Walking in a winter wonderland

In Iowa, on December 29, Charlie and I were able to walk the 2.5 miles to pick Evy up from school. A stroller ride home in late December? Awesome!

Christmas Extravangaza

Three Christmas celebrations in 72 hours. After three mornings of waking to Santa showing up--once at our house, once at my parents, and once at Scott's parents--tonight I overheard Evy ask Scott, "Is Santa coming tonight?" We hated to break the news that Santa doesn't show up every night! Here are some photos from our whirlwind tour;


[Santa came to our house on Christmas Eve morning. Evy left him cookies and a note.]


[Tractor ride with Papa Jake on Christmas Eve.]


[Sweet Baby!]


[Opening presents with Grandma Joan on Christmas morning.]


[Attempt at a family photo. Barely worth the effort!]


[Evy and Jacob playing on their "computers"]


[Reading a book with Grammy]


[All of Evy's cousins on Scott's side of the family. She is so little!]

Dreaming

At Evy's three year checkup the pediatrician mentioned that this is the age when imagination can take over and you will see fears of the dark and monsters. I thought to myself, "thank goodness this isn't an issue" and moved on. Well, now it's an issue. The last two nights we have had a hard time getting Evy to go to sleep. She is seeing shadows and "hearing noises in her ear." Most of her fears involve Captain Hook. Yep, Scott let her watch the Hook movie with Robin Williams. There is a scene where Hook runs his...um, Hook, down the hallway in Peter Pan's house, cutting up the wall as he goes. Evy is very concerned by that particular scene. This morning she told me, "I not have a very good sleep. I thinked I saw Captain Hook's hair."

AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!

The Momiform

momiform; The outfit often worn by a mother with young kids. In the winter the momiform may include yoga pants and a fleece. In the summer the momiform is likely cropped yoga pants and a short-sleeved t-shirt. Momiforms are most often spotted at Target and playgrounds. Not to be confused with athletic gear, momiforms are rarely seen at the gym.

Happy Birthday to Me

I feel blessed to have celebrated my 29th birthday for yet another year. It was my best 29th birthday yet--Scott and I had a dinner date last night and today we all ate lunch at the food court and played at the children's museum. Wait. Did I say it was my birthday?

Wrapping

Evy picked out gifts for Charlie and Scott at Target. I then let her pick the wrapping paper and name tag for each gift. I asked her if she would like to use the snowman or Christmas stripe paper. For Charlie she picked the "paci" (pacifier) paper because she thought Charlie would like that. And for Scott she picked the blue paper. Blue is Scott's favorite color. Neither were the choices I offered her. One is baby shower paper and the other all occassion blue. Oh well. The wrapping paper under our tree might be a little mismatched but it's all in the name of love.

The Second Child

Exactly three years ago Evy's first hotel stay was at a full-service hotel on Michigan Avenue. This weekend, Charlie's first hotel stay was at a dump off the interstate in the suburbs. I'll never hear the end of this.

Monday

This is how we're all feeling this morning after a whirlwind trip to the 'burbs this past weekend. We went in for Evy's cousin Jacob's third birthday party and also got to see our friends Mason, Hadley, Shay and Gemma. After two nights of sleeping in a hotel room (as one big happy family) we're all dragging a little bit.

Evy's cousin Jacob posted this video invitation to great-grandma Max on his blog. (Ok, so he didn't actually post it, but you know what I mean). Evy thought Jacob was talking to her and requested to watch the video several times. I finally grabbed the camera and taped her response to Jacob.

Ebelyn

According to Evy there is no "v" in Evy. She pronounces the "v" sound as "b." Scott has been working with her to get the pronunciation down. I think it's cute and plan to let her make the mistake for a few more years. Evy might tell you the following story: "My name is Ebelyn. I habe a sister named Charlie. She is bery cute and I lub her bery much. Today I played with my friend, Sabannah at tot lot."

The Original Coffee Shop

On the way to my parent's house this morning the girls and I swung off at a gas station in the middle of no where for an emergency potty stop. In the gas station three old men were sitting at a booth drinking coffee. They reminded me of my grandpa who always met up with his friends at the local gas station for a cup of joe. The coffee was black, it cost 25 cents, and came in a styrofoam cup. Grandpa was always dressed in his uniform; khaki trousers, plaid shirt, suspenders and most likely a Watkins Auto Body hat. They met at the same time every morning and I caught on that grandpa would buy me a soda or hand me some money if I "happened" to be at the gas station the same time he was. He would come home to my grandma and report what Dennis or Max had to say at cofffee. In small town Iowa, the gas station was the original coffee shop. It's been almost nine years since Grandpa has met his buddies for coffee at the local gas station. But, I imagine they were are all sharing a cup somewhere this morning.

So Excited...Here we Go!

Well, it's official. The season of sickness is upon us. It kicked off this morning with the confirmation that Evy has her first ear infection of the season. She's been up multiple times in the night for the past three nights and then finally told me last night that her ear hurts. The diagnosis gets a lot easier when they can tell you what hurts, that's the bright side, I guess. Charlie to the doctor last week. Evy to the doctor this week. It's going to be a fun winter! In related news Scott and I have increased our coffee consumption. We used to make it through the day by using one Kuerig cup each. Now, we've started brewing an entire pot each morning.