Wrapping Up August & Evelynn is Eight Months

It's hard to see the picture on the blog, but Claire decided to arrange all of her many baby and barbie dolls and sit with them here in the play room. She likes to clean and organize. The organizing she gets from her mommy, the cleaning from her daddy. Best of both worlds! 

Eight months means MOBILE for Evelynn. Not only is she crawling quickly everywhere and anywhere, but she is already pulling up and trying to walk. She is all about motion right now. She loves to wave and has clapped a few times as well. She is starting to slow in her weight gain a bit as Claire did at this same age. I thought that I had spotted those bottom 2 teeth, but they are still just sitting below the surface. She is still nursing, so I am not anxious for the teeth to appear. Evie likes to sing and be sung to and to dance with mommy. She is definitely right handed and has a temper. She is sleeping better and better and most days is a good easy-going baby. After we passed the 6 month mark with her things have definitely been easier in the Peel home.

 Here

 she

 comes!

At 2 years old, Claire is big enough for preschool two days a week. We figured this would be good for our little introvert and would give mommy a little time for herself and for one-on-one time with Evelynn. Claire is excited about school until we get there, then she will attach to the teacher and no one else. Mommy has had a bigger adjustment than Claire in this - leaving her with someone has been hard! Claire is still around the 10th percentile for weight and 25th for height, my petite little dancer. She loves to dance with Pop on Sunday mornings (she twirls and claps as we listen over the internet to Pop leading worship at his church in NC). She is addicted to the song "Baa sheep" and can repeat some of the lyrics herself. She can say her ABCs with a bit of help and recognizes most of the letters. She loves hats and having her nails painted. She is already sick and tired of Evelynn getting into her face and her toys and has a constant refrain of "No Evie Jane!" anytime Evelynn is awake. She is a sweet, loving, funny, beautiful and smart little girl and we couldn't imagine life without her.

Party Time!

The party - meant to keep it small, but when so much of our family lives here with so many cousins, it just sort of grows and grows. She had a blast! I am so thankful for a big yard with so much to do for little ones!

 From left to right, cousin Kaydence (2), neighbor Katie (2.5) and cousin Sara (6.5)

 cousin Tessa (4mos)

 cousin Mercy (6)

 Birthday Girl

 Cousin Wyatt (3)

 Birthday Girl with cousin Jonathan (13)

 Evie with friend Ian (8)

 In area of our yard for toddlers (we call it Peel Park West)

 We had two wading pools, a slip n slide, the toddler play area, the playhouse, and the regular playset. The tire swing was not up for this party due to Soozie chewing the rope to bits...

 Mommy made a big Mickey cookie cake!

 Blowing out her candle (with Wyatt's help of course)

Yummy! 

 Quite a crowd 

 Sara wiping Claire's face

 Children all around

 Sweet cousins (Kaydence just celebrated her birthday a few weeks before Claire)

 Cousin Matthew (10.5) WAAAAY up in the tree

 Cousin Sara in the toddler swing, silly girl :)

 All the goings on down at Peel Park

 Beautiful birthday girl

 Sweet Evie Jane with big cousin Jonathan

The girls finally shooed the boys away from the slip n slide 

And a good time was had by all!

Claire Turns Two

Here are the pictures from the morning of Claire's big 2nd Birthday!

Soozie tries out the Minnie Mouse ears. (Claire wanted Mickey ears for her birthday and I could only find Minnie ears. She quickly remedied my mistake by coming straight to me and saying, "Bow Off! Bow Off!") 

 Mickey Balloon! (It is still afloat in the playroom two weeks later).

 An interesting take on a "hoppy ball," this is a "hoppy hotdog." She is still too small to really get on it, even after Geoff has let out a good deal of the air. So I guess we're still in the market for one geared more towards toddlers...

 Evelynn's gift to Claire? This was the first morning she decided she could really crawl in earnest, on all fours, covering lots of ground in short time.

 Floor puzzle with sounds - Mommy quickly realized that all of the "eyeballs" from the animals had to be removed so Evie Jane wouldn't swallow them...

 Evelynn gets in on the action

 Evie samples Claire's matching puzzle cards

 The birthday girl

 Singing cards continue to be a big favorite of Claire's - to give as well as to receive

 Trying out fingerpaint with NiNi

 With her singamajigs from Mr. Mike, she named them "Singing Gini (purple one), and Two (red one)"

Ready for my party now...

Wake Up Evie! Zoo!

The title of this post is a direct quote from Claire on the morning before her birthday. My grandmother sent birthday money for Claire and we decided to use it to take her to the zoo for the very first time. It was a fun trip with good memories, but a bit hot!

This last picture is of the black bear, who Claire said was her favorite part of the zoo, although she liked the monkeys as well. She got to take home one special something from the gift shop and she made a bee-line straight for a little stuffed black bear, appropriately named "black bear" who is now a nightly favorite alongside a cow, appropriately named "moo cow."