Where have the days gone?

I have been wanting to update for several days, but they have flown by without a quiet moment to update.

Evelyn has a new game she loves to play. I cover her ears with my hands and mouth words, then take my hands away, and actually speak. I don't think she knows I am just mouthing the words. To her mind, covering her ears miraculously stops all sound and does not just mute it slightly. So, this evening, she asked to be picked up. I am holding her with one arm. She wants to play her new game and puts my free hand to her ear. Then, she gets mad because she can't put my other hand to the other ear. I tried to explain that my arm was the only thing holding her up, and she would fall if I covered her ear, but, gravity's nuances are still lost to her.

I have spent a couple days re-arranging and organizing and cleaning the 'playroom' in the basement. I put up a second shelf unit and hung a rack for the dress-up outfits. I finally unpacked all the children's books and put them out on the ledge. We have some really great books! I think it is time to start thinning out the board books and put some new stories in the rotation! I also figured out how to hang the jolly jumper from a beam. I just had to nail some floor board scraps into the beam to form a ledge for the jumper to hang from.

Ethan enjoyed the jumper(though he does not look like it in the picture!). He just keeps getting more handsome as he grows! Ryan and I both think his eyes are getting bigger, and his nose is more in scale with his face now. He is looking more and more like Evelyn did. He really does not like to sit in chairs. He will fuss and fuss until he is either put in the exersaucer, jumper, or laid down under his gym.

He had been sleeping poorly again, so I spent the last few days putting him on a very strict 3 hr routine during the day. I rarely pay much attention to the clock, though our routine is pretty constant, but, I knew I had to get at least 6 feeds into him during the day if I was going to let him cry it out at night. It worked, and we are back to 8-9 hrs at night. He used to do 11 hrs at least 2 times a week, but we have not got back to that yet. At least I am feeling sane and human again!

Evelyn had fun rediscovering some of her dress-up clothes. She created a 'fairy ballerina bunny' costume that she was quite pleased with. Evelyn found my old 'My Little Ponies' and 'Cabbage Patch Dolls', so I washed them and their clothes and gave them to her to play with. She really enjoyed the ponies and placed all of them on top of our trunk and delighted and exclaimed over each one. Her favorites were the baby ponies and the unicorns. I could remember that my favorites were also the unicorns. I think I liked them because they had the deepest coloured hair.

Next day brought 5 loads of laundry and I also opened our 'dish barrel' for the first time since we left Calgary. I dug out my china teapots and a few plates to display. I missed that stuff! I wish I could display more.

Today, we went to Boyle to return some bottles, get groceries, look for a spring coat for Ethan, and fill our water jug. Evelyn threw several small tantrums in Fields. That cut short the search for a coat. We then went for lunch at a cute little bistro that has the best fries. Then groceries, and home.

My future shop photo order arrived today, which was exciting. I experimented with collages as a way to fit lots of pictures on a scrapbook page. I then had the collages printed as 8x1o 's. Here is the 'bellypicture' collage, and the one of all the family pictures from our last trip to Victoria. I made about 4 others. I like how they turned out. I printed them as 4x6's as well, and I think that I could cut out some of the little pictures and use them as embellishments on the page layout.

Ryan is at a leadership workshop for aboriginal youth this weekend. The photo and video project the school has been working on will be presented. I think the Premier's of both Alberta and BC will be there. It is a great opportunity to show off the pics and stories that the kids have done. He is back on Sunday evening. So, I am in for a long weekend!

Oh! Evelyn has pooped on the potty twice in the last few days. She is asking to go, then will sit and wait until she does. I am very excited. She takes her diaper off as soon as she pees now, but has only peed on the potty once. Her new favorite book is the 'Potty Book' and she listens to it so intently when I read it. Each time after she had a successful potty time, she asks to read that book again. She also always remembers to ask for her candies. "3 candies!" (one for sitting, two for going #2), (she would get one for going #1 - two total- if she actually ever does it!) We give her gummy bears. I feel like we are finally making some real potty progress!

So, I guess THAT is where the days have gone!