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Thursday, October 13, 2011

It’s in the details

You know how parents always tell stories about the funny things their kids do? And then people say, you’ll have to remember that one. But then, two months later they don’t remember anymore? It’s true. It happens. You think you’ll remember every single detail about your child’s life but you don’t. The next month comes and brings it with more development, more fun, more memories – and some of the details that you promised yourself you’d always remember fade away.

Lately, we’ve had a few of those. And I don’t want to forget. I really, really don’t. So I’m about to risk writing a post that no one else will care about – where I rhyme off a bunch of cute/funny/silly/memorable things that my kid has done lately. My blog. My memories. So, here we go. These will undoubtedly be funnier, more amusing and way cuter to me than any of you, but whatever.

Lately, every single thing that Evalyn can find that might possibly resemble a hat goes on her head. She walks around saying “hat, hat, hat”. Actually, it doesn’t even have to resemble a hat. The other day, half a meatball was placed on top of her head at dinner time as she proudly shouted out, “HAT!”

She is really into pretending to sleep and loves pillows, blankets and beds. She loves to climb in our bed with us, flop like a fish and lay down and pretend to sleep. She even makes a snoring noise. She also thinks it’s hilarious to wake us up if we’re pretending to sleep.

A few nights ago, when I was putting her to bed, she was laying on her change table as I was getting her PJs on and she tooted. I giggled and said “Evalyn, say excuse me! You tooted”. Then, she tooted again. And again, I said, “Oh, you tooted”. Then, her face got really red and I could tell she was pushing. Nothing came out. So, she made a toot sound with her mouth, laughed, and said “toot”. Now, if we say, “Did you toot?” she toots with her mouth. We are so proud. So, so proud. Important life lessons, here.

The other day, we were at Wayford and Wilma’s for Thanksgiving dinner and I was putting her in her PJs to bring her straight home to bed. When I laid the change matt from the diaper bag on the floor, she immediately knew that somehow, she was supposed to lay down on it. I’m not sure if she wanted to pretend it was a bed or if she was just trying to help me out, but girlfriend rolled around and did somersaults on that thing for forever. She looked like a dog trying to get comfy in his bed – you know how they always turn in circles over and over again in the exact same spot? Yeah. That.

That same night, she was sitting in her travel booster seat at the table to eat dinner. Lately, she’s been doing a lot of the chucking stuff on the ground while eating. She doesn’t get that if she doesn’t want another drink, she can just set her cup on the side of the tray and keep eating. Nope. On the floor it goes. So, I was quite pleased when I saw that following her sip of milk, she decided to reach as far as she could in front of her, over her high chair tray, and set her cup on the main table. I said, “Oh good girl. That’s a nice place to put your cup”. And, you know what the good girl did? Picked every single piece of food off her tray and stretched her little arms forward to put it on the table.

Yesterday, my good friend Cindy was over, and of course, brought with her a bag of kettle corn. While I was putting Evalyn down for her nap, she got our snack ready. She put mine in a large round tupperware container. When Evalyn woke up, of course, I had eaten everything and it was empty. She pointed to it and said “Hat”. (Are we surprised?) There were still a few crumbs and kernels in the bottom, so I cleaned it out for her to wear as a hat. I licked my finger, ran it around the bottom of the container to pick up all the little crumbs and then, ya know, licked my finger again. Evalyn watched me do this. And then, she ran her finger all around the inside of the tupperware, lifted it up, looked at it for a second. And then took the index finger on her other hand and put it in my mouth. Monkey see, monkey do.

Speaking of monkeys. Monkeys say “heehee”, puppies say “mmmMmmm”, cows say “Mooo”, and well, so does everything else.

Recently Evalyn has taken a huge leap in baby signing (there’s a post coming all about this early next week). One of my favourite, and what I thought most helpful, signs that she has figured out is “help”. She does the sign, although her version looks quite similar to “more” and says, “hep”. At first, she only did it if I asked her if she needed help. And then one day, she was trying to get on her toy car, walked over to me, and signed/said help. I praised her for this and over the next few days a LOT of tantrums and screaming was avoided by her ability to ask for help. And then, one morning, she laid on her tummy in front of the fridge, pushed all her fridge magnets under the fridge and then came to me and asked for help. I got them out from under the fridge. And then she did it again. And again. And again. You can see where this is going. She rolls balls under furniture, gets herself stuck under chairs, tries to carry heavy things. All just so she can ask for help. Now? “Help” is the most annoying form of communication she has.

Lastly, and the very best, in my opinion, is that Evalyn says I love you all the time. We always do “I” (point to our eyes), “love” (point to our hearts), “YOU” (point to her). Over the last few weeks, she has started pointing to her eye and saying “IIIIIIIII” when we do this. And sometimes? She does it umprompted. Walks up to me, points to her eye, and says “IIII”, followed by a hug. And everytime? I melt.

These are the details that life is made of. The details I never want to forget.

5 comments:

This Texas Momma said...

Such a sweet girl! The stories made me laugh, she is getting to be at such a fun age. And the stories only get better so keep 'em coming!

Katie @ Loves of Life said...

Your blog always reminds me of things I should be doing. Writing these things down. I love how all kids have their little quirks. So stinking cute. :)

Samantha said...

the last one is my favorite!

Perfectly Imperfect said...

She sounds like such a doll! I laughed out loud at the vision of her wearing half a meatball on her head! And BG does that food thing too. Only now? She lifts her entire plate to put it on the table. Better than the floor right?!

Gina said...

I like the toot story the best. G does little silly things too (and knows lots of animal sounds...those are clearly our priorities) but I'm a bit jealous of the "I love you!" :)