A Tough Week

At her one year check-up last Wednesday, Evelyn was a perfectly healthy 18 pound 3 ounce, 29 inch tall kid. What a difference a week makes.

Evy began her first week as a one year old by starting to cut another bottom tooth. She was a little cranky and was biting everything. We hoped her stuffy nose might also be a part of that, but over the weekend it turned into a cold and then a full fledged double ear infection. A return trip to the pediatrician got her a prescription for an antibiotic. Unfortunately for Evelyn, Amoxicillan leads to nasty diapers which lead to even nastier diaper rash.

To top it all off, tonight Evy had her first trip to the Emergency Room. After her bath a very slippery kid tried to wiggle off her changing table. Her escape was foiled by the decorative top edging of the table when it got in the way of her head. Because of the swelling and proximity to her eye, and after talking to the pediatrician (for the third time this week), we headed out to the hospital.

The ER nurse and doctor were great. They checked out Evy's cut and determined that no glue or stitches were necessary, and they didn't even laugh at us for being paranoid first time parents and bringing her in. At least not in front of us anyway. They said her cut will heal on its own and sent us home with the same 20% off coupon I was given during my ordeal at the same hospital.



As a side note - Evelyn is very happy to show you how old she is now. Just ask her and she shoots up her index finger like a cowboy taking his gun from a holster. If she's excited you might even get both fingers.



Hopefully her second week as a one year old will be better than her first. If not, it's going to be a long year.

Mmm...Cake

Evelyn turned one today!

She celebrated by having her first taste of cake. The "Birthday Princess" was a little hesitant at first...

But after a couple licks of icing, she decided it was tasty and kept on going.

Before we knew it, Evy had devoured the entire top of her cake.



Yummy!

After a half roll of paper towels she was clean enough to get back to presents and playing. And taking some snapshots.

I guess it's only fair, being that we took 163 pictures of her during the birthday weekend.

Year of the Bear

We have taken a picture of Evelyn (with the same teddy bear) on the 12th of each month since she was born. We thought it would be interesting to keep track of how much she would grow and change in her first year.



Since Evy was born on a Sunday, we also took a picture of her every Sunday for the past year. If you want to see those pictures you'll have to come visit...

Updates

Evelyn has been doing some pretty interesting things lately. She can make animal noises, show you where her belly is and eat an entire waffle in no time at all.

She has also decided to remodel the kitchen.

Evy never liked the wallpaper in there, so that came down first. She chose a nice bright shade of yellow for the walls and installed (with some help) a new laminate floor. There is still some work to do - but overall we think she did well for her first try.

We think it is great that she wants to help out around the house. And we still have a couple of months to teach her how to mow the lawn.

My Funny Valentine

Evelyn is having a giggly first Valentines Day. Actually, she has been cracking herself up for the past week. Ask her if she wants to take a nap and she chuckles. Make a funny face and she thinks you're hilarious. Even a simple game of peek-a-boo sends her into a frenzy until she gets the hiccups.

Evy has also been cruising around the house on her walker. She is crazy on it. She zooms along until she runs into the couch, a wall or a parent.

This morning she gave her Valentine puppy a ride. But it won't be long before she ditches the walker and zooms off on her own.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Still At It

Evelyn did not stop with the clearing out of the pantry. Earlier this week she moved on to her bedroom. We had asked her to clean up the shelves. Maybe she thought we said to clean them off...



Then Evy continued her path of destruction to the living room. Just this morning she figured out how to open her toy box all by herself. She started taking stuff out of there immediately.



We wondered what she was digging for until she finally surfaced with something - her football.



Which makes sense.

It is Super Bowl Sunday.

Pantry Raid

Evelyn's cousin Hannah likes to help her mother in the kitchen. Evy likes to do the opposite.

This morning she emptied the better part of the bottom two shelves of the pantry. We think she was drawn in by the big box of Cheerios.



Or maybe she wanted to make some cupcakes.

Or maybe she was just having fun throwing things around the kitchen.

Snow Angel

This winter has been an unusually mild one for the Pittsburgh area. It hasn't been very cold and snowflakes have been few and far between. Evelyn hasn't even had the chance to try out her new snowsuit until today - when it snowed an entire 1/4 of an inch.



Evy made the bottom half of a mini snow angel before trying to crawl away. She even managed to catch a snowflake on her nose.



All this in a matter of four minutes.

Steph was getting cold. She doesn't have a snowsuit.

Car Show

The front window in our living room is only about eighteen inches off the floor. This means that Evelyn can pull herself up on the windowsill and look outside. She likes to watch the cars and trucks drive by.

She makes "vroom, vroom" noises on her way to the window, while she's waiting for a car, and when she finally sees one. Actually, her noises sound more like a motorcycle or a monster truck than a Ford Taurus. Have a listen:



She has a great time but the spit spray creates a bit of a mess. Can you tell the car show has become one of her favorite activities?



We also play the color game with the cars that pass out front. Each vehicle is worth one point. Here is the breakdown by player:

Evelyn: silver/grey
Steph: green
Me: all other colors

I got to pick last.

Return Of The Spike

Many people have remarked that they miss the way Evy's hair used to stand up.

Don't worry. It can still defy gravity.

It just needs a little help now.