Eve's Stats

On the 23rd Eve had her well child exam. These are her stats:
Weight: 20 lbs
Height: 29 7/8 inches
Head Circumference: 47 cm

She is growing up so fast!

Grandpa and Grandma Hall

Saturday we drove in to see my Grandpa and Grandma Hall. They were in town to spend the holidays with my Uncle Carl and gave me a call so we could get together. It was a lot of fun for Eve to meet them. She really loved my grandpa. She spent most of our visit sitting on his lap while he fed her gummy bears. Grandma Hall made her a cute little blanket for her baby and she loves it. Now she has to have her blanket with her baby at all times.

We went out to lunch with them at Milano's, a place close to Carl's work. It was fun to visit with family and fun to see Eve interact with them.

Helping Out

The Christmas tree has been surrounded by a gate since it went up. This meant that Eve thoroughly enjoyed putting things in the gate; meaning she found a toy hand, a screwdriver, and something else in one of her gift bags. It was hilarious to watch. It was also fun to see what she did after the gate came down for the presents.

Once the presents were opened that gave her time to focus on the tree. She decided right away that the ornaments had to go off the tree and that she really loved the extremely large strand of beads. So she "helped" take these things off the tree. Once most of the ornaments at her level were off the tree she decided maybe they needed to go back on it. She also put those beads around her neck a million times and didn't quite know what to do about them being so darn long!

Opening Presents

Luckily Eve's birthday is before Christmas. On her birthday she didn't quite get the concept of opening presents; but she caught on enough to really understand by Christmas. She was thrilled to be able to open loads of presents and of course it took forever to open them because each one must be played with before another one is opened. She really seemed to enjoy it. Everyone showered her with gifts so she has quite the supply of toys (not that she was lacking in the first place). We got her the kitchen set, we will see how she feels about it later but right now there are just too many other things to hold her interest. She loaded up with: Elmo Chatters, a jack-in-the-box, links, a telephone, a dog, a shape sorter, Weebles and clothes. I am sure I am forgetting presents at the moment but those are just a few of the ones that I have been finding homes for so they are fresh in my mind.

Anica helped her open presents while I tried to take pictures. She had a blast playing with the toys and thought everyone would just enjoy watching her.

It was a fun Christmas. We were happy to be with family and hear from our family too.

Birthday Fun

Eve really seemed to enjoy her birthday! We were so pleased that she loved her baby so much. She had to give it kisses and feed it her food, it was so cute. She had fun opening presents... sometimes so excited about one present that we couldn't get her interested in opening any other presents.

She also loved her cupcake. It was hilarious to see her chow down on it!!

Happy Birthdays!!

So today is a busy day at our house; we have two birthdays to celebrate. Ian is 25! Eve turns 1!

First I want to say happy birthday to Ian. He is an amazing husband to me and a fantastic father to Eve. I hope that this year his birthday is a little better for him than last year. There are so many qualities that I admire about him: he is patient, loving, and determined.

Next I want to wish a happy birthday to Eve!! I can't believe my little baby girl is already one. It is amazing how much can happen in one year. Exactly one year ago at 3 in the morning my water broke, and at 11:47 pm she was delivered. I think the most rewarding part was seeing Ian hold Eve when they brought me back to the room after stitching me up. Ian was beaming and so excited to introduce our daughter to me; he is so in love with her. It only seems fitting that they share a birthday. So happy birthday to the two loves of my life.

I will post pictures later.

Good Times

Here is a picture of Eve loving a "baby". This doll is just a few inches smaller than her. It is too big for her to carry so she drags it around. She gasps anytime she starts to let her fall and lets her down gently. Aunty Anica will love to see that Eve loves the doll that looks just like her!

Today while I was on the treadmill Eve decided it was time to head off to the office. She got her messenger bag all ready and everything. She got it around her neck all on her own. It is so funny!

Living in Alaska

Most of the time I love living in Alaska. Right now I hate it! I hate trying to get all the Christmas packages and everyone claims that Alaska mail can take up to a month. I don't live in the bush... I live so close to Anchorage it's ridiculous!!

I have spent the last month fighting about Eve's birthday present. I ordered it plenty early and then they said it could take up to a month; when a month passed they said the tracking (which they never gave me) said it had been here 3 weeks ago. They so kindly sent it again and then just today it was returned because the retards at the post office can't recognize the EXACT same address that another package we actually received today was addressed to. So I am mad. I got a refund on that one... and am trying another vendor... luckily this vendor is much less expensive so it may work out to my advantage.

So we are waiting for a few more packages that we ordered. Strangely the only ones that are ever refused are those shipped from a company... packages from family always show up. Sometimes I wish that we lived in a place where we could get everything we need without relying on ordering things. It will be even worse in Ketchikan ... but in Ketchikan we never had the problem with the post office just randomly sending back packages. Here's hoping everything else gets here! Poor Eve won't get her super cool discovery dome until after Christmas, but she won't know the difference.

Oh Baby

Eve is in love with baby dolls, in truth they don't have to be baby dolls, anything she can hold up to her and pat on the back works for her. I think it is the cutest thing ever. If we are in a store and see a little tiny real baby she will hold up her hands like she is pretending she is really holding the baby and pat it on the back.

So this weekend we were browsing through Toys R Us and I see a little Cabbage Patch newborn. I asked Ian if we could PLEASE get it for her (she already has a little tiny maybe 3 inch tall baby; this one is a bit bigger). When he asked me what it was for I went for the first occasion coming up, her birthday!! If that hadn't worked there is always Christmas!! So we have her little baby wrapped up under the tree. I can't wait to see her with it. She was patting the box and making the oh sound to calm the baby already!! Sometimes she is just too cute.

Busy Week

This week was finals week for Ian. That meant that we stayed extra busy around here. We are so relieved that he is done and gets to have an entire month off from school. Eve will love having Daddy around to play with because playing with me every day has to get old.

Eve loves grabbing onto our clothes. She likes me to put on Ian's hat and she could be entertained for quite a while with me putting it on and she taking it off. The other day Ian left his shirt on the couch and she brought it to me, so I put it on her. It was so funny because it made her look SO tiny!! Then she got into the outdoor clothes and grabbed my hat so I put it on too. Nothing is more fun than things that aren't supposed to be toys.

Eve also loves Christmas lights. She got a her hands on these while Grandpa Al was testing them to put up in the stairway. It is so funny to see her with the Christmas stuff. She loves putting her snakes in the cage that the Christmas tree is in (a baby gate is around the Christmas tree). Yesterday she didn't limit it to just her snakes, all the toys that she could find went to the Christmas tree.

The Worm

Eve is really picking up some dance moves from Ian. She dropped down on the floor today and did this all on her own. It was adorable!

My Weekend Project

Eve's toys have been driving me nuts! They seem to multiply daily and once I think that I have toy storage figured out once again I have to get a new container for the toys. This weekend I decided that I was going to make cute containers for her toys because I was sick of clear containers that I just wanted hidden away. So Ian helped me with these vegetable bins and I think that they are pretty cute. The project took longer than I thought because it had to be paused every time Eve woke up, but I think that it turned out pretty well. The bins don't look too babyish either so they can stick around for a while.

A side note about Eve is that you notice something yellow on her neck in one of the pictures. She is in love with this bag of snakes. She wanders around with snakes all of the time. I think my mom would just scream to see it because even though they are rubber snakes they still would freak her out. Eve loves them and thinks that we would all enjoy having snakes underneath the Christmas tree; she puts them there and we pull them back out.

Yummy Leftovers!!

I just had to post this picture because I love it so much! Eve loved the leftover pumpkin pie as you can tell in this picture.

Hanging with her pals

This evening Eve was winding down from a busy day by hanging with her good pals Frosty and Santa. She has been playing with Frosty for weeks. He lights up and sings Frosty the Snowman while dancing. She loves dancing around with Frosty. She is a little less accepting of Santa. As long as he is lighting up and singing she doesn't want anything to do with him. I think it's pretty hilarious.

Eve did have a busy day to wind down from. Today we made the big trip into Anchorage. She loved it!! Ian had to turn in an assignment and we thought we would make a family day out of it. We went to Burlington and bought a baby gate, got my Christmas present from Ian picked out, went to Michaels, went to lunch, and finally got to wander around Costco. It was lots of fun!! Eve loves all the people so she didn't want to head home. I am glad that she had a good time; I did too.

What happened to my alarm clock?

Usually Eve serves as an alarm clock, waking me up sometime between 6 and 7. This morning I thought I was crazy because I felt so awake. I finally decided to get out of bed (thinking it was 4 in the morning or something) and it was almost eight!! It was so funny. I decided to wake her up because otherwise... who knows. It was so funny she rolled over and smiled at me and was so happy. It was so cute!!! I am sure this is just a one time thing. Tomorrow I will be waking up to a babbling baby, maybe even earlier to make up for her sleeping in today.