The Party Must Go On

The birthday celebrations was supposed to continue today with a trip to Salem Saturday Market with the Jippings.  For various reasons, the Jippings did not make it, but we decided to go anyway.  We got Evelynd dressed in her overalls to fit in with the farmers, but since it was a little cool, I put her in one of my baby sweaters.  The size is 12 months, but it barely fit over Evie's ginormous head!

At the market, there were the most amazing flower arrangements for $5-$10, a bunch of fresh produce, and other cool things that I cannot discuss now because they may involve presents for some of our dear readers and we wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.

Carriage rides for $3.

It was a good trip to the market and Ev was very popular.  Afterwards, she took a nap while we ran some errands and then dropped by the Jippings.  They had a surprise present for Evelynd: a Snow White tea seat!  The girls started playing with it and Evelynd ate her sweater.  We then decided to go out for Korean BBQ.  It was closed.  So we then picked a Teriyaki restaurant owned by my Korean students.  It was closed.  What?!  It's Saturday night!  I don't know what it is about making plans with the Jippings, but it all too often ends up this way.  We have an ongoing joke about seeing movies in 2D because every time we've tried to see one in 3D (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland), it hasn't quite worked out.  Anyway, our third choice was open and we had some Love Love Teriyaki.  This is how Evelynd looked:

We ended the night with some froyo at LimeBerry where Thalia and Sylvia were making friends by touching a stranger's hair.

At home, Evelynd got to play in her walker.  At one point when I said "Bear," she repeated it.  She's starting to get better at mimicking sounds.  She had sweet potatoes and put herself to bed at 8 again.  I like that girl.  



Happy Six Month Birthday, Baby Girl!

"A very happy half birthday, to you! (To you!) To you! (To you!)

A very happy half birthday, to you! To you!"

I can't believe it's been half a year already.  In some ways it's still unreal that I'm a mother and have a baby and in other ways it's like Evelynd's always been part of our lives and how did we ever exist without her?  How boring!

She has her six-month checkup (and shots) next Friday, so we'll have all her official stats then.  For now, I'll just tell you what's new:

Evelynd is starting to play with her toys more.  She likes to make her keys rattle, snuggle with her lamb and bunny in bed, and play with anything that makes noise (like her cookie jar, the piano, and her car seat toys). 

She's amazing at falling asleep at 8:00 p.m. every night and sleeping generally eight hours.  I feed her around 4:00 a.m. and she will either go straight back to sleep or play in crib by herself until she puts herself to sleep.  We usually get up sometime between 7 and 8 in the morning.  She will take a nap about two hours after she wakes up and then again in the mid-afternoon.  Her nap times and lengths are pretty unpredictable. 

Evie loves the dogs.  She watches for them and looks around for them if I ask her where they are.  She's still working on petting them instead of yanking their hair. 

She's now eating two meals a day of fruits, veggies, rice cereal, or combos.  She opens up her mouth wide and clears the food off the spoon with her lip.  She's a fast eater like her dad, which means she probably won't be eating alone at the table like her mom.  She's not too keen on carrots, but has liked everything else a lot.  Today, for example, she downed her mango lunch and butternut squash-pear dinner in no time.

She sits up pretty well.  Occasionally she still tips over, but not if she's paying attention. 

She is almost always happy and smiles at all strangers (just as long as they don't try to hold her).

Evelynd still likes walks and being outside is an almost instant stop to her fussing.  I take her on at least one walk per day.

She has started to figure out how to make her walker go forwards and backwards.

Everything ends up in her mouth.

To celebrate today, Evelynd had to wait until after all our meetings, lessons, and work, but then we had fun.  Here's a video of her on the way to her party:

Our first stop was Salem's Carousel, where Evelynd took a ride on "The General."  She liked watching the horses move up and down.

Then, we went on the swings and teeter-totter at Bush Park.

The Crooked House playground was very busy this evening although I somehow got a picture that looks like we were some of the few people there.

She was watching the big kids swing and run around.

Here's a video of Miss E enjoying her swing:

When we came home, we ate, played, jumped in the jumperoo, read stories, sang songs, and Evelynd went to sleep at exactly 8:00 again.  Dassow Mommy and Daddy had caramel corn in Evie's honor.

P.S. Red Sox won one for the baby!

Photo Shoot with a 6-year-old

Meira Tuggy got to use my camera today during her sister's lesson, so the photos and videos in this post are courtesy of her.

Talia was born six weeks after Evelynd and is nice enough to share her toys every week during her older sisters' lessons.

Li'l miss wearing 9-month clothes!  She's so big!

Diego -- Samson's best friend.

Only watch this video if you don't get motion sickness:

This final video is of Evelynd playing the piano.  She used to hate the piano, but now that I let her play it some, she likes it a lot better, which makes for much easier teaching (as long as my students don't get too distracted).

Snuggles

Evelynd had a pretty tough day.  I think she's getting used to pooping with her new foods -- when it starts to be more solid, it's more solid, if you know what I mean -- so she wanted to snuggle all day.  I had two new students start lessons today and they were not the easiest of students, so my lovely easy Wednesdays have become some of my hardest/longest days.

Here's our baby today (in a cute outfit from the Leinbachs) in some of her final six month size clothes.

It's kind of difficult to see, but she is smiling with her tongue sticking out -- something she often does.

P.S. Red Sox won yesterday.  You may have noticed there haven't been a lot of these updates.  Not good, Sox.

Thank you!!!!

I finally finished my thank you notes for all of Evelynd's baby gifts.  Why did it take so long?  Because people have been so generous, it's unbelievable.  We were still getting gifts last week and many people have given us gifts both before and after Evie's birth.  Thanks to all of you so much for helping us in so many ways and for helping to welcome this beautiful baby into the world.

Evelynd is consistently sleeping in 8-hour + stretches at night.  I am so glad she's a good sleeper on her own because I don't know if I'm strong enough for sleep training.

Also, Dassow Daddy surprised me today by making a delicious egg and potato brunch.

Finally, poor Samson has ear and eye infections.  He went to the vet today, so he should be feeling better soon.

Thank you all again.  We truly appreciate all of you.

Where were you...

...yesterday?
Evelynd had her first taste of mango in the morning.  Then, we started the afternoon with a visit to GG'pa and GG'ma.  GG'pa had recovered so quickly from his back surgery!  We were so glad to see him looking so well.  After our visit, I had to play for a wedding at Ducks Moorage (the sign said "Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown," but it was actually a really cool place), which is a houseboat community on the Columbia River.  It was nearly 100 degrees, but thankfully -- and surprisingly -- very little wind to blow my music around.  As far as I can remember, this was the first time I had to play while moving.  Every time a boat would go by, the dock would move; it took a little getting used to. 

When we got home, I felt like I had moved into a zoo.  Nature had invaded!  There were a ton of flies in the house trying to escape the heat (we had left a couple windows open accidentally) and spiders outside (as there always are) plus a family of raccoons (Peter counted five) had moved into the trees out front.  The baby raccoons were loudly calling for their mother for hours.  The picture below is really dark, but maybe you can see a couple of them:

As of this morning, the nest was destroyed and it looks like they have moved on.

...10 years ago?
I was in the shower when my youngest brother, Nick, called to tell me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  I told him that was not a funny joke, but after I realized he was serious I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane crash into the second tower.  I was just starting my second year of law school, so I had to head to class and drove there with the radio on.  During the drive, I heard of the first tower's collapse.  When I got to school no one knew what was going on and everyone was scared.  During my negotiation class, the professor gave up and sent us all home.  I walked through the park the mile and a half home and tried to come to some sort of conclusions.  The only thing I could conclude was that the world was not the same as I thought when I woke up that morning.  The next few weeks were full of stories of heroism beyond what I could have imagined and images of atrocities beyond what anyone should ever have to endure.  Living out west, very few of us knew anyone who was in danger (my friend, Annabelle, worked near the Pentagon), but we all felt the weight of the tragedy as Americans and as humans.

...today?
We went to the Field of Flags at Salem's Riverfront Park.  This was a four day event that included Taps and a candle lighting every evening and various activities each day (military flyovers, ceremonies, canon firing, etc.).  There was a flag for each person who died as a result of the 9/11 attacks.

Some of the flags looked pale because the stripes were made up of the names of those who died.

I don't think Evelynd quite knew what was going on because she seemed more interested in eating her shirt:

By the end of the trip, Evelynd was almost asleep and holding her hat over her eyes.  Someday, though, she will want to know where her parents were on 9-11-01 and she can read this.  A lot has changed since that day.  I hadn't even met Peter and had no idea there was such a beautiful baby in my future.  The world may have changed on September 11, but it didn't end and there is still good.



Monster Baby

Evelynd discovered a new sound today:

We had a nice day of cleaning, teaching, playing, cooking, and friends.  Glen and Sharman came over to share in a mini Greek turkey burger Dassow Dinner before their move to Washington.  It was nice to spend time with them and catch up.  Evelynd was a showoff during dinner and did a fabulous job eating her root vegetable trio (carrots, sweet potatotes, and parsnips).

Thanks for the cute summer dress, Kristy.

This video was supposed to be of Evelynd giving a high 5, but she was too distracted by the camera.  Today was the first day she gave a high 5 to someone other than Dassow Mommy (Carolyn Fu was the lucky girl).  She was in a great mood today (probably because she slept another eight hour stretch -- that's two nights in a row!).

P.S. A very happy birthday to Evelynd's cousin Luke!