we were there, we saw “Wild Ocean” on the Omnimax. Perhaps it was a bit overwhelming as a first movie experience, but I think Evie liked it overall.

It certainly delivered on the promise of “fishies and sharks” (although not too many sharks actually). She was actually more into the above water scenes, recounting for me her memories of the “people dancing and singing” and “high place, high up place” for some of the (I assume) helicopter shots. I think she was a little scared during some of the underwater scenes and repeatedly called for them to “turn the light!” We assumed we would only stay for a few minutes before she got too antsy and we had to leave, but she was really good. Several times I thought she was asleep, only to look over and see her staring at the screen enraptured, with a forgotten cookie clenched in her fist. Eventually she did fall asleep, but I think she watched at least 30 minutes. She even applauded during a few scenes. I’m sure she would have liked to stay awake, but it was well past her usual nap time.

So I think it is a safe bet that she enjoyed it and I’m sure she would thank her grandma and grandpa for the money for the family pass if she had any sort of concept of money and stuff. We will certainly be back.

Too Cute for Words

/ Shane / 4 Comments

Part of the reason I have this blog is to write things down that I would otherwise forget. Pursuant to that, I find myself wanting to capture just how adorable Evie is so that in 30 years, when she is grown, (or in 15 years when I forget she was EVER a little girl) we can look back and remember. However, it is very difficult to capture in words the essence of who she is. Video would probably suffice, but she gets shy around the camera and won’t do the cute things I’m trying to capture.

It’s the way she uses a word correctly when you didn’t even know she knew that word. Like when she looked out the window at the doctor’s office and saw the mosque across the street and said, “Castle!” Or when she got off the phone with grandpa and grandma and everybody said “See you later!” and when the phone was closed she added, “alligator.”

It’s the way you can tell what she is singing by rhythm and inflection, even though she’s not saying real words, and the way she says, “Good job Evie!” to herself when she does something she’s proud of and you didn’t say it, or to let you know she’s done with something.

It’s the way she loves to play hide and seek and giggles hysterically even though she has you help her hide and then she comes out before you’re done counting. And the way she then has to grab your finger and show you where she was hiding.

It’s the way she tells me stories about her day and what she did, like recounting to Sara our hide and seek adventures: “Under the bed?  Noooooo! Closet!”

It’s watching her figure things out for herself, like the way she figured out she could get things on the kitchen table that she can’t reach by ramming her place mat under them and then pulling them in. And the way she wants to do things herself, like this morning when she was having a crying / stomping fit because she couldn’t unzip her pajamas, but then running away from me when I tried to help her.

And it is the way she says “Whole wide world mommy!” before she goes to bed which is her shortened version of “I love you more than the whole wide world.”

I think it’s learning

/ Shane / Leave a comment

(You may want to turn your volume up a little bit)


How can you not like “J K Elmomenomenomommy P”

She gets shy in front of the camera and won’t do it, hence the covert filming of the puzzle.

In addition to that song, Evie has been singing a lot lately.  She especially likes “Mary had a Little Lamb” and “Yes, No and Maybe” (from her music class).

She can now count to 10.  Sometimes you have to get her started, but by 3 she is ready to go. Sometimes she just starts at 3 and counts up from there. We have yet to get a video of this, but we’re still trying.

She is getting her shapes down.  She knows circle, triangle, diamond, square, star, heart and oval.

Colors she already knows a decent amount of.  She is really good with blue, green, pink, red, yellow, orange, white and (her favorite) purple.  Sometimes she gets brown and sometimes black.  She doesn’t do very well with grey.

I think that’s it!

Wicked, or, Aunt Rachael tries to give Evie a concussion

/ Shane / 5 Comments

Just kidding about the title.  I know that she reads this and it will make her feel bad.

Rachael and Chris were here for the final showing of Wicked in Chicago.  

Being a person who has seen a lot of musicals, Wicked really is outstanding.  If you haven’t seen it already, too late!  Well, not too late, but too late to stay at my place and have me drop you off and pick you up.  I think I have done enough to spread the Wicked love.  I saw it twice; once on Broadway and then again in Chicago.  I took my mom, I dropped off / picked up Sara’s family and now Chris and Rachael. And I own the soundtrack.  So I think I’ve done about all I can for them. 🙂

Evie did accidentally fall off the bench in the kitchen knocking her head. Just like the last time, she threw up all over Sara. She seemed fine pretty quick though, and certainly we felt a little better about it after the experience we gained last time. So we weren’t that worried this time.

And besides, Rachael had already made up for it by getting Evie to eat grapes and also making her a snowflake blanket. Evie would definitely take a knock on the head for a snowflake blanket!