Farming

Evelyn got a farm for her birthday. It has little animals, a farmer and makes animal sounds.

She and Matilda love it!

We've done some "farming" of our own--that is the lone watermelon our garden produced this year.

Apparently, hers is not a watermelon farm.

Trick or Treat

For Halloween, Evelyn dressed up as a bumble bee and Matilda was a pirate! They did a great job trick-or-treating. We visited about a dozen neighbors and at each house Matilda said "trick or treat?!" as well as, "happy Halloween," and thanked them politely. By the end of the excursion, her bucket was so full she could barely carry it. The girls shared some M&Ms when we got home and then Matilda jumped on our bed while cheering for about 3 hours burning off the sugar high. We ended the evening with dinner and a showing of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Matilda is just now starting to accept that Halloween is over, and I'm sure she'll be even more excited as it draws near next year.

Anticipation

Last year, at this time, I was headed over to the hospital to begin induction of labor. I knew we would meet Evelyn the next day. Tomorrow, she will be one. It seems impossible that a year has already passed.

The Retrospective

You'll have to forgive me for making this a two part series instead of a 12 parter. All the goodies are still there, life just got busy.

When Evelyn was one month old, she attended her first Geneva Christmas Walk, she celebrated her first Christmas, we took photos for the Christmas card, and she met her extended family--the Greene family side as well as Aunt Kim and Uncle Eric, and her godparents, for the first time. She also smiled her first smile.

When Evelyn was two months old, she rang in her first new year, went out in the snow for the first time, started lifting her head, and laughed her first laugh.

When Evelyn was three months old, she mastered sitting in the Bumbo seat, celebrated Valentine's Day, and "played" with her sister.

When Evelyn was four months old, she was really getting big, she could roll over, got her first tooth,

When Evelyn was five months old, she started crawling, celebrated her first Easter with candy and a fancy Easter dress, met her Great-Aunt Mona, took her first trip to Door County, and enjoyed her first swim.

When Evelyn was six months old, she mastered sitting, celebrated her first Mother's Day, and took another trip to Door County where she got to try out the new swing set.

When Evelyn was seven months old, she spent a rainy afternoon playing in a fort with her big sister, she kept my on my toes by going over or through any obstacle--never around, she was baptized, she showed her sister how tough she is, she started pulling herself up to standing using furniture, had her first tastes of cheerios and fruits in her mesh feeder, her bald spot filled in, and she celebrated her first Father's Day.

When Evelyn was eight months old, she celebrated her sister's second birthday, she stole a fist full of coleslaw at a family fish boil and demanded to eat adult and baby foods from that point on, and started cruising.

When Evelyn was nine months old, she received and fell in love with a play kitchen, spent a hot summer day at the sprayground, attended brewfest and played in a fountain with her godparents, and was frequently reciting her first word: Mama!

When Evelyn was ten months old, she realized she was trapped, she learned to climb the stairs, started saying, "Dada," and started trying to clap.

When Evelyn was eleven months old, she got her first passport, she admired the pumpkin Daddy grew in the garden, she started hiding in cabinets trying to find Matilda when she was hiding, she got seven teeth, she started kissing, and took her first steps.

New

This will be the first in a 12 day series revisiting Evelyn's first 12 months in the 12 days leading up to her birthday.

As a newborn, Evelyn did the standard newborn things. She slept, had her first bath, and celebrated her first Thanksgiving. Although she looked like her sister's twin at birth, it only took a day or two to realize we had a completely different baby on our hands. Evelyn was a great eater and took wonderful naps from the start. Sleeping through the night has never been her strong suit, but she hardly ever cried--only when she was hungry or wet. Her sweet, content nature has remained unchanged through this first year.

Fall

Fall is here! The weather is finally cool and crisp, the leaves have turned (half the trees in our neighborhood are already bare!) and we just harvested our pumpkin!

Matilda is really psyched about Fall too. She loves seeing the pumpkins and can't wait for her sister's birthday and Halloween. She had a nice time running around at the farmer's market and picking flowers.

She particularly loves all the "baby pumpkins!"

Indian Summer

The World at our Fingertips

The girls have passports now! Passports for babies... it's adorable. Where should we take them?

Mommy's little helpers

We've been busy doing chores today.

Another Evelyn Milestone

Evelyn can now climb the stairs! She is completely fearless. One night she climbed one step and decided that of course she could climb them all. It happened so fast that we didn't even get a chance to record her maiden voyage, so this is a video of her second attempt at the summit. She is spectacular! However, she has absolutely no fear of getting hurt nor any concept of gravity, so she thinks it would be fun to turn around at the top and go down head first. Obviously, this presents a new supervision challenge and we are the proud owners of some brand-new gates to try to make our open floor plan a little less open so she can't sneak upstairs and maim herself while I make dinner.

Smush face

Dancing Drama Queen

Matilda had her first ballet class today.



It was drama from the start. She screamed as we put on her leotard, tights and shoes. She cried as I put her hair up. She sniffled and snuggled her lovies for a while before being ready to take the car trip over to her dance studio. Once we arrived, she was social, friendly, and interested! I was so hopeful! She kept talking about dancing and "music class." Before class started, she was having a great time running around in one of the empty studios.



But once class got underway, it was all tears. I had to sit in with her, and aside from one log roll and stacking up some tambourines, she was not enjoying herself at all. To be fair, there was only 1 other little girl in the class and she was crying too. They sort of just fed off eachother. Even when Matilda did stop crying for a few minutes she would tap me on the shoulder and say "Mama, I still cwying." But we're going to keep trying. We'll give it another go next Wednesday and if that doesn't work out, we'll switch to the (more full) Monday class that supposedly has braver girls in it.



And it was totally worth it--she's so stinking cute in her little leo and ballet shoes!

Baby's Got Back

I went back and forth a little on whether or not to post this picture, but it has been making me giggle every time I see it for over a week now, and I thought I'd share the joy that only my chubby little cherub can bring. I'll post it again when she gets married.

Dancing in a Fountain at Beerfest

We took the girls to visit friends this weekend and went to a beer festival. The kids had a great time playing in the fountains and keeping the heat at bay while the grownups spent some time catching up and tasting micrbrews--a rather nice way to spend a Saturday!

Yesterday was another HOT August day in the Fox Valley. We have been trying to take the girls out early before the heat becomes unbearable. For a change of pace, we went to the Cosley Zoo! It's the perfect size for letting Matilda walk and explore. It is full of animals that she knows--farm animals, ducks, deer, birds, turtles, etc. She even pet a pony and a sheep!
It was small enough that we were able to see everything (at Matilda's walking pace) in about 30 minutes. Then we circled back around and let her visit her favorites again. She was so excited to see all these creatures moving around and doing their animal things. As you can see in the video, nearly all the animals (with the dignified exception of the turtle) were "EATIN'!"
We finished our visit just in time to get some lunch and head home for nap.
Matilda was so excited she was still talking about the zoo and the peacocks and the sheep and the turtle this morning.
With free admission for children and only $3 for adults, we'll surely return for another visit!

August

I'll admit it, I kind of hate August. No holidays, it's super hot, and it feels like it's always been hot and always will be hot.
But, it's still part of summer, and summer is supposed to be fun! So, I turned to Go West Young Mom! to find something new and fun to do.

So, today, we went to the Sprayground on a playdate! The girls had a great time. Matilda took a little while to just size everything up, but before I knew it, she was running all over, trying out the water cannons and testing all the sprinklers and sprayers. The only thing she didn't try was the mist tunnel.

Even Evelyn had a good time crawling around for a while and splashing on the zero-depth rubber "pool" that this is on. After about an hour, the kids were ready for snacks and a little drying off on the traditional playground before stopping for lunch at McDonald's and then heading home for a nice long nap.

Oh, and did I mention the Sprayground is free? Yeah. That's awesome!

I feel pretty

She's 2. She calls my makeup "treasure."



She loves to open up the Caboodles case and look at every little piece.




She picked out that dress to wear for a play date. She looked lovely.

Pizzzzzzzzzzza

This is what happens when Matilda skips her nap. So tired she falls asleep eating her very favorite food.

Now We're Cooking!

Grandma and Grandpa gave this wonderful kitchen to the girls last week and Matilda and Evelyn can't get enough of it! They play with it every single day, and they play nicely together. it's cute as can be and we all love it!

Sisters...

are marvelous playthings.