Adventures In Decorating

A few weeks ago, God brought some new friends into our lives and we love hanging out with them! They're so much like us, it's scary! So we've been getting to know them. They've seen Evey at her best and worst and we haven't frightened them off yet!

Our plan was to put our tree up the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The holiday weekend is always so hectic, and we wanted the time to enjoy our family tradition of Egg Nog, Elf and Decorating. Well, as anyone with young children knows... it takes twice as long to get anything done when you have a kid in the mix. As usual, Saturday, nothing we wanted to get done actually did. We went to bed with our house a mess, and no decorations up. So we attempted for Sunday.

We got up Sunday morning and went to the early service at church. We braved the nasty, rainy weather and we were going to hit the grocery on they way home, but Evey had other plans. So Christopher dropped us off at home so I could feed her lunch and he made his way back out to the grocery. By the time we were ready to actually get something done, it was almost 1pm. Of course.

Thank GOD, the Bicknell's called to see if we wanted some help! Honestly, we may not have had a Christmas tree for Evey's first Christmas if it wasn't for them. As Mark and Christopher got all of our decorations out of the attic, Christopher made a devastating announcment. We had no tree. Last year, our tree broke and none of the lights worked the entire season, so we threw it away. We had completely forgotten. At least we had a coupon to Bed Bath and Beyond.

We loaded E up in her carrier and all five of us piled into my toaster and made our way out again, into the cold and rain. We actually found the perfect tree. At first, I was worried it was going to be a little chinky, but it really looks good!

Watching Ellen and I try to remove the tree from it's tightly packed box was, I'd imagine, very amusing and Ellen and Christopher put it up while I fed Evey - again. She's my little hobbit and it was way past time for Afternoon Tea!! Once the tree was up, it was time for Elf and Nog. Christopher made egg nog from scratch that was so rich and almost put us all to sleep!

We added our ornaments to the tree and told the Bicknell's about a lot of our memories. We added Evey's ornaments, front and center! All in all, it was a fun adventure and afterwards, we had a great (and much needed) nap! We definitely couldn't have gotten it done without help!

Evey wasn't sure what was going on... Her ornaments document our trip to the Smokie Mountains, "New Parents," and our Little Monster. The little monster was from Papa to his Evey Monster!

Putting Evey's ornaments on the tree.

Little Flapper

Yours, Mine & Ours

I know it will be a life-long argument... and it's one that I'm looking forward to over the years!

                                        She's such a mommy's girl!
                                                                     No, she's a papa's girl!!

I know, as a daughter - typically little girls relate to their dads better. That's not to say that they don't love their moms more than anything, but there's something about a daddy that winds tight around a little girl's heart.

I always say that Evey is 100% a mommy's girl right now - and I realize that it's because I have the "magic bottles" - but in my heart I know that's not completely true. She may want me to hold her all the time, and for the most part, I can calm her down in seconds where it takes Christopher much longer. I blame that on my smell. At 4:30pm every day, she wants her mom - and nothing can console her except the comfort of nursing (whether or not she's actually hungry) and knowing that I'm home. When E is tired, she wants her mom. When she's hungry, she wants her mom. When she's fussy, she wants her mom. I have to be honest... I'm perfectly okay with that!

But, when Christopher walks in the room, Evey eyes light up completely. It's amazing how she loves that man. She hears his voice from behind her and she wiggles and squirms every which way to get him in her line of vision. Does that mean she doesn't love me as much as she loves her dad? Not at all! Does it mean that I don't wish I got half the amazing smiles and giggles that he gets? Absolutely! 

Since E likes me to hold her when she's upset, I take the brunt of the tearful glares. That gut-wrenching stare that tells me that I'm so terrible because I can't give her what she wants. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Even though the looks might strike a chord in my heart, I know I'm doing the best I can for that little girl. I praise God for those looks - because even though she may be uspet at me for the time being, the times when she buries her face into my shoulder because she's so tired makes it all worth it. The times when she stops crying as soon as I sing to her makes it all worth it. The times when she thinks my goofy faces are so hilarious, makes it all worth it. The knowledge that she trusts me more than anything else in the world and that she is totally dependent on me makes it all worth it.  

Making Evey laugh and smile is such a gratification for me. It lets me know, even though I mess up, and even though there are nights when she cries for hours and I can't soothe her and that, even though there are nights when I spend the night in tears because of how much she cries, that I'm doing my job right. It lets me know that I must be doing something good in this little girl's life!

There are times when I'm afraid I can't live up to the standards of those before me. My mom was amazing when I was growing up. Yes, we definitely had our battles (and I know Evey and I will as well) but she instilled in me so many qualities that I couldn't raise this little girl without. Every day, she teaches me about patience and love. She has helped me become the mom I wanted to be. Now that I'm a mom, I call mine every day without fail, just to talk about nothing. If I dont' talk to my mom, I feel like a huge, important part of the day is missing. She laughs at me, but there's something about becoming a mom myself that has created a new bond between us, and I look forward to that with my daughter.

Christopher's mom is equally as amazing. I've always said that Evey has hit the grandparent jackpot. Cathy always reminds me of the importance of my relationship with God. She's full of loving advice and I cherish more than she'll ever know. I'm so thankful that I have such an amazing realtionship with my mother-in-law.

I see so many great qualities in friends of mine who are moms, and I strive to add those to my collection. Every day, God stretches me in new ways to teach me to be a better mom to my little girl. As she changes and grows - so do I.

So yes, Evey and I may have our battles throughout life. She may look at me like I'm the meanest person in the world when I strap her into her carseat. She may go back and forth between being a mommy's girl and a papa's girl... and Christopher and I will always tease each other about that. He may get the best smiles and laughs, but I know, without a doubt, that my little girl loves me just as much as she loves her papa. I know that she trusts me, and that she will always be mine.

                                                            She is 100% mommy's girl, and I'll treasure that in my heart forever.

One Tuckered Out Girl...

We have had a huge weekend! Evey spent the night with her Mimi and Mipa on Friday so we could have a date night with some new friends. She played all night long!

Yesterday were down at my parent's house by 7:30 to get our girl and we went to take photos with my family. We spent the morning playing in the Ginko leaves on Asbury's campus.

From there, we went to Sears to have Evey's picture made in her dedication dress. That's never a short experience, but I love the ease of letting someone else take and edit the photos! When we got home, we were all three exhausted, but we went to church anyway. Evey was in a great mood and I was able to hear the entire message for the first time since she was six days old! We didn't make it home until 8:30 that night. We went ahead and put Evey straight to bed because she was exhausted.

This morning, I woke up around 6:30 and had an hour all to myself! It was so great! I got to read through all my my new Thirty-One consultant information. When Evey woke up, we had a relaxing morning (which we all needed) and then we started to get ready for another big day.

We were dedicating Evey at church this afternoon and so we had to get everything ready. I'll post pictures and details later, and even though the day was tiring, it was so great for our family! We had so many loved ones there to support us and it was amazing!

When we got home, we all took a nap. After Evey had been asleep for around 3 hours, I decided I should probably wake her up so that she'd sleep good tonight. I've never seen her so tired... When I tried to wake her up, here's what happened:

We were rolling, and after she smiled, she woke up for good... I can't believe she realized we were laughing at her! So funny!

Neh! Owh, owh!

Some friends of ours let us borrow their copy of the Dunstan Baby Lanugage when Evey was born. We'd never heard of it, but watching the intro was so cool.

There's a lady in Australia, Priscilla Dunstan, who has a photographic memory for sound. At five years old, she could play Motzart perfectly on her violin after listening to the concerto once. When she had a son of her own, she began to notice that he would make the same sounds in certain circumstances. Apparently, babies have a whole language all their own.

We thought it was a neat concept when we watched it. Evey was already a few weeks old and it took us a while to learn to recognize her cries. But it really did work! Once we learned her sounds it made caring for her so much easier.

The first three words Priscilla teaches parents are Neh, Owh and Eh.

Neh means "feed me!" It's basically a sucking sound, verbalized. Here is Evey's hungry cry:

Owh is a yawn and Eh is a cute little grunt that means she's got gas. It took us about a week to be able to recognize the cries, but listening for the specific sounds and watching the shape of her mouth was so helpful and we were able to help her more quickly (especially with Eh!).

After we felt confident in the first lesson, we watched the second lesson and learned two new words: Heh and Eairh.

Heh sounds very similar to Eh and to this day - I can't tell the difference, but now I know if I think she's saying Eh but won't burp - she's got to be uncomfortable. I know then that she's hot or cold, or just needs a diaper change!

If Eh means she's got gas, then Eairh is Eh on steroids. It means that the gas she did have has moved into her lower abdomen, and that it's hurting a whole lot more. We haven't heard Eairh too many times, but you can recognize it by the tight tummy and the breathy cry. Since Evey's such a gassy baby, we've gotten really good at getting the air bubbles out before it escalates to Eairh!

That's not to say that there aren't times when we totally miss the point where she's using her words and that we still don't have times when we can't soothe her, but it does help us a lot more than if we were flying without it!

We love knowing what she's saying and if she's screaming "Neh" I can say it back to her and it keeps her calm while I pull out the magic bottles. She understands the sound and knows that I understand it too and that I'm doing what I can to get rid of the problem.

I highly, highly recommend the Dunstan Baby Language to any parent who has a baby who doesn't speak english yet. Babies don't just cry for no reason and Priscilla Dunstan teaches you how understand their language.