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.