A Letter to Evie

Dear Future Evie,
I just need for you to know something about yourself these days, because sometime down the road things might be different. You see these days- at age 21 months- you love broccoli. And I mean you REALLY love it. :) I might even say that aside from yogurt, it might be your favorite food!! You get so excited when you see me cooking it, and you eat it right up. When it's on your plate, you eat all the broccoli first- and then ask for more without touching the rest of your food. Someday, you might not like broccoli, so I just needed to document the fact that you love it right now. Other vegetables that you eat readily include carrots, edamame, green beans, and lettuce. Just in case sometime down the road you claim that you hate them! ;)
Love, Mama

Evelyn Clara: 21 months

21 months.... it's a hilarious age. :) Evie is becoming more and more "toddler" every day, having opinions and taking a stand whenever she can. She's bigger and braver and stronger- she's definitely not a baby anymore. And yet- thank goodness!- she still loves to cuddle and snuggle and remind me that she's my little girl. :)

It's wintertime and it's a cold one, so we're doing our best to find fun things to do while staying warm inside (see here for some unique toddler entertainment). We've been to the Science Museum, library story time, playdates, and just yesterday we went to Bounce Magic- so much fun!! This was the first time I really saw how big and brave Evie has gotten. They had this huge steep slide that even I felt a little nervous about going down when I was perched at the top- and Evie insisted on going alone and laughed the whole way down. :) And then did it six more times! I was so impressed and proud. 

Wheeee!!

Evie hasn't started talking a whole lot more, but she's definitely adding words- you can see a list a couple posts down. One thing that I've definitely noticed a change in is her babbling. She talks nearly all day now, babbling on and on about who knows what, using different tones just like she's having a conversation. The pediatrician said at our 18 month visit that this is really good for her, because her brain is figuring out how to talk, even if she's not using words yet.

First ride in a sled... it didn't last long!

Some favorites of Evie's this month include: her Baby Einsteins First Words book (we read it multiple times every day!), her baby dolls, throwing balls, coloring, helping mommy clean, being chased, the TV shows Octonauts and Fresh Beat Band (she took a break from watching them for awhile, but they're back!), and giving hugs.

Evie loving her babies

Something I've really started to notice in Evie lately is her sense of humor. Of course she's always been happy and she laughed a lot, but it seems like things are actually funny to her now, and she also does things to make us laugh or because she thinks it's funny. She makes faces at me (my favorite is the side eye), and then will crack up laughing. :) She's also really into daddy making silly noises for her- he can make her laugh like no one else!

Being a silly goose- she did this all by herself after a bath one night!

Like I mentioned, Miss Evie is a girl with opinions now. One of these opinions is that shopping carts are akin to jail and it takes a battle to get her to sit in them. So thank goodness for Wegmans having these ridiculous shopping carts with cars on the front- we started using them a couple weeks ago and it's like magic! I used to have to feed her snacks the entire trip to keep her in the seat, now she just kicks back in the car and I don't hear a peep from her. :) They are incredibly awkward to push around the aisles (I've definitely bumped into a few displays lately), but if it keeps our trips peaceful I'll take it! Now to petition every other store to get these carts...

Cheesy "cheese" face

It's been a busy month at home for Mom and Dad with both car and house issues coming up, but thankfully Evie's none the wiser and she's had a great time. :) We also had a big dress up party for all of our friends this month, but I'm still waiting on some photos from parents before I post about it, so here's Evie playing with the train table at Barnes & Noble instead. 22 months here we come!

Bounce Magic Fun

Evie having a blast in the obstacle course 

Evie and Eli being such brave big kids going down the big slide by themselves!!

Evie's Vocabulary

This is kind of more for me than anything else, I just want to keep a list of all the words that Evie says these days. Lately she's gotten a lot better at repeating us, it's so exciting to hear her say new things! :) Of course not everything is the "real" word, but if it's something that she says consistently, I'm counting it, and I'll list her version of the word if it's different.

Hi
Hello- "Hewwo"
Bye
Mama
Daddy
Nana
Papa
Ally- "Ah-ee"
Emma- "Memma"
Henry- "Hen-ee"
Elmo- "Melmo"
Fresh Beat Band- "Bee"
More
Juice- "Joo"
Apple
Cheese
Up- "Pa"
Down
No- "Mo"
Poo Poo
Pee Pee
Diaper- "Dye"
Baby
Book
Boots- "Boo"
Boo Boo
Hat
Shoe
Dog
Woof
Car- "Ca"
Phone- "Wee" (I don't know where this came from, but she consistently calls cell phones "wee"!)

She also does the signs for all done and please. I worry that Evie is behind with her speech, but I try not to compare her to other kids and I know that she'll learn at her own pace. She is learning new words, and her comprehension is great when we're talking to her. She's definitely a smart cookie. :)