Changes!

Lots of changes in the Lane house these days.  We have started to prepare for baby with some room rearranging.  The first step was to tear out some seriously awful carpet in our "office" room - aka the room that holds everything that we can't find a home for.  We've been busy trying to get rid of things because a lot of the stuff in that room has been sitting there untouched since we moved in over a year ago.  With the new carpet put in, we were finally able to get the furniture moved around and now have a designated guest room and finally a room for baby.  This meant that the twin mattress that was to become Evelyn's big girl bed now needed to find its proper place in her room.

Transitioning Evelyn to a big girl bed was actually quite easy.  Ever since the mattress arrived Evelyn has been checking it out and calling it her bed, so we were fairly certain that she was interested in sleeping in her bed and didn't anticipate much trouble.  Once we got the crib out of her room, we put the mattress and box spring right on the floor so that there is little risk of falling far if she rolls out.  I had a feeling that more trouble would come from moving the rocking chair into the baby's room.  And my concern was correct when that first night Evelyn asked, "Where cuddle chair?"  Break. My. Heart!  Daddy assured her that the best part of a big girl bed was that we could read books and cuddle right there on her bed.

The first nap and night was a little rough requiring a little extra time resting with her than usual, but after that first day, it was like she'd been sleeping there from the beginning.  We put a gate up at the top of the stairs finally, totally expecting her to climb out all the time.  But for almost two weeks she has not moved from the bed when she wakes up.  She sits right there in the middle and cried or called for us to come and get her.  It actually was kind of great.  That ended this morning, when for the first time she realized that she was awake and could get out and play with toys or read books.  It bought about five more minutes of quiet for Mommy, but she soon became curious about what was going on elsewhere in the house and came looking for me.

With all of the changes taking place, we decided to have Evelyn's Special Day.  You know what I'm talking about...just like Jon and Kate and their special days with each of their 8 kids.  And to make it special for Mommy and Daddy, too, we planned to meet up with some friends at the Baltimore Aquarium.  We had a great time at the aquarium, and were all exhausted by the end of the day.  Evelyn made the day even more special for Mommy and Daddy by sleeping in her big bed until 9:00 the next morning!

Evelyn loved the turtles the best!



**I wrote this post about two weeks ago, but was having a hard time with the pictures.  Since then, Evelyn has fallen out of the bed twice.  She continues to get out of bed in the morning and sometimes after a nap, but we figured that was fine because at least she wasn't getting out at night.  As I sat here writing this, she suddenly appeared in the kitchen.  Looks like she's getting more and more comfortable with her big girl bed the longer she sleeps in it!

Daddy Can Do Anything!

This morning Evelyn looked out the window and noticed that there just isn't much snow on the ground any more.  She found the limited snow cover very unsatisfactory.  The following conversation took place:

Evelyn: Need more snow Mommy!

Me: Well the snow all is melting.

Evelyn: No, need more!

Me: Well maybe it will snow again soon and there will be more on the ground.

Evelyn: No, it's okay.  Daddy get.  Daddy get more snow.


And that was that.  The answer was simple.  Daddy was going to save the day and get more snow.  Daddies can do anything after all.

Flash forward to this evening and I picked Evelyn up at my parents' house.  I told them about Evelyn's request this morning.  As luck would have it, as we walked out to go home flakes were starting to fall.  We spent a few minutes looking at the snow falling and Grampy said, "Look Evelyn, Daddy got you more snow!"

By the time Evelyn and I got home the snow was falling just a little quicker and Evelyn was having a good time watching it fall and cover the driveway.  As we walked in the door Evelyn looked at me and said, "Good job Daddy!  Daddy listen! Daddy a good boy!"

Bested by a Two Year Old

Today I was outsmarted by my two year old for the first time.  This is what I know will be the first of countless similar occurrences.  And it really was so simple...

As we walked out of the winter concert at Evelyn's daycare today (which was quite possibly the most adorable thing I have ever seen in my life!), the kids were handed little treat bags of marshmallows and chocolate chips.  The moment we were strapped in the car, Evelyn proceeded to ask for some.  After having a stomach bug earlier this week, we have been trying to stick to mild foods, but the thought of the car ride home with her begging for marshmallows wasn't very pleasant.  So I handed her a few marshmallows, hoping it would satisfy her.  Yea right.

Approximately 15 marshmallows later, she was still asking for more, but I decided enough was enough and I employed one of the oldest parent tricks in the book.  "The marshmallows are all gone!"

Without even skipping a beat she replied, "Give me bag!"  And the tone was just priceless.  It said, "Oh yea, Mom?  The marshmallows are gone?  Go ahead and prove it!"  Needless to say, she ended up with a few more marshmallows.

Get out the Energy

With being out of school for a week and the weather being a little colder, we've been inside a lot.  Ok, the colder weather comment is mostly because it's getting just a little bit difficult to zip up my coat these days.  But as a result, Evelyn has been a little rammy due to there not being as much going on as she's used to at school.  A while back I mentioned I wanted to write monthly about how we try to keep Evelyn entertained, as that has been one of the hardest things about having a toddler.  Well, this is finally going to be another post along those lines!

On New Year's Day Steve and I were both exhausted from staying up late (although not until midnight...and I have no shame in admitting it!).  Evelyn was tired, too, having partied hard with her girlfriends and not falling asleep until 11:00!

We decided to go to Longwood Gardens, where we have a membership.  We love Longwood no matter what the season.  There is plenty to do outdoors, as well as a huge indoor conservatory.  We love going on rainy weekends because no one thinks to go to a garden in the rain, and we usually have the conservatory to ourselves with nice, long pathways for Evelyn to run and skip down.  They have an indoor and outdoor childrens' garden, and a change of clothes is a must as water fountains play a big part in the childrens' areas!  If you are a parent of a toddler and live in the West Chester area, I highly recommend looking into a membership if you don't have one already.  If you don't live in the area, I would seriously suggest looking into local gardens/please touch museums/anything kid friendly and consider a membership if you know you will use it.  We go to Longwood at least once a week in the summer, and now that it's winter we still go about once a month.  It has gotten to the point that Evelyn actually asks to go.  If you decide to do a membership somewhere, I have done some pricing, and I have found that, in general, if you use your membership two or three times, you have gotten your money's worth, and many come with a few guest passes.  

So, on New Year's Day, we all got some fresh air, and Evelyn got to run out some of her energy:

And Mommy and Daddy were rewarded later when she took a nice, long nap!  Happy New Year to you all.  Thank you for reading my sporadic attempts at blogging, and stay tuned as I'm sure that come March I will have a brand new outlook on being a parent to two!  

Birthday Number 2!

I am in complete and utter shock that my child has gone from this on the day she was born:

To her first birthday:

 

To her second birthday:

How has she become the kid who breaks out into song when she's in a good mood?  And how did she learn all of those songs in the first place (thank you day care!)?  

How did she become the lovable little girl who talks about the friends and family she hasn't seen in weeks?  And the friendly girl who says hi! to every single person she passes (We are going to have to work on stranger danger in the future.  Also, for crying out loud, what kind of person doesn't say hi back to that face??)

How did she become the smart girl who knows that she can delay bedtime just a few more minutes by asking for one more book or, as a very last resort, for a cuddle?  

Her sense of humor (FUNNY!), her ability to sense when others are sad or hurt (you okay Mommy?), and her stubbornness (no brush teeth!!!) are also some of my favorite things about her.  

I know everyone says it goes by so fast, but with each passing day she learns something new and I am just absolutely amazed at the person she is becoming and I love each day wondering what that new thing will be.  

Copying Mommy

Daylight Savings is really a hard scenario to explain to a kid.  The night before we "got an extra hour of sleep" Steve was commenting on how he was looking forward to it.  I reminded him that almost two year olds really don't understand that idea.  He jokingly responded that he would be having a talk with our daughter about Benjamin Franklin and his ideas.  Needless to say, she was definitely up at 6:30 the next morning.

Unfortunately, that trend hasn't changed since.  Our child who usually sleeps until at least 7:30 on the weekends is up regularly at 6:30.  It has really made weekday mornings difficult as well.  Up until a week or so ago, Steve and I would get ourselves up and ready before waking Evelyn up at 7:00 to get her going.  It has been a real eye opener trying to get ready with her up.  I am totally ashamed to say that we have completely given in to her demand for "Marshall videos" every morning as we finish getting ready.  Marshall videos is code for hand me your iPhone so I can watch all of the videos you have saved.

This was really not the topic I set out to write about today, so I apologize for my meandering thoughts.  The point of my story was that this morning Steve let me sleep in a little bit and I was later coming downstairs to eat.  I popped a bagel in and as I was eating, Evelyn as usual asked for a bite.  I ripped her off a piece and leaned against the counter to continue eating.  She looked at me for a moment, reached up and grabbed onto the counter just like I was and commenced to eat just like I was.  It floored me.  And, not that I had never realized this before, I suddenly became immensely aware of exactly how important it is to be a good parent.

Further proof came later this morning when we had to stop suddenly in the car and faced a long line of traffic and I said, "crap!"  "CRAP!  FUNNY!" came the little voice from the backseat.  And with that we officially entered the stage of having to watch what we say from now on.  

A Spontaneous Sunday Adventure

I've decided that if I'm going to be a successful blogger then I need to have more of a direction with my blog.  I think I'll have more to say if I have some kind of theme or purpose to stick to.  So I've been tossing around some different ideas, and I kept coming back to what has proven to be one of the hardest things for me as a parent, especially now that my child is a toddler: how on earth do I keep this kid occupied??  So at least once a month I am planning to post about something we have done in an effort to keep Evelyn entertained.  Hopefully there are others out there who go through the same thing, and this might be helpful!

So, tip #1 for helping find things to do with your kids: use Facebook to your advantage!  Now I know that many times Facebook has the ability to make me feel like a sub par parent when I see some of the amazing things other parents manage to do with their kids.  But there is a way to use it to your benefit.  First, follow/like every museum, historical society, park, etc. within a reasonable range from your house.  I have spent the afternoon brainstorming places I should be following after what happened this morning.  Don't even worry if it is a place that doesn't seem kid friendly, just follow it.  Because what will (hopefully) happen is that the seemingly un-kid friendly museum will announce one Sunday morning that they are having a FREE Pirate Day event for families!

You will read the post and go, "Hey Steve! Brandywine River Museum is having a free event for kids!  Maybe we should check it out?"  And as soon as you say it, you'll start to doubt yourself because your child is not even two yet, doesn't know what a pirate is, can't sit still long enough for you to tie her shoes, and now you want to take her to an art museum?  Don't listen to that voice.  Go to the museum, especially if it's free.  Especially if they don't advertise that it's for a certain age range.  Because there are without a doubt going to be other parents with kids just like yours, who aren't really the right age to be in that museum, and you are just going to smile and laugh as your child gallops through the galleries because she likes the way her feet echo off the floors.  And most people will thing it's adorable, and for the people who are obviously bothered you'll give a little apologetic smile, but you won't feel too bad because, hey, they could have checked the calendar before they went!

And you will have a ball making pirate hats, coloring pirate maps, and watching a perfectly abridged, 10 minute performance of Peter Pan with audience participation opportunities that even your kid appreciates and enjoys!