we'll go honky-tonkin

this is an emergency post. i intended to leave the slide show up as first for a few more days, but these pics can't wait. in the past twenty-four hours, evesie pups has expressed her musical self several times, banging on this awesome casio at daycare and bopping in her high chair while we listen to some amazing covers of songs from the second disc of 'the white album.'

her melodious and dancing self has also experienced her first true fall day. it was chilly here today, and this trendy puffy vest from nan and pop arrived just on time! while the rents rifled through a box looking for coats of their own, the pups fell in love with her papa's cowboy hat. she thinks it looks best on her, even though her head's a wee bit small for it. she just might be right.

pardon me, madam, my name is eve

this post was intended to show you how much eve is enjoying her new daycare experience, but i just couldn't help but add a few more pictures from that past month or so. the 'rents are back to the real world, going to jobs during the day and hanging with the evester on evenings and weekends. i won't speak for ted, but i miss that little baba of mine while she's off eating play-doh and playing in sandboxes. i'm sure she misses us too, even though there is ample evidence to the contrary in these photos and in her single-minded determination to play with the daycare toys until i scoop her up and take her home.

i could apologize for how saccharine the elvis accompaniment is to this slide show, but no one should make excuses or amends on behalf of the king.

mama, don't let your baby grow up to be a cow(girl)

in two days and about six and a half hours, eve fehskens will arrive at the ripe young age of ten solid months. due to a little thrush issue, the evester got to meet her new chicago pediatrician this week. her visit to the doctor also confirmed a little known fact about this baby of mine: she's completely average. that's right. she's weighing in at the fiftieth percentile in height, weight, and head circumference right now. the e.l.f. is absolutely normal.

because her physiognomy cannot escape averageness, the above pictures illustrate the ways her personality diverges, possibly, from that fiftieth percentile. as many of you know, eve came into the world screaming and full of affection and hilarious. since then, she's worked very hard on perfecting each of those qualities. to them, she's added thrill-seeking, starting conversations with strangers, shrieking with laughter, and eating everything in sight. perhaps this little septet of personality traits and affinities should be ample evidence that the evesie pups brings the wild cowgirl to these amazing cow pj's that feature heavily in the above photo spread.

due to a rash of cold weather, the pups needed sleeves and long pants to stay snuggly warm at night. after just five hours of waking up every forty minutes to her whimpers, her brilliant 'rents figured this out and promptly purchased sleeves and pants the next day. behold, the cow pj set. i can only take credit for supporting the find. her papa discovered this set deep in the racks of cat and bunny themed sleepwear. i can't believe it's taken us this long to find the absolute perfect nighttime ensemble for this pups. tonight i'll probably dream of her leaping over the moon after becoming the fastest draw (sippy cups, not six shooters) in the west.

'cause you know, darling, i love only you

we just got back from western new york and had the loveliest time. there are scads of photos floating around and i'm sure we'll post again -- the cameras were clicking the entire holiday weekend. in the meanwhile, i wanted to share a few highlights. evesie-pups sure loved buffalo! here, she spends some quality time with her grand-daddy, my mother (waiting for evesie to name her), and sally fehskens. we got home and evesie now thinks that her 'rents are the most boring people on the planet.

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!