Simeon,
Thank you so much for giving me the most beautiful daughter in the entire world and in doing so transforming yourself into a wonderful and adoring father. Each and every day I am so happy that Ana is lucky enough to have you as the man she will call Daddy. We love you so much. Happy father’s day, pie!
Oh and I just wanted to share a wonderful
little video that I think really says it all.
Have a safe and happy father’s day everyone!
I wanted Ana’s first meal to be fun so I let her play with the spoon to get familiar with how it felt in her mouth.
It was going great. My plan was working. Ana loved the spoon…
…until her Mama went and covered it with food.
She even tried to help me hold the spoon. Or maybe she was trying to push it away. Hard to tell at this point.
Turns out food is entirely overrated. I am sure my daughter is wondering why we would subject her to such cruelty.
While we are wondering how many times we have to keep torturing her with the food until she actually likes it.
You can see all the pictures of our adventure with cereal here. I will try to get the video uploaded tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Dear Ana,
My sweet little monkey you are now six months old and we are having so much fun together! This month your firsts include camping, going to the park, sitting in the grass, and riding in your stroller without the car seat–just like the big girls do it. I know all mother’s say this, but the stage you are at now is my favorite. You are learning new things each and every day. So many things, in fact, it has become difficult to keep track. All I know is you continue to constantly amaze me.
Your latest milestone has been teething. I had recently started telling people you were teething when you were acting fussy, however I didn’t really believe it myself. I would prefer people to think you are a sweet baby and not allow a little outburst to tarnish your typically mellow personality. So you can imagine my surprise when I was letting you chew on my finger and I felt your first tooth. Actually, teeth, is more accurate. Without my really knowing it, you went and got your bottom two front teeth. Turns out you really were fussy because of teething!
You have also become very aware of everything around you and reach for things you want. It is so much fun to watch you intently examine everything you can get your hands on. Your favorite things, the things when you see them you instantly light up and reach for, include my water bottle, the TiVo remote (the colored buttons are the best), my cell phone, and each and every one of our pets.
You are mesmerized by the cats and dogs. You love to reach out and try to pet them. When I lay you on the floor to play, the dogs will lay on either side of you. Molly picks a spot close enough that she can excitedly lick you back when you tug on her ears. Ellie, on the other hand, will lay just out of your reach–close enough that she can watch over and protect you, but far enough away that you can’t actually touch her. But the cats have surprised me most of all. They actually let you pet them! Even when you “pet” them so vigorously that your tiny hand comes away filled with tufts of hair. I guess the cats understand sometimes love hurts.
In the last month you also started rolling over. Currently it is only from front to back. I know it was your sheer dislike of tummy time that brought on this new skill. It also makes me wonder if you will ever roll from back to front because I know you would never willingly put yourself into tummy time! I am sure you will be performing tricky acrobatics, or at the very least advanced yoga, before you voluntarily spend time on your stomach.
Hand in hand with rolling over has come sitting by yourself. If we set you down and pretend we aren’t watching you, you will sit unassisted for several minutes. However, if we noticeably look in your direction, or God forbid speak of your sitting up, you topple over. It is as if the words themselves knock you down. On the plus side, when you fall over forwards, you are quickly able to flip yourself over onto your back. You are perfectly content when you fall over backwards and look at us as if to say, “Nice! That’s just what I wanted!” Either way, it is highly entertaining to watch.
Not necessarily a milestone, but wonderful nonetheless is the fact that you have started giving kisses. Now these are not your typical slimy, wet baby kisses. Oh no. You give piranha kisses. You come at us open mouthed, like a hungry baby bird and chomp down on whatever gets in your path, be that my cheek, chin or even shoulder. But I don’t mind, as long as you are giving out kisses, I will always be there to accept them.
All my love,
Mama
First play date, anyway. Sure, she has been to Mommy & Me and several different playgroups, but this was her first solo play date with a boy. I was watching Brandon for our friends Jen and Mitch so Ana had her very first date. And Momma realized that mothers of multiples must be miracle workers!
It was so much fun watching the difference in personalities. Ana is almost six months and Brandon is 11 months old, but their personalities are already so distinct. Ana was perfectly content to just chill and watch Brandon, while he was much more hands on and into everything. Oh and the fact that he is mobile didn’t hurt either.
Man, oh man, is there a difference between boys and girls! Every time I put something away, Brandon was very quick to dump over the toy box. And don’t even think about lining up the toy cars! It almost became a game–Brandon and I would race to see if I could clean something up faster than he could destroy it. I will be the first to admit that I didn’t stand a chance of winning.
But the kiddos had a great time. Ana watched Brandon very intently, absorbing every little thing he did as if she were making mental notes of what she could get away with in a few months. Brandon was very sweet and kept trying to share toys with Ana. And if she didn’t take it on his first attempt he was perfectly happy to keep poking her with the toy until she took it.
You can see all the pictures from their playdate here. Enjoy.
Over Memorial Day weekend, Simeon and I took Ana on her very first camping trip. We decided to go to Ft. Stevens because if anything went wrong we could always toss the baby in the car and drive the ten minutes to my mother’s house. We figured this would be a nice “trial run” to see how we would fair camping with an infant.
As we were driving to our campsite it started to sprinkle but only really rained once–just as we started to prepare the mandatory camping dinner of hot dogs and s’mores. My mother, always worried that babies will freeze to death, found some child size gloves in her car and put them on Ana. While she looked ridiculous, they were good for several laughs and kept Ana entertained for the longest time. She just stared, mesmerized by her hands, occasionally wiggling her fingers. It was so funny.
All of the camping Simeon and I have done in recent years has been in Eastern Oregon and lets just say the climate over there is much, MUCH warmer than the Oregon Coast. Always the over-packer in the baby department, we had several layers and blankets on Ana so she was delightfully warm and bundled at every moment. Her parents? Not so much.
When camping, we sleep on an air mattress, so I packed sheets, a heavy quilt and a fluffy comforter. I was thinking Sim could have one and I the other so we wouldn’t be fighting over blankets (how quickly one gets use to their king size bed at home). After literally freezing my butt off for hours I finally woke up Sim to see how we could make things better. We ended up putting the comforter under us and huddling under the quilt. I am not normally a cuddly sleeper, but you better believe I was clinging to my heater of a husband to stay warm. Next time we know to pack a wool blanket to put under our sheet.
But aside from the little bit of rain and cold sleeping conditions, we really had a great time. Ana was a trooper and just soaked up the whole experience like a sponge. And now that we know we can camp at the coast, I am totally ready for desert camping. Bring it on, baby!
You can see all the pictures from our trip here. Enjoy.
Can I just say that having a little girl is wonderful if for no other reason than I have someone to pass along my obsession for socks?
That’s right, Ana’s sock collection contains such classics as ballet slippers, Mary Janes, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Minnie Mouse, and a couple funky John Deere stripes. Who knew John Deere made socks? And such cute ones to boot!
Yesterday was the annual Evers family reunion. For those of you who don’t know, my family is huge. I personally have three siblings (eight if you include step-siblings), while my father is one of 12 and my grandfather is one of 14. Yeah. So you can imagine the multitude of aunts, uncles, and cousins that would create. When we all gather in one place it gets a little daunting.
The hightlight of this particular reunion was that Ana got to finally meet her cousin Lucia (my step-sister, Mandy’s nine-month old daughter). Ana was excited that there was a little girl so close to her same size. As a result, she was very happy to “play” with Lucia…
…until she realized that Lucia would “play” right back! When Lucia reached up and pulled on Ana’s headband, Ana gave me a look that clearly said, “Mama, why didn’t you warn me she could do that? Aren’t you doing to DO something?”
You can see all the pictures from the reunion here. Enjoy.
Dear Ana,
In the relative scheme of things, five months doesn’t seem like much, but the things you have learned or done in the five short months of your existence amazes me each and every day. Your hand-eye coordination has improved drastically this last month. So much in fact, that you can put your binky in your mouth. All. By. Yourself. I now have to accept the fact that you no longer need me. On the plus side, this new skill now keeps you busy for several minutes. I no longer pop the binky in when you are upset, rather I hand you the binky and you put it in yourself. Occasionally you even put it in the right way.
But this months most entertaining accomplishments involve 1) your feet and 2) your tongue. You finally discovered your feet a couple weeks ago. I have been showing them to you (slightly by accident) each and every time I changed your diaper, but only recently did you realize they were actually connected to you and not another toy your mama busted out to distract you. But in the last few days you realized your feet could reach your mouth. Now there has been no stopping you from chomping on those tiny toes like I have been doing since the day you were born.
As for your tongue, you mostly use it to blow raspberries, make tiny spit bubbles, or allow it to slowly sneak out of your mouth like a curious snake (the cutest thing ever, by the way). But while we were in Minnesota, walking through the Mall of America, you started making the strangest noise. I even stopped pushing the stroller to make sure you weren’t choking on something. You had discovered that you could use your tongue to draw in your top lip and make the strangest sucking, slurping sound. I thought maybe you didn’t realize your pacifier was out and slipped it in for you. You promptly spit it out and went back to sucking on your own face. Good times.
We all know how much your father loves soccer, and without wanting to push you into anything, he wants to share this love with you. Even your “baby exercises” involve drills like quick feet and high knees. When you guys hang out he often has a soccer game on in the background and you just love it (I am sure the bright colors in HiDef have something to do with it, but don’t tell your father). Imagine his excitement when this month you actually went to your very first game! We took you to watch your cousin Emily play. Daddy can’t wait to take you to a Timbers game, but I told him he has to wait until there is a game that starts before your bedtime. Don’t worry, that time will come before you know it.
Another great thing about this past month is that we have really nailed down a bedtime routine for you. We start with a bath, followed by a baby lotion massage, then we get you into your jammies and read you a bedtime story before one last feeding. You love reading books with Daddy. He does great voices and sometimes even lets you chew on the pages. Just the way you like it. But the best part is just before you start getting fussy and super tired (about the time we start the feeding) there is this tiny window where you are the happiest baby ever. I mean deliriously happy. The other day your Auntie Megs was over during this window and each time you looked at her you burst out in uncontrollable laughter. You giggled nonstop for about five minutes straight, and I can honestly say that was one of the happiest moments of my life.
Oh and have I mentioned just how much you love chewing on your foot? Specifically your right foot?
All my love,
Mama
Well, Ana and I survived our first
cf.Objective conference. And it was actually quite entertaining. At first I was a little scared to be surrounded by such a vast concentration of geeks, but they were surprisingly well adjusted and highly entertaining group. I finally got a chance to meet a lot of Simeon’s good friends, as well as catch up with ones I already knew.
Ana did great staying in yet another hotel. She didn’t even mind the “cage” the hotel gave us to use as a crib. Typically (I say that like we do it so often) the hotels provide a Pack n Play, or something similar. But this hotel gave us a tiny metal crib. Ana wasn’t use to the bars because we have bumpers on our crib at home, so she kept grabbing on to them or accidentally hitting them when she stretched out her arms.
On Friday Ana and I decided to take a break from the conference and be tourists. We headed over to the Mall of America. It was so huge. The place has four floors, three food courts, an underwater aquarium, a museum, a racetrack AND an amusement park right in the middle of the 520 or so stores. Can you even imagine? Ana and I wandered through the amusement park and around 2.5 floors before we had to call it a day. I was even sore afterwards. From a freakin’ shopping mall. But it was so worth it!
I would have to say the only downside of the trip was our flight home. After a leaking engine, two gate changes, and four hours we were finally able to leave the damn airport. You could say Ana was less than thrilled by this. Even so she was a trooper and only cried on the plane when she pulled on her headband and it smacked her directly in the eye. But don’t worry, Simeon took care of that “mean” headband by accidentally throwing it away when the flight attendant cleared our garbage. Take that headband!!
You can see all the pictures Simeon and I took on our trip here. Enjoy.
Over the weekend Simeon, Ana, and I took a trip to Bend, Oregon. Simeon presented for the Central Oregon Web Professionals’ Usergroup (COWPU) on Thursday night and we decided to make a long weekend of it and stuck around for a few extra days. Sort of a mini vacation. One of the perks of being a stay at home mom is my ability to travel alongside my husband whenever he goes any place I deem worth visiting. I don’t even have to ask for time off…I just bring my “boss” along with me.
The 4-hour drive was Ana’s longest traveling period to date (via car and/or plane) and she did great. We just stopped a couple times to let her out of the car seat, stretch her tiny legs, and get a little something to eat. She spent the rest of the time sleeping away while Simeon and I listened to an audio book (the latest Artemis Fowl, The Lost Colony, if you are curious). If you need integrated amplifiers, then you can get them from here!
When we booked our hotel we made sure to get one with an indoor pool so we could take Ana for her first swim. I picked out a cute little swimsuit (I intended to get her a one-piece, but the ones in her size were all ugly. Plus I reasoned that she wouldn’t outgrow it as fast since the majority of her growth is in length.) and a reusable swim diaper. So as soon as we had a spare moment, we slipped on our suits and headed to the pool. Ana did great. Simeon had me take her in first so he could catch her first swim on video (are we total first time parents or what?). At first she was a little scared and kinda shaky, but she quickly warmed up when she realized I wasn’t going to drop her. By the time I switched off to let Simeon play with her while I took some pictures, she was splashing around and kicking her feet in the water. So freakin’ cute!
We played around in the water for a while until Ana started to get cold and went back to our room. We decided now would be the perfect time for her to have her first shower. Up to this point she has been strictly a bath girl. At home it’s just easier in her own little tub and the last time we were in a hotel I gave her a bath in the sink since Sim wasn’t there to hand her off once she was done (I don’t know how to wash and then dry off myself and a baby at the same time. I am just not that good yet).
Once again, traveling brings out the milestones for Ana. She took an extended car trip, had her first swim in a pool, and took her first shower. My goodness! I wonder what new things we can have her do when we are in Minneapolis, Minnesota next week for cf.Objectve.