a birthday, a party, and a cake for evie

it feels a little strange to be posting photos of evie's first birthday when i haven't even posted a birth announcement for her yet...although obviously she has been here for awhile. i plan to eventually get around to announcing her.

evie turned one on january 8th, 2016, a year exactly from the date she was born. amazing. both days were amazing. this year's january 8th was doubly amazing because there was cake and pink tutu dresses and little stockings with hearts on the knees. and a little girl who looked a lot more like a princess and a lot less like a wrinkly, red, asian newborn. just calling it like it is. ;)

but also, because --

this past year with you, evie, has been nothing short of magical. i know i keep saying it, and i know you will get tired of that word. but you are more than i ever dreamed you would be. you are sunshine and light and all the sugar and spice i could ever need.

i love that you are so determined to get what you want. you are always so insistent that it is your right to have the things that you want, and while it can be frustrating at times to spend all day sitting in front of the electrical socket because you insist on pulling the plug out, i love your strength of will. i hope you will always have it and that you will choose wisely and with heart.

i love that you are so full of snuggles, that you snuggle into my shoulder and put your thumb in your mouth and are so content to just be with me, safe and warm in my arms. even if that is all we do all day, that is plenty for me. i will never get tired of your warm little marshmallow body in my arms, even if you are definitely heavier now than you were a year ago. the weight of you is joy itself.

i love your funny little cartoon voice. you really do sound a little bit like porky the pig. maybe elmer fudd too. it is literally the best sound on earth (next to your brother), and i could listen to you all day. i hope you never stop telling me things.

i love your nose-wrinkling smile. sometimes you breathe really fast in and out through clenched teeth too, and it's probably only interesting to me, but i love it so.much.

i love the little hip wiggle dance you've always done in your high chair. you just learned to shake your head and you've added that, which is hilarious. you charmer you.

i love the giggle i always hear when wilder is playing with you. i'm always worried he's going to squeeze you too hard or something, but clearly you think it's the bees knees.

now that we've had a year to think about it -- we all think you're pretty great.

we love you so much!

weekly portraits

i'm probably (totally) setting myself up for disaster by even titling this a weekly portrait, because we all know how good i am at that kind of commitment. but -- it's still an aspiration, and i'm still going to try. maybe it won't be weekly; we'll see how this year goes.

w & e right now:

wilder:

still has a killer smile. his best smile is when he's laughing, and it's not a fake laugh but the laugh he gets when papa or i make a funny face. he giggles hysterically and then he says "i'm playing a game with you."
still two months from being three but if you ask how old anyone is (like me), he will tell you they are three. except evienne. she might be 100.
still prefers crackers and fruit to every other food, but we're working on it.
still occasionally takes naps, after all. which is not really a good thing for our early mornings, but eh.
still loves being outside, which is somehow so hard for me. thank goodness for weekends and papas who like grilling.
also, likes to hold my hand and lead me around when we do go outside.
still hugs his "big teddy" to sleep every night. i think we might actually finally have a problem if we were to ever lose big teddy. hmmm.
getting ever so good at reasoning:
still only likes about half the daniel tiger and tumble leaf episodes.
loves to play hide and seek...by laying down in the middle of the floor in plain sight. i'm still supposed to find him. ;)
asks me to snuggle him when i'm tucking him into bed.

evienne:

is truly sneaky evie. she is always always always climbing up on a table or a box or a chair or the stairs or finding her way to the dog food or something equally sneaky. she's like a little cat slash monkey. look at her face in that photo up there. that's her sneaky face. she thinks she's being sneaky because i put her up on the bench to take her photo, but you can just tell how sneaky she feels, can't you? ;)
has the shriekiest shrillest scream ever when she can't have what she wants or you take something away from her.
still sucks her thumb and lays her head down on me (or whatever part of me she can reach) a million times a day. it's completely the sweetest thing ever.
is walking, but still prefers crawling most of the time.
says "mama," but probably still not with meaning.
can clap, wave, and sign "all done."
sounds exactly like porky the pig, minus the words.
still takes a good long afternoon nap, for which i am eternally grateful. may it never end.
has 6.5 teeth and eats everything, but she especially likes savory combinations.


they both:

need me and want what the other has all the live long day.
and have all my heart all the live long day.

a bathtime story

i just kind of love the progression of these photos. there's no real story to tell here. oh but, you say, you need a story? ok, how's this:

once upon an evening i bathed my children. papa added some bubble bath as papas are wont to do. then he put the bubbles on the babies' heads. wilder examined the bubbles on his hands for a few moments, and then decided to freak out. "wipe me! wipe me!" he screamed as i pointed my camera at him. "i need a napkin!" he despaired. meanwhile, evie took some of the bubbles from the side of the tub and gave them a taste. needs something..., she thought as she gazed off. then she noticed that i was taking a picture and gave me The Look. you know. the look that says What Are You Doing? Take That  Camera Out of Here. so i did. by then, wilder had been washed of the offending bubbles, and at that point evie decided to test the bubbles' load-bearing capacity. needless to say, they are not as strong as they look, and we got to test evie's breath-holding capacity while we fished her out of the bath. :/

i'm glad it's all over and now we can joke about it, because it was a little scary at the time. these children. testing my heart's ability to stop on a dime on a nearly daily basis. mothering is NOT for the faint of heart.

the end.

note to self: this time right now

that top photo there might just be my new favorite photo of my babies. aren't they sweet? it's like this all day long. well, that and crying and screaming and pushing each other. it's all very zen over here. ;)

i'm so happy that wilder has a little friend. even though it's been an adjustment for everyone, and there is the usual amount of jealousy and sharing-issues, i can just tell that he loves having a little sister. watching him hug, kiss and love on her (hearing her giggle at him!!) fills my heart up to overflowing. the other day i was in the kitchen and heard: "mommy, evie's walking!" it took a minute for that to sink in but i ran out as soon as i could and found him holding her hand and walking with her in the dining room. it made my heart explode. then i tried to grab a camera and she fell down.

on saturday morning while i was getting dressed wilder pulled out the changing pad from the pack and play that's stored under our bed, called it his little boat, and pulled evie inside. they played happily with my jewelry for several minutes in it, and every time evie got out, wilder would pull her back in, haha.

i also know wilder loves having evie around, because he asked me the other day if we were going to have lots of babies. {big-eyed emoji here} haha! we will see about that!

these two make my days part adventure in delight and part exploration in exhaustion. but oh, it is so worth it!

also, tell me, do you see the family resemblance in evie? because we still don't understand when people say she and wilder look just alike. i can't see it.

goings on around here

the kids have been sick since thanksgiving, and i don't think i'm exaggerating. so what with that and it being cold outside and all our little friends being sick too......it's safe to say we have a little bit of cabin fever going on. here are a few snippets of the goings on around here from last week and this past weekend.

this post is alternatively titled: it was the best of pink eye; it was the worst of pink eye.

the best part of pink eye is that neither J nor i have gotten it yet (knock on wood; my throat has been feeling scratchy since sunday morning so we had pity on everyone at church and stayed away).

the worst part of pink eye is it lasts so dang long! also, three of the four people in this house got no sleep (which may not be entirely related to pink eye). and, putting ointment in kids' eyes is not particularly exciting either.

the other best part of pink eye is that it makes you slow down and enjoy life at home. i usually like to try to get out of the house in the mornings, but ever since the sicknesses have hit (and kept on hitting), we've been able to get to so many things we usually miss.

for instance:

evie has had more time for magazine and book tearing.
wilder got to bring home a balloon from the grocery store and fight with evie over it.
wilder also gave himself a checkup and needed more bandaids. even teddy has some boo boos.

when we did finally make it out of the house on saturday, the sun was out, so i hijacked our errands running and took us to the park instead. evie has never really been awake at a park before, so it was her first time exploring. everything is new and amazing for babies. it is one of my favorite things to see.

all in all, not too bad a week for the pink eye. although i would probably have disagreed at certain points  --  like around 3 and 5 am which are wilder's preferred hours to slam open his door, turn on his light, then slam open our door and stand there looking at us until we take him back to his bed. a side effect of pink eye or just part of your ongoing sleep training, it's hard to say. in any case, he no longer naps, so that's been fun too. ;)

evie has also been practicing walking! she is nearly at half the living room now!

evie is majoring in the science and art of tearing up all wilder's books. and my magazines.

tiny hands! they kill me.

my sweet boy.

bored out of his mind?

or maybe contemplating the properties of helium?

so many bandaids.

papa stuffed me in here, i have no idea what i'm supposed to do next. help?

her first time crawling across wood chips, she's so deprived!

wrapping her head around a slide.

i love seeing these two together! 

wilder is getting really heavy but i can't help holding him all the time still.

oh my gosh this ponytail you guys. i scream a little inside every time i see it.

that's it! the end! go wash your hands now!

a reason to blog

hello friends! 

it's been over a year (13 months!) since i blogged! first, i just want to say how glad i am to be back. this past year has been full of so many things, most notably the birth of the most beautiful, perfect, amazing baby girl, which i will definitely write more about later. to help me maintain a semblance of sanity while adjusting to being in charge of two tiny people (among other things), i had to take a break from the blog.

however, even though not blogging was good for last year, ultimately i decided that i really missed having a record of our year together as a family of four. so many things i didn't get to record last year! like W turning 2! and my baby girl rolling over, laughing, getting teeth, learning to crawl, climbing on everything, playing with all W's toys...! you get the picture.

back in 2011 i started this blog as a way to celebrate life, and i find that now (5 years later!) with two littles i have even more reason (and desire) to celebrate and to document life. truthfully, this past year has been challenging. we've had health issues, we've had two babies under two (for a little while), we've had ER visits (nothing major), we've had all the normal (but still crazy) chaos of family life. but we also have had a million and one reasons to be so in love with these children and this life. i am so grateful for every day with this family. and i've found that when i am actively looking at it, my everyday is pretty magical. messy, yes, but also, magical. so i'm going to start blogging again, to capture all that magic here as a love letter, to my family, and to my self, for when i need reminding of how wonderful i have it.

this, then, is my B roll -- photos of this never perfect, often messy, but still magical life chez nous. welcome back!

p.s. as you can see, this blog has also gotten a facelift and a new name, and there is also a new URL (don't forget to bookmark it!). i'm still in the process of filling out my about, contact and fun facts pages, but if you want to say hi, feel free to contact me at brollblog(at)gmail.com. i'm happy to have you here!