10 months

E turned 10 (months) today. Here’s the monthly update:

A few of Evie’s latest tricks include:

• Mastering the art of hands-free standing
• Signing "all done" and "no"
• Violently attacking the nose of any sucker who asks, "Where's my nose?"

A few of Evie’s latest favorite things include:

• Sharing a bowl of cereal with Dad before work/daycare every morning
• Tonguing at that one little tooth that's finally busted through her lower gum
• Stacking and unstacking and stacking and unstacking and stacking and unstacking and stacking and unstacking and... on her FP Little SuperStar Stacker

MCM

We're back... after a couple week break from normalcy (and blog updating).*

Anyway... we got out of the house and made yesterday a family date day, zipping across the river to take in a day at the Minnesota Children's Museum. I was admittedly a bit skeptical of how much fun a 9 month old could have at MCM, but couldn't have been more wrong. Evie could not get enough of it. She refused to be held and squealed and squawked with joy seemingly oh so proud of being able to entertain herself in the world's biggest playground amongst her people.

*Linds, Ev and I have spent the past two weeks in and out of work/daycare/doctor's offices/et cetera passing colds, eye & ear infections and bronchiolitis back and forth to one another... but I think we're finally in the clear!

The polliwog

EJB took her first steps, er strokes, to being the next Jenny Thompson this weekend, knocking out her first swimming lesson at the local Y. E did pretty well in all "skills" with the exception of bubble blowing (unfortunately, she preferred drinking).

Editor's note: In a class of 10 (5 girls), roll call started off like this... "Evelyn", "Evelyn", "Evie". Ugh. I really thought we nailed the perfect, original name back in March... but maybe not so much (on the originality front, that is).

After some time on Social Security Administration's names database, I was reassured a bit that this was merely a considerable coincidence rather than representative of a trend. "Evie" was the 853rd most common baby girl name in the US last year. To put this in perspective, more baby girls born last year were named "Heaven" (275th), Ximena (332nd), "Ryan" (534th) and "Patience" (771st).

I think we're OK...

"4 generations"

Evie Jane made a brief stop in Madelia, MN this weekend to pay a visit to her 91 year-old great-great-aunt Mae Laingen, the sister of the late Evelyn Asleson (1920-1984)… my Mom’s mom, and Evie’s namesake.

E, who now is into squirming violently and flailing her limbs recklessly when held, was on her absolute best behavior… smiling, snuggling and sharing a few precious moments in Mae’s arms (so I guess we can forgive her for not necessarily giving the world’s greatest smile for the camera!)

Christmas 2, 3 and 4

After our return from the Buckeye State the fam’ crammed another three Christmases (one with Mom, one with Dad, and our first as a family), a family reunion as well as a NYE celebration into the long weekend. Evie made out well, getting further spoiled by the Backer side, and continued working over crowd after crowd… further honing her skills as the center of attention.

Editor's notes: [1] The new guy in the pics above is Joe H, La's "bf"... you're in the blog now Joe, so watch yourself, [2] Xmas #2 was celebrated on the same day as the Rose Bowl, thus all that gaudy OSU gear (ugh!)