memories of the sultry south

well friends, it's june here and still jacket weather. makes me long just a little bit for the blistering heat and humidity that we experienced in charleston, sc two weekends ago. our dear friends anne and phil had the brilliant idea of celebrating their nuptials on the beach, and many of our friends were there to help them along.

we loved seeing everyone! eve especially, except for that point in the evening when she passed out on me for a good hour, missing the entire lovely ceremony, as well as the hors d'oeuvres course. luckily for eve's mama, eve's papa very nicely fixed that chair-bound lady a heaping plate and an ice-cold beer. i got to relive the early days of babski eve sleeping on me, a nice little moment.

please enjoy the sappy beatles tune that accompanies the slide show. evester loves these guys right now. this morning, we listened to all of 'side b' from 'abbey road' in one sitting. i adore this kid.

i'm a prize and you're a catch and we're a perfect match

first, a short play:

ted: you should listen to elvis costello. i think you'd like him.
me: mm-hmm.

(many years pass)

me: hey--elvis costello is awesome! i love him for many, many reasons.
ted: i know. (drawn out sigh)

this exact scene could be replayed with a number of artists substituting in for costello. suffice it to say, this time around it's pavement's album, 'terror twilight.' the title of this post comes from that album, and when i heard it, eve and her dog immediately sprung to mind.

evesie loves that dog. aunt ducky, it is an inspired birthday prezzie. she's taken to putting him in her rocking chair, covering him with a blanket, and then rocking him and singing 'rock a'bye baby,' which includes a few lyric changes such as 'rock a bye dog' and 'rock a bye baby, in the sergey.' (sergey rhymes with baby the way eve says both words.) tonight, we put her johnny cash onesie on the dog, raising her sweet affection to new heights.

thankfully, eve has not inherited her mama's belated engagement with all things cool. that kid knows what's good and seizes it, or shares a rocker (or fire truck couch) with it.

beep beep

anytime eve hears a car horn or a car being locked remotely, she treats it as a call and response occasion, chiming in with her own 'beep beep.' this child might have been a bit reluctant to move into the walking-by-herself phase, but now that she's there, it's hard to keep up with her. it's also hard to keep up with her language acquisition skills these days. for example, she took a drink of water while we were outside waiting for papa today, and at the end of her glug, she said, 'perfect.' she can also say, 'i love you.' and after taking the coal mine tour at the museum of science and industry today, she apparently learned how to say 'coal mine' because that was what she was repeating endlessly, as she dragged me toward the escalator, right when we told her it was time to go. apparently dropping down a mine shaft in a crowded, dark elevator and then seeing a bunch of machinery operating in close quarters is really, really fascinating to an 18 month old girl. given how much she loved the control center at the end of the tour, which you can see here, i suspect that she really just wanted to get her hands on that voltage control gauge again.

evester and her rents have had a terrific weekend celebrating her 18 months of life outside the womb. we kicked it off with a tour of the new modern wing at the art institute, where we all rekindled our fondness for cubism, and eve displayed a newfound interest in genitalia of all types. her love of sculpture started much earlier, but now she's able to walk around a piece on her own. quite a thing to witness. sunday found us scarfing down pancakes and then heading over to the science and industry for the coal mine tour. we also learned that eve can't get enough of tractors and combines. note to self: next time, avoid the farm exhibit unless i want to see eve push a grown man out of a combine again. push metaphorically, not literally.

this slide show covers the last week, beginning with the strawberry stuffed cream puff that we shared on mother's day and continuing through eve's many interesting clothing choices. please note that pants are of little concern to eve. perhaps as her belly thins out, this will change. then again, pants are pretty constricting, so maybe not. and yes mom, nan, and pop: if you're wondering, that is the ireland tshirt that nan and pop bought when you were there! i'm happy eve is getting to wear it already.

it's a bit astonishing, as her mama, to see how much eve has done in such a short period of time on the earth. just when i think she can't blow my mind anymore, she goes and does it. over and over again. and baby, you can't drive my car until you're at least thirteen.

Thank You For Sending Me An Angel

the house feels ominous, as i tiptoe through the hallways, restless, frightened. The Napping Blondes recharge and prepare for another lovely Saturday afternoon.

here are a few random pics. we're headed out to a museum either today or tomorrow and will post something thematic soon. in the top pic, eve-sie expresses her enchantment with the jack black episode of 'yo gabba gabba.' we've seen this episode at least 20 times. she knows to ask for jack, and is learning the disco roll. i can't really frown on it. the last pic shows her recent cold -- she is mostly over it, but it was a very very sad few days.

won't you come out and play?

evesie and co. had a blast visiting the grand- and great-grand-'rents over the weekend. it was such a whirlwind of activity, that the only person who managed to snap a few photos of this pups in all her glory was hope, so thanks hope! these pictures represent evesie's last stand against sleep. shortly after this adventure, she lapsed into quite the pups coma, only to wake up with hope and peace on her lips, and other significant things like eggs, milk, and fruit soon followed. yes, friends, we spent some time in a grocery store. eve is now very good at cataloguing our purchases and suggesting additional ones (cheese? CHEESE!).

this kid babbles a mile a minute. adding to her penchant for saying names of people and foodstuffs, i have it on good authority that she can talk about many different types of trucks and pieces of playground equipment.

mostly, though, we've spent the past two evenings reading 'alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day' and practicing our disco rolls.

in these photos, if eve appears spellbound and there isn't a dog or squirrel or flower in sight, it's because her peace is serenading her on the guitar. what is he singing? what else? 'night, night, baby.' eve managed a very nice duet when she wasn't too wrapped up being all starry eyed and amazed.

good night, ladies

well friends, we've learned a few important things today. we all learned that eve is really good at freestylin', in a baby-singing kind of way. i learned that chocolate chip pancakes taste even better when dipped in whipped butter. eve learned that juice boxes are absolutely amazing. she drained one in 90 seconds at the museum of science and industry. ted learned that the only thing better than a baby saying hi to you is a naked baby alternating between saying hi, saying pee pee, and clapping her hands.

eve sings this song anytime you sing the first line. she made the entire cereal aisle at supertarget laugh when she belted it on saturday. in case you couldn't tell, 'nigh nigh baby' is sung to the tune of 'good night, ladies.' enjoy this video!

evester parade

well friends, you can't imagine the fun that eve had yesterday. to make up for this imaginative failure, i've included a slideshow with music for your viewing pleasure. as always, youtube has compressed my lovely pics, blurring my little girl into pixels. but you'll get the idea. thanks for letting us tag along, kari, mike, and spencer! and thanks for bringing such a magical pillow and blanket, aunt duckie. you've totally captivated the evester!