Happy Birthday to Evie

One year ago today God blessed us with a beautiful little girl. What a wonderful year this has been! She has brought such unimaginable joy to our lives and we thank God every day for this gift. Thank you to all of our family and friends for the love and support you have given us this past year. We are amazed by your generosity and your love for Evie. We are so blessed! God is good!

So, how much has she grown in a year? Physically not a whole lot. She is definitely petite.

4/16/09 - 7 lbs 1.5 oz, 19 3/4 inches
4/16/10 - 19 lbs 9.5 oz, 28 1/4 inches

However, in a year she has gone from being completely helpless to almost walking, talking and feeding herself. Amazing!


To celebrate her birthday, we drove down to Victoria last weekend to share it with my family. It was such a great time. She had a ball playing with Gran and Papa, and Mat and I even got to go on a date! Thank you to Mom, Dad, Maw Maw, Paw Paw, Aunt Linda, Courtney, Ashley, Aunt Paula, Lindsey and Kendra for coming to celebrate with us.


My mom made my birthday cakes growing up so I thought it would be extra special if she would make Evie's first cake. She agreed. Of course the theme was Mickey Mouse, what else? Evie got to have her first taste of Chick-fil-A (Mommy's favorite). We also had a fresh fruit salad and Rice Krispies Treats in the shape of Mickey.




She was mesmerized by the lit candle. She stared at it while we sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

Tasting chocolate for the first time.

Not too sure.

Chocolate is yummy!

She was really enjoying herself...laughing along with us.

I am 1!

Trying to get a family pic. If anyone got a good one of the 3 of us, please send it to me. Mat was the photographer most of the time.

After a bath, we opened some presents. Thanks everyone!


This wasn't one of her gifts. It happened to be sitting near by and she felt like going for a ride. Loved it!


After the party, we went outside to get some photos in the wildflowers that were growing on my parents' property. Just beautiful! I love Texas!


Going after the cat.



She is constantly pointing at everything and saying "sat?"

Thank you God for our sweet Evie Charmaine.

Hello Spring!

I am so happy that spring is finally here. I love the winter but it seemed like this year it dragged on and on. And since Evie is old enough this spring we have already had alot of playtime outdoors.

Evie got a swing for Christmas and we finally hung it up. She loves it!

Evie exploring the grass and wildflowers in our backyard. Her facial expressions make me laugh!

Whatchoo lookin at?




This is my favorite!

Balancing act



Drool baby

At our church's annual Picnic and Easter Egg Hunt.

The cousins

Riding in Austin's wagon at his birthday party




And for our Aussie family and friends, Evie having vegemite on toast for the first time. Much to my surprise, she likes it. I don't get it...sorry.

Next post...Evie's 1st birthday! Can it be already?!?!

Randomness

So, last weekend was Evie's first overnight stay away from us. We were attending a marriage retreat with our church so she went to stay with her Uncle Shane, Aunt Whitney and cousin Austin. It sounds like they had a great time.

I did pretty well. I only called twice to check in. I did cry after Mat dropped me off at the retreat location. It was a quick kiss goodbye and see you in 28 hours! I really missed her but it was really great to have focused time with Mat. Thank you Shane and Whitney!

Reading a book and watching soccer with Daddy

Hello and Goodbye

First Parent/Teacher Conference

Today was Evie's first Parent/Teacher Conference. Already? She's only 10 months old! At Evie's school they ask the parents to fill out a short questionnaire about their overall satisfaction and happiness in the program. The teachers complete a developmental evaluation form. Then the parents and teachers sit down and discuss each.

It was really nice to hear all that Ms. Teresa had to say about Evie. The best part was hearing how sweet she is towards other children. Every morning Mat prays with Evie before dropping her off at her classroom that she will shine Jesus to her teachers and friends. This is how we see God's answer. Her "best friend" has special needs and they sometimes have a brother/sister relationship. She teases him and shows affection by patting his hand and gentle touches to his head. He responds by screaming or laughing and follows her around. And just today she welcomed a new child in her classroom by playing with him and chasing him around the classroom.

Since she started there at 5 months old, I would hear little bits and pieces from Mat or from the teachers on the days that I would pick her up. I enjoyed getting a more detailed report of Evie's time spent at school. Below is what was stated in the report...

Daily Life: Sense of Security and Happiness
Evie is a very social child who doesn't have any problems of separation. When she comes in the morning, she knows her daily routine as waiting for her first bottle of the day and crawling to the table for her fruit and cereal.

The Child's Experience at the Center
Evie is able to entertain herself for sustained periods of time. She loves books (reading time and explore on her own). Evie got involved in any activity in her home base. She is also able to let her caregivers know if she likes or doesn't like the activity. (If she doesn't like the activity she just crawls away.) Evie relates to other children very well, seeking the company of the older ones to play alongside. Lately she is getting into a "strangers anxiety", so caregivers are trying to be close to her when a stranger comes in the room explaining to her about our new friend.

We also received a report of Evie's development in 6 domains: Sense of Self, Social Relations, Creative Representation, Movement, Communication and Language, and Exploration and Early Logic.

Sense of Self
-Takes interest in her reflection, especially facial expressions and the motions/actions of hands, fingers and toes.
-Can watch an object or person move out of sight, hold an image of it in mind and then move immediately to find it.
-Expresses choices through actions rather than words. Makes contact with the person/object she is trying to reach.
-Assisting in personal care tasks. Can hold a diaper, pair of socks, bottle to feed, etc.

Social Relations
-Exploring games with caregiver (chasing, hiding, teasing, tickling)
-Shows an awareness of another child's distress by comforting herself
-Conveys her feelings through physical contact
-Plays simple games
-Communicates with other children through sounds, wiggles, kicks and arm waving
-Interested in exploring a new adult as long as a familiar, trusted caregiver is close

Creative Representation
-Imitating by copying another person's action (lip smacking, clicking tongue)
-Babbling at pictures
-Explores simple materials (paper, blocks)

Movement
-Sways or rocks side to side to the music
-Moves an object along by carrying it in one hand while crawling
-Crawling
-Coordinates one hand with the other. Is able to hold an object in one hand, bring both hands together to hold the object, then release the original hand

Communication and Language
-Turns book pages
-Hears and recognizes her name and looks toward speaker
-Seeks out objects/person of interest
-Shows interest in stories by moving rhythmically and/or babbles along with story or song
-Babbling
-Exchanges sounds or gestures with another person
-Points to objects

Exploration and Early Logic
-Understanding that objects are distinct and constant entities with finite boundaries
-Persists in obtaining a desired object by removing a physical barrier
-Repeats an action to cause a pleasing outcome
-Exhibits preferences
-Uses 2 objects together (banging two blocks together or using a stick to beat the tamborine)
-Plays peek-a-boo

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

When it was all said and done, it looks we had 8 inches of snow at our house. It began snowing early morning on Thursday through early morning Friday and did not stop. It was just BEAUTIFUL!

Thursday afternoon: Our truck is covered and the neighbors across the street made a decent snowman.





She was fine with the snow as long as we didn't put her in it.

Last night before going to bed it was still coming down. We ended up losing power for about 4 hours in the middle of the night. It got down to 64 degrees in the house. So we thank God that it came back on because there are alot of people in the metroplex without power right now.

This morning all you can hear is the sound of melting snow falling from the trees and rooftops.

No evidence this morning that we were playing in the front yard yesterday.

See how high it is stacked up on our mailbox.

Can you see it stacked up on the roof?

9 months old

Since the last post, Evie has been doing one new thing after another. It's amazing how quickly she is learning new things. Evie has learned to:

~ crawl
~ clap
~ wave
~ sign "more" and "all done" (but won't do it all the time)
~ chew
(She has had blueberries, banana, green beans, peaches, cheerios, potato, carrots, toast, broccoli and avocado.)

She is now working on pulling up - time to lower the mattress! She smiles all the time and she says "dada" alot more than "mama". She has 6 teeth and loves to chew on everything. She especially likes Mommy's bracelets and necklaces.

At her 9 month check up last week, she measured a petite 16 lbs 12 oz and 27 1/2 inches. Her hair is growing some in the back, but not on top. My Mom can probably confirm this but I think I was bald until at least 12 months.

We are having a great time with our sweet Evie. She makes us smile. Thank you God.

After some jar food, she ate some green beans and toast.


Sorry the video is dark, forgot I only had the lamp on.

Evie's First Christmas

The holidays are over. I'm sad and glad at the same time. It was fun, chaotic, yummy, stressful, etc. We made a quick trip to Victoria for our traditional family Christmas. It is just so good to be at Maw-Maw's house with the family on Christmas Eve. Our immediate family had Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. It was fun to watch Evie and our nephew Austin get into it. Evie loved the paper!






Austin: What do you think of Christmas so far?
Evie: I wish they would stop flashing lights in my face.



Mommy loves that smile.

Kicking back with a good book.