Evelyn & Elsie 'Isms

The way that Evelyn says things these days:

Hankune: Thank You.
Slipalee: Slippery
Lankey: Blanket
Me-Me: Chapstick
Sisser: Sister
Cozies: Sweatpants
Ness: Nest (usually for sleeping in)
Finnanas: Finger Nails (almost always referred to in the context of wanting them painted)
Sack: Snack
Kiwi Bar: Chewy bar aka granola bar

Some of Elsie's words:

Foooo: Food
Foooo: Shoe - must pay attention to context to determine which.
Baby: Blankey
Wooeee: Rudy aka Aunt Maria
BeBe: Baby doll, or stuffed animal
Naaa: Snack
Aame: Amen
Ah Da: All Done
Peee: Please
My: Mine
Hep: Help

She is also very good at nodding and shaking her head to express what she would or wouldn't like to do.

acTivity Tuesday

Well, summer and fall got busy, and I haven't had much time to post about our activities lately.  But we've still been doing them.  This week, the girls wanted to go outside and draw with chalk.  Since it's getting pretty cold outside, I decided that since one of their favorite chalk activities is to trace themselves, we could trace ourselves on the giant roll of red paper I got at our Church clean up day.

Had I known how attached those girls would become to the cutouts of themselves, I may have rethought that decision.  But it's too late for that.  The girls now carry their cutouts everywhere with them.  They wanted to take them to bed last night, and were only satisfied not to when we laid them on the floor of their room and covered them their own blankets.

When Elsie tried to grab hers and the arm ripped off, I thought Evelyn was going to cry.  This morning there were loud and terrible screams coming from both girls in the living room.  I went in to see what was the matter, and Elsie had Evelyn's paper person.  Evelyn was screaming because she didn't want Elsie to have it, and didn't want to rip it to get it back.  Elsie was screaming because Evelyn was trying to get it away from her.  Oh. Wow.  This afternoon Evelyn insisted on taking her paper baby in bed with her for her nap.  She usually takes her nap on our bed, and she laid her paper self on Kevin's pillow and she slept right next to it.  She's gotten into making a 'nest' for herself with blankets to take her nap in, and she even made a nest for her paper self.  She was also calling her paper cutout her sister. Here's Evelyn napping with her paper doll.

The girls holding their babies.

Elsie holding her paper person.  Notice the tape holding it back together?  Well, Elsie also took her person with her during her nap and it returned with all limbs and the head torn off.

This is how the girls usually hold their people - under the arms and in a big hug.

The good thing is they are only paper and we can either tape them up, or make new ones if it comes to that. 

Girls Dress Project

My sister-in-law and I have been talking about making dresses for our girls since last summer.  We even went as far as going to the fabric store to look at fabric, but we didn't find anything that we liked well enough to pay $5 a yard for.  About a month ago we were cleaning out a closet at her house and found some old bed sheets that were hardly worn and had a pretty flower pattern on them.  We decided that they would be perfect for making the dresses we'd been talking about.

So, on Wednesday of last week we got together and cut out the pieces for the dresses.  This took way longer than I was expecting because every dress piece had to be cut out twice for each dress (one for the dress and one for the dress lining) and then there were three dresses.  It took us almost a full afternoon just to cut out the pattern.

We had decided between ourselves that there was no way we could get them done before Easter since it was only 4 days away and we both had other things going on too.  I decided to work on Evelyn's dress on Thursday just to see how long it would take to do.  Well, I got it almost all done except for the zipper and hem and a little hand sewing as well as a good portion started on Elsie's dress.  This gave me hope that I could possibly get the dresses done by Sunday.

Basically 2 1/2 days of straight sewing and I had all three of them done.  My fingers were achy and my back sore from bending over the sewing machine, and I was generally lacking in the sleep department, but it was so worth it!  Here are the results:

Evelyn

Elsie

Karissa

Happy Easter everyone!

Evelyn'isms

Evelyn is really starting to be a talker.  She puts words and phrases together, and even has her own words for things.  Heard a lot around here are:

"I do that too"  Usually relating to anything Elsie gets to do, that she wants to be a part of too.
"Wat me Mama, wat me!" (watch me) Usually said when she is about to jump off of something.
"I hewp"  She is such a helper and wants to help with everything I'm doing.
"Ready Mama?"
"I get wee one toy"  She's always ready to get a toy for Elsie to play with.
"No nap"  Whenever it's time for a nap or bedtime you can expect to hear this.
"Evamin crynin"  (Evelyn crying) She usually says this when she fake cries, or pretends to cry.



Dictionary
me-me = chapstick
do-do-do = deoderant
dee da = Karissa
oyo = cereal
moee = more
tsoom = spoon
ti-ti = blanket
pank pank = spanking
cone = phone
ee ah = brushing teeth
apapa = pineapple
fasafas = applesauce
bababa = blueberry or any berry for that matter
wee one bed = the crib
nunny = bunny
peto = pretzel
oo ah ah = monkey
sak = snack
no-no = something she's not supposed to touch or do 
deedo = playdo
powdo = baby powder



Other Accomplishments
Evelyn can count to 3.  She usually repeats herself over and over 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3...
She can recognize and point out the letter 'O'
She is very good at her matching game finding pictures that match. 
Whenever we get home from being gone she takes off and hangs up her coat and takes her shoes off.
She helps empty the cart at the checkout at the store.
She's very good at 'fetching' things if I ask her to get something for me.
She helps pick up her toys or anything else she happens to spill.
She knows how to ask nicely for things: "May I have water please?"
She knows how to undress herself.

I know there are more things that she says and does, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.  She's growing up so fast and becoming such a big girl.  Every day is an adventure.

Cheese in the Living Room

I think Evelyn likes to do all of her naughty things right away in the morning - she must dream about it all night and then try to do as much as she can right away. 

This morning while I was washing dishes I started to wonder why Evelyn was being so quiet in the living room.  I walked into the room to find a bag of shredded cheese dumped all over the coffee table, couch, and floor.  Evelyn was holding the salt grinder - which had signs of being licked and also had cheese on it.  There was also cheese stuck to her face all around her mouth.  Oh how I wish I could find the charger for our camera battery so I could have taken a picture of it all. 

After a little thought, I realized what had happened.  Last night I had to feed Elsie right after supper and so I didn't put the food away right away.  Evelyn must have grabbed the cheese and brought it into the living room while I was busy with Elsie.  We left right away after dinner to visit a friend in the hospital and didn't get back until late.  The cheese sat in the living room all night.  Then in the morning, Evelyn found the cheese again after breakfast when Mommy wasn't around.  Since cheese is one of her favorite foods, what else was she to do but eat it?

Needless to say, it gave me an immediate reason to vacuum our living room which was in dire need of being vacuumed anyway. 

Those Eyes

Yesterday I stopped and found myself staring into Evelyn's eyes.  She was goofing around and being silly, and I noticed the joy and excitement that shone through her eyes.  I had to just stop and stare into her eyes for about 5 minutes while she played.  I guess I've never really taken the time to just sit and look into her eyes - those beautiful eyes that every stranger comments about.

Since really noticing her eyes yesterday, I have been watching them more closely.  They are such a means of expression.  The way they well up with tears when she is hurt or upset, the way they light up when Daddy comes home or treats are mentioned, the way joy and excitement shine through them, the way she discerningly stares at a stranger or something unfamiliar, they way they look at you when she gives a hug or kiss.

Her eyes show a lot.  If she got enough sleep, if she's trying to tease, if she likes something, if she doesn't like something, if she's not sure about something, if she's ready for bed.  I could go on and on.  I guess I just haven't taken the time to enjoy some of the little things about Evelyn, like her eyes, and now that I have I really enjoy it.

Some Projects Should Wait Until Nap Time

A few days ago, I picked up some cupboard locks to keep Evelyn out of the low cupboards and drawers.  It's a never ending battle to keep telling her to put things back and close the door.  The locks I got had to be installed with screws into the door.  I didn't think it would be a big deal to put them on our six doors while I waited for Evelyn to get tired enough to take a nap.  I didn't even get one door done before I realized that I would be much better off waiting for nap time. 

If she wasn't grabbing the to-be-installed locks and carting them around, she was trying to get inside the cupboard.  As soon as I set down the screwdriver, she picked it up and sucked on the end.  When I needed to partially close the door to see if the two pieces were lined up, she wanted to open the door.  When I needed to open the door, she tried to close it.  When I tried to screw in one of the pieces, she came and stood on my leg, and holding onto my shoulder with her head tilted over tried to watch what I was doing.

I decided we would be better off going in her room to read some books until nap time and finishing the project then.  It was a good decision.  All six doors now have locks nicely installed just waiting to be tested out when she awakens.

I Just Needed Some Lettuce

Three days ago, I had the most exciting grocery shopping trip of my life.  It all started in the car on the way to the store.

Evelyn has these old stretched out elastic bracelets that I had gotten at a thrift sale last summer.  She loves to play with them (she's such a girl), and had one in the car.  We were almost to the store when she pulled it too hard and broke it.  Just after she broke it, my phone rang so I was distracted talking and not watching her.  In the meantime, she was shoving those beads into her mouth like candy.  When we finally got to the store, she spit out about a dozen of them along with the string.

Since I just needed to pick up some lettuce for dinner that night, I decided not to grab a cart, but to just carry Evelyn.  I got the lettuce, and then heading towards the check-out I walked past the health food section and remembered that we needed some granola.  I set Evelyn down so I could pour the granola out of the dispenser.  By the time I had the bag full, I looked down and here she was eating raisins out of one of the bottom bins.  I quickly snatched her up reminding her that we don't eat those at the store, grabbed my lettuce and granola and again made my way toward the check-out.

It was just then that I remembered that my sister Katie had spotted the first robin of the year, so I owed her gummy worms.  I decided to just check the candy aisle to see if they had any that she could eat. (She can't have anything with maltodextrin, modified food starch, or that was processed in a factory that processes wheat).  Because I couldn't hold the lettuce, granola, Evelyn, and read the candy labels, I set Evelyn down hoping she would stay close by and look at the other candies.  Nope.  I should have set the food down instead and held on to her.  She took off down the aisle and was at the opposite end in seconds.  She entertained herself by pulling food off the shelves, and smiling at other shoppers.  I finally found some worms that would work and went to grab Evelyn.  The only problem with this is that she hasn't learned to 'come' yet when we tell her to.  Every time we come after her, she thinks it's the "I'm gonna get you" game and she takes off running.  This time was no different.  She had two little snacks in her hands and took off running.  7 months pregnant momma with her arms full of granola, lettuce, and gummy worms chased after her.

We finally made it to the checkout, but because my arms were still full, I left Evelyn on the floor standing next to me.  She eyed a big bin of balls not too far from the checkouts and decided they were much more interesting than the gummy worms I had let her hold.  She dropped the worms and headed for the balls.  I was anxiously trying to watch her with one eye, and wait for the conveyor to be open so I could set my things down.  The man in front of me graciously let me set my stuff down so I could go get Evelyn.  By the time I got to her, she had three balls out on the floor and when she saw me coming, started running away with a fourth.  I snatched her up, and determined that I should NOT set her down again.

A valuable lesson was learned this day: Always get a cart, even if you only need to get some lettuce.

And the count is up to 3 beads that I've found in her diaper from the broken bracelet.

More Birthday Fun!

Sledding with Daddy!

A few days after her actual birthday, we had a big birthday party for Evelyn with the immediate family from both sides.  We were so blessed that everyone was able to make it.  We had sledding in the afternoon accompanied by the Packer game, then dinner, gifts, and cake.  Most of the adults stayed indoors, but those little ones who did venture out, really enjoyed their time on the sledding hill at Grandpa and Grandma Kleven's.

With cousins Gracie and Norah.

With cousin Norah at the top of the hill.

After all of the kids' noses and fingers got cold enough, everyone came in to eat.  We had stromboli and lots of side dishes that everyone helped contribute to.  After dinner (and the Packer game), Evelyn got to open all of her presents.  With all of her practice ripping paper and pulling tissue paper out of bags from Christmas, Evelyn was an old pro at opening her gifts.  We were so blessed by the generosity of our families.

Evelyn with all of her gifts.

With the cowboy hat and bib
from Uncle Daniel & Aunt Ellen.

 I couldn't believe that my siblings all pooled together to buy Evelyn a wagon!  We have wanted to get one for her for a while, but a nice one is a bit of an investment.  I'm looking forward to warm weather to take her outside for walks and rides in the wagon.

After gifts, we headed into the dining room for cake.  My mom made a cake in the shape of a bee.  Evelyn got a bumble bee pillow pet for Christmas which she absolutely adores.  The cake was to resemble that.  It looked so cute and tasted really good too!






The week before her birthday, Kevin and I started working with Evelyn on blowing out candles.  She was so fascinated with the flame that she wanted to touch it and didn't understand what it meant to blow it out.  When it came time for her to blow out her candle, she just sat and stared at it.  I had to blow it out for her.


After the blowing out of the candle, Evelyn settled right in to the highchair to eat some cake and ice cream.  This was the first time that she had eaten an entire piece of cake with ice cream all by herself.  Usually we just give her a bite or two off of our plate.



I was expecting her to be a lot messier than she was.  Maybe it's because she's a girl, or maybe it's because she loves to eat and didn't want to waste a single bit of the delicious cake, but other than having messy hands, it all made it into her mouth.

Needless to say, everyone helped to make her first birthday party a wonderful one.  We look forward to as many more years as the Lord chooses to bless us with with this wonderful little girl.

Birthday Fun!

On January 6th, Evelyn turned 1 year old.  We decided to make her day as special as we could even though we know she won't remember it and it was more for our benefit than for hers.

She started the day off with a yummy breakfast followed by the biggest bubble bath of all time.  Kevin put in a ton of bubble bath stuff and then got his drill with the mixer attachment and stirred the whole tub up.  She really enjoyed trying to find her toys under all of the bubbles, and batting at them while watching them slowly disappear.  I think she even tried a handful or two to see what they tasted like.

After her bath, she was ready for a good morning nap.  Once she woke up from her nap, we took her out for lunch.  She got macaroni & cheese, fruit, and lemonade.  Then, because it was her birthday, they brought her a cookie and ice cream with sprinkles.  Normally we try to limit the amount of sugar she consumes, but because it was her birthday, we decided to let her enjoy it.  We did help her a little bit, but she ate the majority of it all.  When we got back home, we decided to just spend the afternoon playing with her and giving her special attention.  We played with puzzles and read books, and did all of the fun things that a 1-year-old loves to do.

Because of all the sugar she had consumed at lunch, she didn't take an afternoon nap until about 4:30pm.  Normally she would have taken a nap around 2:15pm.  That sugar high sure kept her going and going and going.

By the end of the day, I think we were more worn out than she was, but it was well worth the extra energy to see the smiles and giggles coming from our little girl.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Evelyn's Recent Endeavors

Evelyn has been growing up so quickly these last few months.  She has started to become a regular sign language user, uses her little pointer finger to point at anything she wishes to have or touch, has started to walk, and listens well.  It is so fun to see more and more of her personality as she is slowly able to communicate and express herself more.

A few weeks ago I had gotten Evelyn ready to go, and then had to run and grab one more thing.  When I came back, she had successfully pulled off her hat, mittens, and socks.  I guess it's much more fun to play with those things than to wear them.

 

Just a few days ago, Evelyn was playing on our bed while I was doing something else.  I wasn't really watching her except to make sure she wasn't getting too close to the edge.  After a little bit she started playing with the window.  I wasn't surprised because she often pulls back the curtain and looks out our bedroom window.  This time though, she decided to try something new - licking the window.  I think there was a little bit of frost on the glass that she was licking off, but at any rate she was really enjoying it and I managed to catch it on video. Sorry it's sideways, I couldn't get it to rotate.

Then this morning, I decided to finally sort through a big pile of beads to make some necklaces for our niece for Christmas.  Just as I had almost the whole pile untangled, Evelyn decided that she was going to help me finish the job.  In the end, I had to untangle them a second time, but it was worth it watching the fun she had playing with them.

 

Overall, we are greatly enjoying each and every day with our darling girl.  She makes everything more interesting, and definitely more entertaining.  I'm looking forward to many more fun and funny things with her!

The Wean: Week 4

As of last Monday, Evelyn has been completely weaned.  The first couple of mornings were a little rough, but we made it through.  Now she gets very excited whenever she sees her cup of milk.  She drags it around in her teeth until she's done drinking it.  I was expecting more difficulty at the end, but I think finally cutting everything completely off helped to seal the deal.  I am looking forward to growing and bonding with Evelyn in different ways now, and watching her grow in her independence. 

The Wean: Week 3

This week I have dropped the night feeding.  The first two days were a little bit rough come bed time.  Starting at around 7pm, Evelyn starts getting whiny and clingy and insists on crawling up on my lap and laying her head down on me while she sucks her thumb.  I think that the main thing for her is that she's loosing her Mommy connection time and she doesn't like it.  Even though I hold her while she drinks her cup of milk, it's not the same.  I need to make an intentional effort to do fun things with her throughout the day to make up for this time she is missing.  Even simple things like reading stories, or chasing her and tickling her tummy, or going for a walk, or holding her in my lap for 5 mins are things that I know she loves and don't take much time out of my day.

I am anticipating next week to actually be easier than this week.  With all nursing times being supplemented, she's not left wondering, "I wonder if mom will nurse me THIS time?" Because she won't be nursed at all.  I'm sure we'll probably have a rough first couple of mornings, but after that and after a few weeks, it will all be but a fond memory (if even that).

Part of me is sad to be done nursing Evelyn already.  Initially I had hoped to continue for at least a year.  I guess making it almost to 11 months is pretty good.  The other part of me is looking forward to the freedom that will come with being done.  I can leave Evelyn with others (Kevin, family, etc.) and not worry about if she'll take the bottle for them okay.  The reality is that my break from nursing will be an all too short 5 months before #2 is here and we start again.  And my body could use a break to just focus on growing this little one.

The Wean: Week 2

Well, we made it through week one and are starting on week two of the weaning process.  The rest of week one went very smoothly.  With only one feeding being substituted, it wasn't that big of a shock for Evleyn.  We've only been through one day of two feedings from the cup and two feedings from mom.  By the end of the day yesterday, Evelyn was very clingy and a little bit irritable even though she took two awesome naps.  I think it might take her a few days to adjust to mornings and evenings from mom only.  The one good thing is that now when I do nurse her, she eats really well and doesn't mess around.  This makes those feedings go much quicker and easier.  I am still anticipating weeks three and four to be the most difficult in this process, but we're just taking one day at a time.

The Wean: Week 1

Yesterday marked day one of weaning Evelyn.  I decided to take 4 weeks and drop one of her feedings each week replacing nursing with milk I have stored in the freezer.  We're just skipping the whole bottle thing this time and going straight to the sippy cup.  She took the cup just fine both yesterday and today, but I discovered that she doesn't like it cold.  I have to warm up the milk for her or she won't drink it.  I think we'll work on one thing at a time.  When she is successfully weaned, then we'll work on drinking cold milk. 

She is, however, slowly figuring out how cups work.  Up until now, she would lean her face forward and down to try and get a drink.  I've been letting her play with a sippy cup of water to learn to tip it up to get the water out.  Today she was playing with it in the hallway and I found her with a wet shirt, so she was doing something right.

House Flies

A few days ago, we decided to paint our front door.  In order to do so, we had to take the door off of the hinges and lay it outside.  While the paint was drying and we had no front door, all the flies on our block appeared to have entered our house to get out of the cold.  I've been very annoyed with the flies constantly buzzing around and landing on me.  I've killed about 25 of them, but there are still a handful that appeared to have gone into hiding when the fly massacre took place because they survived the slaughter and  are back flying around. 

That said, the other day Evelyn woke up from her morning nap, and I could hear her playing in her crib.  She has this special giggle/laugh noise that she reserves for times when she finds something really fun to play with.  Curious as to what she had discovered in her crib that could draw out this laugh, I snuck into her bedroom.  Now normally as soon as she sees me in her room, she is instantly on her feet at the side of the crib with her arms in the air wanting to be picked up.  I found her this time sitting towards one end of the crib and looking at the blankets in front of her.  There was a fly sitting on her blanket.  She waved her arm at the fly, it moved out of the way, and then come crawling back.  This is what was eliciting those joyful giggles I had heard from the other room. She sat contentedly batting at this fly for several minutes. 

It started to make me think.  Oh to have the mindset of a child.  Where even pesky flies are fun playtime pals.  To not be bothered by a nuisance, but rather enjoy watching God's creation up close.  To see even the smallest creature as a means to be joyful.

I still try to kill the flies I see flying around our house, but it does bring a smile to my face when Evelyn is sitting in her high chair and a fly happens to land on her tray.  She proceeds to ignore me and smile real big at the fly and then watch it until she can't see where it has gone.

Evelyn's Eatings

Evelyn has reached six months of age.  I had decided that I wanted to wait until then to introduce her to solid foods.  Since reaching this age a couple of weeks ago, she has tried a few different things.  Her very first food was some rice cereal.  She didn't seem very impressed with it, and wouldn't open her mouth for more. 

The four days that I was giving her the rice cereal, she was extra irritable and fussy.  I don't know if it was giving her gas or what the problem was, but I decided to switch and start giving her an egg yolk.  I didn't get a picture of it, but she really liked it.  She actually opened her mouth and wanted to eat more.  Her fussiness stopped as soon as she stopped eating the rice cereal, so I think there was a connection.

After that, I switched to fruits in the morning for breakfast.  The first one was pears. She didn't know what was coming.  All she knew was that he had this fun thing around her neck and was sitting on the couch with mommy.

She didn't open her mouth because she wasn't really sure what was going on.

I think that pears must have a different texture, or else she just wasn't used to it.  But at any rate, this is the first face I got:

And this was the next:

She kept gagging on the food as I would spoon it into her mouth.  Needless to say, it took four mornings for her to finish that first jar of pears.  Next we switched over to apples.  She seemed to like those better and ate that jar in two days.  Because she was liking the apples, I decided to put a couple of chunks in her mesh feeder.

This feeder is such a neat idea for babies.  She can hold onto it herself, and chew on/suck on whatever I put inside.  The best part is though, that she can't get any chunks out because she's just gnawing on the mesh part and everything gets strained through it.

A few days later I was shelling a bunch of peas from my mother-in-law's garden and she started to get whiny.  I handed her a pea pod and she had lots of fun sucking on it. 

A few days later I was cutting up beans with my mom and decided to hand her a bean to suck on.  The only problem is that her top teeth are coming in and she managed to bite a chunk of the bean off.  She started choking on it and mom and I were on the verge of doing the heimlich on her when she swallowed it.  A couple of days later I found it in her diaper. :D 

We are continuing on our journey of introducing new fruits and vegetables every 4-5 days and enjoying her reactions to each one.  Sweet potatoes are on the menu for today with peas and beans to follow.

Matching Outfits

Last summer I turned a pair of Kevin's pants into shorts for him.  I saved the pant legs knowing we were having a girl so that I could make a dress for her to match him.  Well, last Sunday I finally got around to making the dress for Evelyn.  It turned out even cuter than I expected.  It only took a couple of hours from start to finish, and was well worth missing my nap in order to make it. I also made a matching headband, but had trouble getting it the right size, so it kept slipping down on her face.

Here she is in her brand-new dress!

Evelyn and Daddy in their matching clothes.  Kevin absolutely loves it when outfits match.  He was hoping that there would be enough fabric left over to make something for me out of it, but unfortunately there was not.

A close up on Evelyn.  This was my first attempt at making button holes, and they didn't turn out the greatest.  Functional, yes, but good-looking? Not so much... Good thing the button covers it up!

RSV?

A couple of days ago Evelyn started coming down with what seems to be a nasty cold.  It all started with a cute little cough and a snotty nose.  She has some of the symptoms of RSV, but it hasn't gotten to the point where we have to take her in to find out for sure.  She has been okay the past couple of days, but this morning as we were sucking snot out of her nose, she started having a coughing fit and began choking.  She scared us very badly, but thankfully that's all it was.  We got a humidifier going and that seemed to help some.  She doesn't have a fever, but she does have a stuffy nose and cough.  Her appetite has drastically decreased, but she is still having around 4-5 wet diapers/day so at least I know she's not dehydrated.  She has also been very sleepy during the day, hardly staying awake for more than an hour at a time.

She was just starting to eat well at 5:00pm, and then when I sat her up to burp her, she spewed milk all over me.  This wasn't just a little spit up either. It just kept coming and coming.  I think she threw up everything she had just eaten.  The first round went up her sleeve with the rest falling all over me as I tried to catch it with my hand.  So into the shower the two of us went.  I think the warm steamy air helped loosen things up in her nose and throat because she's been breathing a lot easier and not coughing as much.  

Because we are trying to take a more natural approach to health and wellness, both her and I are taking a natural supplement.  We brought her bed back into our bedroom so that we can hear her easier if she has trouble breathing during the night.  We also have the head of her cradle built up with blankets so that her head is elevated.

We have no idea where she caught this bug.  If it is indeed a mild case of RSV, it can be spread through touching or kissing, and can take anywhere from 2-8 days for symptoms to show up.  In adults, RSV is simply a mild cold, so anyone who has held her in the past week could have given it to her.  It can take up to one to two weeks to fully recover from it, so we're looking at a potentially long haul with this. 

Please pray for little Evelyn.  It is so hard to watch her cough and then grimace because it hurts her throat.  It is also a very scary thing when she starts coughing and can't breathe.  Pray also for Kevin and I that we would have wisdom in knowing how to help her, and when to seek additional care for her. Any advice is welcome too!

Evelyn Rolled Over!

Yesterday I laid Evelyn down on her stomach on a blanket in the living room. I went into the kitchen to put away the dishes and when I turned to check on her, she was off the blanket and laying on her back. I thought it was just a fluke thing, so I put her back on her stomach and sat and watched her. Much to my surprise (and delight), she rolled over again. I quickly grabbed the camera to videotape her, and she rolled over again while I caught it on camera. When I went to watch the video, much to my dismay I discovered that the camera had been in time-lapse mode. I tried to get her to do it again so that I could get a regular video of her, but I think she was a bit tired out.

So today after her morning feeding, I thought I would try it again. I laid her on her stomach on her blanket and went to grab the camera. When I came back to her room she was already on her back. I reset her and got the camera rolling... Enjoy! Evelyn rolling over at 5 weeks and 6 days old!