baby

New words

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Yesterday Evie learned a very important word: Pirate!  So, maybe it comes out like “Pie-rop”, but she can still say it when she points to a pirate (thanks Uncle Nate for the bath toys!)  Too bad she didn’t get it out in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day.

You can also see the video of her saying “exercise” which I think is an impressive word for a not quite 14 month old.

There is also another video of her in her favorite new shirt.  This was the first time she’s worn it, but every time we open her closet she says, “Cat! Cat!” and points to it.  She was very proud to wear it all day and kept showing it off to everybody.

Apples, Sickness and Baby Talk

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I haven’t had a chance to update lately because I have been wicked sick.  Sicker than I have been in a long time, that’s for sure.  Unfortunately, Evie had been sick before me and all I could think about was, “I sure hope this isn’t how she felt!”  Also unfortunately, we were in Fort Wayne for the Johnny Appleseed Festival, and it always sucks to be sick anywhere besides home.  To say nothing of a brutal 3 hour ride home.  (Although, someone did point out that I have probably spent more time being sick in that house than anywhere else on earth)  I would also like to state for the record that Ron’s apple pie tastes exactly the same coming out as going in!

Johnny Appleseed was pretty cool.  I didn’t get an apple dumpling like I wanted, or any food for that matter due to sickness, but we did manage to eat apple baked french toast for breakfast and apple pie for dinner, so I think I made up for it.  I was kind of concerned that it wouldn’t be as big as I remembered since I haven’t been there since I was quite small, but it was pretty huge.  We didn’t buy anything (it was indeed as expensive as I remembered), but we had a good look around and also saw Casey, Margaret and Isaiah who is only 1 month older than Evie.

Speaking of Evie, we had a discussion about how many words she can say.  We had been saying 25 words as a rough estimate, but when we sat down and actually counted them, we came up with I think 63.  She certainly understands a lot more, but those are the ones she will spontaneously and reliably say, and not counting things she just repeats after you say them.  She loves books more and more every day (a child after my own heart) and practically doesn’t play with any other toys.  She knows all of her books and you can ask for them by name and she can go over to the shelf and find them and bring them to you.  This is including her set of alphabet books that she got for her birthday, but only certain letters that she likes.  For example, she can always find ‘O’ (octopus, orange and owl to which she likes to say “hoo hoo”) but other letters give her trouble.

She is eating a little better especially if it is finger foods.  She’s not very good with a spoon.  However, soon after a meal starts she starts yelling, “Chee!  Chee!” because all she wants to eat at every meal is cheese (as I said, a child after my own heart).  You have to be careful what you say because you might accidentally remind her of cheese and once she gets going, she wants nothing else.  It is the same for water.

She still loves shoes and clothes and spends a lot of time ineffectually trying to dress herself with anything that resembles clothes.  She doesn’t even come close.  My mom gave her a purse and she likes to carry that around now too.  She’s going to be something when she gets old enough to really know about clothes!

I almost hate to say it because I don’t want to jinx it, but the last two nights rather than rocking and singing her to sleep, I have put her in her bed and read her a story until she fell asleep!  Granted, she was very tired both nights, but if that sticks that would be a huge deal!  But of course, now that I have told all of you it can’t possibly happen.

That is all.

Oh, P.S. just because I forgot to mention Talk Like a Pirate Day, doesn’t mean I didn’t celebrate!  And even if my reoccurring calendar appointment didn’t remind me, I always have people who do.

New Videos

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I’ve added some new videos to MySpace.  Unfortunately, WordPress.com doesn’t allow you to embed MySpace videos, so you’ll have to click on the links.  Maybe someday I’ll upload them to youtube or something.

The first video is an older video showing some of Evie’s first steps.

The second video is a newer video of Evie after she had been walking for a while.  We got her some new shoes and they were a little stiffer than the shoes she had when she was learning to walk.  She did not like them!

The third video is brand spanking new video of Evie being a genius.  She has had an explosion of words lately.  It seems like she is learning a few new words every day.  We’ve lost track of how many words she knows now, but our rough guess is about 25.  Anything from “tree”, to “house”, to “key”, to her personal favorite words “fishy” and “cheese” (well, actually, she is still very fond of “no”).

I can’t wait to see what month 14 brings!

Update Post

/ Shane / 3 Comments

So I haven’t been posting much for the past week or so, but we’ve been really busy what with the holiday weekend and all.

So last week we had some friends from Philly (well Jersey really) visiting and staying at our place the whole week.  (Although I did mention our trip to Maggianos)  They have a daughter about Evie’s age, so it was nice for Evie to have someone to play with, or at least follow around and imitate.  It worked out pretty well for them to use our house as a base of operations and strike out from there all around Chicago.  We didn’t get to do all that much with them since we were working and all, but we did manage to go to the zoo with them.  Their daughter is really cute (maybe even a match for Evie, although exactly the opposite…dark hair and dark eyes) and smart as a whip.  Ever since they left all I can think about is, “Will Evie really be able to do all of that in 10 months??”

Then, last weekend we went on our semi-annual camping trip in Michigan.  It was the usual camping trip with Evie, which is to say, exhausting!  It is a lot of work running around after her in general, but it is like 10 times as much work when you are camping.  Especially this time because she wanted to be walking around (and into everyone’s campsite) from sun up to sun down and anything you wanted to do to get in the way of that was not appreciated!  So I didn’t have time to play any cards or any sort of games or anything.

We went on a hike and we saw two sets of deer bounding out of the woods onto the path in front of us.  It was really quite amazing considering we were singing childrens’ songs at the tops of our voices to keep Evie happy!  As a side note, I did have some outside confirmation that my family has a preternatural ability to spot deer at any time.  I always thought I had a knack for it, but compared to my dad, I’m pathetic.  Anyway, we also managed to make it to the beach one day.  You know, it’s funny, every time you go in Lake Michigan, or even swimming in general, you say, “Once you’re in the water it’s not so cold!”  But then the next time you’re like, “Oh yeah, well not this time because it is COOOOLD!”  And then you get in and say, “Once you’re in the water it’s not so cold!”  Plus everybody around you is repeating the same thing.  How many times does that have to happen before it really takes?  So we went to the lake and the water was super super cold but then we got in and were surprised to discover it wasn’t that bad.

Only tangentially related but, when I was little we always had 2% milk.  When I would go to someone else’s house and they had skim milk I just couldn’t stand it.  It just seemed like colored water to me.  (Of course now all we have is skim milk, but that’s not my fault).  Well, when we were camping, Chris (who was the main skim milk house that I went to when I was growing up) said that sometimes he just puts water in his cereal and it tastes exactly like skim milk.  Aside from sounding completely disgusting, I think this upholds my theory that skim milk really is just colored water.

In terms of an Evie Update, she has really been surprising me lately.  I think she is entering into a stage where she is just learning everything so fast and picking up things you don’t realize she is picking up.  This might be fatherly doting, so if you don’t want to hear it skip a bit, brother.

Three times today when we were going through a book she pointed at something I didn’t know she knew and said the word for it aloud:  house, apple and flower.  Sara told her to knock on the door and she went over and knocked on it just the way you would.  When has she ever knocked on a door?  Today she took Sara’s keys and went over to the door and tried to reach up to where the keys go.  Probably the funniest thing was I had her little horse and I was pretending that he was telling me secrets.  I would just put the horse up to my ear and whisper, “spsh spsh spsh” and she would laugh hysterically.  So I just kept doing it because she thought it was pretty funny.  Later I gave her the horse and she put it up to my ear and sort of “spsh spsh spsh”ed.  That really cracked me up, that she copied that part!  I didn’t even really realize I was doing that.  Now in retrospect I think she wasn’t laughing at the idea that a horse was telling me secrets like I originally thought; she apparently understood much better than I knew.  She was laughing at what an idiot I was making of myself sticking a horse in my ear and making funny noises!

Evie also has two new tricks.  The first is making herself so mad that she pukes.  That is a fun one, let me tell you.  The other one is farting in the bathtub, which she is not too young to think is funny.  She gets a little devilish grin on her face and heeeeaves up her stomach and really cuts one.  Then she looks at me and laughs.  She gets good resonance out of the tub.  Sometimes she tries to lift up her legs to see the bubbles.  This is now a multi-night occurrence.

And finally, football season is finally upon us!  I’m only in one Fantasy league this year for the first time in a long time.  I think that will work out nicely though since I have less time then I’ve had in a long time.  I really get giddy with excitement when I think about the Packers on MNF!

First Cousin, Once Removed

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Kelsey
Born Tuesday 9/2/08 @ 7:45 pm
8 lbs 1 oz, 20″ long
Congratulations Cousin Heather!