School Age Chronicles

Summer 2016:

A year in review!

Who would have guessed how quickly time would pass... Alas, we've made our way through 1st Grade and are on the threshold of summer vacation.  Looking back through the year, there are so many areas of personal growth for Evelyn.  Learning to read has been the most obvious, but growing in confidence and her sense of self has been most rewarding to see!

We have a thoughtful, friendly, funny, imaginative girl... who still loves to dance and sing, play Barbies and dollhouse, garden and play outside, go on adventures with her parents and be read to at bedtime.  Oh, how lucky we are!

Spring Social

Ahh... so many months since the last time I posted.  We're finally full force into spring.  The weather has finally stopped fluctuating and we can look forward to the long evenings and mild weather.  I can tell that this is going to be the summer of outdoor fun and adventure:

1. Evelyn's learning how to ride a bicycle.  We're frequently going back and forth on the block and she gets quite a kick out of the fact that her speed is just fast enough that I have to jog (or briskly walk) to keep up
2. Now that the weather is nice, we are starting to get to know the neighbors - especially ones with kids.  
3. Evelyn's venturing in to the world of "playing with neighbors."  She couldn't wait for the end of the day when she got home from school and we could go over to "star house" (her name for the house on the corner that has hanging star decorations in their window) and see if S and O could play.
4. We ended up walking around the block and meeting some really awesome people - all because Evelyn wanted to play (and there were kid bikes in the yard).

Musings on Milestones

Milestones:

It's amazing to think back to four years ago... we had just found out we were expecting our first child.  I remember our excitement and anticipation as if it was yesterday.  Here we are now with our amazing little girl, Evelyn.  Our three year old (that most times looks and talks like a much older girl).

Mostly, I'm  musing about the fact that during the first year of life, there are so many rapid and amazing transformations/milestones occurring.  Sitting up, rolling over, crawling, walking... not to mention the growth of language and.... growth in general.  I don't always talk about all the milestones we observe anymore because we're so much in the middle of LIFE with Evey!

She is absolutely amazing and fun, constantly exploring, and expanding her world!  In the last three months... she's grown socially and emotionally.  Also, intellectually too.  She counts and identifies letters of the alphabet and is perfecting writing her letters.  She's playful and imaginative - making up songs such as about giraffes and new shoes.  She's much more independent - not always within 10 feet of us.  School is something she's getting excited about!  Her awareness of her place in the world  is amazing.

I'm so proud of the little girl she's become (okay - she says she's still a "little girl" and I say she's becoming such a "big" girl... we'll stick with "she's my little girl")!

Love you Ev!

Spring is here!

Hello again!

It's been a very busy winter, indeed!  In fact... it's barely been winter at all with our surprisingly mild season.  Alas, into spring we land.

Miss Evelyn has sure grown socially this year!!  She's spending a lot of energy keeping up with her newly turned four year old friends (sometimes a frustration for her - trying to "keep up").  Our big transition this year was that she's now in the gymnastics class on her own, without mommy!  I think the transition was more difficult for me... she's adapted quite well since two of her closest friends from daycare are in class with her.  They give each other courage.

Still in ECFE school on Monday evenings, though sometimes she's so worn out at the end of the day that she falls asleep on the way to class.  Last week, she didn't wake up until the last ten minutes of class!  We've also been planning more playdates!  A few friends have come over to our house and vice versa -  I'm so proud of how well Evelyn plays and acts as a host! We also finally filled the sand box and have been able to spend many evenings before dinner outside in her little house and sand box!

Growing with the Garden:

Como Conservatory

Just for fun, I thought I'd compare pictures of Evelyn's growing up.  We frequently visit the Como Park Conservatory during all times of the year - a brief retreat from the Midwestern seasons - a touch of the tropics, exotic and floral paradise!   

We love all the rooms of the Conservatory, but especially enjoy the quiet solitude of the North Garden.  The first glimpse of the Koi pond offers a great observation post for inquisitive little children.

December 2009

October 2011

The Farm: In Pictures

Autumn's Best of Weather

October at the Farm

We seem to have picked the most beautiful weekends to head up north this year.  End of September camping trip in the Porcupine Mountains of Upper Penninsula Michigan  and Apple Fest two weeks later.  The leaves were at the peak of changing color, the fields recently harvested and beautiful weather keeping us outside all day.

Autumn Amusement

Apple Fest 2011

I should also note that this marked the time for Evelyn's first amusement park rides... successfully... on her own!  It was a huge deal for her (okay... for me) to go on the mini ferris wheel all alone.  I think the enticement was that she got to ride in the PINK ferris wheel car with another little girl (also wearing pink).  After the thrill of going around and around, stealing views of Lake Superior, the Island and surrounding vistas, she was full of energy and excitement and wanted to go on every other ride possible!

Potty talk

And the potty training has begun!!!


Officially, 2 years and 7 months of diapers and we are on track to a world of "ummy-wear"!  I picked Evey up from daycare last Friday and she told me she had to go potty.  When we got home, we sat down and went through the regular charade of singing, reading and turning the water on.  This time... something happened!  It's potty time.


Evey and I  had to put together a potty chart for her stickers and so  rummaged through mommy's scrapbooking supplies until we found letters "e - v - e- y" and the perfect patterned paper to glue together.  The first sticker was a bunny sticker (shh... it's left over from Easter).  Throughout the week, we've gathered 10 stickers and just tonight had to make Chart #2 to hold sticker 11.


What's in store for us now?  We're going shopping for a new book since she filled up her first 10 stickers!


I've heard this from others... but didn't fully believe them until now: "She'll start potty training when she's ready."  I must have an independent and stubborn little girl! :)

Hooray for Books!

We love books!  

Cat in the Hat is a recurring favorite for Evey.

Bedtime stories, wake-up stories, reading at breakfast, before dinner... Books, books and books!!  Evelyn has been more interactive with reading lately.

• Listening: She becomes intently focused on the story and will be engaged through long story books now. 
• Repeating: With some of her simple reader books, she'll repeat the phrases back to us while reading - especially "The Eye Book" by Dr. Suess
• Creating:  We've reached the point where she'll tell her version of the story and will expound upon the images and situations presented in her books
• Engaging: The common phrases from Evey are "Why, mommy" or "What's that, mommy" as she seeks to learn more

Books and Bedtime Routines

Evelyn is constantly talking, observing, memorizing and learning new things!  One of her new favorite books is "Chicka Chicka, Boom, Boom" and we read it almost nightly.  However, she skips through all of the pages of the story so we can get to "letters" where there's the alphabet at the end!  She sings along with me and repeats all of the letters - being very careful to pronounce the letters correctly.  We were reading the letters tonight and instead of me saying the letters first and her repeating, I pointed to the letters and she was able to say 60% of the alphabet!!  I couldn't believe it!

I'm sure I've mentioned before that Evelyn goes to bed really easily.  We are very lucky parents!

1. We pick out pajamas (jama-jamas), 
2. read three books, 
3. say goodnight to ducky (a wall hanging in her room), 
4. "good night lights, 1-2-3" and turn out the lights.
5. Evey snuggles in to my shoulder for a few minutes before laying down in bed
6. I now have to say goodnight to Dolly Mary, Dolly Sinead, Giraffe, Doggy Keya, Elephant and Bear... then tuck each of them in... then give kisses to everyone!
7. Tonight, Evelyn went through the entire routine with her stuffed animals/dolls - rocked them, kissed them, tucked them all in...

Catch up to the New Year

Happy New Year!

And continuation of Christmas

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year... We are now halfway through January and I realized that I have so many great holiday pictures that I meant to share and blog about!  Oh well!  Here is one.

This is one of my favorites!  Santa brought Evey a kitchen set and she spent all of Christmas morning playing with the kitchen.  Every package she opened (or didn't open, for that matter) was dropped down the hatch!  I like to think that in this picture, Evelyn is giving baby a bath in the sink rather than throwing baby out with the bath water.

Rant alert!

Did I mention that Evelyn is enthralled with Dora?  I don't really know how it happened.  

• The backpack is her version of a Dora backpack and she walks around filling it up with favorite objects and sings the backpack jingle from the tv show.  
• The only thing she asked Santa for Christmas was a pair of Dora socks.  
• She demands to only wear "Dora Ummywear" (Dora pull-ups) 

Like I said, not sure how it happened that she has been pulled in to the world of commercialization/disneyfication/nickelodeon.  On the other hand, Dora is a decently educational show.  Case in point: Last night, Evelyn wanted me to peel an orange for her. She handed me the orange and said "abre" which is "Open!" in spanish.  Other foreign words she knows and uses are: "de nada", "merci" and "ciao".

And now we are TWO!

And now we are TWO!

So quickly the time flies... It was just yesterday that I remember still waiting in anticipation of Evelyn's birth.  Here, she is now TWO!  It's amazing how much she has blossomed in the last three weeks since her birthday.  I took 10 days of vacation over the holidays and spent almost the entire time with Evelyn.  I think that special time together really helped her explore her new freedoms in communication and play.

Top new things:
2011 Milestones

1. Make-believe and tea parties
2. The Nuk isn't as important (not needed as much anymore); As Evelyn has learned to say "I no need nooksie" and later ... I need it, I need it"
3. Talking, talking, TALKING!  She can carry on a full conversation - whether we understand her or not.  Her words are more clear and she's been using multiple word sentences!
4. Big Girl Bed - it took a little convincing at first for her to fall asleep in the new bed.  I thought back to my own growing up and remembered how mom would read to us, tell stories, sing and cuddle  before we'd fall asleep.  That's what our new routine is!
5. Next steps towards potty training - she's loves to wear Dora "ummy-wear" and is very particular about it. We can't do diaper changes anymore - must refer to it as underwear change.  The diaper must be pre-fastened together so she can pull it up herself while exclaiming "I did it"!   She sits on her potty and reads, but hasn't yet done anything on the potty.

Playing with Duplos at LegoLand on her Second Birthday.

New words and cuteness

I sometimes wish I could create a running blog of everything new with Evelyn - it seems as though she is growing and exploring at lightening speed now!  Didn't I have these same sentiments when she was first born?  Every time she wakes up from a nap she has something new to say or explore!  She's so happy and has become a very social litle girl.  She will wave at new people, say bye (baaaa-ee) with a little "royal" wave, blow kisses to family and friends and her face immediately brightens to a smile when you catch her eye.

A list of new words:

1. p-iszah (we had "make your own" pizza night last night)
2. riz-bzzz (raisins - her favorite snack)
3. meh-mi, baby, mi-mi (every baby that we see, her dolly)
4. Mir-y (baby dolly now has a name - her name is Mary)
5. DOG-EE and pup-pup (distinguishes between Keya size dogs and bitty, bitty tiny dogs)
6. ga-sssses (daddy's glasses are fun to pull off)
7. This (there could be three things she wants - graham crackers, raisins or nuk and she will point to exactly which one she wants and say "this" as in "I want that in particular and will continue to ask for it until you give it to me... please?")

A list of cute things she does:

1. Rowr - roars like a tiger when she sees a picture of a tiger/lion/polar bear or other large furry creature
2. Carries her dolly around everywhere - rocks dolly in the rocking horse, feeds dolly, puts dolly to sleep, changes dolly's diaper
3. pulls her wagon of blocks around the house - round and round the table and to the kitchen and back; stopping at the stairs and taking a seat on the lowest step; stopping every so often to load and un-load new blocks
4. Sings and hums "twinkle, twinkle little star" and does the sign-language hand motions for the song
5. Loves chairs - she will sit on any chair she sees especially if it is her height. 

Smart little Lady!

I can't believe how smart our little lady is!  She understands so many things we say.  For example, we were winding down for bed time and walking back and forth between the bathroom and the bedroom. 

I said "Evelyn, where is your tooth brush?  Let's go find your tooth brush" and she walked in to her bedroom, crouched down and found her toothbrush which had fallen beside the rocking chair the night before.  The whole time she said "tch, tch-cha-tch" (translation: the sound of brushing your teeth).

Little Miss Independent

Oh, what a fun day we had last Saturday!  The weather was beautiful - blue skies and warm sun.  Just warm enough to nudge us closer to spring.

It was zoo day.  The Como Zoo and Conservatory is so close to our house and we have made a point to frequent it as often as possible.  Evelyn has taken a keen interest in her collection of animals lately and so this was the perfect time to visit and watch the monkeys, tigers, zebra's and fish.    Evelyn was curious and fascinated and suprisingly, a little cautious.  She wanted to sit on my lap as we crouched down beside the orangutans and watch the interactions between mommy and baby monkey. 

Sometimes she would reach out a hand for me to hold.  Othertimes, her face was glued to the glass - intently observing the activity within.  The biggest difference was in how independent  miss Evelyn is becoming.  Most of my pictures of her are from about ten feet behind her because she was walking along at her own pace - exploring at whim. 

Singing songs of her Delight

Music has always been a part of Evelyn's world.  From the moment she entered the world music was at her fingertips.  We sing, making songs up and remembering songs from our own childhood.  Daddy plays the guitar - also creating new songs and arranging songs of old.

Now...

Evelyn sings her own songs!

Her favorite song lately is Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.  On carrides, I'll start singing the first lines and she'll join in with "Ba, Ba... " "Yessss, Yesss...." "One".  Othertimes, I'll say "Evelyn, let's sing a song" and she'll start us out with "Baa, Baa.... blssshp"!

She hums to herself and her voice changes in to a melodic cadence.  It sounds like twinkle, twinkle or Mary had a Little Lamb! 

Walking, walking, walking... !

So many new changes happen on an almost daily basis and each progression is exciting in itself.  Alas, here is an attempt to catch up!

Evelyn took her first five steps on Christmas Day!  We were at Grandma and Grandpa McKiel's house for Christmas and were just sitting down to open presents.  Evelyn was standing near the couch I was sitting on and saw something of interest near the coffee table. Instead of crawling, she took five hesitant steps before finally sitting down.  I had to contain my excitement and try to get Ian's attention by calmly repeating "Ian, Ian, stop your convesation and look up at Evelyn walking".  He caught the last two steps.

We were very excited by these first few steps and fully expected her to continue... no, back to crawling again.

This past Sunday, Evelyn must have built up enough confidence, stamina and balance to really start walking on her own!  I was so suprised when she let go of her crib, which she was cruising along, and walk around me in a circle.  She even took two steps, dropped her toy, reached down to pick the toy up and stand back up without losing balance and continue taking five more steps to her destination!  It became a game for her to walk back and forth between me and our bed and down the hallway. 

One of her favorite things to do is to climb atop our laundry piles in the closet, hiding beneath mommy's hanging dresses and skirts, and squeel with laughter.  This is similar to the joy she expresses at flopping backwards into the pillows and down comforter on our bed.  It's so funny... but I think we'll have to limit the laundry in our closet to towels or "clean" dirty clothes. ha.

Evelyn's First Birthday - part 1

She LOVED her birthday cupcakes and wanted a second one!

Ian thought we would deprive our child if she didn't get a chocolate cake for her birthday... so I searched for a healthier recipe and included a little bit of cocoa in the cupcakes.

The cupcakes were Red Beet Chocolate with whipped cream frosting (tinted pink with a little beet juice).  Love the recipe - it was moist, tasted great and was healthy with the addition of a can of beets pureed and added to the mix.  I'm sure the other mom's were very thankful! 

In addition to the cupcakes, Evelyn had a Yellow cake - my favorite cake recipe that I've been making/baking since I was about 10!  It was decorated in the same whipped cream frosting with an elephant and girraffe in sprinkles!

Curiousity, Compassion... and Cell phones

Our little explorer is really cruising now!  She can stand up on her own and will even twist and turn without losing balance!  We broke down and bought her a walking toy now rather than wait for her birthday and Christmas.  It's the same one as at Grandma and grandpa's hosue and she loves moving around with it!  Little Miss Independent will stand up, squat down, walk around, climb on and play with her new toy... however, she recently caught me trying to steady the toy as she was using it to help her stand. She stopped what she was doing, reached over to my hand and pushed it away.   I can even hear her little voice saying "Mam" as in "just let me do it myself".

At ECFE today, I was the parent volunteer to help out in the play room during parent time.  It was really cool to see all the kids interacting - both independently, together and as parallel play.  Evey did great while I was in the room and wasn't jealous when I was playing or helping the other kids.  One of the little girls 'A' started to cry after her mom left and Evey searched around for A.  She crawled over to A and touched her on the cheek as if to say "it's okay, you'll be okay... I feel for you."  Then throughout the hour she would periodically check up on A and make sure everything was okay.  When we were getting ready to leave and singing the goodbye songs, Evey again crawled over to A to say hi.  What a big heart she has!!

After eating her entire dinner tonight, I gave Evey one of her new Maple Teething Bisquit cookies.  She had a grand time chomping and sucking away at it and was having fun chattering away to me.  Then she took her bisquit (it's a 1"x2 1/2" rectangular cookie) and placed it up to her ear and squaked loudly "ehh! grmmpa, Ahh!".  She was calling Grandpa on her "cell phone"! Then she would look at it, play around with it, put it back to her ear and chatter away.  WOW! 

We tried real milk tonight and she didn't mind the different flavor!  I think we will start to take her off the formula over the next month - we want to check with her pediatrician to make sure we are supplementing her vitamins and nutrition correctly with her meals.  Yeah for being almost done with formula!
 

Climbing

The little one is growing up so quickly!  She loves to stand, pulling herself up at any surface... trying to climb on things... crawling all over...

She's so funny!  She'll see something in the other room and start crawling for it - intently focused and no obstacle can get in her way.  She's like a little "all terrain caterpillar" crawling over dolly and books and up and over my lap! 

Evey has been practicing standing on her own this week.  She starts by standing up with one hand on a surface (crib, my hand, the laundry basket), steadies herself, lets go and stands perfectly still for 8-10 seconds then has enough of it and plops back down.  Determination sets in and this is repeated over and over at least 5 more times!

The Cutie Crawls!!!

We are now in a high speed pursuit of the little cutie as she crawls after her toys and other objects of desire!!!

I had to rub my eyes and look closely to see whether she was really crawling or not! After work on Monday Evelyn was playing on the floor of her room. As she has frequently done, she got up on her hands and knees and rocked back and forth, one movement forward... and one movement back (like she was steadying herself). This time, instead of flopping down on her belly to army crawl, she moved one more crawl then another and another crawl forward!!!

Okay - so I knew better than to squeel and cheer and scare her like I did the first time she rolled over. I was overjoyed to see her progress!!!

There are so many other new developments that seemed to have blossomed from her crawling. She babbles and chatters away, has become incredibly affectionate towards both Ian and I, tries to stand up or pull herself up to anything... she has tried more and more new foods and loves cheerios (they are fun to grab and place in her mouth) and she will play peek-a-boo when she hears us say "where's Evelyn"!

I'll have to follow up with a list of all the new milestones and achievments!