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Tag: evie

She May End Up In A Nudist Colony

We have reached a new phase in my daughter’s life – the one where she chooses not to wear clothing of any kind.  I’ve spent years laughing at other parents as they tell tales of their children stripping off clothes, all the while thinking that it is simply a phase and most kids go through it at some time or another.  Now that it’s my child?  I’m not laughing so much.

For one thing, I wasted a whole lot of money buying pajamas and summer clothes for Miss Evie.  She wants nothing to do with them.  If it were up to her, she would wear nothing but her panties, and even those are a bother at times.  I do let her get away with it at night.  I mean, if she really wants to sleep naked or just in panties, it isn’t hurting anyone or anything.  Her brother (who shares a room with her) seems to be oblivious to the whole thing (and prefers to sleep in his undies too) so what’s the harm?

The problem comes when it is time to get dressed for day care in the mornings.  She just does not want to put on clothes.  At first, she just didn’t want to wear pants/shorts.  So I offered her dresses/skirts.  Then she didn’t want to wear a shirt of any kind.  I’m still not really sure how to fix that, but eventually I can convince her to put something on before we leave the house.

This morning, after refusing about 6 different outfits I offered and the two of us being at a stalemate for about 10 minutes, I finally yelled, “Just put something on! I don’t care what it is!”  And she did.

Guess who picked out her own outfit this morning? #fb

I really don’t care if she matches, as long as she’s wearing clothes of some kind out in public.

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Firsts

Evie went on her very first sleepover last week.  She has stayed overnight with Grandma a couple of times, but Zach has always been with her.  This time she went all by herself.  Granted, she was spending the night at my brother’s house, but it was still a pretty big deal.  It was her first overnight with a girlfriend.  From the sounds of things, she got spoiled rotten and had a really great time with her cousin Caitlin.  I was even a little jealous because she got to go to the zoo while I was stuck at work.

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Thursday night was my nephew Ryan’s preschool graduation. I got handed the task of taking photos of the kids as they walked across the stage (which I didn’t mind at all). For some reason I decided to take the plunge and shot the entire thing in manual mode. I’ve played around with manual before, but never felt confident enough to use it when I was shooting anything important. I finally felt like I was ready, shot a bunch of test shots before hand, and just did it. I did end up with some bad shots, but I also ended up with some really good shots, so it was a win in my books. My biggest problem was trying to focus and keep focused when the kids were moving so fast across the stage.

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The best part of the graduation though, was watching my sister. Since she’s my sister, I don’t always think of her as being someone’s teacher, but she is without a doubt the best preschool teacher I’ve ever seen. Her love for the kids she teaches shines through in everything she does. She had a bit of a hard time getting through the ceremony (especially when it was Ryan’s turn to walk across the stage) but I think that just shows how much she cares about those kids. This is what she was meant to do and it shows.

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On Saturday, my mom and I got up bright and early to walk in the Hillcrest Walk for the Homeless. It was my first 5K of the year and I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t thrilled to wake up to rain, but I didn’t let it dampen my spirits! The walk went great, aside from the big blister on my toe. I personally ended up with $215 of pledges and was thrilled with that considering I had less than a week to ask for donations. I want to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who gave. I know money is tight for a lot of people right now, and that just makes me even more appreciative. I was just recently introduced to the Hillcrest program and it is something I definitely want to support in the future.

And now here are some random pics I took of my kids while doing my test shots on graduation night.

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We All Think She's Pretty Special

Sunday morning Evie woke up with a stuffy head and a runny nose. I didn’t think much of it at the time because I didn’t give her the usual dose of Zyrtec before bed time due to the recent recall. She was a little extra clingy, but we were in a new place for church that morning. By the time we got home (after exposing her to probably 20 other kids) I realized she had a fever and she was saying her ear hurt.

I made all the appropriate phone calls and decided I needed to stay home with her on Monday and get her to the doctor. Fortunately, she woke up with no fever and everything checked out fine at the Dr.’s office. I shelled out $30 to find out that she was just fine and maybe has a bit of a cold.

After the doctor, we stopped at my office for a few minutes, made a quick stop at Target (where I got suckered into buying her a Backyardigans dvd because she was asking for “back-agains” all morning), then headed home.

For some reason she wanted to eat her lunch in the living room. This is not something we do, well at least not since having kids, so I thought her request was funny but decided to go with it. We had a great conversation while we were eating and then I attempted to put her down for a nap, which she was having none of. I tried settling her down with her new Backyardigans video and dvd player, but that didn’t work. She wanted to watch Elmo in my bed (the only way I’ve been able to get her to nap lately). That didn’t work either. She wanted to sit in “mommy’s chair” so I let her. She was having fun manipulating me and it really was getting too late for a nap anyway so I let her enjoy it.

Shortly after that, she climbed up in the chair beside me at the kitchen table where I was attempting to work. I was listening to Pearl Jam in preparation for the show that night. She came up and started banging her head to “Save You” and said, “Mommy, my like this song!” with a huge smile on her face. She’s really been discovering music lately and I’m loving it. We had an impromptu dance party right there in the kitchen, followed by some giggles and hugs. It was one of those perfectly simple moments that fills my heart with so much joy.

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Soon it was time to go pick Zach up from school. Normally I pick Zach up first so Evie rarely gets to go in with me to pick him up. The kids were out on the playground when we got there and when Zach saw us walking up he lit up. He screamed out, “Sissy!” and ran up to give her a hug and a kiss. Soon he was rounding up all of his friends because he wanted to make sure they all got to see his baby sister. He wouldn’t let us leave until everyone had seen her and kept saying, “Isn’t she cute? She’s my baby sister.” My heart was melting.

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Fast forward several hours and Hubby and I were sitting at the Pearl Jam concert (which is a topic for a whole other post). We were chatting with the people next to us who also have two kids when Hubby asks to see a picture of Evie on my phone. I pulled up the picture I had taken that morning (above) for him and he took it to show the couple next to us. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but just like Zachary was earlier that day, he was very proud to show her off.

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I love how we all appreciate her in different ways. I see so much of myself in my daughter, but I also see her father, and little bits and pieces of her brother. She’s a little bit of all of us, all wrapped up in one tiny little package.

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A Girl and Her Cat

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During my last year of college I worked at a group home for developmentally disabled adults.  While there were no pets allowed in the house, there were two cats that sort of adopted the porch.  Eventually these two cats had a litter of kittens.  They were the most beautiful kittens I had ever seen and the first I had ever seen only hours after they were born.  There were only three in the litter and I had plans to keep two of them – one for me and one for my mom.  A co-worker was going to keep the third one.

The momma cat eventually started weaning the kittens and we decided it was about time for them to be taken to their respective homes.  I was heading home that weekend, so I had planned to take my two little furballs with me.  Unfortunately, either the momma cat or the baby kittens had other plans.  They disappeared the day before I was supposed to take them home.  We have no idea where they went.  They were just gone and I was devastated.

Not long after that, a co-worker and I were taking a group on an outing.  We had the van loaded up and just as we started pulling out of the driveway, we saw this little puff of white moving around in the grass.  We got out of the van to check it out and there stood the cutest little Siamese kitten.  I’ve always had a thing for Siamese cats and this little guy was just too cute.  He came right up to me and snuggled up in my arms.  My co-worker convinced me that it was a sign and that I should take him home.

That night he was officially named Pedro (anyone want to guess where that came from?) and he’s been with me ever since.  He was my “baby” before I ever had any human babies of my own and he has certainly seen me through some rough times in my life.  He always just seems to know when I’m feeling down and I’ve cried into his fur more times than I can count.

I guess that’s why it is so touching to me to see Evie really connecting to our animals, and especially to Pedro.  She absolutely loves Pedro.  If she spots him you can bet that she’s petting or hugging him.  She walks around asking “Where Pedro at?”  She loves him, just as I have for all these years.

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Birthday Girl

At 2:22 p.m. on March 18, 2008, my life was forever altered.  My baby girl turns two today.

Zach and I woke Evie up this morning singing “Happy Birthday” and then she immediately turned over and asked for cake.  That’s my girl!  She is so much like me it’s scary!

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2009
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2010
The last night I tuck her in as a 1-year-old

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iheartfaces – Jump For Joy!

This week’s  iheartfaces photo challenge theme is “Jump For Joy!” My photo for this week is far from a perfect shot, but I love the fun and spontaneity of it.  I wish it was more in focus and that I had been standing back a bit further so her head wouldn’t have been cropped off, but I guess that’s what happens when you get an unexpected shot.  I was trying so hard to get some fun shots and Evie just wasn’t in the mood that day.  Finally her Daddy stepped in and cheered her up a bit.  Even with it’s imperfections, I love this shot because it truly shows my girl’s personality.

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Head over to iheartfaces and check out some of the other Jump For Joy Photos!

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