Sunday, July 31, 2016

Contained

"Oh hello! Welcome!"

Evelyn has discovered a great new fort. Habibti stopped using her crate several years ago, but we got it out when we were going to Michigan, and she was going to be staying elsewhere. She didn't end up using it, but Evelyn thinks it's the best hideout ever and spends a great deal of time in there. She particularly appreciates the door that opens and closes.


Saturday, July 30, 2016

Correct

Ben took this great picture of Evelyn properly enjoying her new rocking chair from Grammie and Grandpa.



Not pictured: Evelyn standing on the chair, holding onto the back with one hand while she rocks violently and drops things off the side, emitting impressively warlike growls. She's a delicate, prim child all right!

Friday, July 29, 2016

Unbelievable


Every time I try to dry clothes on the line this summer, it rains. Yesterday we got home in sunny, not a cloud in the sky, hundred degree weather, and I put out the clothes. It proceeded to rain and thunder unbelievably hard while it was still sunny out! I really think I should start charging to go do laundry in drought areas.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Brief

Evelyn was not wildly cooperative about pictures with her great grandma, but I manged to capture a few successful moments.



Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Questionable

Listen, I'm not saying that parenthood has made us completely lose our minds, but it may not have made us any more respectable, either.


Pictured: How we entertain ourselves while Evelyn is napping.


Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Monday, July 25, 2016

Farm

Last Monday, Evelyn, Rebecca, Mom, Dad, and I went to the Chippewa Nature Center homestead farm. As soon as we got out of the car, Evelyn was excitedly pointing towards the sheep, ready to go see the animals.


Apparently, Aunt Rebecca and Evelyn both felt a bit skeptical about this sheep grazing outside the fence.


 So excited about the pigs. (And also horrifyingly enthusiastic about chewing on the splintered, mud-spattered fence.

Evelyn takes pig-farming seriously.
Inspecting the cows with Grandpa.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Cupcake

Evelyn tried out a pre-birthday cupcake in Michigan. It met with her approval.



The whole thing was painstakingly documented, of course.


Saturday, July 23, 2016

Clover


I'm trying to learn how to be aware of aperture when I take pictures. Lots of them have not turned out at all. This one did, though.

Friday, July 22, 2016

Tall Ships

Last Friday we visited the Tall Ships celebration in Bay City.


Rebecca was suitably excited.


Meanwhile, I completely failed to get a picture of Evelyn in the backpack carrier.


Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Back

We're back from Michigan, where Evelyn enjoyed spending time with a whole bunch of family members who think it's fun to have their faces pulled off by someone small and cute.


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Foiled

We have a lot of bookshelves, and Evelyn thinks that pulling the books off of them is almost as fun as pulling on computer power cords or playing the the dog's water dish, so Ben and I have gotten pretty tired of telling her no and redirecting her. Today I finally googled ways to baby proof bookshelves, and a lot of the answers were unhelpful. Apparently tying bicycle inner tubes to the shelves is quite popular? Who keeps their old inner tubes around? Or are people buying new ones? They're not that cheap... Others were velcroing material over the shelf opening, but the youth in this house are pretty dexterous and strong-fingered, so that just sounded like creating a new fun activity to do before pulling all the books off... and also a ton of work for me.

Anyway, after a bit of digging, I found a few people using an approach that requires zero tools or materials. My kind of solution! You just cram the bottom shelves so full of books that even adults have trouble pulling them out. When Evelyn crawled over to try to get the books out after I'd finished, and couldn't, I may have uttered a smug "ha!" at her, because that's the always-graceful, supportive kind of mom that I am.

What I imagine Evelyn's bookshelf view is like. The other nice thing about this way of baby proofing is that it doesn't make the shelves look weird.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Different

I'm not saying that having a baby has changed absolutely every aspect of our lives, but I will say that Ben and I never felt the need to keep a duck and a pail in our bathtub before...


Monday, July 11, 2016

Summer afternoon

Evelyn and I try to go outside in the afternoon for at least a little while every day. If you stay in the shade, it's really not too bad.


The view from the shade is pretty enjoyable, especially when there's a good breeze.


Sunday, July 10, 2016

Home

Just over a year ago, we moved to our house. Moving when you're almost nine months pregnant is pretty exciting, but we have loved being in more space with a yard and a park right out the back gate.


Saturday, July 9, 2016

Veggies

The healthy part of the snacks for game night was unexpectedly attractive. I'm basically Martha Stewart.




Friday, July 8, 2016

Aquarium

Evelyn and I went with friends to the SeaLife Aquarium in Grapevine yesterday. The fish were right at her level!



Thursday, July 7, 2016

Pretty tasty

I feel like often in the Venn diagram of our dinners, pretty and tasty only somewhat overlap, but I'm working making it more of a matching circle, so we consistently can eat pretty tasty food.


Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Cookies

Ben makes really good chocolate chip cookies, so it's unfortunate that I've realized that refined flour makes me feel pretty crummy. Time to figure out a new recipe so the baking can continue.


Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Ice cream

Evelyn celebrated the 4th by trying out ice cream for the first time with Aunt Yana.


Monday, July 4, 2016

4th of July



America isn't perfect...by a long shot, but I'm still really glad I live here and that Evelyn has as chance to grow up here. Happy Fourth of July!

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Crater Lake

To continue my theme of wishing I were somewhere other than the heat of Texas, here's Crater Lake in Oregon. It's in the seventies all week there.


Saturday, July 2, 2016

Eventually

When it gets this hot, I start thinking wistfully of fall weather. It will be here in only three short, blazingly hot months.
The trees in the park behind our house are pretty great in the fall.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Cool

With temperatures near a hundred degrees, Evelyn thinks staying cool is serious business, especially with the power out for a few hours yesterday afternoon.


Okay, maybe there was some fun involved as well.