July is almost over?

This month has flown by. We took our first just us out-of-state overnight vacation with Evie to Chicago and had a really good time. We went to Taste of Chicago, American Girl Store, Bloomingdale's (where mommy got some fabulous dresses one of which to be featured later), Adler Planetarium (don't ask), Shedd's Aquarium, and Rainforest Cafe in addition to visiting with family that lives just outside of Chicago.

Evie has also gone to the optometrist a few times to get a clogged duct on her eye checked out. We have been torturing her with eye ointment for about a week and a half but the spot isn't going all the way away. We are hoping surgery (something they mentioned at last visit) isn't our only option. Otherwise Evie has been doing really well--some temper tantrums over clothes she wants to wear out of the house:
and other toddler moments. She's been really funny lately trying to play jokes with us, talking about when she used to live in mommy's belly and other silliness (apparently one of her teachers at school is pregnant). She also wants us to tell her the name of EVERY person in the books we read (who's that girl, what's his name, is that ___) which makes books take a lot longer to read and has been super duper in to baths since our vacation. Our hotel in Chicago had a pool and since coming home, Evie has been 'swimming' in our tub and we have a really hard time getting her out of there.

We also went to mommy's godson's first birthday party. Here is Drew eating his cake--he was hesitant at first and then took a facer into it).And so far this month mommy and daddy also celebrated their 8th wedding anniversay by going out to eat at Eddie Merlot's on Polaris Parkway. It is a delicious steakhouse!This is one of mommy's Bloomingdale dresses--$350 dress marked down to $40!

Evie the Hair Critic

Evie's had a heck of a busy June, and there are plenty of highlights so far to blog about, including:

• Nana's retirement party
• Grandpa's retirement party
• We Joy Sing, round 2
  
• Helping Daddy mow the lawn
• Potluck/party at school
• Glen's birthday party
• Playing with Luke & baby Allison
• Being in a movie!!

So yeah... that's a lot of stuff. We've got pics of most of it, but I don't have that long right now, so instead I'll just share a quick quip, introduced by a pic:


So... I shaved my head again a week and a half ago or so. I did it myself, and when I came down after doing it, Evie looked a little nervous/sheepish. She stood back for a minute, looking, then finally said: "Daddy! Put your hair back on!!"

I was worried that she was going to be freaked out and not be comfortable around me for awhile, but really it only lasted about 30 seconds - after that she was back to giggling and laughing as normal.

Of course, through the rest of the weekend she did periodically remind me that I needed to put my hair on, and STILL she comments on me cutting my hair at least once a day... I guess she didn't approve?

Again, plenty more to come later, but I can't post on Evie's blog without at least ONE pic of her - so here's one of her (taken just last week, despite the nonsensical headwear) enjoying her current favorite food, requested at nearly every meal: bread with (soy) cream cheese:


And here's one of Evie modeling a awesome new dress from the Fraziers while practicing her trashcan drumline:

First Haircut!

Evie got her first haircut over Memorial Day weekend and she was not a fan but we love the cute bob vs. wispy baby mullet.  She loved the play area at Cookie Cutters (her haircut was in the fire truck).  She especially got into fearlessly swinging over the slide:


That same weekend she also decided to she had to wear her Belle dress so they could match, and then proceeded to demonstrate how they match, see below:


She is really into this whole concept of matching lately, which can be really bad and really good. It's bad when she wants to match a child who is doing something they shouldn't be doing (often) or when she wants to act like a baby to match a real baby (tiring for mommy and daddy).  It is good when the people she is matching are doing the right thing.

This past weekend was mommy's cousin Jenny's wedding.  It was a nice event and Jenny's daughter, Isabelle is 6 months younger than Evie and a good age for playing with.  Evie was obsessed with Isabelle and played with her for 2 hours past her bedtime before crashing.  Here she is in her pretty dress:


And with mommy's grandma!  Grandma Dot really enjoyed playing five with Evie.

Evie Rocks

Evie is just lots of fun. Last weekend we had a play date Saturday morning and then went to Dayton for World A'fair with the Imbodens and she and Alaina had a BALL. They play really well together--it's too bad they live 'far' away.Sunday we went to the zoo and Evie had a ball climbing on all the different photo animals and also pretending to be a starfish--something she learned at school. She even WALKS as a starfish:) It's pretty cute!Today though she was super, duper awesome. We carpooled this morning and Evie and I played in the numbers garden by daddy's work at pre-7 a.m. Then when we got home tonight, she tried couscous and asparagus and enjoyed both! Afterwards, we came inside and she decided she HAD to wear one of her swimsuits and she wore pants with them (picture below) and I told her she looked cute, to which she said, "Mommy, I look gorgeous" and then went and mugged in the mirror. Where does she learn this crazy stuff?
Then we did bath night and after we got her out she said she needed to use the potty so we ran her into the bathroom and she sat down and peed! Then she got up, made us clean it out, and then said she had to go again, and she peed AGAIN! It was so amazing. This was the first time she told us she needed to go potty and then actually used it and it is the first time she has used her potty in about a month. It was really exciting and cool.

Sick Baby

It has been crazy busy for us so that explains no updates quite nicely we think. Evie is getting big so fast--she was a yard tall at her 2 year appointment and is about 28+ pounds now, which of course makes her super big stuff!

Evie loves the park, shoes and sunglasses. Here she has on two pairs of sunglasses to be like Nana and mommy who have clip-ons that attach to their regular glasses.
She is also fearless and will hang from the rings and doesn't want anyone to hold her. She let go once and daddy caught her mid-air and instead of being scared she wanted to do it again.She has also started to 'read' our adult books--she opens them up and says line from her real favorite books, such as:

• page 1: Ms Nelson is missing, hmmm, hmmm
• page 5 (she skips a lot): William's daddy said he's a boy
• next page: twinkle, twinkle little star
• and so on

It is a riot. Unfortunately, she has been sick since Wednesday with some stomach bug. Today she started running a fever and has been super lethargic so we had to cancel mother's day lunch plans vs dragging sick, sad baby all over town tomorrow. Hopefully she will be all better on Monday and able to go to school. I hate when she gets stomach stuff. Last time she was sick for over a week--it was awful! The worst part this time is she only throws up at night so we think the entire day that she is getting better and then go in first thing in the morning and find out she is still sick. Poor baby!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there!