Can't catch a break!

It has been a crazy week at La Casa Treboni. Last weekend, mommy contracted swine flu of all things and was out for the count for a great part of the week, then when she finally started to get better, Evie got it. Daddy and Frankie have dodged the bullet on this one--you go gentlemen!

As a result, I was housebound for a week and didn't have Frankie with me for quite a bit of that time to keep him from getting sick. My breast pump broke while Frankie was at nannygrandpas but I managed to borrow one from work and order a replacement one for myself for cheap, so that wasn't the tragedy it initially looked to be. Every surface in my house has been sanitized and cleaned multiple times and I have done more laundry than I ever would have thought possible. Not terribly relaxing but my understanding is that Evie and I are now safe from getting H1N1 again since we already had it. Small favors, right?

We had to miss my first family wedding ever, which was a total bummer, but giving this to other people didn't seem right. Frankie will have to meet his peeps a little bit later on in life. We also had to cancel his one month appointment so no clue how much he has grown but my spidey sense says he has grown lots! He is such a cutie and a really good-natured baby even when he spits up--which he does a lot. He just sits there and looks at you while stuff pours out his mouth and nose, poor little guy.

Today was my first day out and about since piggy flu hit and wouldn't you know, I was at the pharmacy to pick up Evie's prescription and there was a problem. Apparently, when the insurance company added Frankie to my health insurance they thought Evie should get a new birth date--instead of listing her as April 11, they had her in their system as June 11. So anyway, Evie is fixed (insurance and personal health wise), I am better, and we can finally move on from catching pandemic flu. This has been the weirdest!

In Frankie land, he slept 4 hours in a row/5 hours between feedings over the weekend which was amazingly awesome! He also is starting to show an interest in checking out life around him and I think he is starting to get the hang of smiling...he is super gassy so we get the pre-gas smiles lots but he has been smiling other times too which is very fun. I ordered a sling and we went for a short walk around the neighborhood with it and he did great. I think that's it for now?!

One month old

Frankie is already a month old and is a great kid! He is super smiley due to extreme gas:) and very easy going most of the time. He is doing an ok job of sleeping through the night and hopefully that will continue to get better soon! Big sister Evie LOVES him. She is very gently with him and a great helper.

His one month appointment is on Tuesday but he has had many milestones already! The most notable is taking a bottle this week in preparation for mommy teaching a class at Newark one night a week for Autumn Quarter. Daddy gave him his first bottle, Evie and mommy gave him his second, and nanny gave him the third one.

He also went to the zoo with the Fishes and went to the Sabs for his first football game party.
Allison and Evie preparing to mooch Frankie at the Zoo.with Bethpile-on with big sibs, Katie and Bryn
startle eyes with Bryn!

Sassafras--Added Picture

Evie is a sassy little lady. We went to dinner last night with Nana and Grandpa and she just wanted to wander around and show off to people, sticking her crazy little belly (with semi-outie belly button) out all over the place. It was a little bit diva, but also very cute!

She is also really verbal--she says 'no' and uses it correctly and the same with 'down' when she doesn't want to be held. Her use of dada is also much more accurate--for a while there it was just part of her babble. She is saying some new stuff, like the 'Sh' sound (which sounds like something it shouldn't sometimes) and this new thing that is like gagooguh...and requires some weird facial movements and a bit of spitting. It is really fun because whenever she says it (and it is often) she gets this really intent and serious look on her face and you can tell she is thinking hard and really means it. Someday, we might figure out what she's talking about?!

She had a playdate on Saturday with one of my co-workers kids who has a 3 year old son and a daughter born the exact same day as Evie. They did a pretty good job playing somewhat together and no huge tears over favorite toys being borrowed, so that was good. Hope, who is the exact same age as Evie, is a real cutie and she does this fun crab crawl thing which is hard to describe but she just looks totally like a crab doing it and she is SUPER fast!

And drum roll please...can you believe Evie will be a year old in exactly one week? I know people say it goes by fast but it goes by FASTER than fast! Hard to believe she's been around 358 days already.

Do You See What I See?

So last night mommy and daddy were trying to placate Evie, who started the nightly melt-down at 6:15 or so I think. A little too early for bedtime! Anyway, we were each sitting on a different side of the sectional and daddy was behind her while she stood and banged toys on the coffee table. She was doing ok for a few minutes and then she looked over, saw mommy, and started to cry. I told her she knew how to come over if she wanted to, and she turned, took her hands off the table (might have still been brushing against it with her shoulder), took one STEP towards me, stayed upright, took another step with the other foot and then started to crash face-first so I caught her before she hit her noggin'.

Afterwards, I looked and daddy and asked--'did you just see what I saw?' and he said he thought so, and we clarified that we both saw her take her first hands-free step! It was pretty cool and very crazy.

Evie then proceeded to completely melt down so mommy put her to bed a smidge early...and paid for it this morning when Evie woke up before 5 a.m.!

Evie's First...

...OSU-Michigan Game: Go Bucks!

...Visit from Great-grandma Judy...
...trip out of state...
So we went to North Carolina to visit family for the entire week of Thanksgiving. Evie did great on the car trips and we were able to make the 10-11 hour trip in 2 days both ways--usually doing the bulk the first day until uber baby melt-down and then just about 3 hours or so on day two. She is awesome!

Here she is as we headed out last Monday morning:
...hotel stay...
She did better sleeping on the way back but during our hotel stay on the way to NC she did not sleep hardly at all--woke up at least every two hours!
...walk in mommy's shirt...

...THANKSGIVING...
Which included her first mashed potatoes and turkey with sweet potatoes (baby style). She wore her super snazzy black dress from grandma and played with her pretty bracelet from the Spencers:

...and her first real swing on a swing set and slide down a slide!
She preferred the swing to the slide (BY FAR). Daddy and cousin Kate pushed her on the swing and she had loads of fun!

Evie June ate her first fruit

Evie had her first fruit this week--bananas! She's not sure if they are really better than veggies or not. She has been very talkative and is teething hard-core--we can feel one coming in every time she shoves our hand and fingers into her mouth! We're worried she might be a carnivore:) But since everything goes in the mouth seems unlikely.

Otherwise, she is rolling all over the place and chatting up a storm! She just has tons to say and we wish we were advanced enough to understand everything--clearly she is a smart cookie. The folks at daycare predict she will be an early crawler--which she is really trying to figure out how to do, but her 5th limb--her head--is holding her back. She has also started to give hugs more regularly and she gives the best hugs. Very snugalicious!

We've survived 2 of mommy's 5 trips for the year. This week I was gone for 2 nights in a row which was harder than my first trip but it went ok.

Here are some fun pics:

Overall dress Evie

Evie shares her awesome new blocks from Grandpa and Nana
Francois Evie courtesy of Grandma and ShariEvie plays with the Penn State lion someone mommy met on her trip got for her (and which Aunt Lynn will love--notice Evie in her OSU cheerleading outfit)
Sailor Evie!

Evie Slept All Night!

Thank goodness...and here are some more Evie highlights:
























Evie eats sweet potatoes! Evie cheers on the buckeyes! Evie's first ride in grandpa's Cadillac! Evie helps mommy with the laundry! and Evie stares at Uncle Carl in wonder!

Evie's Week

Evie had a pretty good week. Her eye color keeps changing all the time--still no clue what they will end up looking like? This week they looked brown, greenish/hazel, gray...no signs of her settling in to a permanent eye color yet. Mommy hopes they are green:)

She was very playful at school and has been a rolling machine. She still has a very strong preference to roll back to front but can much more easily roll front to back now too--except at night. She keeps getting 'stuck' on her stomach at night which wakes her up crying and makes mommy and daddy not get enough sleep:(. It is amusing though because we get into her room and she is there on her belly totally popped up, looking around and crying while she tr!ies to figure out what is going on.

Yesterday she tried her first vegetable and we did sweet potatoes first. She seemed a little into eating them but prefers her rice cereal. So we just alternated sweet potatoes and rice cereal and she ate a decent amount. She had more potatoes today but was fussier about eating them. This afternoon she has had terrible gas and been crying lots for daddy while mommy tried to sleep off a headache--we think her little body isn't sure what to do with the new food yet. Poor baby! It could also be that she just needs to take a nap--she NEVER wants to take a nap for us on the weekend. We are lucky if we can get her down for 20-30 minutes once or twice each weekend day. I guess we are just too fun and interesting to miss?

Nana and grandpa also got Evie the new Playskool play dome and a light-up stacker toy. She loves the stacker because it has the lights AND plays music, her two favorite toy things (after being able to put the toy in her mouth, which of course she has done, duh!). The playdome for now is similar to her play mat, but it also has a ball drop, door, doorbell, 'mail' sorter and all sorts of interesting things for her to continue to do while she grows, since it will have new fun things once she can crawl, and again once she can walk. It is kind of like a little house, so very fun.

Mommy also bought some Halloween treats for trick-or-treaters--mini play-dohs! They are so cute and weren't very expensive so that gives us a non-candy option for wee ones (and the middle and high school kids in the neighborhood if they want one). Mommy and Evie's first overnight away from each other is this Wednesday, so wish us luck!

Evie June's First Day of School

Evie June wasn't sure about starting school today

Even though she looked super cute in her outfit from her Aunt Holly and Uncle Steve.

She did fine when mommy dropped her off and immediately tried to eat the rungs of her crib at Merry Moppet, because she's just crazy like that! Apparently, she cried 2x this morning but was calmed down by the bouncy seats and a little attention. Can we say diva? :)

She had fun with the teachers in her room and came home happy......and able to feed herself a bottle? That is one great daycare to teach her something so important in one day!

Thumb

Did you know that Evie has two thumbs? She just found out herself, so it is big news! She of course has found her thumb a few times in the past, but recently she has been able to pretty reliably place it in her mouth when she wants something to soothe herself. Pretty awesome accomplishment and we don't mind if she is a 'sucker'.

We had a busy week and weekend. Evie went on her first outing without either of us when Nana took her to Magic Mountain with her cousins and family from North Carolina. Then she went to COSI with everyone which she thought was really exciting since they are running the Star Wars exhibit.

Here is Evie learning the force from Yoda. She was very interested.Evie appreciated that R2-D2 is her size...especially when compared to the Wampawho was a little scary--can't you tell?She was also afraid of Darth, but it wasn't too bad since Grandpa was there.

OK, so you probably noticed that Evie managed to sleep through the entire exhibit, several hours worth of cool stuff she didn't even know she was missing!

Sunday, Evie had a bad day. She was doing some raspy breathing so mommy gave her some nose drops to try and help her out, which seemed to work. Then later, she started scream crying like she was in really bad pain and it took us a very long time to get her calmed down. Today, I called the doctor and they said we should bring her in just in case so we went in this afternoon. She was in good health but may have had a bad bout with acid reflux. Since it was the first and only time she has been like this, we are going to wait before doing anything else. We did find out though that she weighs 12 lb 14 oz now--in about 2 weeks she has put on 12.5 ounces which is crazy. She is literally getting so big, so fast! This may be my newest favorite Evie pick:

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great long weekend. Nana and grandpa watched Ms Evie while we went to see the DaVinci Code and then grandma watched Evie while we went to church, brunch and ran errands on Sunday. It was nice to get some couple time and good practice for me to be away from Evie since I go back to work in 2 weeks. I can't believe how fast the time is going.

On Saturday night Evie slept from 7:30 until 1 which was really good for her. But on Sunday night she slept from 7:30 until 3:15--just 15 minutes shy of 8 hours! That was a crazy long time and I enjoyed the extra sleep. Max was 'up' with her most of Sunday night (let me go to bed early) so he didn't get to relax as much and said he was getting worried and kept checking on her since it was such a long time for her to sleep. Last night she only slept 4 hours in a row but she slept almost all day yesterday so I guess that's fair! I would love for her to be able to sleep 7-8 hours in a row (but maybe not from 7 p.m.-3...maybe we can get her to shift to a different schedule once both of us are back at work.

Today we got a chest freezer delivered, the driveway was sealed and then tomorrow bulk pick-up is coming and PQ has surgery to remove a weird lump from his side. Thursday we are going to Shadowbox and then Saturday we are going to try out Dream Dinners which seems like a neat idea and hopefully we will like it. Basically, you go and prepare meals there (they have the ingredients all chopped/diced/prepared and you just assemble based on your tastes). The meals can then be frozen until you are ready to eat and each meal serves 4-6 people so we figure we can get 2 dinners out of every meal. We'll let you know how it goes!

We may also go to the Arts Festival and/or the Strawberry Festival this weekend, so busy, busy week!

2 Alaina's, Allison and Evie Playdate, Evie's Big Girl Bed & Evie Smile

Evie has been sleeping in her 'big girl' bed or crib every night since Friday. She is doing really well in there!

Evie has also had her feet sucked by two different Alaina's, which is too funny. We visited the Imbodens on Saturday in Dayton and Alaina I sucked her feet and then on Tuesday I went to the young mom's group at church and Alaina K. was there and also sucked on Evie's feet. Must be something about Alaina's and feet? This is a picture of Evie and Alaina I.

Evie then had a playdate with Allison on Monday. I have posted some of these pictures on the family website in her Evangeline June folder. There are also new pictures in Evie faces and in Evie Fashion Show, all new pics should load to the last page in each folder. Here is my favorite, with Evie tickling Allison's head:

And finally, just some new pictures that I love.

a new favorite Evie outfit:

Happy Evie and Daddy:

And the best ever...Evie Smiling!

Gotta love it! Make sure you check out Max's post below if you haven't already!

Pretty Evie

So yesterday turned out ok. Daddy ended up going to work and coming home early really sick so it was truly a girl's day 'alone' for most of the day. We did good though and Evie took some nice naps where Mommy could relax and get chores done. I have seriously had to do laundry at least once a day since she got home from poopie blow-outs and her peeing when I am changing her diaper or the few major spit-ups she's had. It is crazy.

She got her first 'real' bath yesterday where we completely dunked her and didn't just sponge bathe. It went better than the sponge baths but she still hated it. Hopefully she will grow to like them ok?

More pictures up on the Voellmecke's website. Here are two of my new favorites: