jump into the wagon, love, throw your panties overboard

eve loves hats, panties, and my mother (not necessarily in that order). this child loves costuming herself, and one of her favorite activities is going through the hat/mitten/scarf drawer and trying on different combinations.

she continues to amaze as she guides herself through major transitions. much as she weaned herself, she has opted to finish her diaper phase and move right into big girl panties. most evenings she parades around in little more, save for the accessories found in the hat/mitten/scarf drawer. it's frightening and hilarious.

mom visited and hung with eve for days, and they parted as the best of pals. our days since have been punctuated with cries for 'nanet! nanet! skype!'

we're hopping to a new pad next week so posts might lag for a bit, but we'll be back in force with pups soon thereafter.

in an octopus's garden, in the shade

well friends, we've had a nice relaxing holiday weekend in chi-town. everyone has been up past his and her bedtimes, and we've partied with some fine folks. to mark the end of our celebrations, we carted la pups up to the botanical gardens north of the city. eve had a WONDERFUL time, as these pictures happen to capture. she was particularly enthralled by the water and the ducks and enormous fish in said water. at one point, she tried very hard to push me in because she thought i needed to get closer to the ducks. 'mama, in!' she said, over and over again, while pushing her little hand against my arm. mind you, she was on my lap at the time, so if i had complied, do you think she would have been surprised by also ending up in the water? alas, we'll never know. next time. . .

this kid gets funnier and sweeter all the time. she said 'hi' to almost every person we passed. she wore her hat nicely for a full fifteen minutes. on the way home she said, 'i love you, home.' she also wore her big girl panties all day long with no problems--i mention this because you get a paparazzi peek of them in one of the pictures with ted on the bench. note: i've included a picture of tiny pups so that you can see the moment i was trying to recapture.

good times had by all.

from a mess to the masses.

we've had lots of fun with the pups this week and are excited to spend more time with her over this nice holiday weekend. rather than a continued partial list of eve's ever-expanding verbal palette (she never, ever stops talking), here are a few observations from strangers:

"she looks just like you"
"she looks just like her mother"
"her eyes are very blue"
"she has a lot of hair"
"she has a lot of teeth"
"how old is she? she knows a lot of words"
"she's funny"
"she's busy"
"she has a lot of personality"
"who dressed her today?"

i usually responded with a sprint away from the conversation and toward the busy toddler.

summer keeps teasing us here in the big windy, so we've had a nice mix of indoor and outdoor activities (fortunately, with the museum of science and industry close by, we can see airplanes in both spheres). we'll be sure to take some more pics over the next few days, but here are a few phone fotos of this verbose pups.