Eeba says … lots and lots of things, mostly in the form of 4839028 questions a day

The age that Eva is at is challenging. Like, super challenging. And the closer we get to 3, the worse it seems to be getting. So sometimes I really need to stop and remind myself of the fun that this age brings, too. She is so inquisitive, learning more about the world every day. Of course, that manifests in the form of 4890358340 questions a minute, but I am attempting to see the beauty in that instead of always getting annoyed and shushing her. I am trying to engage in meaningful conversation with her, as I aid her learning about the world.

So because I need the memory refresher of how cut and fun and exciting this age can be, I decided it was time for another post all about my girl Eebs.

It’s not secret that E loves to sing. She sings all day, every day. Recently, her favourite song is “We Shall Assemble”. And it’s another one of those ones that will make me so sad when she finally realizes what the actual words are and corrects her. Because at this point, “Glory and honour and dominion” comes out “glory en tonor and ominia!” I die a little each time.

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A common phrase lately has been “But my favourite part is/isn’t _____”. Mostly she uses this to get out of doing something she doesn’t want to do or stopping doing something she does want to do. “Evalyn, it’s time to go inside”. “But my favourite part isn’t going inside. My favourite part is staying outside”.

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On the way to church a while back she piped up and asked me if Jesus was a boy or a girl. I told her he was a boy. The response? “Mmhm, okay, so does he stand up to go pee?” Face palm.

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She participated in a few days of Bible Day Camp at our church a few weeks ago. On the last day as we were driving there she said, “Do you know what I did at Bible Day Camp? I clapped, jumped and PRAISED GOD! I told the kids ‘We HAVE to be quiet. We have to praise God!’ He is in my heart and He is in your heart so I will SEND IT UP TO HEAVEN". Do we have a future television evangelist on our hands?

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Last week, one of Eva’s friends from preschool came over for a play date. And let’s just say the date didn’t start out so well. She had brought along a baby doll and both girls decided that that baby was the absolute and only thing worth playing with. So, the first fifteen minutes or so were spent refereeing in a major way. At one point, her friend’s mom said, “What do you think Mrs. F (their preschool teacher) would say if this happened at school? Maybe we should call her and ask her”. Next thing I knew, Eva had a toy phone up to her ear and was saying, “Uh huh, yes, okay, I will tell her” and then put the phone down and said “P, Mrs.. F said you have to give me that baby”.

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She is very into describing things. If I ask her to pick up the book on the floor she will say, “This book? This book that is on the green carpet that is beside the pink bow and underneath the yellow pillow? Is that the book you are talking about? Is that the one you are meaning?” It’s even funnier when she speaks this way to describe herself. “Eva, you are sweet”. “Who is sweet mom? Are you saying I am sweet? Are you saying this girl with a blue dress and a ponytail on the side who is sitting on the couch eating an apple is sweet? Is that the girl you are talking about?” One of the best ones was when she said, “The lady who was the pink cupcake pants on (um… HER) had to go to the hospital last weekend (not last weekend, more like, in February) because she had an ouchie pee pee”. Yep, we’re still talking about that one.

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She uses the phrase “Sure can” a lot. She said to her Grandpa “We can’t watch Diego today but we sure can watch Dora “and to her Papa, after telling him about ordering onion rings at the restaurant, “I didn’t like the inside but I sure did like the outside” (sidenote: fried food lover like her Mama). Another one of the best ones was when we went out for dinner with my aunt and uncle and she ordered herself shrimp and rice. When she started eating she said, “This shrimp is yummy but I sure didn’t order coleslaw”.

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She’s also very humble. She will be quick to tell you that she’s a great singer, or to tell her Nana, “Nana? You know what? I’m really awesome”.

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When we went to the pool for the first time this summer, I was surprised at how brave she got. I decided that we were best to get her a puddle jumper, even though we will most always be 1:1 ratio when swimming. I tried to order it online but they were on sale and the website wouldn’t work. I decided I’d just get it in store,but when I got to Walmart, discovered they don’t sell them in store. So, I told Eva I would find one a different time. That weekend, we were up north for my family reunion and my cousin’s kids had them and let her borrow one. As we were walking on the beach, I told her that what she was wearing was the floating thing I had tried to buy at walmart but couldn’t find. She said, “This is the thing you tried to get me? But they didn’t have it? Well, that’s HORRIBLE because I LOVE THIS”.

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Last week we had a situation where Gwen projectile vomited in the grocery store. Eva was so confused. She kept saying, “Did Gwen spook or did she spill her whole smoothie? Do we need to change her dress now?”

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She has a little trouble with the world regular. It often comes out regigular or regilla. Think, a cross between regular and vanilla. Recently, I figured out that she actually think regular and vanilla are one in the same. I guess I’ve probably described vanilla ice cream as ‘plain’ and also used regular and plain to describe the same thing. Anyway, somehow along the way she’s equated vanilla with being regular. When we were up north at my family reunion, the chairs in our cabin were rather low, making it tricky for her to sit at them and reach her food at the table. I tried to convince her to sit in Gwen’s booster seat to eat for added height but of course this is too babyish and she’d have none of it. She sat there for two seconds and then said “Mom, I just want to sit on the vanilla chair, okay?”

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A few weeks ago, Evan was spending the morning at home working in the shop. I took advantage of the time when he was here to put Gwen for her nap and take my big girl out for a donut date. On the way home she said “I just love being with my mommy. This is my favourite day”. HEART BURST!

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Eva’s excitement leading up to Gwen’s birthday party was amazing. She was just so thrilled about it. I decorated for it the night before and when she got up that morning it was like Christmas. She was so pumped, “MOM! I love these decorations. They are so beautiful. They are perfect! They look so pretty!”

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And speaking of Gwen’s party, that combined with a few preschool friend’s parties and  few other birthdays we have celebrated – my girl has birthday on the brain. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t ask, “Is it my birthday party now? Is it September yet? Is it September and twenty second? Did ___ and ___ and ___ (listing all the names of people I’ve told her have to have birthdays before her) have their birthdays yet? At my birthday party I will let my friends pull on a piñata but it will be my turn to open my presents all by myself”. Also? She wants a lollipop birthday. And told me she wants her own phone, lawn mower, boat and toy car for presents. Well.

She loves her magna doodle. And lately, she always wants me to take pictures of her creations. Here we have a cow with a bow in her hair, a horse with a raincoat on, a pig with purple eye balls and two baby chicks.

      

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I asked her how her nap was when she woke up one day. Her response? “Terrible. I was dreaming about crocodiles and they bit my arms so now I have bug bites and that's what is making my nap horrible”.

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One day we were going to bake cookies. I told her she needed to clean up her toys first. She said, “Okay, you can clean up the princesses. And then you can clean up all the rest”. Not quite what I had in mind.

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Speaking of cleaning up, I seem to have created a monster. Today she was refusing to lay down for her nap because, in her words, “The toy stroller is not asposed to be in here! It’s asposed to be in between the blocks and the dollhouse!”

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Kids always have a way of keeping us humble. Like when she says, “Oh mommy. Do you have another baby in your tummy?” and when I say no she pokes my stomach and says, “Then what’s this?”

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She is kind of the definition of oldest child. As in, she’s as bossy as bossy can get. Not just to Gwen, but to anyone. She likes to be in charge and tell everyone exactly what they need to do and when they need to do it. We’re working on this one. The other day, she said to Gwen, “Okay, Gwen. You need to stop crying right now or you won’t get any snacks or any drinks all day”. Wow, that’s some tough love.

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I made pasta salad and Eva picked an artichoke out of it. She asked what it was and when I told her artichoke, she looked up, totally fearful and startled and said “WILL I CHOKE ON IT?”

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We were driving up north for the long weekend and we passed a transport truck hauling cows. Eva asked Evan where they were going and the thing is, with a husband who is a hunter and living on a farm, these things don’t get sugar coated. Eva knows that animals die and then become food that we eat. So, Evan was explaining to her that they were in that truck going to the butcher shop to be made into meat to sell at the store. Anyway, that whole conversation is beside the point, really. The actual point is that for the next twenty minutes, she said some variation of BITCHER shop probably 600 times.

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We went out for Sushi with my parents and brother/SIL on our way up north. During lunch, Evalyn asked her Unco for money. He handed her a fifty and she said “No, not this kind. I want real money. Do you have any pennies?” Um, girlfriend has much to learn.

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When we were getting ready to leave our family reunion (where there is over 50 people, I might add) Eva told me, “I’ll say bye to all these people but I’m not huggin’ dem”.

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One day while we were tidying up, I asked Eva where the thermometer for her Doctor set was. She said, “I don’t know but you can keep looking. If you look beside the fridge you’ll probably find it”. Two guesses where it was?

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She is mastering the art of stalling bedtime. She comes up with every excuse in the book, including, but not limited to coming out of her room, crying to tell me, “Tomorrow you will have to carry me because I will have sick legs”. Another one she likes to do is just ask a million questions about everything as I’m trying to say goodnight. One day she was busting out random questions about nothing and I just kept saying “I love you” over and over again and she finally said, “Mom, I love you, too, okay? BUT WHY DO PUPPIES SAY WOOF?”

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She has 12 months of big sisterdom under her belt, and the sweetness just hasn’t stopped. The other day she was sitting on her porch, feeding her baby and saying "I'm breasting baby Yadi. I have milk like you because I am a mommy too. So I am giving her milk from my breast feeds!"

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I asked her what is in her heart and she said, “It’s a thing in my tummy and it is for to love God”.

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“Mom, do you know why I frewed (threw) my playdoh? It’s because I was being rude”.

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While playing Doctor with me, she checked my heart and said, “We’re not quite done, my dear”. Then when she was done, she moved on to Tigger being her patient and said “There ya go, big boy. This won’t hurt a bit”.

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This morning didn’t start out so well. She woke up on the wrong side of the bed…to put it lightly. By breakfast she had finally calmed down and told me "In the bathroom I cried quietly and that was a little bit bad choice. But in my room I made big bad choices. Dad told me not to do that".

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Phew, that was a long one. Until next time.

catching up

It’s been quite a while so it’s time to catch up with some good ol’ Eeba says. Here we go…

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Bedtime seems to be when her best conversations start to happen. Here are some of the latest beauties.

"Mom where's Jesus?" "He's in your heart". Linda said he's in the sky". "Well, yes. He lives in your heart and he also lives in heaven with God". "Where's heaven?" "Wayyyyyy up in the sky". "I don't want to go to heaven". "Yes, someday you will want to go there". "Is there is toys in heaven?" "Yes! There are so many toys there". "Is it a house?" "Yes! It is a big big big house". "Who built it?" "God did". "But who put the triangle right on top?"

And when talking about her Aunt Linda and Aunt Marcia, she said asked if they were Mommy’s. I said “No, they are Aunts”. For some reason, despite knowing this information full well, she was confused.  “They aren’t Marcia Aunt and Linda Aunt. They are Marcia and Linda”. And I said, “Yes, but they are your AUNT Marcia and AUNT Linda. Just like Aunt Kristin, Aunt Logi Aunt Shelley and Aunt Holly and all of your other Aunties”. She looked at me like I was nuts and said, “WELL ARE THEY BLACK THINGS THAT CRAWL ON THE GROUND?” You got me, Kid.

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On Mother’s Day weekend, my mom came to visit. When she got here, she commented that she liked the lantern on my sofa table. Eva was quick to tell her, "That is NOT yours. That white one is my mommy's. It's only for my mommy. The black one in the present downstairs is yours". Thanks, kid.

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That same visit, Evalyn was very excited for her Nana to arrive. When she woke up from nap, she pulled a chair to the window and sat down to wait. I thought it was going to be a longggg afternoon because I wasn’t expecting my mom for another few hours. I told Evalyn she was going to get very bored if she stayed there. But we were pleasantly surprised that Nana arrived early and when she pulled in Eva was ecstatic yelling “Do I don’t have to be bored anymore? My favourite friend Nana is here! It’s my girl Nana!”

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I will preface this one by saying that I am NOT pregnant. Yet the following conversation happened at dinner a few nights ago.
Eva: We're going to have a new baby in a few weeks.
Evan: Who is?
Eva: Me!
Evan: Are you pregnant?
Eva: No. But my mom is. Because first she had Gwennie but then we needed to get one last baby so there WAS Gwen but now she will go gone all the weeks and we will have a new baby.

As we got further into the conversation, we realized the reason she expected that Gwen would “go gone” when a new baby came was because the new baby would have to sleep in the crib. So, duh, Gwen has to pack up and move out. She doesn’t seem to grasp that if/when a new baby does come, Baby Gwennie will become a BIG GIRL just like her, and sleep in her bed. When we told her this she said, “Nope. I am the big girl. Gwen is a baby”. Hm, this one could get interesting.

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A few weeks ago, Evan somehow caught a pigeon (or should I say Pitchin) in the barn and brought it to the house for Eva to see. And hold. She wasn’t even a little bit afraid to hold it. But, she couldn't name him because she let him go and he flew away before he told her his name.

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If you are familiar with My Little Pony you may be familiar with the term “cutie mark”. Each pony has a special mark on her hind quarter that’s called the cutie mark. Well, maybe someday she’ll hate me for sharing this, but Evalyn has a rather large birth mark on her toosh. Like, really big. One day she had my phone in the playroom and was Face Timing with my parents. I walked in to find her with her pants pulled down, standing over top of the phone, and saying, “See, Papa? This is my own cutie mark!” Oh, dear. Oh, oh dear.

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I wrote in my last Eva says post about the whole learning to say Pardon Me instead of “WHATTTTTTTTTTTTT” thing? Well, girlfriend’s got it down pat. Her pardon me has turned into a single word, “Pardme?” and it’s super cute. A few weeks ago, when she was still working on it, she’d have good days and bad days and days she was on herself like crazy. All day I would say things to her and she’d say “WhatPardonMe” with hardly a pause. On one of those days, she was (again) Face Timing with my parents and she caught herself saying “what” a few times and corrected herself. Then finally she said, “I’m learning to say pardon me because I always just say WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT and that’s not polite”.

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We spent a long weekend at the cottage last month and while there, Eva got to do lots of special things. Including eating in front of the TV in the living room. I told her she was allowed to do this if she stayed on the picnic blanket and didn’t take her food off of it. A few minutes later, when I went back into the room to check on her, she had pulled the blanket right against the TV stand so she could press her nose against the screen in true toddler fashion without breaking the rules.

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She’s a humble kid. We were in the truck and she was belting out “Awesome God” when she stopped, and said “Guess what guys? I’m a really good singer” and then a few days ago she was playing with her Nana and she said “Nana. I’m really awesome”.

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One of Eva’s favourite songs right now is “Bless The Lord” although there have been times when she’s been singing it that I hear her add in her own little twist, “Rock and Roll O My Soul! O My Soul!”

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There are many times when the things she says make me laugh so hard even though I have no idea where they come from or what she’s talking about. Like when we got to her cousin’s house on the way home from the cottage and when she saw all of her toys she started yelling “Oh THIS IS MAJESTY!” or when she said have “I Gwen and I call her Sissy. You are Daddy and sometimes I call you Evan. Then I say hahaha. Imagine all the things I wish I could do”. I do not even want to imagine.

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In March, we went swimming once at the YMCA. It’s the first time she had been there since she was a few months old and she hasn’t been back since. Yet, when we got the kiddy pool out a few weeks ago she was so excited and started telling me that “it’s just like the YMs!” and since then she always says she’s pretending it’s the YMs.

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We got a new car a few weeks ago and through the whole car shopping experience, Eva was so excited and would tell anyone who would listen that we were going to get a bigger car. So we could fit her plates and cups in it. And when we got it, for days she was so excited any time we went anywhere to sit in her new comfy car seat in her new car.

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Gwen just went through a few rough weeks of teething and in particular, there was a stretch of 4-5 days that were just downright awful. In the car one day, Evalyn said to Gwen, “Alright Gwen that’s enough whining for today” although most of the time she was very sympathetic and tried to comfort her. She did, at one point, tell Evan, :Daddy do you know why Gwennie's crying all the whole day? It's cuz she has an owie teeth growing from her guns. But last day I had a bug bites and the whole time I had two slivers so I had to cry all day too. Cuz I had a bad bug bite". No typos there, I must add.

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Eva refers to the man in the UPS truck as the “Man in the Black Truck”. I may have some explaining to do on this one if anyone else heard her ask me for “the movie that the man in the black truck gave to me”.

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I have always waited for the novelty of having a baby sister to wear off for her. Maybe the day will come. But not so far. On a daily basis, she still says things like “My little sister sweetheart looks so precious” or “I love you little chicken gwennie” or something else equally cute and adorable.

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Lots of people have words or expression that they say funny because of their toddler. Some of our best are ‘parmich’ (parm cheese), ‘ress-a-want’, ‘rumber’ (romper) and ‘makin’ some chook’. I have no idea what this last one means but she says it whenever she is pretending to cook/bake/mix so I’ve adopted it as a saying when I am in the kitchen..

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I’ve been doing the 30 Day Shred and a few days ago, I had to do my workout while Eva was awake because of our schedule for that day. Well, that wasn’t annoying at all. She basically sat underneath me the entire time and said “What are you doing Mumma? Are you jumping? What are you doing now? Are you running? I can run, too. See? I am running. Those ladies are running. Are you exercising your body? The lady said do the shoulders, Mama. DO THE SHOULDERS!”

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A week or so ago, we found a nest with three baby birds and one egg left to hatch. We spent our week checking up on them and watching them waiting for a fourth baby bird. A few nights ago, while eating dinner, Eva watched out the window as our (stupid) Dog jumped up into the hedge where the nest was and got it. It was the saddest thing ever. Evalyn was so entirely upset with that dog. “NIKA! STOP! I DON’T WANT HER TO GET MY BIRDS. SHE NEEDS TO PUT THEM BACK IN THE TREE. I DO NOT WANT HER TO EAT MY BABY BIRDS!” She has been talking about it since, no surprise.

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I know there are thousands more that I probably thought “Oh I’ll remember that”for sure when it happened and of course, my mind fails me. Seriously… where’s my voice recorder?! Because I certainly need one.

just like this

Sometimes life with little kids is kind of mundane. I mean, there is fun and excitement and joy and chaos in each day but often, it’s monotonous. The same thing day and and day out. We eat, we play, we clean up, we nap, we go potty, we change diapers, we clean up some more, we read books, clean up some more … and so on.

Yet, there are moments, little blips of time where something may happen – as commonplace as it may be – and I am just struck with awe and amazement and bewilderment at these two little people I call my daughters. You know the moments? When you can hardly catch your breath because you realize just how amazing they really are? Just how blessed they make your life?

The other day I had such a moment. I was going about my every day stuff. Washing dishes, I think. I heard the very familiar sound of two little girlies giggling and laughing together. I turned around and saw this. My two little ladies, walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between the living room and dining room, Evalyn pushing her baby in a stroller, and Gwennie carrying a miniature stroller, doing her best to keep up with her sister. Every time they got to the end of the room, Eva would say, “Come on, Sissy, let’s go again!” and at one point even left to find an itty bitty teeny weeny baby doll to put in Gwen’s stroller. They went on playing like this, together, for nearly twenty minutes. All while I sat back and watched silently.

(I tried and tried and tried to actually get a good photo but their blurry little selves were running and wobbling too quickly to get a nice photo.)

While I watched them, I was so struck. I even found myself blinking back a few tears. Because in that moment, I realized that the best gift I’ve ever given them is each other. Sisters. A built in best friend.

My girls, I hope you always walk together, just like this. Side by side. Through every thing life brings your way. I hope you always laugh together the way I see you laugh together every day. I hope you always bring joy to each other the way you do each morning when you squeal with delight at the sight of each other. I hope that you’re always able to add cheer to each other’s day and change grumpiness to giggles, the way you, Gwen, do now when Evalyn is grumpy. She can’t help but cheer up after a nap when you walk into her room. I hope that someday, we will see a picture just like this, only you’ll be walking side by side, with your very own real live babies in those strollers (and you’ll have shirts on too, I hope). I pray that you are always the very best of  friends, just the way you were when I captured this moment. That even when you fight and bicker and throw things at each other… even when you hate each other’s guts … that you will still, deep down in your core, be the very best of friends.

I hope you’ll always be just like this.

The Long Awaited Muvvery Party

This year, with Evalyn being in preschool, we’ve been introduced to a whole new world of school friends, field trips and class parties. For weeks and weeks and weeks leading up to last Thursday, Evalyn has been excitedly anticipating “The Muvvery Party”. Also known by the over two crowd as “The Mother’s Day Tea Party”. Try as we may, we could not convince that sweet child that this party was called anything other than The Muvvery Party and so, The Muvvery Party it was.

She counted sleeps. She counted songs. She picked the “dresser” she would wear to the party. She waited. And waited. And waited.

On May 1st when I picked her up, before I could even get out of the car she was hollering from the playground, “Mom? DO YOU KNOW IT’S MAY NOW? AND MAY IS THE MUVVERY PARTY!”

She practiced the songs they would sing, told me that we would eat cookies and drink tea, and said that there would be a very special cupcake surprise…. all the while always wagging her finger and saying, in the most serious tone, “But we don’t tell the Mommies this. We don’t tell the Mommies”.

Thursday May 9th rolled around and as soon as she stepped out of bed and knew that the day had arrived! The Muvvery Party was here. We spent the the morning getting ready. We showered. We did our hair. We put on makeup. We got dressed up. Clearly, this was a big deal!

Around 9:30, Auntie C1 and Auntie C2 and the boys rolled in to hang out with Gwennie Girl so Evalyn and I could enjoy the morning to ourselves. We snapped some quick pics and we were off.

On the drive to school she was just beaming. She kept saying over and over and over again just how much fun it was going to be. “All my friends will be there. It’s going to be so much fun. The Muvvery party is here!”

Thankfully, the party didn't’ disappoint. She was ecstatic to decorate a crown for “Mommy” (ahem, she wouldn’t let me wear it for a second), sing the songs with her friends, decorate a cookie with icing and enough sprinkles to last a lifetime and drink apple juice from a real (!!!!!) tea cup.

The morning was so special. One I’ll remember forever, even if the memory quickly fades from her mind. These are the moments my heart has waited for. A perfect morning spent with my Big Girl – the one who made me Mommy – reflecting on the joy and privilege that is motherhood.

I am blessed beyond measure to call these children mine.  

eebs says

A few of Eva’s latest tidbits. Including her stellar bed head.

We don't typically let Eva have a drink in bed but she's quickly learned when she's sick we do. Recently, she has tried telling me that she has sore muscles, still has bug bite (more on this later) and that she has an eyeball…. so she needs a drink in bed.

The poor doll has terrible reactions to bug bites. She always has. I remember one time last summer not being able to get her sandals on because her feet and ankles were so welted up. Typically, they swell up and then are gone within a day or so. This time, however, she got one on her upper lip and the reaction was worse than we have ever seen and lasted far longer. We ended up taking her to emerg about it last week and of course, the drama and ensued from that experience has been hilarious. She’s told many people “I’m really sick. I’m okay now but I used to be very sick on Saturday. The bug bites that were on my face were very horrible. I had to go to the hospipple because I got a bug bite”. At church on Sunday if she was talking to someone who didn’t mention the marks on her face, she was quick to point out that she had a bug bite and tell them all about it.

The things she prays at night never, ever get old. Here are a few of the latest: “Help us to clean the porch so that we can play on it and off it. But help us don’t go off the porch and disobey mommy. Help us stay on the porch like Mommy tells me” and “Help me to be brave and do your heart and have healthy".

She talks a lot about what is going to happen. Everything is “First we will ____, then we will ____, then we will _____”. She is planner like her Mama. Similarly, she narrates social situations a lot lately. It’s kind of sweet to see her developing this kind of understanding. She talks about situations that might occur at school and how she’ll handle them, mostly. For example, one time while driving to school she told me "When I want to play a drum I can say 'please, can I have a turn on that drum?' I won't say 'GIVE! ME! THAT! DRUM! RIGHT! NOW!" She then went on to tell me what she would say to her teacher if her friend said “YOU! CAN’T! HAVE! THIS! DRUM”. Now, let’s just hope she can practice what she preaches.

A few Saturdays ago, I had plans to have a kidless Mom date with my girlfriend. As I was heading out the door, I told Eva I was going shopping. She got upset that she wasn’t coming with me but then finally calmed down enough to say, “Okay go. But just buy pretzels. Then come back and play with me”

On our drive to church we saw some cyclists and Eva said "I used to be a fireman but now I'm a bike man like those guys".

Clearly Eva believes in God's ability to perform miracles. She prayed "Thank you for our chickens to lay eggs. Please help Nika to lay eggs"

The conversations we have together never cease to amuse me. "Eva do you need a sweater over your dress?" "No. I'm good. Nice asking though mom".

I spent last month focusing on redecorating our sofa table, I picked things up here and there and one night after the kids were in bed, I finally arranged it all. Girlfriend doesn’t miss a thing. As soon as she woke up the next morning she could not get over it. She kept telling me how beautiful it was, how cute it was and how much she loved these new decorations. Even now, she will sometimes tell me how cute my new flowers are. Her level of observation kind of stuns me. She notices every little detail around the house. Including if I clean during her nap, if Evan shaves his head, if I get new earrings, if I move a toy and so on … it kind of amazes me.

My girl is like her Mama and loves bagels. She has quickly figured out that they come in quarters. So when we go to “Tim Portants” to “pay da lady and buy a bagel” she requests 4 cheesy bagels. Usually, she specifies that she wants a soft bagel. I.e. toasted lightly. Picky girl!

Speaking of buy and paying the lady, she loves to play shopping. I have to stand on one side of the baby gate while she stands on the other and I have to say “Excuse me lady, can I buy _______?” she will bring me my requested item and tell me how much I owe. Usually 5:30 or 2 o’clock.

Last weekend, Eva came and crawled in bed with me on Saturday morning at 6:20.... She had already taken off pjs and pull-up and was fully dressed and "all set to go" (her words). Well, then.

We had a birthday party for Eva’s Auntie Linda a few weeks ago and she had so much fun preparing, making and decorating a cake and so on. When the party had finally arrived (and she had her special party dress on) it was like Christmas all over again. When we sat down to eat she kept saying over and over again ,|”I’m just so glad you could come!”

There is a Mother’s Day tea party planned at Eva’s preschool. She calls it The Muvvery Party. She has been talking about it and counting down for weeks. She tells me the songs we’ll sing, the food we’ll eat and everything but always ends up by wagging her finger in the air and saying, “But we don’t tell the mommies about this! We don’t tell the mommies!”

A few days ago I smelled something and asked Eva if she tooted. "Yes I did. Thanks for asking. You're a very smart girl, Mommy".

Like I said before, she’s a planner and a list maker like her Mommy. Last week our friends were coming over. She knew they were coming after Gwennie’s nap and she told me, “We just have FOUR more jobs before our friends can get here. We have to go outside, hang the clothes on the line, come back inside and draw a picture”.

On Sunday at supper Eva told my aunt "You make good choices and eat all your supper so you can have de-yert. If you make bad choices and ...Don't eat your supper I will put you in your car and take you home and you won't have any ice cream And NEXT WEEK you can make good choices and have ice cream"

My mom is coming for a visit in a few days so Eva called her to plan a picnic. After deciding on all the food we’d take, Eva asked nana if she’d be bringing any good food or treats. Nana asked her if she’d like her to bring cheesies. Eva agreed that she should bring some cheesy crackers and goodies (what she calls chocolate smarties). That night she was in the tub and telling Evan all about these plans. She hollered to me, “MOM? CAN YOU CALL NANA? MAKE SURE SHE BRINGS ME CHEESY CRACKERS AND GOODIES!” And then yesterday on the phone she asked Nana, “Did you forget to put my treats in your suitcase?”

I wish I could remember and document all of the hilarity. Of course, I can’t. If I wanted to, I’d have to be walking around with a notepad at all hours of the day. What can I say? Life with her is never boring.

this girl

Just another post about my Eeba.

All day, every day she is singing random songs. Usually to common tunes. Recently, one of the best was: “Jingle bells, jingle bells watch out for the fox. Every time it comes around, it bites me on the nose”. Another good one was, to the tune of ABCs, “I have de most boo tee full face in da whole world”. At least she’s humble.

A few weeks ago, the Aunties were over and at some point in the evening, she tried to sell them my living room coasters for $400. If I let her take charge I’d be rich! My house may be empty of all my possessions, but I’d have a lot of money.

Back to singing, we have a lot of the Cedarmont Worship kids CDs and she loves to listen to them in the car. Recently, her favourite is “All in All”. Although for a long time, she thought it was the “Olive All” song. Picture her belting out “You are my strength when I am weak, you are the treasure that I seek, you are my olive all!” This is quite the compliment though, as olives are pretty much the best thing on earth as far as she’s concerned.

Before we went to my parents, she decided that she really wanted to go to the wess-ah-want with nana. She called her and asked if she’d take her and told her that she planned on ordering “chips, bread, tacos and melon juice”. I thought I had figured out that melon juice was lemonade but when we actually did go out for lunch with my parents I realized she was referring to water with a slice of lemon.

She called my girls the milk feeders. That is all.

In her prayer tonight, she prayed “Dear God, Help all my friends to be better.Help their mommies and daddies to don’t have owies. And put Jesus to fill my heart”. Talk about puddle of mush!

She uses the word “live” in an inappropriate context often times. She uses it whenever she wants to say ‘stay’ or really, talk about the location of anything. Like, she will pick up a bug outside and ask me if I want him to live on my hand. Or she’ll tell me she wants her shoes to live on the carpet until she’s done her nap and then she can put them back on. The only problem was when she told her teacher that her Daddy lives in his truck and then lives at work. 

She’s a fairly polite girl. We’ve never had much trouble getting her to use her manners. Although she needs the odd reminder, her pleases, thank yous, your welcomes and excuse me’s come quite readily. However, there is one phrase of manners that she has really struggled to pick up. And that is using “pardon me” instead of a gawking “WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT” all the time. After careful observation (read: listening to myself speak for 2.7 minutes) I realized that the reason she has had more trouble with this particular phrase is because she doesn’t see it modeled as readily as the others. Dudes. I am horrible for just shouting “WHAT” instead of ‘Pardon me’. It drives Evan bonkers so I’ve been actively working on it to help her get a hold of it. And she’s getting there. As am I. Although clearly, not fast enough. Just yesterday, Evan was in the living room with the baby while I was doing dishes and Eva was at the dining room table. Evan said something and I replied with the ever so lovely “WHAT?”. Eva was very quick to remind me, “Mom. You shouldn’t have said what. You should always say pardon me. Can you say pardon me to daddy now?”

Her pretend play has exploded lately. It’s so fun to watch. She acts out different scenes and activities with all of her toys. The best is how she will often narrate the things she’s acting out with them as though she’s reading a book. The other day, she was playing with one of her playmobil sets and I overheard something like this … "Would you like to help me?" "Oh yes sweetie, in a minute", called his Muvver (mother). "Let's go swimming now sweetie" called his Muvver. "Oh no no no you have to share" called his Muvver. "Oh dear, my sweetie, that's not yours. That's Gods candy" called his Muvver. "Come hold my hand now little boy. It's time to go swimming" called his Muvver.

A few days ago in the car, Gwennie was crying her head off about something and Evalyn was trying to sing a song. Finally she said (in quite an exasperated tone), “MOM? Can you turn the CD off and then turn your baby off so I can sing my song?”

She has a little bit of trouble when describing things that relate to the passing of time. For example, “Next time can I go in my wagon next week in the summer when it’s warm and cozy tomorrow?” Or “Is Daddy here yet?” “No, not for another hour and a half”. “Is hour and a half here yet on Tuesday?”

Lately, she’s been talking about having a new baby, far too much. In the grocery store, she told three people that we have a new baby and it’s going to be a baby brother named Alec. Um, no.

When we go to town to visit friends/family, we drive past this place…

Twice last week when we drove past she said, “Yook mom! Yook at dat Pepsi. Dats the store to buy chips and pop and ice cream!”  Don’t know if I should be proud or embarrassed.

We were doing crafts in the playroom the other day and I got some glue on the table. She quickly got a cloth to wipe it up and as she was doing so, looked up at me and said “Don’t do bad choices, okay, Mom?”

She was having a time out and when that happens she knows she has to sit until the timer on the microwave goes off. She was sitting there and then made a fake beeping sound and told me the timer was done. Seriously. How do you discipline and not laugh at that?

The other day, Evan brought home a special treat of sour gummy worms. Of course, she was all over that and quickly demolished a few. I told her we had to put them away and she asked me, “tomorrow can I have tons more and five candies?” Sure, kid. Sure.

A few nights ago, after a particularly sleepless night, Eva sauntered into our room at 5:50 am. I was too tired to object and as long as she went back to sleep, it was a-okay with me. After 10ish minutes of tossing and turning, she sat up and said “Mom, you won’t move over. I’m going back to my bed”. Well, I am sorry to have been such an inconvenience.

And probably the best of all (and the one she will be most likely to kill me for sharing some day down the road)… she was watching Diego and he said “We’re going to the mountains of China!” Quickly she chimed in, “Diego’s in the mountains v*gina!”

Over the past week, we’ve battled our second round of some sort of nasty stomach bug. Through it, Eva had a few doozies. For example, she went up to Evan when he was sleeping at one point and told him “Alright, lazy bones. Time to get moving” and another time asked him, “are you okay now? Are you good enough to walk?”

Along with the tummy bug, Eva has been battling a bit of a cold which has made her voice funny. One of the best parts of it is that she’s struggled to pronounce some words. We had so much fun with it and kept bugging her because she would look out the window and say “Look at those wobins!” And we’d say, “What? I don’t see any wobins outside”. She would stop and look at us and say, “No, I said look at those WWW-W-W-WOBINS”. We went back and forth and back and forth for so long. It was hilarious. Soon enough she figured out the joke was on her and now it’s a running joke. The same thing happened when she couldn’t find her “Ruvver boots”.

Last night, she kept telling me she wanted to play “pork chop”. Call me crazy but I had no idea what she was trying to request. After quite a bit of investigation and questioning, I finally figured it out. And we spent our evening playing…..

HOP SCOTCH.

Otherwise known as pork chop.

Oh, this girl.

this is what we call a brain dump

1. Everyone looks at Gwen crawling and cruising and walking holding my fingers and makes the “Oh, no, Mama. Get ready. She’s gonna be walking soon”. And guess what? I CANNOT WAIT. Other than the fact that her walking means she is growing up faster than I refuse to believe, there is absolutely no reason I don’t want her to walk. The truth is, when she starts walking, life will be a lot easier. Most people think the opposite. But I don’t. It’s not like she doesn’t move around completely and fully as it is. I found with Eva once she gained the independence of walking, her frustration levels decreased like whoa. Not to mention the whole taking the kids outside to play thing is kind of ridiculous since all I can do is carry Gwen around.

2. I used to be a good blogger. Now I suck. Maybe someday I’ll find my voice again. Then again, maybe I won’t.

3. I was chatting with some tweeps about some funny stories about Evan. Some of them have been shared on this blog in years past. But, many of my current readers are more recent. I am thinking about starting a little series on funny stories about that Dude. Like, the time he peed the bed, the time he hid in the freezer to scare my dad, the time he snuck into my parent’s room at a cabin with a real, live fish to wake my mom up… The kind of stories that make me say, “Wait. WHAA? I married him?”

4. Speaking of things that could/should be on this blog. Remember once upon a time I had a cooking blog? I miss that. I cook a lot. I love sharing recipes. But it’s the whole remembering to take a photo of the steps and final product and blah, blah, blah….

5. Lots has happened around here this week. Due to a series of unforeseen events, I am back to working part time. Or at least I am for a little while. More on that later, maybe.

6. Evalyn is obsessed with rhyming. It’s so cute. And funny because she really has no idea what rhyming is. I am trying to tell her it’s when the end of a word sounds the same. But she isn’t quite getting it. Every day she comes up with some great new rhymes. And she is so excited about it. Our favourites? “Buttah! Peanut Buttah. DAT RHYMES. Pets. Wonder pets. DAT RHYMES! Daddy. Uncle Tim. DAT RHYMES. Lolly. Lolipop. DAT RHYMES! Pizza. Chicken wing. DAT RHYMES! Sky, wall. Floor, window. Milk, hat. DOS RHYME”

7. I went back and looked through my blog posts and pictures and updates from when Evalyn was 9-10 months old. And holy cow. I feel like she was way more grown up and big than Gwennie is. I MEAN, GWENNER IS STILL MY TINY BABY. It is reassuring for me to know that I still think that Gwen is a baby. I didn’t feel like Eva was a baby anymore at this age.

8. Running errands with kids is a pain in the rear. But, guess what? It is way less of a pain in the rear when the weather isn’t in sub zero temperatures. Finally, I no longer feel shaky and break out into hives thinking about taking both kids to the grocery store or Wal-Mart or anywhere really. I feel good knowing that it was simply the winter weather that was decreasing my confidence. Not my mom skillz. 

9. Nap time will be over soon. You’ll find us outside. WITHOUT COATS.

she’s her daddy’s girl

The husband is about as outdoorsman’y as they come. He hunts, he fishes, he does yard work. Basically, he’d live outside if he could. Little Miss Evalyn has gained her love for the outdoors from him. So far, in her limited 2.5 years of experience, this has consisted mostly of spending hours and hours playing outside. She would also live outside if she could.

She likes to go for walks, dig worms, do chalks, ride her bike, help Daddy in the garden, go to the park – it doesn’t really matter what – as long as she’s outside.

Last week, Evan decided to give her her first introduction to a favorite outdoor pastime of his – fishing.

Evalyn was over the moon excited during dinner at the prospect of going fishing with Daddy and gobbled up her food in record time. Unsurprisingly, though, the actual experience was not as amazing. I think Evan’s words were, “that was the worst fifteen minutes of fishing ever”. I don’t think she quite grasped the fact that she would just have to stand still on the side of the riverbank. I don’t blame her. I think fishing is way more fun in theory than in reality.

Needless to say, Evalyn still thought it was pretty cool and is still talking about going fishing with Daddy, how she caught one fish, and how she poked it in the eye.

She’s her Daddy’s girl, without a doubt (side note: are they twins or what!!).

I’m sure there will be many, many more fishing dates in the future … only this time, he may wait another few years to invite her again.

sugar bush

Last Monday, we went on a fun spring winter (I’m not even sure which word to use) to the Sugar Bush to see where maple syrup is made. We went with Evalyn’s preschool class. Let me tell you, there is something about going on a class trip with your kid (even if it is just preschool) that screams I AM A MOM. I have kind of always waited for the day that I’d get to go on all of these fun trips and since a crazy wind storm canceled our Pumpkin Patch trip in the fall, this was our first.

  We were extra lucky because Nana came to visit to go on the trip with us. So fun!

We learned (or at least I learned … not sure Eva caught on to anything except the fact that we ate pancakes) so many interesting facts about making maple syrup, went on a tractor pulled wagon ride, a walk through the bush and enjoyed delicious pancakes smothered in real maple syrup.

I derive from Maple Syrup People so this is definitely my kind of treat. Over a week later, Eva is still talking about it – even though at the time, she spent a good portion of the morning whining about wanting to go back on the wagon ride. I just love these kind of fun adventures that bring her so much joy.

Easter 2013 Recap … before Easter?

This is the obligatory Happy Easter post. The Easter bunny actually visited our place a week early, as we had originally had plans to be away over Easter, I wanted Evalyn to have the chance to do the egg hunt at home. Poor girl kept asking if we would go egg hunting out in the grass. Hate to break it to you girl, but an Easter egg hunt wearing a snowsuit just isn’t the same.

So last Sunday when my Mom came for a visit, she took the kids downstairs to play and while they were gone, Mr Easter Bunny made his appearance. When I went downstairs to tell Eva, of course she flipped and didn’t want to come upstairs because she didn’t want to see the Bunny. I don’t blame you kid, that Dude be creepy. I reassured her he was LONG GONE and just left treats behind. That seemed to solve the issue and she came right upstairs.

Of course, this is the first year that she’s really been into the whole Easter egg hunt thing, and it was adorable. Every time she found an egg, she would say “Oh silly Easter Bunny, this don’t beyong here! Des eggs don’t beyong with my movies. Dees eggs beyond in my basket!” She thought it as absolutely hilarious that he would put eggs in the places that he put them.

Here she is on the hunt….

 

The Egg Hunt concluded on the couch where Mr Bunny had left their Easter buckets. And hello, pointless. All week all she has played with is the $2 straw basket and the empty plastic eggs. She could have cared less about the gifts!

And don’t worry … just because she’s yittle doesn’t mean Gwennie had to miss out on the fun.

Because we did our Easter thing last weekend and ended up canceling our plans for this weekend, we’ll just be having a quiet weekend together as a family.

Today is Friday but praise be to God that Sunday is coming. The stone will roll away and by the grace of an almightily God, these beautiful babies of mine have the most amazing promise of redemption!

 

Happy Easter!

two point five

My Eebs,

I write about you a lot in this little space. About the funny things you say and do. Your crazy antics. Your quirks. But it has been a long, long while since I’ve written to you here.

A long while since I’ve stopped to tell you how proud I am of the little girl you are. Of your sweet, nurturing, motherly heart. Of your compassion and sensitivity toward your sister and any other baby you interact with. Of your amazing sense of humour. Of your intelligence. Of your voice that never stops singing. Of your beaming smile. Of your joy.

I am so proud to call you mine.

Today, you are two and a half years old. The day I first met you is forever etched in my memory – as though it was yesterday. I can still feel your tiny body pressed against my chest as I hugged you and kissed you and poured tears of love on you for the first time.

I can get back to that moment in an instant. Yet, at the same time, you’ve always been here. It’s like a time before you is so distant I can hardly remember it.

You have changed me. You have molded me as a mother. You have taught me so much in such a short time. In an instant to can make my blood boil and then melt my heart. You make me laugh more than anything. Your hugs and kisses and cuddles prove to me that I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.

Forever you, my Big Baby Girl, will be the one who made me a mother. Thank you for that gift.

Just don’t grow up too fast.

My love for you knows no bounds.

Mama

eva-isms: part 653

A few weeks ago Eva was playing and start walking around with a hobble and a limp. She started saying, “I’m Nana! I’m Nana!” I said, “Why, does Nana walk like that?” And she said “yes”. Then a few minutes later, she stopped and said, “Nana doesn’t walk like that. Think Great Grandma walks like that”. HA HA. Shh, Aunt Shelley, don’t tell Grandma she said that.

We were practicing letters the other day and she had a toy monkey. I said, “What letter is for M-m-m- MONKEY?” She looked at me like I had two heads and said, “Well, what is the monkey’s name?”

Her cousins visited for a few days last week and at one point, one of them dumped a bowl of plastic pizza toppings out in Eva’s room. She ran out and said, “Oh man, guys, someone has made a terrible mess in der!”

Sometimes (often) she is too smart for her own good. She was playing with her babies and making one of them sit down, stand up, lay down and so on. At one point, she sat her baby up and said “Good job, Baby. You are sitting up. Yay baby, you can get a chocolate.” She then came to me and asked for a chocolate. FOR HER BABY, OF COURSE.

She used to always call Tigger “Tigger the Pooh”. That has long since passed but it was so cute the other day when she saw Gwen wearing Piglet PJs and said, “Oh Gwennie! You’ve got a Winnie the Piglet!”

Evan took her to the grocery store the other night and on the way she asked if she would be able to get a treat while they were there. She said she thought she needed one. He asked her what kind of treat she thought she needed and she said, “Um, probably, I think probably one million Smarties”. And we’re talking Canadian chocolate smarties, by the way. Girlfriend knows where it’s at.

Similarly, last night we were talking about going back to school (she hasn’t been in two weeks due to stomach flu in our house and then March break). She was very excited and wanted to talk about what kind of snack she would get to take. She requested, “A bunch of crackers, a bunch of water and one hundred cheese strings”. Impressive snack.

She’s very into clarifying how many of things she wants. When she asks for a snack, say goldfish crackers, she will tell me she wants “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of dem”.

She gained favourite child status the other day when she came up to me and said “Mom, you are beautiful today.You look lovely”.

She lost this status a few days later when she said, “My tummy is so flat. It’s very flat. Mommy’s tummy is shaped like a circle”.

She had her first nightmare the other night. And, if it wasn’t so horrible and pitiful and didn’t mean 2 hours of up and down between screaming and crying and everything, it would have been kind of cute. She told me there was a dog in her bed. A scary puppy. Who was licking her finger and she screamed for me to take the dog out of her bed. She even remembered it the next morning and asked me to “look in her scary bed and see if that scary dog was still there”. Then at nap the next day, she asked me if that Puppy was going to lick her fingers again. Poor kid.

She is very into drawing. Mostly on her “magnet dude”. She drew something a while ago and asked me what it looked like. Whenever a kid draws something and asks you what it looks like, you know you’re in trouble. I told her it looked like a kitty. She said, “Uh, no mom. Dis isn’t a kitty. Look, it’s a highway”. Oh, silly me.

Ever since her ear infection and going to the ER Eva has been obsessed with all things Doctor/Sick related. I was telling Evan a story the other day and she picked up the word hospital so launched into a big long story …. “I had a tewwible pee pee so I had to go to the hospiple. I goed pee on a bucket and the nurse listened to my bo-bop (heartbeat, don’t ask) and I tried to go pee in the bath but it was so ouchy and it was a howwible sick”. Okay, kid.

On Sunday, I got her an “Easter egg” donut for after nap. Of course, she was convinced I told her that it was an “E-V-A” donut. Easter egg, E-V-A… I guess I can hear the similarity.

We had a shower together one morning while Gwen was sleeping. Then, she plays in the bath while I get ready. I hadn’t yet gotten dressed and she looked at me with total disgust and said “Uh, MOM? Can you put some clothes on your breastfeedings, please?” Sorry to offend, dear.

While I was sick with the stomach flu, I was pumping like crazy so my milk wouldn’t be affected. At one point, Eva climbed up on my bed and rubbed my back and said “Momma, you gotta be brave”. Of course, I know this is just from Barney but still. Melt my heart.

Eva asked for applesauce for a snack a while back and Evan went down to get a jar from the cellar. Unknowingly, he got apple butter instead of sauce – which has a much stronger flavour. He dished it up and she took one bite and said “No thank you. I don’t like dirty applesauce. I just want the reg-a-lure kind with the cracker from soup” (The cracker from soup is what she calls soda crackers).

 I love that she says “anything” instead of “nothing”. If she’s getting into something and I call, “Eva what are you doing?” Her response is always, “Anything, mom, anything!”

Bedtime prayers are my favourite. I love listening to the things she comes up with. Lots of times we do fill in the blank prayers because she’s not always in the mood to say the whole prayer herself (although we often hear her doing this after we leave the room)'. So, I will say, “Dear God, Thank you for… Help us to…” and so on and she will finish the sentences. One night last week she reduced me to a puddle of mush when I said “Dear God, Help…” and she said “Help God to be praised”. Amen, Little Girl.

A few mornings ago, I had just stumbled out of bed and she looked at me slyly and said, “Mom? Did you forget to make my pancakes? You better do that”. Ha. I guess we were having pancakes that day.

There is no greater gift in motherhood than watching my two babies love on each other. A few days ago, they were playing in the living room, on the carpet and Eva was doing “circle time”. She told Gwen to “yisten to Miss Eva” then she read her a story and sang a song … all while Gwen bounced and clapped along.

She is very into dressing herself lately. As well as choosing what she dresses herself. Hold me. I’m not prepared for this. The other day I set out her clothes and she said “No mom, that’s not my best dress. I need a lovelier one”.

She got a hangnail the other day although based on the reaction you’d be SURE she lost her foot. She was wailing and crying and even told us that she “had a wound”. It was an ordeal, seriously.

The other day I made a casserole that had mushroom soup in it, but no actual mushrooms. Eva pitched a fit when she found the tiniest little piece of a mushroom .Of course, we made her take a drink and swallow it down as we are trying to curb the whole spitting out things we don’t like behavior. When she finally did it she said “Sometimes I like mushrooms and going under water”. Interesting combo.

I love listening to the conversations she has with herself and her toys when playing independently. For example, “Oh this baby disobeyed. She’s crying but she touched fire (yes, but is still used in place of every conjunction in the world). Are you sorry baby? Now you will go to the family dance at the barn next week”. Um, okay, then.

We’ve been talking about Easter a lot lately and while we do the whole Easter bunny/Easter egg thing – we have been aiming to steer Eva’s focus away from that and towards the resurrection. I have a fabulous book that does this and so we have been reading it. We read it at the breakfast table the other day and at the end I asked her if she knew why Jesus rose from the dead and she said “Yeah. Cause Santa is at the mall and when it is Christmas time we will see ALL da Christmas houses”. Okay. So we’re getting there. Ha.

there she goes, there she goes again

She brought a bundle of plastic necklaces to me and said “Can you help me mommy? I don’t know how to do this. I’m trying to hump it hump it hump it like this but it’s not working”. Hm.

We were driving to preschool, listening to some praise and worship tunes. She was belting out one of her fav songs and stopped and said, “Mama, when I sing like dis does it make Jesus so happy?” I told her that it sure does. Then she said, “When I yell NO NO NO NO does that make Jesus very sad?” Apparently something is sticking.

One morning, Evan left early for work, long before we woke up. At 7, Gwen and I woke to Eva climbing up into my bed. We stayed in there and cuddled for a bit and then got up to get moving. I took Eva to the potty and when I took her PJ pants off, I saw her pullup was backward. Unusual, but let’s face it … Daddy put her to bed the night before, so WHO KNOWS. I took her pullup off and saw it was dry. I told her to get up on the potty and she said “I don’t have to pee”. I told her she did because she had been holding it all night. She said, “I already did pees”. I asked her who helped her and she said, “I just helped me all by myself”. Girlfriend had woken up and taken herself to the bathroom before waking me up. You go Eva!

That same morning while we were hanging out in bed, she started singing, to the tune of Jesus loves me, “God is good it’s time to pray. Gwennie do you love Jesus?”

Mommy, can we go to eat yunch at da restaurant? No we can’t. I wish we could but we can’t because you and your sister are too crazy. I not crazy! Yes, you are a wild crazy monkey. Why is I are a crazy?

She has some bizarre obsession with tea towels and it doesn’t seem to be going away. At any given time, if I go to the kitchen I cannot find a tea towel. They are always in her play kitchen or on the living room floor or, well, tied around her neck like a cape. She puts them on her head and says she “is a marry” (getting married), or that she’s a “Spiderman princess angel” or that it’s her “hostume”. She dances around the kitchen waving them like flags, fills bags with them and it’s not unusual for me to walk into the kitchen and find five tea towels spread out on the floor, with a baby doll asleep under each one, either.

Lately, when she’s playing with food in her toy kitchen she tells me she’s having a drink of “celery pop”. I don’t want to burst her bubble or anything. But, that sounds awful.

She always wants to draw on her “magnet dude”. She asks me to draw pictures of all sorts of things, usually animals. Most commonly, she wants a picture of Oatie , Davey or Magic (that’s the donkey and two horses that live across the road). This morning she asked me to draw Oatie and when I showed it to her she said, “Hm, okay. Let’s try again mommy”. Fail.

One day I spent nap time doing a major clean up of the toys. I’m always amazed how observant she is for a two year old, because she noticed. So, for a few hours after nap was over, she followed the baby around, taking all the toys away from her saying “No, no, no. Mommy cleaned up. Mommy worked hard”.

We skype with my parents sometimes. The other day, we skyped just before lunch and my parents were getting ready to leave the office to go out for lunch. Poor girl was pretty confused. She spent the rest of the day begging me if we could go “to da ress-ahh-rawnt”.

The other day she said to Evan, “You are the Jesus at my house”. He said, “What are you talking about?” and she held out a cup with coins from her cash register in it and said, “I give dis money to Jesus. You be Jesus”.

One night at bedtime, she and I were having quite a moment. We had said prayers (and when she prays it never ever ever fails to make me weak) and sang a few songs together. My heart was a puddle of mush. I was stroking her hair and said something like, “Do you know how special you are? Do you know that God made you for Mommy and that I am so thankful that He gave you to me?” … she looked into my eyes, put her hand on my face and I just knew she was going to say something profound. Then, “Mommy? Can I tooted on your leg?” Doh.

Ever since the whole ear infection thing, she’s been very into all things Doctor related. She has played with her Doctor kit more in the past two weeks than she has in the entire 18 months she’s had it. She always checks to see if I “need temper-er (temperature), checks my bo-bope (my heartbeat with the stethoscope … erm, I mean telescope, according to her) and fixes my ears with “the yucky medicine”. Anyway, on the weekend, we headed into Future Shop to get my iPhone looked at because it was haunted and doing weird things. On the drive there, we kept telling her we were going to a store so they could fix my phone. When we got there, there was quite a line so Evan took her into the mall to do some shopping while Gwennie and I waited. When they made their way back and I was being looked after, she got up on one of the stools at the counter and said, “Mommy, is dat lady going to fix my ears?” A little confused, I guess. Then later, when Evan and I switched and he took Gwen for a stroll in the mall, Eva kept asking me “Where is the hole with Daddy? Where is Daddy in the hole?” …. I could not figure it out forever. Finally, after some questioning, I think she was asking where the door from future shop to the mall was.

There is a boy in her Sunday School Class named Nathan and for some reason she has trouble remembering his name. Almost every night (especially on the weekends when we talk about going to church more), she likes to list the names of her classmates. She wants to know their Mommies names and Daddies names and if they have a dog and all sorts of other information I usually don’t know. Anyway, tonight she was talking about them and listed the boys in her class. But of course, she got stuck on one name and said “Mommy, what’s that other boys name?” When I told her “Nathan” she looked straight at me and said, “Did you say NAY-FIN? Or NAYYYYYYYYY-FIN?” … not entirely sure the difference, but hey. I guess I said NAY-FIN.

Mealtime is a seriously dreaded time of day around here these days. It’s just so chaotic. And messy. And loud.  Today at lunch, the girls nearly did me in. So to celebrate making it through another meal alive, I snuck into the kitchen and hid in the corner while stuffing a Reese Peanut Butter egg in my mouth, in an effort to keep the tot from seeing. I was successful. Until about 15 minutes later when I took her potty and she smelled my breath and said, “Mommy, what did you have? Did you have peanut butter? Did you have that peanut butter that has a chocolate on it?” Busted.

Auntie Caley and Cousin Connor came over for an afternoon playtime and a “neither of the Daddies are home” dinner the other day. Near the end of their visit, Evalyn found a few cool toys in Caley’s diaper bag, including some maracas. She was carrying them around and said to me “Connor needs to go home and I need to keep dees toys here, okay, Mom?”. I told her that, no, they belonged to Connor so she could hold them until they were getting ready to leave, but then she would have to put them back in his bag and play with them again next time. When it was time for them to leave, I fully expected a meltdown of epic proportions, so I was quite surprised to see her willingly and cooperatively place each and every toy back in the diaper bag. But? When she tried to zip it up and realized the bag was just a little too full, she took all the toys out and said to Caley, “Dees don’t fit. You can just take the bag and you guys and go home and I will keep dees toys, okay?” Nice try, kid.

Last night, Eva’s Aunt Marcia said that she and Gwennie are “such a treat”. Eva laughed and said, “No. We not foods! We’s are guys!”

This morning Evan left for a boys weekend. My parents are also on vacation. Eva reminded me this morning, “Nana and Papa go to Costa Rica. Daddy goes on vacation. Eva and mommy and Gwennie just stay at home all day”. Yeah, thanks for the reminder, kid.

Yesterday Evan went to Walmart so I asked him to get me some white glue for a craft I had planned with Eva. It was sitting on my dresser beside the basket of craft supplies, which are housed there until the playroom is finished. This morning she climbed in our bed and within two minutes said, “Hey, do you guys have some glue now?” Cannot hide a thing from her.

Lately she has been on her game. I just cannot even keep up with the hilarity. Hence the over the top amount of posts about Evalyn-isms. I just can’t get enough of her.

surviving the bedtime crazy: part 2.0

A few months ago I wrote this post highlighting the challenges in surviving the evening hours with two two and under on my own. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have had way fewer evenings where this is necessary. The late fall and winter months mean work is less busy and there is less going on in the evenings for Evan, which means there are two to tackle bedtime more often. This makes mama happen.

Over the last three weeks, however, Evan’s been doing some work at our church which means he has been spoken for most evenings. So, once again, I’ve had to find my groove at doing the whole bedtime thing solo. What I’ve learned over the past few weeks is that now, surviving bedtime with the two of them? Piece of cake. Surviving mealtime, on the other hand? That’ll take me down. That’s a different story, though. My purpose in this post is to give an update on the whole bedtime thing now that I’ve got a few more months under my belt.

There are a few key reasons why bedtime seems to be much smoother.

First, bathtime. Gwen can now sit up and move around easily in the tub. I am not afraid of her sister crushing her or smothering her. This means dual bath time is possible and way less stressful than it used to be. Secondly, Gwen no longer freaks out the second she gets lifted out of the tub, expecting a boob to be in her mouth within a matter of milliseconds. This means that I can take the girls straight from dinner to the tub. Or, at least put them in the tub earlier in the evening as opposed to just before bed, even if not right after dinner. I bath them together, get Gwen out and PJed first, while E continues to play and cleans up the bath toys and then get her out and PJed.

Second, their bedtimes have adjusted. At the time that I wrote that previous post, both girls were going to bed between 7:30-7:45 which made it tricky to accomplish bedtime routines for both. Now, Gwen is in bed, asleep by 6:45-7 and Eva still goes to bed by 7:30-7:45. When I wrote the first post about the bedtime stuff, I was hesitant about having Gwen’s bedtime be earlier than Eva’s since I cherished that one on one cuddle time with her. I do miss that. I miss being able to nurse her and sit in the nursery holding her, sometimes for as long as an hour, before laying her down. But the good thing is that she usually makes her way into my bed in the wee hours of the morning anyway, so we still get that cuddle time. She also wakes up earlier than Eva most mornings, so we get some nice one on one before the Big Sissy is awake.

And lastly, Gwen no longer takes forever to go to sleep. She nurses for 3-4 minutes, and if she’s not already asleep when she’s done, as soon as I lay her down with her pacifier, she’s down for the count. There are very few nights (KNOCK ON WOOD AS HARD AS I CAN) that she puts up a fight to go to sleep. If she doesn’t immediately go to sleep, it usually doesn’t take a lot of effort, other than slipping the paci back into her mouth, or laying her back down if she’s standing up.

So, now, it usually goes like this. I can get both of the girls bathed and PJed by 6:30-6:45 and if it’s not bath night, it’s even smoother. Although bath night is a welcome distraction to kill some time between supper and bed. Often, Gwen has a bath every night and if Eva wants to join her she can but she doesn’t always. After PJs are done, we play for a while longer until Gwen starts to fuss. Then, if Eva is engrossed in something I just leave her be. If she needs a distraction, I’ll throw a bowl of crackers at her and turn on a show. Either way, it’s not a huge deal since Gwen nurses so quickly anyway. I’ve had nights where Eva just doesn’t seem to want to be distracted while I’m putting Gwen to bed and she has stood in the nursery beside us. So far, though, that hasn’t bothered Gwen and she still goes to sleep.

Then, when that’s done, I still have a good 30-40 minutes until Eva goes to bed. Depending on the night, she and I might have a shower (sometimes this is my best option for actually getting a shower myself), or I will clean up from dinner while she plays if I haven’t had a chance to. She may have a snack and watch a show or else we’ll do potty, pull up, teeth brushing and snuggle in her bed for a books and songs for a longer time before bed.

The spacing in the bedtimes has made it oh so much easier. So much. Eliminating my need to basically toss one kid into their bed and run to the next makes the evening quieter, more peaceful and less “I wanna pull all my hair out and then drown myself in chocolate”. Although, if I’m being totally honest, I do often feel that way anyway.

This new set up, with the earlier bedtime for the babe, makes the whole “bedtime” thing take much longer but also makes it a far less chaotic time. For now, when it’s dark and cold and icky and we wouldn’t be outside anyway, it works well. When summer comes and evenings are spent outside, we’ll see how it goes, as I’m sure Eva won’t be as interested in coming inside when Sissy has to go to bed. For now, though … you’ll be hearing no complaints from me.

Memory = Refreshed

I guess last week’s Eva Says post served to refresh my memory. Or else it just brought out some extra cute in her. Either way, over the last week I’ve noted so many more little tidbits of her that need to be documented forever.

I love when toddlers use incorrect grammar and pronunciation. It’s so cute. Right now one of Eva’s best is “We’s guys”. “We’s guys is playing puzzles. We’s guys can read a book now”.

One morning she was walking around wearing nothing but socks. (I almost wrote some kind of explanation or disclaimer here…but let’s face it, we’ve established one thing already: kids are weird). She was singing. As usual. And suddenly I hear, “Old McDonald had a farm, E I E I MOOOOOOONER”. Looked over, and her butt was in the air. Who’s kid is this?

She’s discovered the art of deception but not quite yet the art of lying. She will often say,, “I want you to go over there” or “I want you to go into that room”. When I ask her why, that’s when her plan breaks down. She always tells me why. “Because I want to pick my nose”, “because I want to climb on the couch”, “because I want to drink your pop”.

She was playing on her own one evening recently when I heard her tell one of her dollies: “When I was in bed, I was sad. And I cried. I called “MOMMY. MOMMY” But my mom didn’t come. My mom never came”. MOM FAIL.

There is a little girl in Eva’s Sunday school class with the same name as her Aunt Holly. Her Aunt Holly recently had a birthday so on the way home from church she asked me if it was Holly’s birthday. I said it was her Aunt Holly’s birthday, not the Holly from Sunday school. She said, “Oh. Is it the Holly with the Charlie in Michikits (Michigan)?”

Every night when we sit down at the table for dinner, it goes something like this, “Oh! Mommy and Daddy. We better pray”. Then we pray. And then, “Okay, can you talk to me about school?”

A few weeks ago we had our friends over for dinner. Gwennie was already in bed and Evalyn was heading there herself when they were getting packed up to go. I had done the whole bedtime prep thing and told her to go get in bed and I’d come tuck her in in a minute after they left. She waited two or three minutes and of course, I was just chatting away. Finally, she appeared in her bedroom door way and said “Excuse me, can you guys go home now?”

For a while she went on a kick of saying “would you be happy to” before every single request. “Mommy, would you be happy to get me a snack? Would you be happy to turn on my show? Would you be happy to play this game?”

As she’s laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep, “Come here mom. Lay right here. Lay on my tummy and I will rock you. I will hold you Mommy”.

Her favourite thing to play, by far, is babies. Sometimes she’s the mommy. Like the time she pulled Gwennie onto her lap and said “Dis is the Sweetie Gwennie. And I am the Sweetie Gwennie’s Sweetie Mama”. But sometimes she wants to be the baby. The other day she climbed in my lap and told me she was the baby and I should rock her to sleep. As I was rocking, she got that smirk on her face and said “I need some milk” (she still thinks it’s hilarious to pretend she’s nursing). I said “Okay and pretended to nurse her. She said, “No, not like dat. You have to take your breast seeding right out and open it like this” as she undid my nursing tank.

One morning recently, I played dead stayed in bed after the girls and Evan got up. Sometimes I do this. After a while I heard her say “It’s time for my mommy to wake up. I will go in der. I will not bosser (bother) her. I will just look. Not touching her”.

She has quickly caught on to the whole idea that there are some things that are not safe or appropriate for the baby to play with. She uses this to her full advantage all the time. If Gwen has something she wants, she always, “Oh no no Sweetie heart. Dat’s not sor babies. Dat’s too small. You might choke. Dat’s not safe. You give that to big sissy.” Sneaky right?

She has started to refer to herself in third person most of the time. And not just be her name. She calls herself Miss Eva.

She is constantly telling me what to ask her. For instance, “Mommy, can you ask me where I put the baby?” and then when I humour her and do as she’s asked, she acts like it was the best idea ever for me to ask her that. “Okay, Momma. I will. I will tell you about it. I put my baby in that bed”. Also, note that when she says, “Okay, I will” it sounds like “Okay, I wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel”.

We were chatting the other day and our conversation went like this. Me: “Do you love Mommy?” Eva: “I love Daddy”. Me: “WHAT?” Eva: “Can you cry about that?”

I may have written about this one before because it’s been going on for a while but all of her measures of time are in reference to “this time”, “last time” and “next time”. “I went to school last time” (usually means yesterday). “Next time, can I go to visit Goofy at his house?” (I guess here it means sometime). Or, “I will eat my snack this time” (usually means right now).

She is starting to be interested in opposites. The only problem is that sometimes she just doesn’t quite get it. “Is dis is big or yittle? Is dis is blue or open? Is dis is tall or hot?”…. Hm, well. We’ll work on that.

Similarly, she talks about the weather a lot. And usually she can look outside and explain pretty well what the weather is. Only sometimes I wonder what in the world she’s thinking. We were outside in the evening and she said, “Is it dark outside?” And I said, “Yes. It’s dark because it is night time”. “Yes, it’s dark and the sunny is pouring!!”

We live in the sticks and so more often than not we are met with interesting aromas when driving. Tonight, we were driving home from the Auntie’s house and the air was smelling rather fresh. Whenever Eva smells something she always makes large an exaggerated sniffing noises with her nose to figure out what she smells. Finally, she said, “Mommy? Did I tooted or something?” I said, “I’m not sure, did you?” And she said, “No. But what I smell? I fink it smells like Marcia (her aunt). I think it smells like pigs”.  This isn’t the first time she’s done this. A few weeks ago, she said she smelled cows and it smelled like Auntie Crystal.

She thinks a hood is called a “head up”. Obviously, it stems from me saying, “Let’s put your hood up” but she always says, “I need to get my head up on” or “Can you put my head up up?” I could correct her on this, but I won’t. I just won’t. It’s too cute.

It’s been too long

It’s been too long since I’ve sat down to jot down some things about my oldest little. I really do wish that I could somehow bottle up and contain every little thing she does. Wouldn’t that be nice? Over the Christmas holidays, my laptop crashed. It wasn’t a huge deal because I knew it was coming to the end of its life so everything important was all backed up. Everything except draft posts that I had written. I use windows live writer and totally forgot to save my drafts elsewhere. One, in particular, was a running list of “Evalynisms’ that I try to jot down on a daily basis. I am sad. I feel like a coupes months of her funny has just disappeared. But oh well, I try to remember the best ones and the rest just become a part of who she is, I guess.

Lately, she’s been the queen of conjunctions. For a long time, it was “cause”, now it is “but”. Every sentence begins and ends with “but” and there are usually a few “buts” thrown in the middle. “But I need a snack but my tummy is hungry but I want some pretzels but can I watch a show?”

Her most recent favourite story is “Curduroy” or “Quarter Bear” according to her. She loves reading it to her sister. “Quarter bear has a button but he doesn’t know where is his button. He goes boom on the lamp and goes ride on the alligator (escalator)”.

Whenever I tell her it’s time to do something, her automatic response is “Can I dust play four more minutes and DEN I go to bed?” Always “four more minutes”. Not sure if it’s a mix up between for a few more minutes and ___ number of minutes or what. But it’s hilar.

She has taken to calling both Gwennie and I “Sweetie Heart”. It’s kind of precious. Especially since I don’t say this myself. It’s all her.

The measures of love are hilarious. Most often it’s “I love you sixty clock” or “I love you Tuesday morning” or “I love you twenty four”.

She likes to talk for her sister. Soon will come a day when her sister will begin talking for herself. Won’t that be the day? But for now, Evalyn speaks in a high pitched squeaky voice when Gwennie needs to say something. (I have a video but it won’t let me upload. Boo)

She has added the word “Why” to her vocab. So that’s fun.

She’s sick with her first ear infection right now. We discovered it when she woke up one morning and said “Mommy. My ear has a sick in it”. We went to the Doctor (which was more than traumatic) and sure enough, she does. Now, every time she bumps her head, trips, coughs or does anything remotely resembling an illness or injury she tells me “I need to go back at dat Doctor”. The first day, when she was feeling really rotten, at one point I scooped her into my arms and said “Come here sweetie, mommy will make you feel better”. Her response, “No. Just give me some medicine”.

She’s having some serious trouble letting go of Christmas. Serious. As in, almost every day I hear something about “And dis is for you on Christmas day!” or questions about where the tree is. Where her Christmas plate is. And when it’s all coming back. Can’t blame her. We spend a whole month hyping it up and then it’s just over?

I feel like this is the most boring Evalyn says post yet. That’s what I get for not keeping a daily list and having to try to remember it all off the top of my head. I forget. See? This is why I blog.

And on that note … I’m off to restart my running list…