Vocabulary

"Coo-kee"

This week Justin bought Famous Amos cookies for our after dinner treat. Once we have finished eating Eva sits on Daddy's lap with cookie in hand and a glass of milk in front of her for her to drink and dip her cookie. This ritual caught on fast. The second night when Eva was done eating and was getting restless for Justin and I to finish, "All done! Down!" begging to be released from her seat. Justin anounced that it would soon be cookie time. Well, she began nodding her head and saying, "Cookie. Lap" while pointing at Daddy. It's so sweet. She wants to sit on Daddy's lap and eat cookies. It's so cute!

Cats
Eva loves cats. She follows our cat around, "Lucky, Meow, Lucky, Cat." She can say her "L" sound really well now :) Anyway today at my girlfriend's house she was following her cat around and said one of her first completely perfect sentences, "I like cats." She said this several times during the course of our visit.


Pairs
Eva can easily identify groups of twos. Today she saw two lamps standing together so we asked, "how many lamps are there?" she said, "two". She has done this several times now. The other night Justin asked Eva which one of two books she wanted to read while she was in her car seat, she said, "Both" and received both books with joy!


"No"
Its really funny how she can voice her opinion now. I am very thankful that she can speak so well because it cuts back on fits, and the fits she does have can be dissolved more quickly because she can ultimately tell me what she wants.


Baby Talk
Even though I can generally figure out what she is telling me there are still, obviously, a lot of times I don't know. Its so funny, I'll be translating for half the day for a friend and then she will string a bunch of sounds together and talk animated. My friend will look at me for answers and I just have to confess, "I have no idea!" I love the gibber-gabber she makes up - especially when she first wakes up - I feel like she is telling me about what she has dreamt :).

Sleeping Through The Night

Eva first exhibited the ability to sleep through the night back around 4 months of age when we moved her into her crib and her own room. It has been hit or miss since then, several days would be fine, then she would start waking up 1-2 times per night randomly.

We are happy to report that the past few weeks she has been doing great, sleeping not only through the night, but also sleeping until 7:20 or 7:30 AM sometimes, which gives Mommy and Daddy a chance to hit the snooze button :) We actually had a little talk with her - we told her that big girls sleep all the way through the night, and right after that, she started to!

Next on the list - potty training!

Sea Turtle

Today Eva and I were hanging out by the edge of the water at the beach and we spotted a baby sea turtle trying to get past where the waves break but was unsuccessful. So not really knowing what to do I picked him up. He seemed happy in the comfort of my still hand - instead of being tossed about by the waves. He adjusted his little flippers over my fingers and was still. I thought that we should get him past where the waves break, but since I had Eva I couldn't go too far out, so Eva and I enlisted the help of a little boy Nick. He was so excited! Eva loved it too. She kept saying, "Turtle!" over and over. Now that its all said and done I realize the turtle probably needed to be dropped further out at sea or needed to be taken to the Marine Life Center for them to decide. In the moment and excitement I unfortunately wasn't thinking that clearly.

I would also like to note that today was the first time Eva went out into the ocean! I was in just below my chest so she was in waste deep. She was so calm the entire time we were there. She loved it.

Here are some pictures of our precious turtle. Check out Eva in her beach wear. She kept the hat and glasses on the entire time - even when we were out in the water.

Camping! Sort of!

Aimee and I like to go camping, and we did a fair amount before we had Eva with our friends at Outlanders. We are hoping to go again sometime of course, and we want Eva to be ready and excited. So I had the crazy idea of setting up the tent and having a mock campout. I was originally going to set the tent up on the patio until I realized that it was August in Florida. So into the living room it went.

Eva was very excited! She had a blast just going in and out of the tent entrance and climbing up on the air mattress (okay, so we cheated a little bit). We cooked hot dogs over an open propane flame courtesy of my grill and had some mac and cheese on the side.

Then as it got darker, we kept the house lights off and only used my lantern (battery powered, don't worry) for light. It was fun and felt like hurricane training at the same time. Before we turned in for the night, we made s'mores too, and they were great. What kind of camping trip would this be without hot dogs and s'mores?

We had a blast. Eva was a little too excited to actually fall asleep in the tent... but I think she'll get used to it and will love camping in the future.

In Case You Missed the News....

We are pregnant with baby number two!!!

Aimee made a posting the other day but it was somewhat innocuous so I think most of our readers might have missed this HUGE NEWS.

We are not very far along yet -- about 9 weeks -- so our new little bundle of joy will be here around St. Patties day 2010.

The big question is... will we find out the gender? Stay tuned!

Memories

Eva and I have been bonding a lot lately. I feel closer to her more than ever!

I want to share some special new memories she has been making for us. Last night I went to check on her when she was coughing from her cold to see if she needed a drink. I held her and we cuddled for a few minutes. As I was holding my half asleep daughter she barely opened her eyes and pointed at her side, "help" after a pause "tickle". She was half awake and still wanting to be tickled! She asked a few times but was unresponsive to the tickling.

There is one CD that is Eva's favorite. She listens to it all the time, she calls it, "DA! DA! DA!" I think she is trying to say dance. She always wants to listen to it when she knows daddy is home. As soon as I turn it on she goes on a search for Daddy or myself, whoever is not with her at the moment and will not give up until we are all in her room dancing and clapping together. She will not let Justin rest if that CD is on! Its so much fun and it touches our hearts that she wants us all to be together.

Her communication skills are growing. We can almost always figure out what she wants. Yesterday, it was so cute, I put her down for a nap with a book as usual but I went to check on her a few minutes later because of her coughing. I knew she hadn't slept at all though. When I went over to her crib she stood straight up and lifted up her arms, "I nap. All done." Haha! It was so funny.

Little Lady

Eva has been trying to tell us little stories, whispers to us when she wakes up at night and when her cheerios ride up the side of the bowl out of the milk she makes she that she carefully pushes them all back down :). She is very detail oriented.

I am learning to really pay attention to what and how I say things to her because she is so sensitive. She has a tender heart.

She had a little cold that has turned into a chest cold. Pleases pray for her.

Another Blog for Another Baby

We would like to let you know that we are pregnant with baby number 2! We have another blog dedicated to the baby. There are a few updates on there already and an ultrasound of our little peanut. We are 9 weeks today.

http://honse2.blogspot.com/

Eva Using a Spoon By Herself!

This morning I made Eva a little bowl of cereal because she has been wanting to eat ours for the past few days. I decided to see what would happen if I gave her the spoon... check it out! She is 18 months! Righty or Lefty?

Dizzy Dance

We caught Eva dancing in her room. She loves turning and turning, so much so that this time she got a little dizzy. By the way - her diaper is not as full as it looks, I had just changed it.

News

Eva's vocabulary is growing everyday. She can say almost anything we ask her to. She is so sweet.

She calls the phone "hello".

She started stacking objects two days ago. She was so focused on her mini books, I looked away and looked back and she had started stacking them. I counted one stack - 15 mini books! Now I realize that she has been trying to stack her big books, but it didn't work out so conveniently.

She pretends that she is doing laundry. She will take her dirty clothes out of her basket and transfer them to another basket. Then she will take them out and hold some of her outfits up to herself and hold them under her chin as if trying to decide which one she wants to wear. She'll take her washcloths and stick them on her head and say, "hat" :).

She has been learning some new signs - flower, cup, table, chair, bed and a few others.

She loves to play independently and "read" her books on her own. Its hard to let go, but we are so proud of the young lady that she is becoming.

Some Fun Stuff

Sleeping

Eva has just started allowing us to put a blanket on her when she sleeps. Every since the day she was born she has hated to be swaddled and to have blankets on her. Also this past week we put a pillow in her crib for the first time. She loves it! The past few months she has been loving pillows. Any pillow she found around the house she would lay on it. Maybe a big girl bed isn't too far off!

Cutie Patootie

Eva is so precious. Lately she has been sleeping with 3 items in her crib: Pooh, a cat and her singing seahorse we named Sally OR ladybug pillow, a cat and Sally. Well to back up a bit, Eva has slept with us a couple times over the past week due to her Rotavirus. She is the kind of girl who likes to make preparations so when we would come to get her from her crib in the night she would grab Pooh and her blanket, reach high to us and say, "Mommy."

Tonight I went to check on her after a 1/2 hour of whining. As soon as she saw me standing over her crib she started to reach around for toys that she wanted to "bring with her". She made sure to give me a play by play as she picked up each one, then dropped one, picked up while dropping another...

"Sally." "Pillow." "Cat." "Pillow." "Cat." "Sally." A few more rounds of that and then finally having them all scooped in her arms tried to reach up for me with all her toys in hand. Unfortunately we weren't going to be bringing her toys - as I was only there to give her a drink and a snuggle. She didn't seem to mind when I set them all back in her crib so she would want to get back in there when it was time.

ANOTHER CUTE STORY! This afternoon after checking on her several times, when I laid her down for the last time she put her head on her pillow and as I was closing the door she picked up her head and waved to me, "Buh-bye". It was so sweet. And she finally took a nap :).

Justin's Birthday

My handsome prince is 32. On July 13th we had a little get together for the guys at our house for Justin. We missed all of you who couldn't make it! Thank you to all of you who could!