So you think you can dance?

This is from the beginning of our current heat wave... it's been so hot the last couple of days, that Evelyn's just running around the house naked, and she STILL feels too hot.

I actually have a completely hilarious video of Evelyn dancing completely in the nude (for obvious reasons, I'm not posting it, but maybe we'll have a screening of it for Evelyn's 16th birthday. So just stick around -- it'll be worth it!). I forget that Evelyn moves completely differently when she has no clothes on...

Pee pee in the potty!!

We've just had a monumental event -- Evelyn went pee in the potty tonight for the first time!! If you're wondering how excited we were, just imagine John and me doing a conga line around the house chanting "Pee pee in the pot-TEE! Pee pee in the pot-TEE!..."

For months now, we've had Evelyn's little pink Baby Bjorn potty in the bathroom under the sink, collecting dust. She has a tendency to pee right around bathtime, be it in her diaper, on the floor, or right in the bath. So we figure, OK, we'll break this thing out every night so she gets the idea and we won't pressure her and we'll see what she does. We knew that she understood what we meant when we said "pee pee" and she often made the "Sssssss" sound in response.

Once, back in December, when I was waiting for her to pee at the doctor's office so they could get a urine sample (she had a high fever that turned out to be roseola), I could not get her to drink anything. Desperate to get out of there, I finally said "Evelyn, do you want to go pee pee?" She responded by saying "Ssssssss" and lo and behold, the little clear plastic bag hanging out of her diaper filled with fluid. I thought, OK, this is going to be easy!

Not so much. She refused to sit on the potty. She'd look semi-interested and would lower herself almost to the point of sitting, and then stand right up, shaking her head and saying "Nooooo?" There was plenty of peeing in front of the potty, but not quite in the potty.

Then last week, we were in her room looking through one of her Baby Sign books (which she has loved for as long as she's enjoyed books) and came across a picture of a girl sitting on a potty. She said "Try it?" and I said, "Really? Try the potty? OK... " (skeptically, I might add.) She led the way into the bathroom and I took her pants and diaper off, and she sat right down! Then she looked through her book again and found the girl on the potty, pointed to it and said "Try it?"

Try it? You bet your ass you can try it!

She didn't pee in the potty that day (and in fact peed in front of it again, looking down at the dribbling puddle at her feet and saying "uh oh...") but I was revitalized with hope that we'd get this potty training going. The next day, whenever we were in the bathroom, she'd say "Try it?" and we'd try, and sit there and read her book. Yesterday, she refused to sit until we located the book, which my mom had so recklessly removed from the potty area! And today, at last, she did it! And I missed it! I was getting her clothes out while John drew the bath, and I heard him call out excitedly "She's going pee in the potty!" Never have I heard sweeter words...

Papa and Evelyn in conversation

In the bath one night, while Evelyn was playing with an empty soap bottle:

Evelyn: Bah-dul
Papa: BOTT-le
Evelyn: Bah-Lo
Papa: BOT-tle
Evelyn: Bah-Po
Papa: BAHT-TLE
Evelyn: No more!

"Just because you can reach it doesn't mean it's a good idea"

Advice that I overhead Papa giving Evelyn the other day. And he said it so earnestly too, that I just couldn't help but laugh...

Another tidbit of wisdom from Papa: "Just eat it, don't squeeze it."

Where has the time, and my chubby little baby, gone? I can't believe I completely skipped over the entire month of April in this blog! Back then, I got cheap thrills by getting my baby to say my name. Now, she blows me away with new words that she picks up every day. On Sunday, after John made chicken stock AND oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from scratch (yes, he is the best husband ever), Evelyn said "Tong tong!" (Chinese for soup). By now, I'm actually only mildly surprised when she breaks out with new words like that. I know my mom often gives her soup and of course narrates the whole soup eating affair for her. It's another one of those things where I'd tell my mom about it, and she'd say "Oh yeah, she's been saying that all week!" (Ahem, this is one of those things she should be telling me when I come home from work and ask "How was Evelyn today?" -- am I right?!).

To the cookies, Evelyn exclaimed "Bite? Bite?" (And yes, it's official, we are letting her have sweets, so she had several bites. I think her first sanctioned sweet was Rhea's birthday cake in fact - another delicious John creation.)

Now this long and lean little girl is making up new dance moves, running laps around the house, and showing off her newest trick of a few weeks now -- jumping! (video of that later...)

Here's a video of Evelyn and Milo showing off their moves on West Portal almost a month ago:



Here's another one of Evelyn dancing, to James Brown of course, from around the same time. Now when she hears the song, she sings along to the chorus, "Be be Be be Be be..."



Here's a video from a few days ago. I particularly love Evelyn's WWF-style body slam of Baby towards the end of Ring Around the Rosy. We caved and bought a Flip video camera recently, and she cannot just let me tape her. The second I break it out, she comes right over saying "Cam-ah! Cam-ah!" Just like how she says "Peek-ah!" (picture) whenever she see John's iPhone...