The Inner Circle

A third member has joined the Inner Circle of friends. First there was Pound Puppy; one of my toys from childhood who was picked up in Houston on a visit to Nana and Granddaddy's. Then came Bebe; a gift from my dear friend Kat from college on a visit to Jersey over the holidays. And now, Pooh Bear has been initiated into the most sacred group of friends. Oddly enough, (this particular) Pooh has been around practically since Evie was born--he was a gift from my sister, and I used him monthly as a prop next to Evie as a sort of measuring standard when I took pictures of her as she grew in her first year.

I don't know why it's taken so long for her to take to him to this level, but she has. He is now one of three. They go around the house with us. They go in the car with us. They are often requested in the bath--that's a tough one to explain. Since her love for Pooh sprouted, I introduced her to the original Disney Pooh movie, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and that's been a new favorite as well. She dances to Tigger's song and repeats after Piglet when he stutters "Oh, d-d-d-dear dear!"

In any case, I don't know how The Inner Circle could go from three to four. Her arms will have to grow to accommodate carrying anything else!

Patience is a virtue. One that I don't have.

That's maybe slightly harsh. I can be patient. I can wait for cookies to bake before eating them...oh wait...maybe that's not the best example...

Okay, I can wait for, you know, things to come in the mail and for the clothes to finish in the dryer. Not so impressive?

I do have a problem with things operating outside my control. This, of course is a real problem because many, many things in truth are beyond my control. I like things to happen on my timetable, unfolding exactly how and when I imagined. Most of the time I am a logical person. I like to make plans and my plans are usually well-laid. Sometimes, however, I get caught up in how I'd like things to be rather than how they are. Re: The Matterhorn. We're starting to think more about our next PCS--we'll be moving to Ft Carson, Colorado in about two months. It is not an unusual custom to scout out a place to live before PCSing so that the transition between homes is as smooth as possible, and it was my intention to do just that. Now, because Justin is still in class and we have Chokydar to care for, the plan began taking form that Evie and I would fly up to Colorado together to go house hunting.

This plan had been in the works for several weeks when I met with Julia yesterday afternoon and was explaining to her my plans for the re-con trip. That's when it happened. I said the plans out loud. I don't know how many times I've told myself that I need to institute this safety measure when making plans--something can sound perfectly reasonable, brilliant even, in my head, but when vocalized I realize it is utter lunacy.

I began, "So Evie and I will drive up to Oklahoma City during the work week so Justin will still be at home in the evenings to care for Chokydar. I'll park the car at the airport in OKC, put the car seat on the stroller device and strap Evie back in, swing on a backpack for the trip and we'll be off. We'll get to Denver and rent a car to drive down to a hotel in the Springs. I'll have appointments to view several houses lined up in advance. We'll pick the best option, fill out our paperwork and be on our way after a few days, back to Denver, OKC and home to Lawton."

Suddenly I felt exhausted just having explained the thing. Julia looked at me like I had three eyes. "A backpack?" she began, "How big is this backpack, Michele? You're going to fit everything you need for you and Evie for 3-4 days in a backpack?"

I will miss so much having Julia around to gently tell me when I'm being insane, but that's another story. She really didn't have to say much else; just telling her my plan out loud made me realize it was not my best idea of all time. Somewhere in my eagerness for this move to go smoothly, I lost track of reason. Surely the two weeks or so in a hotel we will spend looking for housing upon our arrival in May is worth the expense, headache, and exhaustion of a multiple day car rental, plane tickets, hotel fees, and running around a new city without Justin's help, with Evie in tow.

So I take a deep breath, and wait. I will be patient, even if it does not come naturally. We will find a lovely place to live. We will have enough time to settle in before Justin deploys. You would think I would have figured it out by now, that God takes care of us, and His plans for us are better than any I can devise.

Without Power; With Friends.

About Wednesday of last week the town was a buzz with talk of a coming ice storm.

"It's supposed to be worse than the Christmas Eve storm!" someone said.

"Did you hear that they've cancelled school tomorrow in anticipation?" another countered.

"But it's nearly seventy degrees out!" a third chimed in.

Indeed, it all seemed a little rash, but when you're in Oklahoma, this kind of cold weather storm is sort of a big deal. They don't happen every day, and when they do, the town is left scrambling to salt the roads, plow the streets, and make all the preparations that are second nature in northern cities that experience this sort of thing multiple times every winter.

Thursday arrived and it didn't look quite so bad. Still, Justin was sent home around 11 am from class. Things began to pick up that afternoon; first wind and rain, and then the ice began to form. The wind blew so hard as to make the icicles form at an angle!

We had a couple of flickers in our power, but didn't think much of it...until at 4:45 when the lights went out and didn't come back on.

After a few minutes we looked up the number for the power company and called to report the outage and get an estimate on how long we could expect to wait before the power would be restored.

"I can't give you an accurate estimate at this time. Power should be restored by 11 am on Monday, but it could be sooner."

Monday was a bad answer. Without a working fireplace, four days was way too long to be in an unheated home with an 18 month old. Thankfully, K&J still had power and welcomed us into their home because every hotel we called in Lawton was already full to the brim.

Our stay included Wii golf, bowling, and The Price is Right, Syfy's Alice, a very competitive game of Scrabble, delicious cookies (and other food), hot coffee, a comfortable air mattress, and of course, a visit with good friends. When Justin and Kellen went to check on the status of our power Friday morning they discovered that it had been restored. We stayed another night with K&J anyway. It was that much fun.

After more than four years of growing friendship, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do when we go our separate ways in a few months. Trying to soak up every minute...

Kitty cats and staircases

On our family trip to NJ/NY a few weeks ago, Justin and I were able to go see a matinee of Ragtime on Broadway thanks to some of my closest friends from Rutgers. They watched Evie for us one day and did all kinds of fun things at their house, like make banana zucchini bread, climb stairs, and pet the two cats that reside there. Did I mention there were STAIRS and CATS? Okay, just making sure. Evie wanted to make it clear that those were important elements in the story.

One of my friends, Brad, took some great shots of E during the day that he's shared on his blog Through the Pinhole Lens. You should check it out, and while you're there, look at his other fantastic photography. I especially enjoyed the pictures from his recent trip to D.C.

Settling In and A Parental Rite of Passage

I'm sure as the years go by I'll get a little better at this moving thing. Right now the process is not very streamlined.

We have received both of our shipments now--the first being the unaccompanied baggage shipment, the stuff we'd hung onto the longest in Germany. It included things like a few pots and pans, Evie's crib and swing, toys, sheets, curtains, tools, and clothes. It also, unfortunately was pretty severely damaged in transit. Many of the boxes had gotten really wet and/or were crushed. Evie's crib was molded, as were a bunch of Justin's army gear, papers, and more than a few other things. Thankfully, some of the things survived, and in the end it's just stuff anyway. We'll have to file a claim for damages...joy.

The other shipment arrived a day earlier than we'd expected, on Columbus Day rather than the 13th. The moving crew was eager to be GONE, and didn't do the best job unpacking. As I better learn the way this sort of thing works I'm sure I'll be more assertive in making sure they do things the way they're supposed to. This time was definitely another learning experience.

As we've unpacked, we've noticed a few things appear to be missing. Firstly, our silverware. I chose Gorham's Golden Ribbon Edge for our pattern and we've loved it. I don't know if we have a missing box, if it's hidden somewhere among Christmas decorations or books in a mislabeled box, or if it was, as they say, ganked. I'm bummed about that though. There's a handful of other things that we haven't found yet, including the power cord for the TV. The TV arrived no problem, but it's sort of hard to use if you can't turn it on...I contacted Panasonic, but they don't seem to have replacement parts for our model. Ha. Ha.

This Wednesday we were excited to welcome a house guest into the midst of our cardboard jungle, Justin's friend Eric. They've been alternating shifts in Iraq for the last four/five years. Erc's on leave during his third tour and Justin's done two. We haven't gotten to see him since 2004, so it was a long overdue and anticipated visit. He arrived Wednesday night right before we put Evie to bed and we settled down to visit after she was snuggly asleep.

About an hour and a half after she went down, everyone froze as we thought we heard her stir. Justin went in to lull her back to sleep, as is the routine, but after a moment he called to me, and I knew something was up. As I went down the hall I heard her cough, and it didn't sound good. She'd been completely normal during the day; not so much as a runny nose, so this was completely out of the blue. She was raspy and had a terrible gutteral cough that sounded kind of like a goose. She both wanted to be held, but struggled against me as if in pain. She didn't feel feverish, but it was clear something was wrong.

I called my mother to see if she knew what was up, but she couldn't be sure over the phone what was up and advised us to go with our gut about whether or not she needed to be seen. On other nights (when she's fallen, for instance), we've opted against taking her in, but that night we thought we'd better go on into the ER, just in case. As we readied her to go, she threw up and which was a first for her too.

We arrived about 12:30 am and got checked in and immediately were seen to have her vitals taken and figure out what the symptoms were. After that we were told to have a seat in the waitinig area, where there were at least a half dozen people ahead of us waiting to be seen. Around the room there were signs posted stating that for non-urgent cases, you could expect to wait perhaps 3-4 hours to be seen, and in some cases up to 8 hours. I overheard someone across the room grumble about having been there since 10:30 pm and I began to get nervous. The night air and car ride had soothed Evie, and she was feeling curious about her new surroundings. Still, she was exhausted and not feeling her best, and I knew it was a matter of time before we hit serious Disintegration Mode.

As the time passed and little progress was made to see those in line before us, I began to feel a little desperate. She needed to be seen, even though it didn't appear that she was critically ill, but I worried we were doing more harm that good to have her out of bed for hours on end in the middle of the night. With no end in sight, it was a very horrible and helpless feeling to rock the little ball of hurt and know there just wasn't anything to be done but wait.

It felt like forwever, but we were seen after waiting for an hour and a half. The doctor examined her--by this time, whether due to a second wind or the excitement of a new place, she was all smiles and joy. We totally felt like idiots, like when you bring your car into the mechanic because it's been sounding like it's about to explode only suddenly, upon examination, it purrs like a kitten. He checked her over thoroughly though and pronounced that she has a case of croup. (I'd like to advise whoever is in charge of naming things to come up with a different name for this infection, because "CROUP" sounds AWFUL.) From what we've observed, her case is fairly mild, thank goodness, although the doc said it can last up to 2 weeks. Thankfully, Justin's class hasn't yet begun, so if we're in for a lot of sleepless nights, at least we can cover eachother for naps during the day.

It was a relief to have a diagnosis and course of action that night for sure. It's also a blessing to have good friends like Eric, who don't so much as blink when you rush to the emergency room three hours after welcoming them into the house, leaving them alone with a crazy Hugarian as company.

Last night Evie slept just fine, although she has been definitely feeling under the weather.

Chokydar is still getting used to Eric.

Let me e'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

I haven't had a chance to sit down at a computer for more than 10 minutes now for nearly a month, so please forgive me for the long absence! There is too much that has happened to capture, but I will try to give you a highlight reel:

The flight back home had some memorable moments--including 1) the moment when we thought we'd forgotten the bolts to secure Chokydar's kennel for the flight after having to split it in half to fit in the rental car; they were in Justin's pocket after all. WHEW. 2)A Chuck Norris look alike who played peek a boo with Evie on the flight for at least 10 minutes 3)the realization that Evie's "sleepy noises," a guttural grunt "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuungh" which we know and love is, in fact, annoying to some fellow passengers 4)getting 9 hours in to the flight and resorting to choreographing "Surrey With the Fringe on the Top" from Oklahoma for Evelyn's entertainment.

All in all, it was as good of a trip as we could have expected. Upon landing, we creeped everyone out by how happy we were by completely mundane things. "Oh look! ENGLISH!...traffic signs...etc, etc."

We flew into Dallas, rented a car and drove to Houston the next day to visit family. We went to church at St. Paul's on Sunday and bought our new car, a 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan on Monday. I'd done TONS of research and we had such a pleasant car buying experience, it kind of unnerved me. Ours is silver with black cloth and the panoramic sunroof. I couldn't be happier with it so far!

We did lots of visiting and a good deal of window shopping in Houston. We made it to the zoo and the terracotta figure exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science. And we ate a LOT of good food...Starbucks, Panera, Le Peep, Ruggles, Coldstone, Chick-fil-a, Saltgrass Steakhouse, BJ's Brewery, Outback, Blue Bell ice cream, and Brown Sugar's BBQ just to name a few. Now we are fat and making our recovery.

We got to visit with some good friends, including the beautiful Jennifer Gilbert, and The Boy and family. SOOO good to spend time together!!

We drove up to Oklahoma on Wednesday--the 8+ hour drive was maybe even more exhausting than our transatlantic flight. We left around 6:30 am from Houston and didn't arrive in Lawton until nearly 4 pm.

We're in guest housing now (aka a rather crummy hotel), but it does have a (barely) passable kitchenette, so at least we've been able to start weaning ourselves from fast food. We're hunting for a home to rent now, and have a likely prospect that we hope to secure in the coming days.

I can't get over how excited I am to be back in America, how overjoyed I am by little pleasures, seeing family and friends, and by having a drive-thru Starbucks that's new in Lawton since the last time we were here.

Life is so good.

Happy Belated Independence Day!

Happy belated Fourth! We spent Saturday with our Blythe buddies grilling and having homemade ice cream. It doesn't get much better than that. Evie was amused by all of the new things to explore at their home. We headed out the next day for a quick weekend getaway to Belgium--those pictures to come.

It's funny how being away, even for just one over night can make you appreciate home. We had a wonderful time on our trip, but it is so nice to be back. I know that the transition we're preparing for with this move will be fun and exciting, but I can't wait to get settled on the other side and re-establish a new place to call home.

Today I'm trying to play catch up with a few things I've let slide. Evie's schedule is still slightly off due to the travel disruptions, but she's happy at least, even if she won't nap. Her latest favorite activity is pulling my books of the shelf and persuing them at her leisure. I'm amazed that she has favorites--she finds the same half dozen books even when I rearrange them to try and throw her off. ;) Her taste is for:

1. Un, Deux, Trois: First French Rhymes

2. Hungarian: Verbs and Essentials of Grammar

3. MAYA: Professional Tips and Techniques

4. The Art of Drawing by Willy Pogany

5. Surrealist Art

6. American Architecture

7. The Art of Hokusai

and 8. Silent Witnesses: Early Cycladic Art of the Third Millennium BC

Welcome Home Ceremony & Celebration

Yesterday the post officially celebrated the homecoming of 2BCT 1AD's deployed soldiers. Free food, rides, and entertainment are organized and it's a nice end to a long year's journey. We spent the afternoon with friends enjoying food, beer (well, some of us had beer, others had cheerios or diet coke), and good company.

Evie was a trooper. She fell asleep in the stroller on the walk home, but wanted to remain part of the action when we brought the party back to our place. It was a fun day all around.

Virtually connecting

One of the blogs I frequent is Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project and I just had to share the latest post, an interview with Kristin van Ogtrop, the editor of Martha Stewart's Real Simple.

I totally identify with so much of what van Ogtrop says, it's kind of uncanny. From "obsessing over stupid, control-freak things" to Starbucks coffee and not being a night person--that's all me. I could go on and on about the Happiness Project and the specifics of how I've really enjoyed perusing all of what Rubin has to share--I've been meaning to for a while now--but instead, I just wanted to focus on how amazed I am at the internet and the opportunities it's created for me to "connect" with like minded people.

I'm slightly hesitant of all of this, because of the "it's not real" factor, except for the fact that I feel in many ways, it's more real than what I experience in my day to day interactions with "real live" people. The people I have encountered on the internet, via my online class, through blogs, through commentors from Illustration Friday or flickr--they have opened themselves and shared part of who they are in a very real and generous and beautiful way. This, I think, has been especially meaningful to me, isolated in a foreign country, surrounded by people--many of whom I'm not so fond of--that, for the most part, do not share in my interests, and living for the past year with an infant and dog (although very intelligent ones, on both counts). The chance to reach out and connect with people online has been really, really great.

So thank you, to all of you who come here to share in this with me. Thank you for reaching out, for commenting, for inspiring me and encouraging me. It really means a lot. :)

For your viewing pleasure

I have really awesome friends. One pair, Brad and Ari from back in NJ sent us a package a few weeks ago. It was a surprise, and I was so tickled to see the contents--a handmade matching set of Mommy and Baby scarves. How cute is that? This cute:









And then also, I've been meaning to post this one for a while. Another gift from another fantastic friend, Julia. This frog is one of E's favorites for sure.

Playdate!

Also this last week Evie and I got together with our buddies from the pregnancy group. Vanessa and Adam hosted this go around and it was lovely to meet the rest of their family (Caelan's grandmother and Zoey, the dog). It made the second time seeing Tricia and Kieran in one week, which was almost mind-blowing with goodness. :)

This was the first real time we'd gotten together that the babies were actually aware of one another. Kieran and Evelyn "fought" over who would get to chew on the tags of the nearest toy. They took turns stealing it from one another while the other was distracted. Kieran showed off his awesome pre-crawling rock and Caelan demostrated his object manipulation skills with his bottle. Evelyn sat without assistance, quietly watching, taking it all in--a little wary, and slightly more on edge than usual due to her aforementioned nap strike.

It's so amazing to see how far these guys have come!

Ideas?

This entry is as much a mental note for me as something I want to share, but hopefully there are those of you, happy readers, who will also find it applicable in some fashion or other.

I came across this post from a blog penned by a woman named Jillian Tamaki. I do not know her, but enjoyed reading her thoughts on "Idea Generation." As an artist, or a person with creative leanings in general, I often find that creativity has the frustrating tendency to dry up. At other times it flows so freely it is almost overwhelming. Tamaki's post on idea generation addresses her creative process.

The first step on her list is "be interested." I think maybe more than anything else, this is key for me. The times when ideas form and flow for me are when I'm surrounded by or exposed to others' creativity. When you exist in a vaccum it is all too easy to stagnate and be at a loss for fresh and exciting concepts. I am constantly on the lookout for images and designs in magazines and online.

The flip side of this coin, however, is that I often spend more time searching for inspiration than sitting down to create something inspiring myself. I have a terrible streak for perfectionism and it often really hampers my efforts. If I can't do it perfectly on the first try, I am frustrated beyond words. I'm impatient and overly self-critical. Justin is such a blessing in times like these because he always encourages me to keep going (or to start again), and I get so much strength from knowing he's behind me.

My friend Loretta from my time working at the elementary school encouraged me in much the same way. She found me with my sketchbook one day after school had dismissed and looked through my doodles. Not a week passed afterwards that she didn't see me in the hall and ask me, "Drawn anything lately?" with a smile. Just knowing that she cared and was interested meant the world.

Thanks to those who inspire and encourage me. I promise I'll keep plugging along. I'll get there one day.

I've been meaning to post these pictures for over a week now. Kellen was home on leave over the holidays and he and Julia came over one afternoon to meet Evie and exchange Christmas presents. Chokydar was THRILLED to have them over and could scarcely contain her enthusiasm.

Julia gave me the BEST present. Way back--I forget how long ago now, time passes so oddly...I posted about the trip, Julia and I went to K-town to eat Thai food and visited H&M. While we were walking around the shopping area that day we passed a shop. It had already closed for the day, but displayed in the window was the most awesome cuckoo clock. It's somewhat a tradition to get a cuckoo clock while stationed in Germany, but the really ornate traditional ones aren't quite my style. When I saw this one I fell in love and mused out loud to Julia that I'd have to come back and get it. Of course, I hadn't yet gone back and she remembered me liking it and picked it up for my Christmas present. She's the best.

...As an aside, you can sort of see the progress of my Christmas stockings in the background of picture with Kellen and Julia. They weren't finished in time for Christmas, but I wasn't really in any hurry to have them done this year. I have them pieced together and am working on quilting them now. Probably sometime in July I'll have them done and can show you the results!

I did this without permission...

Kellen, Julia, and Eric--please forgive me, guys, but I was simply compelled to do this. I think you'll find it as funny as me, because you're you.

As a side note, I did not choose the dance partners, but I feel they are surprisingly pretty appropriately matched. :)

Are you finished yet?

Last night Julia and I went to Chili's. Although I worried how she would handle it, Evelyn behaved marvelously (at least until the last few minutes...we'll get to that in just a bit...). Evie just soaked in the noises and movement in the dimly lit restaurant, wide eyed but calm. She spent some time in her car seat and also "sat" in my lap.

Our waitress came to the table almost immediately after we were seated and asked if we were ready to order. I really knew what I wanted, but the abruptness with which she showed up questioning us took me by surprise and we asked her for a few more minutes. She dropped her pad and quickly strode off. When she came back a few minutes later and prompted us again, I requested the Turkey Combo. It's one of my favorites at Chili's and usually what I order. I was especially craving it last night.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you. We're out of turkey," the waitress blurted.

I thought she was kidding.

"We're also out of iced tea, draft beer, and Jack Daniels."

"Jack Daniels? Great, that ruins my evening," I said, bouncing Evie on my lap.

But seriously, they were out of turkey. I very nearly gave her a hard time by asking for the Cajun turkey sandwich instead, but thought better of it. I ordered a burger.

We were working on dinner with Evie more or less cooperating. She began to be fussy in the car seat at one point, so I held her while working on the burger one handed. It's a wonder that all mothers aren't ambidextrous after a few months. I was eating more slowly because of this arrangement and there was still maybe a quarter of my burger and more than half of the fries remaining when our waitress, Speedy Gonzales, showed back up and asked if we were finished. Julia and I had talked earlier about getting dessert, so I just let her take my plate. In one swift move she'd cleared the plates, laid down our bill on the table and was gone.

About this time Evie was getting really tired, but there was no way she was going to fall asleep in the hustle of the restaurant without a little help. I'd brought my nursing cover and diaper bag this time (lesson learned from the Thai restaurant), so we commenced the awkward juggle I have not yet mastered that is nursing in public. Evelyn was happily eating and the waitress came back, expecting us to have paid and instead we ordered a dessert--the chocolate chip brownie thing they have with ice cream and walnuts and mmmmm.....

In another minute it arrived, and since I was still occupied, Julia slowly started in on dessert. She was taking her time since I couldn't yet dive in, but even after Evie finished we weren't wolfing it down. I laughed and remarked how when Justin and I order a dessert to split, there's none of the dainty restraint Julia and I were showing. Justin and I usually dive in and sometimes duel spoons at the end to see who gets the last bite. (He always lets me win.) Julia said it was the same way with her husband, and still there we were, trying to be quite lady-like and restrained with one another. ;) We continued nibbling, thoroughly enjoying ourselves and in no particular rush.

"Are you finished with that?"

The waitress had popped out of nowhere and was reaching for the plate, about a third of the brownie thing still perfectly intact. Julia and I reflexively lunged forward, shielding the plate and blurted, "No!" Ahem..."No, no, I don't think we're quite finished yet."

Once we actually were finished, I decided that I'd better check Evie's diaper before we headed home. The evening had gone so well, I didn't want to spoil it by discovering a leak halfway to the car. I gathered my precious baby up in my arms and made my way to the rear of the restaurant where I saw that there was a room especially for changing babies. Cool. As I opened the door we stepped out of the relaxing glow of the barely lit restaurant and into the cruel and stark world of the florescently lit changing room. Evie looked up to see not her mother, but a horrifying ax murder who had assumed my form. Seriously, the look on her little face was one of pure terror and shock and I INSTANTLY regretted going into the room. If I were to do it over again, at that moment I would have walked right back out--maybe she would have calmed back down. Instead I pig-headedly thought she was just mildly started and would settle down as I changed her. Not. The. Case. She screamed with more fury and intensity than I have ever heard from her, and like I said, it wasn't just any old cry--she was terrified. I tried cuddling her and rocking her, and even did a little impromptu nursing standing right there in the changing station. I did the quickest diaper change in history and gathered her back up, still screaming bloody murder, hoping she'd calm down when we re-entered the restaurant. It helped a little, but at this point she was gone. I motioned to Julia that we were headed to the car. The commotion we caused as we left was considerable and I'm sure that some people wondered if they should call child protective services or if this was a ploy to get out of paying the bill.

It was only after we were back in the car and I nursed Evie once again that she calmed down. As I strapped her into her car seat she gave me a sleepy smile as if to say, "Oh! Thank God! It's you again! Where were you 10 minutes ago in the bathroom?" She doesn't seem traumatized by the event, but I think I'm scarred. I've never felt so helpless and horrible.

And I still want my turkey sandwich...

Some Assembly Required

Yesterday a new toy came in the mail for Evelyn. I started off without any fancy playmat type devices, but after we were given one (the pink would not have been my first choice), it was clear that Evie REALLY loved it. As it won't be too long until she's sitting, I thought she'd enjoy a play thing that is upright, thus the exersaucer.

Julia was over watching Evie so I could run to the mail room. I was expecting a large package or two and knew that I'd need both hands to successfully maneuver. When I got home, awesome Julia helped me put it together. We had fun. We got a little carried away. For the record, when the directions say "patterned side out" on fabric that is patterned on BOTH sides I have to scratch my head. I guessed wrong, and it was only when we were musing about why the manufacturer would put tags in such an awkward place did we look at each other and realize my mistake.

The little book would NOT snap into place. I tried then Julia tried then I tried again. Julia finally got it in...it's secure, but there's a tiny gap that worries me. I picture it popping off and flying through the air, whacking Evelyn in the head 3 months from now.

With a real live adult present (besides me), I have a couple of pictures of Evie AND me! Looking at them I'm amused at the state of our hair and can't help think like mother like daughter...