To Heather (and E)

Sometimes, the ladies in my life get a little down on themselves and for entirely different reasons. When E poops in the bathtub, she gets a little upset, but Heather poops in the bathtub ALL THE TIME and she never gets upset about it.

And sometimes, Heather believes that she is anything less than gorgeous, which is ridiculous. E never has that issue. She thinks she is beautiful all the time, even with peanut butter smeared all over her face. I can only hope she maintains that attitude through the trying years of adolescence and beyond.

I say these things over and over, though somehow Heather only really believes it when someone else says it. She thinks I am biased, which I am, but that doesn't prevent me from being honest.

So Heather, and Evey, Mufasa has a message for you:

If you don't believe it, trying imagining James Earl Jones saying it.

If you still don't believe it, maybe you need to see it again:

Case closed.

Photo Dump!

Heather says that Evey looks like me, but in mannerisms and style, I see so much of her in Evey.

Evey trying to see if she can see anything in the camera lens. Win!

Last time Heather had the camera, she was taking pictures of Evey's feet, so this one is for her. 

My girls. 

Big girl seat!

Evey is now in a big girl booster seat! She uses the "real" seatbelt AND can climb into the seat all by herself.  That's what I'm talking about!! She is intensely proud of this accomplishment, and LOVES the seat. The cup holders are a big hit, too.

We got this new seat so Evey's friend Lila could use the other seat, rather than us having to transfer her seat from her parents' car to our car everyday. On that note, Lila will be hanging with us for the next few weeks while she transfers to another day care. So far, it's working out fabulously for all involved. I even took the girls swimming this morning - what a hoot!

Elephants on parade

Four peaceful little lego elephants ...

... gathering for a lovely chat ...

... until their existence resulted in Pachyderm Pandemonium 2012.

You see, the underlying cause of this conflict is Evey's current love of the movie Dumbo. And therefore all things elephant. (or any other object she names "Dumbo", which has already included a plastic giraffe and a Christmas beanie dog, but not her teenie-tiny elephant, who has been assigned the name "Simba".)

On this day, Evey found four lego elephants and was intensely protective of them. To give you an idea, see the kid in the Red Wings jersey? He was innocently running a train around the track on the table, and every time he came near Evey, she picked all the elephants up in her arms and turned around so he couldn't get them. Then she'd put them back in a circle. Repeat ad infinitum.

So in the midst of this, enter poor Clare (stripey shirt). She wanted to join Evey's game, and picked up one elephant to goof with.

Evey lost her mind. Completely.

Enter gently patient parent Justin, trying to help with Clare. Enter also parent Heather (you may determine my descriptors yourself), trying to help with Evey. After about 5 minutes, Justin convinced Clare to give back the elephant, and I told her I'd help her find another one in the boxes nearby. Evey's elephant needs were sated.

That is, until I found another elephant for Clare. Evey begins mind-loss part 2.

Now, I want to give Clare props here. She offered to give Evey the *5th* elephant, keeping none for herself. But then the poor thing sat there watching Evey play with all 5 elephants for about 15 minutes, wistfully hoping Evey would share. Despite many urgings on my part, Evey would not yield. All 5 elephants would be hers alone.

Eventually, we did have to leave, and a new, epic Evey meltdown commenced. Even saying goodbye, hugging, and kissing each elephant did not help. At least we were in the middle of a museum, where such loud displays wouldn't affect anyone else nearby ...

Poor my Evey. :)

Let's catch up! (photos)

I hadn't emptied our cameras for a while. Here is the best from 2 of them - still one to go!

This child looks so much like her father when she scowls. It's crazy.

Yes, ok, I kiss Evey a lot. I can't help it -- she's so kissable!

This was taken on one of the only days this winter where there has been enough snow to do anything with it. She's such a little snow angel. And she's wearing a scarf I have owned since high school, which is so cute.

Yeah, I'm not sure this was exactly condoned by the museum. That's me and Erin for you: Moms-of-the-Year and Super-Compliant-Museum-Patrons. (the boy on the left is one of Evey's besties, Will)

Kevin and I are taking a boxing class together at Demond's studio (A2 Fitness Professionals). After one class, Evey insisted I make her a "backpack" with my wraps. She wore this until we made her take it off at bed time.

Evey and I stayed with Paige at Dad and Star's house for a few days over the past few weeks. Evey found some fun things in Payton's room, including these antlers.

While in Clarkston, Evey and I killed time at Great Lakes Crossing Mall. I took this picture to ask Kevin whether the hat would be worth $10. But I'm avoiding impulse purchases (still), so I behaved myself and left it at the store.

It turns out, H&M has kids stuff. Like I need one more reason to love that store. Here, Evey sports a leather jacket and baseball hat. She thought she was just too cool for school. Until about 3 minutes later when she was bored and moved onto princess skirts.

At Will's Birthday

We'll see if cake can pull her away from the dry erase board. Friends and pizza cannot.

Duka!

He's getting older and nicer, just like me.

(note: I'm not getting nicer)

Evey's First Pony Tail

 

Evey's hair was finally long enough to mostly get held in a pony tail. She wore it just long enough for me to capture a picture before she declared that it was weird and asked Heather to help take it out.