boy i wish i had teeth sometimes

this morning we concluded a casually conducted experiment involving the baba and chocolate peppermint stick luna bars.

i was first introduced to luna bars by anne gulick at the lucinda williams concert in 2003. i was a first year grad student--terrified and naive in the ways of the world--and anne, a year ahead of me and wise in so many ways, told me that she had a luna bar for dinner. though even now i can't imagine surviving an entire concert on a single bar (but then again, i lack anne's impressive stamina), i will say that they've sustained me remarkably well every morning since eve has been born. if i don't eat one when i wake up, i quickly become a non-functioning zombie of the lowest state. it's pathetic really--my dependence on these overpriced 'health' bars. thank you, anne, for ensuring my survival, and consequently, eve's.

while we were in chicago, i cracked open my first chocolate peppermint stick luna bar (hereby known as cpslb). eve was getting ready to nurse, but she suddenly turned her head and started giving me ginormous gummy-mouthed smiles. guessing that she was excited about the smell of my fragrant breakfast, i told her that she could have the luna bar through breastmilk. this made her even more happy. it was amazing. we've repeated this scenario, minus being in chicago, two times since then, and she's responded the same way each time. above, you can witness this morning's photographic evidence as recorded by ted.

we have no idea why the cpslb's provoke eve in this way. perhaps it's proof that she really is elvish. the cpslb does smell like christmas, so that's possible.

monkey wash, donkey rinse

so eve experienced her first toy last night. we bought this monkey while e-$ was pregnant and s/he (still waiting on a name and gender from evesie-pups, though i am suspicious that all toys will be 'pups' named 'eve fehskens' if we leave it up to her) has been sitting patiently waiting for discovery. the monkey was a big hit -- eve ended up hugging it and falling asleep while erin and i watched 'the bourne supremacy.' not a bad saturday night -- spies and simians.

SMILE

watching eve and playing with her is a lot like listening to early brian wilson, way back before he was on a horse's dose of mind-numbing drug therapy (and this is no criticism, not a real one anyway. i love brian wilson deeply). but there are some beach boys records from the 60's that perfectly capture notions of innocence that are somehow innocent in themselves -- they don't trade on sentimentality or nostalgia in any way. rather, they just capture a moment -- and when you hear those songs, you (or, at least, me) find yourself in that moment. i'm not sure if this is eve's mentality or not (though as a self-confessed Romantic, i (secretly)(on a blog) believe it is), but the purity of her emotions astounds me. here i present to you happy-pups. we have some fantastic rage-y-pups shots that will later show up on a post already entitled "achilles -- what's he got on me? by eve fehskens."

boys on the side, please

evesie and i are going to beaufort today, and we'll be there until tomorrow evening, getting to know the folks at duke's marine lab before we head out there in april so that i can teach an intensive 3.5 week course on literature of the sea. eve has chosen to audit the course from home because she's not into grades and credits right now, but she does like stories and water. in fact, she's not even enrolled in any school as any sort of student, so i have no idea how she convinced the registrar at duke that she could audit her mama's class. anyway, here are a few pictures to tide you over until we return or until ted posts. they range from adorably awake to adorably asleep. the johnny cash onesie is a gift from e.m., who worked long and hard as an internet shopper to get that prized little thing to us before evesie was born.

this kid is objectively adorable

someone, we can't recall which person, said that eve was 'objectively adorable' at the duke party at mla. if you're reading this blog post, identify yourself so that you can receive proper credit for your statement that gets more and more true as eve meets more and more fans. this weekend, ted's dad and sister sally (hereby known as don abuelo and aunt ya-yee) hung out with eve. she also got to spend time with her relatives in burlington. we all had a blast, and i hope you like our documentation of the fun times.

have pups, will travel

ted, eve, and i drove to indy for christmas, and then we headed up to chicago for the mla. while i went to job interviews in hotel rooms, ted and eve hung out in our hotel room for hours on end. they are now the best of friends. if eve had a computer, they would instant message each other all day, and if she had a cell phone, they would send funny picture messages to each other too. as it stands, they just look at each other and smile and make funny little sounds. well, ted uses words, and eve acts like she's trying to use words. anyway, here are some pics from christmas and chicago--enjoy!

this kid knows how to party

eve had such a rockin time on new year's eve (we drove back from indy that day) that she spent much of the next day nursing and sleeping. we thought that was great. all three of us were happy to be out of the car. actually, i think we were thrilled beyond belief. so, this is a picture of her sleeping on ted in the evening, before i whisked her off to bed. the other picture captures her new favorite activity--staring at herself and making cute, adoring sounds at the pretty baby in the mirror. this particular mirror is attached to the amazing baby gym that christine and asher are lending her. thanks, guys! i keep waiting for her to look in the mirror and experience the terror of ipseity, but it hasn't happened yet. really though, i love watching her sing to herself, so we can put off the mirror phase for a bit longer.