Great present

If anyone is wondering what to buy their 3.5-4 year old as a big gift, may I heartily recommend the Kickboard Mini scooter? We got one for Christmas for Evelyn and it is the coolest scooter I've ever seen. I wish I had one! I will have to take a video of Ev using it and post it because she is amazing on that thing.

In other news, I've sold most of Ev's old clothing except for a few things I saved out and I'm getting ready to post her crib, stroller, and high chair on Craig's List. Gettin' so big. Sigh. I'm just glad I have the opportunity to raise such an incredible child. And one who is sleeping past 7 AM this morning for some reason!!

Growing up

Little Evelyn is not so little anymore. We are counting down the days until she turns four. Wow. You definitely can't call a four-year-old a baby anymore. Not that Evelyn ever really acted like a baby. She came out so mature and together. We are starting to learn that her personality is much like mine in that she is always right. Really--she is. She pays close attention to things, tells everyone what is going on, and has a terrific memory. In the past month or so, bedtime has ceased to be a struggle so the day ends pretty peacefully. For a good two to three months, she would fight getting her teeth brushed, her jammies on, her bedtime story, etc., etc. Now, she complies fairly easily and even does a pretty good job brushing her teeth on her own before we take our turn.

I often bring her fruit in the car with us in the morning on the way to school. She tends to eat fruit better on the go then sitting at the table for some reason and we are almost always rushing in the mornings anyway. I had a cut-up apple for her in a baggie the other morning and gave it to her as we set out. She called out that she was all done so I told her to hand the baggie up and I'd finish it off. When I reached into the bag, I noticed that most of the slices had one bite taken out of them. I said, "Hey, what's this? You took a bite out of all these apples and put them back in the bag?" She bristled and called out in a hurt voice, "No!" Then she paused and followed that up with, "Not all of them." Little rascal.

Family Food Poisoning

Well, whatever it was that Evelyn got, we all got it. I was sick on New Year's Day and Adam was sick yesterday. Ugh. Luckily I hadn't been feeling well so I didn't eat much all day before it all came out. Adam wasn't so lucky as he had a big dinner before he realized he was also ill. We are guessing it was the Moby Dick chicken that we all ate, but we're still not sure. Anyway, we're all on the mend, thank goodness.

Evelyn is reacting to everything she eats right now with a hivey mouth. We're not sure if it due to this recent food poisoning or something else. I guess if it doesn't calm down, we'll put a call in to the allergist. Annoying.

We took down all the Christmas decorations today. We had a nice display this year, complete with outside lights, a real tree inside, and plenty of frou-frou around the house. I decided I would NOT be a scrooge this year and had a nice holiday. It's back to work and school tomorrow for everyone. We had a big blizzard here the week before Christmas and so lost the two days of school that week. Adam and Evelyn have been off since December 19th. I took the Monday after Christmas off, but have been working since then. I really do need a new job, sigh. That's next year's New Year resolution. It's really cold today--in the 20s and blowing fiercely. Brrr.

Evelyn is really into pretend play right now. She likes to play doctor and school and house, etc. "Hey, Mom, pretend that you're my mother, OK? Just pretend, OK?" "Uh, sure, honey."

There is a first time for everything

Evelyn threw up for the first time the other day. Seriously, the girl has a stomach of steel. I remember once when she spit up a tiny bit of peaches at 9 months or so when I overfed her and another time when she spit up a little orange juice after glugging it and then running around two summers ago, but this was her first real experience with vomiting. We still don't know why and she had no other symptoms. She said her tummy hurt at dinner so I advised her not to eat, but she did anyway, even while grimacing. She's done that before so I didn't think too much of it. I did tell her multiple times not to eat if she didn't feel well. Then, just after dinner, it just all came right back up, luckily on the hardwood floor and her clothes exclusively. She was a little freaked out, but we put her in the bath and cleaned her up and she was fine. She threw up a tiny bit more at night, but then slept till morning and was fine all day.

We are off for the New Year's Holiday. We are trying to raise up our curtain rod, but the dumb drill battery was dead. We hope to get it done soon. We've got some folks coming in to provide estimates on our family room renovation so we'll see what comes of that.

Nice to hear

Evelyn wanted this LeapFrog Bugsby reading pen/toy when she saw it at Target in November. I was really not sure about it, but when it went on sale for a very good price and with a coupon for an extra book, I decided to go for it. It's basically a pen-shaped object with a speaker that reads the book for you and also asks questions that you can answer by touching objects on the pages of the book. She played with it for a while on Christmas day and the day after Christmas. At one point, she came running out of her room while she was playing with it and gave me a big hug and said, "This is a GREAT present, Mom!" I'm so glad you like it, sweetie.

Going to sleep

While laying in bed together one evening...

Evelyn: "Mom, I'm scared."
Me: "What are you scared about, honey?"
Evelyn: "I'm scared a cow will come into our house."
Me: "Oh, sweetie, there aren't any cows for miles and anyway, if one did come in, it would just stand there."

Funny kid.

We had a great Christmas. Evelyn got a scooter for her big present from us. She's been practicing it downstairs on our wood floors all day. She also got a doll, Eva, that is the Target version of the American Girl dolls. Grandma gave her a guitar, that she adores. Evelyn says she wants to play the guitar for her instrument when she gets older, which sounds great to me. We had a lovely morning with just the three of us around our tree. I made some cinnamon rolls and we had sausage and fruit to go with them. We followed my tradition of stockings first, followed by breakfast and then gifts. It took us four or five hours to get through everything since Evelyn really liked all her gifts and wanted to play with each one before moving on. I have to say that I did a really good job picking out things for her this year! We are going to put some of her old toys in a box to donate before the end of the year since we're finally maxed out on space in our house for toys. I'd like to keep a couple toys around for younger kids when they visit, but she is certainly done with many of her baby toys now.

Evelyn is a happy, healthy kid and I feel grateful that she is in my life.

Sense of Direction

Evelyn's babysitter told me that they were stopped at a light and Erika didn't quite know which way to turn. She started getting into the lane to turn right, but Evelyn said, "No, no, you want to go the other way." And she was right!