14 Months

This post is about two weeks overdue, but I haven’t been in the mood to write much recently. Plus, every time I try to take a picture of Eva, it’s blurry because she’s always running around the house. That girl is fast.

So, not too much has changed since last month. Eva continues to be more and more independent every day. She wants to walk everywhere, instead of being held. We used to carry her out to the car, but she insists on walking there by herself. At least she will hold our hand. That part is adorable. She will grab my hand at home and pull me somewhere to show me something. I could do that all day long. It’s so exciting to see her understanding more. Although she cannot communicate with many words, you can tell her brain is comprehending things and she’s trying to let us know what she’s thinking. Today she said, “I did it!” and, “Ta-dah!” when opening up the Easter eggs. I pretty much freaked out over the, “I did it!” I’m not sure if she knew what she was saying, but I’ll take it! Her little high voice is so sweet. A couple other words or phrases that she says are: All done, Mama, Dada, Papa, Uh-Oh, and, Dunno (I don’t know). But mostly, she just points at things or shakes her head.

Eva loves picking up books, pointing at pictures on the pages, and “reading.” Other favorite activities include feeding Minnie Mouse her bottle, brushing her hair and pulling out any bow or clip, dancing and twirling, trying to eat the bubbles in her bath, building towers with her blocks and then destroying them, coloring, and “cooking” with me. I don’t think we have laughed more together ever before. In fact, we were at Costco and I kept tickling her leg while she was sitting in the cart. She was laughing so loud that a woman turned and said, “Wow, that’s quite a baby laugh!” It was hilarious.

Right now Eva has eight teeth. Five on the front top, two on the front bottom, and one top molar that popped it’s way through this week. Two more are about to come through, as well. So, we have had a bunch of 3 am parties this past week.

We finally weened her off of formula completely and switched her to whole milk. It’s so great on the budget and, on most days, helps her to eat more regular food. Another change is that Eva is pretty much taking just one nap day. If she wakes up early enough and has her first nap before 11, then we can squeeze a second one in later, but typically she wakes up at 8:30 and then takes a 2-3 hour nap around noon. Part of me really misses having both naps, especially because I try to get most of my work done during her naps, but it is nice that she can be happy and awake longer when we are out or have plans.

There have been some days lately where Eva has been a total doll. We have the best time together and after I put her to bed, I start to miss her and think, “Maybe I should go in and look at her… maybe I could even rock her some more!” Then I come to my senses and realize that’s ridiculous, she wouldn’t be too pleased to be woken up. On the other hand, there also have been days where she has had FULL BLOWN, melt down, body on the ground, kicking and screaming, tantrums. Those are usually few and far between (and I really do think it’s because the teething was hurting her), but on those days, I beg T.J. to come home and have a turn with our child who is living up to her “Diva Eva” nickname. She’s a drama queen just like her mama.

That’s about all I have to report for now. Here are a some pictures from a week ago: