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.
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.
it's been far too long between posts, dear eve-followers. at the time of the last post, michael jackson was alive and weird. but at the time of writing this one? well, he's probably still weird.
eve has been having a great time in june, spending countless hours outside, cataloguing the objects she sees and can't help but touch (how many times do i have to say, 'no, that's trash.'? always just once more, apparently), playing in sandboxes, on swings, down slides, and in water. what more could a nineteen month old desire?
a tent, obviously.
eve always loves the 'bed tent' i make for her (lay on your back next to eve; pull the quilt over both of you and hold it up with your legs; enjoy the tent), but last weekend, she went for a more single-user stucture. realizing the great potential for new sitting experiences when her fire truck couch was upended, eve started camping out on the arm of the couch, reading books. she requested the 'blue blanket,' pointing to its exact, hidden location, which gave me the idea of throwing it over the couch and giving eve a little tent all her own.
she loved it beyond measure.
it's a good thing that the 'rents both grew up building minor and major forts. all we need now is a good set of heavy encyclopedias, and we'll be ready to convert our entire apartment into a bedouin fantasy land.
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.
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.
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.
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.
baba: anything small or something for which we hold affection. has come to mean, quite literally, *the* baba who is the subject of this blog
babski: baba with an eastern european flair. from watching all the nannies in prague wheel around their charges in bugaboo strollers. they (the babas) simply became babskis.
cell bundle: what we called the babski, pre-jordan and before the early ultrasound.
jordan: the placeholder name for the babski. we thought it was a funny non-gendered name, and monica's enthusiasm for it was infectious
morgan: the other non-gendered placeholder name that didn't make the final cut. ted couldn't stop saying "big 'm,' little organ," so we scrapped it in favor of jordan.
pupsandpups: erin and jordan, combined. ted's invention.
