Aunt Lea and Anna Visit

Aunt Lea and Anna have come to visit from Denver and Evie has been having loads of fun with them. Above is Evie playing on the table at BW3s with them--she really enjoyed the salt and pepper shaker access!

They also helped give her a bath and she was pretty fun during bath time but a little cranky since it was a smidge past her bedtime. On Sunday she had her second swim class and she was not into it as much this time. I don't know if she was tired, or teething or just too cold but she seemed to tolerate being in the pool more than enjoying it like she has in the past. Her poor little lips turned blue almost instantly and her gums were chattering for a while:( When we got home we put this cute pink bow from Lea and Anna in her hair and she looked gorgeous, even with her Robin Williams face (I think this is the face of a teething baby!):Last night we went to the Melting Pot and she loved the balloon Nana got for her, but she is thinking really hard in this picture about how to get it into her mouth. it made me kind of sad though because while we were there I realized that she might never get to enjoy 2/3 courses depending on how this whole milk allergy thing pans out. And even though we scheduled her appointment with the allergist for today, we won't be going. I got a call from daycare after she had been there for about an hour saying she has been projectile vomiting for a while now so daddy went to pick poor sick Evie up. She had to her reschedule her appointment because she is sick. I am just bummed because it sucks for her to be sick AND I was really hoping to find out more about her milk allergy so I know what to expect. Now we'll just have to wait on that until next week.

And I almost forgot her funny from yesterday. So we were prepping everything to give her a bath last night and I stripped her down while daddy prepped the tub. She was in her birthday suit while we went from her room to our room, put some dirty laundry in the hamper, etc. and then we went into the bathroom, which I knew was taking a chance but my gamble paid off. I had Evie standing in the sink looking at herself in the mirror and I looked down and she was peeing everywhere--and boy does she have some good aim for a girl! The good news is it all landed in the sink and went down the drain but it was too funny--seconds longer on the laundry run and we would have been soaked!

First Swim Lesson and First Snow!

Today marks Evie's first swim lesson and her first real snow. We are pretty sure she enjoyed both but it was a little too cold to enjoy the snow much. In other Evie news she learned how to clap this weekend and is really good at it!

Here she is getting into the pool, Audry is in the corner of the picture. We are practicing steps and she wore her new suit--the little skirt part kind of fans out when it hits the water:
Mommy and Evie--not sure what she was thinking about all this--and Allison in the corner:Evie and Glenn. We actually know all the other babies in the class which is really fun. Glenn has quite his pick of the ladies.All of us playing humpty-dumpty and helping babies fall off the wall. From L-R is Sarah and Audry, Mommy and Evie, Carrie and Allison, Alex the instructor, Beth and Katie and Bethany and Glenn.

I tried getting some cute snow pictures of her looking at me but she loved it so much we had no luck. Plus it made this really cool crunchy noise she liked when she touched it:

Now she is melting down--to much new fun stuff I think!

Verdict in...

Evie does have a milk allergy according to her RAST test. It is 'moderately' severe and we are going to take her to an allergist soon to have the skin prick test done and see what we need to do from here. I am hoping: (1) that the RAST test was a false positive for milk allergy, (2) if it wasn't that she outgrows this, (3) in either case that she doesn't have any other allergies we just don't know about yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

Otherwise, Evie is super cute and loveable and fun and I am thankful everyday for her because she is the best thing I ever did and for sure the best thing daddy and I have ever done as a couple. She is awesomelicious!

Mommy started her new job on Thursday and hopefully this will mean more time with the Juner and less work stress overall, although learning the new in's and out's is going to take time, stress and making some mistakes probably. Fingers crossed for this too!

Last Sunday we went to Cinti to see the Voellmeckes and here is 4 generations of Voellmeckes:
If you zoom in you can see her poor bruised cheek from the coffee table fiasco. It is FINALLY starting to look better after 1 full week!

And here, just for fun, is Evie sleeping. She wouldn't nap on Monday unless I held her:)First swim lessons with all her friends: this Sunday!

Not so lazy Saturday

Today, Evie played with mommy and daddy for quite a while after getting up and then went to visit grandpa who watched her while we were out with friends. She took a two hour nap cradled in his arms and grandpa thought that was awesome!

Then she went with mommy to the store for a few minutes and we visited at the Sabs house. It was lots of fun and here are some of the highlights:

Evie and AllisonPeek-a-boo with AbbyClimbing in the cabinets with Abby

9 Months Old!

Evie is 9 months old now--time flies by so fast! She had a good New Year and has been doing all sorts of crazy things--she crawls really fast, babble talks a ton and daycare says she keeps trying to walk there too, but still early stages on all of that!Her 9 month appointment was Wednesday and she weighed 17 lbs, 12 oz with a head circumference of 18 inches and length of 28 inches. This puts her noggin' at 90%, weight at 30% and height at 60%...so she is all over the place, which isn't uncommon. She had fun playing with her reflection:The doctor seemed very concerned about the hives Evie has been getting that always seem to appear after she eats something with milk in it (other than breastmilk). When I called over December several times the nurse line people made it seem like no big deal, but after talking to the doctor we took Evie to get some bloodwork done to do a RAST test for milk and eggs. Apparently hives frequently signify a serious allergy that isn't something that is outgrown (lots of babies have trouble with milk but outgrow it later). Keep your fingers crossed--we really hope she doesn't have an allergy and that it is just a fluke.

Then we all went to PF Chang's to celebrate Holly's 30th...lots of fun. As you can see the Juner was really excited: She played for a while and then completely racked out for the rest of the night.

Evie got her first big boo-boo tonight. She was pulling herself up on the coffee table like she has a million times before and slipped and hit her right cheek on the table leg. It left a big indent for a while and immediately turned bruised and red. You can't see it great in this picture but she has a little purple bruise line from where she took the 'cheeker' into the table leg:(

Evie's First Eye Exam

Evie had her first eye exam last week. She did really well and managed not to cry or scream much at all, although she did squinch her eye closed really tight when the student tried to put the second set of eye drops in. She knew what was coming then.

It is crazy how hard an infant eye exam is. They do all the same tests they would on an adult but they obviously use different methods and lots of cajoling and toys. Here's some of the stuff they did that I can remember:

• tested her eye pressure (air puff of doom test for us) by pushing on her closed eyelid
• tested vision (do you prefer 1 or 2 for us) using cards with series of alternating black/white lines of varying widths which are pre-calibrated to certain prescriptions and by holding refractive lenses up to her and watching her look around
• dilating her eyes and looking into them with a head-band microscope thingy. This looked particularly challenging since she kept moving around
• patching one eye at a time to run tests sicne she can't cover one eye or close one eye at a time upon being instructed to do so
• checking her eye muscles and movement by having her 'track' a fun toy with her eyes but without moving her head (again challenging)

And so on. They did great and so did she--it took a little under 2 hours because of all the trickery needed. The student and attending optometrist were both crawling around on the floor and holding out all sorts of toys and then picking up the equipment they let her borrow that she then kept throwing on the floor and all sorts of craziness. You should totally take your baby (if you have one) for an eye exam because it is good for checking their vision and eye health of course but it is also pretty entertaining watching doctors try to get your 9 month old to cooperate.

According to the developmental survey they did, Evie is doing really well and in most instances is at 12 month functioning:)

The bad news is that we know for sure that Evie was able to see some of the awful happenings during the very tragic OSU-Florida game last night. We are all still very sad. She even wore her lucky socks, which we will now have to retire.

Happy New Year!

So welcome to 2007! We hope yours is off to a great start--Evie's is, Daddy's is and Mommy's will be soon hopefully!

Evie spent her first night away from both mommy and daddy on New Year's Eve--she stayed the night with Grandma V to celebrate both the New Year and Grandma's birthday (which is 12/31 every year...hmmm, how about that!?). She did really good that night but has been totally resistant to going to bed the past 2 nights for us. Last night after about 30+ minutes of trying to get her to stay asleep, I finally just walked away and zonked out in less than 5 minutes. It was a total riot though because you could tell she had been standing holding on to the side of her crib and just crumbled down and fell asleep. Poor baby!

Mommy's got big news--I have accepted a job at OSU that requires no travel and hopefully will be a better overall environment for me. I was supposed to start the new job the day after MLK day but now that has been delayed against my wishes...ask me directly for details. But the good news is still that I have a new job--no travel, less craziness, slightly more $$, so it sounds like a great deal to me!

Evie got loads more presents from Voellmecke family Christmas which we opted not to attend, again ask me directly if you want the full dirt, but it really isn't very juicy news. She is a very lucky baby! We plan to visit the family over MLK weekend so folks can see her since we stiffed them for family Christmas. Hopefully the weather will remain good for a quick trip to Cinti.

Evie is crawling and she is getting to be super fast--we have to really watch her now. No more 'velcro baby' as one of my co-workers calls it! She also has her very first ever eye exam tomorrow. As a plug for the students at my current job, make sure you have your baby's eyes examined. There is a program called InfantSee that is a national program (which our college takes part in) where optometrists can elect to see children for a free first eye exam (as long as you take the baby to a participating optometrist within the first 12 months--unless you are noticing a potential problem they recommend visiting between 8-12). So anyway, free is always good, making sure your baby can see is very good so what's not to love. I'll let you know how it ends up going!

A few Evie pics:Ignore the fact that we look a little weird and focus on mommy and Evie in matching coats!Evie got to hang out with Thyrone and Veronica , two very cool kids!Evie in her zebra hat from Aunt Laurie. The picture does not do this justice, really. It is very fun and is kind of mohawk/mullet-esque!