Birth....Day

It was at this exact time last year that I officially started labor contractions.  It was the beginning of the journey through the most amazing day of my entire existence.  I get chills looking back and remembering the excitement, the disbelief and yet absolute certainty of the event.  Tag remembers it as the beginning of the longest 28 hours of his life (!)

And now, we blinked and it's a year later. We celebrate her first birthday tomorrow.  Tag sent me the most tender text message today -- "Congrats my love.  It's as much her birthday as it is yours.  Birth....day."  It doesn't get any better than this.  My heart is full.

Here are some images from our visit to the Children's Garden this past weekend.  Evelyn loved playing in the various forts and garden houses -- Come spring she'll be trotting around through the flower beds on her two strong legs.

Putting away the Pump

It's been a long run, but with the recent battles of cold, flu and tonsilitis, my body couldn't keep up with baby milk production and my days of nursing are officially over.  I won't miss the pump.  I'm actually happy to retire that awful contraption.  Loathed pumping.  But it did allow me almost 12 blissful months of nursing my sweet baby girl even when I had to return to work.  Proud to have made it this far. Gave her the best possible start I could give her -- My gift to my growing, healthy Evelyn.  Good job Ta Tas.

Girl Time in Dallas

 

Took advantage of a rare open weekend on my amazing friend Beth's calendar and flew Evelyn to Dallas for some girl time.  Beth has a beautiful home, the sweetest hubby, cutest kitty cat -- and we descended on all of them for two days and nights of baby mayhem. Poor Blu, the kitty, was nothing short of terrified by his 22 lb invader and Ev seemed to sense it. They would have stare-downs, which ended abruptly when Ev would scream with delight and fascination, sending Blu careening across the hardwood floors to the nearest hiding spot.  Evelyn scored major on her first kitchen raid - hit the plasticware bin - Jack Pot !!  It was a wonderful catch-up weekend and we will miss Beth and her gang until we get to see them again.

Gorgeous. My heart swells to bursting whenever I look at her.

Tooth Number Two!!!

Didn't realize it, but tooth #2 snuck it's way in and is now neatly counterbalancing the first, both pivoted diagonally on her lower gum.  Wow.  Two teeth, three steps, and she's still a month away from her first birthday.  This is all happening sooner than I was prepared for (!).  Luckily, she's still fairly bald so she doesn't look a day over 9 months (if you ignore her perfect posture, amazing finger dexterity and uncanny sense of humor).  I have not been taking enough photos of her the past couple weeks, so I'm redoubling my efforts in order to capture her beautiful baby state before she goes and turns one year old on me.

Got the first "should" from my mom:  "She should be sleeping through the night by now."  Yeah, I know.  Tag keeps wondering about that as well.  I guess Evelyn didn't read the manual.  Or, more likely, she read it and decided simply to ignore it completely and do her own thing.  I would love it if she slept through the night of course.  I'm not waking her up on purpose; it's not my doing.  8 hours of continuous sleep sounds blissful to me.  But my baby girl is teething, she's growing, she's still nursing so she gets hungry in the middle of the night, and she likes to cuddle so it's a recipe for middle-of-the-night wakefulness.  It will all be over much too soon, so I'm just going with it.  What am I going to do, force her to sleep?

Gimme three steps

Tag had a vision this past week as he surveyed the daycare one morning during drop-off.  The older infant room babies were all wobbling around upright, either surfing the edges of toybins or venturing out into open spaces on their chunky uncertain legs.  "Any day now...maybe even today" he thought to himself, "Evelyn will take her first steps."  That was Wednesday morning.  Wednesday night when we were visiting at Oma & Opa's house, Evelyn took three solid unsupported well-balanced steps into my arms.  My mom and I hooted and hollored in excitement and amazement at the event we just witnessed and Ev, a little stunned perhaps, happily joined in, not fully understanding why we were making such a fuss but loving every second of it.  The funny part is, while Tag wasn't there, he happened to be on the phone with Opa (discussing a car maintenance issue of course) and heard us hollering.

Haven't seen any solid steps again since Wednesday, but she sure is getting steady on her feet.  I love watching this process of early development.  It's pretty incredible how quickly babies figure stuff out.  Speaking of figuring stuff out, Ev and I went to Babies R Us yesterday and loaded up on toilet seat and cabinet door fasteners...she knows how to open just about everything she can reach and we can't keep up with it any longer!

Party Time !!

In honor of Tag's 49th year, I decided to throw him a surprise 'Almost Fifty' party on the eve of Halloween (his true birthday).  Despite an ever changing schedule it somehow came off without a hitch (he was completely shocked) thanks to the help of his many caring friends and his brother Scott who flew in from Michigan just for the occassion (despite his story that he was attending a dental conference...Ha!).

 

We had a fun crowd -- almost 40 people all together -- and some great costumes.  The one comment I heard the most from folks though, was how Evey seemed to just take it all in and roll with it -- the faces should have terrified her, not just becuase they were strangers but because they were made up like zombies, ghouls and KISS rock stars...  But she doled out smiles with only a moments hesitation.  Loves new faces.  Even when they are the faces of Death 1 and Death 2 (our friends Rip & Natalie).  She dressed up as well, of course, and you've never seen a cuter giraffe  ;-)

For more party photos, follow this link:  http://memphisgrahamclan.shutterfly.com/

Laurie comes to town

Our dear friend Laurie, who bred both Potter and Stella (she owns their mom, lovely Caraway), came to visit for a long weekend and meet our latest addition.  Evelyn smiles at everything, and Laurie always has a smile on her face, so needless to say they adored each other and the laughter they shared was contagious.  Very very fun and a priceless memory.

Settling back into the routine

Back home after a fantastic visit overseas, we took plenty of time to sort out our schedules...  Tag, Evey and I all woke up at 4:30am the first night home, oddly lucid but not quite ready to start our day.  So we cuddled up in our pjs and put on a pot of coffee and played in the hearthroom, watching TV and generally lazing around until about 7:30am.  It was heavenly.  Tag and I both had the day off work to recover from jet lag, so we didn't have to follow a schedule or be anywhere.  Evelyn struggled with her sleep schedule for the next few nights, but gradually moved back into her routine and the fits of frenzy we witnessed on our trip in Europe dissappeared.  Babies sure do like their routines.

Returning to work was difficult for me.  I generally suffer from post-vacation blues anyway, but post-two-weeks-straight-with-Evelyn was a particularly painful adjustment.  Tough choice to be a full-time working mom.  I question myself all the time.  But Evelyn seems to enjoy her time at the daycare, playing with ALL their many toys and hangin' with her toddler peeps.