Someone got a stamp, and decided that in addition to making excellent marks on things, it tasted great.
Oh man. So much for New Year’s resolutions! A few months ago a friend was teasing me about my quarterly blog posts– oops. Except now we’re even worse than quarterly. Hey, at least it’s been less than six months!
So, what to report. We officially have a full blown toddler on our hands. This kid is walking and talking and throwing tantrums. Her vocabulary is exploding– though much of the time, you’d probably still have to have someone translate what she’s saying. She’s fiesty– I wonder where she mght have gotten that from?
Having a toddler is as exhausting as people tell you it is. I swear, I spend most of my day running after her trying to make sure she’s not about to seriously injure herself. We call her “Danger Baby” these days. She loves to climb things– I never would have guessed she’d like to do that. 🙂 So she climbs up chairs, onto coffee tables, tries to climb up bookshelves, and when outside she insists on climbing anything that looks climbable. I’ll often find her by herself in her room just climbing onto and then off of her little three wheel bike. She loves going to the climbing gym with us– mostly because one of her favorite people ever is always there. Evelyn LOVES her Uncle Bryan.
It’s funny, because I go back through my pictures to try to remember what’s happened in the last several months, but all I have are pictures of Evelyn. So either I’m not really doing anything else, or else it isn’t really noteworthy enough to take pictures of. 🙂
Let’s put some pictures up while I think of some other stuff to write about. Let’s start with some older ones first.
January:
Up visiting her Great Grandma Evelyn, and taking a walk at the farmer’s market. Even with just a few teeth, kid can destroy some apples.
Yogurt face. Spoons are for suckers.
E and Grandpa, probably watching videos he made of her earlier.
February:
After her first haircut!
Oh man, she hated her first haircut. I actually went somewhere and paid to have it done, and it’s a good thing, too. She had her arms wrapped around my neck in a death grip and was screaming bloody murder the whole time. People who work with kids and cut hair are total saints. It’s got to be demoralizing to have people start screaming as soon as they see you.
We took a trip to Vegas for Valentine’s Day, and several amazing friends met us there– Bentley, Jessica, Clint and Jeanna. Holy crap it was awesome. We did a lot of the regular tourist Vegas things, since Bentley had never been and Jess had been only once as a tiny child. Larry was an amazing babysitter and bonded with Evelyn while we got to go out and enjoy some free time. It was great– Larry, want to come to Portland to babysit some more?
Completely terrified of Batman.
Banana face.
Signature Jason look as we wait for the bus to the strip.
A delicious family meal at a Korean restaurant– YUM. All Evelyn cares about is food.
DAM! Look at that amazing group. And that giant child carrier.
March:
I had to.
She loves Aunt Nicky. I think she might think that Nicky’s name is “Buck buck” though– it’s what she says every time she sees her. Nicky has chickens at her house, and Evelyn LOVES them.
That’s Evelyn playing with her bestie Aiden, Michael and Crystal’s boy. Oh man that kid is cute.
It’s high time I put her to work, right? One day she’s going to push me everywhere. I’m not even going to walk anymore.
April:
Hard at work.
Thouroughly amused by her dad.
Camping in a bear suit!
Every child should own a bear suit at every age.
Sick, watching cartoons with Grandpa.
Happy Easter!
She was more fascinated by the plastic eggs than anything else.
Mmmmm. Butter.
Puddle stomper.
Grumpy face.
This fort is awesome! At a public park in Portland.
Inside our tree fort!
That’s a naked baby playing in a bucket.
Go Blazers.
We also took a trip to Albuquerque– Jason is putting his house on the market and needed to visit, so we made family trip out of it. Renee had never met Evelyn, so we took advantage of her and she babysat while we hung out with friends and Miranda, Jason’s sister. On our last day there, it hailed like crazy– and Evelyn was obsessed. She refused to come inside.
May:
So this is the kid we’re dealing with now! She’s got three molars in and one more arriving– teething is TERRIBLE. She’s sassy and definitely knows what she wants, and she’s sweet and wonderful too. What a trip parenting is. What’s super awesome is that tons of people around us are or already have kids, so we really have a great community of parents and other kids around us. It’s pretty great.
Work is going well for both of us– Jason is super busy and now Mercy Corps is ramping up for our summer programming (and responding to the earthquakes in Nepal). It’s never boring. The hardest part, honestly, is finding time for ourselves. Date nights are few and far between, and even being able to squeeze in time sans child is a bit hectic. But we’re working it out, learning as we go.
Yeah! So that’s an update in pictures. I’d pretend that I’m going to post again in a month, but clearly history has shown that I like to over-promise and under-produce. So let’s just hope for another one before the end of the year. 🙂
Happy Spring/Almost Summer! Also, happy anniversary to that wonderful husband of mine!
