These were taken quite a while ago. My computer's been acting up, so it's been difficult to both edit and blog. Sometimes we drive to this park on the north side of the neighborhood when we get bored with the park across the street from our house. Evie's happy anywhere as long as there are swings, and Sam likes the unusual equipment here. He was proud of himself for figuring out how to balance on this spinning circle.
Just some snaps from a recent chilly, overcast morning. We've had a lot of those lately, it seems. She enjoyed her room that day, for sure. See that bruise? It's hard to miss; it's a big one. She fell against the kitchen cabinets, basically from a standing position. Not sure how it happened, but it left a nasty mark on that chubby widdle cheek.
A while back I took Sam out for some five-year photos. It took half a bag of goldfish to keep Evie entertained in her stroller, but Sam had a blast. He came up with the poses for photos 1 and 3 and he chose the location for the last image (the one spot I
didn't
want to shoot in, go figure). Good thing he's got ideas because I do
not
like posing people, especially my own little people! But he knew what he wanted, so we went with it. I'm going to go out on a limb and say not many five-year olds will sit for this many shots, and I bet even fewer will give creative input. He's an interesting little man.
When I showed him the last image, he was very excited. "I love it!" he said. I told him we'd have to print it and hang it somewhere. He smiled and said, "Okay. Just please don't make it gray!" Guess he doesn't share my love of black-and-white photography. ;)
Happy Five, Sam!
Just some pictures of my two, doing their thing after breakfast. Sam's playing Magic School Bus Dinosaurs on his new Leapster, and Evelyn's a tornado of activity, swirling all around him. Between preschool, playdates and running errands our mornings are often quite busy. Sometimes it's nice to just take it easy and play on the couch in our jammies.
This silly girl loves forks - and spoons - but mostly forks. It's hard to watch her use a fork, at first, because you're so afraid she's going to poke herself. But then you quickly realize she knows what she's doing - she's very good.
Using a fork is so fun, in fact, that she now insists on having one for all meals - Cheerios included. And if the little buggers won't stay on the fork on their own, she just takes each one and sticks it on the tines until she's got enough for a mouthful. It takes a while to finish breakfast, but that's okay!
I took these photos a while ago - it's crazy how she's changed in just a short couple of months. I love her mis-matched, tummy-sticking-out look.
We went location scouting in Denton last night before our pizza dinner, looking for a place to take Sam's five-year photos. We brought the necessities - a chair and a bag of Goldfish. We found a cool spot, but probably not spacious enough for a whole shoot. I got a couple interesting shots of Evie, though, putting those fish away like nobody's business. She looks so little here.
Evie brings me her shoes all the time and asks me to put them on for her. On this particular morning she was wearing footie jammies and her regular shoes wouldn't fit, so we grabbed a pair of Mommy's old mary janes that I was saving in her closet. They did the trick and she loved the way they clicked on the kitchen floor..
She played for a long while this way. Here she's kissing her three bears and Goldilocks dolls
and bringing them to me so I can give them a kiss, too.
Daddy had dinner last night with some old friends from PIC, so the kids and I headed over to Denton for some pizza-eatin' and bookstore-browsin'.
Evie was very happy they had a stool out for her to climb.
Evelyn Mae you are fourteen months today! The past month started out very busy, then slowed way down. The day you turned thirteen months we went to Granny Nell's for our early Christmas celebration. That kicked off a whole big bunch of Christmas gatherings and you loved every minute of it. You loved all of your presents (Uncle Andrew gave you the dress you're wearing in your 13 month photos) and you loved some of Sam's presents, too!
You and Mommy came close to ringing in the New Year together; you fell asleep on my lap on the couch around 10:30. I had taken you out of your crib because you were super fussy - your top left front tooth was popping through. But we didn't quite make it to midnight before everyone in the house was snoozing away. New Year's Day was a big day for us, though, because Sam threw his first party and Gram and Pops came over to help us celebrate the first day of 2014.
Measurements:
Weight - 23-ish lb.
Clothes - You're still wearing your 12-18 month outfits and a few 18-24 month things. You won't wear a bow or clip and your bangs are getting long. Arghh! You still love putting on your socks and shoes more than anything else in the world. You often bring a pair of shoes to me first thing in the morning and say "Shhhh!!".
Diapers
- Size 4
Feedings - You're still nursing once or twice a day for a total of about ten minutes. Dinner's getting more difficult. You're slowing starting to notice those vegetable-y things don't taste as good as those cracker-y things. Time for Mommy to start getting creative...
Sleeping - You're teething in spurts and those nights are rough; otherwise you go down easy. You're in bed by 8:00 and you usually sleep until around 7:00/7:30. You're still taking two naps unless you go down late for the first one, which often happens after we've been at a playdate or running errands.
Talking - still "Ma-ma" or "Ma", "buhhhd" (bird), and "Da-da", adding "shhhh" for shoes and "Ssss" for Sam. "Muhh" is more and everything else is just "ehhh! ehhh!"
Playing - you still love the dishwasher and Mommy's bathroom, and have added the kitchen closet to your list of favorite places. You pull out all the sippie cups, tupperware, plastic plates and plastic bowls. It's a pain to clean it all up, but it keeps you entertained while I fix dinner so for that reason I'm all for it! You love your baby dolls and your baby stroller and you like to stack all the canisters of PlayDoh that Sam got for Christmas.
I got some unusual expressions this time. You were all. over. the. place in this chair! But you've been wiggly for a long time. You are a very, very active little girl. You were also rather tired during our photo session. You kept asking for blankie and bunny so you could snuggle them. I'm glad they made it in the pictures with you.
Happy 14 months, Evelyn!
The Straka family started 2014 off right with an awesome New Year's Day party planned in its entirety by our one-and-only Sam. After watching Peppermint Patty throw a party for Charlie Brown and the Gang on his favorite cartoon, Sam decided he needed to throw a New Year's Party, too.
After Christmas we sat down and wrote out his plans. Really, his only must-haves were marshmallows, root beer (which he'd never had before, but tried at the party) and dancing. Mommy knew that we needed more to eat than marshmallows so we added ingredients for tacos to our list. We headed out to Hobby Lobby and Dollar Tree for our decorations and we had ourselves a Par.Tay.
I think Brian's diggin' his tiara...
The blowers were a big, big hit. Evie tried her hardest to make them go and Sam figured out how to use them to bop balloons in the air.
Happy 2014!
Who can resist pudgy peanut butter cheeks? Not this mama!
Evelyn Mae you are thirteen months today! You're having a blast being a toddler and we agree - being one is lots of fun!
The picture above is of you saying "woof-woof" (which really sounds like "oooh-oooh") when I asked you to tell me what sound a doggie makes. You also know what a kitty-cat says, and a lion and bear (they both say "rawr"), but one of your favorite animals, second only to a doggie, is a bird. Of course! You love to watch the birds living in our Hawthorne bushes in the backyard and you can sort of say "tweet-tweet". You can definitely say the "bbbbb" in bird and you love to point them out to us.
You can also say Mama now, and quite often you just shout "Mom! Mom!" when you want something - just like Sam. You are starting to say "Buh" for Sam (Brother), and everything he does is still hilarious to you. I often find you guys rolling around on the floor like puppies or trying to make each other laugh. The two of you are such good friends.
It was quite a challenge getting these pictures, and I know I say that every month. But you are such a physical little bundle of energy that you just can't sit still in your chair! Daddy came in your room while I was taking these photos and offered to help (I think he heard how loud things were getting in your room). He pretty much left right away because it was making him crazy to see you bouncing all around your chair. Makes me crazy, too!
This past month was a busy one as we were preparing for Christmas. You went with us to Sam's Christmas program and you sat so nicely on Gram's lap while Sam and his friends sang their holiday songs. Gram and Pops took care of you when Daddy and I were at his office Christmas party and much to our surpise you were still awake,
crazy awake
, when we picked you up at 11:00! You'd had so much fun playing by the Christmas tree, eating pizza, and walking over to Deerfield to see the lights you just couldn't stop!
One special treat this past month was going to Daddy's work to meet his friends, eat a chili cook-off lunch, and look at all the airplanes in the hangar. While Daddy and Sam sat in a couple of cockpits, you and Mommy ran up the hangar ramp and down the hangar ramp....and
uuuup the hangar ramp
and
dowwwn the hangar ramp
. You also ate lots of crackers and everybody thought you and Brother were cute and sweet. I think Daddy was proud to show you two off to his friends!
December presented us with a particularly challenging first week - we were iced in for five days.
All of us. In our house.
Together
.
The sleet started Thursday afternoon, right after we got Brother home from school and you and Sam and I didn't even see the light of day until the next Wednesday morning when we had to go see Dr. G. for Sam's flu shot. That's a long time to be in a small space with two small people. A loooong time.
Overall, it wasn't too bad, but it was a unique situation that I wouldn't want to find myself in too often! Fortunately we knew it was coming and had a chance to prepare. Mommy got in lots of food and planned some activities for Sam. We watched lots of movies and made lots of messes. You and Sam (and Mommy) loved having Daddy off of work for three whole days! It was amazing to see how thick of a layer of ice was covering everything in sight. And it was sooo cold in the house. We all had major cabin fever by the time it was over and were glad to get our lives back to normal. After Sam's flu shot we went and got lunch and ran to the store. Woo-hoo! It felt so good to be outside!
Measurements:
weight - 23 lb.
Clothes - You're wearing your 12-18 month outfits and a few 18-24 month things. I can tell you are going to grow out of clothes quickly, especially pants because you are such a tall girl. This month was all about keeping you warm, so it was lots of soft fuzzy pants and warm tops. You still pull out any clips or headbands I try to put on you. Your bangs are getting longer so we're going to have to come to some sort of compromise here, soon, little girl.
Diapers
- You're just too tall for size threes so you've graduated to fours.
Feedings - You're down to eating about twice a day for a total of about ten minutes a day. Strange to think this time last year you were eating over an hour a day. You are also eating pretty much everything Daddy and I eat as well. We've been fixing a lot of soups and stews - I add baby cereal to your bowl to thicken them up and you like those a lot.
Sleeping - Doing pretty well. You're in bed by 8:00 and you usually sleep until around 7:00/7:30. If you wake up in the night it's just for a hug and to search for a missing binkie. You take a pretty long morning nap, always about two hours after waking up, and then a shorter late afternoon nap. I usually save dishes until you wake up since your room is so close to the kitchen, so after some post-nap cuddles, you help me unload the dishwasher and steal all the spoons!
Talking - "Ma-ma", "b-b-bb-bbbbthspsk!" (bird), and "Da-da"
Playing - let's see...your favorite places to play would be: the dishwasher (not inside it, just taking everything out of it), the drapes, the kitchen pantry and closet, Mommy's purse and bathroom drawer, and Sam's room. All the places you're not supossed to be. You also love to step up on things. You're trying to step up on top of toys, Sam's bathroom stool and you can climb Gram and Pops' stairs almost faster than they can keep up with you. You've discovered mega-blocks (which are like giant Legos) and your favorite activity, of the things you're
supposed
to do, is build tall, tall towers with your stacking blocks. You have a very steady hand!
Happy Thirteen Months, Evelyn!
Pops was nice enough to take some photos during Sam's sleepover. He and Gram and Pops made Christmas cookies and went to NorthPark Mall to hear Santa tell a story. Great job on your photos, Pops.
Having made cookies with Gram the day before, Sam was ready to roll up his sleeves for our Advent activity of the day - make cookies to take to our neighbors. We decided to try a new cookie we'd never made, or even eaten, before - a Linzer cookie. We made the dough, cut the cookies and baked them the first day, then assembled them with the jam, wrapped them and delivered them the second day.
After delivering Don and Joyce's cookies (and posing in front of their yard decorations), Sam convinced me to walk across the park to see our neighborhood Christmas tree. It was chilly, but worth the walk over!
The cooking continued when we made gingerbread pancake mix for Sam's preschool teachers. Ms. Carmen emailed us a photo of her pancakes the morning she made them, and she said they were delicious.
After all that baking, Mommy needed an easy activity the next day. So we brought out the peppermint play-doh again. Mommy made a snowman. Sam made a monster!
The next day was an exciting one - a Christmas gift shopping trip to the Dollar Tree. Brian and I gave Sam one dollar for each member of our family we would be exchanging gifts with so that he could buy each person a gift that would be just from him. We had so much fun, I had him get everyone
two
things. I'm a big spender like that! It was fun to see him look around and pick things he thought people would like.
Before we left for the dollar store I explained what we were doing and who he would be buying for. He told me the one thing he wanted to get Uncle Andrew was "stinky underpants". I told him I didn't think there were underpants at the dollar store and to think of something else Andrew might like, like a flashlight or a picture frame.
Lo and behold, on the "beauty aisle" we found underpants, tighty-whities if you will, with a giant barcode smack dab on the,
ahem
, front. They were just laying there, in a pile, in a bottom bin,
unwrapped
. Sam was beside himself with joy.
The perfect gift for Uncle Andrew. This was shaping up to to be one classy Christmas.
Sam placed all his items on the belt, underwear included, and paid the cashier.
Needless to say we considered this a very successful shopping trip.
We spent the next day with Granny Nell and Vic at their house in Duncanville, eating dinner and opening presents before they left for their holiday travels. Evie had a great time playing with new toys and Grandpa Vic played lots of cards with Sam. A great end to the third week of our Christmas countdown!
