November 2013

Playing in the leaves with Oma !!

Look who we met at the playground!

Miss Evelyn has enjoyed being the recipient of "big sister" gifts.  We continue to receive amazingly generous gifts from friends and family for the baby, and they always sneak in a special something for Evelyn.  When her friends Haidyn and Ashtyn welcomed a baby brother in early October, I took Evelyn to the store to pick out "congratulations!" bags for them -- she had so much fun selecting little gifts and treats. When her own baby brother arrived, Evelyn was expectant when she arrived at the hospital.  "Where's my congratulations bag?!" she demanded.  Well I'm happy to report that she has been overly spoiled by all the thoughtful friends and family members who sent her a special big sister treat. And she loves opening all of Emerson's gifts for him -- "He doesn't even know what a present is!" she explains as she rips the wrapping off.

A friend invited us to a Santa breakfast event at a local church. Evelyn has been shy about meeting Santa in past years.  I wasn't sure how this year would go.  We were enjoying our breakfast when Ev started pinging me about getting in line to see the Santa, who was up on the stage at the front of the room.  I told her we'd wait until we finished eating.  She got impatient and begged me to let her go stand in line. Curious, I said, "sure" and watched her prance over to the end of the line of families - all by herself.  She stood there, patiently waiting, until she got to the front of the line.  Before I knew it, she jumped up onto the stage and crawled onto Santa's lap.  I had to run over and give our info to the photographer.  Ev was happily chatting with Santa, posed for the photo with a huge toothy smile on her face, then gave him a big bear hug and hopped off his lap, accepted her candy cane (she LOVES candy canes) waving goodbye as she exited stage right.  The candy canes became part of her new invention:  peppermint milk (drink milk through a straw with a candy cane in your mouth). What a hoot.

kisses kisses kisses

innovation: peppermint milk

super cute Piggy Paint and decals from Aunt Claudia

Tag flew up to Chicago for a family wedding (Tyler got married!), arm cast and all, so I was on my own with the baby and Evey for a long weekend.  Thank goodness for play dates.  Ev had a good time with her buddy Skye one afternoon, and our friends the Feinstones were happy to have Ev visit for a bit, which really helped me out.  She's a bit of a bear with her baby brother...I feel like a defensive guard trying to keep everybody happy.  Exhausting. I'm ready for her to just relax about it already.

There was a critical workshop at my office that I wanted to show my support for, so I packed up little man for a day on the job.  It's not every workplace that would welcome an infant -- but mine was so thrilled to have Emerson there that they fought over who got to hold him (!).  He was a dreamboat, sleeping soundly through much of the day, waking only when he was hungry.  Wish I could just take him with me when I go back to work.  Dreading having to leave him at home while I spend 10+ hours a day away from him...

Emerson at the front of the room during a breakout session

Tag flew to Boston for a work thing so I had yet another weekend on my own (good practice).  That's when the heat decided to go out.  My parents were out of town, so I called our friend Tim (HVAC pro) and he walked me through the checks to see what the problem might be.  I had to leave Emerson in his bouncy seat in the room off the attic (didn't want to take him into the cold cold attic or anywhere near the broken furnace), and I locked Ev out of the room to keep her from mangling him (you can imagine how she felt about that).  So I had a cold house (62 degrees), a crying infant, a screaming 4 year old, and I'm trying to figure out how to trouble shoot a darn furnace over the phone. Wasn't pretty.

The beauty of playdates
Skye, Ev and Chloe burned up an afternoon with happy painting