Evelyn's Birth Story, Part 1

The Birth of Evelyn Elizabeth
Written 8/22/08, in honor of Evelyn’s approaching 1st (whimper) birthday.

I loved being pregnant! I walked around since the day I found out I was pregnant (Dec 29, 2006 in case you wanted to know) feeling just special. I felt like royalty, for I was carrying, GROWING, a little person inside of me. I felt so privileged to be in the baby-growing business.

The first trimester was hard. I felt very nauseous most of the day and the only things that really seemed to taste good were potatoes – especially fried ones, and simplex sugary white carbohydrates like animal cookies. Then, there was the exhaustion. Me, Miss Night Owl was ready to turn in each night around 7:30. Poor Jason. I had no energy to cook, clean, or do much else other than whine about how icky I felt.

Yay for week 12 when I did seriously begin to feel much better! I think it was about week 14 when I was convinced that my clothes no longer fit (it was probably from all the fried potatoes and animal cookies though, not the baby). I couldn’t wait to be showing and wearing maternity clothes. I was ready for people to gawk and marvel and acknowledge how I had the pleasure of growing Evelyn inside of me.

Every day I spent considerable time gazing at my beautiful growing belly and daydreaming about the day that I would get to meet that little baby that I had been falling more in love with every day.

I kept growing and growing, and despite the usual discomforts of pregnancy, I never was “sick of being pregnant” as many women complain about. I was however, SO ready to meet my precious little girl.

Free Entertainment

I can't fall asleep. Weird, since I always feel tired.

Anywho, Jason told me to get out of bed and blog. Here I am!

I think of fun things to blog about all day, but forget them about five seconds later. One of the things that I was thinking about today is Evelyn's new obsession with dogs.

She first realized dogs existed in May when we were at my dad and step-mom's house. A dog barked when we came in and she clenched onto me with her tiny hands and screamed in horror. Even though she had seen a lot of dogs before, she realized then that they were alive and might very well want to interact with her on this particular trip. She spent that whole weekend trying to climb up my chest while clinging on for dear life every time she saw a dog. Poor girl.

The next time we visited those doggies, she started doing a weird noise and arm waving thing when she saw the dogs which confused us as to whether she was excited or terrified to see them.

After a few more trips there and some sights of puppies at outdoor concerts and in the neighborhood, she has progressed to a little joy-filled doggie lover. Whenever she sees one, she makes this adorable little "woof" noise that makes her little breath blow out. Adorable. It really, really is.

This leads me to my title. Evelyn has brought so much free entertainment - from sticking out limbs in my belly, to now her adorable "woof-ing." I have been providing her with much-loved free entertainment in return with lots of looking at her "babies and puppies" calendar, books about puppies, Animal Planet shows, pretending all stuffed animals are puppies, and our newest favorite - watching clips of puppies on YouTube. Good times. Great entertainment.

Oh, and by the way. We will NEVER have a dog! Sorry, punkin! Mommy only will clean up your poop!

Curly???

I had my hair cut tonight. If you didn't already notice, in late April I had my long locks chopped to just longer than collarbone length for a change and a reason not to wear a ponytail every single day like I was since Evelyn was born.

I needed a trim and was surprised when the new stylist I went to here told me that MY HAIR IS CURLY. No way! I have always WANTED curly hair - I don't HAVE curly hair! She told me that the myth about women going curly from pregnancy is true and often occurs to the hair on the back of the head - exactly where my hair has been considerably wavy. I was chalking it up to the haircut + the product I was using + the humidity + the new water + who knows what else.

But, I guess I have curly hair in the back of my head. It's like a new kind of post-pregnancy mullet - a curly party in the back and some straight business in the front.

A Month of New Tricks

Evelyn has had a month filled with new "tricks" including waving "hi" and "bye" on command, clapping on command and during "patty cake," listening to directions (i.e. "give mommy the washcloth"), and raising her hands for "so big." It has been fun to see her grow in this area of understanding language versus just immitating behaviors. And, the best part is watching her little face and excitement while she practices her new tricks!

This is Evelyn a few weeks ago showing off her clapping skills.

Sandwiched

Last night I was lying (I think it's lying...I always get confused by that one!) in bed and realized that I was in the best "sandwich" one can be in. We were all lying on our backs. Evelyn was to my left and had her right arm over mine. Jason was on my right and I had my right arm over his. I thanked God for the great life I have as I listened to them both breathe heavily (neither one was snoring, but they sure do both breathe heavily some nights in their sleep!:-) I lied there in the light of the nightlight, smiling and thinking about how I was sandwiched between my two favorite people in the world. Pure bliss!

Funny Faces

For a change of pace, some silly pics! I call this one the "turtle face." She does it mostly after eating yogurt or ice cream.
Everyone loves a good "eyes half-shut" picture for a laugh, yes?
Uncle Dawson is a HAM! A chocolate-loving ham that is!
Doesn't she look like she's going to swallow that straw like the sword-eating circus people?

And this is titled, "MOM - you are SO mean - I WANT to eat the window opener!!!!"

Happy Monday!

Mr. Hippo...the new friend!

So as if crawling wasn't too much to handle, now she's starting to walk! My little girl is growing up too fast! We never gave her permission to get big.

What We've Been Up To

Attending an outdoor country music festival with Jesse, Tia, and Jessie Marie. Jesse is a Marine and got us the tickets. Thank you Jesse for the tickets and for serving our country! We had a blast seeing Rascal Flatts and were sorry we missed Carrie Underwood due to the rain. We also enjoyed watching Jesse ride the mechanical bull until they forced him off!
Eating very messy pizza - she loves red sauce! And, mastering the sippy cup.

Playing with our new giraffe tunnel we got on clearance! Climbing on anything and everything!

Driving the van while we were stuck in a thunderstorm at the park. We went there to attend an outdoor concert, but it started storming and it was cancelled. We enjoyed our picnic dinner in the van instead!
Celebrating Auntie Hannah's golden 14th birthday.
Watching Auntie Trinity and Auntie Summer in "Oklahoma!"
And, Grandma Dawn who did a phenomenal job as "Gertie" - great annoying laugh, Mom!

Splishin' and splashin'.
Having a cute bum! And, plain old being cute!

Warning

Do not let your 10-month old daughter play with one of your favorite eye shadow compacts while you hold her and get ready because she might play her new favorite game called "I throw everything" with it and shatter it into a billion pieces rendering it pretty much useless. Run-on sentence? Yes. Sad for Mommy? Yes. Mad at little Evelyn? Of course not! She's too darn cute!

One Earring

All over my house you'll find one earring. Where is the other one? Usually in my right ear.

You see, Miss Evelyn is an earring grabber. I often hold her on my left hip, and thus I am often missing my left earring.When I am out and about, said left earring gets put into my right jeans pocket. At home, I tend to set in on a counter, a desktop or a coffee table.

People have commented on my nice "quick release" I call them, earrings. I have two pairs of hoops that have a hinged clasp that flips up to secure a traditional straight post. I have found both pairs to be great for my little earring grabber. The problem comes on the occasional day when I don't wear one of these pairs!

Evelyn Around the House

Banging with her new Ikea pots and pans.
Helping me unpack the suitcase!

Grooming her to help with dishes! ;-) She's a great helper!
Yep, she learned how to climb quickly after learning how to crawl!
And pull herself up on anything!
Posing so pretty!
She likes ice!!!

Evelyn is also a great eater these days - she begs for strawberries, watermelon, and of all things, black beans! She loves to "draw" - any pen or other long object she puts onto a surface and doodles. She is doing this right now at my feet with the towel bar that we took off for painting. You can also see her tendency for drawing in the YouTube clip below. She has always LOVED that toy. She used to just eat the pen, but about 1-2 weeks ago, realized she can produce a drawing. She takes after Daddy!

Sketchin' It Up!!!