As I write this entry, Evelyn is in her nursery being rocked to sleep by her Gran Gran. She is singing sweet hymns to Evelyn just like my grandmother did – Old Rugged Cross, Amazing Grace, the oldies and goodies. Chad, Evelyn, and I have been under the weather this week, we all caught a touch of something and sound a little icky. A visit from Gran sure helps on a day like this – we love when she comes to stay.

As this year begins, I would like to reflect on 2014 and what a crazy, trying, busy, insane year it turned out to be – 2014 brought a job change for me and a job promotion for Chad. 2014 turned out to be a year of growing professionally – we both took on new challenges, despite having a toddler, and it really tested our strength as professionals and family members. I believe, in the long run, the choices we both made this year set our careers on strong courses – we both proved to our companies and colleagues we work hard, we are worthy of praise, and we accept tough situations because we are capable of handling them. Being a mom and having a full-time job is hard work – Chad can also attest to this – we put in 110% at work all day, then another 110% for Evelyn in the evenings and weekends. Despite our choice for both of us to work full time and have stressful jobs, Evelyn thrives – it is possible to have a work life and a home life – all said, our home life is pretty routine and quiet for the most part! We have phenomenal support from Evelyn’s grandparents, she is nurtured and loved beyond measure each day – from playing in the dirt, baking cookies, walks to the park, heart-making sessions with Papa, stirring and mixing with Gigi in the kitchen, or back porch bubbles and baths with Gran – each day is an adventure for her and it is guided by steady, happy, loving moments with her wonderful grandparents.

Our little Evelyn took all the changes in stride, I think she is intuitive already – she knows when mommy and daddy are stressed and offers lots of kisses and smiles. It is amazing to think how small she was last January, and what a little lady she is today. Her vocabulary is soaring, she says new words every day. She gets the nuances of things, which I find so interesting – for example, I was explaining to her today in a book that there were sisters on the page, and she looked at me quizzically and said, “stickers?” She was taking a word she already knew and was applying and questioning if it worked for the situation I was explaining. After we talked through it, she said, “sisters, stickers, sisters, stickers,” – she understood the difference and was trying out how each word sounds.

Her current favorite foods are dried cherries, fresh blueberries and raspberries, and any kind of bean – the kid was born to eat limas, black, kidney – you name a bean – the kid loves it! She loves to drink and play with straws – she says the word straw very well – this is because she asks to have a straw in her drink at least 1,000 times a day (not exaggerating). She refuses to wear tutus – I have tried lately to put her in a tutu and she says, “no tutu.” I find this intensely funny, since I cannot dance to save my life. She runs, not walks, to every destination on the tips of her feet. Her big toe, as Papa kids with her, sometimes gets in the way and she trips. She speeds along, hurrying to every toy and new experience she can find.

Other great words she says lately include – cheeks (and she touches your cheeks, it is precious), mouth, tickle, NO (incessantly), special (says it SPE-chel, with emphasis on the first syllable – like it is special!), bottle, night night, book, truck (followed by vroom), mow (mow is the word she uses for all mowers, golf carts, motorcycles – all of them are mow), pretty, Christmas tree (more like cree-ma tree), star, piano (pronounced pee-yan-yo), and countless other hilarious noises and sounds. Yesterday, she started to make a grunting/griping sound when she was frustrated. Chad called it perfectly – he said, “she is making the SAME sound you make when you are frustrated!!” And it is true!

Watching Evelyn learn new things and test new ideas each day is fascinating – she was playing in the backyard and I let her go around a large bunch of trees by herself – she was a little concerned at first as she could not see me the whole time, but was so proud when she popped up on the other side – it was as if you could see independence blossoming on her happy face. She wants to explore outside and touch everything. She announces when any plane is flying overhead – she points to the sky and yells, PLANE! She listens to birds (and says, chirp chirp), picks up leaves, and even picks off some of my favorite flowers when I am not looking….. Her inquisitive spirit is such a joy to watch unfold each day – it is thrilling as a parent to see my child develop.

In the evenings, we spend a lot of time on the couch wrestling, tickling, and talking with Evelyn. She will tolerate a few minutes of us kissing and loving on her, then she wriggles off the couch and runs to play. Every few minutes, it is as if she is just checking in with us, she will come over and make eye contact or just crawl up for a smooch – then off she goes to play again. I think she likes the security of knowing we are there, but that she has the freedom to play and do things on her own.

Chad and I are blessed beyond measure. Evelyn is pure sweetness and joy, mixed in with occasional grumpiness and stubbornness…. 🙂 We cannot wait to see what 2015 brings for our Evelyn Jane.