Twitterpated

Evelyn has been listening to the audio of Bambi, I found an old cassette tape and she loves listening to the story. The other night, she asked me what "twitterpated" meant. I told her it meant all the forest animals were falling in love. She thought about it for a minute and then said, "oh! so you and Daddy are twitterpated then!"

Yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversary, and yes, we are still twitterpated!

Observations by Evelyn

Peeps don't have crumbs because they're soft. But cupcakes have crumbs because they're crumbly and they have frosting that you can lick.

To her Gramma: "We don't watch that movie Madagascar; it has too much sarcasm."

...and about Madagascar. Evelyn was talking to her Papa about the character Melvin, the giraffe in the movie. Papa couldn't quite hear how Evelyn was pronouncing the name and asked, "do you mean Melvin?"

Evelyn said, quite emphatically "No Papa! Melman, spelled TRSOP!"

Happily Ever After

Last Friday morning, Evelyn had an experience few other 5 year olds shared.

Curled up with her Gramma Claire, eating English toast, and drinking "bubbles" at 3:00a.m. in the morning she watched "The Royal Wedding" where "Princess Kate" (as she now calls her) married her "handsome Prince William."

It wasn't planned that she would watch it live, not really. She spent the night with Gramma, who is known to have a soft spot for weddings. Gramma Claire was hoping to catch some of the coverage live, and when Evelyn woke up and came out to the living room and asked her, "Whatcha doing Gramma, you watchin some T.V?" she didn't stop her. "We're going to watch the Royal Wedding, get comfortable". They watched the guests arrive and discussed the hats, and drank sparkly soda and clinked glasses and cheered many times over. And when the wedding ceremony was over, and Gramma suggested they turn it off and go back to bed, Evelyn begged to watch until they rode away in their carriage.
And so they watched the whole thing. And when they got in their carriage, Gramma told Evelyn, "There, now they live happily ever after, get back to bed."

Evelyn hasn't had a nap in a long time, but she did when she got home from Grammas. I'm sure she had sweet dreams during this one. And we hope they live happily ever after.

My sleeping beauty, dreaming of her Happily Ever After.

Our Pink World

One more Easter dress shot, just for fun. We sure see a lot of pink around here! :0)

Happy Easter

We had sun, for the second DAY this YEAR on Saturday. It's so incredible to actually feel the warmth of the sun in your bones, such a wonderful feeling of release. What a glorious day it was. Nora discovered grass and the sheer joy of tearing it up, and the tickly feeling of grass on her toes.

We mowed the lawn, weeded, had a BBQ with friends and dinner with more friends before running back inside for cover. The rain has returned, naturally.

My two sweet Easter girls, each holding an egg.

Nora's first Easter

April Showers bring... April Showers

Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot,

we weather the weather whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.

Easier said, then done.

Easter is next week. The daffodils have almost had their last dance. The tulips are making their entrance onto the stage. The cherry blossoms are here, but not in their full glory. It's too wet. The petals are heavy. And what's even worse then the wet, is the cold. It's cold. Like, January cold. 3 days this year, only 3 days have we even reached 60 degrees! It's cold people!

And with this much rain, what else is there to do but try and keep your head above water. So, I have been trying to make the best of it. I stopped and smelled the flowers (or in this case noticed how pretty the pink blossoms were covered in rain droplets.)

And today, we decided to go for a walk (It was sunny at the moment this decision was made). I rounded up both girls and convinced Evelyn to put on her socks and then to put her shoes on the right feet, as opposed to the opposite feet which she is so inclined to do, and we were finally ready to head out....and by then, of course, it had started to rain again.

So we threw up our hands and decided to go anyways. Evelyn put on her rain coat and grabbed her umbrella. I did the same and zipped Nora snugly up inside my coat, who was bundled up and fast asleep against my body in her BabyHawk carrier. I was thankful I chose to carry her in my wrap rather then the stroller today, because she stayed warm and dry. And we headed out, with Scout in tow. He was none too thrilled about the idea of wandering in the rain, but was a good sport about it anyway.

Not that you can tell, but this is actually a picture of Nora, zipped up warm and dry. Instead it just looks like I have an alarming growth on my neck maybe.

It rained hard on us most of the walk. And then, lest we forget that it is, in fact, April and NOT January, the sun made a brief and glorious appearance in tandem with the still falling rain, and a spectacular rainbow. Spring is here, she's just too nice to give Old Man Winter the full boot.

And so our walk ended on a sunny note.

7 Months in April

"She is my dear, my darling one. Her eyes are bright and full of fun. No other, no other can match the likes of her!" (hear Sean Connery singing in Darby O'Gill and the Little People...)

Eleanor Catherine Isom, now 7 months old

7 months old already! How can it be?... is what you are thinking, well then, just imagine how we feel!

Nora is a delight. She is the quintesential baby. She smiles at the drop of a hat and when you are the recipient, you are rendered defenseless.

Nora loves to test her volume control and crank it up to ear-splitting, glass shattering shrieks of glee. She kicks and kicks and kicks with delight.

She loves to lay on her tummy and explore the toys within her grasp. She has discovered that she can shake and bang and every toy must be tested, it's a full time job. This task is accomplished only after each toy has been thourouly licked, sucked, and gummed on, naturally.

Nora loves her playful Daddy and anticipates his tickles with a grin, a kick and a wiggle.

She will sit and explore for a while and then deflates or tips like a teapot back to her tummy position.

She is trying new foods and has conquered sweet potatoes, pureed pumpkin, avacado, banana, green beans, pears, peaches and rice cereal on occation but it's not been so kind to her tummy, which reminds me; she also knows about prune juice and so do we!

We love this little munchkin. We love seeing her petals unfold, she is blossoming into a rather spectacular little bundle. ">

Mother Nature Has A Sick Sense of Humor

The month of March has been particularly ugly this year. In fact, the news channels are quick to point out that it has been only the 5th wettest March in recorded history with it raining 29 out of 31 days! It has also been the coldest year in recorded history. We waited with baited breath everyday to see if maybe, just maybe, we would break the elusive mark of 60 degrees. It has been cold and dark and wet. I'm not gonna lie, it's been rough. And then it was April 1st. April FOOLS day. And Mother Nature decided to take the opportunity to play a little prank. It was a glorious, warm, sunny afternoon. We went to the park, without umbrellas or jackets! Evelyn ran and ran. Though she was the only one who could because my feet sank into the soggy soil like it was quick sand. We sat and soaked up the sun. We laughed and were grateful that the rain was gone. But of course, it wasn't. APRIL FOOLS! cried Mother Nature. The temperatures dropped again. The rain returned in full force. There is standing water in the yard because the earth is so saturated. The wind keeps blowing the cover off of our sandbox so now we have a small lake, complete with sandy bottom on our patio. We hope Mother Nature isn't so cruel as to only tease us with one day of Spring, we hope it was just a taste of what is to surely come. Come soon Spring!!!

Greatness

This little miss is getting comfortable in her 5 year old skin. She's made another shift, and is now noticeably "bigger" again. My heart has to re-adjust every time she does this to me. I am growing too. Several weeks ago, we were over at my Mom's. Gramma Claire's house is Evelyn's happy place, she loves going over there. Evelyn was dancing around the living room in her typical dis-jointed almost falling, 'almost-can't-watch' dance style that she is so good at and Mom and I were laughing while watching her, recognizing the little girl named Brigetta in her movements. Gramma told Evelyn, in an ironic tone, "you are graceful just like your Mama was." and Evelyn came up to me and gave me a big floppy, knees and elbows almost-hurts hug and then went back to twirling but said with a big grin on her face, "YEP, I have the GREATNESS of you Mommy!" I love this kid.

Happy Birthday Papa

Not that you can tell from the pictures, but we took Papa to the zoo for his birthday and a day out with our cousins. Papa was sorely out-numbered with 5 grand-daughters and 2 of his daughter in laws, but he handled us all just fine. It was only a little bit soggy, but we came prepared for the rain and walked in between the drops. Nora only saw her wild cousins, but she has plenty of time ahead of her for more trips to the zoo, and hopefully the next time we won't need the umbrella's!

The four big kids: Haley, Hope, Hannah and Evelyn

The two 5 year olds sharing Hopes ladybug umbrella.

Our bundled up baby. All the girls were jostling for their turn to push the stroller, which was fine by me!

First bites of cereal

Look who's eating! This girl was SO ready to eat, my goodness! She's been watching my every move at the table and when I finally offered her some food to eat, she literally grabbed the bowl and went in face first! Then after a warm bath she fell asleep (for the first time in her life) before 8 pm and slept the rest of the night. Give this girl some food, and more of it!

Birthday girl! 5

Happy Birthday to my first-born babe! She is 5 and ALIVE, 5 and lovin it! Big changes are on the horizon and many milestones ready to fall. My heart aches with love and pride, wishing like every other mother in history that she wouldn't grow up so fast. I intend to follow my own Moms words of advice posted to me on Facebook.

"She's five. Enjoy each moment. Slow down. Play dolls. Lay down on the floor and talk. Teach her to be kinder than necessary. I love you both so much."
And we do.

Don't listen to what she says; listen to what she means.

We decided to go out to lunch last weekend. Sitting at the left turn signal in front of the restaurant, Sweet Tomatoes, Evleyn said, "OH I see the restaurant!" Curious, we asked her if she remembered the name of the place we were going.

She didn't.

So we gave her some clues..."It's a red, round, sweet vegetable that you love..." and Evelyn guessed correctly.

Tomato!

So we probed, now do you remember the name of the restaurant?

No. She still didn't.

So we gave her some more clues, "what is opposite of sour? Not sour but____?" And she guessed correctly.

Sweet!

Right! we said. So what's the name of the restaurant we're going to ?

And Evelyn pronounced, with total confidence in her answer...

SWEET MURPHEY'S!