I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted about my daughter. Life is busy busy busy. At this point Eva is clearly in toddler land. She is walking fantastically, her fine motor skills are excellent, and her words are superb. She has so many words I can’t even count them! She adds words constantly. For instance today she learned the word peacock. She also says the full word “water,” not wawa. Her speech can be hard to understand and sometimes she’ll tell me whole paragraphs about what, I don’t know. She follows directions too. She doles out hugs and kisses, and even blows kisses. One thing I must note is that Eva’s most favorite person in the entire world is her father. He is pretty great, but sometimes it’s hard not being the one she runs to when she’s hurt.
We finally, 2 months late, made it to Eva’s 15 month appointment. She is really healthy and I have absolutely no developmental concerns, so there wasn’t much to talk about. But her growth numbers are wild! She’s 21.5 pounds, in the 25th percentile, she’s 31 inches, in the 50th percentile, and has an 18.5 inch head circumference putting her in the 75th percentile! That brain is growing!
I took the day off last Thursday and Eva and I went to the Legion of Honor Museum. Since we are members, I thought we should probably check it out. The current exhibition is called “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique.” Basically, a bunch of sparkly stuff made prior to The Great War. Eva especially liked the Tiffany brooches and Fabergé eggs and vases. However, after about 15 minutes the sparkliness was just too overwhelming for both dad and tot. We retreated, screaming and overwhelmed to the permanent exhibits. This was more our thing, with no one around, the museum was ours!
This deer was Eva’s favorite piece in the entire museum. Seriously, she looked at this forever. I was even ordered to lift her up for a closer inspection!
Here is Dad, Eva and abovementioned Deer.
Eva and what was billed as a typical room from the time of Louis XV.
What Eva really enjoyed was running around the giant courtyard. The courtyard was great, complete with The Thinker by Rodin (how Rodin had the time to make so many of these I will never understand) and a mini Louvre style glass pyramid.
Follow the Green Marble Road!
We finished off the day by watching the bison in the rain. When Eva saw the bison, she mooed and then laughed hysterically.
I let Eva have her own spoon with every meal. She is getting pretty good at using a spoon, but it is obviously pretty messy. What normally happens during a typical meal is that I feed her a little with my spoon. She feeds herself with her spoon. She gets frustrated that, because the spoon is upside down when it enters her mouth, she is not getting enough food, so she sticks her fingers in the bowl. Then she gets tired or bored and rubs it all over her face. Then I somehow extract her from this mess, and wash her hands, face and body. I’ve taken to having her eat naked because I just cannot have her wear three different pairs of clothes a day.
Eva likes to help me sweep the floor, so I bought her a broom in her size so she will stop stealing mine, and learn to enjoy housekeeping. Because it is fun. And I should know. I do it all the time. In the photo below, you will notice that she has started taking off her diaper whenever she feels like it.
I know it has been too long. So much has happened with Eva! She is growing like crazy and we are all so busy, it is hard to have time to update. I figure I will have some free time in 2015. I am going to post some photos to tide you over.
Eva attended her dear friend Myca’s birthday party at Gymboree. She loved the bubbles and the dancing.
So, as promised, we took Eva out into the snow. We bought her a snow bib, and have jackets, hats and mittens, but the one thing we are missing are a pair of snow boots. So I came up with the bright idea to put plastic bags around her robeez. We took her on the sled. She was apprehensive. When we got back after playing on the sled she decided to go for a walk. It was slippery, but she loved it. Or perhaps because it was slippery she loved it.
Eva celebrated her first white Christmas! She doesn’t understand the concept of Christmas (or the presents), but she had a great time. She especially loved the food. We learned she has a dangerous addiction to stuffing. I wonder if she is going to expect this kind of ceremony, food and presents the next time she comes to my parents house.
We took her in the snow, which she didn’t entirely enjoy, but we’ll try again today in the blazing sunshine.
Merry Christmas to everybody from our little family.
So we took Eva to sit on Santa’s lap. She hated him. She screamed and screamed like she was getting her blood drawn. It was horrible. We don’t have photos of this gruesome scene because Santa’s elves were running some sort of racket where you have to pay $30.00 for pictures. And I wasn’t about to buy photos of Eva screaming at the top of her lungs. I felt really bad about putting her through that…maybe next year…
Here she is afterward. Eating cheese and playing peek-a-boo.
Eva has gotten really good at feeding herself. I was reluctant to let her start using a spoon because of the mess. However, I put my own lazyness aside and gave her a spoon. She’s gotten really good at it, and even gets the spoon into her mouth a couple of times a feeding. And the mess isn’t that bad.
I work really hard to get dinner on the table at a decent hour every night so we can eat together as a family. Breakfast and lunch times are less structured. Sometimes I’ll eat with her, and sometimes not. We also often listen to music. When she was really fussy in the high chair music would help her calm down. It has become a habit. Often dancing is involved. Yesterday afternoon, we were listening to Terry Gross, who had Erran Baron Cohen promoting his new album “Songs in the Key of Hanukkah.” She really enjoyed it.
Sometimes Eva eats two spoonfuls and sometimes she eats more than seems humanly possible. She’s also still interested in pureed foods which is great because I’m easily able to get her to eat kale, spinach, chard, and other greens.
This deer was Eva’s favorite piece in the entire museum. Seriously, she looked at this forever. I was even ordered to lift her up for a closer inspection!
Here is Dad, Eva and abovementioned Deer.
What Eva really enjoyed was running around the giant courtyard. The courtyard was great, complete with The Thinker by Rodin (how Rodin had the time to make so many of these I will never understand) and a mini Louvre style glass pyramid.
