Our Little Gnome

Baking Brownies with Papa!

Evey loves spending time with her Papa in the kitchen. She helps him chop and whip and sautee and it's so cute! Today, brownies are on the menu with a little lovin' from the Eveybury oven!

I Love To Oat, Oat, Oat Opples and Banonos!

We gave Evey her second dose of Oatmeal & Bananas tonight and it was a hit! She loves eating "solid" foods so much. I loved watching her grab the spoon and pull it towards her mouth. Honestly, we coudln't shovel the cereal in fast enough! Too cute!!

Now that we've started on baby food, we have a green bean monster on our hands!

Natural

At three months, Evey visited the pool for the first time. At first, she was a little unsure about the water since she'd never been fully emmersed. We bathed her in her Puj Tub which is a little conical shaped tub that kept her head supported and wouldn't fill up past her tummy. There was no way she could splash and play, so it was her first real water experience.

Once she was able to sit up on her own, we decided it was time she graduated from her sweet Puj Tub to a baby bath and she loved it. Her Nana and Flash gave her an adorable tug boat filled with bath toys and she has so much fun splashing and playing.

When I was six months old, my mom put me in waterbabies classes and I love being in the water. I wanted my daughter to love it as much as I did, so at six months, we started a tradition of going to the pool. Evey was in her element. She smiled and laughed and played. She loved kicking her way across the pool.

Our friend, Olivia, is a waterbabies instructor and she went with us to show us what they do in the classes. We did the Hokey Pokey and we played "Motorboat, Motorboat" as we spun her in circles. She loved everything but being dunked under the water... But that will come in time!

The second day, Evey and I met Renee and Harrison and introduced them to the wonderful world of water. Unfortunately, since it was two moms and two babies, there was no one to take pictures this time, but the memories are great! At first Harrison was distracted by all the other kids at the pool and was too busy watching them to realize something was different. Eventually, the kids went home and we had the pool mostly to ourselves and then he started to enjoy it too! Evey showed him the ropes and I could barely get her to slow down. If I stood still at all, she pushed herself away from me, holding onto only my shoulder and kicked, kicked, kicked to keep herself afloat. She went underwater on her own twice and didn't cry when it was on her own terms. It's great to see her so adventurous in the water!!

She's a natural, just like her mommy!

At first, we took her to the larger pool at the Beaumont YMCA, but decided it was too cold for mommy and daddy - much less for a little girl. Luckily, they have a warm water pool that is perfect for my little girl!

She didn't like floating on her back if her ears got wet.

I love this set - her little feet never stopped moving.

She knew she was safe as long as she had ahold of us!

We practiced "jumping" off the edge into the water.

We let her be "on her own" on the kickboard.

She even played with Auntie Ali for a long time... which was a big deal! Evey still has her "mommy-issues" and she will rarely let my sister hold her. If I leave her with my mom, she has "mimi-issues" and still will rarely go to Ali. She loves to smile and play with Auntie Ali from someone elses arms, and eventually, Ali will be one of her favorite people ever.

Needless to say, Auntie Ali enjoyed playing in the pool!!

When we were done, Papa played with Evey so Mommy could enjoy some down-time in the hot tub!!

Belly Laughs

I have been trying to catch this sweet sound on video, but have been failing miserably... until tonight. My little girl gets so obsessed with my phone anytime I try to get a video that she just freezes completely. Although it can be annoying, it's still so adorable.

And then come moments like these. Moments where she's totally enthralled by whatever is happening and I catch the sweetest things on video!

This one is a little bit longer, but she giggles and laughs and it's the most amazing sound I've ever heard!

Milestones: Six Months

I hate that I don't have her six month blocks in these pictures! I was sick the week she turned six months, and although I'd been counting down to the 26 weeks mark since Christmas - I completely missed it!! She spent the night of the 27th with my mom because I felt so terrible, I couldn't even pick her up! It definitely didn't happen the way I had planned, but I now have a six month old. I have been a mom - through thick and thin - for half of a year. I can't believe how quickly time has passed and I LOVE more than anything watching that little girl grow and learn!

She never ceases to amaze me!

I love that gummy grin... And I have to admit that I'm happy to enter six months without teeth!!

My little ballerina - this is her natural stance, and I think it's adorable!

I cannot believe a half of a year has gone by so quickly. I can't believe I am a mom. I can't believe I have a daughter. My life since last November has been a whirlwind of unbelievable-ness and I love every minute.

There have been so many exciting moments over the past month, I hope I remember all of them!

Evey finally discovered how tasty toes are! She doesn't do it often, but she will either pull her adorable piggies into her mouth or bend over to the floor to chew on them. Her favorite toy is her pelican shape sorter, she loves pushing the different shapes into the holes and it has crinkle paper wings that she loves to flap! She loves her Fisher Price piano and stackable rings and most of all, she loves the jump-a-roo!

She has mastered the skill of flipping pages. Sometimes she flips so fast, that we have to flip backward just to finish reading the book! She also figured out how to flip the pages on my Kindle, to the point where I can't read anything from it to her.

We found out that her favorite color is orange. We probably knew it all along.... most of the toys that she clings to are orange - her Link Larkin, her Ollie the Oliphant, her bumble and her V-Tech Learn and Crawl ball. Even the rattle that she favors is mostly orange. So, there you have it!

She can sit, completely unaided, for hours at a time. If I need to run to the other room to pick something up, I can just plop her on the floor and do what I need to. I don't have to worry about balancing her or positioning her feet at all anymore. She's totally independent.

She still doesn't roll over or push-up to crawl... not that she can't. She just chooses not to unless she's on the changing table. Then she rolls everywhere. But for the most part, she'd rather be vertical.

She understands two words obviously - jump and gentle. It took lots of repetition, but she knows them well.

She recognizes and plays with other babies. That credit goes to the daycare, but I was watching Harrison earlier this month and she was talking away to her little cousin! That was the night I learned that she does NOT understand the concept of sharing... at all! She looked so offended that Harrison was playing with her toys and she would grab them out of his hands! I give that credit to daycare too... lol!!

She doesn't care for Barley cereal, but LOVES Oatmeal and Bananas. We've only done "solids" a few times, but she devours the bananas... you'd think I never fed her! As much as she loves eating real food, she's still so happy to nurse and I love that! It's still something so special that I cherish, and I look forward to six more months of that!

Her baby-fuzz is gone and her real hair is growing in. The "Friar Tuck" look that I adored so much is completely gone and she has short brown hair all over her head. It's not very long, and it's not very dark, so she still looks bald from a distance, but I tell her all the time that her hair is coming in nicely!

She laughs. Not just giggles or squeals anymore, but really laughs - like a big girl! I love that sound more than anything, but it shows me how big she's gotten!

Now that she's six months, my heart is breaking at how quickly we arrived at this point and how fleeting the time with my newborn was. But my heart is also exploding with joy and happiness at seeing all of the amazing things that she learns and how quickly she grows! Part of me can't wait to hear her first words, see those first steps and is always imagining what she will look like with hair!