Chesapeake Arboretum

 Last week my mom came to visit and we had all kinds of fun. On Saturday, we checked out the Arboretum in Chesapeake. We've always meant to but have never gotten around to it, and my mom's mantra that week was doing everything we've been putting off. The Arboretum was beautiful and so much fun.

remember this

The picture has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was funny. Can you spot the baby?

I want to remember this evening, so I'm posting it cause this is basically my journal. Evelyn and I had so much giggling fun tonight. She would crawl around laughing as I chased her, then I would scoop her up and we would both laugh hysterically. Then, she would come up to me while I was sitting on the couch, so I would pick her up and tickle her until she almost snorted. I just love days like today. She was so happy and giggly, it just made my whole life worthwhile. Have I mentioned how much I love my daughter? Cause I do.

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Eleven months// Is this week over yet?

My Evie Lou is eleven months old! And what a month it has been! First, she had a cold, then she got an ear infection, followed by the flu, and then a mystery illness that caused her to have a fever for 3 days straight. The fact that she's smiling at all is a testament to what a sweet girl she is, because let me tell you, she was miserable. Yesterday a mysterious rash appeared all over her tiny body, so we can add that to the fun of her being 11 months old. Seriously!? Despite all this though, we have managed to have a little fun. No matter how crummy she is feeling she still seriously LOVES bath time. In fact, if we ask her if it's "happy fun bath time", she squeals, crawls over to the stairs and tries to climb up them. (so far, she hasn't managed to get past the second step, thank goodness) She absolutely hates getting her diaper changed or getting dressed. She loves everything electronic, including the TV, which is a constant battle of wills between her and I. She loves all berries, bananas, clementines, and pretty much anything I am eating at the time, and strangely enough, she loves green beans as well. When she isn't sick and cranky, she loves to just crawl all over the house babbling constantly and playing with all her toys. Sometimes she will give me big slobbery kisses on the cheek and great big hugs. My favorite is when I am sitting on the couch doing something while she is playing, and she crawls over to me, reaches up and gives me a hug. FAVORITE. I seriously love this girl. She has the cutest little personality. She is funny, and she knows she's funny, so she tries to make you laugh and then laughs at herself. Also, if she hears you laughing about something, she'll assume it's something she did, so she starts laughing too and repeats whatever it was she was doing at the time. Evie is also extremely stubborn and willful, which is a challenge a lot of the time. She learns how to do things so quickly, it's crazy! She knows how to hold her own bottle or feed herself with a spoon, but more often than not, she won't because she knows you'll do it for her. Silly. I bought her a new toy the other day and I only had to show her how it works once, and bam, she had it down. Seriously, so smart. I can't believe we ever lived without her because she just brings us both so much joy and has made our lives exponentially better.

Now, can I talk about this week really fast? It has become one of those weeks that I know I will look back on years down the road and think, "how did I ever make it through that?". I'll give you a quick rundown. Evelyn has been really sick, Dan is gone, and my mom is coming on Friday. Which means that I am doing the single parent thing with a sick and needy baby, while simultaneously trying to get my house clean and ready for company. It's not going well. My mom may walk into a disaster area instead of a house, hopefully she doesn't judge me too harshly (obviously I am kidding. my mom doesn't judge). Oy. Tomorrow cannot come fast enough.

Frustration

Okay, I have to complain for a second, so buckle up. First of all, what the frack evelyn? She is ELEVEN months old and still wakes up one or two times a night. What am I doing wrong? What happened to sleeping through the night? I have tried everything and nothing has worked. She won't cry herself to sleep because she cab stand up in her crib now, and she won't take her binky or be rocked to sleep. You guys, I am so so tired. It's like having a perpetual newborn baby. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

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oh, hi there

So, I haven't blogged about anything in a really long time. I have been overwhelmingly busy lately, but that's not why I haven't been posting. I honestly can't think of anything interesting to talk about. This last week Dan was gone for army training, so it was just evie and I alone, trying to survive without the man of the house. Miss evelyn has also been in rare form this last week. She has become even more stubborn and willful lately, if that's possible. She likes to crawl over to the tv, look at me, smile, and grab the tv screen while I'm watching and telling her no. Little Stinker. She has also decided that her binky is old news, so sleeping has been a bit of a challenge since last week. All of these happened last week when Dan was gone, so needless to say, when Dan got home I was completely exhausted and needed a break! For the love. Other than that, we have been having a lot of fun running around the house and playing in the kitchen cabinets. I do wonder sometimes if I'm being a good mother. I mean, I have no clue what I'm doing, and I just hope she's getting all the things she needs in life to be a successful adult. You know? Am I the only one with these insecurities? If you have suggestions for being a great mom, please lay them on me.

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Sick, sick, sick

Yay for presidents day weekend. Dan got Friday and Monday off for the holiday and we were so excited to go and do some fun things and spend some time together. But, alas, that did not happen. And here is why:

On Tuesday last week evie started throwing up copious amounts at random times. This was a fun day for me as I couldn't predict when or where she would throw up, so a lot of laundry was done and I followed evie around with windex. Other than vomiting at an alarming rate, evelyn seemed perfectly fine. Then, on Wednesday, evie really started to be sick. Fever, vomiting, the works. She basically slept on me all day long. This continued until about Friday when she finally started feeling better (yay!), but unfortunately, Friday was dooms day for me. I woke up that morning not feeling great and then all the sudden it hit me, wham, and I was hitting up the bathroom every hour. I don't remember much about Friday except that Dan was home, thank goodness, so he took care of evie and me. So, on Saturday I was slowly starting to feel a little better, and by the end of the day, I could even walk down the stairs (personal best). As fate would have it, as soon as I was starting to feel somewhat normal again, the sickness hit Dan like a ton of bricks. The rest of Saturday was spent taking turns napping and taking care of evie. I'm pretty sure you could have made a funny sitcom out of us that day, because I'm sure it was quite a depressing sight. Two sick parents like jello on the couch, watching as their ten month old daughter tears up the house like its going outta style. Needless to say, we stayed home from church on Sunday and tried to continue taking care of one another. Monday, Dan was still sick, but I was somewhat recovered, so I took care of him and evie most of the day. And that was our grand four day weekend. You should maybe be a bit jealous. We party hard.

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Valentine number 2

 As mentioned already, Dan got the date wrong for Valentine's, so we celebrated a week early. But, I wanted to give Dan something in return for giving me the best day ever, so we celebrated again on Saturday. I know VDay was today, but it's a Tuesday and there was no way we were going to have time during the week, so Saturday it was. We put our babe to bed and started our festivities. We began with making smores, which turned out great btw, and then we put our tent up in the family room. Putting the tent up was quite the adventure because there isn't nearly as much room as you would normally need, but we made it work. All of this was supposed to be a surprise for Dan set up on our front lawn, but wouldn't you know, the only day it got cold this year was Saturday night. But, having our date in a tent in the middle of our house was more fun anyway. We cuddled up inside our tent, ate smores, and watched a silly movie which we made fun of the whole time. It was perfect. I am so glad to have this man in my life. He is the perfect Valentine and I just can't imagine anything better.

Happy Valentine's Day!