A Big Boy Room!

Around his second birthday, or maybe even a little before, Charlie learned to climb out of his crib.  Into the summer and fall, he became very adept at doing so.  Then, one day when he was very tired and wanting to sleep, I was distractedly changing Evie's diaper and heard a big thud.  I ran into his room and found him plunged headfirst into his crib.  He was quite proud of himself, and after that, became quite adept at climbing in and out of his crib.  Clint and I loved to watch him (via the video monitor) very carefully climbing out of his crib, finding his favorite books, sliding them through the slats of his crib, and then hoisting himself back in to read.  Every morning, his crib was crammed with lovie, blankie, stuffed animals, and more books than you could imagine.  Sometime in the fall, when he began to climb in and out constantly, and had almost no sleeping room left in the crib, I decided we needed a solution.  So I put his crib mattress on the floor and presto!  We had a big boy room. :)  Charlie was thrilled, but Clint and I thought a more permanent solution might be in order.  So while the kids stayed with my parents for a few days after Christmas, Clint and I drove up to Ikea and created a real big boy room.  Charlie's reaction when he saw it was so incredibly gratifying.  He has loved, loved, loved this room and is absolutely thrilled with his new bed.  He could not believe that his sheets were covered in trucks (this revelation resulted in lots of dancing and excited yelling), he loved his new chair, night stand, and lamp, but his very favorite thing was...

...these vehicle photos I framed for him.  They are (1) PawPaw and Charlie in PawPaw's green tractor, (2) Charlie sitting on a yellow backhoe, and (3) Charlie driving the red Jeep in La Vernia.  [His first question was "where is the Ranger picture??"  But when I explained that we would try to get a good one soon, he was content with that solution.]  It is difficult to overemphasize the extent of his (and Evie's) excitement over these photos.  Every evening, they insist on being held up close to inspect them, and wildly point to and talk about each one.  Charlie's favorite is the Jeep (he has always had a soft spot for that Jeep), and Evie's is the tractor (she loves to point and say "tractor!").  Charlie has been elevated to celebrity status in Evie's eyes as a result of these photos; a position that he likely finds quite appropriate.

The Dohertys sent us this Thomas the Train tent, tunnel and ball (now stuffed animal) pit for Christmas, and it has found a permanent home in the new big boy room.  The first thing the kids do every time we come upstairs is run into Charlie's room and dive into the pit.  They love it!

Charlie's reading nook (more of a frantically-pull-books-off-the-wall nook).

Both of my kids love to read, which makes me so happy.  Evie is going for her favorite book here, Harry the Dirty Dog.

Love that genuine smile!

The great thing about a little sister is that they get as excited about your stuff as you do.  I still get the benefit of this genuine, loving enthusiasm from my sister, and I love seeing it replicated in Evie (who reminds me of Meg in so many ways...she is just the perfect little sister).  She already thinks Charlie's new room is just about the coolest place in the world, and if she ever disappears, I can usually guarantee that I'll find her curled up in his bed with a book.  

I think Charlie was feeling a little guilty about all of his new things, because he quickly turned to me and said, in a worried voice, "what is Evie's surprise?"  I had switched out their chairs, giving Charlie the more kid-friendly one and putting the more comfortable glider in Evie's room so that we could get some good cuddles in there.  I told him that she had a new chair and he immediately grabbed her hand, and ran into her room, shouting, "Evie!  You have a chair surprise!"  Thanks to Charlie, Evie thought she'd won the lottery. :)

And finally, I thought the bedside table would solve our books-crowding-the-bed problem, but apparently not.  This is how I find Charlie every night when I go up to turn off the light: surrounded by his favorite books. :)

 Sleep tight, big boy!

Bayba...and the difference between boys and girls

People have asked me since Evie was born whether it's "so different" to have a girl.  Until very recently, my answer was no, as they really haven't been so different.  Evie is wild like her brother, climbs on everything, never sits still, is a messy eater, loves to play with trucks and make truck noises, and counts "tractor," "truck," and "fire truck" among her very first words.  And when she got two baby dolls for her birthday/Christmas, she didn't seem too interested...until now.  In the past month, she has developed an intense attachment to her two babies.  One--Auntie Pastry (named by Charlie)--sleeps with Evie in her crib.  When we go into Evie's room, the first thing she does is reach her hands through the bars of her crib and pull out her blankie, her paci, and Auntie Pastry.  The second baby--Bayba (named by Evie)--lives in her doll stroller.  The first thing Evie does when she comes downstairs is run over to her stroller and check on Bayba to make sure she is still (not) breathing.  Evie carries Bayba just about everywhere.  One day, we had to take her with us to the store, the park, and everywhere else we went.  Sweet Bayba even had some hair-raising trips down the slide!  

Evie is really sweet with her dolls and especially loves to hug them and say "awwwww."  (She really loves to hug anyone, and always says the sweetest "awwww" when she does.  It's her way of notifying all around that she is doing something super cute and sweet. :)  I realized how different this was from Charlie when I was filling out Evie's ages and stages questionnaire.  There is a question on there about whether your child hugs dolls or stuffed animals.  For Evie, this was an easy "yes."  But I remembered that when I was filling out the same form for Charlie, I had to go find a stuffed animal and teach him how to hug it.  He was not terribly interested in the whole affair. :)

Here is Evie with Bayba.  And for those other "first-time moms" out there, Evie has some parenting lessons:

1.  Take your baby for a stroll every day.

2. It helps if you look fashionable while doing so.

3. If your baby somehow makes it out of the stroller, you need to find a way to get her back in.  This isn't always easy.  But a surefire way to do it is to raise her above your head...

...and just body slam her in.

4.  Babies do get thirsty, so make sure to keep a teacup in her stroller at all times.

5.  Babies enjoy jumping on the couch with you, but be sure to support their heads.

6.  Sometimes it's nice to just relax with your baby and chat for a minute.

7.  If she gets unruly, however, you may need to climb on top of her and restrain her.

[No advice here, just a cute picture.]

8.  If you need to use one of your arms while holding your baby, just grasp her clothes with the other hand.

9.  Always keep a blanket handy.

10.  Ahh, all ready for bed.  If you want your baby to sleep through the night, make sure she is a doll.

11.  And finally, just because you're a mommy doesn't mean you can't have fun! Some moms really enjoy cramming themselves into their babies' strollers and then sobbing when they can't get out.

[Side note: When Evie started walking around 9-10 months, we took to calling her "giant baby" because with her barely-there hair and big, babyish features, she looked just like a giant King Kong-style baby when she would plow through Charlie's train/truck cities, lego buildings, block towers, and other pretend scenes.  (It was also a sure-fire way to get Charlie to laugh at the destruction and chaos rather than get too frustrated; he loves to refer to her as "giant baby." :)  She really looks like a giant baby in this stroller!]

The interest in babies and dolls is definitely the biggest difference I've seen between Charlie and Evie, but there are others as well.  Evie actually enjoys getting dressed, has started picking out her shoes already, and is trying her best to figure out how to put them on (I love to see her little foot pointed out to her shoe), whereas Charlie still has no interest in putting on his own shoes and clothes.  Evie actually enjoys building block towers just for fun, whereas Charlie loves to build them, but for the sole purpose of knocking them down.  And while Charlie's favorite word at this age was "big truck," Evie's is "thank you!"  It's fun to see these differences emerge.  I love both of these funny little personalities!

Evie: 15 Months Old

Most of my sweet details about Miss Mouse at this age are going in the next post, but I just wanted to do a quick post with her 15-month stats.  We had her well visit today and it went great.  Evie became furious only twice during the visit--once when she had to relinquish her snack holder so that Dr. Denison could check her throat, and the other time when she got her shots.   But Dr. Denison said she looked great (aside from the fluid on her ears again; hopefully we can get this figured out), was growing nicely, and was quite healthy.  And Miss E rocked Ages & Stages again, so it appears we are on track. :)

Here are her current stats:

Weight: 22 lbs. (40%)

Height: 32.75 in. (92%)

Head: 18.5 in. (75%)

Although the appointment itself went well, Evie and I had traumatic experiences both before and after.  I proudly pulled up to our doctor's office 15 minutes early (unheard of for me), and jumped out of the car, only to realize I had locked it with my keys, my phone, and most importantly, sweet Evie inside.  Evie was SO mad at me.  She screamed for the entire 15 minutes it took for Clint to arrive.  I was a total mess by the time he got there, but luckily, aside from being a bit teary, she was unharmed and recovered quickly from the ordeal.

After we left the appointment, we headed over the Preston/Royal shopping center to play at Kidville and shop at Toy Maven.  As I was getting her out of her carseat in front of Toy Maven, we heard a huge crash.  We ran over to the store and saw that a car had plowed through the front windows and driven all the way to the back of the store!  Luckily, no one was injured--just a lot of people very shaken.  I feel so blessed that we had not gone in yet!

Here's a picture from the scene.  So scary!!

Finally, our most exciting news from the day: my cousin Megan delivered her twin girls!  Sweet Annie Lou (Lou) and Georgie were born in Los Angeles this afternoon.  Aren't they adorable??  We cannot wait to meet them!

Swim Lessons

We've started swim lessons again!  Our goal is to have Charlie swimming by the summer and Evie...enjoying the pool?  Our first lesson was pretty funny.  Charlie was very nervous (thanks, in part, to bad memories of his slightly-too-gruff swim teacher from last year) about getting in the pool, but made it in without tears and did great.  Evie and I were at the other end of the pool in the baby class and I about died laughing several times because I could hear Charlie loudly declaring that his teachers "don't need to keep putting my eyes underwater!" and "let's not put my eyes under water next time."  Luckily, they ignored him and plowed through, and he seemed to have a lot of fun.

Evie, on the other hand, was as nervous as could be.  She was very unsure about being in the water, didn't want the teacher anywhere near her, and preferred to spend her time learning to climb out of the pool (a skill that she mastered very quickly!).   The teacher tried to get her to warm up to her, but to no avail.  She kept taking Evie and while holding her out to demonstrate some trick, would declare, "see how she's acclimating?"  Evie was actually just taking a long, deep breath before letting out an even louder wail.  After two times of doing that, the teacher learned her lesson. :)

Here are my little fish before their lesson.  [And no, I didn't buy them Speedos--those are swim diapers.] 

They found sunglasses in the swim bag and had to try them out.  Super cool, don't you think? :)

Zoo Fun

Speaking of the zoo...we have been there a lot lately.  We went with Clint on a day off recently, and then again with my parents on another pretty day.  It's such a fun way to spend time outside on pretty days, and the kids just love the animals (and we do too :).  

Evie liked the stairs as much as the animals...

Someone was super excited about the gorillas. :)

Our very favorite thing is feeding the giraffes...this never gets old!

A few of our favorite animals...

The safari jeep is another "must" on every visit.  The only difficult thing is that there are usually a bunch of other kids that want a turn, and Charlie just cannot believe that it is not his to control.  Maybe there's a membership level that confers exclusive Jeep privileges?

And we LOVE climbing on the elephants (statues).

This bulldozer was at least as exciting as the animals...

One thing I love about our zoo membership is the free pony rides.  So fun!

Miss E did great this time--no fear at all!

Daddy took the kids into the goats' pen and they had so much fun playing with them.

Charlie and one of the goats just hung out up on a ledge for a while...seemed to be engaged in a serious conversation.

Guess who had to come join in the fun?

Charlie and I just love this tiger.

Our other favorite exhibit is the lorikeet exhibit.  Charlie loves playing with and feeding these birds, and has no fear of them.  I do not like them walking on me, but they don't bother him a bit.  He was SO proud of himself afterwards!

And on the way out, of course, we had to ride the carousel.  Charlie and Clint went wild in the spinning nest...

...while Miss E took a wild ride on her horse.

Crazy girl!

We went back to the zoo with Papa and Ahh, and had another fun morning.  Charlie had to show them the lorikeets...

I think Papa was a little nervous. :)

Already looking forward to another visit!