Pool Party

Here are the steps to an awesome backyard pool party!

1. Spend a ridiculous amount of time at Target in the seasonal aisle pondering all of the pool choices about 3 months before pool season.  Seriously contemplate a mini-waterpark sprinkler system.  Finally settle on a pretty basic inflatable:
   
2. Receive inflatable pools as gifts a few months later, including the mini-waterpark sprinkler system:
   
3. Decide that today is the day to use the baby pools.  Decide to start with the basic pool, get it out of the box, rolled out, and look for the pump.
4. Realize you forgot to pick up the pump when you stopped at your parents' house this morning because you got distracted by a new container of bubbles.  
5. Take a selfie blowing up the pool manually.
   
6. Decide that there will only be one pool today.
7. Let your child play in the pool without any water because she's getting irritable waiting for this party to happen.
   
8. Get out the hose and start filling.  Elicit help from your child to hold her attention.
   
9. Your child's attention fails and she finds something better to do in the meantime.
   
10. Plop your kid in only to discover that she won't go in unless you're in. 
11. Risk dropping phone in pool to get cute pictures.
    

Pool's open!  Come over!

Cousins

Cousins are awesome.  I grew up spending every July in Maine with tons of cousins.  It was the greatest thing ever.  I was lucky enough to have two cousins very close to my age who were basically my best friends, and we've done some amazing things together.

I was kind of jealous that many of my cousins lived in the same town, went to the same schools, and saw each other on birthdays and holidays.  The point I'm trying to make is that in my family, being cousins is more than being cousins.  We are cousins and best friends all rolled into one.  Most of my favorite memories are with my cousins:

Playing games...

4th of July parades...

Supporting the right team...

Being together in good times...

And harder times...

The best part so far about this summer was getting to spend about a week with each set of Evelyn's cousins. Similar to me growing up, Evelyn doesn't live very close to any of her cousins, but we have seen them all this summer!  We spent a week in New Hampshire with the Lane cousins, and even though they are a bit older than Evelyn is, they really had the best time!  She kept up with the big kids with no problems, and really just had the best time playing with her new best friends!

Then, to make for the best summer ever, we also got to see Marshall and Baby Andrew!  They live in California, and it was only the second time Evelyn has met Marshall and the first time meeting Andrew.  Evelyn is right in the middle of these guys.  It was great spending some time with a cousin closer to her age who likes doing the same things she does, and Evelyn loves babies!  It was a great couple of days with them! 

I'm so hopeful that Evelyn's childhood continues the way mine did: with amazing summers spent with her cousins...I mean best friends!  

Updates

For the first year of Evelyn's life I religiously documented monthly milestones.  I kept lists, I took her monthly pictures to show how she was growing and changing.

For a month or two after she turned one on the 14th of every month I felt like I was forgetting to do something.  And I suddenly stopped keeping track of all of the amazing things she was doing.  I think part of it was because once she turned one it started feeling like she was doing something new every day, and it still feels like that.  And at this point it's really less about the milestones and more about just the funny things Evelyn does that I want to remember down the road.  I follow another blog called Mommy Shorts and she must be feeling the same way because a few days ago she created a list of things she wants to remember about her daughter at this age.  So, I'm going to do the same thing.  Just document some of the things I want to look back and remember.

1. Evelyn suddenly is doing this not so awesome thing where she wakes up at 4:30 in the morning.  Ok, she has done it twice.  But she also has on a few occasions just NOT taken a nap.  Steve calls her the Bionic Baby when she does this.  I know that for many parents 5:00 is a regular wake up time for their kids.  These few REALLY early morning wake ups make me very grateful that we usually make it to 7:00.
2. While we're talking about sleep, my kid goes to bed like a champ (9 out of 10 days!).  Read her a book, snuggle a little, and sometimes she's so ready she even points to her crib and says night night.  You put her down, make sure she has her blankie and buddy (the super cute nickname she gave her bunny), and she's down.  And I realize I just bought myself a summer of not going to bed easily and waking up at 4:30.  I would like to remind everyone that my kid took a really long time to sleep through the night. 

   

   Doesn't have to do with sleeping, but that's her crawling under her crib, and it's pretty darn cute and funny!

3. Evelyn's favorite thing right now is MO-TOH-CYCLES!  She cheers, she points, she claps when she sees one.  And if you want to see something adorable, take a look at the tough guy on the motorcycle who is loving every second of the little girl making a big deal about his motorcycle.  It's actually anything on two wheels that she loves.  A bike will get her excited and pointing, but the noise of a motorcycle approaching will have her looking all over the place.  
4. 1, 2, 3, 9, 10!  These would be Evelyn's favorite numbers.  Everything is about counting.  Counting the steps, counting the fish on the wall, everything.  Between the motorcycles and counting the cars going by, we passed 10 minutes of time waiting in the car today.
5. Kisses and I love you.  I don't think this one needs explaining.  
6. The way she pats your back when she's hugging.  
7. We started time out.  It's mostly just holding her in our lap for about 30 seconds while she screams and then asking her to say sorry after.  It's often 2-3 time outs in a row because she really still thinks that it will be okay to climb on the table or hit mommy the next time.  Oh, and there's really a difference between a Mommy time out and a Daddy time out.  One she screams through, one she's just like, this is a nice little snuggle.  I'm going to leave it up to you which is which.  
8. Every morning, after calling out MOMMY, DADDY, MOMMY, DADDY, MOMMY, DADDY! the first thing Evelyn says when she is picked up is bookie!  She loves a little snuggle with whoever got her up and a book or two.  This is followed very quickly by a demand for breakfast.
9. Video?  My child has never watched a second of television in her life, but suddenly this is the new demand.  And I'm ashamed to admit that it wasn't because I haven't tried.  There have been a couple of times when she was sick or when I just really needed to get something done that I tried some Arthur or that new one on Disney about some little girl princess, but it lasted a solid 1 minute before she was ready to play again.  When Evelyn is calling for a video, she wants me to whip out my phone and show her a video a kid doing something.  It can be her cousins, or even some kid on Facebook, but if it's her, even better!
10. Fake crying.  That's right.  We have a little actress on our hands.  
11. SHOES!  About 2 months ago, Evelyn became very aware of shoes.  They have a special spot in our kitchen and she will get them when you ask her to.  Along with her own shoes, she is very aware of where Daddy's shoes are.  Opening up the closet so she can get at Daddy's shoes will buy us about 5 minutes of get ready time.  But for the longest time it was only Daddy's shoes.  Finally last week Evelyn became aware of every one's shoes...especially flip flops!  She likes putting them on and shuffling around.  If you don't have your shoes on she will go find them for you.  Although she is going to call them Daddy's shoes the whole time.  
    
12. Condiments.  Ketchup, BBQ sauce, she even goes for hummus, which I know isn't exactly a condiment.  And like basically every other kid she only eats the condiment.  Licks it right off of whatever carried it to her mouth and hands it back to you for more.  
13. And when it comes to food, Evelyn will eat anything.  Peppers, beans, anything.  As long as it's on someone else's plate.  The minute you put that pepper or bean on her plate, not so much.  
    
14. I have to mention the talking.  She's learning a new word every day.  Dusty Crophopper (thank you big cousin Marshall for that one!), trolley, flag.  It's awesome to be able to talk to her more and for her to express her ideas.  If she could only learn how to tell me why she woke up this morning at 4:30...I'd be a really happy momma!  

So nap time is about to end according to the noises coming from the monitor.  I know I could come up with more things about Evelyn, but that's all I have time for at the moment.  Maybe in a few more months I'll remember to do this again.