If there's one thing that Evelyn loves, it's music and dancing to music. OK, two things. She can be in the crabbiest trantrumiest mood, but the second we put on one of her favorite tunes, she immediately stops what she's doing and starts bobbing and bouncing.
Generally she likes the music we listen to, especially anything with a good beat, preferring it over the few kids' songs that we've played for her. One of her absolute favorites has to be a song by Peter Bjorn and John called Paris 2004. The second this song comes on, all is right in Evelyn's world. Years from now, hearing that opening beat will forever bring me back to this time. I wonder if it'll do the same for her in some way?
James Brown is a huge favorite for her. Evelyn can be in the other end of the house, but if we put on Sex Machine, she'll come running into the kitchen and start getting down. Kind of like this (with New Order):
Her dancing is irresistible, and soon after she starts, she's got everyone in the room dancing... Mama, Papa, Po Po, and when she's there, Jennifer. She doesn't even let Baby sit still for too long! Here, Evelyn's administering a little bit of Shaken Baby Syndrome:
And let's not forget Evelyn's jazz hands...
Monday, February 25, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Eighteen months
Evelyn is 18 months old now, as of yesterday! I can officially say she's a year and a half old. She's becoming such a kid, such a lovely girl, and getting to be less and less of a baby. Already I'm mourning those baby days!
She seems to be in a transition period right now, crossing and recrossing the boundary between baby and kid multiple times a day. I guess that's toddlerhood in a nutshell. She understands more than we realize and can communicate fairly well between her mix of English words, Chinese words, and signs (and plenty of intuitive mind-reading and lucky guessing on my part). But she throws herself face down on the floor when she doesn't get what she wants, kicking and crying and getting up and throwing herself down again a few feet away. She has learned how to use her little spoon and fork to feed herself, doing a fairly good job of scooping up food with her utensil and guiding it to her mouth in one piece (usually sideways or upside down). But she still puts her utensil aside mid-meal to shovel food in with her hands, and still occasionally throws some on the floor, fully knowing that she shouldn't.
As always, Evelyn can be the funniest kid, with her ever growing range of expressions and mannerisms... her Evelynisms. She screams "Mao Mao!" (Chinese for cat) at the top of her lungs when she sees Puddin, and tries her best to hug and pick her up, attempts that invariably end with Puddin running away. She loves shoes, and I mean loves them. Not known for her patience, she can sit quietly while I lace up a pair of Converses on her or try to shove a pair of boots on right, and will entertain herself endlessly in the kids' shoe section at Marshalls, trying on pair after pair with help from Papa while Mama does some much needed shopping for herself. But, I digress. My point is, she loves any footwear, even of the animal variety.
These times are punctuated by periods of crabbiness and temper tantrums. Evelyn can definitely have a short fuse -- we've seen her temper flare up plenty of times, and sometimes at the slightest provocation. This is especially true when she's teething, and you can imagine what a bear she's been lately with her first canine(s) on the way (she has 12 teeth so far, including 4 molars, and has been working on those eye teeth for weeks it seems).
Evelyn is doing such kid-like things lately. We're starting to see her imagination emerge, as she pretends to do things, such as eating or putting lotion on her hands. From bottles, tables, bath water, whatever, she plucks imaginary food and plops it in her mouth repeatedly in rapid succession. And she's not greedy -- she insists on offering us food, of both the real and imagined variety, and sometimes she doesn't take no for an answer.
She's learning new words steadily - every few days, it seems, I notice her using a new word. In English, she says bottle, apple (improved from the previous "app," though "apple" still refers to most fruit in general), hot, night night, ball, book, hi, bye bye, baby, bubble, ouch... probably some others I can't think of now, and of course Mama, Papa, and "uh oh." In Chinese, she says "dung dung" (light), "nai nai" (milk), "Po Po" (my mom), "Mao Mao," "hai hai" (shoes, of course!), and again, probably more that I can't think of. I'm sure there are plenty of made-up words as she babbles with such intention and conviction, but I know of one -- her word for "bath." She says "Da!" while simultaneously raising her right hand like she's taking an oath. Who knows where that came from. She has lots of sounds to signify things, like revving sounds for cars and airplanes, grunting "oh oh oh" for dog, and saying "Bah! ba ba ba ba" for chicken (as in Bock! bock bock bock bock). And she has said her first phrases (yelling "Mao Mao bye!" and signing "more please").
There's so much more to say but it is time for me to go to bed! Work's been insane and sleep has been short (with Evelyn waking up around 6:12am every single day and me going to bed way too late). So I'll have to end this posting with a few of my absolute most favorite bathtime pictures of late.
She seems to be in a transition period right now, crossing and recrossing the boundary between baby and kid multiple times a day. I guess that's toddlerhood in a nutshell. She understands more than we realize and can communicate fairly well between her mix of English words, Chinese words, and signs (and plenty of intuitive mind-reading and lucky guessing on my part). But she throws herself face down on the floor when she doesn't get what she wants, kicking and crying and getting up and throwing herself down again a few feet away. She has learned how to use her little spoon and fork to feed herself, doing a fairly good job of scooping up food with her utensil and guiding it to her mouth in one piece (usually sideways or upside down). But she still puts her utensil aside mid-meal to shovel food in with her hands, and still occasionally throws some on the floor, fully knowing that she shouldn't.
As always, Evelyn can be the funniest kid, with her ever growing range of expressions and mannerisms... her Evelynisms. She screams "Mao Mao!" (Chinese for cat) at the top of her lungs when she sees Puddin, and tries her best to hug and pick her up, attempts that invariably end with Puddin running away. She loves shoes, and I mean loves them. Not known for her patience, she can sit quietly while I lace up a pair of Converses on her or try to shove a pair of boots on right, and will entertain herself endlessly in the kids' shoe section at Marshalls, trying on pair after pair with help from Papa while Mama does some much needed shopping for herself. But, I digress. My point is, she loves any footwear, even of the animal variety.
 |  |
These times are punctuated by periods of crabbiness and temper tantrums. Evelyn can definitely have a short fuse -- we've seen her temper flare up plenty of times, and sometimes at the slightest provocation. This is especially true when she's teething, and you can imagine what a bear she's been lately with her first canine(s) on the way (she has 12 teeth so far, including 4 molars, and has been working on those eye teeth for weeks it seems).
 |  |
Evelyn is doing such kid-like things lately. We're starting to see her imagination emerge, as she pretends to do things, such as eating or putting lotion on her hands. From bottles, tables, bath water, whatever, she plucks imaginary food and plops it in her mouth repeatedly in rapid succession. And she's not greedy -- she insists on offering us food, of both the real and imagined variety, and sometimes she doesn't take no for an answer.
She's learning new words steadily - every few days, it seems, I notice her using a new word. In English, she says bottle, apple (improved from the previous "app," though "apple" still refers to most fruit in general), hot, night night, ball, book, hi, bye bye, baby, bubble, ouch... probably some others I can't think of now, and of course Mama, Papa, and "uh oh." In Chinese, she says "dung dung" (light), "nai nai" (milk), "Po Po" (my mom), "Mao Mao," "hai hai" (shoes, of course!), and again, probably more that I can't think of. I'm sure there are plenty of made-up words as she babbles with such intention and conviction, but I know of one -- her word for "bath." She says "Da!" while simultaneously raising her right hand like she's taking an oath. Who knows where that came from. She has lots of sounds to signify things, like revving sounds for cars and airplanes, grunting "oh oh oh" for dog, and saying "Bah! ba ba ba ba" for chicken (as in Bock! bock bock bock bock). And she has said her first phrases (yelling "Mao Mao bye!" and signing "more please").
There's so much more to say but it is time for me to go to bed! Work's been insane and sleep has been short (with Evelyn waking up around 6:12am every single day and me going to bed way too late). So I'll have to end this posting with a few of my absolute most favorite bathtime pictures of late.
 |  |
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
