Evelyn Clara: 12 months

Our baby girl is one year old. It seems impossible, but it's really been a whole year. She is the most amazing little person, I feel so blessed to be able to be her mom and spend every day with her. She makes me laugh and she is so much fun- she is really growing up and becoming a little toddler. There have been some rough times for sure (especially in the middle of the night!), but to be honest you forget all about them the next day- the good memories overshadow the hard ones every time.

Some fun facts about Evie: she knows the word "no" now, and has said it clear as a bell. I'm going to save my sanity and tell you that "mama" was her first word, but honestly she's only said that a couple times for sure. But twice now in the last couple of weeks, we've asked Evie to do something, and she shakes her head and very clearly says "No!" She knows what she wants, that's for sure. ;)
Her favorite game right now is putting everything on her head and pretending it's a hat. Cups, bowls, bibs, blankets, clothes, books- anything. She puts them on her head and the grins at me and waits for me to say "hat?" and then she laughs. Other things that make Evie laugh include us putting random things on our heads, and crazy ticklefests with Daddy. She's also learning to point at different people and body parts- right now she knows "where's mama?" (point at me), "where's Evie?" (point to herself), and sometimes we succeed at "where's your nose?" (point to nose).

Evie actually sits and lets us read her books now, which is really fun and I love it. Sometimes she gets impatient and turns the pages quick, but usually she'll let you read her a whole story cover to cover now. Her favorite books right now include The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Monster at the End of This Book, and a series of Baby's Day Out books we have. I can read her longer books while she's playing with toys too, she likes If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.
Evie has loved music for a while now, and now I sing kids songs with her and I'm starting to teach her the hand motions. She LOVES Itsy Bitsy Spider, and I hold her hands and do the actions. While we were taking these photos I was singing it to her, and she even started trying to do the motions herself!! :) We also do Patty Cake a lot, and I sing Wheels on the Bus- are there hand motions that go with that? I feel like there are... maybe I should look them up. :) She still dances everytime she hears music, which is adorable! As far as non-baby music goes- Evie has shown an affinity for Britney Spears (don't tell Aunt Allison!!), and she really likes this song.

 

 Evie is walking pretty much full-time now, it seems like it happened overnight!! She took her first steps about a month ago (March 23rd to be exact), and just within the last week has started walking all the time now. She has great balance, is able to bend down and pick things up without falling, and she often carries things around the house while walking. It's so fun to hear "the pitter patter of little feet", as corny as that sounds. :) It seems like she's been working hard on motor skills for a bit now, so I'm looking out for her verbal skills to pick up now that she's mastered walking. And she's burning the calories to prove it- she's our little peanut at 18 lbs. right now!

All in all, Eric and I are so blessed to have Evie in our lives, and we can't wait to see what this next year with her brings. We have so many exciting things planned- it's going to be a really fun summer!! I'm still going to continue with monthly posts for Evie (although thank goodness I won't have to battle with stickers anymore!! As you can see the 12 month one only made a brief appearance), and I'll keep doing random posts in between. I have a couple videos of Evie walking and such, but I don't know how to get them from my iPhone to the computer without them being sideways.... I'm going to attempt using YouTube, so stay tuned for those. :) Love to all!!

Evie's First Bonfire

We had our first bonfire at the new place, and Evie seemed to enjoy it. :) Obviously the more mobile she gets, the more we have to be careful with having fires in the backyard, but both Eric and I grew up with parents who loved wood fires, and we're the same, so we intend to just teach Evie from an early age how to play safely. Plus it helps to have lots of extra eyes and arms around to keep her occupied and at a safe distance.
Evie didn't nap super great (too busy out shopping with Aunt Tammy!), so I gave her a bath and put her jammies on before everyone came over, figuring I'd let her stay out until she got cranky and then just put her to bed. She did so great playing with everyone until about 8:30. :) Here are some pics!

Hanging out with Uncle Matt

Mama and a flying super baby ;)

Evie loves Aunt Ally!!

Evie getting into the stash.... we laughed and then promptly hid the alcohol ;)

Good fire Dada!

Playing with Carly's dog Bella, Evie laughed so hard at this silly puppy!

Teeth Photoshoot

In an attempt to get a good shot of Evie's two new teeth to put in her baby book, I got up close and personal with Evie and the camera this morning. It resulted in a really hilarious string of photos.....

Flash is too bright- sorry baby!

Here is the debut of a new "face"- everytime I said "smile!" she gave me this scrunched up cuteness :)

Teeth!!!! I will probably crop this and use it in the baby book 

She had me laughing so hard with this face!!! Love her so much

Springtime Stroll

Evie is thisclose to walking on her own these days, and I'm so excited! Here she is in our driveway, showing off with the walker that Nana and Grandpa got for her. 

Evelyn Clara: 11 months

Well guys.... this photo is the best I could do. :/ We're 11 months old after all- who has time to sit still for a photo!?!?! Evie is ALL OVER THE PLACE these days, so photos in general are not her favorite thing. She rarely sits still, and even bribery with cheese didn't really do the trick. Oh well!
So Evie's 11th month was certainly an eventful one. We bought a new house and moved in, Evie got her first and second tooth, and she took her first steps!! Yes, Evie took her first (what I consider to be real) steps just two days ago on Friday evening, walking in between Eric and I. She's been cruising the furniture for months now, and is getting really quick. She just started standing on her own regularly about a week ago, and now she's taking a couple steps at a time in between objects or people. I am very excited for her to start walking, although I might be eating my words once she actually does.
Evie's doing great in the new house, she seems to have adjusted really well. We're still having some wake-ups at night, but they're very random and I'm struggling to figure out what's causing them. But there is plenty of space for her to play and I love seeing her feel at home.
Evie's favorite foods these days include peaches, bananas, graham crackers, and yogurt. She got a bad stomach bug about a week ago, and since then she has been turning her nose up at ALL vegetables, even the veggie muffins that she used to love. :( I'm working on coming up with some creative ways to get veggies in her since I plan to wean from breastfeeding over the next 1-2 months, so she needs to be eating a balanced diet on her own. But she definitely knows what she wants and she is stubborn!
Evie likes to play with her shape sorter, activity table, walker from Nana and Grandpa, Raggedy Anne doll from Grandpa Vic, and her new quiet book made by all of our mommy friends. :) I might do a seperate blog post about that with photos of the book- it turned out really cute!!
I've been super behind on blogging because Time Warner is dragging their feet on installing cable and internet at our new place, so forgive me for being behind here and on Evie's 365 blog. I'm doing my best to catch up at my parents and on my phone when I can. Hopefully this week we'll have internet, because I have some really cute videos I want to put up! :)

First (and second) tooth!!

Evie finally popped a tooth- yay!!! :) Well, the teething process has been anything but yay- Evie has a wicked runny nose and a bit of a rash, and she's generally not her happy easygoing self. I've been able to see that the gum was opening for a few days now, and just this morning I can feel a little point of a tooth. It's the front bottom right, and I can see that the front bottom left won't be far behind. Hopefully they come up quickly so that my poor girl isn't in pain much longer. But I know she'll love having teeth, because she loves food and she's always trying to "bite" pieces off with her gums. :) I'm excited, but a little sad too because this means she's really growing up.
No photo of the tooth yet, she won't let me near it, so here's a pic from last week while we were at one of Evie's favorite places- Wegmans!! She loves to look around and wave and smile at everyone. :)

Evelyn Clara: 10 months

Evie's tenth month has definitely been a busy one- for her and for mommy and daddy! We have a lot of big things going on, and it's all very exciting. :) Evie is doing very well, she's such an easy-going baby. She is so friendly and warms up to people very fast, she is a pleasure to be around.
Some new things Evie's been working on: standing on her own- she does this more and more, and for longer periods of time. It's funny because she'll stand there no problem... until she realizes that she's not holding onto anything, then she gets down. :) We think she'll be taking steps very soon! Also, Evie has learned to clap, and does it on her own at the funniest times. Most often when she's eating, which is one of her favorite activities these days. ;) She also claps when music comes on, which is super cute. Speaking of music, Evie has also started "dancing" to music- she bops her head back and forth, and if she's standing up she'll bounce up and down. This is her favorite song right now, sometimes we play it ten times in a row! I got a little bit of a video of her bopping around, but I'm working on capturing the clapping.
It's getting harder for me to take photos of Evie these days because she doesn't stay still long enough!! She is ALWAYS on the move, crawling and cruising everywhere. She also is anti-looking at the camera right now, which is funny because a couple months ago she was such a ham looking right at it for me. Oh well, I'm sure it's a phase- there are too many other interesting things to do and see right now!
Some favorite toys include her wooden shape sorter cube and her Fisher Price activity table. She also has really gotten attached to her "lovey" (little pink blanket), so I'm thinking I need to buy a backup now! She also, as I mentioned, loves food, especially peaches, pears, bread, and pasta with red sauce (for evidence, see here).
I mentioned big things going on.... we bought a house!! It's just about 5 minutes away from where we currently live, but we can't wait to be homeowners again. It has 4 bedrooms and a nice big family room (plus a huge garage for Eric), so we're very excited. We plan to move the second weekend in March, so this will be a big change in Evie's life. I mentioned she's very easy-going, so overall I think she'll adjust well. The one thing I'm worried about is sleeping- because she's a little picky when it comes to that. She will really only nap in her crib these days, which is SO nice when we're home, because I can put her in there and she talks for a few minutes and then goes to sleep. But if we're anywhere but home, she pretty much never naps. SOMETIMES, if she's super exhausted, I get 20-30 minutes in my arms, if I nursed her to sleep. Otherwise, she won't nap till we're home. But she's sleeping through the night and taking great naps, so I hope we don't lose that when she goes to her new room. I'm sure it'll be okay, it will be the same crib afterall! :)
I will keep you posted if/when Evie takes her first steps- so exciting!!

P.S. It took me 25 minutes to get the photo above, so yea- you should appreciate it. ;)