i love you

Evalana gets so excited when she wakes up and sees Daddy in bed. This morning she woke up, saw Joshua, said "Daddy!" and then signed/said "I love you" to him. And she's been giving him hugs and kisses and cuddles all day, without any prompting from us. What a sweetheart.

joshries with daddy

Tuesday evening Joshua took Evalana grocery shopping while I got to stay home and do some work. Evalana had such a good time; she keeps putting on daddy's hat and shoes, grabbing a bag, and asking to go "joshrie" (grocery) shopping with him again.

Wednesday Evalana went to sleep before Joshua got home from school. She woke up crying during the night, so i walked her in the hall for a minute before bringing her to bed for some milk. When we came into the bedroom, Joshua flipped back the blanket for us, and Evalana was so surprised and glad to see him, she exclaimed, "Daddy!"

She's also had some night time cuddle time with Daddy. She's had some trouble sleeping, with a cold and teeth issues, but when Joshua holds her and turns on the vacuum, she falls right asleep. Pretty sweet.

ieeece watching tent

Evalana has loved watching the ice skating on the olympics. Here she is in one of her TV watching setups.

k

talking with a k

Evalana was saying K sounds with a T, then, last Thursday, she woke up saying them like a German "cht" sound, and by the afternoon, she was saying K like a big girl. She still has some trouble when the K is at the beginning of the word, though. It's so great to hear her English developing with her sweet voice.

wana

After attempting to say pretty much everything except her own name,

Evalana now tries to say her name!

evalana says her name from rachel vaughn on Vimeo.

cooking

Evalana loves to play cook.

sad cook from rachel vaughn on Vimeo.

hair

Morning hair:

After bath curls:

Cutest pigtails:

angel

Mo bought this angel costume for Evalana awhile ago, and it was just rediscovered in her closet.

She cried when we had to take it off for dinner time. She's a cute one.

Mommy and Daddy

Last Friday morning Evalana called me "Mommy." Since then she pretty much always says "Mommy" and "Daddy" rather than Mama and Dada. Sometimes she even says Poppy instead of Papa. It's pretty sweet to hear this big girl calling me Mommy, although I can't quite believe she's old enough for it.

shoes

Gigi and Papa came last weekend. Evalana had such a good time with them. Here she is trying out Gigi's shoes.

memory

Evalana's memory amazes me. For some reason I think she shouldn't be able to remember as much as she does at her age. She's done several things that have made me realizes she's remembering things. Last week she looked at a reflection on the ceiling and called it the dog water. At least three months ago, the dog water was reflecting the sun onto the ceiling, and we talked about it one time and haven't mentioned it again since. I guess even a one year old with little English communication can have a great memory. She just soaks in every detail of all that's around her. I wish I were that observant and appreciative of little things every day.

reading on her own

Evalana is starting to play on her own once in awhile, which is a nice little break for me, except that I think it's so cute that I spend most of my time spying on her.

little reader from rachel vaughn on Vimeo.

doctor

At the beginning of the month we went to Evalana's 18-month well check. Evalana had such a great time at the allergy doctor in January that she was excited to go to the doctor. When it was time to get naked for the weigh-in, though, she got all upset and really wanted a puppy gown like the allergist had. So the nurse gave us a little purple gown, and evalana was as happy as could be for the rest of the appointment--no tears :-). We also took some pictures since it'll be about six months before we go back for another well check.

collecting things

Evalana likes to carry around whatever it is that she can't part with that day. Yesterday it was a bag full of felt cutouts. Sometimes its her baby dolls, all of them. Many evenings it's been her Little People Noah, horse, and cow. Here she is ready to go to bed with one of her collections.

friends

Evalana enjoys playing with friends. I'm so thankful to have so many great friends, and it's fun that many of my friends have little girls Evalana's age.

When Jolie came over, they kept hugging each other until they'd fall over. It was so funny.

ice skating

On Tuesday Evalana got to go ice skating again. She had been talking about ice skating since she last saw Aunt Michelle, so she was very excited about it. I'm so glad I took this short little video of her skating, because since we went, she's been asking me to tell the story of our ice skating with Mimi over and over and over and over again. The whole thing didn't last long, so I try to draw out all the details to include as much as possible. I couldn't tell you how many times she's watched this skating video. Her favorite part of the skating, though, was watching the big kids spin really fast.

ice skating with aunt michelle from rachel vaughn on Vimeo.

excited to go skate with aunt michelle from rachel vaughn on Vimeo.

mei tai

We got our Baby So Smart toddler mei tais! We love them.

little caretaker

It continues to amaze me how much this little girl cares about others. This morning she spoon-fed her baby doll. When the baby bonked her on the head, she made me kiss the baby before i kissed her owie. When we said a prayer, and i forgot to mention Daddy in it, she kept her hands folded, looked at me and said "Dada. Mo pay" (We need to pray more for Daddy). Yesterday I didn't even get a chance to eat my lunch, because she kept asking to pray through the whole time. She shares all her food, even gives away her favorite things. When we were going into a store, she heard a baby crying and said "Baby. Hold." over and over. She really wanted someone to pick up and comfort that baby. Whenever we see a baby, she gets so excited, "Baby!" And she waves and says hi to just about everyone.

18 months

We have a 1 1/2 year old! This last month evalana has been working on talking. It's amazing to me how much more she's talking now than she was last month. Every week she is able to say so much more. S and K sounds still come out as "t," but she's practicing hard (even in her sleep) and saying all sorts of words. She knows the letter E, counts to 2, and likes to identify shapes like hearts and stars.

Her current favorite activities are taking care of babies and cooking in her play kitchen--which is great because some of my favorite activities are taking care of my baby and cooking in my real kitchen. She also loves to color and use stickers, and she's pretty good at it, too. She holds the pen correctly and draws little circle designs. She looks so big when she lays on the floor on her belly, with her foot kicked up in the air, while she colors on her paper.

She's still doing great with pottying. She now sometimes walks over to the potty and sits down by herself when she needs to go. She almost always tells me "Paaye (potty)" or "peepee" when she does need to get to the potty. She still wears a diaper overnight and most of the time when we leave the house.

Evalana still loves her milk and nurses about every two to four hours or so. It's great that she's getting some of that perfect food in her, so I don't worry too much about what else she does or doesn't eat, although she usually does enjoy whatever we're eating.

She now has 15 teeth. She weighs 30 pounds (98%) and is 32 inches (60%, although last month she was 34.5"). Her head is 20" which is 97%. Her hair is getting lots longer, too. She wears a size 7 shoe, so it's about time to go shoe shopping for her again.

We are so thankful for every day with our sweet girl.