a long december

here is a quick smattering of fotos from eve's various christmas experiences. this child had a wonderful holiday, and a wonderful year. i believe a slideshow is coming, chronicling the various extravaganzas. more anecdotes and fotos to come, but in the meantime, new year's eve says happy '09 to everyone.

cry, baby, cry; make your mother sigh

the one and only evesie pups had a marvelous christmas. she took forever to open her presents because she required so many playtime, mealtime, naptime breaks, but she enjoyed every minute of all of it. one of the big highlights was the babydoll that nanet and granddaddy gave her! as you can see from the first video, she loved the baby at first sight. as soon as her mama unshackled the poor child (the baba, not the evester) from her plastic tape and twine prison, eve proceeded to hug her, give her kisses (put one whole cheek in her mouth), and share her milk very equitably.

we all thought it was adorable.

and then em, eve's papa, and i took evester and her baby to lunch the next day. while waiting for the bill, papa decided to have a little game, which must have been inspired from flashbacks of being an older brother to two much littler sisters: he smashed the doll's head into the table.

well, the usual response to this is terror/fright/sadness/tears from the human baby when she sees her play baby so brutally mistreated. but we must remember that this baby is genetically predisposed to love slapstick, so instead of wailing with tears, she bubbled over with laughter.

while she does still hug the baby and love it, she seems to prefer watching its head hit the ground. i suppose this means that any future as a babysitter has been foreclosed. oh well, it really is a terrific present, as are all of them! thank you, everyone, and merry christmas!

find the kind of person that you wanted to be.

so it's been 13 months and change since the e.l.f. arrived, and i find it difficult to remember any previous life. this eve-sie delights and lights any room that i share with her. i've been reminiscing, here alone in the apartment waiting for my christmas bus. firstly i remember all of our lovely, lovely friends, generous to a fault on stipends and softly eager to hold this child. 13 months ago, i remember already starting to think about remembering -- stumbling into the hospital room with my new tattoo, unable to sit, strutting proudly with my new daughter. but more than that, i remember how many wanted to meet eve so soon. so this post partially exists as a continuation of the strut, because i just can't get over how much i love this pups. it also exists as a testament to eve's community -- this child has had eyes for friends from birth, and knows you by sight. she's babbling constantly, flagrantly (and momma and poppa are cleaning up their language in accordance with her new-found skills) but i know i speak for her when i say: "Hi! Hi! Hideedee!". and i'm sure she also says i love you, and merry christmas -- because this pups owns my guts, and that's what my guts are saying, too.

a day in the life

in the past 24 hours or so, evesie has been busy. if you know the olivia books, this would be a good time to superimpose this little pups onto olivia as a way of understanding her activity level and the engagement that she has demanded. if you don't know the olivia books, shame on you. the first one is about eleven pages long, so it's not too challenging of a read.

here are some examples of what she's been doing at home:
discovering that wearing my crazy purple socks as opera-length gloves is funny

'helping' to decorate the tree. the elvis ornament and a donkey were her first 'attempts,' which is to say, 'casualties.' she loves the lights, as well as the concept of ornaments.

playing her drum, always with drumsticks

'talking' to anne on the phone

tackling her papa with kisses

saying hi to her papa about seventeen times in a row

climbing the stairs in our building.

walking along the walls in the apt.

peeing in her very own little potty while gnawing on my toothbrush (fantastic! and ewww)

peeing in her very own little potty while gnawing on ted's toothbrush (wonderful! and hilarious!)

gnawing on her own toothbrush while her mama styles her (evesie's) hair: wet, blow dry, apply product. papa's product.

moving twenty cds from one surface to another via her 'rents

learning how the volume knob works on the stereo

dancing her little heart out to the bobfather and los beatles

sleeping

i think this video and picture will convey just a tiny fraction of the joy she brings to these activities and the many, many i left out

your brand new leopard skin pill box hat

my mother-in-law and i found these boots for eve-sie -- one of those beautiful moments where the eyes of 2 shoppers lock onto the same object at the same time. we rushed to the shelf and found them in the pupster's size. this picture demonstrates the hereditary delight eve takes in footwear. this picture is not staged. this little girl wore nothing but these boots, a diaper, and a grin for at least 45 minutes while scooting around with her toys.

the moving picture show

eve has exerted her tyrannical influence over her hapless parents once again and coerced them into buying a video camera. i imagine that you look forward to her broadcasts of world-domination-through-an-agressive-hugging-campaign as much as i do. here, you can see her dancing with her peace and hope, saying 'hi' to her mama in exchange for oatmeal, and reading a book at her em and ab's house, surrounded by three generations of adoring spectators.

photos from thanksgiving still to come. i'm grading papers today, so they might be posted sooner rather than later!

my little samson

friends, as you can see in this daycare picture, eve has been shorn. after weeks of this pups blinking through strands of hair while trying to shove more and more food into her mouth, i broke down and took her for a hair cut. she behaved bravely, only needing to be held for the stylist's final feathering snips. i have some of her hair in a little bag. does anyone else find this practice strange and victorian?

in any case, this picture is meant to help you through hump day and give you a taste of the evester in a still shot before we put up some video posts!

the universe paused

this pups celebrated her first full rotation around the sun last week. as i write this, we are mid-celebration and the eve-ster shows no signs of birthday fatigue. these photos are in chronological order due to volume, but i think they demonstrate the sheer joy that eve feels in nearly any experience. of course, the events captured here might inspire elation in anyone. evidenced, we have present opening, shade wearing, straw sipping, candle blowing, cupcake eating, new clothes wearing, and fledge petting. all in all, pretty much a perfect storm of pups luxury. this babbling, nearly walking, dancing, lovely lovely child continues to teach me all sorts of sentimental and fundamental lessons about the better angels of our nature. at the EXACT SAME TIME, she WEARS MY ASS OUT.

they say it's your birthday

evesie-pups: as of 6:31 this morning, you're one year old today. thank you for sleeping past the anniversary of the exact minute of your arrival among us.

i won't vouch for you or your papa, but i know i feel a little more rested today than i did a year ago. i'm even more awed by your existence, too.

for all you fans-of-eve, we'll post more pics later, documenting the day's festivities. for now, please enjoy these shots of our little girl on her first morning in the world. for comparison's sake, i've also included a more recent morning pic, along with the evester's very convincing 'braveheart' impression.

i never did eat a pumpkin pasty. . .

a year ago today, i was looking for harry potter-esque recipes and talking potter-centric trash on facebook, all in preparation of the h.p. trivia night to which ted and i and my enormous belly were invited.

how things have changed.

today, i've been looking for carrot cupcake recipes for the evester's first birthday celebration. not only are we not in durham (sniff), many of those friends who were expecting us at trivia night 367 days ago are not there either (sniff, sniff).

but what do these days have in common?

colors: pumpkin pasties and carrot cake are orange-hued. eve was wearing pink and khaki this morning (one of my favorite outfits from the huge box of clothes that hope sent!), just as i was wearing those colors a year ago. i think that was all that still fit my massive frame at that point.

and feelings: i was feeling a similar fullness then and now, centered around eve. then, she wasn't among us (she was only a jordan at that point), but i couldn't believe how much my life and thoughts revolved around her, nor could i believe how much more aware eve made me of our wonderful and caring friends and family. i was, emotionally and physiologically, full to bursting. and now, my thoughts are seldom far from eve. she's made me fall in love with her more than i could have ever guessed, and the joy that she shares with the world deepens my love for all of you who've come along with us so far in evesie's life. now, i'm only emotionally full to bursting.

she takes her time and doesn't feel she has to hurry

this pups is about to complete her first full revolution around the sun, and i think we must be celebrating her birthday all month. she's been opening presents for about two weeks. this trend will slow to a trickle right after thanksgiving, only to go all vesuvius in late december. it's a shame that no one loves this baby. above, you'll see evesie with her granddaddy, matthew and isabel, her grandmother, wearing the hat her papa got her, wearing the dress and shoes her grandmother got her, and wearing the snowsuit and boots that came from her other grandmother (she loves them both, and really everyone, equally). this pupper wants for nothing but loves everything.

she's killer diller when she's dressed to the hilt

the sole purpose of this post is to horrify eve's grandmothers.

eve is such a good girl.