Evie is a Working Girl

Evie participated in a study at the college testing infant vision and made $10--I think technically this is her first job? Her $10 is in her piggy bank for a rainy day. She certainly made more money for the hour or so of her time than I made per hour in my first job!
Then Evie met Luke and Amy F. yesterday. Don't let her pouty face fool you--she had fun but just decided to be a little fussy last night:
And today she was a beach bum--hey she worked hard, played hard...it was time to relax hard!

Red, White & BOOM!

Last night Evie ventured downtown for her very first Red, White & BOOM! Just to be safe, we checked with her doctor about it at her last appointment - and the doctor said go for it, so go for it we did. Thanks to Grandpa, we had tickets to the Pepsi, WNCI & NBC4 party on the LaVeque garage rooftop, and didn't have to deal with the huge crowds down on street level. I doubt we would've gone into the crowds with her at this age - just to chaotic. But as-is, it's a great deal, so we went. Evie was way excited, and dressed festive for the occasion:

Well, as a matter of fact we all were:

Going in, we were kind of worried about the weather - especially while driving through a particularly nasty storm on our way downtown. However, aside from a couple brief downpours and a 10 minute drizzle, the weather turned out quite nice! The rain kept things cooled down, and had the added benefit of keeping some of the crowds away. All in all, after the rain cleared up, it was a GREAT night! While we were waiting for the fireworks to start, Evie waited in the looong line and got her very first balloon sculpture -- a balloon flower wrist corsage:

Not long after getting back with the balloon spoils, the fireworks got underway:

Evie was completely enthralled by the fireworks:

Out cold! She was awake for maybe the first five minutes of the fireworks, but snoozed for the the whole rest of the show, completely unfazed by all the bright colors and LOUD noises -- even the finale. In fact, she was pretty much out cold for the WHOLE rest of the evening - through the traffic getting home (actually not too bad this year! Weather again, I expect), through picking up the pups at Nana & Grandpa's house, and home...

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:

Back At Work

So I started back at work last Wednesday doing 1/2 days for the week and am back full-time this week. So far so good. The worst was the day I dropped her off in the afternoon because we had so much fun that morning. Since I am getting in at 7:30 a.m. (and getting up at 5:30 a.m. which is a huge change for me) neither one of us is awake enough for any fun before I come in for a full day's worth of work:) which isn't quite as hard.

It is kind of nice having what I like to call 'adult time' in my days. I really enjoyed being at home with Evie but it is hard work being totally responsible for a baby and not having any real intellectual stimulus (I did become addicted to MTV's show 'Next' which was definitely not stimulating) all day long. I am used to running around like a crazy person and caring for a baby is a little slower paced. But I do miss her and all the time and fun we had together. My favorite things I miss are:

• sleeping in.
• morning, afternoon, and evening naps. I love naps and she is super cuddly and warm.
• secret smiles from Evie throughout the day. She has a fussy time, which of course is when we get home so not always terribly smiley!
• feeding her (pumping is faster but no fun and looks really weird if you have ever seen someone do it plus requires clean-up; breastfeeding doesn't).
• running shopping errands where I almost always spent money on something, so good for the wallet that I am not shopping nearly every day anymore.
• hanging with the pups for large chunks of every day and evening.
• little things like seeing almost everything she did all day long, and knowing I will miss even more little things and even some of her firsts now that I am not her 24/7 caretaker.

It's kind of cruel that our society makes you go back to work right when your baby starts doing really cool things and responding to you. Maybe we should all move to Canada where they get an entire year off!

First Father's Day

I must say I had a great first Father's Day weekend. Thanks to Amy, Evie, and our parents, I definitely got a number of wonderful things and had a really, really great time.

Saturday Amy, Evie & I headed out to Easton and did lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, The Ocean Club. This was kind of a "farewell" trip there, as at the end of this month they're closing for four weeks (all of July) opening in early August as "Mitchell's Ocean Club", with a more 50's piano-bar/rat-pack feel. This was my own selfish (pre-)Father's Day meal, and I greatly enjoyed the Ginger Crusted Salmon, which is one of my favorite dishes to be had anywhere dining out in Columbus. Supposedly there will be something "very similar" on the new menu, but given that I think it's pretty much perfect as-is, I'm worried that any change can only hurt it. But anyway -- for the time being, it's fabulous, and it was just what I wanted.

Sunday Grandma watched Evie while Amy & I headed to church and ran a couple last minute errands, then we picked them up and went to Wendell's Pub for lunch. We were planning on going to Walt's 50's Diner, but apparently they're no longer in business... I was really craving a fried bologna sandwich, and Wendell's was happy to provide. Once again, it was just what I wanted. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome wife and family who can indulge my odd culinary cravings.

After lunch, Nana & Grandpa came over and we did the whole Father's Day thing for me AND Grandpa. As Amy mentioned below, I got the obligatory tie (which I asked for -- after all, you're supposed to get a tie on Father's Day, right?), a nice new dress shirt, a couple nice new polos from my parents, and an AWESOME father's day album, assembled and captioned DOUBLE AWESOMELY by Amy, and printed, bound & sent from Shutterfly. It's really, really cool - you need to check it out. Ask me & I'll be more than happy to show it off. Plus, (and yes I know this is a repeat, but it's worth it), it has this picture in it:


How can you NOT love that picture? She's so fun! Amy also conspired with Nana and the album includes several cool pictures with me as a lil tyke and my Dad and Grandfathers in it as well, like this great old family shot:


and check out these two young guys:


Madness I say. Dad also got an album of his own too, featuring plenty of him and Evie hanging out, as well as more of me as a baby, etc. It also turned out very cool, and Amy did a great job on both. I can't imagine a cooler father's day present.

After the presents & just hanging out & visiting for awhile, we hit up House of Japan steakhouse off Polaris for some excellent Japanese steakhouse-style grub. A funny coincidence there -- our reservations were for a party of four (plus baby) for 4:30 under Amy. There was another group there who ALSO had reservations for a party of four (plus baby) at 4:30, and the baby's mom was named Amy! They had their reservations under their last name, but still - how odd! We had a great time, and while it's still not quite as good as Fujiyama, they put on a good show and serve up some seriously good food. All-in-all, one very excellent Father's Day, and it really made me feel like the luckiest guy in the world:

(PS: Yes, that's me in my new tie!)