Attack of the Emma

Emma gives Eberleah hugs daily - I would say about 75% of those are prompted by me and 25% are done with zero mommy intervention.  As I was looking through my recent photos, I started to notice a recurring trend.

Emma's hugs have become more like attacks :).

Which is a really nice word for choke-hold or strangle ;).

I just love to see Everly's reaction in each of these photos.

Most of the time, she is squealing with delight!  

But other times, she is not feeling the love!

Sister kisses go much in the same fashion as hugs!

Around our house, we have started to affectionately refer to these sister hugs and kisses as 'attack of the Emma'.

When she loves, she loves hard; fiercely with all her might.

On a rare occasion, I will capture a moment like this that just simply takes my breath away.

These two were just made for each other.

Magic Kingdom: Take 2

We have been back from Disney World for exactly a month now and every day a little part of me wishes we were back there. Soaking in the excitement. Seeing the characters through our children's eye. And just breathing in the magic dust that they seem to sprinkle there. We decided to spend our last park day at Magic Kingdom- my in-laws had offered to keep the girls, but we decided we would rather have them with us so bright and early, off to Magic Kingdom we went.

As you can see in the picture above, it was overcast and freezing! Like in the 40's and 50's freezing.  We missed out on all the snow that had come through Texas that week, but somehow that cold front found us in Florida.  We bundled up the best we could and made our way onto the ferry.  The ferry ride is where I should have realized that this day was going to be a little dicey.  About halfway through the ferry ride, I had an inconsolable Everly on my hands. She cried the rest of the ferry ride and continued to cry as we got off the ferry. A not-so-nice lady slammed the gate on me as well were walking off the boat and I nearly lost my mind.  Instead, we cooled our jets and sat on a bench while I nursed Everly in the freezing cold.  Once we both regained our composure and headed into the park.

As soon as we got in the park, I wanted to get one last family picture with the castle :).

We had a Fast Pass to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. I had no idea that the movie was based off of this ride and not the other way around- pretty neat to see :).

Wes and Ev's had fun trying on the Pirate hats after the ride! If you look close at Everly, you can see just how miserable she was feeling- poor baby!

We rode the Magic Carpet ride again and then the girls spotted some birds so we saw the bird show- below is Evsie's pointing out the birds.

After that we moved onto our second Fast Pass of the Day the race cars for Dad and Em's.

Ev's wasn't tall enough so me and her sat that one out while Emma drove Wes around the track ;).

I think we are going to have to watch out for her when she turns 16 :).

Girly was having way too much fun!

Pulling back into lanes- she had a hard time saying bye to the car.

We used the other Fast Pass and Emma and I rode the Barnstormer (little roller coaster ride) and then we headed clear across the park so Wes and I could ride an 'adult ride'. We utilized the rider swap option and it worked out pretty well.  It is just not the same riding a roller coaster by yourself.  After we were done, we were loading our Fast Pass again, when we noticed that Emma had fallen asleep in the stroller.

So we decided to take advantage of the downtime and pick up a Starbucks at the park.  I thought it was so cute how they decorated their Starbucks cups- very whimsical.

Eberleah had a little bit of fun while Emma was sleeping :

When Emma woke up, we greeted her with her request before falling asleep- cotton candy.  However, she was more interested in feeding daddy than eating it herself :).

This is where the day that started out dicey, took a turn for the worst.  Emma had woken up from her nap in a cranky mood- not enough sleep, maybe? Everly was overtired by this point. And teething. And I had nursed her no less than five times and it was only one.  And there for just a second, everyone was having a meltdown, including me.  Wes and I had decided that we had both had enough and we should just call it a day- which is really not like us, we typically tend to stick it out even when the girls aren't behaving their best.  He trudged ahead pushing a cranky Everly while I tried to get Emma to cooperate and get in the red stroller (she only wanted the black).  Anyways, we met back up at the front of the gates and took a breather.  I nursed Everly and she fell asleep and we all regrouped and decided to ride a few more rides.  I just did not want to leave Disney with this bad taste in my mouth.

We started with the Dumbo ride and things started out a bit dicey.

But by the second time she rode it, we were back to all smiles.

And I eventually even earned some Emma kisses!

Then we rode the teacups four times in a row! Yes, FOUR times!!

I would ask Emma, what time is it? and she would gleefully respond back TEA TIME :).

Wes hung out with sleeping Eberleah and caught this picture of me and Emma in our teacup!

After we had done all of that, we took a break to eat our lunch (it was around three which is late for lunch, but the girls were not having it earlier) and found ourselves at the spot to meet Winnie the Pooh.

Since Winnie the Pooh is my sister, Austin's favorite character, we decided to wait the 30 minutes to see him; added bonus, we were the first in line!

While we were waiting, this little girl woke up in a much better mood!

Then it was time! I just love the way her back leg is kicked up!!

So much happiness meeting this sweet bear!

He definitely received some of the biggest hugs she gave out all trip!

Could they be any sweeter together?

She wasn't nearly as big of fan as Pooh's counterpart- Tigger.

Until he asked her if she wanted to touch his nose!

Then, she was all in blowing the best kisses :).

These family pictures may be my favorite family picture we took the whole time we were there :).

And since Everly was now awake, we decided to ride the teacups one last time before heading home.

How we felt about leaving Disney World :).

On the way out, I had Wes snap a few pictures of me and Emma in front of the castle.

I don't have the words to adequately express my feelings towards this trip- it was perfect, gratifying, magical, whimsy, childlike, fulfilling, inspiring and just downright amazing. I will always treasure this week that I got to spend with my family. Disney World- we will be back for you :).

Everly at 20 Months

… doesn't like her hands to be messy. At all. As soon as she starts eating something messy, she will hold out her hands and say ‘mess’ and expect us to wipe them all clean.

… is putting two words together on a consistent basis.  Her favorites  are ‘mine Bailey’, ‘hey you’ and ‘what’s dis?’.  I just love to hear her talk- this is one of my favorite things about toddler hood.  She will name people and is able to point to everyone in the room when we ask her to identify someone.

… on a similar note, one of my favorite words to hear her say is ‘bah-tee’. Unfortunately this goes hand and hand with her loathing to get her diaper changed and squealing ‘bah-tee’ much to Emma’s delight as she runs around in her skivvies.

… finally found a person (with fur) she can boss around- poor Bailey.  If Bailey even looks at her while she has food, she will say ‘mine mine, no Bailey’ with authority.  She likes to pull on his tail, take him on ‘walks’, scold him when he is doing nothing wrong and spill his water bowl on a daily basis.

… pants when she gets excited.  This is so funny to me- if you ask her ‘Everly, do you want a Popsicle?’.  She will run up to the freezer panting like a puppy. If you ask her if she wants to go outside or swing, she will run to the door panting with excitement.

… has had some sleep regression this month. I am going to blame it on the top molar that she got right at 19 months combined with being (lazy) on vacation.  When we got home, I had to work really hard to get back to our nursing once before bed and once in the morning routine.  I think the work is paying off, Everly has slept through the night the last three nights in a row. Still in our bed, but that’s a story for another day.

...… gives hugs and kisses when leaving a place to everyone that we ask her to when it the right mood.  When not in the right mood, she will occasionally throw the elbow.  I don’t know why, but everyone melts when they receive an Eberleah hug or kiss. I think it is probably because for so long, it was so rare.  I wouldn’t say she is completely out of her ‘only mommy or daddy will do phase’, but she is getting close.

… made Eberleah history in the teeth department gaining a total of two teeth in one month.  So far, it has only been one tooth per month, if any at all.  This month the top right molar and top right tooth (next to the two front teeth) broke through! Even though the teeth have broken through, you still can’t see them in pictures so I will enjoy my little jack-o-lantern smile while it lasts. Maybe we are inching towards the end of teething hell?!?!

… loves loves loves berries. Most specifically strawberries, but she just refers to all berries as ‘berry’. She also likes blackberries, but she has a hard time getting her hands on those since Emma claims all the blackberries that come into our house.  In other food news, Everly still seems to love cheese, scrambled eggs and French toast sticks. At dinner, we typically give her what we are eating (unless we know it is too spicy) and if she tries something new and doesn't like it, she will spit it out while saying ‘yuck’.

…. Is back to loving baths. Which makes me so happy. As an added bonus, it seems as though her skin has cleared up.  I have chosen not to talk about too many medical type things on the blog, but for several months Everly has had some scaly, dry, red skin. So glad to see that it has cleared up.

… still doesn't recognize herself in the mirror. I don’t know why, but I find this hilarious that if I ask her who is in the mirror, she says ‘baby’.  Then if I ask her where is Everly, she will point to herself and not to the mirror.

… likes to hold ‘all the things’ in her hands. This girl will load up her hands/toy car/ laundry hamper with all of her ‘treasures’ and carry/tote them about. While most of the time this is endearing, it can be quite difficult to make sure she keeps up with two baby dolls, her sunglasses and her bowl of chex mix as we cart her through Target.

… imitates everything Emma does.  I think I have been writing this for the last few months, but seriously- all day, every day Everly copies Emma. What I have noticed more than ever is that it looks like she looks toward Emma to seek approval when she is doing something. As if to ask ‘is this ok?’ ‘Am I doing it right?’ ‘Are we going to get in trouble?’

… loves to play and as an added bonus is excellent when it comes to independent play.  Outdoor play is her favorite - she can slide down the slide by herself at parks, throws overhand all while saying ‘catch’ and runs as fast as her little legs take her.  My dad calls her waddle bu** when she runs, and I think that nickname suits her perfectly.

… speaking of nicknames, Everly goes by Ev’s, Evsie’s, Everly and most commonly Eberleah (thanks to her 18 month old sister when she was born J).  The name Eberleah just suits our Everly so perfectly; she is the perfect mix of sweet demeanor, the shyest of shy smiles and spirited spunk.