lunch

Maybe Evalana is having another growth spurt. She took a 4-hour nap today and then had a very long lunch. Here's a video of some of her lunch time (it's a fairly long and uneventful video). This is after she had already been eating for about an hour, so she's plenty messy.

signing (kind of)!

Evalana has started making the sign for "milk," although she's given it her own meaning. Instead of meaning that she'd like to nurse, when she does it, it means she wants something. With the way this girl loves her milk, I'm not surprised it's her first word.
She also seems to know that things have names, but she's decided that everything is named "bobo." Maybe we'll need to find the story about Adam naming things in one of her Bibles.
I got a drink of water, and she was doing the sign because she wanted some of my water, but then when I got the camera and Daddy, she got a little distracted. When we went back upstairs, she spilled some water on me, and then she signed again.

evalana's favorite food

Last week we went to Whole Foods. As soon as Evalana saw that big stack of apples in the produce section, she got very excited. I bagged some up to buy and put them in the back of the cart. She needed her apples now, though! So I pulled one out and handed it to her, and she ate on it while we shopped and was completely happy for the entire time in the store. When we got home, I gave her another apple to sit on the floor and eat.

long hair

Evalana's hair is getting long. Here's the best picture we could get so far.

Lots of grandparents

Today Evalana and I are home without any big plans for the day, but our last week or so has been fairly busy. Saturday the 11th, Papa and Gigi (Joshua’s parents) came for a visit. Sunday the 12th we celebrated Easter and spent the afternoon with Grandma Moser (my mom). Monday we had MOPS and then Grandma Kidd (Joshua’s mom) came, and she got to stay until Wednesday. Thursday we went to a La Leche League meeting. Saturday we went to a homeschooling conference, which was interesting. Joshua and I are excited for God to use us to share our faith with our children, and it’s a good challenge for us to be deepening our faith as much as we can, too. Saturday we went to church and heard from a couple who sold all of their retirement investments in order to build a home for girls in Thailand who are at risk of becoming prostitutes. What a great example of relying on God and the rewards He gives that are much greater than money. And yesterday we got to have lunch with Tompa and Grandma Lauerman (my dad and stepmom) and then went to a college fair to represent Cornell. So Evalana got to see most of her grandparents this past week. Looking forward to this next week, too!

Oooooo!

I love Evalana's excitement over everyday things. Here are a couple of her "Ooooo!" moments from this afternoon, although her very favorite "Oooo!" thing is flowers.

little rachel

While most people say that Evalana looks just like Joshua, the people who knew me as a baby think she looks like I did. Here are a couple pictures of me at six months.

And here's the one picture of baby Joshua we have:

bonk

Evalana is so busy these days. Today while she was playing with her toys, she bonked her head once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. This little girl is pretty tough, though; she always surprises me about how little she acts like something hurts her.

FAQ

Just thought I’d answer some of the questions that are frequently asked of me these days.

1. How long am I going to breastfeed?
No stopping plans.

2. How much does Evalana weigh?
I think probably around 23—haven’t weighed her recently.

3. How is she doing on solids?
Evalana enjoys food! And we highly recommend baby led weaning (feeding baby real food rather than mushes). At 6 months we started giving her food to explore, and the last couple of weeks she’s started digesting it and eating a lot more. Babies can start on food between six months and a year, but milk is still the majority of their nutrition for at least their first year. Evalana loves milk and enjoys all the flavors and textures of foods, too.

4. How is the restricted diet going?
Fine. I’m pretty used to it now. And Joshua and I never go to restaurants anyway, so I’m not missing out on that unless we’re out with family or something, but, with Evalana’s bedtime schedule, I miss out on most dinners out anyway. Joshua has been so patient with my new cooking. I’m hoping that when we retest some of the foods now that her digestive system is more developed that she’ll be able to handle more, but she’s been spitting up and gassy this week, so I’m trying to figure that out before we try more new things. People also comment that I must be losing weight on this diet. Well, if you start with my 40-pounds-heavier weight on July 31st, yes, I have lost weight, but I’m thinking that might have more to do with Evalana living outside of my belly now. It does keep me from being able to enjoy any treats outside of our home, but I’m not restricting sugars, fats, or quantity (I worry too much about decreasing my milk supply if I don't eat enough); I just have to find alternatives for dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, fish, and nuts. I am so thankful that I was able to change my diet and make a happy baby. As I’ve learned more about food intolerances, I’m realizing that there are actually many conditions that could be treated by eliminating problem foods; it’s very interesting.

5. How’s the pottying?
Good! I highly recommend that everyone try ECing! Generally babies don’t get quite so much in the potty while they’re working on crawling or walking, but we’re still catching quite a bit, and I just figure each one is one less diaper. She sits on her little potty, and we use the sign language for “toilet” and say “potty”. I try to read to her and play with her to get her to sit still long enough sometimes, but we all think it’s great when she goes on cue in the potty or toilet or outside rather than in a diaper.

6. Do you like your sling/wrap?
I love them! I’m baffled how people get along without these things! Joshua and I both wear and love the sleepy wrap. That’s where Evalana takes the majority of her naps. It distributes all of her weight so comfortably. I use the ring sling a ton while we’re out and some around the house. It’s quick to put on, looks pretty, and can hold her a bunch of different ways. I’ve also heard many recommendations for the Ergo Carrier, but I haven’t tried it.

7. How’s work going?
I still love my job, but I’m not getting in very many hours at this point. I’m needing to find childcare close to the church so that I can go nurse her during the day. I’m thinking if I could at least be in the office once a week or so that would help, but I’m also hesitant to want to leave her with someone else, so we’ll see. I have a couple of recommendations I need to look into.

8. What’s her schedule like these days?
I let her set her day rather than me trying to force a schedule on her, so it varies, but here’s a general day:
7:30 wake up.
8:00 nurse
8:30 breakfast
9:00 get ready for day
9:30 play
10:00 nap
11:00 nurse
11:15 play
11:45 lunch
12:30 get ready to go maybe
1:00 errands or find something entertaining to do
2:30 nap
4:00 nurse
4:30 play
5:30 dinner
6:00 bath, pajamas, read Bible story
7:00 nurse
7:30 sleep
8:00 nurse
8:15 sleep

9. How is she sleeping?
She sleeps well but in our bed. She was sick or teething from January to March, and during that time everyone slept better if she was in bed with us so that I could comfort her and put her back to sleep. Before January, she was sleeping about 10 hours in her crib and sleeping really well. Now she sleeps really well as long as someone is next to her when she reaches in her sleep. This means that right now I’m kind of stuck in bed from 7pm to 7am, so we’re trying to figure out what to do about that, but we’re not wanting to let her cry. She is really cute, though, and a good cuddlier.

10. When are you going to have another baby?
No plans at this point. Maybe having kids a couple years apart sounds good, but we’ll see how things happen. Right now I’m happy not to be pregnant, but, we’d also be very happy if we found out we’d be having another baby. I’m looking forward to lots more kids, but right now I’d be scared my milk supply would decrease too much to feed Evalana during pregnancy. I know many people breastfeed through pregnancies, though, so I know it’s possible for some people. We're also looking forward to adopting, but most likely after a few more biological children, but only God really knows, and we look forward to finding out more about God's plan for our family!

11. Is it EH-va-la-na or EE-va-la-na?
Like in Evelyn, not evil

12. What is she doing these days?
Keeping very busy. Playing with her toys, finding new things to explore, crawling everywhere, trying to walk, getting into lots of stuff, loving outside, telling stories, making funny faces, clapping, and being the Evalana Christabelle Vaughn who God created and we are incredibly thankful for.

sleepy apple eater

Evalana loves apples. Yesterday we had a busy day with family and church and Easter celebration. Evalana decided maybe she could eat her apple and sleep at the same time.

happy easter!

joshua's doing the official Easter post later, but here are a few pictures for in the meantime. Happy Easter!!!!!

more videos at http://vimeo.com/channels/evalana

animals and friends

Today we got to hang out with some of my friends from college. Ashlee, Glen, Corinne (2 years), and Caleb (6 months) came to stay with Jennifer, Todd, and James (12 months). Evalana played with James, Corinne, and Caleb and got to try out James' toys. In the afternoon we visited Deanna Rose Farmstead together. Evalana laughed at the animals and seemed to enjoy her time there.

bye bye

Evalana waves bye bye

Staying at home is not boring

I am so thankful to be able to spend as much time with Evalana as I do. She’s really a lot of fun and pretty entertaining. We have a good time together. It certainly isn’t “the same old thing” every day. Here’s a story from this afternoon. After Evalana’s food lunch, I set her on the floor, and she took off her diaper (the Velcro is coming off, and she didn’t have any pants on). So I took her in her room and sat her on her potty. She stood up and went over to her crib, so I put her in it so she could play in there for a minute. She peed in the corner, so I set her back on her potty. I looked back at her three seconds later, and she was standing up and pooping on the floor. I went to pick her up and tried to decide what to…as I’m writing this, I didn’t realize her diaper had come off again, and she just peed on the floor. So she had pooped on the floor, and also had poop on her foot, so I set her on her potty, leaned over to grab some diapers to wipe her and the floor up with, while I did that, she got poop on her hands, both feet, and legs. So I tried to wipe her up the best I could while trying to keep her hands and feet from getting more poop anywhere else. I threw some diapers over the poop that was on the floor and put Evalana in the tub. While I was filling it up, she stood up and peed in the tub. I dumped it out and filled it again. Amazingly we got through the bath without her pooping in it. Abner cleaned up most of the poop (yuck). Some post-bath photos and a video of the dogs who keep the entertainment coming:

Abner trying to get Samson to play. Evalana thinks her puppies are pretty funny.

corn!

For the past seven months, I've been avoiding dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, corn, fish, and nuts because they bothered Evalana's tummy. This week I finally had a healthy baby, so I decided to take a chance at making her upset, and we tried corn this week. And it worked! Corn was the one food that when I tested, I couldn't quite tell if she was reacting to the corn or something else, but this time she had no reaction. Yea! Maybe you're thinking "Oh corn, big deal." But, unless you've had to stay away from it, you probably don't realize all the foods and products that come from corn. Here's a small list. People who are very sensitive have to avoid many more things. Now on to egg yolks for our next test. I'm going to go eat some chips and salsa and make brownies and frosting with baking powder and powdered sugar.
Baking powder (the starch in common baking powder is corn starch)
Caramel color (often made from corn syrup)
Confectioners sugar (often has corn starch added to it to prevent it from sticking)
Corn (fresh, canned, frozen, dried)
Cornmeal (as in corn bread, corn muffins, corn chips)
Corn oil (this may be fine as little or no corn protein, which is the allergic part of the corn, is contained in it)
Cornstarch
Corn syrup
Dextrin
Dextrose
Fructose
Hominy
Invert sugar or invert syrup
Lactic acid
Maize
Maltodextrins
Mannitol
Sorbitol
Starch, food starch, modified food starch. Any of these may be corn starch
Vanilla extract ( often made with corn syrup in them)
Vegetable anything ( such as vegetable broth, vegetable starch or vegetable gum, because you don't know if the vegetable in question is corn)

red hair?

Ever since her little girl hair (not the hair she was born with) came in, people have commented that they see red in her hair. I was convinced it was her pink head underneath blond hair, but this week I must have had ten people comment on her red hair. Maybe there's a chance she'll have some strawberry blond. Both Joshua and my dads' dads had red hair. We'll see.

blue-eyed friends

Evalana had her friends Alea and Lilly over to play on Tuesday.

getting around

crawling video


walking (with help) video