21 months

September 18, 2014

21 months

Long time, no update. Sorry about that. It's not for lack of material. Evelyn is saying, doing, and learning more and more every day, we've just been quite busy this summer (update on that coming soon).

So what's new with Miss Evie? She is very much a toddler these days. She talks and babbles and sings all day. When I picked her up from the kids club at the gym yesterday, they reported to me that she was singing and saying the employees' names the whole time. She is very social, especially toward other kids. Tonight we went on a walk and she gave some kids on the street an enthusiastic "Hi!" as we walked by. At the same time, she can be very coy with adults she's unsure about, and gives a mean stink eye when she isn't in the mood to say hello.

While we got ready to move, I admit I let Evie watch a fair amount of television. It was how I was able to get things packed up and ready to go. Now she's to the point where she enjoys movies and asks to watch them. Her current favorite is Monsters Inc., which she asks for multiple times a day. She also loves Frozen, Tangled, and Finding Nemo. The first week post-move I gave in to her asking quite a bit, but this week I've been able to put her off by playing her the music from the movies (a lot of Monsters Inc. theme song around our house), reading her books related to the movies that we've picked up from the library, and just generally distracting her with other activities. I'm not an anti-television parent (obviously), but I do realize its not great for her little brain to watch TV and so we're trying to limit it to family movie night on Fridays. It is pretty cute to hear her say Mike Wazowski, I must admit.

Evie is a good player. She inherited some toy dishes and food from her cousin, and will sit and play with that stuff for long stretches. Its how I get showers these days. She also loves playing with her baby dolls. She does a lot of blanket swaddling, diaper sniffing and changing, and putting to sleep. The babies oblige. Evelyn also loves dressing up. Sometimes its the star-shaped sunglasses, other times a headband becomes a princess tiara. Necklaces, scarves, and bracelets are also favorites, and blankets often become elegant gowns.

It is so fun to talk with Evie. She has started saying yes sometimes (she used to respond no to everything, then get mad when you didn't guess that she meant yes). She also says sure and okay (otay), and we're working on yes please. Sometimes she'll only say please, and leave out the yes. Other new words are quesadilla (quesadida), hummus, Randall-bad guy (see note about Monsters Inc. above), and I can't think of any more. She picks up so many new words. Today she was saying Sleeping Beauty, after reading a library book of the story. She'll repeat pretty much anything you ask her to, much to the entertainment of her cousins.

The girl loves to eat. She often will exclaim "Eat lunch!" which I think she must associate with being hungry. When I ask her what she wants to eat, she usually asks for noodles. Even first thing in the morning. She loves goop soup, a kid food classic from Andrew's childhood (noodles+homemade tomato juice+butter+season salt), and she even slurps up the tomato juice left after the noodles are gone. For breakfast she likes oatmeal with raisins (arguably her favorite food). She also loves Pirate Booty, applesauce, cheese, quesadillas, fruit leather, and grapes (possibly tied with raisins for the position of favorite). Actually she likes most fruit (cantaloupe, apples, peaches, nectarines, bananas, watermelon, berries, etc.). She will usually eat broccoli and green beans, and I can usually get her to try some of whatever we're having for dinner, which is a huge blessing. She drinks from a cup at most meals now, and when I give her orange juice she tells me it is sour. When she likes something (like licking the spatula when we made homemade ice cream tonight) she'll say "Mmmm, good!"

Evie is still very apprehensive about dogs. We tried to socialize her with family dogs as a baby, but to no avail. She gets so scared she shakes, which is sad and hilarious at the same time. We talk about dogs a lot, and she likes dogs in books, and likes to hear them bark, and likes them from a distance, and sometimes even pretends to be a dog. But from a distance is just about the only way she likes them so far. This fear extends to pretty much all creatures, including flies.

Evie loves babies. We were at Ikea the other day (we've been there 1-3 times every week for probably the last month) and she saw a baby that was maybe 6 months old. She and this little guy locked eyes and just grinned at each other for a good five minutes. It was adorable! I'm excited to see her as a big sister someday, I think she will love it. There was also an incident at a park a few months ago where a mother had her days-old baby there and Evie would not leave them alone. It was mildly embarrassing.

Evie is so affectionate. She does say no to kisses sometimes, but other times she just comes up and hugs my legs or my back. She loves to cuddle wrestle, which involves lots of kisses and zurberts and lots of laughing. It just melts my heart when she gives her daddy a kiss goodnight. Tonight it was through the crib bars, which was extra cute.

I remember feeling defensive when Evie was smaller. People would tell me how their favorite stage was 18+ months, and I would tell them that I loved where we were right then. And I have enjoyed this journey, seeing my baby progress and learn. And I won't say this stage is my favorite, because I haven't experienced what comes next. But, I get it now. Evie is so FUN. She really is just delightful.