Evelyn is 15 Months!

I just took Evelyn for her 15-month checkup yesterday.  I can't believe we're about to celebrate her second Halloween (but her first with an actual costume - fun!).  She's a pretty big baby.  Here are her stats:

• Height:  31.75 (85%)
• Weight:  23 lb. 4.5 oz (77%)
• Head Circumference:  18.4 in (78%)

She has lots of words now.  These are the words that we're fairly certain she knows the definitions of (because she points to them and says them without prompting or us saying it first).

• dog
• bird
• cat
• fish
• bear
• duck (which she also uses for chickens, but she can't say "chicken" yet... poor chickens)
• light
• mama
• dada
• grandma
• up
• milk
• pumpkin (though this sounds more like "punk")
• bye bye
• ball
• book
• shoes
• grass
• baby
• purse

I'm sure there are some other words, but I haven't understood them yet (or I can't remember them now).

She loves to feed herself with a spoon or fork now.  She isn't coordinated enough to scoop things up well, unless it's something like applesauce and she can just kind of slop it up with a spoon.  If we load her spoon or fork for her, she eagerly puts it in her mouth (and she will often eat things that she will not eat without using the utensil - I think mainly because it has new novelty with the utensil).

She still doesn't show any signs of walking any time soon.  She has great balance and very strong legs, but just seems more comfortable crawling for now.  And that's just fine with us.

She is a very adventurous baby.  One of her favorite things to do is to go into the bathrooms and climb up on the step stools so that she can see herself in the mirror.  It's fun to watch her do this, but I also try to keep the doors shut because I am worried about her falling from the stool and hitting her head on the tile floor.  Evelyn also enjoys playing on large play structures, often climbing the biggest slides and sliding down them (usually on her belly).  She romps with her older siblings in the sand boxes and loves to swing and doesn't seem to notice that she is a baby.  (I will still call her "baby" until she is at least toddling.)

Her hair is pretty long now, hanging way down in her eyes.  She usually pulls out clips, so I'm resigned to putting her hair in a ponytail on top of her head.  It is super cute, but she sort of looks like she has a hair umbrella on her head.  She has 8 teeth that are all the way through, and I have no idea if there are any molars back in there because I never remember to check.

Evelyn loves to eat meat and beans and cheese.  She also likes almost any fruit, but she doesn't care for many vegetables these days.  We completely skipped purees, which was marvelous.  She went straight from breastfeeding to drinking out of a cup with a straw, so we completely skipped sippy cups with her as well.  Feeding her has been a piece of cake, and I'm thankful for that.

Evelyn is a super easy-going kid, and has been from the day she was born.  She is full of giggles and grins, and very rarely cries (usually only when someone has taken away her beloved bear or when she is hurt).  She is just full of joy and warmth, and I'm so glad that I get to be her mom. 

Monkey Hear, Monkey Do

Evelyn has gotten very good at saying quite a few words.  Often, we will say a new word only a few times, and she will correctly say it back to us.  It's unclear whether she realizes what all these words mean, but I think she has the right object-word association on most of these words and can say them:

• duck
• truck
• light
• mama
• dada
• bear (her lovey)
• book
• bye bye
• dog

She also has what almost sounds like "milk" and maybe "water" consistently, but we're not ready to call those yet.  When she says "duck" and "truck", she even pronounces the "ck" sound on the end.  I'm fairly certain that when Miles and Viv were her age, they would mostly just say "du" instead of "duck."  Evelyn definitely seems to be picking up language faster.  However, she seems to have no interest in walking (though she does walk behind walking toys very enthusiastically and has excellent balance).  We make very little effort to encourage her to walk, but I think it will be fun when she eventually picks it up and starts toddling around the house.

First Salon Haircut

A couple weeks ago, we decided to let the kids have their first salon haircut experience.  Miles hair continues to be a challenge for me (even though I have cut Jason's hair for over 5 years now... he has not been to a salon once in at least five years).  So I thought I would leave it to the professionals.  The kids were both really excited to sit in the big chairs.

And Miles looked ridiculously cute with the smock over him.

The hair dresser did a great job with Miles' hair, and I asked her a few things to help me with the next cut.

I have no idea what was happening here.  I guess Viv was making faces in the mirror?

And Evelyn seemed a little sad that she wasn't joining in on the fun.

We were going to have the lady pretend "cut" Vivienne's hair so that she wouldn't feel left out, but we decided to go ahead and let her have a real haircut, too.  She was tickled pink.

Oh my goodness, this was just cuteness overload.

Seriously, this post is becoming a Fantastic Sam's commercial, isn't it?  We left with two very happy kids with lollipops to boot.

TotFusion Yoga

Miles and Vivienne have been taking a class called TotFusion on Fridays.  It's a kind of yoga class for preschoolers, but also includes music and books.  Miles and Vivienne really enjoy it, and it gives me a wonderful opportunity to take Evelyn for a run in the stroller and get some fresh air.  Today we did just over 3 miles while the kids were in their class.  Last week during our TotFusion jog, we saw a bald eagle (the first one I have ever seen in the wild), and it was the highlight of my day.

Here is a photo of Viv in savasana.  She's one cute little leaf, if I do say so myself.