My Little Big Girl

(Photo Credit FX Studios)

Evie turned 2 last week and thinks she's such a big girl. She spent her actual birthday going to the Doctor with me to hear her baby BROTHER's heart beat. She thought that was pretty funny. Then, after nap time, we went out to FX Studios to have her picture taken.   She was a little nervous at first but warmed up pretty quickly and had fun. And they got some fun shots.

Evie saw the doctor today and weighed 30 lbs and was 35.5" tall. That's 90th percentile on height and 85th percentile on weight. She was a VERY good girl and smiled and even talked to the doctor. I was shocked. She was just a little angel. She even let the doctor look in her ears, something she won't even let me do! Everything was good and he said she was doing great. 

We had her birthday party on the 14th and it was so fun! She had a lot of little friends come celebrate and family and friends from out of town came in for the event. It was chilly and windy but I don't think the kids noticed.  The theme was "Monkey's on the Bed" and was a big hit. 

Cake by Sweet Designs Cakery

Heather, at Sweet Designs did an amazing job on Evie's cake. It was the biggest hit at the party and tasted YUMMY.  White cake with cookies and cream filling. 

Obviously Evie approved.

We decorated with Evie's monkey stuffed animals and quilts used as table cloths. Cheap decorations!!

Trampoline Attendant

The present table

The Buffet Table

I made the birthday banner using scrapbooking paper I already had, the computer and some rick rack and ribbon. I really thought it would take forever to make but was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it came together.

Evie treated her guests with goody bags filled with Monkey Lollypops, Bubbles, Finger Puppets and Beach Balls.

Two hours was the perfect time for a 2 year old's birthday. We spent the first hour letting the kids play on the swing set and the trampoline Evie received for her birthday while the adults chatted and snacked. Then it was time to open presents.  Evie is loved by so many people and we are extremely grateful for their generosity. Evie had an amazing time and has been really great about playing with ALL her new toys pretty equally.  Her biggest surprise was a hot pink Mustang Power Wheels from her great Nana and Great-Grandpa. She LOVED it! 

After opening presents it was time to blow out the candles and cut the cake.

Gradually, our party guests left but Evie was not at all done. As the decorations were being taken down she continued to jump in her trampoline and her Daddy started tossing balloons in on top of her.

What a fun day!  And she looks so much more like a little girl than my little baby.  She is really growing up. Her language has just taken off lately. She'll try to say any word you ask now and is using more and more sentences. She knows all her colors and can count to 5. She is very independent about most things and gets angry if you forget and do it for her. (Example: SHE must be the one to screw the lid on the sippy cup. Heaven forbid you forget and put it on.) But at the same time she is very dependent about other things you know she can do. She asks us to take her lego towers apart, for example. 

Before I wrap things up, I need to pass on some information regarding the deadly tornado that touched down in Joplin, MO.  We live only 30 miles from Joplin and had planned on going shopping over there on Sunday. Had I not lost track of time weeding the vegetable garden we would have been right in the middle of some of the hardest hit areas.  It breaks my heart to see the devastation. I look around my house at all the toys and photos. So many people have lost everything including their homes and loved ones.  At the same time, it is heart warming to see communities are pulling together to offer donations and help with search and rescues.  If you can, please consider donating to the Red Cross, giving blood or sending supplies. They are badly in need of bottled water, toiletries and non-perishable foods.  Click Here for a spreadsheet showing donation collection locations in the Four-State Region and as far away as Kansas City, Springfield, Lawrence, Tulsa and Northwest Arkansas.

A few days before the big T-W-O in which we take a look at photos

12 Months
(Photo credit Bishops Studio)

13 Months with wet hair

14 Months

15 Months

16 Months

17 Months
(Photo Credit FX Studio)

18 Months

19 Months

20 Months

21 Months

22 Months

23 Months

4 days shy of 24 months at her birthday party

One More Month of One

Yesterday Evie turned 23 months old. This is my last month of having a 1 year old :( And she already seems so grown up.

In the past month her verbal language has grown enormously! We went from only knowing 3 words to 3 word sentences! It's crazy how fast that little mind of her's works. The other day I told my husband I should stop taking my DHA supplements because I don't think I can handle having two kiddos smarter than me. He'll come home from work and find them eating Cadbury Eggs for dinner and I'll be tied up in the closet... I just know they're going to gang up on me. :)

But I digress. Evie's favorite sentence is, "No, Ma." or "Ma, No!" Either way. Usually both. We never hear, "No, Da." Although sometimes she does get on to the cat, "No, NAh!"

As I mentioned in a previous post, she knows most of her colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink and Brown. She also thinks Black is Brown. She will argue this point with you should you try to correct her.

We have a little girl who is ready for some nice weather. We play outside every single day we can, and one particularly warm weekend, we even broke out the kiddie pool...

...obviously she loved it.  But it hasn't been warm enough since that weekend so the pool has gone back into the garage. It HAS been warm enough for sidewalk chalk and bubbles and swinging and gardening though. She is a good little helper and helped me dig holes for the flowers we bought last weekend. She also enjoys covering the flowers back up...completely. She'll learn.

She continues to amaze me with her brilliance. Yes, I'm a biased proud mama. But I searched all through that What to Expect the Toddler Years book and could find nothing about this:

That's an Evie drawing. A masterpiece in my mind. She told me she was drawing a picture of "Da-da" and drew and arc. Then she told me it needed ears, eyes, hair, nose, and mouth and drew each squiggle respectively.  Obviously, her Dad is not a unicorn, but she did know to put the hair on top, the ears on the sides and the eyes in roughly the correct locations. The mouth and nose are the correct shapes, if not the correct placement. All I could find in the book was that by 24 months they might be able to draw a line in imitation.  You may now be impressed. :)

We had to go to the doctor this month. Evie contracted Pink Eye... Yuck. I do NOT recommend attempting to put drops in your toddler's eyes alone. Not. Fun. However, she did not attack the doctor and even let the nurse take her temperature and she let me put her on the scale. She weighed in at a wobbly, not standing still, 29 lbs. That's the 85th percentile on weight. I'm not 100% confident in that measurement, however, and I haven't measured her height.

Last weekend we took Evie to the city Easter Egg hunt. She'd walked past the Easter Bunny at the mall the day before and thought that was the best thing ever. That bunny even played peek-a-boo with her. I know, how amazing. She still talks about it. So, we went to the egg hunt thinking she was going to LURVE it.  We got there early to get a good spot. It was windy and cold. We had to stand there and look at all the eggs she wasn't allowed to go pick up yet. We practiced how she would pick them up and put them in her basket. All was going well. She seemed excited. Then they said "Go!" and 100 other kids ran for eggs.

Mine didn't. Mine stood there and cried until all the eggs were picked up and the other kids were leaving the field. Fortunately, her Daddy is awesome and scored her a few eggs on the sly. He casually dropped them at her feet and she slowly came around to putting them in her basket.  Once home she realized there was candy in the eggs and all the drama was forgotten. Hopefully our little family, Evie only, hunt will go much better this weekend.

I'm busy planning Evie's birthday party.  The theme is Monkey's on the Bed. I'm hoping to come up with something the kids can bounce in. My bounce house (aka, The Colosseum) has a hole or two that we have yet to find. I would rather rent a big one but that may be cost prohibitive. I've ordered a cake that looks like a bed with a monkey jumping on it. And am thinking "Pin the Monkey on the Bed" wouldn't be a hard game to create. A few decorations and some party favors and we have a party.

Yes, You've seen this photo before, it's on her invitation. I'm sharing it again because it's my favorite.

As for me and Gummi Bear (the new baby). We're doing well. See the doc tomorrow for the monthly weigh in.  2nd trimester rocks and I'm feeling much more like myself. Not showing much yet, and still wearing my regular clothes, although not the small ones. I lost 40lbs on Weight Watchers before this pregnancy and have gained about 5 lbs back. My skinny jeans won't button (Love that Bella Band!) But the next size up is too big and the size up from that still falls off! How I can be 4 months pregnant and still smaller than I was this time last year baffles me. It's especially astounding to note that I started wearing maternity clothes when I was 8 weeks pregnant with Evie and still haven't touched them this time (I'm 16 weeks now). I thought you were supposed to get bigger faster with Number 2. 

There's that number again. 2. I probably shouldn't have set my screen saver to the album of pictures titled "Evie 0 months".   Remember to hug your kiddos and give them a big kiss. Remind them that Mommy kisses don't come off, they just stick forever.

The Rainbow According to Evie

Red=  Heh

Orange= Nah

Yellow= Yey-yey-yo

Green= Dee

Blue= Boo

Pink= Pik-a-pik-a-pik-a

Brown= Bow (as in take a, not what's in her hair)

According to "What to Expect" by the time she's 3 she might possibly be able to identify 4 colors... I'm sufficiently impressed... she's not even 2 yet. 

Frog Prince/Princess Hat Pattern

You will want to cover your little prince or princess in kisses when they wear this adorable little froggy hat.  Pattern is now available for sale for $5 and includes written instructions for the knit hat, crown and detachable lips as well as crochet googly eyes. Numerous photos included.  It's a fun and quick project that is sure to get a lot of attention!

2nd party invite

I just created Evie's second birthday party invitations on Shutterfly. I do love their stuff.Of course, the best part was that it was almost completely free! I used my Pampers points to buy the cards and only had to pay shipping! AND it gets even better! By giving you this link, they'll give me a $10 credit on my next order, which you know I'll be using. You can do it too! Just make a card on shutterfly and when you're finished with your order, embed it on your blog. Shutterfly rocks. :) Also, Shutterfly did NOT ask me to write anything about this post, all that was required was the blow link/graphic.

Sweet Cupcake Birthday Invitation

Click here to browse Shutterfly birthday card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

Cleaning out the Fridge

One of the perils of being pregnant... I make my menu early in the week, do the grocery shopping and then develop an inexplicable aversion to at least one meal on my list about once a week. The result is a fridge full of a hodge podge of fresh and frozen veggies that I have to figure out how to use and not gross myself out.  Tonight's dinner was pretty successful. Evie and Mike both ate a bunch. I am feeling rather meat averse today, so I picked out the chicken but I'm still calling it a win.  I think it would have been better with fresh herbs, but I just planted my seeds this weekend, so we had to go with dried. But if you have fresh basil, oregano and flat leaf Italian parsley use them instead. The parsley would really make a fresh tasting addition.

Cleaning out the Fridge Pasta:  8 Servings, 8 Weight Watchers Points Plus per serving

Ingredients:

1 lb Pasta (we had Penne in the pantry)
1 tbs olive oil + cooking spray
2 8oz boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 10oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 Tbs dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 oz fat free cream cheese (or more if you have it)
1/4 cup Parmesan, shredded + more for garnish

Directions:
Boil pasta according to package instructions

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and add olive oil. Heat pan and add cubed chicken. Season with salt and pepper.  Add onions and garlic and cook until chicken is no longer pink and onions are translucent. Add mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Add Basil, Oregano, Salt and Pepper.  Cook until mushrooms break down, tomatoes pop and spinach is heated through.  Stir in cheeses until melted and well combined.

Add drained pasta to skillet and toss to combine. Serve hot topped with a little extra Parmesan.