Evelyn Clara: 24 months old

AKA two!!! Oh man, she is growing up fast. :) And yes, I know I am way behind on this post, but with Eric's grandfather passing away and then Evie getting the dreaded stomach flu that's going around, we've been pretty busy around here the last couple of weeks. So, on to the photos!!

2 Year Facts
Evie's favorite foods: pickles, black olives, yogurt, grilled cheese, pancakes, cookies, juice, and broccoli
Evie's favorite toys and activities: Mr. Potato Head, her play kitchen, balls, playing in the creek, jumping on the couch (or anything else she can jump on), taking care of her baby dolls
Evie's favorite shows/movies: Fresh Beat Band, Doc McStuffins, Cars, Toy Story 1,2, and 3
Evie's favorite books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Colors, First Words, A Day at the Shore, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?
Evie's favorite songs: "Drive My Car", "These Are My Glasses", and "I Know a Chicken" by the Laurie Berkner Band, and "Hot Potato" by the Wiggles

When Grandma was here for a visit, Evie received a tea set from an aunt that she loves. Since then she's been super into drinking tea, and anytime anyone is drinking it she immediately asks "tea?" in this super cute high pitched voice. Who can say no?? :) So she's been drinking a lot of tea lately (her order is decaf with lots of milk and sugar). She's gotten surprisingly good at drinking out of an open cup over the last month or so, she rarely spills if she's paying attention.
Evie's language is starting to improve, she's getting better at trying to repeat words that we say, and has added some new words to her vocabulary. We're still working on two syllable words, she's only got a couple of those down. But we're working with a speech therapist now and I hope to see some more progress soon.

Evie's sense of humor is really starting to shine, she understands when things are funny now and does things on purpose just to get a laugh. She's a happy girl, still very friendly and outgoing with everyone. She loves other kids, especially babies whom she always wants to hug and kiss and hold. She's pretty stubborn too, occasionally carrying on about something or other way longer than I expect her to. But overall she's very easygoing and laid back.

Evie is definitely a nature girl, which is so exciting for Eric and I to see!! She loves to be outside, to play in the dirt and run in the grass. She doesn't mind getting dirty and she loves bugs. She also loves loves LOVES water, and since the weather has finally warmed up we've been down at the creek behind our house a lot. She likes to look for fish, throw rocks in the water, climb around the banks, and pick flowers. It's hard to get her away from the water she loves it so much.

Evie is also quite the daredevil which is fun (and occasionally scary) to watch. ;) She loves to jump on anything, and since we went to SkyZone a couple times over the winter, trampolines are her favorite. She has no fear, just loves to go as high as she can. She also jumps on our sectional at home quite a bit, and her mattress in her crib. She likes to go fast and high on the swings, and squeals "wheee!" the whole time. :) 

It has been an amazing two years, and we're looking forward to many many more!

Spring is finally here!

Just a few photos from the last week or so, we've had lots of rain, but also some really gorgeous days thank goodness- today it was nearly 80 degrees!! We are so happy to be able to get out of the house and play. :)

Also, sadly Eric's grandfather passed away this past Tuesday evening. He was a wonderful man who loved his family and we will miss him dearly.

Scolding the Ducks

Evie often lines her ducks and other bath toys up on the tub ledge and then knocks them in for fun. Well last night they must have been misbehaving, because Evie gave them each a talking to before they got to swim. She cracks me up. :)

Evelyn Clara: 23 months old

 When is spring coming??? We are SO ready!! Evie is just one month away from being two years old.... TWO YEARS OLD. I can't believe it. We didn't have a whole lot of excitement this past month, between the weather being pretty awful, and almost two weeks of sickness between croup and a head cold for Miss Evie. We stuck around the house for the most part, doing lots of arts and crafts, and watching lots of movies. ;) These days, we are all about Toy Story (1, 2, and 3, with 3 being the favorite). We also watch a few other movies- but really it's all about Buzz and Woody!!

 Evie is doing great, I feel like I don't have much to report this month.... much of the same. I took these photos on one of the three decent days we had all month, and when I say decent I mean above 40 degrees. I'm excited to see how different Evie will be this summer running and playing- she's definitely pretty fast, and is starting to master the skill of moving her little car by herself (which she did for less than 3 seconds in the video below). We are ready to get back to the playground and park and beach and all of that.
I'm going to try and get some nice photos of Evie for next month- I actually miss doing Evie's 365 blog, because I had better odds at getting good photos of her when I was taking them every day. It's hard to capture a toddler on camera, so I need to work harder at remembering to pull my camera out!

Evie the Artist

Evie has been sick with croup and a cold for a week now- so we've been doing whatever we can to keep busy and get through the days stuck in the house. One of Evie's favorite things to do these days is paint. :)

Sky Zone Fun

A winter activity to get some energy out- jumping around at an indoor trampoline park! :)

Evelyn Clara: 22 months

So I'm a couple days behind, sorry friends. But Miss Evie is 22 months old now, and living it up toddler style. ;) It's the end of February, and you know how everyone in Western New York gets by now- we are SO SICK OF WINTER!!!! It's such a hassle to go anywhere, but we are tired of being in the house so much. So I'm trying to be creative and come up with fun things for Evie and I to do around the house. And still get out and do playdates and fun things occasionally.

 We've started doing a lot of crafty things, which I love and so does Evie. Her most favorite activity right now is Play Doh, she asks for it every single day. We started out with some homemade stuff, a plastic knife and some cups- and now we have a whole box full of molding toys, cookie cutters, rolling pins, etc. and some of the real Play Doh because she enjoys it so much. When I play with her, she wants me to roll all of the Play Doh into different size balls, and then she puts them in various cups and dumps them out and moves them around and lines them up. She also likes to do the cookie cutters, and use the plastic scissors to cut up Play Doh ropes that I make for her. But the greatest part about Play Doh is that she plays it by herself too!! So nice for mommy to make dinner or clean the kitchen. :)

We've also gotten into painting lately- so far we've done regular paint with brushes, shaving cream and food coloring in the bathtub, and shaving cream mixed with regular paint on paper. I've noticed that Evie doesn't like to get paint on her hands right now- any little bit that touches her skin she's asking for me to get it off immediately. Such a girl. ;) But she get's into the painting quite a bit, it's fun to see her mix the colors and get creative.

And of course she still loves to color- particularly with the Color Wonder markers right now. Those are working amazingly for meetings, she's been so good lately!!! For much of the meeting, she is content to sit in her seat or on my lap, and color in a coloring book with those markers. Sometimes we do crayons too, but the markers hold her interest for longer at this point. I made her a book with laminated pictures to color and got those dry erase crayons, but she didn't take to them the first time I brought them out. We'll try again at the assembly in a couple weeks.

Other fun activities Evie enjoys right now: playing with friends, taking care of her baby dolls, cooking in her play kitchen, helping mommy cook in the real kitchen, watching Fresh Beat Band, and jumping on our new sectional couch. Or anything else that she can jump on. She really likes to jump these days. ;)
Hopefully the weather starts to warm up soon, I can't wait to go to the park again and get out for walks. I think there will be such a difference between last year and this year for Evie at the park, she'll play so differently now! They grow up so fast, it's amazing to watch. :)