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Just Like Karl

Have a cozy weekend!

Making Bread

Eva always likes to help me when I have baking to do. Her job is to dump the measured ingredients into the bowl...and she's very good at it. Yesterday, Eva helped me make some bread dough, and, since there aren't too many ingredients that go into bread, she didn't get to flex her ingredient dumping muscles too much. She wanted more.

So I brought her little table into the kitchen, filled some little containers with various flours, some sugar, and some water, and I sat her down with a spoon and a bigger "mixing" bowl. She immediately forgot I was in the room, and threw herself into measuring and mixing and tasting her own "bread dough."

And before I knew it, a half-hour had passed, and I had to ask her to stop mixing because it was time for lunch. I've never seen her concentrate so long on one thing, at least not without pausing to make sure I was still nearby. I kind of hated to ask her to stop--she was so intent on her work.



I don't know why I didn't think to do this a long time ago...

Always My Baby:

She's Pretty Excited

Eva's current top baby name choices:

1. Duck
2. Quack
3. Beer Bottle

I think she's been hanging out with her Daddy too much.

Bellyville 2.0

So.
Mike and I talked about it, and we decided to go ahead and have another kid. Hope that's ok with all of you, because it's a done deal. Those of you who aren't big on change have about six months to get used to the idea.



For the more detail-oriented people (like my mom, who I guarantee already has all this information engraved in her calendar):
I'm 15 weeks along, in my second trimester, and, other than a small Cheez-It dependency, I'm feeling really good. The wee babe is expected sometime around July 18th (um, 2009). We are once again planning NOT to find out the gender--we like the surprise, and we're the ones in charge--so get all your whining out now.

Also, they say you "show" a lot earlier with subsequent pregnancies...and let me tell you: they aren't kidding. I've been in preggo pants since about my 8th week.

Also-also: WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!! (And one of us is a little too weepy for her own good. The world is just such a wonderful, wonderful place these days.)

Whew. It's been tough holding this news back. I'm glad to finally share!

A Song in Her Heart

Yo! Daddy here! Maybe you haven’t heard, but Eva FREAKING LOVES a show called Wonder Pets where these cute little classroom pets go on adventures around the world to save animals and be all cute and stuff—and they SING EVERYTHING. So their “main theme” has been stuck in our heads for weeks. This week, we started singing about stuff to the tune of that theme.

It’s time for BREAK-faaaast!
Climb on your BOOS-terrrrrr!
Please grab your JA-meeeees!

Stuff like that. And then she started singing back. And singing spontaneously about all kinds of stuff—more or less in tune. So what’s that mean? Is she a musical genius? Is she a regular genius? Probably not. It probably means that she’ll grow up thinking things like “getting out a spoon” and “taking off your socks” are worthy of song. Which, honestly, is probably better than being a genius.

We think so.

 

Have a great WEEEK-eeend!

Kitty-Walkin'

For the past couple weeks, Eva's been referring to herself as Evie-Kitty; she calls Mike Daddy-Kitty, and, of course, that makes me Mama-Kitty. She's pretty dedicated to her game, and yesterday she stepped it up a notch by "kitty-walkin'" all over the place. Except this is no ordinary hands-and-knees crawl (cats, after all, don't walk around on their knees...), Eva's kitty walk is executed on hands and feet only. Like so:



She thinks she's quite clever. And, as the mama, I'm required to agree.

Obama Picnic

Yesterday, Eva and I watched some of the inauguration events while we enjoyed a family room picnic lunch. And afterward, as we sat on the couch and snuggled for a bit, she told me "Ducky loves to watch Obama...all the time!"

Which I took to mean she really, really enjoyed eating her lunch on the floor, but still...it was great to hear.

Big Kitty Bed!

So the bed is a raging success.

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Mike and I were afraid that Eva's, um, strong-willed side was going to take over, turning this whole "Big Girl Bed" thing into another "potty-training" type stand-off. But no! Lucky us! Our girl loves her new bed!  That first night, after Mike tucked her in, he told me he thought she was more excited about her bed than she was about Christmas--which is saying something.

And, not only did she sleep in her bed without issue, but she stayed in it all night. She didn't even climb out in the morning when she woke up--she waited until Mike told her it was ok. I realize that "staying in bed" part will probably be short-lived, but for now we're embracing it, and congratulating ourselves on our incredible parenting skills. Because obviously, this is all due to our superior parental wisdom, and has absolutely nothing to do with "good timing" or "dumb luck." Nuh-uh. Nope.

All day long yesterday, Eva sang "Evie-Kitty's got a new big kitty bed!" And I think Karl took her seriously. It's hard to tell which one of them likes the bed more.

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In other news, Happy Inauguration Day to you all! It's a little tough to explain to a two-year-old what an important day this is, but we're doing our best. She and I will be watching the inauguration together, and last night she came with us to a "New Obama's Eve" party. When she realized there was no cake at the party, Eva retired to a chair and read her book, while pointedly ignoring Keegan's attempts at conversation. Oh well. At least she's aware that SOMETHING is happening that Mama and Daddy are very excited about. And I guess that's about the best I can ask.

So Exciting!!

This weekend, Eva's Grammy and Grampa (my parents) came for a visit. Since they seem to be just about her favorite people on the planet, a visit from Grammy and Grampa is always exciting for Eva...



But THEN, on Sunday afternoon, Grammy and Grampa helped us assemble this beauty (Freshly painted by Daddy...oooh, aaah!):



And, though I'm not sure how it was possible, Eva's excitement was quadrupled. For the rest of the night, she walked around singing "Big Girl Bed! Big Girl Bed!" When Grammy and Grampa had to leave, she barely batted an eye--she was way too distracted by her "Big Girl Bed!"

I just hope that excitement lasts long enough to keep her in it through the night...