in case of accidents she always took her mum

this blog's new goal is to reference every song from the white album. i believe we are well on the road to meeting that goal, embracing every opportunity and clutching every hope.

clearly, evesie has been enjoying herself. we took her to the field museum with the promise of mummies. she particularly loved the mythological creatures exhibit, but also found great amusement in the egyptian tomb. the gator didn't frighten her at all (in a previous blog post, we did try to feed her to another artificial croc, so this is apparently old hat).

aside from mummies and reptiles, her newest joy is sucking the life out of her sippie cup, which generally contains a mixture of juice and water. if these are not present, she will also go all succubus on an empty sippie cup. this situation leads to tremendous reverberating burps. these herculean belches amuse us all, particularly in public.

evesie cracks herself up, and then passes out. especially when olympic records are being broken -- this is a recipe for sleep.

well i got here following the southern star -- i crossed that river just to be where you are

we're loving our new neighborhood, taking at least one long walk a day, and sometimes more than that. bookstores, record stores, restaurants, and the great lake. ah, yes, unemployment and a late cool summer couple together beautifully. evesie seems to tolerate hanging with the 'rents, particularly enjoying us for rickshawing her about in her lovely mclaren stroller, and lolling on us for very serious, very important power naps. the above pictures are mostly from the lake, which she seriously loved. this baby adores the water. in fact, so far she is absolutely fearless. she is also crawling in her own haphazard way. in the last picture, she demonstrates her starting position while sporting two of her new favorite garments. thanks, mom! she couldn't wait to try them all on.

it feels silly to me, attempting to write any post when i look at this beautiful little girl. as usual, dylan says it so well, in 'mississippi' -- "all my powers of suggestion and thoughts so sublime, could never do you justice in reason or rhyme." yeah, evesie. before you can even form full words, you've rendered me speechless.

cross-country baby

so in less than a week, evesie made it from north carolina to the midwest to the pacific northwest. true to her rock star lifestyle, she's been thriving on all this mad fun and fun madness. to commemorate this time, she's chosen to get her two top front teeth, so her smile is going to get even greater in the coming weeks.

these pictures represent her recent relocations: hanging out in her new room, complete with fancy dragon rug from our marathon trip to ikea (thanks, em!), her fancy dress for anne and nathan's gorgeous wedding (thanks again, em!), and her love of portland breweries and hotel amenities. this girl has good taste. that hotel bed was magically comfortable, and evesie's expression conveys just how wonderful it was.

we're all back home in chicago and enjoying our unemployed lifestyle with walks around the neighborhood and trips out to target in the burbs. one of eve's new favorite games is getting kisses and then having her face fake-barfed on. seriously. she laughs every time. more chi-town pictures soon!

BFF!

our friends mark and amy had us over for dinner on saturday and we had the loveliest time. i think eve had the best time, though, because she got to hang out with mark and amy's beautiful daughter, audrey. as soon as eve saw audrey, she started clapping and laughing, and the feeling was reciprocated.

audrey bean and evesie pups! does it get any better?! well, yes, it does. all it takes is matching pajamas.

get my baby some sophistication!

exactly eight months ago, eve and i did a bunch of work, and then we slept really well. that work began with me laughing--that i had gone into labor early, that we were missing a harry potter trivia night, that our house was filthy and nothing was packed for the hospital. today, i did a bunch of work printing out my dissertation for about seventeen hours, and now eve is sleeping really well. she did a lot of work, too. apparently, she's quite the little drummer at day care, and she spends a lot of time having milks and food. this evening, she figured out how to drop her fishies back in their musical aquarium, and she also learned how to throw them. so eve probably did way more than me today. no wonder she went to bed first. it's important to note that we also began today laughing (and pleading for more sleep) as eve sang, kicked and windmilled her way into the morning. in the eight months between these two mornings, this pups has only gotten funnier, sweeter, cuter, and more wonderful.

this week, i've been having my own little pupster retrospective, and i wanted to share some highlights in this post. due to the magic of digital photographic technology, i can assure you that each picture is from a day or two around her 'birthday.' the last two pictures were taken today. as i agonized over which one to choose, ted reminded me that i could post both. how novel!

so there you go, nine pictures for eight months. enjoy watching her eyes get bigger and smiles get more varied--i know we do.

teeth like god's shoeshine

here are a few various fotos from the last few weeks. the top shows our little cowgirl, with hope's sun hat blocking the rays. photo 2 demonstrates eve's sincere love of apartment hunting. she really did enjoy it, at least much more than i did. fotos 3 and 4 capture our little vampire's first two teeth -- the incisors. it's really really funny-looking. finally, eve continues her pursuit of greater heights, and likes nothing more than to sit on my shoulders and survey her domain. this generally involves fistfuls of my hair, which is not my favorite sensation.

the sweetest girl in the world

i get songs stuck in my head a lot of the time, and blather various snippets at the significant women in my life. one of my absolute favorite songs of all time (a rotating list, of course, and highly influenced by whatever i'm listening to at the time) is the following, which pops into my head whenever i see pics like this of this one pups...

The sweetest girl in the world
Is my blue-eyed Jane.
We fell in love like turtledoves
While the moon was shining down.
I asked her then, I asked her when
Wedding bells would ring.
She said, "Oh, dear, it seems so queer
That this could happen here."

You are my little pal,
And I never knew a sweeter gal,
My little blue-eyed Jane,
I love you so.
And when the sun goes down
And the shadow's creeping over town,
Just meet me in the lane,
My blue-eyed Jane.

Janie dear, listen here,
I've come to say farewell.
The world is drear without you, dear,
But now I cannot linger here.
I'm going away this very day,
Oh please, come go with me.
I'll be sad and blue wanting you,
Longing all day through.

My little blue-eyed Jane,
You'll always be the same sweet thing,
I know you'll never change,
I love you so.
And when the sun goes down
And the shadow's creeping over town,
Then I'll come back again,
My blue-eyed Jane.

And when the sun goes down
And the shadow's creeping over town,
Then I'll come back again,
My blue-eyed Jane.

dylan does a sweet cover, but for my money this song is owned by its writer, the Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers.