I want this for my birthday!

So, her birthday is just a month away and she has already started the "I want this for my birthday party!" I said that once in a store to get her to put a toy back, and didn't expect her to grasp the concept. But boy did she!! And the list keeps growing and growing! We are in trouble! She even says it about commercials!
Going to "school" didn't get any easier at first. She started crying when we left the house! But when I picked her up, she obviously was having tons of fun, and said she wants to go back. But then when the morning comes, she's no longer a fan. This week was the first time she didn't cry, and I think that was really because we had strange men in our house with loud equipment (we were having piers put under our house and the long crack across our living room fixed, it made me want to cry!). Anyway, she didn't cry!! I'm so happy! We had to do a lot of role playing on how she would say goodbye and give a kiss, but it worked! She's growing up so fast! I like her child's day out because it is amazing how much I can actually accomplish with her not there! I'm just starting to get some freedom, and now we want to start all over with another baby!! What are we thinking!(and no, we're not pregers, or trying yet!)
It's true that their little minds are complete sponges. I'm always amazed on the things she picks up on. Like showing my mom how dogs stretch, she does the downward dog just like Cali (and mommy), or telling on mommy for saying a curse word several hours earlier when she made no reaction to it when I actually said it! I was driving the back way out of our neighborhood only to find that the main street was closed and said "damn it", but she didn't react. Later that day when we got back in the car to go eat with daddy, I was telling him not to go that way, the street was closed and she chimed in from the back seat, "and mommy said 'damn it!'" Tattle Tell!! I'll never get away with anything ever again!
We had dinner with our neighbors recently who have a child just 1 yr and 1day older than Evi. It was so cute to watch her interact with another kid. She plays pretty well by herself too, with me that is. When Scott has her she wants his constant interaction. Daddy equals play. Which is great, when it's only a few hours on a weeknight. When I leave him for the weekend, it wears him out! It's good for him! teehee!

First Day of School

Well, sweet Evi has started a Child's-Day-Out, henceforth refered to as “school” It's 5 hours, 2 days week. Which is really longer than I wanted, I was just looking for 3 hours. Pre-school is 3 hours, but she can't start it until next year. Why this is longer than pre-school, I have no idea...but I digress. We talked it up and she was very excited until we pulled into the parking lot the first time. Then it was, “I don't want to go. I want to stay with you. You go with me?” And she got a little teary eyed the first time when we dropped her off, but she did ok. And I did fine, although my stomach hurt for her that first day. My mom was very disappointed that I didn't shed a tear I think. When I picked her up, she said she had fun and had to go back tomorrow. That's a good sign, I thought.

Well, “tomorrow” came and she didn't want to go. And this time leaving her was much harder because she knew I was abandoning her, unlike the first time when she was unsure of what was happening. I stood in the hallway and listened to her cry out mommy for about a minute and then finally had to leave. She was heartbroken! But I know she's fine. And she's going to have lots of fun.

They take a nap, and her teacher Miss Brandi, told me she was sad at naptime and didn't fall asleep for about 45 minutes. But she has already displayed her OCD tendency for pulling hair on your arms for comfort. She was still laying on her mat when I came to pick her up at 2pm. When she saw me she sat up and just hugged Miss Brandi. It was so sweet. Miss Brandi said she isn't quite interested in the other kids yet and stays close to the adults, and that we better hurry up and have another baby. (Scott liked that comment!) HA!

After the first day, we were going potty and she told me “Alex has a peepee.” I asked if she went potty with Alex, and she said “yes, it's a little one.” And so begins poor Alex's inferiority complex!! Which brings me to other funny body parts stories. She has been obsessed with our privates lately. Scott took her to the bathroom at the zoo and she kept telling him “that's a big one!”while they were in the stall. He swears he's not paying her. So, for future reference grandpas and uncles, if she's in the bathroom with you, she's sizing you up, and she's going to share her findings!! She noticed my mom's boobies one day and said “they match mommy's” (just a lot bigger!! teehee) When getting out of the shower one day she saw my lady business which we call tata. “I see your tata...it's a mess.” yes, it is...

One day while Scott was in the shower getting ready for work Evi was in there talking to him and came running out saying “mommy, hurry, you have to see Daddy's peepee!!” I think he was disappointed I wasn't as excited as she was!

Anyway, she likes it, school that is, she just doesn't want to be away from mommy. Which is understandable, I'm great...just kidding.

We went to the zoo yesterday and she actually played on the playground without us!! After just 3 days at school, she's grown so much!! Normally we can't go to a playground without doing everything with her, and if there are other kids she usually doesn't play. She was all over it this time just playing away. Next thing you know she'll be going off to college without a look back!

Fishing is Evi & Scott's new thing. She saw another kid with a fishing pole and I called Scott at work and told him Evi wanted one. He was so excited I think he immediately hopped in the car and headed for Wal-mart as fast as he could! And they fished every day that I was gone on my trip. He was so proud!

My baby's growin' up!!

AAAUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!!! Well, my child knows exactly when to say “DAMN IT” and “OH MY GOD!” My husband thinks the later is worse, but I'm not so sure! We've been giving her alternatives, like “Oh Pickle” or “Oh My ABC's “ (she came up with that last one), but boy she likes damn it, much like her mother! Where she got the OMG from, I'm not quite sure, but she sure knows when to use it. So we're working on it. I've done like the experts say and not made a big deal about it, just give her alternatives. But I finally had to tell her that those were not nice things to say, that she shouldn't say them anymore and the response I got was...”why?” uugghhhh! Why!!! But it has helped to curb her usage a little. Although I'm pretty sure I hear her utter them under her breath every once in a while now.

We've been talking up school. As I have said before, Evi does much better if we talk about things before they happen. From how to behave before we go into a store or public place, to how we are polite and say hi when people say hi to us to me leaving on a trip. So we have been talking up child's-day-out. We got to go meet her teachers and she was excited until we pulled into the parking lot, then it was “I don't want to go to school” “you go to school with me?” Poor baby! But she is totally excited about all the toys awaiting her there now that she has seen them.

Physically, she is getting so tall! And she now has 2 two-year molars coming in! She can make it through most nights without going potty. I can see bed freedom for mommy in my near future. (yes, mother, I can hear you laughing!) She has now learned that I will answer to “mimi” when I have tuned out “mommy” when we're around other people or I'm busy doing other things.

We went to see Backyardigans Live. A live musical of one of her favorite shows. It was so cute, but boy were the ticket prices ridiculous! I mean, we hardly go to concerts because I don't want to pay that much for tickets, but I spent it on my child!! But it was a lot of fun and she has been having us pretend to be the characters and putting on shows for us ever since. She'll make us sit in front of her and she'll announce (like they did at the show) “ Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls...Welcome to the Horse Show” or whatever stuffed animal she's holding and we clap, then she does it again with the next stuffed animal, and so on. I told Scott this is payback for

all the times I made my parents sit through recitals of dances I'd made up and taught the local neighborhood girls (who didn't take dance) in our driveway. We have a lot of payback coming my way.

But her imaginations amazes me. She pretends all the time. Lately she has had 2 imaginary friends. The first, Mia, who she talked to on her phone. And the other, Dandy, who was itty bitty tiny and went grocery shopping with us. But she's very particular about where they are, and if we're suppost to be holding them, we'd better be holding them! Or if they are sitting somewhere, we'd better not sit there or there's hell to pay.

We recently went to a party that had a band and Evi danced, or should I say, made my entire family dance, the whole time we were there. She loved it. Marni's wedding should be lots of fun. Hope everyone is ready to dance, because I will encourage her to share the love!
We have had our first day of school since I started writing this, but I don't have her first day of school picture with me right now. So I'll probably publish another post next week, so check back and I'll tell you how she did...and me.