Wuv

Marea, stop bugging the cat!  "but i wuv him!"

Marea, stop bugging baby evie! "but i wuv her!"

Mama sitting on the couch looking at the computer while Marea watches Little Bear...."mama, i wuv you".  Now what could be better than that?

Christmas just happened.  This was the first Christmas that Gary and I have ever woken up in our 0wn house, and I was pretty excited about it.  Just like she wanted, Marea got a bunch of puzzles.  She was pretty excited.  At first she wanted to open the presents one by one and open each one and play with them, but that was taking her a long time.  So Gary and I introduced her to the joy of ripping open present after present right in a row.  I think she got the idea.  Christmas still wasn't a big thing for her.  By the end, she was getting it....'Oh, more presents!'  Of course I don't want a kid who just loves Christmas for the presents.  But I remember feeling like that as a kid, and what's the harm?  I mean, really, that's the best part about it.  All the new toys!  And I turned into a pretty good adult who loves Christmas for the season and the friends and family and mostly, the food.  Especially the cookies.  And in my past life, the wine.  Someday.....

What I won't miss about Christmas is FROSTY.  I must of listened to that song at least a hundred times in the past month.  As long as I kept it playing in the car, she was quiet.  And since quiet is pretty hard to come by these days, I somewhat happily played it over and over and over, so I could have my own thoughts for a bit.  That is, if Evie wasn't screaming.  Boy, that kid HATES the car.  She goes nuts in the car!

Merry-Making

Is it Christmas time again?  

The merry making around here is going slow and steady.  Which I have found to be quite fun!  Instead of getting a tree decorated in one session, it took us at least three sessions.  It took a few extra days to get the stockings hung.  We worked on the gingerbread house over the course of several days.  Today we went and made cookies with grandma Carole and auntie Sam.   I still have my baking to do. Christmas didn't happen quickly.  Everything is unfolding slowly around here.  Because we are busy, mostly caring for the kids.  But I think I like it better this way.  It's like savoring the experience.  The one thing that I haven't started yet is the wrapping.  And I have to say, i'm a bit stressed about that part.  

I wonder how Marea is going to react to Christmas this year.  I'm excited.

Marea is getting so good at playing by herself.  She has come up with whole new games with all of her old toys.  I feel like it happened suddenly...like one day she just changed.  But it's probably been happening slowly, it's just that I've been consumed with Evie and didn't notice it as much.  I really enjoy watching her play.  I think her favorite thing to do right now is make up games with her farm animals.  She gives them roles and seems to imitate life with them.  A lot of the time it involves them going potty.  Marea's favorite TV show is Little Bear.  It's a great show, it's very simple and fun.  And now Gary and Marea often play  Little Bear.  She's the little bear, he's father bear, etc. , and they play games and call each other with those names.  And Homer is Cat of course.  And i'm mother bear.  

Evie is taking off right now.  She's starting to reach and grab at things, and of course, put them straight to her mouth.  She's a big wet drooly mess a lot of the time too.  I wonder if it's teeth?  It's early, but it could be happening.  Or maybe it's just the beginning of the oral phase.  She's laughing now too.  It's so cute.  She is so verbal and social, it blows me away.  She likes eye contact, and she'll coo and giggle and smile for as long as I stay engaged.  One thing Evie doesn't like is the car.  The child FLIPS on most car rides.  It drives me crazy.  I think it's just the car seat that she hates.  But sometimes it's necessary!  I also tried to give her a bottle of formula the other day and she absolutely would not have it.  The kid is addicted to the boob.  I don't blame her.  Those boobs made those sweet cankles!

Bits O Fun

Evie is such a talker!  I love it.  She coos endlessly, and is now starting to giggle.  She gets a huge smile, and then a somewhat serious look on her face, and then an 'ah'!  Her eyes beam with such an intensity sometimes.  We have a whole conversation ritual that we go through on the changing table.  Wiping butts can be so much fun sometimes.

She is starting to get interested in toys.  I brought out the toy elephant last night and she really looked at it and started trying to get it with her hands.  I'm excited to start introducing her to all the fun toys we have.  

Sleep is going pretty well.  Evie can usually stay awake for an hour and then she needs to sleep again, so this kid needs lots of sleep.  This doesn't mean that it's always easy to get her to go to sleep, and she often doesn't nap for very long...but i'm working on getting some longer naps out of her.  I think a daytime 'schedule' is starting to emerge.  Nights are not as good as they were when she was tiny and a fuss monster (i guess she's not wearing herself out as much!)  but hopefully those will straighten out.  That's what i'm hoping.  She does a 3-4 hour stretch followed by a few 2 hour stretches till morning.  I feel fairly well rested most days so that's good!

Marea has been doing and saying the funniest things lately.  Like the morning when I got up and she told me that I was smelly.  I just can't say what happened next, but it will be in my memory forever.  And how she loves the raccoon story....and has to hear it over and over again.  The story of how the raccoons came in our house and gary had to chase them off and throw pomegranates at them.  And she loves running around in her raccoon hat, saying, i'm a raccoon and i'm gonna get you!