The not-so-lazy days of summer

Afternoons at grandma and grandpa's house, swimming in the pool with Jackie and Emily.  Then enjoying a popsicle.  And maybe the occasional Friday night BBQ of ribs.  It's here.  WOOHOO!  This is how we spend many days in the summer.  

Marea and her friends-duck, owl, cat and....baby sunflower

I know i've talked about Marea's Little Bear obsession, but it's just such a big part of our lives, I must mention it again.  She is OBSESSED with Little Bear.  So often I hear her making up games and she's talking with Duck, Owl, Hen, and Cat.  It's amusing to me, and it makes her happy and keeps her busy.  Yesterday, though, she thought up a new game.  We were hanging around in the yard and I found a small dead sunflower.  I picked it up, showed it to her, and threw it down, declaring it done.  But she picked it up, and it bacame 'Baby Sunflower'.  She treated it just like her baby.  Feeding it, putting it down the slide, giving it a ride on the hammock, sitting in on the chair.  It was too cute.  Who needs toys????

Evie can WALK!

So we just returned from a two week vacation in Utah, where we had LOTS of fun.  But I think Evie had the most fun, because while we were there, she took her first steps.   That's right folks, 8  1/2 months and our Miss E is walking.  Gary says she was motivated by his beer.  Which doesn't surprise me, because she's our kid.  She likes to mouth the beer bottles, it must feel good on her gums.  Gary was holding his beer, and she let go of the table she was holding on to and took 4 steps over to him. Grandma Carole, Gary and I were all there to witness it!  I thought it was a fluke, but since then she's been getting more and more brave, taking more and more steps.  And when Grandma Susan saw it, she's declared it a walk.  So it's official!  Evie can walk!  She usually takes a few steps before sitting down and crawling towards her destination.  (For now...i know how quickly this will change, and she'll never crawl again..sniff sniff!) And she is into EVERYTHING! But most importantly, she is SO DARN HAPPY!  She even claps for herself all the time.  (Mostly I think that she's just excited about knowing how to clap, so she does it all the time.  So darn cute!)  And the other latest and greatest Evie accomplishment is a new noise...da da da da!  And of course, the high pitched, 'i'm SOOOO  excited' Evie scream.  Oh and one last thing...she can say 'uh oh' when she drops something.  It doesn't sound exactly like that but she's doing it!  She will intentionally drop something and say 'ah ah'.  She's getting it!  I can't stop her!  She is changing too fast!

All this Evie growing up on us stuff is pretty exciting for Marea, because she now has a playmate.  Evie isn't the perfect playmate yet, because she likes to get into or destroy whatever Marea is doing, but Marea is enjoying her bigger little sister.  The hardest part is making sure Marea knows her limits when interacting with Marea.  She tends to be a little bit too much still.  But it's all starting to come together, and my girls are developing their own little relationship.  Just like everything else i've experienced on this parenting journey...This is going to be Good.  

Speaking of relationships-It was so great to watch Marea and her Grandma Carole out in Utah.  Marea is particularly fond of her, and just enjoys following her around, discussing whatever is going on in nature out there, and having Grandma prepare her snacks or meals.  They seem to have great conversations.  What a beautiful thing.

Other Utah fun....having Jackie and Emily out! It's so funny when the girls all get together and do their 'run in circles and scream and giggle' thing.  It's not a designated activity, and they arn't really interacting, but they are excited to be together and they love it.  Pretty soon it will get one high pitched girly scream louder.  It was so nice to see Jackie and Emily get as excited about the outdoors and nature as Marea does.  They got into watching the wildlife, hiking up to dancing rock, and playing at the sand dunes.  We also had fun at the indoor water park, the community pool, and Gary built them an awesome fort that they just loved.  It's always a little more hectic with additional kids in the mix, but they have so much fun together.  

Marea shocked us by enjoying a great BIG waterslide at the indoor water park!  The first time I took her on it we were both giggling the whole way down.  And then at the end, I forgot to hold her up so she wouldn't go under...but she didn't mind too much, and was game to go again and again.  

Evie can crawl!

Our little monkey does a modified crab type crawl.  She drags one knee along and uses the other foot to push herself along.  It's complicated, but it's crawling.  I would say that it officially started yesterday.  I made my prediction of two weeks on April 10.  So I was really close!  So...what is Evie doing with her new found freedom?  Well, crawling over to ANYTHING that she can pull herself up to standing on, of course!  Because she's still obsessed with standing up.  She even crawls over to me and pulls herself up on my leg.  Which can be difficult when i'm trying to walk away.  But maybe it's because she never wants me to walk away right now!  She's also been standing up in her crib a lot lately.  Which she thinks is just awesome.  But I think it's sabotaging our sleep!  So...how long before she walks?  That's a hard one, because walking is difficult...she already like to 'cruise' around the furniture, so she's figuring out the stepping thing a little bit....I say she'll walk at 10 months, just like her big sis.  I don't think I really want her to, but it's coming, regardless of what I want.  I just don't want my baby to grow up any more right now.  It's happening way to fast.   Before I know it, she'll be just as big as her big sis.  Who has been absolutely adorable these days!  Marea has definitely turned a corner.  She has been so agreeable, and pleasant, and playful, and fun.  Her games have been funny and interesting.  I'm enjoying her company more and more these days.  We've made it through some of the more difficult aspects of being 2 (I think..i hope!) and we're on to bigger and better things.  

 

Sticks, Twigs, Leaves, Flowers, and Rocks

I find them everywhere!  Marea loves to find these things and drag them around with her.  There are sticks, twigs, leaves, rocks and flowers in all the corners of our house and in the car.  She is often carrying around something too.  I guess I could be annoyed that she deposits this stuff everywhere...and sometimes I am...but the bright side is, the kid loves nature and appreciates all the little objects she can find.  And she's perfectly happy to go on a walk and find little things and bring them along.  

She MUST stand!

So I don't know if Evie will ever crawl.  Because a few days ago she figured out how to pull herself up into the standing position and it's all she wants to do now.  And it makes her SOOOOOOO happy.  She just smiles and does her happy screams....until she realizes that she doesn't have anything in her hands, at which point she starts to fuss a little.  But she's digging the standing thing for now.  Will she go straight to walking?  She's also figured out the cheerio thing.  She can get them in her mouth now so she's been having fun with that and it KEEPS HER BUSY for a few minutes!  Because she's pretty needy these days!

Recent Happenings

Last weekend we went to San Diego to visit Mary, Geoff, Jonas and Harper.  The main purpose of our trip was to visit our friends who have been stuck at home battling leukemia.  But we decided to make a weekend out of it and get a hotel room and go to the ZOO!  Before we went, Marea was hesitant about seeing the animals, saying that she didn't want to see some of them.  But as soon as we got there, so was so excited!  She got so close to the giant Orangutan and wasn't even scared.  She says that her favorite part was the giant snakes.  Another fun thing that we did was stay in a hotel.  I prepared Marea for this beforehand so she wouldn't be so surprised.  So we went to dinner and I left early to put Evie to bed.  Marea and Gary returned right as Evie was going to sleep so we hid in the bathroom and ate candy.  Marea had jellybeans in the bathtub and thought that was super fun.

Evie has been working on all kinds of physical stuff lately.  Basically Gary and I area her jungle gym and she practices climbing us.  She is getting better and better every day.  We just sit on the floor with her and she climbs all over us.  She is almost crawling...I say another two weeks.  We'll see if i'm right!  Evie is such a busy girl.  She always has to have something in her hands (and then mouth).  She is constantly reaching for something or looking for something to reach for.  Even when she's eating, her hands have to be busy.  She's also been SO vocal lately.  She has this high pitched scream that she does when she's excited.  It's cute, but LOUD.  I wonder sometimes if the neighbors think we have a loud squaking parrot in the house.  The leg kick thing she does when she's excited is pretty funny too.  She's almost 7 months old now.  I have fallen for her all over again.  It's that magic time!