Pictures from the Fair

Such a grown up!

We experienced another first last night. I mentioned that I was thirsty and was going to have to get up and get some bottled water. After that I got distracted, the next thing I knew Eva was standing in front of me with a bottle of cold water. She heard me, went to the refridgerator, opened it up, got me water and brought it back all on her own. I am so proud of my big girl.

Here is a picture of her in her asleep in her big girl bed:

She's two!

Does it count that your child is potty trained if there are only 3 places on the planet where she will go potty: Our house, Mrs. J's house and church? And it involved mommy going into Mrs. J's house and convincing her to go there. Her standard response is to take one look at the toilet and exclaim, "No. E'ah have potty chair at home." I say, "You said you had to go potty, you can go potty here." Her response, "No want it. E'ah go home." Eva's still having exactly 1 accident a day. After spending the weekend with her, I realized that both accidents she had on Sat & Sun could have been prevented had I done something different. This has forced me to come to the conclusion that potty training is as much about training the parent as it is training the child. I was at church last night, and David stayed home with Eva. He had bought himself some mints earlier in the day and Eva wanted some. Well, since we use candy as her reward for using the potty chair, we don't dare undermine our system by giving her candy without potty. She really wanted some of Baba's candy so she made David go upstairs with her five times during a 1 hour television program that he wanted to watch. She worked really hard to get our her few drops of pea so she could have some more of Baba's candy. This morning she told me that, "Baba have mints in pocket." I told her that yes, he did have some mints. She looked up at me and said, "E'ah go potty." After telling her "Okay, let's go," she asked me, "Where Baba's mints?" I told her that Baba had them at work, at which point she stopped dead in her tracks on the way to the bathroom and informed me, "E'ah no need go potty." She certainly thinks she's got a sure thing going on.

I forgot to talk about something I found really funny last week. Eva really loved her cousins visiting her, and since they've gone back home insists that we call them on regular intervals and leave messages along the lines of "Hi cousins. Call E'ah. Bye Bye." So mid week, last week, the cousins and her finally connected, and the resulting conversation was hilarious. A conversation between a 7, 6, 5, 3 and 2 year old involves a lot of yelling, exclaiming, reapeating of statements and absolutely NO listening. There was a lot of cross talking and over talking and changing of topics... I laughed so hard it brought tears to my eyes. Eva, of course, found the whole thing very serious and could not understand why I was laughing.

We had a picnic at Church yesterday, and Eva enjoyed herself immensely. She helped herself to the watermelon, walked one of the dogs (a little pipsqueak of a dog) and sat on all the men's laps. We brought her potty chair along with us. However, I hardly got to see her, she was so busy socializing. There has definitely been a change in her lately. Maybe it's moving to the big girl bed, or maybe becoming potty trained, but she has been acting decidedly more grown up. She is so busy! And, she is funny and cute and the life of our home.

Progress

Eva continues to do well with her potty training. She does have about one accident each day. They seem to occur when she is very busy playing or eating and doesn't want to stop to go to the bathroom. We have found that we need to ask her on a regular basis if she has to go potty, because otherwise she doesn't think about it and is more likely to have an accident. Really, she is doing very well and it is going much easier than I expected it to.

Eva keeps acting more grown up all the time. The other day she walked up to me and looked at me and said, "E'ah want to be good, mommy. E'ah love mommy." I told her she was good and mommy loved her, to which she walked away grinning and swinging her arms. Now tell me, how is a person suppose to prepare themselves for something that sweet?! She has taken a noticable upturn in the amount of things that she gets into. She's constantly doing something, although, still her favorite thing to do is crawl on mommy. She is so incredibly cute and I keep thinking that two-year-olds are not so terrible, but just really adorable and very very busy!

Growing up fast!

Eva told me again last night that she wanted to see her nanny in China. I told her that we are sending her a letter and pictures and that we would go to China to visit her when we could. Eva asked me, "In car. Drive to China now?" I told her that China was on the other side of the world and we would have to fly there in an airplane another day. Then I told Eva that it was okay to miss her nanny and that her nanny loved her too and missed her also. I told her that the way to express that was to say, "I am sad because I miss my Nanny." I reassured her that I would always be with her and that it was okay to be sad and cry, mommy will hold her while she's crying and help her. I don't know what else to do. I've given her permission to mourn, I have taught her how to express her sadness and feelings and I have encouraged her that I will be with her always. I think I've finally figured out why suddenly at this very young age she is asking me about her nanny. I think that she thought about her before (some of her midnight crying) but that she didn't have the vocabulary to express it before. I've been reading her that book, "I love you like crazy cakes," and we look at pictures and movies of the nannies in the orphanage with Eva. I think she has finally connected her story with words in her brain and figured out how to say what she has thought before. She is amazingly smart. I want her to know that she is free to talk about this, that I won't ever feel threatened by her feelings nor deny them. The challenge is getting that message across to a 2 year old.

Eva has taken another big step towards growing up this weekend. She began her potty training. I have never given her so much candy in a single day before. She had to have had at least 20 pieces of candy on Saturday alone. In fact, I couldn't get her off the potty chair, she wanted to sit on it all day so she could get more candy. I got so sick of singing her potty chair song that I made up for her:
"Eva went potty on the potty chair
mommy checked, and the potty was there
Eva went potty on the potty chair
She's a big girl, wearing underware
Eva went potty on the potty chair
Yea... Candy!"
It's suppose to be accompanied by clapping and marching on the way to the kitchen to get the candy. She loves the song. Claps and sings along. She stands so pround by her potty chair, holding the lid up and showing me her big accomplishment. Then she runs downstairs to show granny her candy and get more praise, then back up to try for more candy. She did great though... she had one accident with #1 that she caught after it started and then ran to the potty chair to finish it (and get her candy)--that was early on in the process. The only other accident she had was while she was eating dinner. She didn't want to stop eating long enough to go potty and so had a #2 on her chair. On Sunday, she didn't have any accidents--and woke up with a dry diaper. She even went in the potty chair at church. I was very proud of her. Both Saturday and Sunday she still had trouble with her nap. I realize this is a lot of information that nobody probably cares about. I, personally, never dreamed in a million years that I would be writing a mini-essay about going potty. So, really I'm going to have to stop now before I can't even stand it anymore. Yet, it is strangely interesting to me, and I am very proud of Eva. She appears to be catching on to this thing very quickly and easier than I expected. She does hate pull up diapers and refuses to wear one, it's either the regular type diaper or panties.

I'm anxious to find out how things went at daycare today.

Lady Godiva

Last night before Eva went to sleep, she said something very un-expected. I had read her the book, I love you like crazy cakes, and after it was done she got very sad and told me she wanted her Nanny. I asked, "Do you mean, Granny?" She replied, "No, not Ganny, my nanny in China." I very much did not expect this so young. I told her that she couldn't see her nanny in China because she was too far away. I told her that it was okay to miss her nanny and that her nanny probably missed her too and if she wanted to we could write her a letter and send her a picture of Eva. Eva thought that was a good idea and it was the end of the conversation. But, still I am plagued by doubts and wondering if there's something I'm missing in helping her. In any case, we'll be sending a letter soon.

This morning, Eva went potty on her potty chair three times! I was very proud of her, she was determined to get herself some candy I think. In any case, I was letting her run around in her birthday suite after taking off her pajamas. Sometime later, I was laying on my belly on the bed when Eva decided she wanted a horsy back ride. So in the middle of giving my two year old a horsey back ride around the bed I realized that she was still wearing her birthday suite and the image of Lady Godiva popped in my head. So, I asked her if she was pretending to be Lady Godiva. To which she replied, "Yes. E'ah like being Lady Godi'a." I found that humorous but kept thinking, "Please, don't let your dad hear you say that."

Fun!

Shows and news

Nick Jr. is starting a new show, based off of the Dora the Explorer program, but this one is about a Chinese American girl who speaks Mandarin. It's called Ni Hao Kai-Lan and is suppose to start on Oct. 22nd. I'm hoping the markets will now be full of Chinese images, because after all, Eva doesn't have nearly as much stuff as she could have. Here's a couple of links to stories about it:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=591289
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NYF04713072007-1.htm

Eva is still doing well with her big girl bed. Actually, last night for the first time she got out of bed after I tucked her in. She thought it was funny. I didn't give her any eye contact, I just picked her up, told her "It's night night time now" and put her back into bed. She cried for about a minute, then she stopped and went to sleep.

I am thinking that Eva is ready for potty training. She's starting to become self-conscience and embarrased whenever she pees or poops in her diaper. So, I'll be buying underpants today. I am very nervous about it... I have no idea how to do this. We started with bribery. I told her if she went pee on the potty chair she could have a piece of candy, but no candy otherwise. I had the hardest time getting her off the potty chair this morning to go to daycare. She wanted to stay on it so that she could get her candy. Hm... Let's just hope this goes half as easy as the transition to the big-girl bed. Personally, I'm not fully convinced that she's ready for it yet. But, at the same time, I don't want her developing issues and shame associated with going to the bathroom. Yep... maybe the reason I don't think she's ready for it yet is because I'm not ready for her to be ready yet. We'll see how it goes.

Just Eva

Eva & Baba

I have dance on Monday nights, so Eva spends every Monday with Baba. I love coming home and hearing stories of their evening together. For example, last night Baba sent Eva upstairs to get a cup so she could have a little of his iced tea. She was up there a while, and quiet, so Baba decided he should go and check on her. When he got to the top of the stairs, he was greeted by an adorable little girl with a guilty face. In the kitchen, he located the source. She decided to "helping Baba make coffee." She filled his coffee cup 3/4 of the way with creamer and sugar.

Baba also taught Eva some pop-culture. He taught her how to say "How you doin'?" Like the Joey character on Friends. Eva cracked herself up with it, she had so much fun "betending" with Baba. She also had fun making popcorn with Granny and wheedling candy out of both of them with mommy gone.

She went to sleep in her big girl bed again, night four, easily and quickly. She helped me make the bed up how she likes it, get her animals around her and prop up her sippy cups. After her good night story, hug and kiss, she went right to sleep. I didn't even have to stay in the room with her. I couldn't even do that when she slept in our room... she insisted on us sleeping with her. Eva is loving being a big girl, and I can not believe how easy this transition has been. I think that it helped that I included Eva in the process. She helped me move the bed upstairs and put it together and make it up. We talked about it a lot before, during and after. It is something that we did together, not something that was done to her. In any case, she thinks she's such a big girl now that this morning, she took off her pajamas and diaper all by herself and then went poop on the floor of her room. She promptly told me about it. We discussed how if she wants to poop outside her diaper, she can use the potty chair. I tried not to let her see how grossed out I was when I cleaned it up. Ick!

I just had a thought... she's probably going to be really embarrased by that when she's a teenager. It's only fair, really!

Water Fun

Thank you Uncle David for these pictures!

Ah, Eva...

To continue the saga of Eva the big girl, last night she went to sleep easily in her own bed. However, at 1:00 a.m. she showed up at the side of our bed and so we let her climb in with us. We had discussed this previously. We don't want her feeling alone or rejected, so as long as it doesn't become a habit we'll let her join us mid-night.

Actually, I don't think she gets as much sleep when she sleeps with us and she was really whiny and crabby this morning as a result. It didn't help that she threw a fit with Granny's door and ended up cutting her big toe as a result. Then, she had to have two blankets to carry around with her. Ah... the trials of a two year old.

Fair & Sunny

Eva got to go to the County fair today, not that it's such a huge fair, but it's some excitement in a small town. It was a perfect sunny day in the mid 70's with a cool breeze. Baba, Eva and Granny got there early and had the opportunity to watch the parade (I was in it) and in the process Eva got at least a gallon of candy, two rulers, three beaded necklaces, a compass, a pencil, a frisbee and a popscicle. After I got done changing following the parade, I joined the rest of the family & we got to eat some fair food, then we looked at the animals and exhibits. Eva is very interested in the animals, and although I know I should have expected it, I didn't. She led the way up and down and up and down the rows, exclaiming over the baby cows, making all the animal noises, naming them and impressing her mommy. After we finished with all the animals, we went to the ride section. Eva cried after the first ride on the Merry-go-Round when she had to get off, so she got to go for another. She liked the cars that went in circles, especially the stirring wheel component. She cried when the train ride got over because she wanted to do that one again, but she didn't like the one with the flying bugs that went in circles and up and down at the same time. That one she insisted, "No like it, ride." Then, she started crying... they let her off early. We looked at all the indoor exhibits... the 4H displays, the flowers, the marketing stands... and then had some more fair food before heading home. We didn't get home until 3:00, which meant that Eva missed her nap. Well, she slept for the fifteen minutes it took to get home, which was just enough for her to insist that she already napped and refuse another one in the house. We went swimming in our pool, but she mostly whined through that. She ate lots of candy... until mommy put it up and earned more whining. She helped me pay the bills and well there are a few of them that have some extra scribbling on it due to her contribution. Then, I put my very tired, and whiney baby to bed, in her own, big girl bed. This is night two of the transition to her own bed. She insisted as we climbed the stairs that she wanted to "sleep in baba and mommy's bed." I told her she was a big girl and was going to sleep in her own bed. She ran to our room, I picked her up (poor baby) and put her in her bed. She cried for maybe a minute, then she stopped and got down to the business of falling asleep. Tonight I didn't even sit in the room with her, instead I came here and began to write this post. I just checked on her and she's asleep. I am not complaining, but I did expect this transition to be much harder than it has been so far. We might have a hard night still ahead of us, but days 1 and 2 have been very easy. This has been another long day and another good day for Eva. She enjoyed herself immensely. David and I made the comment that this was probably the best fair we've ever been to also, a fact that has more to do with the toddler who went with us than the fair itself.

Big Girl

Last night Eva slept in her very own big girl bed by herself... yes, David and I had our bed to ourselves.

Granny doesn't use her bed anymore, so I got it out and put it up when the family was visiting. Now they're gone, I decided to move it up to Eva's room. Last night she helped me, we talked about how she was a big girl and that she was going to sleep on her very own big girl bed all by herself. We talked about how her cousins all slept by themselves in big kid beds. She helped me make it up, we read a story, we had kisses and cuddles, we said goodnight then I went and sat in the door of the room with my head down and my body language closed up. Once Eva whined, "Mommy sleep too." I didn't respond, so she just laid on the bed watching me until she fell asleep... it took about 15 minutes. It was easier than I thought it would be. She looks so little, sleeping all by herself, in her Great-Grandmother's double bed. She seems to have slept soundly, in fact, she's still asleep. I, on the other hand, spent the entire night restless and waking up to listen for her. Although, I must admit, it was nice not to be sleeping on the very edge of the bed or to be kicked in the side during the middle of the night.

I don't know if tonight will go as seemless, but we're committed to making this move permanent. She has definitely attached so does not need the family bed for that anymore. There are still the nights that she cries in her sleep for "My mommy." Usually, I stroke her on her back and she cuddles next to me and falls back asleep. Now, she's in her own bed, it may entail her waking fully up before she calms down. We'll just deal with it as it comes.

Makeup girl

Eva watched her (3 year old) cousin really close for makeup application advice...

Phone Calls

Eva has been playing with my old cell phone... I think she likes the size of it, just right for her. She is very cute making her pretend phone calls. They go something like this, "Hello. Where you? Lunch today. Okay, Bye Bye." Apparently she has a full calendar of lunch dates.

So, David picked her up from daycare yesterday for the first time since last December and Eva did NOT like it. She spent the entire evening last night wallering all over me. She also insisted on calling up her Aunt Kathy to say goodnight.

Eva and Aunt Kathy

Aunt Kathy & Uncle David left last Saturday, and every day since then Eva has asked me where they are. I tell her that they went home and that she will see them again. She is anamored with her Aunt Kathy... as I said before, I have never seen her respond to another female like that before. She was excited to tell Aunt Kathy every little thing, she hung out with her, she even let Aunt Kathy hold, hug and kiss her, which is something Eva just doesn't do. So, these pictures are for Eva.

Classic...

This is Eva with her Uncle David... I had to upload it because I love the picture... it is so classic 2 year old.

pictures

Eva's first haircut

Getting ready for the Family to visit...

Back again

After two weeks with the family visiting (that was 11 people in my house, 5 of them under the age of 8), I started back to work the day after they left and so have been just a little bit busy (that was an understatement for those who can't hear tone of voice in written words). So, now I have begun to get back into a routine again, it is time to post again.

Eva loved having her cousins visit... she had the time of her life. She enjoyed running up and down the hall with them, running in circles (her version of twirling), playing their gameboys (that means carrying around all parts and pieces and leaving them in strange places so they couldn't find them anymore), helping her aunts fix up Granny's room, putting on make-up (glitter) with her cousin Rachel, she giggled a lot when her cousins buried her in a pile of stuffed animals and there was the one day she went out to play dodge-ball with them. The look on her Baba's face when he discovered his two year old was playing dodge ball was priceless. She spent a lot of time copying them and playing and eating and swimming. Eva had fun.

Aunt Kathy and Uncle David, who traveled with us to China, were here as well, and Eva remembered them. I think it helped that she has been watching the movies of China for the past year, in keeping them in her memory. But, she remembered them. I've never seen her respond to any women as she did Aunt Kathy and then Aunt Kori. In fact for two weeks, I hardly saw my daughter. She was so busy with everyone else that she didn't have time to crawl all over me or insist on being held constantly. I'll upload some pictures as I get them ready.