Friday, July 23, 2010

22 Months Old and More

Evie is 22 months old and we are officially waiting to adopt again! I dropped our new profile books at the social worker's office yesterday, and she activated our file. We'll be up on her website in a couple of weeks. We are excited, but also apprehensive about jumping back in the pool of waiting families right now, while Evie is in a clingy phase and my sister-in-law, A, is expecting twins in a few weeks (they are due in October but almost certainly coming sooner since she's already on bed rest for pre-term contractions at 28 weeks).

With Evie's adoption, we were only active for 10 days between Lucy's adoption disrupting and being matched with R & G, so technically the same thing could happen this time and we could be matched quickly. You just never know.

I hope we wait a few months at least, so that my mom can spend plenty of time helping with the twins without feeling torn and wanting to come visit our new baby as well, and so that I'll be able to travel to Mississippi (where my brother, D, is stationed with the Navy) and help them out as well. Right now the plan is for me to make 2 trips to MS...once to help out while A is on bed rest and again to help out when the twins arrive. Evie will come with me for both trips and have a chance to play with her 3-year-old boy cousin, C. She loves playing with older kids and learning new tricks from them, so I predict Evie will enjoy the trips and I'll be able to be a help to D & A.

Another project around here is to fully transition Evie from her crib to her toddler bed before we adopt baby #2. These days she tends to decide NOT to go to sleep, but instead to create piles of stuff. This particular pile is stuffed animals, books and a doll bathtub, which was her project in place of bedtime last night:

More photos from month 22...

She gets better at climbing each month as her legs get longer:

In a woven wrap (borrowed) at a babywearing get-together (she hates being worn and would much rather run around on her own feet, but I still use the Ergo quite a bit for errands):

At Grandma and Grandpa's house in late June:
Daddy's Girl:
She LOVES to hang these days, and unfortunately tries to hang on furniture a lot. We are trying to break her of that habit, out of fear that she'll some day pull something heavy on top of herself, so we really need something like this in the back yard, since we don't have this in the back yard:
Big girl swing:
How do you go out to eat with a toddler? Stickers:

Evie learned about rolling down the sand hills from The Wiggles, so now she log rolls on any hill I'll let her. Here she is on The Lawn at U.Va. in early July:
Doing a dance near The Aviator:
Argh, this would have been a perfect picture of her in front of the Rotunda except for that darn balloon she was obsessed with that day. She'll have this picture up on her dorm wall some day. :)
Sporting Grandma's hat:
Playing drums with Daddy at church:Evie's ABC's (why did I decide to shoot these videos where I have no makeup and workout clothes on? I have no clue):



Evie has had a cute habit of saying "hopi" for "hold it" for months now, and my mom has repeatedly reminded me to get it on video before she grows out of it. She was right! In the process of shooting this video (in which I purposefully taunt her with an illicit colored pen to get the "hopi" out of her) she says "hold it" for the first time:



Finally, we've been watching Elmo ride his tricycle...


...and that has done the trick to get Evie started riding hers "just like Elmo." Now that she has the idea of pedaling we need to work on steering before we slap a helmet on her and let her loose in the park.


In conclusion, here are a couple of quotes I want to remember from this month:

*[pointing to the Pirate's Booty on top of the fridge] "Booty Time!"

and

*[pointing to the cursive letter "L" on my shirt] "ELephant! Braloo!" (braloo is an elephant trumpeting noise, in case you didn't know)

8 comments:

  1. I'm so excited that you're adopting again. I hope it all goes smoothly and that you don't have to wait long. I'll keep you all in my prayers. Evie is so cute! You all are doing a great job!

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  2. Yay for being active again! We juuust started the process and I think it will take 6+ months to get approved with our agency.

    I seriously need to stop reading your blog. I feel like my son is so NOT smart compared to Evie. :) But then I realize she's advanced and I feel better all over again.

    Love the videos. And I was proud Declan counted to 3. Ha!

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  3. What a great recap (fun pics!) and holy cows congratulations! Evie is going to be such a great big sister.

    And yeah, I'm with Ashley - you are doing such an amazing job teaching Evie. I would love it if you did some posts about your routine, your day, your lessons, etc. You know, before you're too busy with a newborn and all.

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  4. Thanks everyone!

    +Ashley: That is funny because when I read your blog I always see Declan doing things that Evie can't do and then a month later she starts doing them too...I feel like your blog is a preview for me since he's a month older :) If Declan is counting to three then he'll start counting to ten soon...it was only a couple of weeks between those 2 things for Evie. I think it's just the gender gap that boys as a whole talk later than girls.

    + Richele: You flatter me! I don't do formal lessons with Evie, yet, but I'll think about your suggestion and see if I can put a post together about our routine and how Evie learns things.

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  5. The "hold it" thing is too funny...of course she would say it the right way for the first time when you have the camera on!

    I'm SO EXCITED for baby #2!! I can imagine your feelings of apprehension, simply for no other reason than there is so much unknown involved in the process. You have so little control over any part of it and that can be very unnerving...I think especially when you are busy with baby #1 and lots of family things! I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed for you that it's soon but not so soon that you feel more overwhelmed than you already will!

    Melba

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  6. Two things I love about this post: the look on your face during the dinner shot, and Evie's ADORABLE pink jumper in the picture on the stairs! Sooooooo cute!

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  7. PS--Elliott is incredibly jealous that Evie can ride a tricycle. We put him on one in the store a few weeks ago, and his shrimpy little legs didn't even come close to touching the pedals!

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  8. congrats on adopting #2. Evie is just the cutest thang ever! Love the UVA campus. Good place to try to snag a photo (despite the balloon distraction).

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