Happy Half-Birthday Evie!

Our baby girl is six months old. And somehow, I still can't believe she's another month older. (When am I going to get used to this?)
She does new things (eating solids, sitting up tripod-style, funny new noises, communicating with big brother) but she still seems like such a baby to me.
Evelyn is such a joy. She is so happy, all it takes is eye contact to earn a big smile. She talks so much and always seems to be telling us something funny. One of her favorite things to do is to grab our faces and bring them right up to her and laugh at about .2 cm apart from each other. She and J like to make poot noises back and forth and crack each other up. She loves to watch him do anything and he has figured out how to make her laugh (which in turn makes us laugh).

Evie is eating lots of different foods now and hasn't turned anything down yet. She wants to do it herself so bad already and fights for the spoon on every bite. She gets so pumped when I'm cooking or getting food ready for the rest of us...she's ready to partake in taco night as soon as I'll let her!

This photo does not do the mess she made justice.

On the downside, she does not sleep well at all. I don't understand it. She slept through the night for the first 3.5 months and then all of a sudden, she's sleeping like a newborn. I'm actually pretty happy if I get two hours in a row...it's that bad. Luckily, she's still right next to me, so I don't have to travel far when she wakes up. I will say though, she always makes up for a bad night as soon as she wakes up -- grinning ear to ear and thrilled to see us.

And as for big brother, Julian is funnier than ever and is repeating everything he hears. He has been coming up with some of his own great one-liners as well.

Some recent favorites include:
"Hey 'dere silly buns."
"Julian drop monkey load."
"PU Evie stinkypants!"

I can't imagine where he learns all this potty humor.

His new favorite laugh-getter is his dramatic "face performance". Enjoy.

Sad

Serious

Excited!

Still excited!

Angry

Model

Blue Steel

And yes, he was in the highchair in these pictures. He's getting quite a kick out of playing in all his old baby stuff.

And here are the rest of the pictures worth posting that have been hanging out on my SD card for the last month:

New hats from Mimi

Snow day!

Happy Birthday Momma! (Best gifts ever.)

No Wike It

This is Julian's favorite new phrase these days. Anything new, unknown, slightly loud, kinda different...he "no wike it".

We are currently going through a scared phase. And a Mommy phase. And an I-can-do-it-myself phase.

Gotta love this age.

During the day he alternates between "Julian do it self" and "help, help, HELP!" about every three seconds. He would prefer to try one bite of everything in the kitchen before settling on a lunch choice. (And when he doesn't want the bite, clawing it off his tongue, choking out "no wike it" and giving me the hairy eyeball like I tried to poison him.)

He does wike Play-doh!

He got snow in his face while sledding with Mimi. So now when he's going outside, the first thing he says is "snowface...don't cry!" He wants the door left open when he goes to bed and needs frequent hugs and cuddles from Mommy and Daddy before he can fall asleep. He's "cared" of lots of things lately, including (but certainly not limited to): any kind of small appliance that makes too much noise, the shower, the car wash, one of his puzzles that makes too loud of a noise... (You get the idea.)

These pictures have nothing to do with this post really.

I know it's just a phase and we're trying to strike the right balance between empathy and reality for him. The upside is, I get lots of cuddles and I can openly admit that it makes me feel like a million bucks when he comes running to Mommy for a hug when something spooks him.

Speaking of not wiking something, I'll tell you what I no wike: the flu. Good Lord, we had it bad. It lasted about 10 days and it was a doozy. Poor J Bug had it the worst and was just so sick. Then Daddy and I got in on the action and by Wednesday we were completely helpless. Thank God for Mom. She took the whole day off and took care of us all...I don't know what we would have done without her help. Then, as the three of us were starting to feel a little better, poor Evie got it. That right there is the epitome of pathetic. If you've never seen a five month old baby dry heave...trust me when I say it is absolutely heartbreaking.

Feeling all better! (And apparently a bit annoyed at Mommy for taking her picture as soon as she woke up.)

But thankfully, we are all in good health again. Being sick just makes feeling normal all the more glorious. And even if our normal right now is sort of whiny and afraid -- he's still the funniest, sweetest, most precious little boy.

Besides, it's all part of our baby growing up; I wouldn't change it for the world.


Oh, and PS: I spoke too soon. Julian is sick again with scarlet fever and an added bonus of hand, foot, and mouth. No wike it.

Evelyn: 5 Months Old

This girl is growin' faster than I can keep up with. I cannot believe she's almost half a year old already!

I love how little she still is though. Julian was a monster baby from the get-go and seemed like a toddler at 6 months. Evie is still so small to me. I was looking back at J's 5 month post, and he was in his big boy carseat, in his own room, eating peas, and taking big baths! We're nowhere near those things with Ev yet.

I'm not sure if we're babying her because she's a girl, or because she's smaller, or because she's the baby -- but it's okay with me. She'll get to all that, and I'm in no rush to grow her up. It happens too fast already.

What can I say? She thinks I'm funny. :)

Check out that cute booty!