Happy Halloween

Eva is a kitty cat

This is last year...look how far she has come...

Happy Halloween everyone!

"Da-Beisel"

Last night I was at dance practice at my church, as I am every Monday, and Eva was home with Granny and Ba Ba. Granny told me this morning that they were watching Thomas and Friends, and there was a short on the diesel train. Eva was calling it a "Beisel," so Granny looked her in the eye and very clearly and slowly said, "Da... Diesel." To which, Eva looked Granny back in the eye and very clearly and slowly said, "Da...Biesel."

This morning, when she woke up David was just coming into the bedroom, half an hour before leaving for work. He gave Eva a hug and she hugged him and patted him on the back and then told him, "Baba go work now. Bye bye." Bossy little girl. Actually, I think she's just used to a hug preceeding him saying he's going to work. On the phone, when I was giving him the grocery list to pick up at the store this evening before coming home, she repeated each thing I said directly into the phone for him so that he was sure to get it right. She's very involved.

Yesterday was a good day for Eva with school and daycare. She came home with the same pull-up on that she wore to school. She likes to play with the boys at school... there are two in particular that she is very fond of. She even pretends that the "little people" at home are these two boys and plays with them at home too. My daughter is beginning to pretend to shoot things and pretend box. Not that I would tell her, but I really kind of like it, too much "girly" gets to me after a while.

China-girl

2 1/2

Today is Eva's half birthday, she is now 2 1/2 years old.

Eva is also, after 3 weeks, finally at the place where I can say she has adjusted to her new school and daycare. She misses Mrs. J and her children a lot though. I need to plan a play date. In any case, Eva is relaxed again and telling me she loves me again. For a while she was stressed about this change. Eva does not handle change well at all!

At 2 1/2 years old she is really starting the "I do it myself" phase of her development. She wants to do everything herself and if I do it for her throws a fit until she can do it herself. Then, because she can't really do it herself, throws a fit because of that and wants me to help her. Then, when I help her, throws a fit because she didn't do it herself. Then, when I let her, throws a fit because she can't really do it herself. So, I do it and she throws a fit, etc... This continues until I've had enough and tell her that she has to calm herself down and if she can't I'll put her on time out so that she can. At that point she makes the decision to either accept it not done or let me do it. Ah, the complexities of 2 1/2... {sigh}

Cheezy

Eva's developed her "picture" smile now. Do you recognize it yet?

My older sister Kathy had one of those when she was this age, I think it is a result of frequent picture taking.

Coffee time

Cloud walker

Yesterday after I picked Eva up from daycare, there was a big fluffly cloud in the sky. Eva informed me that it was really pretty and we should go walk on it. I told her that I thought that was a great idea, but we couldn't do it at that time. It would be cool though...

State Fair (Labor Day Weekend)

If anyone is curious about what I consider "Too many people," then this picture should help you understand, because that was too many people.

Eva was a little bit grossed out by the butterflies. She didn't want them touching her.


Eva could have spent all day with the horses. She really liked this miniature.

FYI: David is not pleasant to be around when he's hot, over-crowded and tired.

Eva loved the rides and is still, 2 months later, talking about that bumble bee ride.

popcorn

Eva has a Elmo toy, that was given to her by my Aunt Sissy, who says "What’s up? Let’s talk." This evening, after Elmo said that, Eva sat down very importantly on her little chair. Held Elmo up eye to eye and said, "I got my passport. I go to Canada. Do you?" It’s her favorite topic of conversation, that passport is.

Eva can use scissors. She can us them to cut the plastic wrapper off of a bag of microwave popcorn. She does it perfectly. She can also throw the wrapper in the trash and put the popcorn in the microwave (granted she does slam the microwave door). She can also push the "popcorn" button and start. She can make her own popcorn. How’s that for a not even 2 ½ year old?

Let's talk a while

That is Eva's new favorite thing to do. She will plop down next to me, lean towards me, look me in the eye and say "Let's talk a while." It is very adorable, and enjoyable. So, we talk. I have learned all kinds of things I did not know. Most importantly, I am learning how the world looks through Eva's eyes. She is amazing.

Eva has been acting very two-year-old this past week and weekend. She wants to tell us "No" whenever we tell her something. She won't come. She hits when she's mad. She cries when she doesn't get her way. As a result of all of that, she is living in time-out. I have to say, though, that it is working. Her behavior improves and she doesn't do the same thing the next day. For example, on Saturday, it was telling us "No." After going to time out half a dozen times for that one, she stopped. Then on Sunday she was hitting. After time out, she stops. So, it does work, it's just a never ending challenge. She tests constantly to see if we mean what we say. David and I are just concentrating on being consistent. We're trusting the rest to work itself out. We keep telling ourselves that it's better to deal with it now when time out works, then when she's a teenager. I know that it's age appropriate behavior, but that doesn't mean that I think it's acceptable behavior. She's doing well though, and actually I think the discipline is helping her. She was having some difficulties dealing with the change in daycare and going to preschool now--she was getting very clingy and upset with me about it. I think she has been testing us to see if it is the same at home as it always has been, you know, "Does a change in one part of my life mean that everything has changed?". I am noticing her being a lot more calm about going now and not clinging any more.

Eva Stories

Eva has a little green plastic piece that came from one of her toys... I think a train set. It looks like a plastic "Tee," and Eva calls it her hammer. She uses her hammer to pretend to shave like Baba does. He tells her that he has to shave the fuzz off. Yesterday, Eva wanted a lot of holding... I think it's finally sunk in that she's changed daycares. Anyway, she was on my lap and looking in my eyes. She was touching my face, when she came accross the small amount of stubble I have on my chin (yes... I am not embarrassed to admit it) when she declared very loudly. "Mommy... I need get my hammer. You are fuzzy." I told her I appreciated that.

Our church is building on and making a new addition. The other day, David & I took Eva up to see the new building. We talked about how great it was. On our way out, we asked Eva if she liked it. She looked around very seriously and sagely told us "I 'preciate it."

Pictures from Rollag

Over Labor Day Weekend, Rollag MN has a steam thrashers reunion and lots of steam powered machinery. Needless to say, it is a highlight of David's year. He has been teaching Eva all about steam trains... they pour over pictures of them together and Eva was very excited about going to Rollag. In the pictures, she has her stoic "I'm in a new place, I must not show emotion" expression on her face, but she did enjoy it immensely. She talked about it for days and days afterwards.
Eva and David took a ride on this little steam engine first. Eva wanted to go again, but we distracted her with the promise of ice cream.

It was a very hot day and Eva was upset that the sun would dare to melt her ice cream.


We got to take a ride on the big steam train also. Eva thought it was noisy. However, since then she has really taken to imitating the noise.

After waiting in line, Eva got to ride on one of two steam powered Merry-go-rounds in all of the United States.

Eva had so much fun on that particular Merry-go-Round that she cried for at least 15 mintues afterwards because she had to get off. She really didn't want to get off. Unfortunately it was at the end of the day so we had to leave. I think she would have rode on that for hours.

Preschool

Well, David came home from work yesterday and asked me if I was really busy right now. I told him, "Yes... it's midterms at the college, etc..." Then I wanted to know why he was asking. He then informed me that Eva's been doing lots of cute things and I haven't been writing about it on the blog and I still hadn't put up the pictures I promised a month ago. So, sorry... I have been very busy and am only getting the chance to write now because I'm multitasking while giving an exam to my organic chem students. They are very intent at the moment.

Eva is such a little girl anymore, and not a baby. She is a delight simply to talk to and carry on a conversation with. The other morning, she was telling Baba what she wanted for breakfast. I commented that David was letting Eva boss him around a lot, to which Eva pipes up, (very loudly) "I a bossy woman!" We all agree, and fortunately for her I happen to really like bossy women. If I didn't, I'd have a hard time liking myself or any of the women in my family.

She is delightful to watch dancing, she gets her whole body into it--wiggling, bouncing, swaying, waving her arms. She also will sing along with songs only she misses half the words and the ones she gets are in the wrong order and well are mostly wrong. But it's really cute and she sings them enthusiastically.

So, Eva started pre-school this week. Yes, she is young for pre-school. She is 8 months younger than the next oldest child. However, she is responding very well to it. She thrives on structured activity and learning. Her teacher says that her knowledge is on par with the other students, and that she has a great attention span. She will sit and listen to the entire story and look at the pictures, she will stay at the station and finish her project instead of wandering off. I am told her attention span is better than that some of the older kids have. Also, her teacher says she is very well mannered and polite. I was also told that Eva's favorite part of the agenda was the music. The other kids enjoy her and one of the little girls even gave her, her phone number (granted it was a bunch of random letters, but still it was sweet). They all greet her when she comes and say goodbye when she leaves. I think that Mrs. J trained her really well for pre-school with her story time etc. Also, Mrs. J worked with Eva on her shapes and numbers, letters and colors a lot. Eva knows all the shapes short of a parallelogram and the equivalent. She still gets mixed up on her colors, but she can count to 5 really well and understand what the numbers mean. She is forever counting her toys now and telling me how many she has of something... I try not to get tired of hearing it. She is very good at matching and doing puzzles. At church this weekend, she informed Granny that she was sitting at a table that was a circle. Granny told her that she was correct and asked her what the shape of the table next to her was. First Eva said, "I don' know," but then immediately added "It rectangle." (Which it was) Then she looked around and noticed that "There lots of rectangles Granny." When we were walking into Walmart last week, I was holding Eva's hand and watching for cars when Eva comes to a complete stop and I hear a voice say "Mommy, you step on triangle." I'm thinking, "What in the world?" When I look at what she's pointing at and sure enough, there was a triangle painted on the parking lot. She's very observant when it comes to her shapes.

I have been told it is normal, but Eva talks from the moment she wakes up until she goes to sleep. She does not like the cats to sleep on her things or play with her things. She's still quite competative with the cats. Some time last week, Eva decided that her Baba was her favorite person, so she's been spending all the time she can with him. They particularly enjoy looking at train catalogues together and watching Thomas the Train on TV, which is far and away her favorite program. In fact it is the ONLY program she will watch all the way through. She's been making me read her "Shoaoy and Dot" before bedtime each night, which is a story about Chinese adoption. On one page of the book there are pictures of babies in these little walker, high chair things that they use in the orphanages in China. I've never talked with Eva about them before, but the other night we're reading the story and she is studying that page. I was going to turn the page when she put her hand on it and looked up at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, I have one of those." I said, "You did?" Eva replied, "Yes, I think so. I sit in it, sometimes. I play with my toys." I believe her and I think she actually remembers being in one of those, which is amazing to me anyway. Nothing else would explain her statement, because it's not like she's around them nor have I ever talked to her about it. Have I told you what an amazing brain that little girl has? In any case that is her favorite book right now and she will tell me what is going to happen before I get there. In fact, Eva loves to give commentary. She also gives commentary on her Thomas the Train shows. Granny finds them delightful.

So, David (significant Dave?), as pertaining to your comment to the previous post, I apologize that I only have words for you to read. I find them interesting, anyway, even if no one else does. I will work more dilligently on posting some pictures. My O. Chem students hare half an hour into the test and no one has shot me a dirty look yet... I think they're still too busy. It is a hard exam.

This is october and at the end of this month Eva will be 2 and a half years old. She wears a size nine shoe (which is getting too tight for her) and a 4T top, with a 3T bottom. She will have been with us for 16 months and it feels like it has to be longer than that. This being a mom business really is the best thing going. I am very much in love with this family that God has given me.