Goodnight moon

When Evelyn was about 2 months old, her Nana and her Aunt Taryn came for a visit. Nana gave Evelyn a copy of Goodnight Moon, and I've been reading it to her almost every day ever since. Of course, in the beginning, I may as well have been reading to Puddin. But she's definitely taken a special liking to the book these past few months. Even though she's been "reading" this book the longest, she doesn't seem to get bored of it and will even pause sometimes between page flipping to look at the pictures and let me finish reading the words.

During our Mendocino trip in June, the evening before the bad night of sleep (or lack thereof) that we had, Evelyn didn't feel like going to bed when she was supposed to. So we stayed up a bit longer and I read Goodnight Moon to her. One of the best reasons to read this book to her is her reaction to certain pages, as you can see in this video. (And by the way, even by Evelyn standards, she's flipping through the book really fast in this one.)



What, I ask, is so irresistably lickable about these 2 pages? She still does it, to this day, like clockwork.



The head-shaking to "Goodnight nobody," on the other hand, was short-lived. A few days after we returned home, Evelyn really shocked me when she started shaking her head as I read the 2 lines before the "Goodnight nobody" line. She did it twice that morning, and then one more time when I was reciting the words without the book! (She hasn't done it at all since.) I realized how much she is actually listening and remembering, and John and I have been trying harder ever since to clearly tell her about what we're doing or what things are. I think we've been trying all along, but that incident made it clear that we'd been underestimating her cognitive abilities.

On a related note, I think Evelyn is pretty lucky that it's me reading Goodnight Moon to her, and not Christopher Walken:

You spin me right round, baby, right round

At last, I'm breaking the long dry spell of videos on the blog. (We bought a new camera that takes videos in a different file format then before, so I had to figure out how to compress the new file format, which required finding some free time...)

Just yesterday Evelyn debuted a new skill that she learned all on her own, where she spins in place like she's sitting on a turntable. I have no idea where this came from, but I like it!

Open sesame

I am so sick of what seems like my perpetual mommy brain! This morning at work, I attended a financial planning seminar and realized that I'd made a biggish mistake on my 401K contributions (granted, I did that when I first returned to work from maternity leave - my first mistake!). I rushed back to my desk and tried to log on to the Web site to correct my mistake, and was faced with a password prompt.

Working for a big company, I have a jillion IDs and passwords to maintain, half of which have to be changed every 6 months or so. I recently replaced all of my hastily and cryptically scribbled Post-It notes (an admittedly UNsecure way to maintain security) with something called a "Password Vault" on my computer, so it's all in one place and I just need to remember one password to get into the vault.

But wait, oh crap... what is my password to the Password Vault??? I am like the woman in that Mervyn's commercial from years ago, with my face pressed against the window quietly chanting "Open open open...." (to my brain, not to the vault, and certainly not to Mervyn's!). It's been almost a year since Evelyn was born... when exactly do I get my brain back?

She's winsome AND toothsome

It's official - our girl has 4 teeth now! 2 lower, 2 upper. As if she could get any cuter. They've come in pairs so far -- the first 2 bottom teeth within weeks of each other when she was 7 months old, and the first 2 upper teeth at 10 months. Both times, it was right tooth first, then left.

Her first upper tooth emerged the very day she turned 10 months old (June 23), while we were in Mendocino for a long weekend. With her first 3 teeth, we had exactly 1 night of bad sleep (preceded by periods of general, otherwise unexplained crabbiness during the day) that coincided with the tooth emerging from the gum. Unfortunately, that one night for tooth #3 was in the small, one-room cabin in Mendocino. Three hours of no sleep... in desperation I even brought her to bed with us, but she took that to mean that it was really time to play! (Picture full on baby gymnastics: spastic, thrashing limbs; climbing up to standing with the headboard and batting the artwork on the walls.)

That was immediately followed by a heretofore unusually long period of general crabbiness -- Crabtree and Evelyn, as we like to call her during these times -- so we were sure that another tooth must be coming. Her upper gum area has been like the Iron Curtain, as John observed, because she won't let us near it to check on her teething progress. I was able to glimpse her gums during a few bouts of crying, and could see some whiteness beneath the gum next to her first upper tooth. More crabbiness, more waiting. Finally, last night, while putting her down for the night, I felt the new tooth. And by the feel of it, it's been out for at least a few days now. That explains why her mood and sleep habits have improved lately.

Evelyn used to be so cute with her gummy toothless smile. Then she got those little tic tacs in her bottom gums, and she was just too cute for words. Now she's going to have 4 teeth?! She (or I) might actually explode from cuteness overload.

Evelyn gives back

I think we just hit a major mental milestone. A couple of days ago, Evelyn gave me something! Granted, it was her sock, but it was something. She was very satisfied with herself, having just pulled her sock off her foot, and was probably feeling particularly benevolent. I stuck out my hand and said "Give it to Mama" and she put the sock in my hand and let go. I said "Thank you!" and she responded by grabbing the front of her diaper with both hands and making a loud grunting/growling sound, while bowing her head between her legs, all with a big excited smile on her face. We gave the sock to each other back and forth many many times, each time punctuated by my "Thank you!" and her loud grunting/bowing response.

Then yesterday, while John was watching Evelyn play with our new wooden blocks, she held out a block for him to take, without any prompting from him. He wasn't really paying attention, so she eventually dropped it, but then he realized what she was trying to do, and they started giving the block to each other the way she and I did the day before.

Today she did it again. It's funny though, she still does the grunt/bow after giving the item, but it's not as loud or emphatic as the first time. Maybe she's realizing it's not exactly the most gracious way to give gifts.

Look who's talking

It's hard to believe that I didn't blog it the second it happened, and even harder to believe that it's been a couple of months since it happened, but Evelyn is talking. OK, she's not really talking in the traditional sense of stringing multiple words together in a meaningful fashion... but she has said a few key words, "Mama" being the first and most important one of all! I think she'd been babbling "mama" indiscriminately and randomly since she was about 7 months old, and started to say it more intentionally to me at around 8-9 months (it's unbelievable how fuzzy my memory is these days!). But nowadays, she definitely knows she's calling me when she says it.

Sometimes it is so sweet and endearing, like when she clamors up my legs, murmuring "Mama Mama" with her arms stretched out for me to pick her up. At other times it is absolutely heartbreaking, like this morning when I had to hand her over to Po Po so I could leave for work, and she was clutching my shirt and crying "Mama Mama" through her tears. During moments like those, it takes all of my will power to pull away and walk out the front door, when all I want to do is take her back in my arms and forget about work.

She's also said "Da da" quite a lot, again starting with the random babbling and occasionally (but not totally consistently yet) saying it with apparent intention to John. The funny thing about saying "Da da" is that she often does it with this high-pitched sing-songy tone, and this from a girl whose voice has always been kind of deep, even as a newborn. I guess she knows how to charm her Papa!

A while back, a favorite game of ours was rolling/throwing a ball back and forth to each other -- she's not so interested in doing that these days now that she's crawling and no longer my captive audience. We've gotten her to say "ball" a couple of times, repeating after us. Even Po Po independently confirmed it, so I know I'm not imagining things! She's said "Mow mow" (Cantonese for "cat") a couple of times, once astonishingly clearly, after we asked her "Where's Mow Mow?" Our jaws literally dropped when she did it (but she hasn't done it since). Another Chinese word is the one for milk - she says it sometimes when she's hungry (I think) for either milk or regular solid food. She even occasionally does the sign for milk that her Po Po's been teaching her if we say the word. (Sadly, her Po Po has been way better than me at teaching her baby sign language, in that she does it at all and I hardly ever remember... bad mommy....)

Other than that, there's still plenty of grunting, screaming, yelling, hollering, whatever you want to call it. And of course, random babbling of other consonants. She's a loud one, that Evelyn, especially when she's excited. You can imagine the sounds she makes when she's on the swing.

Devilin' Evelyn and Rhea of Sunshine

My new nicknames for the girls. One of Paula and Bert's Christmas presents to Evelyn last year was this cool little T-shirt that says Devil Baby on it, and for some reason (gee I don't know why :), the name stuck. At least it did for me and John, the people who spend the most time with her aside from Po Po.

The reason for my nickname for Rhea is pretty obvious if you've met her... she probably has the sweetest disposition of any baby I know. Granted, I don't see her 24/7 but when I do see her, she's usually full of smiles and sweetness. And even when she's upset, it's more like a cute little whimper, with lower lip stuck out and all, rather than full-on screaming and crying (though I'm sure her parents can tell us differently).

The 3.5 month gap between them seems significant right now, as Rhea delights in watching Evelyn act like a little Tazmanian devil from her perch, and Evelyn occasionally stops long enough to try to grab Rhea's face (and vice versa), or stick her fingers in Rhea's mouth (and vice versa), or slobber all over Rhea (and vice versa)... But in no time, they're both going to be running around and keeping us parents on our toes, even more than now.

It'll be interesting watching these two girls grow up together, and seeing their already apparent personalities emerge and evolve and blossom. All things point to them being the best of friends, and I imagine that they'll love each other, share secrets and crushes, have huge arguments, and make up, just like sisters might.

But for now, I just love watching the two of them interact (or not interact, as is the case most of the time). One of my favorite Evelyn and Rhea moments happened just a couple of days ago, on the 4th of July, hanging out inside the shady poolside tent at Catherine's house in Mill Valley. It was a scorching hot day, and having just had a swim with Evelyn, we retreated into the tent with Paula and Rhea to get a bit of respite from the sun and give the girls a chance to crawl around a bit. Rhea was busy working on her crawling skills while Evelyn was busy alternately trying to get out of the tent, chasing some bugs inside the tent, and trying to put stuff in her mouth. At one point, while Rhea innocently and unsuspectingly smiled at the camera for her Papa, Evelyn "Bulldozer" Emery (as Paula dubbed her) came rolling over like a bowling ball barreling towards some pins. This series of photos (which I had to steal from Paula and Bert since my camera wasn't handy at the time) makes me laugh every time I see or think of it.