Evelyn is 18 Months

Back in February, Evelyn had her 18-month appointment.  It was originally in January, but we had to cancel it a couple times because of the snow.  Here are her stats:

• Height: 32.25 (55%)
• Weight:  24.6 (72%)
• HC:  18.5 (67%)

This is the first time I have had to fill out one of those development assessments for her (where you indicate whether she can say words and phrases and motor skills, etc).  She did great on all of those things, and the answer to almost all of those questions was "yes" (whereas the answer was often "sometimes" or "almost never" for the twins at this age).

I estimate that Evelyn probably has about 200 words now.  She is doing small phrases, like "Mommy, seat!" (which actually means, "Mommy, sit!").  She says all kinds of animal names (horse, dog, cat, fish) and sounds they make.  One of her favorite words has to be "cookie."  She knows some unusual words like "hummus" and "gnocchi."  She now has a clear way to distinguish between Mommy and Grandma, who she calls "Mamaw."  She recently has a new word for cupcake, because I have been baking a lot of cupcakes... she calls them "birthdays".  So clearly, some of her words aren't used quite correctly, but they are very close, and it is so fun to hear her chattering away and learning the often-confusing rules of the English language.

Evelyn says Miles and Vivienne's names all the time now.  Multiple times a day, she will bring them their lovies or their waters bottles (which are distinguishable colors, and therefore either clearly Miles' or Vivi's) and say "Mayas" or "Vivi" as she hands it to them.  It's adorable.  If she hears their voices, she will say their names.  A few days ago, I left the big kids at my mom's house.  When we got in the van, Evelyn kept saying "Mayas!  Vivi!" because she didn't understand why they weren't in the van with us (and her carseat faces them, since she is still backwards).  Again, adorable.

Evelyn's motor skills are getting much better.  Her walking is more steady and she loves trying to keep up with her brother and sister as best as she can.  She has started enjoying scribbling with crayons and markers (though they still end up in her mouth more often than I would like).  She has fun playing dress-up with Vivi.

We're rounding the corner toward her 2nd birthday.  It's hard to believe.  My baby's growin' up.

Tobacco Road Half Marathon

Last weekend, I was scheduled to run the Tobacco Road Half Marathon on Sunday.  On Friday night (2 nights prior to the race), I had congestion, fever, body aches and chills and went to bed around 9.  Not looking good.  Saturday, I gradually continued to lose my voice and my throat was extremely sore but the fever seemed to have passed. 

I had been loosely training for this race for months, and Jason and I were planning on running it together.  I had not run a half marathon since we lived in California, so the idea of having to skip this race (and sacrifice $180 in registration fees for the two of us) was very disappointing.  I had originally been working toward beating my best prior half marathon time, which was 2:01 at the Carlsbad Half Marathon in 2008.

 On Saturday night, I decided that I would go ahead and give the race a try.  I was nervous, because I wasn't sure how my body was going to respond to running, and I wasn't sure how hard to push myself.  I figured I would just give it a go and see what happened.  Surely I could at least walk a half marathon without being driven back to the start in an ambulance, right?

Mom offered to come over at 6 am to watch the kiddos so that we could head out to the race start.  (A huge thanks to my mom for getting up at 5 am for us!)

The race started at 7 am.  The weather was perfect - in the 40s for pretty much the entire race.  I felt sluggish at the start, but not too bad.  Eventually, I found my stride (and a little more breathing room between runners) and was on a good pace. 

At the turn-around point, I was tired but not exhausted and was set to easily beat 2 hours.  But on the way back, there were some gradual uphills that started to take their toll on me.  Jason helped me to anticipate the hills (because he has run this route a million times and knows the landscape well).  I slowed down a bit, but pushed through.  Around mile 9, I got a side stitch that just wouldn't stop.  It was very distracting to have this pain on top of my weary legs.  Jason asked me if I wanted to walk and I said, "I am NOT walking." 

I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 1:53:39.  I couldn't believe it.  I was 21st in my age group (out of 167) and 153rd overall (out of over 2300 people).  I am still smiling to type this.  I can't believe I did that.  I hope that I can continue to do things like this with Jason and eventually with the kids (though I'm sure they will outrun me as they grow).  And I'm thankful that I get to run with this guy for the rest of my life.

And this little guy wanted to wear one of the medals to church.  And he did.  The good thing about running a race at 7 am is that you still have time to get cleaned up and go to church... with your medal.  :)

Season of Illness

We are apparently in a season of illness, which has been very tiring.  We're generally pretty healthy people, but we have gotten hit a bit hard over the past month.

The kids have had colds for about 4 weeks.  A couple weeks ago, Vivienne was very clingy at our co-op preschool and cried a lot and started complaining that her ears hurt.  Uh oh.  So I took her to the pediatrician, and, sure enough, she had an ear infection.  We got our prescription for antibiotics (first time on antibiotics, we're pretty sure, which is kind of amazing), got it filled and were on our way. 

The next day, I noticed that Evelyn didn't seem like herself, either (though honestly it's hard to remember what "acting like herself" is after she has been sick for about a month).  I decided to take her to the doctor just to have her checked over.  Yes.  Another ear infection... make that TWO infected ears.  And by this time I'm feeling like a really stellar mother.  We got our prescription (her first time on antibiotics) and were on our way.  Again. 

Over the past couple weeks, the girls healed very quickly, but Miles' congestion and coughing just wouldn't let up.  We took him to the peds about a week ago, because he was complaining that his ears hurt.  Well, he did NOT have an ear infection (Hallelujah!).  We're not sure whether it was just sinus pressure or whether it was medication envy (so many of their medicines taste like candy - they get jealous of each other taking medicine).  Anyway, off we go.

Well, Miles' congestion just kept going and going, but seemed to be getting a little better (maybe?).  This morning, he woke up with one of his eyes almost crusted shut.  I took him to the peds... conjuctivitis in both eyes.  So now he is on augmentin (his first time on antibiotics) for his sinus funk plus pink eye.  He looks absolutely pitiful, but is still energetic and wacky and wanting to ride his bike and kick his soccer ball. 

I have always loved that my kids have never had ear infections or needed antibiotics.  Within about 2 weeks time, they were all down for the count.  Clearly we are not invincible.  Here's to hoping that the antibiotics kick in quickly and that this entire family is illness free very, very soon.

3 Syllable Evelyn

Evelyn's vocabulary is expanding by the day.  She is always saying new words that surprise us... cupcake, shirt, hungry, light, etc.  She still only communicates via the "single word" method, uses single words instead of multi-word phrases (though we get the occasional "bear drop" or "Mommy up" throughout the day).  But this week, she very clearly said "strawberries" and pronounced all 3 syllables.  We're pretty sure this is her first 3-syllable word.  She has said it quite a few times... guess she likes strawberries!

Hugganakiss

For quite a while now, when putting the kids to bed or leaving them at yoga or the gym childcare or Sunday school, I get a request.  "Hugganakass, Mommy!"  The request usually comes from Vivienne, but sometimes it comes from Miles.  They need just one more good squeeze and a kiss to be able to drift off to sleep or to be without me for a few hours at church or the gym.  I know that soon enough they will probably be pretending I'm not their mother in public, so I'm just going to eat this up while I can. 

Krispy Kreme

I may have created a monster (or monsters?).  Whenever we go to downtown for a museum (usually once or twice a week), the kids have now learned that we can stop at Krispy Kreme afterward.  Needless to say, this is usually the highlight of their day.

We always have to pull up some chairs to watch the assembly line of goodness.

And we need lots and lots of napkins by the time it's all over.