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Perfect.

Saturday was my birthday (thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes). I woke up that morning to the bedroom door banging open into the wall, and when I climbed down off the ceiling I saw a beaming Eva face. She was holding a sign that said "Happy Birthday, Mama," and she proudly announced "Breakfast is served." I snuggled her for a minute, then stumbled out to the kitchen to find the table set with a beautiful breakfast prepared by my husband (if you know Mike, you'll realize what a big deal that was!)

And folks, my day got even better from there. So far, thirty-one is my favorite year yet. I hope you all had happy weekends as well.

Breaking in the (awesome) new shoes:

In other news, this little girl is turning 31 tomorrow...

Yep. That's me. (Please go back and appreciate the very symmetrical bangs.) Happy weekend, all! If I could send you a piece of birthday cake through the internet, I would.

 

 

Bellyville: Now With Singing

Last week some little switch flipped in Eva's brain, and she realized that she can sing! Entire songs! Over and over again!

News Flash: My Kid Cracks Me Up

As part of her lunch yesterday, I gave Eva some dried cinnamon apples. She loves them. Really, really loves them. When she sat down to eat and realized what was on her plate, she stuck her little arms in the air and said "Look out, apples!" (As in, "I'm gonna eat you up!")

 

Never a Dull Moment

Yesterday, Eva walked into the kitchen, took a book off the counter, sat down on the floor, and said "Evie's checkin' on the emails."

 

Egg Hunt

Hope you all had a nice Easter weekend.

Who Wants A Cookie?

If you've ever made cookies with a toddler, you know it can be tricky. It takes about 15 times longer than it would sans child, and there's the whole "please remember you're standing on a chair and stop stepping off the edge" fiasco. Not that my kid ever needs to hear that. Oh no—she's perfect.

Despite all this, Eva and I decided to make cookies last Tuesday. For a few reasons, this turned out to be a much less stressful process than it usually is, and so I've decided to share the recipe with you all.

We made a recipe from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas (they're called Magic Chocolate Chip Cookies or something like that.) I wanted to try her recipe because it uses applesauce in place of most of the fat and sugar, and I've never had much luck baking with applesauce. I like my cookies chewy, not cakey, and applesauce tends to produce a cakey texture. However, I like to have cookies in the house (I was a baker before I was a Mama, and some habits die hard), and now that there's a kid around, and I'm sort of responsible for her health and stuff, I'd like to add a good "healthy" cookie recipe to my files.

Anyway, Nava described her Magic Cookies as nothing short of heavenly, and I decided they were worth a shot. The final product was...cakey. But since I was sort of expecting that, I wasn't turned off. They do taste good, and they are very light, which is often not the case with applesauce. Best of all, Eva loves them and I don't feel bad letting her have a second cookie because there really isn't much sugar in them.

I'll definitely be making these again—because they're a healthier alternative and they taste good, yes, but also because I think these are THE perfect cookies to make with a toddler. Read on to hear why, and also for the recipe...

A Day With Eva

So, spring's coming. Around here, the people have come together and decided that Winter is simply over. It snowed on Monday morning, and we all joined forces in one giant state of denial. We woke up, glanced outside, sniffed, and donned light spring jackets and tennis shoes anyway. We went for walks and rode around with our car windows cracked and We. Did. Not. Shovel.

And wouldn't you know? We won. Yesterday, Mother Nature gave up and gave us an honest-to-goodness spring day. People: our thermometer said 59. Five. Nine. Without a minus in front of it! Needless to say, it was a good day for me and Eva. After months of getting on each other's nerves while stuck inside our little house, we were free!

We started the day by taking Karl to the vet to get his shots. The whole family went, because that's how the Pauluses roll. Karl is not a fan of car rides, so he was meowing in that low, terrified yowl that cats do, and my darling little girl piped up from the back seat: "Karl's scared. Daddy, sing Karl Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Know what? It worked.

After our big morning at the vet's office, we dropped Mike off at work and Eva and I went to Storytime at the library. It was also time to bring our books back, so Eva got to pick out all new books to bring home. I stopped her at five books. Okay, it was thirteen.

When we finally left the library, it was way too nice outside to just go home and eat the same old lunch, so we made the obvious choice and headed to a local café for a sandwich. (And chips. Because spring's coming and we needed to celebrate.)

Then, since it was still so nice out, we took a walk through downtown to bring Daddy some coffee. Eva made friends the whole way, because the entire city was outside enjoying the spring that had arrived.

There were a couple hours during which Eva took a nap (after we read through her entire mountain of library books.) But then it was time to go pick up Daddy from work, and we all went together to...

blow bubbles from the walking bridge over the river. The bubbles seemed to float away forever, and it was the perfect end to a happy spring day.

(Pssst: Today is the actual first day of spring. Happy Day to you!)

Why More Snow Isn’t So Bad…

Hi! Daddy here. Just a quick story about Eva from a Dad's-eye-view. (Background information: Lately, through much work on Shannon's part, Eva has pretty much grasped the use of the word “yes.”) Here you go:

Every morning after I get Eva out of her crib, we walk into the family room—which faces our backyard—and we open the blinds. I usually just hold her there for a while and let her wake up. I ask her what she sees outside, and I tell her that it’s a great big world out there.

Yesterday morning, everything was covered in an inch of fluffy snow. It was the kind of early Spring snow that clings to the tree branches and the fence and the power lines and makes the whole world white and fresh and new. And the snow was still falling. I couldn’t wait to show Eva.

So we walked into the family room, Eva snuggled into my chest, and we went right up to the window. I pulled open the blinds and when she saw our brand new backyard, Eva sat up a little and stared outside. Then she settled back down and pressed her head against mine so we were both looking out the window. I whispered, “Some people don’t like the snow. But it’s pretty.”

And Eva said, “Jus’ Evie.”

I said, “Just Eva? Eva likes the snow?” And in a teeny tiny little voice, her eyes still glued to the world outside, she whispered back, “Yes.”

Learning to Pretend

Eva's best buddy these days is her yellow duck, Ducka. She spends a good portion of her day putting Ducka through her own, familiar routine. I hear a constant stream of "Ducka's sleepy. Put Ducka in bed. Cover Ducka up. Goo-night Ducka. Evie hears Ducka. DUCKA'S AWAKE! Change Ducka's poopy pants. Change Ducka's poopy paaaants. MAMA! CHANGE. DUCKA'S. POOPY. PAAAAAAY-NTS!!"

And it's that last part, her insistence that I be the one to do all that stuff for Ducka, that gets me. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to put her duck into his pajamas and wrap him up in a blanket and put him down in bed. I'll even snuggle and kiss him and change his diaper. But after 30 minutes of this same game over and over and OVER again, I need a little "Mama time."

So yesterday I constructed a wagon for Ducka, and I got myself a good 15 minutes of Eva entertaining herself. Of course, I spent my 15 "free" minutes following her around with the camera—I couldn't resist. The cuteness was overpowering. Especially when she says in her cute little girl voice "Heeere we go! (2 seconds later) Did you have a nice ride, Ducka?"