swimming with friends

Evalana has had a hard time with staying inside so much the last few days. She really loves being outside, but it's just been too hot here. After a busy playdate with Kelly, Jolie, Marcy and Lilly this morning, Mikaela invited us to her neighborhood pool. Marcy, Lilly, Heather, Alea, Evalana, Mikaela, and I all took a nice swim together. Evalana enjoys swimming and kept dipping her face in the water. Then she fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the car. We took a short break at home and then met Grandma at Costco. Busy day. I even fell asleep making this post :-).

florida

We had a great time in Florida, and Evalana did sooo well. Friday morning we left about 7am, so we just moved her straight from the bed to her carseat in hopes of keeping her asleep for the ride to the airport, but she was wide awake and enjoying some cereal the whole drive.

She did great on the flights, too. She had some milk, naps, and food. On our longer flights both directions, there were little girls who were a little older than she and kept her very well entertained. Evalana loves little kids.

We landed in Ft. Myers and then drove to the island of Captiva. Evalana slept on the drive and then woke up to see palm trees out the window. She loves palm trees!

I think by then it was around 7 or 8pm and we were ready for some dinner, so we went to a restaurant together, and Evalana tried some alligator.
Saturday morning Evalana got her first look at the ocean. She was a little nervous about it at first but then warmed up to it by that afternoon and enjoyed eating sand.


Evalana loved the baby flotation thing in the pool. We kept plenty of sunscreen on her, especially on her head, and I think she still has sunscreen in her hair and sand in her ears.

Evalana enjoyed the time with her 2-year-old cousin Noah and her aunt Kristen.


Sanibel and Captiva islands are known for their shells. We had fun collecting shells on the beach, and we also went to the shell museum.

Thankfully Evalana likes birds better than her mom.

Evalana got to meet her great grandpa Daniel and her great grandma Illiana. Joshua's uncle Carl and Illiana's daughter, Magdelena, and her husband and two kids were there, too. We stayed in a big house on the beach and really enjoyed our time together with family.

We also wished Joshua a happy Father's Day, but we plan to celebrate a little more after he gets back from South Africa in July.

The rest of the family is there for the whole week, but we needed to have a little time at home before Joshua leaves for South Africa. Evalana's already looking forward to our cruise with another part of Joshua's family in July.

we're home from florida

here are a few pictures to tide you over while i work on an actual post for our trip. we had a good time, and evalana did great!

thankful for daddy

Yesterday Joshua went to Joplin to be with his mom who was in the hospital. They don’t yet know what’s going on with her. She’s been in and out of the hospital three times since Tuesday now. She has a migraine and fever. I’m very thankful that Joshua was able to go there to be with her. Joshua and I have not been looking forward to his being gone for two weeks while he’s in South Africa. Evalana’s had a rough week with her seventh tooth about to come in, but last night God reminded us that He’s taking care of us, and Evalana had the easiest evening she’s had in quite awhile. She slept from about 7:30pm – 8:00am. I’m excited that in a couple weeks Joshua gets to go love on some sweet kids in South Africa. I don’t have any idea how single parents do it, but I know God will take good care of us. Please continue to pray for Cheryl as they try to figure out what’s going on with her and help her to feel better. Thank you.

happy flag day!

On Sunday we celebrated Grandma Moser's birthday. Evalana went into Grandma's walkers Sunday school class. Then we went to Uncle Alex's for lunch. Alex and Bridgett recently got a cat named Spike. Since I had discovered Evalana's fear of cats, we tried to think of ways to help her get over it, and she did! She was scared when she first saw the cat, but I pet it and talked about how nice it was, then she got a little curious about the cat, and a little bit later she was chasing Spike all over the living room. Spike was so good, too. He stayed in the living room and didn't even seem too bothered when Evalana pounded on him like she does Abner. My mom shared some of her pictures from the day with us:

family and shopping

On Wednesday Evalana got to see her Great Great Aunt Doreen (or is it great grand aunt). It was good to see her along with some version of cousins—Deb and Chris. And we didn’t get any pictures of Evlana with them L. Joshua just bought us a new used camera, though, so hopefully we’ll receive it before we go to Florida with Joshua’s family next week. Joshua’s been able to work from home a few days a week, which has been nice. We got to see Joshua’s grandparents on Wednesday, too. Evalana and I have been running lots of errands to buy things to prepare for our summer trips. I think we’re about finished, which is good since I don’t enjoy shopping or spending money. Oh, I just realized I need to buy diapers. Ugh. And I’m sure there’s more I haven’t thought of. Any suggestions for traveling with a 10-month-old?

mommy's little helper

Joshua and I are looking forward to the time when our kids will be able to share in chore duties around the house. Well the day has come--if you count tiny helps. Evalana now turns the lights on or off when I ask her to, like when I'm carrying a load of laundry. She also helps carry things, like my phone when I'm getting things together to head out to the car. And there's a book we got from her Aunt Chevelle and family called Bear Wants More about a bear who wants to keep eating more. Whenever I read the word "more," Evalana signs "more." It's funny to see her reading her book along with me. She's a cutie.

walker

My mom brought her camera by, and we got a little video of her walking this evening.

We're deciding what/where to buy our new camera.
Evalana and I are enjoying including wheat and eggs in our diet, although I keep forgetting I can eat them. Today we're testing out soy. We're doing a little shopping to prepare for our trips this summer, and Evalana's a size 2T--that's a large 10-month-old, and she's really cute.

walking!

Evalana started walking today! She just walked back and forth between Joshua and me several times this evening. She was so excited for herself that she was smiling and clapping each time. She was walking between two and eight steps each time before sitting down. We're so excited for our little walker. Now she'll be able to go into Grandma's church school class on Sunday mornings! Joshua and I are so thankful for our healthy little girl. The progress that she makes each day in communicating, getting around, and socially are just amazing.

eggs and wheat

We've successfully added eggs and wheat into our diet! Yea! I'm so excited about these additions. It's fun to be able to eat them, and it means she doesn't have an allergy to them. Yea! On the agenda for tomorrow is soy. I have been so thankful for this non-teething and non-sick time to try out some new foods!

expectations

Today I put Evalana into her carseat, and she looked at me and said, “Okay, Mom, I’m a big girl now…” well not exactly, but it really seems that she has suddenly become a big girl. Her hair is long (and curly), she’s getting tall (I think about 29 inches), and she understands so much of what I say to her now. And she knows what she wants, too, and she is so determined and persistent at getting it. She can be really funny. She does things to purposely entertain us. This parenting thing is pretty fun J.

There are several things that have surprised us about being Evalana’s parents. In the beginning Joshua and I were prepared for a very needy, crying newborn. She was pretty easy to start out with, and then, once I changed my diet when she was about a month old, she became very happy and only cried when she needed something. Joshua and I got a lot more sleep than we had expected, and Evalana has always been so much fun, and she’s becoming really funny, too

There are several things that have been more challenging than we expected, though. One was the challenge of my diet free of dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, fish, corn, and nuts, although at this point that’s not so much of a challenge anymore, at least not while we’re at home. The biggest challenge is having no time without this girl. While I really do love every minute I get with her, it’s challenging to accomplish anything else ever in the last ten months while I’m carrying her and getting her “help” with everything. I know that God gives me exactly the time I need to do exactly what he wants me to do each day, and I’m confident that hanging out with Cutie is the majority of what I’m made to do each day. I’m so thankful for Joshua’s help. Other than a half-hour nap in a stroller or carseat and my shower while Joshua gets Evalana ready for bed, I’m with Evalana. I'm also so thankful to have my mom come over a couple times a week. Last year I expected to have a baby who would go to bed in her crib maybe about 7pm, sleep until 7am or so and then nap for a few hours in her crib during the day. I also expected we’d have a house that would be clean and child-proofed enough that I could leave her alone for a few minutes while she played. I expected her to maybe sleep while we ride in the car. And I expected that she’d take bottles of milk while I was away. Ha, none of that in our Evalana.

I love our girl so much. If I had waited until everything was ready in our home, we still wouldn’t have our Evalana. I’m happy we are able to rely on God in getting done just what we should get done and just taking each day as it comes. Joshua and I are so thankful that God has blessed us with our sweet girl, our great home, our wonderful family, all of it.

I’m having difficulty updating blogger this week, so I’ll try emailing this post today.

10 months

This month Evalana got her fifth and sixth teeth, worked a little more on her English, and now does a great job cuddling.
In May she struggled with falling asleep (she was tired, but I think her teeth were making her restless), so she and Daddy took some night-time walks to put her to sleep. She now is back to about a 9pm bedtime and falling asleep okay. At the end of last week she kept crying during the night and acting uncomfortable, but the past couple of nights have been much better. Last week we tried yogurt, and she seemed to do great with that, but then when we tried cheese, she got fussy, so we'll have to try it again and see if the fussiness was the cheese or something else.
Evalana understands a lot of what I say to her. She uses the signs for more and milk, and she’s started to use some spoken English as well. She probably uses more words than I realize, but her words are all two sounds, so it takes me a little while to recognize what she’s talking about.
Da=Daddy or sometimes drink.
Pa=puppy
Ma=more, mama, or milk
Ba=Abner or sometimes Samson, bye, or ball
Evalana is working on standing and taking steps. When she starts walking, she gets to go into Grandma’s Sunday school class, so Grandma keeps practicing the walking with her.
Evalana absolutely loves being outside. She also likes eating and playing with some of her toys. She likes to play “ooh, nice puppy” and cuddle with Samson (or me, a toy puppy, whatever) and pat him and say “oooh”. It especially makes me laugh when she cuddles me and pats me “nice mama”. Evalana gives the sweetest slobbery kisses.
Our camera recently broke, so we’ll need to get that fixed soon.