Evi upright

We've been experimenting with getting Evelyn to sit up on her own. Even a couple of days ago she could hold her balance for only a few seconds. Today I put her sitting in front of the bead racer, and with a combination of being stronger to sit up, and also because she could grab on to the bead racer, she sat there playing for a good five minutes. When she finally tipped over, she was really mad and cried a lot, and didn't want to sit up any more after that, but later on she was willing to try it again.

Birthday surprise (??)

As I mentioned in the previous blog entry, we got Daddy some Legos for his birthday, and I made the mistake of telling Sierra that it was a secret--a suprise for Daddy, so we shouldn't tell him. That night when he came home I was already upstairs putting Evi to bed and Sierra had been up with me. When she heard him come in, she went racing down the steps shouting, "Daddy, we have a SURPRISE!" I knew at that moment that it was all over! I heard quite a bit of silence after that and naively thought that maybe she had actually been able to keep the secret, but of course, being a secret, she naturally had to whisper it in his ear! I think first she just whispered "Legos", but not being in context and sounding more like "Yedos" Daddy naturally did not quite catch it the first time around. When he clearly had not understood her, she followed up by shouting, "Yedos, for your bufday!!" Then it was all laid clear!

Incredible memory

Lately Sierra has astonished me with things that she can remember from way back--it actually just seems impossible that she could remember some of these things!

The first, we were looking at a picture of a carousel and she announced, "We went there with Miss Lisa!" And indeed, when Evi was about 3 weeks old (more than 5 months ago!!) we went to Schenley Plaza with my good friend Lisa and went on the carousel. We have, incidentally, gone to that carousel since then, by ourselves, and also with other people, and although we talked about going with Lisa quite a few times after the day that we did it, that has not remained a topic in our daily conversation all this time. Maybe it's because that was the first time that we went to the carousel? I don't know.

The second was when Daddy came in from a run and headed up to get cleaned up. Sierra asked if he was taking a bath (she had taken one an hour prior) and I said he was probably taking a shower, since he doesn't usually take baths. I added that I couldn't really remember the last time Daddy actually took a bath, but then I corrected myself. When we were in Banff in September, our condo had a huge bathtub in the master suite (no shower in there) and in the other bathroom, which had a shower, we had set up Evi's crib so that she could have her own "room". Her crib pretty much filled up the entire bathroom, so during the day it was easier to just take a bath than to break her crib down to use the shower. Consequently, we both took more baths that week than we have in the past 5 years total! Anyway, I asked Sierra if she remembered than, and she said, "Yes! I took a bath in that after we made cookies!" It was true. We had been doing some baking in the kitchen and I had let her lick the bowl where the batter had been (it was actually brownies) and she turned the whole bowl over her head getting chocolate brownie mix completely all over her head. The only thing to do was to hop in the tub, right then in the middle of the day. I guess that left an impression.

On the other hand, the Banff bathtub thing was only about 2 months ago, but this last one is the clincher. We just got some Legos for Daddy for his birthday which is tomorrow (and no, I'm not worried that Jonathan will read this blog and ruin the surprise, because he has already been "informed" about his present). On the way home from the store, Sierra was ruminating in her carseat and then said, "Hudson has legos. Sometimes he doesn't want me to play with them, so when he says not to play with them, then I won't." This comment was rather interesting on several counts. But the one that amazed me the most is that the last time we were with cousin Hudson when legos were in the picture was a full year ago--last Christmas, when they came here. At that time she was not even 2 yet--or I guess she had her birthday while they were here. Indeed, she really wanted to play with the legos, but Hudson at the time was really excited about building the exact version that was pictured in the model, which of course uses all the pieces in the set. This scenario did not exactly jive well with a barely-2-yr-old running off with random pieces of the starship. So Hudson had asked that she play with other toys and we were enforcing that.

Evelyn Aldrich, pianist

Today Evi woke up from her nap quite early and Sierra, for once, was actually sleeping rather than singing at the top of her lungs in her room. I was in the middle of practicing, so I took Evi and put her in her Bumbo seat on top of the stool at the other piano--pulling it up close enough so that she could reach the keys. She was absolutely amazed and mesmerized by the keyboard and played quite a few keys, leaning over close to get a good look, and perhaps a good smell (or taste?) as well. I proceeded to practice for more than an hour with her sitting there watching and periodically reaching over and playing a few notes. When she finally got fussy in the seat, I put her on the floor beside me with a toy and she played there for the better part of another hour while I continued to practice. It brought back such great memories of when Sierra was little and she would lay on a blanket by my feet for long periods while I practiced--just looking up at me and smiling and playing.

No more sneaky reading

Sierra knows her books so well now that you can't really "improvise" anymore when reading to her. It obviously doesn't happen too often, or else she wouldn't get to know the books so well word for word, but sometimes if she is really tired and I know she needs to get down to sleep I would "abbreviate" what is on a given page--well, those days are apparently over. Take the following text, for example:

"Annabelle walked proudly down the school hallway, past the First Grade room, past the Second Grade room, and past her sister's Third Grade room, all the way to the cafeteria."

I innocently (??) summarized this page to read: "Annabelle walked proudly down the school hallway, all the way to the cafeteria"

After turning the page, here was the conversation that ensued:

Sierra (turning the page back): No! Read this page!
Me: I did read that one already.....
Sierra: No, you missed something!
Me: Oh, really? (Hmmm.....)
Sierra: Yes, it's First Grade, Second Grade and Third Grade!

By the way, this was a library book that we had checked out a couple of days before.

Sliding babies

We were at lunch today with some friends when Evi fell asleep and I set her sitting up in the stroller and she sort of flopped over on the side. Awhile later she started wailing and I looked down but she wasn't sitting in the stroller. I had a major double take because in that instant I could not figure out why I was hearing her but not seeing her. Then I realized that she had slid down under the little tray and onto the floor!! I was so horrified! The weird and sort of funny part was that the stroller had been pulled up all the way against the bench where I was sitting (I was literally right in front of her and I can't imagine how I did not see this happening!) but when she got down to the floor she had the stroller behind her and the bench in front of her, so she was just sort of "standing" there propped up from in front and behind, with my leg on one side. Luckily she didn't tip over and hit her head or anything. Consequently, as soon as I picked her up, she was smiling and laughing within about 3 seconds. Of course, I was still shaking. Even well after I was certain that she wasn't hurt, I was fairly humiliated at having to collect my baby from landing on the floor in the middle of a restaurant! Luckily the people around us were quite understanding and good-natured about the whole thing, so I probably won't be going to jail or anything.

Then later, just to rub it in, I had to take Sierra back to the ladies room because she had a dirty diaper. I had taken her diaper off, cleaned her up, and was reaching into my bag to pull out her clean diaper when I realized.... there was no diaper in there for her--there were about 5 or 6 of Evi's, but none of the bigger ones. I actually managed to stretch one of Evi's tiny little diapers around her and the velcro tabs barely barely connected with the front of the diaper to hold it in place. Luckily she had tights on today, so I think that helped the situation. She, of course, thought the whole thing was halarious!

What a day! I guess I can try again tomorrow and maybe get things right.....

Now, nonstop service to more destinations

Sierra's living room "travels" now include several more destinations. Her favorite is New York City, but she also now flies to Salt Lake City and Portland.

Evi's first tooth

Yesterday Evi was pretty cranky all day and we could tell that she didn't feel really well, but we didn't know the reason. Today we know exactly why--her first tooth popped through! We had thought she was getting the ones on the top first and so I had been checking those with some regularity, but it turns out that it's the bottom ones that are coming in! I hadn't even noticed them until today. When I told my dad, he said, "Well, I guess you can start feeding her carrots now..." :-)

Rolling around

Evelyn is now officially flipping back and forth from her back to her tummy. I think up until now whenever it happened it was sort of by accident, as in, she would be lifting her legs up high and squirming around and the next thing you know she would be flipped over with this look on her face like, "What the heck just happened, where am I, and how did I get here?" But now it is really intentional. You can see her just trying and trying to turn and then the next thing you know, she's over. And now she looks really proud of herself when she is successful!

So much for putting her in any particular way to sleep--she's always in a completely different mode when I come to get her up later. Actually, I think she's a side sleeper--not that I hang around in there to keep track. But when I lay her in her crib at night, I put her down on her back and she immediately lifts her arms and legs straight up in the air and then crashes over on her side. It's really quite funny to watch.

Growing aesthetic

Sierra is becoming more independent with her wardrobe and wants to be involved with choosing what she wears. She's starting to become more aware of how to match different items (such as, this shirt has a big red flower on it, so maybe the red shoes would look good with this outfit, etc.) Of course, sometimes we miss the mark a bit, as in, "Look Mommy! I can wear these [pink, blue, green, vertical] stripey pants with this [black, orange and red, horizontal] stripey shirt!" No honey, unfortunately not all stripes coordinate with each other..... But she is definitely getting better.

Today she said, "Mommy, you have cute tights on!" She is very into tights and is probably already scheming about how she can wear my tights "when she gets a bit bigger."