Evelyn Clara: 18 months

I am just now realizing that I didn't blog here at all this month- sorry!! It was a crazy busy month, if you want to see some of the things we did, check out Evie's 365 blog.

In October, we started a library class at the Orchard Park Library with Miss Laurie- Evie loves it! We read a story, and then sing a bunch of silly songs with fun hand motions and sometimes a noise maker, and Evie has a blast. Then we do a craft- which Evie may or may not be interested in doing, depending on her mood.
One thing Evie is ALWAYS in the mood for is coloring. She loves loves loves to color these days- I put her crayons and paper in a basket that she can reach, and she pulls them out all by herself, plops down on the floor, and colors on and off all day. We also are starting to explore painting, and she seems to like that too. I'm trying to get more crafty with her, especially since winter is coming and we'll be in the house more.

Evie's grandma from California came to visit this month to meet the new baby in the family- Evie's cousin Evan. We spent a lot of time with Eric's family visiting baby Evan and doing fun things with Grandma. We are getting good use out of our zoo membership, and it's so fun to see her get more excited about the animals every time we go. The older she gets, the more she seems to notice. :)

We are still working on Evie's vocabulary- according to research, there is a big surge in language development between 18-24 months, so we're thinking things will pick up for Evie soon. She has started to repeat things occasionally, but definitely on her own terms and pretty sporadically. She is definitely getting more expressive though- my favorite thing that she says now is "whoa" with the funniest face when she's surprised about something. :)

Evie has started climbing in a big way- she wasn't really interested in climbing until just about the last month, but now she's mastered the kitchen chairs, the chairs at the Kingdom Hall, and she's working on the couches.
Evie's favorite activities include: coloring, playing with her dolls, playing in the sink with bubbles, helping mommy cook, bathtime, playing with friends. She is such an affectionate girl, she loves to give hugs and kisses and she does so freely, which makes me really happy. :)

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!