Finch Reunion

 

To get you to understand this blog, I have to start at the beginning... literally. Both of my parents families are small. My dad had 3 siblings and my mom only had 2. I always wanted a huge family, perhaps because mine seemed so small. Not that small is bad. I love spending time with my with my extended family. I love knowing that I'm a part of something and what is better than family?!? When I married Christopher, I was thrilled to be able to say I was a part of his family. On his dad's side, I gained a grandmother, a great aunt, two aunts and uncles and five cousins.

His mom's side confirmed everything in me that wanted a large family. Cathy was one of five children and we have so much fun at family reunions! After all the marriages, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, Evey and Harrison made numbers 36 and 37! Between girlfriends and boyfriends, that number is ever growing. The crazy part is how close they all are! The Finch's are definitely not your average American family, but who wants to be normal?

Renee and I announced that we were pregnant at the Finch Christmas celebration, a year and a half ago. In a crowd that big, of course we weren't the first... or the second... Meemaw and Pepaw Finch were gaining FOUR great-grandchildren in one year! The first, Quentin was born on Gordon's birthday in March. The second, Cara, was born July 1st and Evey and Harrison were born July 28th and 29th! What an amazing year it was for the Finch family!

Cathy's only sister, Paula and her family live in Virginia. Even though they live so far away, they still stay in touch and are just as close-knit as the rest of the family. Renee was able to go to them to introduce Harrison in the fall, but Christopher and I had been wondering when we'd get the chance to finally introduce Evey to the last bit of her family. I know Aunt Paula had been dying to meet her as well! Over memorial day, she finally made it to town. So we packed our bags for the day and made our way to Bardstown for a mini-reunion!

When we arrived, Evey hadn't slept. That is abnormal. Typically, she falls asleep as soon as we hit the interstate. If you've spent time time with Evey, or followed my blog, you know she's a Momma's girl. Over the past month, she's starting to out-grow her stranger-danger anxieties, but on that day she was in rare form. She was tired from screaming for an hour in the car. She was hungry and she just wanted me. We coerced her into Paula's lap with a baked-bean-bribery and after that she was set.

Paula knew the way into my girl's heart!



We still have a couple Finch birds to introduce Evey to, but that will come with time! (AKA: Rebekah, Paul and George need to come with Paula on the next visit!!) We had a blast. The day was gorgeous, in the shade and the company was great!

Nana spoiled Evey and Harrison and gave them their first High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup-Pop. They loved it!

Evey was drenched in orange all the way through her diaper, so we slapped on a swimsuit and plopped her in the pool! 

Not only was this the first time Evey got to meet her Great-Aunt Paula, but it was the first time we had all 2012 babies together. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I... the Mom who takes thousands of pictures... did not get a picture of all four of them. Cara was born with loads of dark brown hair. It's hard to believe that she's only a month older than E.

Quentin and Evey got to meet at Christmas this year. and he was pulling up to stand. Physically, he was where Evey is now... it was neat to see how much he'd grown! I also came home without a picture of Quentin's face. Good thing I've got some family to steal photos from!



The Best Way to Do a Summer Mommy-hood...

Just like last year, I spent Memorial Day weekend lounging at the pool. Only, this time was a little bit different! Instead of having my "Tiny Dancer" swimming inside me, we had a splashing, kicking, laughing dancer on the outside! Honestly, I'm not sure which one I enjoyed more.

Last year's trip to the pool was much easier, and much, much more relaxing. But having Evey with us this year was just so much fun! She has always loved the water and this was her first time swimming in an outdoor pool.

My plan was to hit the Y pool, but we were gratefull when Ellen and Mark, invited us over to their apartment complex for a pool-date. The Y would be insane; over-run with hyper-active children fresh on their out-of-school highs and ready to splash water everwhere, including Evey's face.

She had so much fun. We'd packed up her bath toys to take with us, although I think Christopher and Mark enjoyed playing with them more than Evey did! Evey just had a blast splish-splashing!

We went swimming Friday afternoon, and then went back on Monday... We couldn't get enough!!

Evey's Mimi brought her a boat float and she was able to play in the pool on her own! Evey LOVED being able to swim independently. She loved it so much that when we deflated the float to pack for vacation, she cried because she thought it was going away for good! Too cute!!

Parent's Night Out

"I'm so excited to get to know my Auntie Ali better!"

I finally left Evey with someone other than her grandmothers.  On May 25th, just 3 days before she turned 10 months old, we paid my sister to watch her for the night. We had been swimming with our friends, Ellen & Mark, earlier in the day and decided to go see a movie and grab a bite to eat afterwards.

We didn't get home until almost midnight!

It's been a long time since we've been out that late. It's been even longer since we've had a double-date. We had a blast, and Auntie Ali did a great job caring for my world while I was away (not that I had any doubt...)!

Obviously, Evey had a fun night, too!

"Bye, bye, Mama & Papa... I'll miss you!"

Ali said she stood at the door for a long time after we left. She's never been at our house without one of us there, too.

Time for Change

When Evey was six weeks old, I had to leave her with people I barely knew at a place that I hadn't spent much time in. I cried for the first few weeks, but slowly began to get to know Evey's teachers. Every day, I felt more and more comfortable leaving my daughter.

At the end of April, we got some devastating news. Our beloved daycare was closing. I couldn't believe it. I looked into other daycares, but nothing compared to what we'd been receiving and I couldn't imagine sending Evey somewhere else.

On Evey's last day, her teachers made her a "We Will Miss You" card that had all of her class-mates footprints and special notes from the teachers. I loved it!!

As always, God took care of our family and, now, I'm actually excited to start this new chapter!

One of Evey's teachers, Miss Kaitlin, is going to be keeping Evey and another boy from the infant class at her home. My ultimate goal is to be a stay at home mom, but since we're not able to do that, this is the next best thing!

The best part is seeing God's hand in our decision. Since we decided on private care, Evey has become more attached to both Miss Kaitlin and the boy that she'll be spending her days with! It's been awesome to see and it seems as if Evey knows the change that's happening.

We decided to pull Evey out of daycare a month before it closes. Since both grandmothers are teachers, and my sister is an assistant and all three of them have their summers off, we thought Evey could spend a month with them and we could save a little money along the way!

At the beginning of July, Evey will have her schedule changed again and I'm excited to have a normal schedule again.

Milestones: Ten Months

At ten months old, Evey is fully mobile. She cruises around the furniture faster than I can blink. She crawls everywhere (and actually crawls on her hands and knees!) and has started being adventurous enough to leave my eyesight!  I think I'm more tired now than I was when she was newborn and not sleeping through the night!


Even though chasing her highness all over the house and not having much time to do anything else, the 8-10 month period has been my favorite time so far! She is learning so fast now! She can wave bye-bye and give high-fives. She gives hugs and kisses. She sings and dances, pulls up to stand, crawls, giggles and belly-laughs. She has so much personality (which you can definitely see in her 10 month pictures!) and I love finding out what traits she gets from who. Her name definitely fits... she's my Life's Work every day and I couldn't be happier!

She seems to be growing so much. The other day I picked her up after work and I swear she had grown since that morning when I'd dropped her off! She went through a massive growth spurt that lasted almost a week. She barely played, just ate and ate and slept and slept. Just as I was starting to worry something was wrong, she snapped out of it and was back to her normal, playful self!

She has four teeth! Her two bottom teeth are so sweet, and I love how they're angled in. They're definitely well used and she loves to brush them! The top two are still tiny, but they're her lateral incisors which means she has fangs! It's too funny!!

She still has no hair. I'm not worried! I love my little, bald baby! When we're outside, though, I have to make sure she's sunscreened to the nines and is wearing a hat because skin is so fair and the sun LOVES her! I've gotten pretty good at remembering the sunscreen since Easter and am happy to report that we've been sunburnless since then!

I have to make sure I keep the storm door locked because she loves to stand and look out the window. She bangs on the glass and shakes the strong-arm with all her might and it is the cutest thing. Christopher loves coming home from work to see her little face poking out throught the glass!

 

Her favorite toys are her music walker. She sings and dances as she pushes her toy all over the house. She loves her tractor (especially the chicken and cow sounds and the engine starting up) and her Pooh top although she doesn't stay entertained by one object for very long.

If she has a dirty diaper or if she's getting tired, she loves to play with things she knows she's not supposed to play with! Cords and computers become so fun and pulling movies off of the shelf is the best game ever! It makes it easy to know when something isn't right and keeps my baby happy!

She had her first real "big-girl" bath, in the bathtub, without towels or a baby tub. She loved it. She had so much fun splashing around and actually got to play with her tug boat! It was adorable to watch and when she was done, she pulled right up to stand like she was saying, "Okay, Mommy! Dry me off!"

My favorite of her achievements this month is that she can put herself to sleep! She's started connecting with certain stuffed animals. We travel everywhere with Llama Llama and she sleeps with Violet every night. I can put her in her bed after she nurses and she'll snuggle up to Vi and fall asleep. She's taken to sleeping either on her side like her Papa, or on her tummy like me (although I can't stick my bum in the air the way she does!).

I still can't believe how grown up Evey is. I can't figure out how time got put in fast-forward the moment she was born, but I'm so happy that I have the ablity to track the way she grows!