clap on, clap off

we are all waiting with bated breath for evelyn's first steps. she has been "cruising" for quite some time now and even walking using her walker toy since her birthday but no steps yet. today she pulled herself up on sam and let go and just stood, balancing for a handful of seconds before sitting back down. we just stare at her like she's capable of doing a back flip or something radical. i can only imagine what we look like to "kid-less" people. laughable...i am sure. nonetheless, she is pure entertainment to us.

she started to clap a few days ago. she thinks it is the best thing since discovering her love of avocados and will clap spontaneously, usually when she realizes she's forgotten her newly found trick, and also on-demand. for some reason she didn't catch onto the clapping fad months ago when we started to try and teach her how - probably because i read it in some book that she "might/maybe/may/should be clapping" at this-or-that certain age and felt i should try to force her to learn to clap because the book said so. those books are almost bad in the sense that if your kid doesn't do the thing they say that they might or should be doing at certain months, you automatically think they are going to be the "special" kid that eats the paste in kindergarten.

moving right along...

i just love how inquisitive she is. she seems to ask questions with the sounds she makes when she looks at things, especially when she looks at pictures. she has this obsession with pictures. we point out people a lot to her - something i've been doing from very early on - and it is interesting to see how she studies the faces and can even point to certain people when you ask her to.

we've also been signing to her specific words like: eat/food, bath, mommy, daddy, etc. and its amazing how well she understands. she signs eat/food back every now and then but nothing on a regular basis yet. we can even finger spell certain words, without speaking/using a voice at all, and she knows what we are talking about. the first word that had been spelled out to her was the word fan. she knew what the fan was and where to locate it by looking up at it well before we started finger spelling it to her. after only a handful of times finger spelling the word, while saying the word, she was able to recognize f-a-n being spelled alone and look up for it. she did this before she turned 12 months. i was blown away. so we started to finger spell more words - words we use often like book and cat. the language development is just one of the most mind boggling, intensely incredible things about humanity to me. 

one of evelyn's favorite toys is the t.v. remote. she goes after those things like they are laced with crack or something. every day she seems to learn a new trick or maneuver and figures out how to get to things she couldn't days and weeks previous. sam tried to tuck the "daddy remote" in the drawer in the coffee table beside the couch because this line does not seem to matter to a 12-month-old; "This is Daddy's remote, not mo's." you're shocked that doesn't work, aren't you??? moments later, evelyn saunters over/crawls like a bat outa hell, pulls herself up, and, without much effort, manages to get the drawer open, pulls out the remote, raises it in the air with a grand smile on her face, looks at her father with that same smile and says, "uuhhHHHHH?!" yep. she's watching us alright. sort of like the aliens in that M. Night Shamalayayayayannnn movie. we often leave out a bunch of half-drunk water glasses too. not because we are lazy and don't clean up after ourselves... just to be prepared in case of alien invasion.

all that enter must wear green...

as promised, here are pics from evelyn's first birthday bash. we had a fantastic turn out and she had so much fun playing with everyone who came...especially the little boy babies who she tried to beat up. yep, we have THAT child.
and with no further ado...

the cake and some decorations

tasty cake, but king soopers should probably hire a new cake decorator.

banner and photo collage

rainbow with pot of gold made of fruit. this was my other baby. so proud

lucky charms are tasty treats

the spread

tasting her special birthday cake and lovin' it.

taking a break to read a little.

reading from her new book

crab crawl over the book

gimme that, daddy

walking with her new toy.

evelyn with honey and pa

realizing we forgot to take pictures after we changed from our outfits

happy birthday to our little shamrock baby

this blackberry lovin' maniac

remembering this week of my life last year is pretty bitter-sweet. sometimes more bitter than sweet. i often refer to it as "hell week" because in many ways, the many ways leading up to evelyn's actual arrival, was nothing less than one of the worst experiences i've ever endured. i hear about many women who have absolutely wonderful birthing experiences and recovery periods and that they look fondly upon that time of their life. i have a tendency to disbelieve such stories just because mine was so disappointing. there are many things about the week that led up to evelyn's birth that still upset me to this day. it is easy to say, "i wish i had done this differently, trusted my body more, listened to the drs insisting i be induced less..." but despite all that i felt went wrong, and most of it went wrong, i did get to go home (eventually, and after being admitted 3 separate times on 3 separate days) with a blue eyed, pale skinned, bald little baby girl. and because of that i am one of the lucky ones, one of the blessed- beyond-measure ones, and for that i am thankful.

i belive God intends for us to learn from the things in our life. He also allows us to experience the things we do for reasons....sometimes for reasons we may never understand while we walk this earth. i'm not sure why i had to go through what i did and feel bereft of memories i should have had because i ended up having a c-section, and was so doped up i couldn't remember the night evelyn was born. everone else seems to have memories of her birth night but i don't. my memory is not having memory. but i am blessed to have a husband who can help me fill in the gaps. and he does...quite often.

i know how cliche it is to say, "it was worth everything i went through." i don't like being cliche and have a tendency to dodge behind the bushes when cliche is walking toward me. but it was worth it. every bit of it.

and in two days we will have a one-year-old blackberry lovin' maniac. happy birthday, mo. we just love ya.

birthday lolapaloooooza is COMING! mark your calendars!

in honor of evelyn turning ONE on st. patties day this year we have decided to throw her an all-things-green lolapalooza! we just had to do it. i know she won't remember and no, she won't get to taste any of her cake - scoff and gasp if you must - so really this bash is more for us than her. and if our memories hold up over the coming years, as we hope the many pictures i anticipate taking will, then i have no doubt this party will be a blast-n-a-half.

i went to one of those party central stores this past weekend to pull together the last of the decorations. it took great strength and a shallow pockets to keep me from buying up everything i saw despite the spirited employee who kept harassing me while i browsed. yes, she did harass me and even convinsed me to get a banner. its pretty fantastic, though, i can't lie.

truthfully i wish this party was yesterday because i just am itching to decorate, put out all kinds of green food and see evelyn in her green tutu outfit. not much is cuter on a little girl baby than a tutu.

yesterday and today we had a photo session in hopes of capturing the essence of our little inquisitive charmer. since pictures are dang expensive these days, and we now are the proud owners of a brand new camera, i figured i'd give it the ol college try. i will warn you in advance: evelyn is not the "lets sit and look all doe-y eye'd into the camera and not move" type of child. maybe number 2 will be. (NO,we're not expecting) she is busier than most bees every single day and today was no exception. so these pictures are now brought to you out of a little sweat, tears, exasperated sounds and words....PG stuff only, of course....ENJOY!

happy

meltDOWN

always proppin' a leg

what i feel like she is doing...