"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous" --Coco Chanel--

I know I promised a post last week but I'm still not ready for it :) Things got a little busier than I thought and pushed back and then I don't have all the pics yet so I'm just gonna do a little post on my little Evelyn! I've been making a mental list of things I want to write about her, which is a bad, bad idea for me...especially while prego...cuz I can't remember 1/4 of them now :) So I'm just gonna go through some pictures I've taken/posted on Facebook and go from there....

Well Evelyn is gonna be 2 1/2 years exactly in a couple days....in most ways I can't believe she's already that old and then in other ways I can't believe she's JUST 2 1/2....she's such a smart little thing and a lot of people think she's 3 already...which is partly due to her height, she's so tall! and partly due to her vocabulary/etc. When we moved here her nursery leader couldn't believe how many animals she knew and every one she knew the sound for (her latest is a donkey, which is hilarious to hear). I'm a little biased being her mom and all but she does have a pretty dang good vocabulary/comprehension for a 2 1/2 year old! She just catches on so quick and uses the words correctly after learning them just once. It's fun to hear her say things and realize how quickly she learned it.

Although this does pose a problem for me because I'll say something once or twice and she'll use it on me and I can't get her to stop....such as she has her moments and talks back or rudely to me, so I'll say, please don't talk to me like that or something like that, and now she goes up to either me or Mark and says "don't talk to me". She mostly does this when she specifically wants to talk to one of us and not the other but it's still super annoying and bratty! She's twisted a few other things but I can't think of any specifics right now...oh wait...so I'll be by her/holding her or something and pat her on the head/back/etc...ya know, something little, and she'll be like ow! (she's into a big "ow" thing right now and gets "owie's" from every little thing...) So I'll be like, I'm just patting you/playing with your hair...so now she'll come up to me and smack me on the arm or wrap around my leg and burrow her head or something weird, and I'll ask her to stop and she'll be like "I'm just hugging you" or "I'm just making you feel better"....but always, "I'm Just". Ugh....I've gotta watch myself close now :) It's cute but not you know?


One cute thing she says, although I'm not sure where she came up with it...is with her prayers. So loves saying the prayers at meal times but always asks for our help and ALWAYS says "Dear Heavenly Father, and Tangled"....super cute but really don't know why/where it came from :) She gets upset when we don't say it though :)

And I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but this girl is just SO particular and has to have things exactly right or has to fix it til it is....like the other day we were headed out to do errands and I was getting our bag together and zipped it up and didn't go the last extra inch and she noticed and made me zip it the rest of the way (glad she's super observant but she's so anal about things being done all the way! always has to zip or button her clothes up all the way, no matter how high the collar is....things like that). And once she learns to do something one way she's gotta always do that, hard to change her up. Such a determined little thing!!!


 I love watching her though, she might be super particular/determined but she's awful dang cute! I've been getting together some play/learning/fun activity things together for her to try and keep her busy and have found some good ones so far. One of her favorites so far is a binder filled with printables with the alphabet/numbers and I put them in sheet protectors so she can write on them with dry erase markers and then erase them. The pages have the letter/number, some sort of image for each, and then that number/letter that they can trace. I've noticed she likes to trace stuff in her coloring books so I thought she'd like this and she really does. Keeps her busy at home/in the car/at church...it's so great and cheap too! :) Here's a link to where I got them for anyone who wants to see.

Really love this project for her! 

Another one I did was paint these jumbo popsicle sticks different colors, put sticky back velcro circles on the ends (I eventually did both sides so she could do more with them) and she can put them together and build things/make shapes, etc. She knows a few shapes pretty good and makes triangles and squares with these regularly now. She doesn't play with these as much but still a fun easy project to do.

I did the hexagon :) Although she does know what it is...she has a few "games" on Mark's iphone she gets to play and one teaches shapes....I can't believe how quick/well she can navigate the iPhone though! She knows EXACTLY what to do....kids learn so quick!

Then another fun one is the pom pom magnets! I found a website (can't find the link now but easy to google) that had printables where there were circle images that you can put pom poms down for each color to make the image/fill in the image. I gave Evelyn one of my seldom used cookie sheets, stuck some circle magents (couldn't find the sticky ones but super gluing them was quick and easy) on the poms and let her go. She enjoys this activity a lot too.

Birthday cake! :) These really are a cute, simple idea

She still really enjoys just plain coloring and has been surprising me a lot lately! She's all of a sudden started drawing actual things instead of just scribbling or coloring in a picture. She's been doing really well with drawing things outside with chalk...she drew a whale one day, which I thought was pretty good, and lately has started drawing "monsters" in her notebooks. She puts eyes/nose/mouth/arms/legs and even lines/circles for hands and feet...pretty impressive I thought! I love seeing what she's come up with.

Monsters!

This one appears to be kicking another monster...not sure though, didn't ask :)

She really has quite a little imagination and is always giving me imaginary tickets for things or pretending she's someone else...She was going through a phase where she didn't want me to call her anything BUT Evelyn. I'd say come her sweetie/sweet pea/etc...ya know...and she'd be like, no, I'm Evelyn. But lately she's been pretending she's different characters...like when she's playing in her tower she's Tangled/Rapunzel and when she's talking in a squeaky voice she's Minnie and I'm supposed to call her by such...pretty cute though.

Here's another funny little thing she does....so she found this long rope Mark has while we were packing in MS and has been playing with it ever since...she'd drag it around the house while we were packing, calling it her baby and just loving it. She loves tying things up with it (and is pretty darn good! takes me awhile to undo some of them). Keeps her entertained so hey...whatever works right!? The other day though we were at Old Navy and she found some long shoe string like strap in the clearance section by itself (I think it fell off some shoe or shirt), and carried it all around the store so the lady said she could keep it. And she's been playing with that for days. She took it with us to the mailbox, dragging it behind her calling it her doggy, wadded it up and took it with her for her nap....pretty dang funny! She's definitely imaginative :) Which I'm glad...keeps her busy/entertained for little spouts of time at least. I definitely need to have more play time with other kids for her but haven't met too many people yet so it's slow going. :) Half the houses on my street are still empty and half are people who've just moved in so everyone (including me) has been busy unpacking/etc....so that's my excuse for now :)

Rope baby! :)

so funny...

Being super cute at Daddy's office! She's so adorable...

First time leaving in a headband in months! She looks so big right here! :)

Building castles at the beach....

and destroying them :)

Singing or yelling...not sure what :)

Cooking with daddy! She made him put on an apron just like her :)

Anyway....so yeah! This girl can be frustrating but I love her so much! She's so amazing and smart and wonderful :) I look forward to seeing her with the new baby so much! It's gonna be so fun/amazing/hard/wonderful/but so worth it :) Anywho...til next time! Promise I'll have Mark's promotion next :)