Trick or Treat?

Its a treat to get a post on this blog, right?! Evangeline has been growing up so quickly and I have been shamefully neglecting the blog. So here is a little update.

At last weigh-in, Evie was averaging around 30 pounds. She is hugely tall and pretty much wearing only 3T as 2T is usually too short and too tight around the tummy. She looooooves milk more than I can really explain. No matter what the time of day, Evie wants milk. Long may it continue!!! Evie loves to jump and do forward rolls although our one and only trip to "mom and me" gymnastics was a complete disaster. We didn't even make it to the end of the session. It goes without saying that we have not been back!! Maybe next year . . .

Of course, it is also fun to practice gymnastics in your toy push-chair !

Evie talks SOOOOO much! It is like having a little grown up around. She knows all of her letter and also loves to count. She can reliably count up to 25 and we think Grandad is hoping there might finally be another accountant in the family. Luckily for us she is also still a GREAT sleeper. She's always in bed by 6:30 and stays in bed until we go upstairs to get her. To be honest, I think she would go to bed an hour earlier given the opportunity. Her favourite books are "The Tiger who Came to Tea" and "Goodnight Moon" and "Princess Evie's Ponies". I don't get what is remotely entertaining about Goodnight Moon but I'm not 22 months old so what do I know?

And of course today it was trick or treat day. Cute fairy anyone?

With her friends, Lauren and Sarah
What am I supposed to do with this, Mummy?
Evie was allowed one small bite of a Twix. Everything else was donated to the candy basket. Iprobably won't be able to get away with that one next year!!!

Happy Halloween everyone and I hope you all are ready for bonfire night on Saturday :-)

Jane xxx

Big girl

Evangline has a new bed! Well, new to Evie anyway . . . this bed was part of a bunk bed set my Grandma had in her house for years :-) Cheap? me? We bought some new bedding and moved things around a bit ! Accoring to Evie, the little bed is Evie's bed, the bigger bed is Mummy's bed and the crib is Daddy's bed. Not sure Dddy's quite so happy about this arrangement. We are hoping to be fully in the big girl bed by the end of August :-)





Relating to my previous post - Nanina, Evie and Tori!!



Evie's usual Friday lunchtime antics with Papa! Evie loves her ponies . . .




J xxx

the summer so far

Evangeline has had an eventful and HOT summer so far. The temperature in Houston is silly and has meant fewer walks and fun outside but we've managed a good amount of fun anyway :-)

We met Evie's cousin Victoria "Tori" for the first time in July. Having entered teh world at barely over 4 pounds, Tori is still petite. Evie looks like an amazon next to her. Tori's visit also awakened the green eye'd monster in miss Evie :-) She didn't appreciate her Mummy changing another baby's nappy or cuddling another baby. She did love Tori in the end though :-)

My Nana - Nanina - has been staying with Nana for 10 weeks. Evie thinks that its fun to jump all over Nanina and give her huge kisses, making no allowances at all for Nanina's age! She's also discovered recently that walking around with Nanina's stick is hugely great fun.



Fun with uncle Rob (Tori's Daddy) and Tori



Evie also enrolled in Papa's cooking camp. I think she's concerned that one day she might be stuck at home with Mummy and Nana and that in the interests of survival, she should learn to cook! They started with steak which Evie insisted was "snake" . . . we didn't stay for dinner :-)



and then there's music camp . . .



Auntie Christine brought Evie a present from Spain . . . and some champange for Mummy. :-)



At our most recent visit to the doctor Evie weighed in at 28 pounds 2oz, and is around 34 inches tall. She's too big for 2T clothes so we're firly in 3T! And I think she grows a new curl every day. She's also full of opinions and likes to point out personal defects (such as moles/zits/feckles) with a loud "uh oh" and also likes to point out dirt or untidyness in people's houses with a very loud MESS. I've been ashamed in other people's houses more than once due to Evie's enthusiam for cleaning! I can't think where she gets it from . . . . (Nana) . . .

J xxx

pictures of Evangeline!

Due to popular demand - and by popular I mean Laura - I'm writing a new post with lots of Evie photographs. This is a bit of a mish mash but here we go!

As you probably know, we were in England a few weeks back for Ollie's wedding. Evie was not all that cooperative for the photos but this one give you the general idea!



This ins one of my favourites. As you know, we lost my Grandpa, Evie's "Daddad" on May 26th at the remarkable age of 91. He will be greatly missed but always remembered. I am so happy that Evie was able play with him in April. For the record, Daddad thought Evie was just the best little girl ever :-)



Cousin Sam was also there to play with!




This week just gone Evie has been having lots of fun with cousin Sam and Uncle Alex during their visit to Houston. Via some fantastic parenting we found out the Evie can swim if she throws herself into the pool while noone is within an arm's reach! Despite this knowledge, we've decided that arm bands are probably a good idea. This means that "fearless fred" as we like to call her, can swim around by herself and jump in all day.



We also took the opportunity have some photos taken. On the whole, the photographer was useless and we won't be going back, but we did get a few good shots.






Aside from playing a lot, Evie is continuing to talk and talk and talk and now has a number of full sentences :-) I am hoping she shows this off to the quack on Monday when we go for her 18 month appointment. Usually she just stares at him and refuses to show of any talents. So they have probably noted her as mute, immobile, and with delusional parents !!!

Watch this space for 18 months statistics!!

Jane xxx

long overdue update

Yeah, I know, we've been rubbish again. But here is a little update for Evangeline.

Evie is still cute as ever (again, no bias here) and continuing to grow up at an alarming rate. I thought that teenagers were meant to know everything, but apparently Evie is working on it too. In this photo she is telling Daddy where he should sit for photographs. The actual photographs were awful but this one is pretty cute.



As you may know, I had an important and very unwelcome milestone birthday last month. We had a wine party at our house and I was given some lovely presents. From all of the things I received Evie picked out her favourite and trying manfully to open it.




Have I ever mentioned that Evangeline likes her grub? One of her most requested foods is banana. I think this was the biggest banana in the world and she loved every single bite.




We didn't take a camera to England so I can't post our photos from that trip until we upload from our phones. But we had a spectacular time! After a long flight via Newark we arrived in Manchester for Ollie (my step-brother) and Nicki's wedding. As you can see, the bride was stunning and the groom sober so it was a lovely lovely day. Evie market the event with a huge poo blowout which meant we missed the speeches. I heard they were excellent!



After a three day sojourn in Cumbria with Grandad and Granny, (photos to follow), we went to Durham (photos also to follow) to see my besties from University and their babies; Louis (10 months) and Alice and Gabriel (1 year). Evie loved this!

Then it was off to South Shields for my Nana's 90th Birthday party. Evie enjoyed seeing her cousin Sam again and flirted with the waiter all night.



I think Nana looks rather good for 90!


Sadly then we had to go back home. And to make it all fun we had a nightmare train journey to the airport and then Evie got a stomach bug on the plane. FUN!

Ok, now the bit Evie hates - her vital stats.

She's not keen on the scale but the last time we wrestled her on she weighed around 26 pounds. She's about 33 inches tall which is very tall for her age.
She still talks ALL the time, and now uses full sentences. Our french friends also inform us that she speaks a lot of French (we have asked her nanny to talk French to Evie during the day in the hope she might pick it up). She's also bossy and has had to learn the meaning of the "naughty corner" a few times! Our nanny is off to Algeria for 6 weeks so Evie will be going to school for 6 weeks. I think this will be very, very good for her!

Righty-ho, its late. Happy Mothers Day!!

J xxx

Colouring with Daddy and other adventures

Evangeline is 15 months old!! And enjoying lost of pastimes. One of her favorites is colouring . . . .



Lots and lots of fun :-)



Cheeky Evie Pie tried to steal some wine from Daddy . . . like mother like daughter?




We were also lucky enough to have a visit from Ma and Pa. Evie loved this as there were even more people to play with and to charm into giving her her own way. Sadly for Evie, noone is taken in by this. Poor Evie . . .

But luckily for Evie's doll "Lelly", she now has a buggy for Lelly that can be pushed around the house






Evie's best friends - the little girls next door - have a bouncy castle in their garden and Evie got to play on it. She was not sure about this at first and hung onto Sarah's teddy for dear life. She got a bit more enthusiastic after a while but is not yet convinced that bouncy castles are fun!




Evangeine now weighs around 25 pounds! And talks more than ever. Her recent additions are "poo" - usually said when pointing at her nappy, and "wee" - usually said to me if I'm walking towards the loo, and "tiny" - learned when talkign about Evie's new cousin Victoria! Victoria "Tori" was born on March 4th but was so tiny she had to live in the hospital for 2 weeks. Tori came home today!! But she is still only 4lbs 8oz and really does qualify as tiny! Evie was very excited to see Tori and Uncle Robert on skype today. :-)

J xxx

Bayou Wildlife Park

With Auggie out of town for his best friend's wedding, Evangeline and I decided to go to the Bayou Wildlife Park in League City with two of my friends and their daughters. This place is a weird mix of petting zoo and wild animals and Evie LOOOOOOOVED it. I think she would have been happy to spend an entire week there. It completely made appauling traffic on 1-45 worth while. Note to self. . . get an EZ Tag for the new car.
Part of the entry fee included a pony ride. Evie was brave and went all by herself.



She loved all of the animals but was weirdly obsessed with the alligators. We had to go and look at them a LOT.


It was a great day!

We're also happy that one of Evie's new words for the weekend is "sorry". She's definitely a Brit now :-)

Jane xxx

Evie update

As Nana pointed out to me yesterday, I am way way way behind on this blog! So, here we go.

We're rubbish parents and don't have many recent photographs. But here are a couple . . .


New Year at Nana's


Merry-go-round at Katy Mills ( Evie loooooved this!)

What has Evangeline been up to?

Her new favourite game is the cuddle game. You walk over to Daddy with a huge smile on your face and give him a cuddle, then walk over to Mummy with a huge smile on your face and give her a cuddle. Repeat at your leisure. We don't mind this game at all!!

Evie talks ALL the time. She likes to say "please" and point at things in the hope that the magic word works every time. It usually does! She also likes to say "Kiss" "cat" "alice" "bear" "Safia" and "balloon" among others.

Bath time is still Evie's favourite time of the day. Our least favourite is taking her out of the bath and the fussing that comes with it. I think Evie would stay there all night given the opportunity. Equally fun is discovering that farting in the bath makes bubbles (fun for Evie, that is :-))

I am determined that we will take some more photographs of Evie over the next week so I can post some more. Until then . . .

xxx