Sunday, July 31, 2011

Noah reads a book

Grammy read Noah a book on her kindle.

Then she read it to him again.

Then he did this.



Then Mommy, Grammy and Grammy Sue picked their jaws up off the floor.

Also mommy resolved to do a better job watching her mouth because apparently her 2.5 yo can pick up and memorize ANYTHING.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Friday, July 29, 2011

Eva at 6mo

I'm basically sharing this one because she is the best sitter and cutest baby I have ever seen. No bias, of course.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Baby's first pickle

Seriously? We're giving her a pickle?

Hmmmm... what's this?

Is it food?

No! Not food!!!

That's about when we remembered you really aren't supposed to give babies salt and switched out the pickle for a water bottle.

This will do.

Is it food?

OMG! MOMMY!!

OK, what's next?

Is it food?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Prelude to a crawl

Eva loves to be on all fours, even though she needs help to get up there. She is just starting to do the rocking that precedes crawling... I think we've got a bit of time before crazy babyproofing v.2.0 must occur.



And by writing that above statement out loud I have probably just ensured that she will learn how to crawl next week when I am in the bathroom and launch herself down the stairs. Good luck kid!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Popper toy

I dug out the popper toy, thinking Eva might get a kick out of it. She loves it, but isn't quite strong enough to push the button on top down by herself.

Luckily, she is nothing if not resourceful.



Clever girl.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Baby's first haircut

My god, it was overdue. We basically have to pull the front back at all times, otherwise she looks like she's auditioning to be the fifth Beatle.


I'm ok with pulling her hair back, because she looks great with a ponytail or a barrette, and because I just do not have the skill or patience to maintain bangs on a baby. But the baby mullet was getting to be a bit much.


So I seized a moment when Grammy Sue and Noah were distracting her to de-mulletify the baby. Now she's got a cute little bob!


Still crazy, but cute crazy instead of aging rocker crazy.

Thanks mom. Also, maybe the black onsie/pants combo isn't a great choice for me.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Six months!

Eva turned six months old on Friday. I am still recovering from the shock.

I know, I can't believe it either.

She is an amazing six-month old. I can't believe I haven't kept you better updated on her activities, but in my defense she learns something new about every other day, so it's hard to keep up.

She is LOVING solid foods. We were feeing her purees, but she hoovered up as much as we would feed her, which I think was a bit too much based on how it disagreed with her. So we switched to a diet of finger-food only, which is going much better. She is great at feeding herself, and is doing a good job of regulating how much solid food vs. breastmilk she should be consuming. Also, I am delighted that I don't have to fight with her over the spoon anymore.

See mom! We both wanted the same thing, for me to feed myself! We both win!
Alternate caption: Look Grammy! I love tofu too!!

She does love tofu. Also, green beans, carrots, beets, pears, avocado, lentil squares, multi-grain toast, eggs, tahini, watermelon, hamburger, chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and almost everything else we've fed her so far. She was not crazy about kiwi, and really not crazy about the prune juice jello I made her after reading the rave reviews on the baby food forum. Huh.

This self-feeding process is a TAD messy... For example, when someone suggests rolling slippery foods like avocado in wheat germ to make them easier to grip and add iron, you should be prepared to be picking wheat germ out of your six-month-old's hair for a while.

That's not a problem, is it?

Anyway, here we are. Six months. She is an expert sitter.

Look ma, no hands!

And if you put her down on all fours she can hold herself up.

Look Ma, Hands!

Unfortunately for all of us, she cannot yet push up onto all fours by herself. This is unfortunate only because she desperately wants to and practices when we all should be sleeping.

Her favorite activities include reaching for things and bringing things to her mouth. Also grabbing things and bringing her mouth to those things.

Hello, cow. We meet again.

She has two little perfect teeth, which are totally adorable and also deadly weapons.

Cheese!
No, seriously, I would like some cheese.

She is sweet and sunny and such a pleasant little person to be around. She loves her brother and wants to watch and touch and be around him at all times. I think she is turning out to be a bit like her dad, personality-wise, where she is clearly keyed in to everything that is going on, but reasonably laid-back and flexible about what we are doing. She is paying attention and picking up on things quickly but she doesn't need to vocalize every thought, unlike some other members of our family. Ahem.

(I meant Noah, of course. Why?)

She loves to look at books, sing songs, bounce, and ride in the stroller. Whenever I catch her eye she breaks into a giant toothy grin. Basically, she is totally winning at being a baby. Am I forgetting anything?

I am not sure you have adequately described how cute I am.

Because seriously.

I am really

really

really cute.
Also sweet and brilliant and the best baby ever.

I know, my darling Eva. We love you like crazy.


Let's celebrate Eva's first half-year with a week of posts about her. Stay tuned! :)

Friday, July 22, 2011

She can sit!

I am sorry this is so overdue - we have some big baby news around here. After weeks and weeks of baby crunches, Eva has finally learned how to sit on her own!

Here she is, on her first day of sitting, July 6. I KNOW that was weeks ago. I forgot I hadn't posted it. Please feel free to lament my poor second child, clearly blog neglected.

By now she's doing a great job of keeping herself up and recovering if she starts to tip. She is not yet able to push up to sitting by herself, but she is working on it. In the meantime, she is clearly very pleased with herself for being upright.

Speaking of Eva being neglected on the blog, today is her six month birthday. Amazing. We will discuss at length next week.


Friday, July 15, 2011

Noah plays baseball

Ever since Mima took him to one of Christopher's baseball games, Noah has been a bit obsessed.



His understanding of the mechanics of the game is still a bit thin...

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Noah reads to Eva

I left the room for a second to put something away and returned to this scene.



And my heart melted. Understandably, I think.


by the way my favorite part of this is definitely when he tells her what he is doing. ;)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Underpants Song

Don't ask, I don't know. All I do know is I only caught the last bit of it.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Two and a half

So over the weekend, Noah officially turned two and a half. Wow.


He is such an awesome kid. He seems to get smarter and more articulate every day, and he is paying attention to his world in ways I continue to be surprised by.

This morning I let Eva eat her breakfast in only her diaper. Chad came in and noticed. Unprompted, Noah said "Eva has no shirt on because it's going to be all covered in avocado." I was impressed, since I never said anything about why Eva was eating with no shirt.

The above story is even cuter because Noah can't say "avocado" so it sounded more like "bacado."


Later this morning I said I had to quickly finish something on the computer. He asked to sit on my lap. Before I could tell him to do something else he assured me "I won't touch any of the buttons!" while shaking his head and his hands for effect. Then I gave in. Because at 2.5 getting him to transition to something other than the one thing he has decided it is time to do, is, let's say, a challenge.

And you know what? He didn't touch any of the buttons.

Noah has started to "read" books by himself. It is really impressive, because he can recite several of the books we regularly read verbatim. It gives me goosebumps to watch him turn the page and say the words of the text perfectly. It catches me by surprise. It seems like one minute I am reading the book and he is looking at the pictures, and the next minute he is reciting text that I had no idea he knew. Twice now I have left the room for a second and returned to see him reading to Eva.


Noah the 2.5 year old is the best big brother ever. He loves Eva, he wants to hug and kiss and hold her. He will pick up the toys she drops, and share Henry with her on occasion. He wants to know where she is and wants her to do things with him. Like sit in the chair. No, THAT chair. OVER THERE!


He also scolds her when she does something he thinks she shouldn't. "No Eva! No pulling hair!" He will then come over and tell me "I said to Eva 'No pulling hair!' I said it to him."

He is still a bit confused about pronouns.

He is also apparently a bit bossy. Please feel free to draw your own conclusion about where he could have possibly gotten this from.

I can't believe how different he is from a year ago, or from just six months ago when his sister was born. He is such a delightful kid. We are one lucky family to have him.


In Noah's honor, I think we should spend the week watching videos of him. Here's the first, a good example of what Noah is like, most nights.


Yay 2.5. :)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Mommy's little helper

Eva wants to help with the laundry.


Unless something more interesting comes along, namely her brother.


Hey Eva, why do you two have so much laundry, anyway?


Oh. Right.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Beach!!

We took our first trip to the beach this past weekend. The tide was way out when we got there, but that didn't stop Noah from wanting to go play in the waves.

Can you see Noah and Chad in this picture? They're there, I promise.

Eva seemed excited for her first visit to the ocean.


We had both kids splashing in the waves for a while - Eva was a very good sport. But Noah's enthusiasm made the event basically impossible to photograph.




Eh, maybe we'll get some pictures next time.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

This.

This, people. This is why we had two kids.



Seeing them enjoy each other makes my heart sing.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Work out with Eva

Eva had an unfortunate diaper situation at the gym last weekend, and the clothes we happened to have in the diaper bag combined with what survived the blow-out made Eva look like an aerobics instructor from the 80s.


Yes, those are leg warmers and socks that look like little sneakers. I swear these clothes look normal when they aren't all paired together.

I'll just give you a moment to imagine how ridiculous it was for us to go out for bagels afterwards, Chad and I wearing our workout clothes, and Eva dressed like this. Have a good laugh? You are welcome.

Anyway, once we got home Eva got into the spirit of things and tried a few crunches

First you lift the head...

...and then the legs, squeeze!

And relax and stretch it out.

Perhaps after seeing these pictures you are inspired and would like to do a bit of exercise yourself. Here, she made a workout video for you to follow along.

Video: Baby abs work out with Eva. Soundtrack: "Big Machine Rap" by Noah

Friday, July 1, 2011

Oh, the hair

Poor Eva. Not only does she have some rather unruly hair, she has a mother who will post images of that hair on the internet.

Naptime's over, Mommy. A little help here?

Seriously? You're going to keep taking pictures instead of getting me up?

But if you think I'm going to do anything like cut it to rein it in, you are nuts.

'elo there

Instead, I invested in some tiny rubber bands, and voila! Pigtails!!

Yay! I love pigtails!!

The pigtails are way more effective than barrettes in keeping her hair out of her face. The only downside is they make her look entirely too old.

Pay no attention to the toddler-like person in the high chair

At least she's still almost as small as the owl