Evelyn Clara: 17 months

She's so grown up- I can't believe how fast time flies!! Summer is over, and now it's time for autumn. Evie had a great month, she is growing so fast and learning so much. You can really see how much her comprehension has improved, she follows directions really well and understands what we're telling her all the time now. She's a great little helper when it comes to cleaning up- she's so good at putting toys away! Evie also loves to help "wash dishes" now, aka play with a sink full of water and bubbles. ;) She's also into coloring.

But probably her favorite toys these days are dolls- she loves her babies! We have a doll-sized high chair from one of Eric's aunts, and we got her a little doll stroller, so she takes good care of her baby dolls. She pretends to feed them, takes them for walks around the house and outside, and gives them lots of hugs and kisses. She's started sleeping with a doll or two for naps and bedtime as well. It's so sweet to see her imitate all of the things we do to take care of her- she even puts diapers on the dolls when she gets a hold of one! :)

Evie has added a couple new words to her vocabulary, including Elmo ("Melmo") and Emma ("Memma"). She loves to run in circles lately, and then drop to the floor in a fit of giggles which is super fun to watch. :) She also has started showing interest in the potty, so we bought her a little potty that she likes to sit on fully clothed. We're going to start real slow with the training thing, just to see if she's ready.

We're so excited for lots of fun activities this fall- we've started a story class at the library on Friday mornings, and so far Evie seems to really like it. We plan to go to Letchworth for some hiking, and visit a pumpkin farm and the cider mill. Plus I think Evie will really enjoy playing in the leaves this year, since she can run and jump in piles now! She is amazing, and we love her so much.

Family Photos

For our anniversary my parents got us a gift certificate for a family photo shoot with Michele Wade Photography, and they turned out really great! Evie fought her nap that afternoon, so I had to wake her up to be on time at the park... so needless to say, she wasn't at her best. Because of that I was nervous about getting good photos- but Michele did a great job! She captured all the fun stuff in between Evie's scowls. ;) Here are some of my favorites!

Summer Photo Dump

We did so many fun things this summer- I can't believe that it's over! :( But, fall is around the corner and we have many more fun activities planned for the next season. Here are some pics from our summer adventures.

Erie County Fair- despite her looking a little nervous, she loved the horses!

The beach at Green Lake

Woodlawn Beach- first time in Lake Erie!

Possibly one of my favorite photos from the summer!

Peekaboo Evie

"Ma- look at those super cool river otters!"

My parents got us a family membership to the zoo for our anniversary, so get ready for a year full of zoo trips ;)

It's a fake pig- she loved it ;)

First kiddie train ride!!

Evelyn Clara: 16 months

Favorite books: Green Eggs and Ham (at least twice a day), The Circus Ship
Favorite food: eggs, rice, yogurt, strawberry fruit flats, veggie stix, popcorn, homemade chicken nuggets, anything that mommy seems to be enjoying
Favorite activities: coloring, washing the toys outside with a sponge and bucket of water, filling bags with stuff and carrying the bag around the house, reading books, running around naked after bathtime, pretending to drive daddy's car, being tickled
Favorite places to go: Green Lake park, Nana's house
Favorite words: "dog" and "woof" - which is so funny to me because we do not have a dog :)

Skills mastered: going up stairs using just hands and feet (no knees- and she can do a few without hands sometimes), going backwards in the Cozy Coupe car, kicking a ball, using a fork and spoon properly and unassisted, climbing into boxes/baskets (just needs help getting out)

Activities we did this month: baby shower for Pippa and baby Ezra, baby shower for Tammy and baby Evan,  mommy and daddy's 6th wedding anniversary- sleepover at Nana and Grandpa's, first trip to the beach, Erie County Fair, first haircut, family pictures today!

This is my favorite face that Evie makes these days, I call it the kissy face! :)

Mommy's New Toy

Eric got me a wonderful anniversary present this year- a new camera!! :) I am SO excited to learn how to use it, but already I see a difference in my photos, they look amazing! Stay tuned for about a million more photos of Miss Evie, because I need lots of practice. ;)

The Strong Museum & Convention

Well, I certainly am behind on posts huh? :) Summer is busy, it's crazy hot here, my camera had a battery leak last week... you know, the usual list of things that get in the way. So here I am to catch up!

Hanging out in the Sesame Street library- we did Sesame Street first, and I think Evie was really overwhelmed. But we found this little nook with books and she settled right in. :) After a couple minutes of book reading, she was ready to go check out the rest of the museum!

"Digging" in the rock pile.... or throwing rocks.

Daddy teaching Evie how to use the saw in Berenstein Bear land- this may have been one of Evie's favorite parts, it made a saw noise every time you moved it and she thought it was awesome!

Lifesize chess board. Evie won. ;)

We did the museum with our pals Aaron and Micah, and the kids all had a blast! It was really fun to go with friends, we'll definitely do it again.

Here we are on our way out, sitting on the steps in Sesame Street!

Our last stop at the museum- Evie's first ride on a carousel!! She really seemed to love it. Also, my photos in the kid-sized Wegmans didn't turn out well, so see her 15 month post for a video of her shopping, too cute!!

We did the Strong Museum on Thursday before our annual District Convention in Rochester. I was nervous for this year, everyone was telling me it would be our hardest. It's a tough age for a little one to sit in a seat quietly- for an hour, let alone all day! ;) I kept my expectations low and brought LOTS of things for Evie to do. Overall, she did better than I expected! The worst part was sleeping in the hotel room, she was NOT having it at all and didn't fall asleep until around 10 pm all three nights. She didn't like being in the same room as us, even though we turned off all of the lights and sat on the bed, she knew we were there and wanted to play. But, I think getting less sleep at night worked a little in my favor during the day because she was tired and she sat in my lap a lot. And I didn't have to walk her to get her to sleep, she fell asleep on my lap on her own. On Saturday afternoon she actually slept for almost 3 hours!!
She did play with some of the things I brought, but now I have a better idea of what works and what doesn't. And next year she'll be old enough to do more things (like coloring, which we tried but Evie wasn't interested), and she may understand a little better about sitting in our seats. We had a good time though and learned a lot!

Evelyn Clara: 15 months

Yes yes, I am behind. Let's move on shall we? ;) Evie is 15 (+) months, and the summer is flying by!! We've been very busy with swim lessons, playdates, parties, and mini trips. 

Evie finished up her swim lessons at East Aurora Community Pool this month, and I think overall they were a success. :) We learned that Evie has a great "superman float" as her teacher Miss Bree called it- that means floating on your belly. Evie is very comfortable in the pool which is good, and she really enjoyed all of the songs we sang for our lessons. The only thing she isn't fond of is floating on her back, when I'd try to hold her there she would put her legs straight up in the air everytime! :) I think we'll definitely do it again next summer.

Eric and I had two weddings this past month, so Evie spent some extra time hanging out with Nana and Grandpa, and she had her first overnight away from us!! She did very well, taking just under an hour to settle down to sleep, then going straight through the night- woo hoo!! Sorry for all of the exclamation points, I'm just pretty excited. ;) She's not away from us (or mostly me) that much, so it's good for her to spend the night with my parents occasionally. We're planning it again this coming weekend since it's mine and Eric's 6th anniversary.

New skills: running, identifying body parts (teeth, eyes, nose, ears, belly, toes), fetching toys/objects when asked, helping mommy clean up our toys (woo hoo again!), following more verbal commands, starting to learn the hand motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" on her own, hugging her stuffed animals and dolls

New words: ball, dog

I'm low on photos this month due to some camera issues, so check out a couple videos from the last month with Miss Evie. The first is one of her new games- being a monster. ;) Her little growl is the cutest! The second is her shopping at the kid-sized Wegmans at the Strong Museum that we went to last week- it was so fun!!!