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.
