Friday, March 25, 2011

Nine Months

Evie has been busy in her ninth month! She can crawl, pull herself up, fall off of things (she has no respect for heights), say mama and dada if she cares, wave, and has enjoyed her first cold and ear infection. She loves to follow her mama around the house, unload things, scatter things, bang things, and sing. She is always ready with a smile, and is generally very fun. It's my opinion that she is an adrenaline junkie like her dad, but time will tell…

She's also quite beautiful, as you can see:

"Where are my bananas?"

Just to set the record straight that she is not ALWAYS happy.

But she is often happy.

Sweet thing.

It's only just begun!




What Have You Been Doing, Evie?

Evie was entertaining herself while I was doing my hair:

I really don't think she felt bad. This is called drama-queen.

That's more like it. Be proud of your accomplishments, honey.


Sunday, March 6, 2011

Things other than Baby Evie

Although Evie is a lovely and vibrant part of our lives, we have been up to other things lately. We do try to maintain a balanced life!

In work…
I enjoy my job a lot. I work for a non-profit company that serves families with children with developmental delays. My particular focus is kids on the Autism Spectrum, ages 3-5. I began managing this program a year and a half ago, first by overseeing social playgroups for these kids. We provided and staffed groups of 3-6 kids, all with autism, which provided structured play and social opportunities for them. The kids can encounter other children in a structured, predictable environment while staff help them to work on their particular challenges in having autism. 6 months ago, when I returned to work, we expanded this service to going in-home. As in, we now have a person who visits the family and works with the family and the child to make their own particular family life more accessible to their child. We help the child with autism play with a sibling, eat at the table, help with chores, etc… This has been very challenging and exciting to organize and supervise, and I'm having a blast. God has really provided an amazing job for me that challenges me and allows me to still take care of Evie for a large portion of the day.
Michael is still working with adults with disabilities, helping them to find real employment opportunities in the community. Although this is a noble job, he continues to seek work that is more interesting to him. Currently he's going through a long (although almost finished) application process for the State Parks, in hopes of becoming a CA State Park Ranger. The odds are really stacked (when have job opportunities ever been easy in our adult lives?--never!!), but we're hopeful--yet still preparing to think about something else for him if this doesn't work out. A living wage would be a good start.

In home…
We've been hosting a Korean exchange student this winter. He's been here about 6 weeks and may or may not stay on with us for another 6. He's been pretty pleasant to have around, and the whole endeavor has also provided us with extra cash, something that's always helpful!

We also (when I say we, I mean mostly Michael) undertook the re-flooring of the kitchen and entryway. This has been a MAJOR process, which began in September and concluded in January. Basically, he ripped up the old floor, laid a new subfloor, and then tiled the whole thing. Not easy. We now understand why tiling is expensive--it's not the materials, it's the labor. Cha-ching! However, it looks great and is a big improvement from yellow vinyl flooring and fake stone in the entryway. Here are some pics, although I'll post the finished product in a later posting. I know--how cruel!
Laying the hardibacker (cement board)--very heavy stuff!
mortar it down, then nail it down…

Laying out the tile on top of the hardibacker…


Entryway, experiencing new freedom from nasty black and white fake stone.

Evie, participating in the sanding of the grout, so we could clean it and seal it…then done! At long last!

I am also enjoying participating in our church choir, which performs every Sunday, as well as does a couple of special performances throughout the year. Michael has been doing a little fishing and snowboarding, and may be launching a new project with some friends that involves a cow. We'll see. More on that later.

And Evie? She comes along for the ride, and since she can crawl and pull herself up now, we're trying to stay one step ahead of any potential near-death experiences for her. Whew! Good stuff…God stuff!





Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Cutie Pie

Evie gets around. She's about 6 -7 months old in these pictures.

Evie with Grandpa Joe for his birthday. We went to Aunt Jeannie's house in Santa Rosa. She is 7.5 months old and he is 91.

He loves her very much.

Evie and Uncle Greg at Upper Bidwell Park in Chico. She's his buddy.
(7.5 months)

Evie and Daddy (January '11)

Daddy and Evie tiling the floor together.
(6.5 months)

Miss Evelyn is doing a lot these days; it's a bit hard to keep track of it all, but I need to write all this down somewhere.

-constant babbling, squealing, screaming, yelling, laughing
-very intentional yelling at her mother
-eats solid food (broccoli is a new favorite)
-plays with toys
-likes to read a book with Mama or Daddy
-crawling as of 3/2
-loves people games like peek-a-boo and catch
-is generally quite wonderful!