Evelyn was super cranky Monday evening and then Monday night we all hardly got any sleep. She was up about every other hour, crying and crying. It wasn't until about 4 in the morning that it hit me that she was probably sick and had an ear infection. Jeff took her in to the doctor on Tues morning and the doctor checked and yes, she did indeed have an ear infection. The doctor was surprised, since Evelyn hadn't really had much of a cold and it is in the middle of summer. So, not something you really want to hear, seems like maybe she'll be getting a bunch of ear infections like her sister.
Evelyn had her 4 month appointment a few weeks ago. The doctor said it looks like Evelyn is doing very well. I asked her about her odd headshape and her drooping left eye. The doctor didn't seem too concerned and said we'd take a look again at 6 months. She said Evelyn's head is quite asymmetrical and that might make one eye look bigger than the other.
She got all her shots and didn't do very well with them. We got a call later in the day from daycare requesting that we come get her because she had been miserable. In a strange coincidence, someone was picking up their son at the same time and told the teachers he wouldn't be in tomorrow because he had his 4 month appt, would be getting shots, and they didn't want to put the teachers through that. I just kind of looked at the teachers and smiled and left with Evelyn. It never crossed my mind that she'd have a bad reaction. She ended up being fussy for a few days afterward so we took her back to the chiropractor. It was my first time to witness the chiropractor with Evelyn and it really seemed to relax her quite a bit.
Evelyn's not rolling over yet, but I think she's getting close. She holds her head up high and likes to sit up more (supported). She is also constantly full of smiles!
This weekend we've noticed a little tooth poking through on the bottom. It is quite sharp and she's pretty sensitive about it.
The last weekend in June Grandma Groves, Aunt Nancy and cousin Gus came to visit. Grandma Groves came on Wed. night. Her flight from Florida was a little late. Isabella and I killed time by eating dinner at the A&W down the road. Isabella was less than thrilled with her hamburger, but couldn’t get enough of the French fries. She’s been on a French fry kick lately. We picked up Grandma and headed home. We were very excited that she was going to be here for a whole week. Thursday morning we had part 2 of our family photo shoot –a gift given to us by the Pathways staff. Jeff couldn’t attend as he had work to do, but my main goal was getting pictures of the girls and with Grandma there to help things went smoothly. After the shoot we took both girls to daycare (Evelyn started going part-time that week) so that we could go pick up Aunt Nancy and Gus from the Moline airport that afternoon. As the day went on, their flights got more and more delayed and canceled, etc. They were still sitting on the runway in NYC by the time we were supposed to be picking them up from the airport in Moline. Not a good situation. It sounds like Gus was really good throughout the whole thing. Grandma and I finally picked them up sometime between 9 and 10 that night. The next morning (Friday) Gus and Isabella got to see each other. Isabella was a little shy at first but it didn’t take long and they were playing like old friends. I think the first conversation I heard between them went like this:
Gus: Be nice
Isabella: Say please
It is so nice to see how much fun they have together.
We decided to head to the beach at Coralville Lake on Friday morning. When we drove in the admissions guy told us that we didn’t have to pay because there wasn’t much beach there because of all the rain. There was a little strip there, enough for Gus and Isabella to play in, so we went ahead and got out all of our stuff. However, we were being horribly attacked by bugs. They weren’t biting us, but they were all just landing on us and were very annoying and gross. The more you swatted them away the more that seemed to land on you. It didn’t bother the kids too much, but every once in a while one of them would go “Bugs! Bugs!”. We managed to make the most of it, though. After research back at home, Nancy determined they were mayflies or fish flies, that really only have a life span of about a day and we just happened to be there that day they all hatched!
That afternoon my Uncle Ron and Aunt Judy came to visit. They’d been in the area here from Michigan for a Corvair conference so it was so great to have them visit.
On Sat. Grandpa Groves came to visit. We all went out to lunch at the Vine. We were hoping to be able to sit outside, but the weather had just been too hot. Later that afternoon we got out the wading pool for the kids to splash around in. They had lots of fun and Gus taught Isabella how to lay in the water and kick her legs.
On Sun we went to the play area at the mall. Grandpa Groves came to visit again after he ran the Sturgis Falls ½ Marathon. He came in 3rd in his age division! He brought Gus and Isabella some medals.
Evelyn enjoyed Aunt Nancy wearing her in the Moby.
Monday was my first day back at work. Grandma and Isabella took Nancy and Gus to the airport. It sounds like Isabella was on her best behavior during their adventure. It was sad to see Nancy and Gus leave.
Grandma Groves stayed until Wed. Isabella and I took her to the airport. Isabella wanted to get on the plane and go home with Grandma.
Gus seems less than thrilled with me in this picture that Grandpa took.
Thanks to my sister for sending me a picture of "real" corn pizza. They sell it at Whole Foods. I like that you can see the corn kernels on the counter in this picture.
Isabella has an ever expanding palate and on a couple occasions has decided to put corn on her pizza. This is funny to us because when we were in the Dominican Republic with the Davises, 4(?) years ago the buffet always had pizza, but they always put corn on it. We found it pretty funny (for the first few meals, at least)
Isabella also likes to wrap blueberries in a tortilla and eat them.
Earlier this summer we went to the Iowa Arts Festival. It seems like forever ago, I was still on maternity leave and Evelyn was still in her major fussy phase. It ended up being a beautiful day out and we were able to enjoy lunch outside. We ate the Pita Pit and on the way in Jeff ran Isabella into the door frame while she was sitting on his shoulders. Everyone inside sort of stopped and stared at them, Isabella cried at bit and Jeff and I couldn't help but just laugh. We probably looked like awful parents. We took a lot of pictures because Isabella seemed so grownup eating her slice of pizza and sitting in her chair.
Jeff also had to get pictures of me eating my huge pita - which was kind of hard with Evelyn wrapped to the front of me (poor girl has had all sorts of food drop on her).
It was nice day walking around looking at all the art and being in downtown IC and eating outside.
That night we made pizza and Isabella really enjoyed making her own.
Calvin Nile Meller born to our friends Kevin and Maria.
The little guy was born 8 weeks early and weighed 4 lbs, 6 oz. One of the craziest birth stories I've heard. Maria was at Mercy because she went into labor, but they were able to stop the contractions. Or so they thought... It sounds like all of a sudden she was in labor again and a nurse and lacatation consultant ended up delivering the baby! The doctor came in right at the end and Kevin missed the birth. Craziest part is they thought they were having a girl and it turned out to be a boy! (I thought the girl was going to be Evelyn's best friend...)
The family is now at the University Hospital and it sounds like Calvin is doing very well. He is such a cute little thing.
So, I know our blogging must really be behind if I post about Evelyn being 2 months and then 3 months in subsequent posts. Plus we had lots of visitors in June and lots of things to blog about. I'll catch up eventually.
We had a nice 4th of July weekend, pretty low key. On the 4th we went to Coralville parade. It was a really long parade (we were there for 2 hours!) and Isabella enjoyed every bit of it. She showed off some of her dance moves. Isabella went down for a late nap, but we were still planning on heading to Jesse's in the Quad Cities for her annual 4th party. Isabella was still sleeping well past the time we had scheduled to leave, we were kind of exhausted, and we weren't sure Evelyn would enjoy the drive so we ended up staying home. We played a bit with the neighbor kids before we realized how late it was and had no dinner plans. We went out to Gus's restaurant and Kevin and Maria met us there for a drink. As a side note, Isabella went potty at Gus's twice and kept her pull-up dry the whole time, I was pretty impressed since it is a public place and she's never really used the bathroom in public. We got home and put Isabella into bed later than normal and about 10 minutes later Coralville's fireworks show started and we realized we could see quite a bit of it from our living room. Jeff decided to go in and get Isabella (risky to mess with her sleep!).
Their conversation: Jeff: Are you awake? Isabella: No. Jeff: Do you want to see some fireworks? Isabella (totally flipping over and waking up): Yeah!
So, the four of us watched the fireworks from our sofa in the living room. Isabella may have been sleeping with her eyes open because when they were over, we put her in bed and she went right asleep and didn't seem to have any memory of it the next day.
Evelyn hit her 3 month mark on July 3rd. She's seeming a bit more content. She's started to see a chiropractor, it hasn't instantly made her less fussy but she might be a little better. She loves putting her hands in her mouth and we still see lots of smiles from her. We still basically hold her all the time, which is my excuse for why I never pick up around the house anymore!
Our 3 month old! Watching the parade Isabella likes to eat sandwiches without bread now, using cheese slices as bread Proof that Evelyn was there too (she spent a bit of time in her carseat, Jeff held her for quite a while and then I put her in the wrap.
Evelyn had a good two month appointment. I had a long talk with the doctor about having a fussy baby and she said she's pretty confident from here on out things will only get better. We are keeping Evelyn on the Prevacid for a little while longer for her acid reflux. Over all, Evelyn has been a little more content over throughout the day. She tends to be happy just being held and it doesn't even have to be in the Moby wrap anymore. Jeff found this weekend that she likes to lay in her crib and look at her mobile. Isabella saw this and went over to look, but then said - "My bed, my bed!".
I attempted to get Evelyn to lay down for a nap today, but she woke up about 3 minutes later screaming like she was really scared. During the day she still seems to get her best sleep in while sleeping in the wrap.
I'm kind of surprised she is only in the 50% for height. She looks long to me and other people have commented on that as well.
Isabella continues to warm up more to her sister everyday. I may have mentioned this before, but the only things she really ever says about her is "Evie's crying" or "Her eyes are open!" If I pick up Isabella from daycare and bring Evelyn in Isabella will talk about her baby sister. When I tell Isabella we are going somewhere she often says "Evie goes too?". It sounds like she wants her to go, hopefully that's true.
On Sunday we went to the Pathway's Open House for their recent renovations. It was right during naptime, but I took Isabella and Evelyn, figuring I could get Isabella to fall asleep on the way home. Isabella was in rare form, even though there were lots of strangers there, she was running around everywhere and not being shy. (I actually was slightly worried she was going to get run over by a wheelchair every once in a while) She fell asleep a little on the way home, but was still wound up, so Evelyn and I sat in her bed with her to try to get her to fall asleep. Of course, it so happens that Evelyn got in a rare good mood where she was smiling and cooing at Isabella which was getting Isabella more and more excited, and then we had this conversation:
Isabella: "Evelyn has a lot of hair?" Me: Yes Isabella: "Mommy has a lot of hair?" Me: Yes, I do. Isabella: "Ernie has a lot of hair!" and she lifted up the Ernie stuffed animal that Kevin and Maria brought Evelyn (because my mom mentioned that Evelyn looked a little like Ernie from behind).
I got a good kick out of this because I'm sure Isabella had picked that up from lots of people commenting on Evelyn's hair. But for her to get the Ernie doll out of all the other stuffed animals on her bed and talk about his hair really cracked me up.
My mom also reminded me that Evelyn great-great grandpa's name was Ernie (Ernest), so it fits. I guess we have a baby Ernie and a toddler Grover.
Another thing to note, I had to start hiding gifts (toys) given to Evelyn because Isabella claims them all as her own, that's why she thinks Ernie is all hers. Poor Evelyn won't have anything to call her own.
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