18 month Update

Tomorrow we leave for two summer trips. Monday Evangeline finally had her 18 month appointment and did very well. She's grown up so quickly from a baby to a toddler. She is now 25 pounds and 32.5 inches tall.

Playing with our friends in the backyard.

Little mommy, Evangeline loves babies right now

After our recent trip to the ARC with friend Kai.

Favorite book right now has mirrors in it.

Reading books with Claire at her house.

Pulling the wagon with Claire.

Pool time

More adventures with Claire

Our new backyard playgym

Pool playdate with her Twin friends

She's been using a lot of new words including "outside, flowers, broccoli (for broccoli--we have broccoli growing in the garden, coffee and tea if Greg or I are drinking them. 

Loves "colors" and "stickers" right now.

She's also great at identifying her favorite book and television characters and asking for them. These include Super "Wyatt"from Super Why, Elmo, Cookie, -Phia (Sophia the First), Sully (from Monster's Inc. --even though she's never seen the movie), Ralph, Felix and Glitch (from Wreck it Ralph), as well as Babies, Pigs, Cows and Monkeys--from a variety of books. She also recognizes specific places we visit on a regular basis with words:

1) When we pass the church and I say "Church" she says "slide" and "Swing" because of the church playground.
2) When we pass Panera Bread in the Mall or Downtown she asks for a "muffy" or "water"
3) When we come home she says "House" "dada" and "wylie"
4) When we visit the farmer's market she asks for "Slide" or "cookie" (there is an old plastic slide at the farmer's market).
5) She also recognizes her friends and their houses or the places we routinely see them. This has been difficult for me since two of her friends recently moved away.

She's also really into "colors" and "stickers" and asks for them routinely. Her artwork has gotten so much better in the past two weeks : ) She even made some masterpieces for her grandpa's for Father's Day.

We'll have a lot to post here in the next few weeks. For now here's some photos of our recent adventures at home in CoMo.

Eating her new favorite food, pineapple

Happy Birthday Week Baby! Part 1

Happy Birthday Princess Evangeline!

Although it was a few weeks ago, I wanted to share some photos from Evangeline's birthday week. On the Sunday before her birthday she celebrated with her Best Friend James. James is three days older than Evangeline and she was jealous of his cake...

Evangeline camping out in the Kitchen on her birthday morning.

We shared breakfast of biscuits (Evangeline's favorite) and played in the kitchen for a while. She is really into the refrigerator right now--she loves the magnets and photos on it and loves standing in the door when it is open. She loves the game of taking things out of the fridge while mommy and daddy are busy trying to close the door.

Later that day, Evangeline hung out with her girl friend Claire at a picnic at a park near our house. Claire shared her baby doll, water cup, toys and snacks. Claire has recently become more sure-footed and so she and Evangeline are running around the park like I had never seen before. Evangeline has been walking for more than four months, so it is nice her friends are now able to play with her on that level too.

I love how these girls are running now.

That evening, after several delays, her Aunt Sarah and Grandma Carri were in town. We all went out to Sophia's to celebrate.

Thursday her Aunt Catelyn and Uncle Daniel arrived after flying all over the eastern part of the country to get there. On Thursday, Aunt Sarah also came to Evangeline and my Mommy and Me Yoga class. Sarah also snapped a few photos for the instructor.

Evangeline and I at our Mommy and Me Yoga class.

Zoo Trip No. 2

Last week we went to the zoo with our friend Crystal and her daughter Claire. The drive to St. Louis was totally worth it. We saw the giraffes, zebras, elephants, hippos, penguins, chimpanzees and gorillas.

When we met the gorillas, one beat on the glass and scared Evan and Claire. He was so close you could have touched him had there not been glass.

We also got pretty close to the penguins. One was floating in the water with his beak right next to the glass well. Evan laughed at him for about five minutes.

Below are some photos from our trip.

Evan and I with the Zebras

Evan and the Chimp eating

Claire and her mom in the penguin house

Evangeline and Claire were pooped after the zoo.