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Happy Turkey Day!

A Little Confused

Yesterday, while Eva and I were reading stories before her nap, she turned to me and clapped her hand over her mouth. When I asked her what she was doing, she replied, "Evie covers her mouth when she toots."

Just the Girls

This weekend was opening weekend for deer hunting in Wisconsin, which means we headed up to Mike's parents' house for our annual deer/lefse fest. This year, Eva decided that her "cousin" Andrea is pretty much the most fascinating person on earth.



Eva stuck by Andrea's side for almost the entire weekend, which was a nice, unexpected break for me. This was the first time that Eva's really gone off to play with other kids--usually she's pretty insistent that I stay near her at all times. Andrea and the rest of Eva's cousins were all very good with her. They looked out for Eva, and helped take care of her all weekend.



I think Eva liked having some older kids around to play with--all her friends at home are either younger or about the same age as she is. It really hit me over the weekend how grown up she's getting. She's almost two-and-a-half. Next comes three! Geez.

A Fair Question

Hey! Daddy here. Eva has a large set of regular phrases that she throws into daily conversation seemingly at random. Many of them (as you might have guessed) are along the lines of duck, duck-a, ducket, a duckie, mama duck, there’s a duck over there, and Karl puked on that!

For those who don’t know, Karl is one of our cats.

One of her newest phrases was first uttered one morning after I pushed open her bedroom door. As I walked over to her crib, she popped up with a huge smile and asked, Where’s Daddy’s big hoinkin’ feet?

Yep. Hoinkin’. Now she asks me that once or twice a day.

Have a great hoinkin’ weekend, everybody!

Eva's Best Duck

Yesterday, as we were driving in the car, I heard this from the back seat:

"You're my sweetie pie, Ducky."
(pause, pause)
"That's what Evie said when she was hugging ducky so tight."

Eva the Firefighter

Playing with the dress up clothes at her play group class.

Party Weekend

We had a birthday-tastic weekend last weekend! Our first stop was at our buddy Chaz's house (he's two!), where we spent a good twenty minutes trying to get Eva and Chaz to stand next to each other for a picture. Unfortunately, there was a cooler on the ground full of half-melted ice with two-liter bottles of soda floating in it. I'm sure you can imagine how little interest they had in smiling for the camera (let alone looking at the camera) with that most-awesome-toy-ever sitting nearby. Here's the best shot Mira (Chaz's mama) could manage:

Next we headed to my parents' house to celebrate Eva's grammy's birthday! (She's a bit older than two...) Here's Eva showing Grammy how to open her presents:



...and as a final gift for Grammy, Eva and Mike let her read them a bedtime story:



Hope your weekend was great too. And if it involved lots of cake and pie like ours did, all the better!

Buddies

This is Eva and her friend Evelyn. Evelyn and her mama Amber are newish friends of ours. They moved to town at the beginning of the summer, and we've been getting together (along with Sarah and Keegan) just about every week for a while now.

Amber is a great mama--dedicated to giving her girl the best she can in everything. For Amber, part of that is a passion for cloth diapering. She's such an advocate that she's begun a small business out of her home (and on the internet), not only selling the very products she believes in so strongly, but also running "Cloth Diapering 101" sessions in order to educate those who are baffled by the (very large and overwhelming) cloth diapering industry.

I've had the pleasure of observing Amber as she's built her business, and I can tell you she's one dedicated lady who really knows her stuff! If you are at all considering going the cloth diapering route (or know someone who is), I urge you to go check out her shop:

Punkerdoops Diapers

If cloth diapering isn't your thing, she's got other products for sale as well--all things Amber's used herself and likes well enough to recommend to others. I've added the link to her shop over in the right sidebar, so you can always find it when you need it. Help support a stay-at-home mama!

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Happy weekend everyone! We're headed to the cities again, this time for my mom's birthday. And also for a birthday party for our friend Chaz. See you all back here on Monday!

A Pretty Common Sight Around Here...

Mike here, again. Shannon's got a cold, and right now, she's curled up under a blanket watching Facts of Life reruns—so you get another post from me.

The hat in those pictures above is actually Shannon's. I see a lot of homemade hats around this house, and I see a lot of a little girl trying to be like her mama.

Wish Shannon well!

They're a package deal.

Yesterday, when I went in to get Eva up from her nap:

Mama: Hi Baby! Want to get up and give me a hug?
Eva: Yup.
Mama: Oh good! I love hugs. Especially Eva-hugs.
Eva: (pause, pause, pause) ...and Ducky-hugs.