Evelyn At Fourteen Months

It happened this month!  We put you to bed one night, our precious baby Evelyn Rose; and the next morning you woke up our precious toddler!  Although somedays it feels like you skipped the toddler phase all together and went directly from a baby to a two year old.  Even your aunt Hillary commented today that "your kids hit the 'terrible two's' so early, and stay that way 'til four." (No guarantee of it ending at four, ha!)



Just a day or so into your 14th month, your Gigi said, "Can you close that cabinet?"  And you slowly, deliberately, even-seemily-sweetly shook your little head twice to give your answer--"No."  And you haven't stopped.  You spent the next couple of days shaking your head "No" as often as possible.  It was actually pretty funny.  It has lessened a bit lately; although you still do it when applicable.

I walked in to find your standing on our side table, swinging a large mirror side to side against the wall on which it was (thankfully) still hanging.  I had turned the two chairs in the living room towards the wall so that you couldn't climb into them and fall out; you had scooted one back from the wall, climbed into it, and then climbed onto the table next to it.  There is also a lamp on that table.  And hardwood floors underneath it.  And, of course, the mirror above it.  I had been in the laundry room for at least five minutes, and when I came in and got you down, you gave me an extra tight squeeze around the neck.  I think you'd realized you were stuck up there.  I think we narrowly escaped stitches that day, and I wouldn't have even known what to tell the doctor about how you got hurt.  I was picturing a DHS interview.

You point to the pictures of "Dada" that are around the house and tell me all about them.  In the last month or so, your babbling and language has increased, and in the last few months you have also been willing to attempt to repeat words when we ask you.   I asked you a question the other day, and your babbling back had the exact "sound" and intonation as "I don't know." I'm sure that's what you said!  Even though I don't know much of what you babble about, you certainly understand most everything we say--I hope we haven't ruined your Christmas surprises!



You came and found me in the laundry room, told me "uh oh!" took my hand and walked me to the living room, saying "uh oh" all the way.  When we got in there, the credits were rolling on the television.  The "uh oh" was that the show was over!  You were ready for some more singing and dancing entertainment.

One of your "words" I think you've had for a while that I'm just now noticing is "night night."  It sounds similar to "mama," and you consistently say it at bedtime.  Spencer will tell you, "Goodnight, I love you!"  And you'll wave and babble a "night night" back to him.  Sometimes, that's the bright spot of my day!  Other words you attempt include "up," "bath," "off," "on," "yeah,""eyes" (pointing to your nose) "book," and I know there are more I can't remember.  You still have a 'baba," and you do not want to replace it with milk in a cup.  You love water in a cup, and milk in a bottle.  Oh, the opinions!

You recently asked me for your bottle, and I think I said something about not being sure where it was.  You fussed and fussed, and took my hand.  I humored you, and you led me to one of the backward facing chairs in the living room, where you had thrown your bottle, and then, you or Spencer had thrown toys and blankets on top of it.  You took me to the chair and continued to tell me "baba" and "uh oh," until I realized it was wedged in there with the other stuff.  I got it out for you, and walked off pretty impressed at your communicative abilities and, of course, perseverance to be heard in our family.  That scenario reminded me a lot of your brother at your age.  You two are smart kiddos.  I have to work to stay caught up, I've pretty much given up trying to stay "ahead."

You love your brother so much, and you want to do whatever he is doing.  He had me help him take off his sweatshirt the other day, and you immediately followed suite, coming up to me, pulling on your sweatshirt, and insisting it be removed.  You enjoyed coloring some this month, which surprised me.  You did still try to put the crayons in your mouth; and you were really mad that we had to keep them in the kitchen, so they have been short coloring times; but you had fun for a moment.

One Sunday morning this month, Miss Julie moved you up to the toddler room in Sunday school, mainly because the baby room was full of babies, some of which weren't so happy.  She knew if there was any baby who would do fine in the toddler class, it would be you.  You were very tired that morning, but you did fine.  You had insisted on having someone else's dad hold you (twice) when he was there to pick up his own child.  He was holding you when I came in, and I think he felt awkward.  He assured me that you had fussed at him until he held you, twice; I told him him that I had no doubt you fussed him in to holding you.   You love "dada's."

You love strawberries, and you enjoyed the "creamy tacos" I cooked this month.  You also like spaghetti and pizza.  You want to feed everything to yourself.  We have tried to convince you to let us feed you yogurt, and you have to be extremely hungry to put up with that.  You don't have a lot of patience for sitting up to eat, you want to get down before you are full, and you fuss, cry, and scream that I won't let you carry your food all over the house.  We're talking knock down drag out tantrums sometimes.  You seem to really like water; and you like cow's milk ok.

Lately, you so enjoyed taking out every single piece of plastic cutlery from a large ziploc bag, and then you enjoyed helping me clean it up.  You insisted that I hold the bag open, and you put in one piece after another.  You definitely quit before everything was picked up, but just the part you did reminded me what a true toddler you are these days.  Your baby days seem to be coming to an end.

The pictures of you on the sofa was such a fun day for you.  Spencer had pulled all the cushions off of the sofa the night before, and we'd rushed around that morning getting him out the door to preschool.  When all the dust settled, I'd forgotten that the cushions were off the sofa.  I had been trying to be so vigilant about watching you in that situation, because you are wild and a climber, but you can still fall off easily.  It was quiet in the living room, so I peeked in; and these pictures are what I saw--you, sitting with a big grin on your face on the sofa, holding your milk AND your water, watching "Miss Patty Cake."  You were so proud to be sitting on the couch like a big girl.  I ran and grabbed the camera.

It's become increasingly clear to me that a lot of times you want to be my "buddy."  You want to sit by me while I do something, or you want to help me do it.  The problem is that you're 14 months old, so you sit there for half of a second and then you see all of the amazing opportunities surrounding you and you do things that make me have to insist you not sit by me (on the sofa, at the table, at the counter stools, etc.)  Then you get really mad.  We go rounds over this all day long.  It's sweet that you want to be with me doing what I'm doing, though.  I look forward to the day when that's a positive experience for the two of us.

Tonight I was folding laundry.  You grabbed your daddy's t-shirt, put it over your head so you couldn't see anything and walked and ran all over the house, giggling.  You would take it off every now and then, laugh, throw it back on and run some more.  You're hilarious.  You've also got a nice, strong, over hand throw these days.  We encourage it outside with balls, but your favorite thing to throw is your full sippy cup.  You like the umph it adds to your temper tantrums.  

Spencer is your favorite wrestling partner.  You love to pick a (play) fight with him to get him to chase you and tickle you.  You also love to ambush him when he's on ground level.  You run up and grab his head, pull his hair, jump on him, slobber on him, etc.  When he is also in the mood, it is so cute.  When he's not in the mood, I'm very concerned that he is going to really hurt you, but so far, so good.  He manages to keep his cool until I can pull you off of him.

While you love to play with him, you have also shown some times when you attempt to help me take care of him.  You're very upset when he is in trouble (screaming), and yesterday you saw me packing everything up for us to get out the door and you found his shoe in the shoe basket and walked it over to him.  You've tried to put his shoes and socks on him before this many times, but I'd never seen you take such initiative.  Ha!  And he's certainly never returned the favor!



Getting pictures of the two of you is getting harder.  I don't for see it getting any easier any time soon; but y'all are so precious, I will keep trying.



Here, you were so excited about watching "Old King Cole."  You love the singing and the dancing; and you dance along.  I've captured some of your dancing on video tape.  You have the funniest little moves.  You move your arms back and forth and you move your hips back and forth.  If the music is fast, you just do the same thing really fast.  Sometimes you involve your shoulders too.  You'll stomp your feet and clap your hands, and every now and then you wave your hands over your head.

You have been telling us when it's time for your bedtime recently; and you do not let up until we put you to bed.  Spencer started doing much, much younger than you; but I'm so glad you feel positively about going to bed now.  It's probably only been in the last couple of months that you don't cry when we put you to bed every night.  You're bonding with your bedtime routine--only took fourteen months!  You've had a cold (or three) all month, and you still take one nap a day.  One day this month you took two naps, per your request, probably because you were sick.  You were up a ton that night.  I think this has been your best month in terms of sleeping, though.  You've had about least three times of sleeping until 5 am for three nights in a row.  We're all hoping this is the month you learn how to make it through every night.  Fourteen months was the magic month for Spencer.

You love playing outside with Spencer, and you're trying to scale the play kitchen like he does, so it's about to go back into storage until you're a little older.  You're keeping us on our toes; but God knew I'd never be happy living a boring life.  We love the wiggly dancing and even the close calls you have brought to our family.  Love you, sweat pea, stay off the side tables!