Leaving on a Jet Plane...

We're off to Thailand for TWO WHOLE WEEKS tomorrow morning... and it feels surreal! I already miss our little girl more then I thought I would, and got teary-eyed making a little calendar for her that shows the days we'll be gone and ends with a picture of us holding her. Sigh.

I also cannot WAIT to see my brother and sister in law in just 24 hours, and have them show us around their world over there. We have such a fun group of people we will be traveling with, and I think it will be a perfect mix of adventure, relaxing, seeing sites and chilling on the beach - it all sounds so great... once we get going and on the plane all the running around the past week or so will fade away.

Here is the cute girl we are leaving behind (with loving grandparents!)

Below is a great recent video of Eva dancing and giggling with me. ( I also have a stellar clip of Eva reading with daddy, but it's not loading properly tonight... I'll try another time.) This clip is for her - and us - to have online while we are out galavanting around Thailand! I know Eva will have a fantastic time with her grandparents in MN, probably learning new skills, words, and songs every day - but I know I will miss her and will now have to work to remember how to be without her. She's at the age where she is a total information sponge and so fun to watch learn; my parents have planned so many activities for her visit that I wonder if she'll even notice we're gone? :) How blessed we are to have people who love our daughter so much and help keep her safe and supported while we are gone - and we are also grateful for the financial ways my parents also helped make this trip possible. Big thanks grammie and gramps! And thanks Tim and Megs for being our in-country guides! As Eva would say, "wow!" What an adventure we get to embark on! :) See you in two weeks.

Spilled Milk

It's been a hectic day full of prepping for leaving town for awhile, and Eva has been slowing me down (even more than usual). I am realizing, though, that I often forget how aware of things and how smart this kiddo is getting. Here is my favorite example:

This afternoon Eva was eating a snack on the floor in the kitchen (peanut butter, milk and popcorn, her new favorites.) I looked over to see her accidentally spill some "mick" on the floor after putting the cup up to her mouth to drink, and just as I was starting to whisk her up to put her in the high chair, where messes would be easier to control, she ran away from me. Purposefully ran away, carrying a dripping cup. More than a little perturbed, I firmly said, "Eva, come back, you need to sit in your chair now and not spill the milk." She wandered back next to me, and as I looked down, noticed she was holding our kitchen towel. Before I could pick her up to save future messes, she started to wipe up the milk from the floor!!! She looked at me and smiled as she cleaned up her own mess, and said, "ah-dow" (all done.) I broke into a huge grin and gushed, "You were helping momma clean weren't you? THANK you Eva, that was so nice! What a smart girl."

After I gave her a BIG hug for acting so grown up and helping, but before I got her up into her chair, she deliberately turned her same cup of milk fully upside down and made a HUGE mess of spilled milk on the floor. Then she handed me the towel. Sigh.

New Pics Online

FYI, there are several new albums in our online photo stash (smugmug) - including Eva's 18 month old outdoor photo shoot with Grammie and Gramps at the park(s), all the Labor Day beauties (from Linnea,) random September shots, and a few collages arranging highlights from the past year.


I am sure that EVERYONE relies on pictures to the same level that I do to capture, explain, and order life. :) Yes, I know we take a lot of pics - especially of a particular little girl. I fully accept that. And yes, if I was not me, I would probably judge me. But for the three family members who actually look through all these pics, or the average 'we met once and now I am your anonymous online stalker,' here is your photo update. :)

One and a Half?

We crossed another milestone last week; Eva is now 1 1/2. To me that sounds old somehow - which I think is more due to the fact that our little girl is fully a toddler and seems to have lept ahead in several kinds of growth spurts recently, all of which remind me how fast she's growing up.

Personality at 18 months:
- Eva knows what she wants and is more adept at telling us what that is. She yells often and speaks loudly to command our attention - but then easily adapts if you listen to her or talk with her enough so that she feels hears. She still yells back at honking horns or loud animals - maybe she will always be a fiesty "right back at you" kind of verbalizer. :) That would be kind of fun.

- Evy also does her fair amount of falling apart into tantrums for now real discernable reason - but is usually distracted into being happy again by stickers, songs (especially Old MacDonald Had a Farm,) or fun fruits. These are magic bullets people!
- Eva has intense looks! Strangers in stores will point out how cute she is, AND how cold and steely her glare is. She does the glare for lots of reasons, I can't always figure out the why - but it does communicate volumes! Her looks now tend to match her feelings and gestures/words much more.

- Eva will take a bath, jump in a pool, play with water or in water, splash with a bowl full of water - do just about anything with water for as long as we will let her. HOURS in a pool and this girl loves it. Dumping water by little spoonfuls (and large bucket-fuls) over the side of the deck - never gets old.
- Eva is much stronger lately, pulling herself onto chairs, shelves, couches, beds, up and down her nightstand and window ledge- whatever she can manage to get access too. She is also more sturdy on her feet when she does climb up and down, and is also almost always excited to be chased, swung, twirled, danced with, thrown around, etc.

- Eva likes being tickled! (Which is good news for her tickle-happy dad.) If you start to tickle her, say rubbing the bottomof her foot, when you stop, she will lift her foot up in front of you and say, "go, go, go" until you tickle her again.

- Eva understands my basic discipline and limits I tell her; not that she always obeys, but I can tell she knows at least 90% of what I tell her and she follows complex directions or requests easily. She wanders away when we are out together, but looks back to check for me. Sometimes she will run farther then I told her she could, and then stop to see me come get her and tell her no.

- Eva is genuinely delighted to see us (me and Pedro) lately. She will wake up in the am/after naps or come home/see one of us return back home and literally pump her arms with full force, or squeal in delight, or run over and forcefully give us a leg hug, or smile super wide and jump into our arms for a squeeze, usually all while chattering and talking Eva-speak to us. It is amazing to me how cool this reaction feels as a mom; such genuine feedback and connection from this little girl! Love it.

No doubt about it, she's getting to be her old regular little person!

Language Development*

Favorite new phrases:

- mow, lee (more, please)

- go, go, go, go, go (when she wants to go - mainly leave the house for the park or car)

- noo-ow (no way)

- yum-um, yum-um (yummy, or I am hungry)

New words:

- uh - uhp, uh - uhp (up, up)

- ow... ow-tuh (out, out)

- caw (car)

- coh (cow)

- moo (moon)

- wah-ow (wow)

- stick (stickers)

- ah-boo (apple)

- choch (clock)

- chram (grammie-grandma)

- doe (door)

- bah-bah-bah (lamb)

- yee-a (yeah)

- poo, poo-uhl (pool)

- bah/buh-boo (bath - keeps adding words for this one!)

- ah -may (amen)

- ah-do (all done)

* I could write a whole chapter surrounding just this area of 'language development;' it would include emails I should not read from 'linguistic specialists' who scare moms of toddlers, emails I should not read from moms who try to compete with the universe through their kids' early language skills, and my own surprise at being affected by Eva's quirks in her timeline for this developmental area. But, suffice it say, I've been happy to hear her reading, talking, pointing, and listening to more and more words each week. I think she is probably soaking in a lot about her world right now, as she should be, and will not be destined to remain in special ed her whole life, despite not speaking in short sentences by 12 months (as one of the aforementioned emails enticed me to believe.) Sigh. :) Being a mom is nuts sometimes, nuts!

I have lately returned to being able to notice and encourage her word acquisition and growing comprehension, but chill out about the speed and accuracy with which she connects it all together. So now it's fun to reflect on how she says words and which words are common in our house, because already her vocab is so different then it was a few months ago.

It feels good to stop and reflect/remember who she is lately, and who she seems to be becoming. I now understand why parents always say 'they grow up so quickly' - I think time is forever different when you nurture a little person literally from their entrance into the world into becoming a walking, talking, hugging, school-attending, school-graduating, home-leaving person of their own. I never got that before Eva! Ah, I have a one-and-a-half-year old. :)