January 2013

Dress up with best friend Lilly in her spectacular playroom.

In the princess tent...

Miss Super Pink is Super Fabulous

Expert make-up application, with the Cinderella vanity from neighbor Cathy.

 

January was tough.  I had my longest work trip ever -- traveled Europe for 2 weeks (UK, Greece, Belgium).  I've never been away from Evey (or Tag for that matter!) for that long, and it was extremely tough on all of us.  Tag did a tremendous job on the home front and sent me loving messages and videos to keep me connected. Staying busy and seeing the awesome sights on my travels kept my mind off of what I was missing back home, and I traveled in good company, but I hope not to travel away from my family that long again.  When I finally arrived home, Tag and Evelyn met me at the airport -- she came running across the floor toward me, a bouquet of flowers in her hand, huge happy smile on her face yelling "Mamma!" and I hugged her so hard I think I suprised her.  She was curious about the tears running down my face but I couldn't speak, so I just hugged her some more.  Missed her so so so so much.

Very First French Braid !!

Microphone gift from Nanny Ruthie and Poppa Graham -- a rock star is born

Christmas 2012

This Christmas was truly magical.  Evelyn was excited about the concept of Santa Claus, and starting to understand what his visit means in terms of Christmas morning excitement.  It was totally fun.  She got a bunch of gifts from Santa - including a doll house with all the cool furniture to fill the rooms up with.  I'm going to enjoy playing with her toys too!

Her favorite toy is the doctor kit - we all got check ups and (the best part) SHOTS. Super cute.

Opa enjoyed her gifts too -- the Dora guitar (thanks Uncle Paul) got a fun test drive from Opa.

December 2012 - The Big Three

Ev planned her entire birthday party: she invited her "heartsong friends"(Sammy, Abigail, Conner, Addison, Haidyn, Marshall and Adrian, and also her buds Lilly and Chloe. And bonus: Her old teachers from Heartsong, Nessa and Erin, also came. She wanted to do a "project" so I asked an art teacher friend for ideas and she came up with a great construction paper "stained glass window" craft.  Evelyn also wanted flower cupcakes, cheetos, pizza, and freeze dancing (how perfect is that?). Oh, and of course balloons. I have to say, it was a fantastic party. The weather was so nice, everyone headed into the backyard afterward for some spontaneous fun in the warm Memphis-in-December air. She has great friends.

Dearst, loving Erin

Awesome teacher (and play buddy), Nessa

 

Three is pretty amazing.  Evelyn can do so many things for herself now, and she's smart as a whip, so figuring things out doesn't take long, though she is pretty impatient with herself.

 

Tag has trained Evelyn well.  She can spot his preffered beer as we tool down the grocery aisle, stopping me to point it out.   Once, after a quick run through to pick up some essentials, E lectured me loudly as we left the market "but poppa needs more bicycle beer!" (aka Fat Tire). I can't say that she was wrong either - what was I thinking?

 

We like to meet friends up at the club on Thursday evenings for Italian Family Night.  They have a clown lady there, Miss Sally, who makes balloon animals and does face painting.  Ev loves it.

 

We love singing together. Any old song I can pull out of my memory from girl scout camp or sunday school ... one of our favorites is On Top of Spaghetti (sung to ....Old Smokey).  She's really quick to pick up songs, and the more animated the better.

 

Another love -- Costco visits -- especially the pizza and hot dogs from the cafe.  She's not quite brave enough to try out the samples that they offer around the store, but she loves the idea of accepting the little cup and spoon, so I end up eating everything.



November 2012

This one helps herself to hard-to-reach places now...

Auntie Laurie came to visit -- now it's impossible to live with her.  She and Auntie Laurie are like two peas.  And Laurie helps her do her hair and apply make up -- they chatter away upstairs like two sisters.  They are inseparable -- and Laurie has taught her to chant "I want to move to Connect-i-cut!"

Noodles are no match for Evelyn. She wont let me cut them into pieces anymore....She's a pro slurper.

 

Dress Up remains a favorite activity. But now there's makeup.  Not sure why she feels compelled to apply Groucho Marx eyebrows....LOL

The Feinstones took us to a Memphis Tigers basketball game (so fun). Evey's favorite part: the blue tongue snow cone effect.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with the Sullivan's; had them over for Tag's awesome deep fried bird and got to play outside a bit thanks to mild weather.  Lilly and Jackson are the sweetest kids - we try to give Ev as much time as possible to play with them - they are like her siblings, and Darcy is, as Evey told me once "my mommy when I'm at Lilly's house."

Ev continues to develop her sense of personal preferences.  And she is getting more sophistocated with her opinion sharing. How does Evelyn file a complaint during early childhood class? The note on her lunchbox container read "Evelyn said she doesn't like this part of her lunch."

October Festivities (2012)

I love Memphis in October.  The weather is mild, there are festivals and pumpkin patches and hayrides, and my new favorite holiday - Halloween! Evelyn makes everything fun, and we were busy all month. 

Headed off to a pumpkin patch with Oma and Opa -- day was complete with train ride, hay ride, petting zoo, pony ride, corn bin, bouncy ring, feeding the fish, and of course pumpkin hunting.  Ended the day with a trip to her favorite lunch spot, "old mcdonald" (what she still calls McDonald's).  She has some stamina, that's for sure.

She told me she wanted to be a zebra for Halloween, so we went shopping one day in search of a zebra costume... she spotted a strawberry costume at Old Navy and changed up the whole plan.  "I want to be a strawberry!"  To be sure that was her final choice, I ask her to try it on first -- She was more than happy to, and modeled it sweetly in front of the dressing room mirror.  Sold!  Cutest strawberry on the planet.

She wore it to a dress-up music event, and Zoo Boo, and to a dance party at the club, and just twirling around the house...Loved it. Then Halloween came. Suddenly, she didn't want to be a strawberry anymore.  She decided that very evening to dress up as a "jasmine princess" (??).  Luckily, we just had to offer some minimal assistance with pulling on a shimmery skirt and blouse from her dress-up chest.  I applied some "princess makeup."  Her home-made glitter-glue and puffy sticker deco'd paper crown was the final finishing touch, and she was ready for action.

This was her first year for trick-or-treating.  Wasn't sure how it would go.  Turned out she had some serious marathon skills -- wanted to keep going and going -- "Porch Light!!" she'd yell and we'd pull the wagon up to the next house with a lit-up porch.  She was a bit shy about saying the magic trick-or-treat words, but a soft, shy "thank you" was always given.  She was amazed that she was being given candy.  She doesn't even really eat candy (lollipops are the exception), but loves to open up the packages and lick the chocolate off, or nibble the edges.  And leave the wrappers everywhere.

September 2012 (Big Girl Stuff)

Modeling Minnie Mouse's Bow

Evelyn is clear on How Things Are.... 

I reacted playfully to a story she was telling by kicking off a fake-cry when she told me, with patient authority, "Mammas don't cry.  Mammas are always happy."

Boys vs Girls:
The difference between boys and girls is always top of mind.  She's constantly reminding Tag that he is a boy, and she is a girl, and that Tag can't use her pink cup, or wear a dress, or sit in a particular spot...  And she's formed a small girl-club with me, parroting everything I say - especially when I make a comment to Tag:

"Tag, you need to wash this again, you missed a spot" I'll say.  Ev chimes in directly after, "Tag, you do it again!"

"Great dinner babe, thanks for cooking tonight."  Ev follows with, "Great dinner, Babe."

She hollers across the house for him with a loud "Tag!!!"  It's hilarious.

She rarely calls me Heidi, but has recently started calling me "Mom" which I don't like much (far too grown up for me...).

The tantrums are still with us, lurking behind corners...ready to spring...but they seem to have diminished in force slightly.  And we can even head them off at the pass sometimes.  We're all getting a little better with them, but Ev gets the most credit. She's really working on her self-control.  (I think the fits scare her a little bit...)

Dress Up (or off...): 
She was trying on dresses that my boss's family gave her (they have 4 older girls) and needed my help to button one of them.  She wore the dress for a couple minutes and decided she didn't like the way it felt and tried to lift it off over her head.  It wasn't cooperating, and she didn't feel like asking for help, so she struggled and argued with it, pulling at it around her shoulders and running around the dining room table shouting "I Juss Wan To Be Naked For Ever!!!!"

All Glammed Up in Mamma's Clothes

Big Girl School:
We took the plunge and made the switch to the new school.  The school she'll likely be in through middle school.  It's an awesome curriculum - I feel so lucky that we have access to it, let alone that it's just down the street.

Even so, I cried when I picked her up on her last day at daycare.  And made everybody else cry.  What a great place.  But girls grow up, and the teachers seemed to understand (and agree) that Ev is ready for a bigger challenge.  Ev talked about her old classroom, her old friends, her old teachers, for a couple weeks afterward.  Missing them, feeling their loss.  But she has not for one minute looked back.  She LOVES her new school (thank God) and the teachers there are very gentle and flexible in their approach with her.  Tag loves the school too, and appreciates the unique education that it offers. So things have worked out exceptionally well.  I'm very grateful.

August 2012 (Fits and Starts)

First Corn Dog

Picasso Al Fresco

She kept pushing my hands away - wanted to hang on "by myself"

Tag indulging her dress-up passion before school

Big Changes

We love her day care.  They have poured love into Evey since she started attending at six months old.  Her latest teachers in particular have become part of our family - both Erin and Janessa love Ev as if she were their own (which, in a way, she is).  All her classmates are her buds and we've gone to all kinds of birthday parties lately as they all turn 3.  Such a great bunch.

Well, August is the time of year when everybody shifts classrooms. All of Ev's classroom was moving up.  This was inevitable.  What we didn't expect though, was that Ev would move up one class, and all her friends would move up two.  Ev and Adrian were left behind because they were the youngest.  So Ev was suddenly in a new classroom, with new teachers (who were new to Heartsong...), and with a bunch of new kids who were still in diapers.  Hmm.

We gave it a try for a couple weeks...but those were bumpy weeks.  And I couldn't help but wonder, is this the right time to go ahead and make the change to the Montessori school that I knew I wanted her to attend...?  I mean, as long as there's big disruption going on anyway, and since Ev will basically plateau in learning at daycare (not to mention boredom...)...  But it was tricky.  I certainly didn't want to push her too soon.

Cue the Epic Fits

At about the same time, Ev started throwing Epic Mind Boggling Froth At The Mouth Fits.  Don't know if it was just coincidence... Don't know if it was triggered by the changes at school...or the last push of her molars...or simply fate doling out payback (ask my mom).  All I know is that one moment I was bringing home my sweet cheerful two year old from daycare, and the next instant she's throwing herself on the rug in an incosolable, writhing fit on a scale that I had never witnessed in my life before.  Over NOTHING.  I mean, I think it might have been because I didn't hear what she said and had to ask her to repeat it.  Or maybe it was because she didn't like where her shoes landed when she kicked them off.  I'm sayin' it was triggered by thin air.  And I was completely unprepared.  I tried to console her and simply let her know I was there (she wouldn't let me touch her).  If I walked away she would scream for me, but walk toward her and she screamed almost in pain.  I was in way over my head.  Took a while, that first one, but it did come to an end, and we cuddled in shared exhaustion, both a bit shocked by the whole thing.

The next one I remember (and will remember for eternity) was in the Target parking lot.  Actually, it started inside, but I had already finished shopping and even paying for a cart full of stuff.  She wanted a hot dog, and I knew we were edging close to a hunger episode, so we stopped at that snack bar they have near the front door.  Bought the dog, put the ketchup on it for her, and next thing I know, it's flying across the room, ketchup coating the table, chairs, floor, me, and my daughter is about to back-flip off the plastic chair onto the tile floor.  The guy with the nachos who had given us a friendly smile not 60 seconds ago, is suddenly desperate to shrink into his chair, never daring to even glance in my direction.  The screaming is so loud, I think the entire Target thinks someone is trying to murder my child.  I was oddly calm, retrieving the hot dog and wiping up ketchup while wrangling the bucking bronco on my hip...

We left quickly, Ev's screaming and writhing more frantic by the second.  I had to concentrate so I wouldn't laugh, even though it was pretty hysterical, because laughing really did not seem to be helpful to Ev in her state.  Not sure what she was actually conscious of, but it didn't seem respectful to laugh uncontrollably at your child (though I wasn't sure I recognized her).  In the same thought stream, when I had to set her down on the asphalt to unload the cart (I couldn't put her in the cart or she'd launch herself out of it, and I couldn't hold her safely with one arm), I actually wondered to myself if she was exhibiting signs of aspergers.  People (women) in the parking lot did one of two things as they passed by: 1) Completely and utterly ignored us, as if they heard nothing (impossible) or 2) Glanced over knowingly and offered me a small smile of sympathy.  Took about 20 minutes before I could get her into the vehicle safely.  How anyone can scream that intensely for that long and not loose their voice is beyond me.  I'm glad to say, that's the worst one on record.  So far.