Crash! 14 Months Old

Not the car, the computer. The old computer, I should say. The trusty computer that brought you this blog from the beginning. Dead.

Good news! I backed up all of Evie's photos from her first year, and all of the videos from her first year, on DVD data discs.

Bad news! All of the photos from months 13 and 14 are now only on S*napfish and in hard copy form, which doesn't help me upload them here. And now I have V*ista (don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to the nice lady at C*ostco who gave us a great price on a floor model of my new touch screen Dell, but V*ista stinks) and it's going to take awhile to get my free copy of Windows 7 that was promised with the purchase of the computer. And S*ony didn't release a driver for my camcorder that works with V*ista. So, the videos are stuck on my camcorder unless someone locally wants to come over and let me use theirs to upload? :)

Which means, in the end, that this post is going to be way more words and a lot fewer pictures. And the pictures I do have from the past couple of days aren't anything great, but they do illustrate what Evie is up to at this age:

Playing with Aunt C and Uncle M's dog (Nana and Papa were visiting). She loved kicking the dog out of the bed and sitting in it herself:
Eating frozen yogurt (teething molars = OUCH! fever, diaper rash, runny nose and much crankiness):


Avoiding the camera:

Dancing on her toys:

And some pictures from today (in a D*ora outfit that was a birthday gift from G's grandmother)...

"Hey, Mama! There's velcro on my shoes!"
My little genius who figured out that her tea set is also a shape puzzle:

Just after taking off a shoe and throwing it to the floor:

Examining her music:

Balancing out the challenges of parenting a willful, teething toddler, Evie is all sugar and spice right now. She learns something new every day (throwing balls! new words and signs! climbing skills!) and is very cuddly. She has recently begun giving J and I real hugs and kisses, and will sometimes come up to us when we are standing and give our legs a tight bear hug. There is just nothing like it--feeling your baby's little arms wrapped around your legs or neck, squeezing tightly...knowing that she learned how to hug by being cuddled and hugged every day since she was born. Knowing that she loves you back and wants to express her love for you with a tight squeeze and a little puckery kiss. Parenthood just keeps getting more wonderful, and more challenging!

I've been spending a lot of my spare time trying to get caught up with projects before the new baby comes, so I haven't been online as much recently. It's paid off, though, with some major accomplishments. I am officially, totally and completely caught up with scrapbooking Evie pictures! That is a major accomplishment because if I can keep it up then I'll be able to start scrapbooking Drizzle's pictures immediately and not fall into the second child trap of falling behind on documentation. You know, the first child has a baby book and scrapbooks and the second has a box of pictures? I don't want that for Drizzle!

I'm also working on a Christmas quilt that I started over 2 years ago. I'm hoping it will be displayed before January, or at least for Drizzle's first Christmas next year. :)

Finally, I bought a plain t-shirt for Evie and some iron-on letters to make her a "Big Sister" shirt to wear to Florida in the spring. Now that the holidays are here the time is going to fly!

Drizzle is (Probably) a...

...Boy!

A had a sonogram today and the doctor is pretty sure it's a boy and will confirm 100% with another sonogram in early December. Darn it, I'm going to have to wait a few more weeks to start shopping blue. And, I'm going to hold off on writing about how I feel about the prospect of having a son (SO EXCITED, YAY! in short) until we know for sure. We'll also keep Drizzle until we're sure, because I know how much my mom and Deanna love the name. (Facetious.)

Speaking of things we don't know for sure, we also found out today that C, Drizzle's dad, is more uncertain about the adoption than we knew at first. A is hopeful that he will come around, but we are grateful to know how he is feeling because if this adoption plan fails, it will be much easier to deal with if we see it coming. It is very comforting to know A and have ongoing communication with her.

On to cheerier topics! Evie is having a communication growth spurt and is a little mynah bird these days, imitating words and signs and is also starting to use them with purpose. She now signs (independently, not mimicking) "milk," and "eat" and is starting to sign "all done" again (after refusing to do it for weeks). She is also mimicking some of the hand motions we use with songs we sing to her and one of my next missions is to get that on tape. Unfortunately, you'll have to hear me singing in the background. :)

Evie also says "baby," "ball," "no!" and "Dada" (again) independently and mimics the sounds of "bye bye," "bread," "yeah" and "girl." "Baby" and "bye bye" sound identical, so you have to go by context! She has also started saying "gaga" intently, in a tone of voice that indicates she believes it is a word. I haven't yet figured out what it means.

I'll end with a couple of cute anecdotes:

Yesterday Evie woke me up with the following coming over the baby monitor: "dadadadadadadadadada.....Mama?"

Today when I walked into her room to get her up from her nap, she waved "Hi" to me!

How is it that she just keeps getting cuter? This is her "smile for the camera" face these days. I need to teach her how to say cheese with her eyes open:

Mud

(Look at her pant leg.)

First time getting muddy outside, but definitely not the last time.

Happy Halloween

Evie was a bumblebee for Halloween this year. The costume does have a face on the hood, but she hates the hood so it stayed down 99% of the time.

She wore her costume for the first time on Thursday since the kids were invited to dress up for baby storytime at the library this week. Here's gangster bee: and thoughtful bee:

This evening we were invited to a bonfire and party at a friend's house. Evie had a ball tromping around their huge yard and she was in awe of the bonfire when it got going (it was about 8 feet tall before it was lit).

They also have a sand volleyball pit on their land and it was Evie's first experience with sand. Tasty:

Happy Halloween everyone!

Forever Family Day

Dear Evie,

One year ago today we all sat in a court room (well, you slept) and a judge signed a paper that says you are officially, finally and forever adopted into our family. This didn't change anything about how we felt about you or how you felt about us; it only changed our family's status in the eyes of the legal system and enabled us to put our last name on your birth certificate and get you a Social Security number. But even though the day was just a formality, we want to celebrate Forever Family Day as more than a legal anniversary.

On this day, we want to talk to you about "Forever." It means there is...

...nothing in the world so big...
...nowhere in the universe so far away...
...no amount of time so long...
...nobody on earth so powerful...
...no event so horrible, or so wonderful...
...no change in our lives...
...nothing you could do, not even the worst thing you can think of...
...nothing you can say, really nothing...

...that will ever, ever make us stop loving you. We will love you FOREVER.

Kisses,
Mommy and Daddy