Sweet Sylvalina

Well, it's summer all right. Sylvie's wondering why it's so hot around here. Is that what's making her cheeks so heavy? And could someone please remove this obnoxious hat?

Progress report. We've been extremely busy here. Evalina is completely potty trained. It was official about a month ago. I won't put up a photo. But I will put one up one from the morning before her first day at preschool! (Yes, we know her lunch box is nearly as big as she is.) She's sporting a slightly concerned look on her face, but that's probably reflective of how she really felt that morning.

A few days prior, she had a wonderful last day with her two best friends from her daycare. She's known these two since she was three months old! And while the transition to her new surroundings is going extremely well, she still talks about these guys constantly.

Not to be outdone, Sylvie's working on making some friends. We recently went to a birthday party for Evie's friend Mia. Not surprisingly, lots of the girls in Evie's little group of friends now have younger siblings. So Sylvie sidled up to one of them, Julia, and ogled her hanging bug. Seems as though Julia's ogling Sylvia's bug right back. Sounds like the budding of a friendship!

Back to progress: Evie had her 3 year visit to the pediatrician, complete with 2 shots and a blood draw (hate that part!). She's still at the 99th percentile for both height and weight, but her BMI is only at the 66th percentile. And switching gears, Sylvia also went to her 6 month pediatric visit. She weighed in at nearly 19 pounds, and 27.5 inches long. We were happy with the health reports on both girls.

Sylvie, I think, can now turn from her front to her back. I haven't seen her do it, but every so often I catch her on her back when I could have sworn she was on her front a few minutes prior. And she can sit up like a pro (happened around 6.5 months), as well as rock back and forth on all fours, but she is not yet crawling (thankfully!).

Visits! It's been a hot summer so far, as I'm sure everyone can agree. We're lucky enough to live semi-close to Evie's grandparents, and can therefore take advantage of their water-friendly location. We've visited a few times this summer already. Below Papa is trying to entice Evie to go boogie boarding in the lake. Perhaps the rough surf is keeping her from joining in. Or maybe it's the murky waters.

She is not the only one wary of those waters. At the tender age of three, my brother notoriously fell into the lake off of our rather narrow dock and sank into those murky waters like a rock. Obviously, he survived. However, legend has it that he consequently refused to enter any body of water for many moons. (There's a point to this, I promise.) One recent hot weekend, my dear Evie was on that very same dock, filling her super-soaker for a water fight with Papa. She was so preoccupied with the task at hand that she did a forward roll of the dock and into the water. (Makes me wonder if her head is really heavy, because she also recently did a forward roll off of the toilet while trying to watch herself pee.) Despite those swim lessons she's been taking, she sank like a rock in the 3-foot water. We all went running, took her out, and laughed. She eventually joined in and thought it was funny. Sort of.

Anyway, given that incident, when we're in water that's deeper than 3 feet, we tend to wear our life jackets. I don't think Sylvie is a fan of hers yet (can you blame her?)...

For our five year wedding anniversary, Ed, Sylvie and I spent a night away at a posh hotel. (Evie spent the night at her grandparents - sans parents - for the first time.) Sylvie was delighted to be the center of attention. We even got a hike in!

And probably the biggest event of the recent past was a party for Granddad Benn, who just turned 95. Nearly all of the family gathered to celebrate.

Clockwise from Ed: Grandma Bobbie, Granddad Benn, Kim, Mike, Rob, me, Andie, Nico, Grandma Amy, Evie, Papa Carl.

Evie hung out with her cousin Nico, who, in Evie's eyes, is about the funniest person ever.

And Grandma and Granddad both finally got to hold Sylvie for the first time.

Sylvia's been making the rounds. Just two weeks later, she visited the girls' other great grandparents, also for the first time.

This past weekend, we returned to the grandparents' house to celebrate Uncle Andrew's birthday.

And while we were there, special guests from Montana visited: Dayna and her little girl McCall. It was great to see them.

Evie and McCall played together all day.

I think one of the best things about having two kids is watching their interactions. Evie is truly wonderful to Sylvie - we are very lucky. The video below shows Evie trying to make Sylvie laugh. She works pretty hard at it!

And Sylvia copies just about everything her older sister does, including this lovely habit.

Finally (sorry, this is a loooong blog!), I'd like to share some of Evie's most recent hilarious expressions. The other morning, as Ed went to use his electric shaver, Evie asked: "Is Daddy going to wipe his beard off?"

And a slightly more esoteric comment, but one that will be very appreciated by my fellow nursing mothers (specifically those who have to pump while at work): one day, whilst Evie, Sylvia and I were in the back yard in our swim suits, Evie pulled down the top of my suit, looked in, and asked "Mama, are those your pumps?"

I'll try to remember more of Evie's banter for next time, as she constantly cracks all of us up. Exhibit A:

Yesterday, Evie proudly put one of her buggers in Sylvia's mouth. "Mama! Look what I put in her mouth!" Just a snapshot of life in chez KimJenterKimKim.

Normally the girls are quite enamored of one another. Evie incessantly tries to make Sylvie smile, and when Evie succeeds, she shrieks in delight, which sometimes makes Sylvie cry.

Our little three year old is quite a character. She celebrated her 3rd birthday -- twice -- in high style. We held one small party in our back yard, featuring Evie's new "bouncy house," which doubles as an electronic babysitter. (Worth every dang penny.)

And we had another party at her grandparents' house...

where we all enjoyed some lovely spring weather.

Sylvie and me with Aunt Andie and Uncle Rob.

I love my 3-year-old's toddler vocabulary. In order to avoid forgetting some of the wonderful expressions she creates, I thought I'd share some of my favorites here. Not sure this is entertaining to anyone but me, but too bad. Here's a smattering:
appo 'puter = apple computer
tomotto = tomorrow
jamas = pajamas (as in "I don't WANT to get dressed. I want to stay in my JAMAS!!!")
Recently, I wasn't feeling well, and Evie hugged me and said "I make you feel better on Thursday, Mama." It happened to be a Tuesday when she said it, but I'm pretty sure that was inconsequential. And this one makes me laugh every time Evie says it: when I give her food she doesn't want to eat, she looks at it, looks at me, and states "it's too spicy for me, Mama". The other day, she told me white rice was too spicy.

And on to other eating habits. Syvlia's eating up a storm these days -- we started her on solid food just before she turned 5 months old. She seems to be quite a fan of the food (see photo below, where Syvlie's reaching for a spoonful of peas). But because life is rather busy, we haven't introduced anything except for rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and peas. And our Sylvie happily eats the same thrilling trio every night. Aren't we the best parents ever?

Sylvie also is now reliably turning from her back to her front, which is a generally considered good thing. But it is also annoying, because she gets stuck on her stomach and bellows when she forgets how to turn back over.

I guess it's ok, so long as she doesn't roll off of the diaper changing table...

Speaking of changing tables, Evie doesn't fit on one anymore. Not by a long shot. So we have entered the land of toilet training. Toilet training is not a linear process. Nor a pleasant one. Nor one that Evie cares to entertain. Enough said.

She would MUCH rather languish in the land of princesses. (Score 2 for Disney -- see last November's blog for the first score.) Some time ago now, Evie witnessed our neighbor's girls wearing their princess dresses as they played outside. Evie was in awe. Luckily, I suspected this time would come and was prepared. So the day after Evie saw the neighborhood royalty wandering around our driveway, I dragged a cheapo dress (Christmas Tree shops sells 'em for $4! Score 1 for Chelsea...) out of hiding and gave it to her. She was truly delighted. Once we had found some sparkly shoes to go with it, she looked at Ed and said "Daddy, you dance with me?" I almost melted into the floor. And so Ed spun her around a few times -- got that part on video. But it was the asking part that was so touching.

And while you're drying your eyes, here's another awwwww. Ed and I have a photo from our wedding day along our staircase, and today Evie looked at it and said "I want to wear Mommy's princess dress and get married." Ed then followed with the logical question of "Who are you going to marry?" to which Evie replied "You, Daddy." Awwww.

Alrighty then. So here's my recent favorite photo of Sylvia (taken by one of her grandparents).

Um, wait. Maybe it's this one...

As you can see, Sylvia sports the perennial shiny chin in all of her photos. Evie had a fountain head, but Sylvia has a fountain mouth.

Finally, and most importantly, some big news in our family. BIG congratulations to Jen (my cousin) and Gary (my new cousin) on getting married this past weekend! And also HUGE congratulations to my brother Andrew and Tracy, who just got engaged!!! Whoo hoo! Evie and Sylvie would like a few more cousins, please. (Couldn't help it! Don't worry, bro, no one reads this thing anyway.) We blow bubbles in your honor.

Hey there. I know, I know, overdue for a blog. But today, we have ample reason to get some news out: Sylvia found her thumb!! Since she was 9 weeks old, Sylvie's been checking out her fist, facing it forward and away from her, much like Bowzer from Sha Na Na. However, she always tucked her thumb into her fist, which wasn't conducive to thumb sucking. Think she finally figured it out because twice today, we found her spontaneously sucking on her right thumb; after both times, she promptly fell asleep.

I'm a big fan of the thumb.
Pros:
* no velcro needed to keep it from falling on the floor
* kid can insert thumb by itself, thereby obviating the need to place 25 pacifiers in the crib (we didn't do that, but I've heard some people do)
* it's free (if you don't count the increased potential for orthodontics; but with my dental genes, both girls will probably need braces anyway)
Cons:
* hard habit to break, as you can't remove it
* often promotes ingestion of dirt and other nefarious delights, but that ain't so bad

So, we're happy. Pretty sure Sylvia is too.

So, you may ask - how is it, with two little ones, just coming back to work from my maternity leave this week? Well, my friend Lisa described the two-kid scenario as akin to "being the only waitress on duty in a 24-hour restaurant." Yup. And as many of my friends and family can attest, I was a pretty bad waitress. Therefore, we have welcomed any and all offers for help.

Uncle Andrew visited and tried to help out by single-handedly attempting to change Evie's poopie diaper unassisted. He was so good at it that he almost managed to get Sylvia's newborn diaper on Evie's nearly-3-year-old bum.

Evie's been a big help, too. Here she is assisting with Sylvia's bath.

She also helped me make a cake for her daddy's birthday. She was very good at eating the sprinkles while I did the rest.

Otherwise, Evie happily provides comic relief with her typical goofy toddler behavior.

Dr. Evie, fashionista

Or swaddling her babydoll and pretending she's a mother, too.

Evie is still adjusting to sharing the limelight with her sister. She's fiercely affectionate these days. I use that word "fiercely" on purpose. We have to monitor all kisses and hugs given to Sylvia, because they're generally at maximum strength level, a.k.a., Extreme Affection. There have been times that Evie has left her teeth marks imprinted on my cheek after an aggressive kiss!

To punctuate the end of my maternity leave and also soak up some much-needed sun, we took a trip to Florida last week. Talk about logistics. I was totally overwhelmed. But it was a fun trip, and we overlapped with Grammy and Papa and Uncle Rob and Aunt Andie, which made the whole schlep well worth it. Really, the trip was for Evie, and she had a blast. (Thanks to everyone who shared photos for this section!)

Left to right: Papa, Evie, Rob, Andie, Sylvia and me

We were lucky enough to find a hotel in close proximity to the fantastic Deefield Beach ocean-side walk, which we frequented daily.

Evie's favorite pastime was jumping the waves with the assistance of her dad.

Or building sandcastles with her grandparents.

And the nearby water spouts for washing off sand were nearly as entertaining as the beach itself...

Back at the hotel, Sylvia had her first swim in a pool.

Evie spent a lot of time in there as well.

Overall, the weather on our trip was a bit cooler than we expected, but it was so very nice to be outside.

You might think that I've been lazy in documenting Sylvia's first year. That's partially true, but I have been keeping tabs on all of her progress. This may be too much detail for y'all, but I'm putting it here because I currently suffer from mamnesia (the lack of brain functioning typical in lactating mothers), and can't recall anything at any given moment.

I won't be offended if you want to just skip to the end, where there's a great little Sylvia cooing video.

Picking up where the last blog entry left off, at 6 weeks, our lovely daughter got cradle cap on her face. OUCH! It lessened and disappeared by 8 weeks, but in the mean time, she looked like she had a serious case of acne. Preview for 5th grade!

At 8 weeks, Sylvia was diagnosed with reflux, which basically is profuse and repeated puking accompanied by significant discomfort. She puked on me, on the couch, in the car - you name it, Sylvia's marked her territory like a really old cat. So the doctor prescribed an antacid for her, and now she's just a happy puker; Ed says her puking is just preparation for her party days at college.

And then, because breastfeeding is a supply-demand system, Sylvia's puking faked my body out that she was eating more, and it started overproducing milk. And Sylvia's lunch counter turned into a fire hose, so she puked more. So, I had to figure out how to tame the twins, and I think we're all set now.

Despite all the puking, Sylvia exceeded the 98th percentile for weight at her two month appointment. She weighed 15 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 24.5 inches long, challenging Evie's similar weight track in her early months. (Where do these giants come from??!?!)

(Look at those blue eyes! They'll eventually turn brown, but they still surprise me.)

Halfway through her ninth week, Sylvia caught a cold. My cold, to be exact, and it was a doozie. So, at 1 AM one night, she exhibited the horrifying combo of being less than 90 days old and a fever above 100.4. It rose to 101.1 as we headed out the door to the Children's emergency room. To rule out things like UTIs and meningitis, they took blood, put in a catheter for urine, and gave her a spinal tap, making that day my least favorite day as a mother thus far. Needless to say, Sylvia and I were both exhausted and traumatized - so much so that I had a fender bender on my way home at 6 AM. Not to be left out, Evie came down with a nasty puking bug that same night, about one hour after I'd left for the ER. Ugh!! It was a bad night, to put it mildly.

Anywho, back to milestones. We had abandoned swaddling Sylvia in her early weeks, since she seemed to struggle against the confinement. However, after watching her flail about in her sleep, we decided to try swaddling her again around 9 weeks. Worked like a charm this time! By 11 weeks, she had slept through the night for the first time (WHOOO HOOO!!), and I'm thrilled to report that she has done it many times since.

Also at 11 weeks, she laughed for the first time as her daddy waved a striped dinosaur toy in front of her. (Not to make comparisons, but our story around Evie's first laugh was much more entertaining!)

And saving the best for last, here is a cute video of Sylvia cooing. You'd think she was communicating with dolphins with the noises she's making!

Every kid is different, or so they say. So this time, we have a semi-good sleeper (yipee!), but with a bit of an evening witching hour. Or rather, hours. She's an angel all day, and then at 6 pm, she turns into a little screamer. Sylvia's current 6 pm - 10 pm routine can be summed as follows: Scream, Nurse, Puke. Rinse and Repeat.

Poor Evie gets shafted in this scenario, as I'm constantly occupied, but she gets to spend more time with Dad. And, this should be over soon. The books say that this evening fussy gig lasts until the child is about 6-8 weeks old. I'm counting down the days. Our current survival strategy is simply putting one foot in front of the other. We eat take out food, ignore the dust bunnies growing in the corners, and subsist on one shower a day (meaning that I usually sport some lovely spit-up in my hair - makes for some intoxicating perfumery). Sylvia's age is 5 weeks, 1 day today. But, if we're going by due dates, she's only 4 weeks old. So, one way or the other, this should be done by my birthday. Right? RIGHT?!

But as much as I'm focusing on the putting one foot in front of the other, I can't complain. I am the luckiest new mother on the planet, and I try to "keep my eye on the doughnut, and not the hole," as my friend Dayna would say. Sylvia is a healthy kid thus far. She's already returning our smiles (will try for a photo on the next blog) and she's gaining weight at warp speed: at her 2 week appointment, she weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces, and at her 1-month appointment last week, she weighed 11 pounds, 4 ounces. She's a nursing champ (making me a champion cow - one might call me "Elsie"! But don't.)

Evie is handling this all very well. She's a great older sister, and her "acting out" from all of this is limited to being a little mommy-centric at times, and occasionally giving me the evil eye when I'm otherwise occupied. She hasn't yet tried to snuff out the new kid, so we're grateful for that. In fact, she's very loving toward her little sister, doling out kisses to Sylvia at every opportunity.

However, I wouldn't advise giving birth around the holidays. For one, the kid will eternally despise you for the proximity of its birthday to the best toy-ridden holiday of the year. And secondly, it makes for a sucky (pun intended) maternity leave. There's this crazy protocol in newborn medicine these days: if a baby less than 3 months old spikes a fever, the baby automatically is sent for both a urine and blood workup, in addition to a spinal tap. This makes having a kid in the flu season especially isolating, because you don't want them to get sick.

So we occupy ourselves indoors. One of Ed's recent internet deals supplied us with a much-needed (sense the sarcasm here?) foam house. Evie loves it, though, so of course it's worth it.

In fact, Evie just declared that we're going to "blow the house down" after lunch (Ed, Sylvia and I dutifully stuff ourselves inside this thing and serve as the pigs, while Evie plays the role of the one who huffs and puffs), and that tomorrow is "Mickey Day." I hope Sylvia won't mind being the follower, because it seems Evie is directing the show.

Visits!
Lots of visitors have come to help and to see our new addition. Ed's parents came for 10 days, which was a huge help.

Ed's sister Judy joined for a few days as well.

Jeannie visited from Seattle. Evie tried to trade her fancy green beads for Jeannie's scarf, and Jeannie humored her.

And Evie's friend Anyi visited from next door.

The major reason that things are going well (or, rather, that things are going at all) is that Ed has been here to make sure that things keep running. He's about to start his own gig, having left Smart Destinations in December, but he took a chunk of time off in January to spend with his girls.

My goal for the next week or two is to get out some thank you notes to all of you who have sent us lovely notes and things. I know you haven't heard from me yet, but your thoughts and acts of kindness are not forgotten!

And finally, one of my favorite photos from recent weeks: Sylvia's 2nd "real" (i.e., in a tub, which you can't do till they are 3-4 weeks old) bath. Yes, we missed photographing Sylvia's first bath, making us somewhat typical 2nd-time parents.

Our big news, as most of you know, is the arrival of our newest family member, Sylvia Talise. She arrived via c-section on 12/20/09 at 9:38 am. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and measured 19 inches long. I was expecting to meet Sylvia in an operating room because she was in a breech position (i.e., wrong way up), but not until around 12 noon the next day, 12/21. I unexpectedly went into labor one day earlier, which was a snowy nor'easter Sunday morning. After 3 hours of regular contractions, we made a call to the doctor around 5 am, and were told to start making the trek into the hospital. Thankfully, Uncle Andrew was visiting and stayed with Evalina while Ed and I made the sled ride ride down the Jamaica Way to the hospital (it wasn't that bad, actually). Here we are, minutes after Sylvia was born.

Note that we cropped the above photo so that you can't see the two surgeons putting me back together behind the blue screen. You're welcome.

You can almost see Sylvia thinking: It's bright out here!!

Evalina's adjusting quite well, we think. About a week after Sylvia's arrival, she asked if we could go back to the hospital (not sure if that was a hint that she wanted to "return" the baby there, or what). Other than that, she's shown very few signs that she's resentful or jealous of her new sibling. I'm sure that will change, but we're appreciative of her attitude thus far.

As most of you know, Evie has a "lovey" that is a tiger (featured here in her right hand). We let her pick out a lovey for her baby sister, and she chose a monkey. Here she is giving it to Sylvia.

So, why "Sylvia"? Because we thought it sounded very pretty, and of the same time period as Evalina (i.e., a name that was more popular back in the 1800's). Plus, I was stuck on names that started with "S" or "L". Clearly, this one won out over all of the other contenders. And why "Talise"? Well, we just really liked how it sounded with Sylvia as the first name; it means "lovely water" and is of Native American origin. And while we're on the topic, why "Evalina"? It was the one name that Ed and I could agree on at the time. And Evie's middle name, "Sharon"? Most of you know that Sharon was my mother's name, and while I never really called her "Sharon," Evalina Mom Kim just didn't sound right.

Back to some new kiddo factoids. Sylvia is a good eater, just like her big sister was (and is). I swear, I'm not moving my hands in the next video, which showcases Sylvia's good head control as she chicken-pecks her way across my cheek in search of a food source.

And the craziest thing is, and I don't want to jinx us by writing this, BUT - Sylvia seems to have a slightly higher affinity for sleep than her older sister had. PHEW! She's like her sister in that she's a loud sleeper, though, grunt-commenting her way through most of her sleeping spells. Sometimes she sounds like she's mimicking George Lucas' sound effects arsenal, like the ones from the pod races in the more recent Star Wars films.

But we are overwhelmed by the gift we have received this holiday season. To that end, we were able to enjoy a full celebration, despite the fact that Sylvia and I got home from the hospital on Christmas Eve.

Evie had already decorated the tree...

And family visited and celebrated with us. Grammy and Papa came to the hospital on the 23rd, and stayed the rest of the week to help us out.

Soon thereafter, Uncle Andrew and Aunt Tracy joined the festivities.

We somehow didn't get photos of cousin Kim or Aunt Andie and Uncle Rob, but they all visited at various times as well. Thank you all for your support and help as we quickly adjusted to our new little one!

And I think that's it for now - if I've forgotten something, I apologize - and I blame it entirely on the funky post-surgery narcotics they gave me. More soon, but I wanted to get these photos and videos out for all to enjoy. Happy New Year!!!

Long time, no blog. But that means we have lots of good photos to share! This fall we've been very busy getting ready for our new arrival, which is due in the next 3-4 weeks. In between, though, we've done lots of fun things, like apple picking.

And hiking.

Life with a toddler is full of humor, as I've mentioned before. Many of you may have heard one or all of the following stories, but I thought I'd write them out for my own record (I can't remember anything these days!).

On watching what we say: Evie has really started to imitate adults - mostly this manifests while she's doing pretend play with her dolls or stuffed animals. For instance, I've heard her tell her babydolls "no playing in the dollhouse, no getting out of bed!," which is something we have told her quite a lot before her naps.
She also regularly issues rather long "Time Outs" to the rubber duckies in her bathtub (they get sent to the four corners of the tub, abandoned there for the duration of the bath).
And a few weeks ago, I was getting her some breakfast, and I asked her if she wanted some Mini Wheats. She looked at me and said "No, Mama, I want MICKEY Wheats!" Score 1 for Disney.

On swine flu paranoia: this summer, we flew to Seattle and didn't want Evie to get sick along the way (she got sick on our flight out to LA last year, and it put a damper on the trip). Our flight to Seattle was so early that we left Evie in her PJs till just before boarding, and after we passed through security, I discovered a handy kids' changing room to change Evie's clothes. Now, changing rooms of this sort are not known for holding a high bar in the hygiene department, so I was trying to keep Evie from touching everything as I took all of her clothes out of the bag. Within minutes, and despite my efforts at toddler containment, I witnessed Evie licking the changing counter from end to end. I uttered an immediate gasp, which was followed by minutes of laughter (much to Evie's confusion). Guess that's what you get for trying to be too cautious... And she didn't get sick, either.

On naps: Evie is now skipping her daily nap roughly 40% of the time when she's at home (apparently, she has no such issues at daycare - no fair!). On any given day, we listen to about an hour of singing and talking through the baby monitor before we head up to her room and release her from her nap obligation. Recently, she's added a loud "MOMMY!! DADDY!!" after she's had it with the nap attempt. And this past weekend, when that didn't produce one of us at her bedside, we heard her yell "ED!! CHELSEA!!" Geez.

On being naked: Evie has a new proclivity for stripping to her diaper after we put her to bed. It's an ongoing theme, and we're constantly heading in to her room to put her clothes back on after she's fallen asleep. Ed recently commented that he felt like he was in a Terminator movie, because when he went in to check on her, she was asleep curled up in a ball with her knees and forehead on the mattress, completely naked except for the diaper.

Back to photos: One of Evie's new favorite activities is having her face painted. Here are some flowers.

Some cat whiskers...

And finally, I thought I'd try the face painting activity myself. It's actually kind of difficult! Nevertheless, for Halloween, I painted Evie's face as a tiger to go along with Evie's Halloween costume.

Halloween turned out to be quite an event in our 'hood. We had a pre-trick-or-treating parade, a pumpkin hunt, a pin the nose on the pumpkin contest, and also some dancing. See the group gathered below for the storytelling part of the festivities...

After the neighborhood bonanza, we went trick or treating with Evie's fairy princess friend Sofia, seen here with Evie's grandparents.

And back to stories - we've had a few scary ones recently. The first is from one night when Ed and I heard some strange noises through the baby monitor. I went in to check on Evie, and even though I couldn't see anything immediately concerning, I turned on the light to get a better look. And lo and behold, my child had blood covering her entire face, her hair, and her hands. PANIC! Two nanoseconds later, I realized she just had a bloody nose, but I was up for a few hours afterward from the adrenaline rush.

And the second story is one that many a parent must know. Evie had a very sudden and severe case of croup last week. NO FUN AT ALL. At 11 pm, we heard the seal-bark-like cough, jumped out of bed and did the usual home remedies with cold air and then steam. Neither helped - our girl really couldn't breathe. So, off to the ER we went. We were lucky - they got us in quickly and treated her right away. More adrenaline, again no sleep till 5 AM.

We're bracing ourselves for more sleepless nights with our newborn arriving soon - newborns can't really tell the difference between light and dark until they're six weeks old. As I recall, those first six weeks with Evie were a bit rough for us! I think our neighbors commented that we looked like we were on drugs as we walked (er, careened? stumbled?) around the neighborhood with our old dog Cacia during those first weeks. It's amazing how easy it is to get used to sleeping through the night!

Anyway, as I mentioned, we're trying to prepare as best we can. First on the list is getting ready for the guaranteed-to-be-busy Christmas holiday this year. My aunt Andrea photo-documented our trip to pick out our tree this past weekend, catching me at 8 months pregnant (don't be fooled - the color black does wonderful things for pregnant bellies).

Evie helpfully measured the girth of all of the trees, to make sure that any potentials could fit in our small living room. She tactfully avoided measuring my belly.

Evie sort of knows what's going on with her anticipated sibling - she asks me almost every day if the baby has come out yet. It's very cute. Meanwhile, though, we somewhat failed in our attempts to convince her move to a Big Girl Bed and give up her crib for the new baby. She made it pretty clear that she wasn't ready for that transition, so we finally caved and moved her crib back into her room.

And yes, we opened the envelope, dagnabit (see the final comment in my last blog for what this is). Why? Curiosity, mostly. Also, Ed never wanted an envelope in the first place. So, I won't spoil it for you if you want to wait the 3-4 weeks before it's posted here, but if not, just email me.

How excited to you get to go to bed each night? Frankly, I really look forward to slumber, in whatever form I'm able to get it. And last night, Evalina outdid us all by nearly hyperventilating with excitement as we asked her if she was ready to go to sleep in her "Big Girl Bed".

This is because Evalina's new quarters are finally ready. To make room for the new baby, she's moving into our study/guest room - a much bigger room, with a much bigger bed (a twin - enormous!). We kept talking about how Uncle Andrew and Papa came up to paint it, then we decorated it with things from her old room, and added some butterflies and her dollhouse. It's ready to go!

So yesterday, we asked her if she wanted to sleep there. A resounding YES! was the reply. As we'd been advised by many of our parenting friends, we built the occasion up and made a HUGE deal out of it. But I think we overdid it, because it turns out that she was too excited to sleep all together. So, after two and a half hours of waiting for her slumber (during which time she rolled around on the bed, got out and played with her dollhouse in the dark, sang favorite songs to herself), I finally went up and carried her back to her crib in the "old" room, where she just rolled on her side and fell asleep. Two steps forward and one back, right? We'll try again soon, maybe this time without all the pomp and circumstance.

What a fantastic summer we had, despite the fact that summer didn't really show up until August. So in the non-summer weather, we kept ourselves busy indoors with painting. Sometimes paint got on the paper, sometimes it got in the mouth. But if you recall, Evie chose the paintbrush in her Korean Tol ceremony, so we might as well get her artistic career started!

And to keep up with Evie's favorite activity, reading, I spend a good chunk of time each week at the library checking out toddler books. We generally know she needs a new batch of books when she starts reciting the words alongside us as we read a book to her. She convinced cousin Rachel to read to her as she visited in July on her east coast college tour (good luck Rachel!).

Also in July, we had a wonderful reunion with Evie's "first" friends (L to R: Georgia (visiting from Colorado), Sophia, Evalina (seemingly imitating a pineapple - what mother would do that to their child?), Mia, and Lucia).

And later that same month, we journeyed out to Nantucket to visit Evie's great grandparents. While there, we also got a special visit from our Montanan friends Dayna and McCall, who joined us from their vacation on the Cape for a day of swimming. McCall, 18 months older than Evie, robustly showed off proper swim-frolicking technique. Evie was in awe.

And one blustery afternoon, we took a bike ride to a remote Siasconset beach with Aunt Tracy, Uncle Andrew, and Papa. While there, we came across a large group of enormous-looking sea lions (seals?) swimming extremely close to shore. I could swear they were drooling as they watched Evie run around with her ample toddler belly and pineapple hairdo. We didn't get too close.

And then, as soon as the weather got better in late July, we headed for typically rainy Seattle, where we were met with 105 degree temperatures. Luckily, we were able to get out to the shore in Tulalip, where it was cooler, and our hostess Susan taught Evie how to look for baby Dungeness crabs. Evie wasn't sure what to make of these speedy little sideways creatures. The adults seemed to figure it out, though - each day, the burly manfolk among us baited crab pots with gross who-knows-what and hoisted in some fresh (adult) crabs for us each evening. What a life!

Evie enjoyed an immense amount of attention, not only from the Seattle crew, but also from the 4-5 dogs present at every gathering.

She also thoroughly enjoyed "addressing her people" from an upstairs window that looked over the large living room. Maybe she was imitating royalty? She hasn't even gotten into the Disney characters yet!

And in the evenings, after Evie was safely asleep, we all pretended to be partying adults, but most of us were still in bed by 10... (back row L to R: Grant, Izzy, Ed, Maree, Jeannie, Josh; front row: Tim, Susan, Chelsea with weird hair)

It seems there is no correlation between how much you enjoy parenting to how good you are at it. This summer, we have been doing what we can to prepare both us and Evie for our new little arrival. I already recounted our attempt at converting Evie to her "Big Girl Bed," which didn't go so well.

And I think I get an "F" in the potty training department thus far, too. One recent evening, I missed two golden opportunities for potty training (apologies for the obtuse pun - couldn't help it). First, after encouraging Evie to go potty prior to her bath, as I typically do, I neglected to realize she'd actually done it; I found the evidence much later, unfortunately. She even exclaimed "I did it! I did it!" after she stood up, and I mistook that exclamation as her pride from successfully sitting on the dang potty, as she sometimes she mis-hits as she's backing up and lands on the floor. And then 10 minutes later, during her bath, she asked me if she could go to the potty. Not taking her seriously (I hadn't yet discovered the aforementioned potty evidence), I admonished her for using the potty as an excuse to get out of the bath, and she promptly peed right where she stood. Honestly, someone should fire me.

Ok, back to less daunting and more successful ventures. Evie took up T ball - we call her 'lil Papi.

She's quite a ham. This is what she does if you ask her to "smile":

Which probably isn't really what you were looking for, so you might advise her to open her eyes, which gets you this:

At which point you might give up and say "Oh come on, Evie, get serious," which gives you this:

Speaking of serious, we're starting to look at preschools for Evie for next year. Who knew there were so many choices, with such different styles! And somehow we're already supposed to know what "type" of learner Evie is - is she a visual learner? Auditory? Tactile? (What?)

Anyway, too bad summer is over - it was a special one, no doubt. It's the end of an era. Gone are the days like the one below, relaxing in our backyard spa. And little does Evie know how "gone" those days are, as we anticipate the arrival of her little sister or brother.

(No, we don't know whether we're having a boy or a girl. And for those who know that we have a little sealed envelope containing the precious info, aren't you proud of us for not opening it?)

On older posts, I have mentioned that we hold dance parties in our house now and then. Being that I'm a child of the 80's, the music often features something from Michael Jackson's repertoire. Last February, we caught a wonderful Evie dance routine on tape, and it happened to be to Jackson's "Billy Jean". It's pretty entertaining, so I'm not sure why I didn't post it until now, but I thought it was a timely tribute to the King of Pop's passing.

The hilarious part is that she did her own version of the moonwalk, unprompted, and even threw in a "running man" and a synthesizer-like sound effect toward the end. Love it!

Whoa - I know I have been quite remiss about getting this blog entry up. My apologies! Excuses abound, but my chief one is legit and becoming more and more apparent. Hopefully this isn't news to most folks who read this blog, but Evie's going to have a little sibling to play with. So my main reason for slacking is the inconceivable fatigue and pesky nausea that comes with the first trimester of pregnancy. I am now gleefully out of that phase and into my second trimester, so I have the energy to move my fingers and get some photos up of our firstborn...

Who just turned two! Holy moly. We had a Dr. Seuss-inspired cake to celebrate.

Evie had a wonderful birthday. She had all of her friends over, ran around the back yard, ate cake, and loved being the center of attention for the day. Well, truth be told, she'll take being the center of attention any day. Seems like all you need for a good toddler party is bubbles...

This photo displays a bunch of her birthday loot. Some fairy items: wings and a fairy-dust dispensing wand. An organic-themed tutu, paired with an unfortunately busy shirt. And she's standing in front of her "new" dollhouse, built for my cousin by my grandfather many years ago. Ed and I refurbished it (i.e., removed 70's wallpaper and painted it) for her birthday.

And from her own grandparents - a sandbox! Evie loves her homemade sandbox, built specially for a little patch of asphalt we have in our back yard. An unexpected side effect of the sandbox is that it's really hard to get her into the house these days, as we pass it on the way to the back door..

And before Boston's weather started imitating Seattle's, we made it out to sunny Lifeguard beach in Chatham, MA.

Ed's parents joined us for that trip - fun was had by all. Evie still can't say "Halmonie" (Korean for grandmother) or "Halabogie" (grandfather), but we're working on it. On this trip, she made up her own names (fairly appropriate ones like Grandpa and Grandma) to use instead.

We also had the lucky opportunity to join some friends at their family's house in Squam Lake, NH. Here's a hike we did with a fantastic view. Evie's turning out to be quite the hiker, incidentally. She loves following trails, though rocky ones like this, with random precipices, require a backpack.

And finally, we've made some more local trips. Our recent favorite was to a place called "Davis Farmland," which allows kids to feed and play with most of their farm animals.

Interestingly, the farm is dedicated to preserving farm animals at risk of extinction. So, a lot of them were pretty funny looking. Evie didn't quite recognize the chicken with feathers all over it's face (making it nearly blind - no wonder it faces extinction!). There were long-haired cows, long-necked sheep, and I swear we saw a real life Snuffleupagus.

One of Evie's favorites was Mr. Whiskers, the albino rat. I watched some moms refuse to let their kids play with the rat (rat discrimination), but Evie was fascinated.

And just for recording purposes, Evie got her first two official Time Outs at daycare late last month. I think she shoved another kid when s/he took the toy she was holding. I believe this means that we've entered a new phase of parenthood: the Time Out years (likely eventually followed by the Grounded Years). Ah well.

Wow. This past winter was pretty long, and then Shazam! It's summer! Nice, quick transition. Keeps you on your toes, much like having a toddler does.

Let's see - so much to report. The biggest and most exciting development for me is that Evalina finally has agreed to let me put something in her hair to tie it back. We were both suffering with my home-made Evie mullet for a while, but you can expect innate toddler cuteness to carry that hairstyle for only so long. So, enter the pigtails (I have yet to find a barrette that doesn't just slide out after 10 minutes). This transitions Evie from being "business in the front and party in the back" to a Muppet. Or, as one kind woman commented, perhaps a little like Cindy Lou in the Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

In other news, Evalina is starting to say full sentences now. Granted, the sentences contain a maximum of three to four words, but I think most have at least a verb and a subject. She also sings quite a bit - in the car, at dinner, instead of her nap. We often hear run-on melodies like "TwinkleTwinkle - ABCs - Row Row Row Your Boat" through the baby monitor at night. And while Evie speaks quite softly in a very high falsetto, she sings rather loudly. And to her credit, she remains undeterred when I cover her mouth while she belts out her tunes in restaurants. It's just a muffler, anyway.

So in looking at the photo below, you may wonder why Evie is wearing her bike helmet indoors. She's not really on a bike anyway - it's more of a very short and underpowered four wheeler. But as you can see, we haven't mastered which side of the helmet goes in the front. And, she hasn't yet realized that sunglasses don't assist well for indoor navigation (note proximity of the wall). And hence, we're working on helmet skills.

Speaking of skills, maybe she's been watching the food network at daycare? How did she know that you put on a chef hat when you're using your friend's play kitchen?

This year, Easter eggs meant something - fun! We were looking for eggs nonstop for at least a week - the Easter bunny wanted to make sure we got that skill down. Here Evie is at the official hunt in our back yard. Found one!

And the photo below is for the benefit of Uncle Andrew, who taught her this lovely trick: Evie regularly turns our needle-pointed stool upside down and attempts to use it as an indoor sled. She's especially happy when she gets someone (usually Dad) to push her around in it.

Fun with forts! Evie's starting to appreciate a good fort when she sees one.

From prior posts, you may remember that Evie loves to read. Well, when there's no one to read books to her, she takes charge and just reads them herself.

Now obviously, she can't truly read them quite yet. But she does know her alphabet pretty well, and can identify many individual letters. And we recently found that she can certainly memorize well, too! Just a few nights ago, she started reciting her night time books alongside Ed as he read them to her.

Visits and visitors!
Our friends Maree and Farhood visited Boston in March. Farhood regressed a little.

My aunt and uncle visited recently - we took a lovely stroll through the Arboretum. Evie walked much of the way, but eventually got a ride from Mom.

Ed and I each took separate vacations this winter, and as is typical of us, we gravitated toward opposite ends of the temperature spectrum. Ed went skiing in Vail with his friend Bob, but didn't document his trip (i.e., no photos). And a few weeks later, I was lucky enough to go to Mexico with some girlfriends (L to R: Jeannie, Robin, me, Maree). Thank goodness for girlfriends!

And I swear, this is not our pile of empty monkey pineapple drinks.