The Stake Family Blog

Ready... Set...

2012-02-05T20:18:00.023-05:00

We have been doing a lot to prepare for Van to come soon. Soon = 43 days exactly. Well, give or take a few days, depending on his schedule. But as for me and Evie, we are counting down the days. We made a paper chain so that Evie could take off one link per day until it's time for Van to get here. I think this has helped her "see" how much longer she has to wait.

And is she ever ready! She went to a big siblings class at the hospital a few weeks ago. She learned how to hold a baby, change a diaper, ask visitors to wash their hands, etc. Lately, she has practiced going through a series of questions to find out why her baby dolls are crying. "Would you like a bottle? No? Is your diaper dirty? No? Do you just want me to hold you? Oh, you do!" Yep, I think she's ready to be a big sister. (Pictured left, Evie paying close attention to the teacher at her big siblings class)

The craziest part of the hospital class was when we started seeing all of the similarities between the families in the class. There were 4 families, all with little girls. Each girl was the first born, and each family was expecting a little boy. To make things even crazier... when we announced we were from Louisiana, two of the other families said they were, too! So, a family from Slidell, one from New Orleans, and us from Lafayette all ended up in the same big siblings group in a New Hampshire hospital. What are the odds???

We have also cleared out our extra bedroom to convert it into a nursery. The paint has gone up, the furniture has been cleaned and set up, and the decorating is coming along. And I learned an important lesson along the way. I had spent most of one weekend painting all of the window frame and closet a nice shade of white and the walls a beautiful robin's egg blue. Evie was obviously needing attention, so I promised her when I finished with all of the painting and her dad set up the furniture, she could help decorate. Well, "helping decorate" in 4-yr-old language means literally creating the decorations. So, Evie has been working hard every weekend since drawing all things "boy." She has decided on different themes for each wall... animals, space, and sports. She has chosen the images and drawn them herself. And then I have helped her cut them out and stick them up on the walls. (pictured right, Evie's elephant, lion, tiger, giraffe, and bee.)

At first I thought I would let her have her fun, and then take it all down for more "traditional" decorations. But the longer we leave the drawings up, the more they grow on me. She really is putting a lot of energy into making them "just so," and she is so proud when they are hung on the wall. I decided that we would probably move the comfy chair out of the room in a year or so, and then want to rearrange the furniture. So, for the first year, Van may have homemade artwork made by his loving sister to entertain him. (pictured right, Evie's star, Jupiter, plane, and rocket ship)

As for me and Van, we are doing OK. At my last Dr's appointment, she commented that I was "literally carrying this entire baby out in front of my body." I thought she was joking or teasing, so I laughed. Then she told me, "No, I'm serious." Apparently you can feel the top and the beginning of the back side of my uterus. So, literally, the entire baby is sitting outside of my body cavity, with little to no support from the core of my body. I asked if this was OK, and then she finally laughed and said, "Yeah, OK for the baby, but you're probably going to hurt a lot before it's all over!" Great!

I am getting tired lately, but I think it's due to the beginning of the new semester at school and the re-starting of the night study halls that I run on Monday and Tuesday nights. By the time I go into work at 8:30 a.m. and get home around 8 or 8:30 p.m. on those nights, I'm exhausted! Luckily, Joel is a fantastic husband and father. He and Evie have a new tradition of going to his school's cafeteria to eat dinner whenever I work late. And, of course, all of the students there gush over Evie, and on top of that, she gets ice cream from the soft serve station. So, now when I tell her that mommy's working late, she cheers, "Yeah for the cafeteria!!!" LOL. At least she doesn't miss me too much. (pictured right, Evie's stripped bouncy ball, baseball, football, hockey stick and puck, and a blue frisby)

But I think we will all be ready for Van to get here soon. It's getting close now. Only 6 more weeks... or 43 more days. But who's counting? Oh right... we are!

And his name shall be...

2011-12-13T20:32:00.004-05:00

Yes, that's correct. We finally have a name for this baby #2. When I was pregnant with Evie, we had been talking about names for her for so long that we knew exactly what we were going to name her. But this little boy has been more difficult. Since Evie is named after my side of the family, we really wanted to honor Joel's family with our baby boy. So, after much deliberation, we have decided to name our son....Van Doran Stake.

Van Doran was Joel's great-grandfather (Mr. JD's mom's dad) who was a hard-working, "salt-of-the-earth" farmer and cattleman. He was well-liked in the community and became an active Christian later in life. He is also where Mr JD got his middle name from (The D stands for Doran). So, Van Doran seemed like a good roll model for our young son. If our Van turns out to be a hard-working, well-liked, Christian, I will be proud.

We have started calling the baby "Van" at home, and Evie now hugs and kisses Van goodnight every day. (pictured at left, Evie and Van at 25 weeks). We are starting to have fun picking out things for the new nursery, which we will start working on after Christmas! So, stay tuned for photos of the new nursery as soon as we put it all together.

Thanks for all of the love and support that you have been sending our way. We feel so blessed to be "completing" our little family with a baby boy.

Halloween Tricked Us!

2011-11-18T09:33:00.021-05:00

This year, Halloween pulled the biggest trick on all of us! We had a HUGE snow storm the week before Halloween, and most of Nashua was still out of power by Halloween night. So, instead of Trick-or-Treating that weekend, we did this...

And Joel and Evie had a huge snowball fight...

That looked like so much fun from the safety of inside the glass door, nice and warm where I watched the entire thing.

We actually had a lot of fun this week without power. Our home was only out for 2 days, so as soon as our power came back on, we invited 19 people from our Sunday School group to come over. They all brought whatever food was about to go bad in their fridge, and we cooked and ate and had a big party. The kids went downstairs and played in the basement and watched a movie. It was so much fun, that Evie asked if we could do it every night. I'm sure everyone enjoyed the fellowship, but I also bet everyone was glad when their own power came back on! Some of our neighbors didn't have power for a week, so our home also became the shower and laundry central for the next few days. And even with power, our cable and Internet was off, so even our own little family had a good week of playing HUNDREDS of rounds of Hi Ho Cherry-O and dominoes.

Finally, all power was restored, and Nashua held Halloween in November. But the kids didn't care. Evie dressed up in her cute butterfly outfit that her Nana brought her from Arkansas.

We planned to join the McKay boys down the road for trick-or-treating. They dressed as the three musketeers and guarded the little butterfly all night.

Then after 2-3 houses, we met up with two other families from our church, the Minches and the Packs. The older girls were dressed as nerds, and the younger was a hobo. The older girls help with Evie's classes at church, so she was thrilled to see them, and even more thrilled to get to spend serious Halloween time with them.

So, we decided to join groups.

With all of the different families and all of the different people to visit, we ended up walking all over our neighborhood. Evie LOVED being one of the "big kids." And the big kids did such a great job protecting her and making sure she didn't get left behind and making sure she got plenty of candy. We stayed out much later than we planned because we were having so much fun. Evie didn't want to leave, but when her plastic pumpkin was full and so overflowing that Joel and I had to put candy in our pockets, we decided it was time to finally go home. So, even though Halloween tried to trick us this year, we had the last laugh. And I hope we laugh and have just as much fun next year!

It's a...

2011-10-29T08:13:00.008-04:00

BOY!!! We had an ultrasound this Thursday. The entire family went, and Evie was so excited to see her little brother on the screen. But the technician took too long for Evie. She kept asking, "Is it a boy or girl???" She wasn't impressed with the size of the head or the counting of the heart chambers.
But we were impressed with her. Just before the ultrasound, we took Evie to her doctor's appointment. The doctor commented, "Wow, she's tall." She is still above the 90% on height (43 inches!) and only in the 60% for weight. The doctor commented, "That weight is all in her height. She is long and lean." Evie proved why when the doc asked her what her favorite food was, and she replied with, "WATERMELLON!" The doctor was also impressed that we hadn't been back since our last check-up a year ago. I guess we're just a healthy family. Let's hope that trend continues with baby #2.
As for our baby boy, our next task is to come up with a name. That, of course, is what everyone is asking for these days. But, no, we don't have a name. We don't even have many contenders. Right now, we are just going back and forth vetoing each other's choices. LOL. With Evie, Joel and I both agreed right from the start. This little boy is already turning out to be more work!
We should probably call him Frosty or Kris Kringle, because the night after we had the ultrasound, this happened.... That's right. SNOW! In October! And we're supposed to get 6-10 inches more this weekend! So, for now, he's Frosty hairy Eyeball. I'm guessing that won't stick!
Or maybe we should name him something Biblical. While we were taking some ultrasound photos, Frosty Hairy Eyeball kept lifting his hands to his face, until he finally rested them in a prayerful position. I guess that's a good sign...and a good validation that God does know us even in the womb!

Bunnie Buddies

2011-10-15T15:04:00.008-04:00

So, I broke down and bought the first thing for the new baby today. I blame it on my thriftiness. See, I received a coupon in the mail for a local baby store. So, after my Dr's check up, I had an hour to kill before I needed to pick up Evie from daycare. So, I decided to check out the store. And there, in the middle of the store, was a display of Bunnies By The Bay stuff. Bunnies By The Bay is the company that made Evie's beloved Hoppy that she still sleeps with and takes everywhere with her. We've bought several other items from them over the years for Evie, and they are all equally adorable. So, even though we don't know the sex of the child yet, and even though I swore I wouldn't buy anything until it was closer to the due date....well, I had a COUPON, after all! So, this child will have a light brown bunny all her/his own (see photo to left).

And I don't think Evie will mind "sharing" her love of bunnies. She has gotten even more interested in the baby in mommy's tummy. She has started telling EVERYONE that she's going to be a big sister. On her "about me" drawings at school, she always has some element of her being a big sister incorporated. Unfortunately, this usually manifests itself with a normal looking Daddy, a normal looking Evie, and a mommy with a HUGE tummy! It's a good thing she's so happy to show me these drawings, or I might be offended! (right Evie and her Hoppy when she was 2)

Evie is so excited, she has picked out a name for her new brother / sister -- Harry Eyeball Stake. Everyone so far likes the name. Uumm... we'll see how much Mom and Dad agree when it gets closer. And it should be about that time soon. We go in for the ultrasound in two weeks. Joel, Evie, and I are all equally excited (Evie gets to go with us to share in seeing her little brother / sister on the big screen). So far, the guesses by our friends (and even one by the nurse practitioner at my Dr.'s office) have been equally split between boy and girl. Feel free to make your own wagers. We'll let everyone know soon!

Baby # 2

2011-09-17T16:51:00.007-04:00

Well, it's been a while, but we have a good reason to re-start the blog. Baby #2 is on the way! Joel and I have been debating having another child for quite a while now, and we finally decided to take the plunge. Evie was SSSSOOOOO excited when we told her we were having another baby. She is already picking out which of her toys she will give to the new baby and how she will help be a "little mommy." She is BEGGING for the baby to sleep in her room with her, but we'll see how long that lasts once the real baby is here and crying throughout the night!

Joel and I went this week to a prenatal ultrasound. It's still too early to tell what sex the baby is, but we had a lot of fun actually getting a first look at baby #2. The technician performing the ultrasound kept commenting on hos active this child already was. The baby kept turning and rolling and kicking. For about 5 straight minutes, the baby kept kicking its legs like doing a bicycle kick. The technician was so tickled that she kept giggling. She finally commented, "This baby will never walk. It's going to RUN everywhere!"

Then, at another period, the baby started moving its mouth and lips. The technician laughed out loud again and commented that it was either blowing kisses at the camera or already talking up a storm. Hhhmmmm.... an active child who likes to talk? Why does that sound familiar?!? From the photos that we received, it seems this child is also very long and lean, much like its older sister. It will be so fun to see just how alike and how different this baby and Evie will be. Either way, we know that our lives are about to be filled even more!

Fun in February

2009-03-01T12:38:00.025-05:00

The month of February has been a busy one for the Stake clan. With Evie getting more active, more social, and more communicative, our lives have quickly turned exhaustive.

At the beginning of this month, Evie was invited to her first birthday party since we moved to New Hampshire. The party was for a Chinese girl at the day care, Michelle, who is probably Evie’s best friend. At least Michelle (or “Shell” as Evie calls her) is the child Evie talks about the most at home. So, we knew that Evie was one of the “special” guests that Michelle wanted at her party, mostly because Michelle’s mom kept calling and emailing to make sure we were coming. (Pictured left, Michelle Evie and Kylie are the first to gather around to EAT!!!)

What we didn’t know was that Kylie and Max, two other Chinese students in Evie’s class, were the only other kids from daycare who were invited. The rest of the children at the party were from the Chinese community in Nashua. So…that meant that Evie was the only Caucasian at the party! She certainly didn’t seem to mind, or even notice, while we ate traditional Chinese food and the rest of the adults and kids spoke in Chinese. But she did look a little surprised when it was time to cut the cake, and everyone sang the birthday song in Chinese! Michelle’s mom was very accommodating, though, and we sang the song over in English just for Evie! And it made me a little proud that our child obviously doesn’t mind kids who are “different” than her.

One thing that was obvious to me and to the other parents at the party was Evie’s exceptional language skills compared to the other children. Evie was the youngest at the party, and yet she spoke constantly to all of the adults and children there. Of course, she was the only one there only trying to learn one language instead of two, but Evie’s teachers have mentioned her excellent vocabulary to us as well, and Joel and I are certainly having a hard time keeping up with all of her words. She has also started learning the letters and what sounds each one can make. Being the little social butterfly that she is, we started using the names of her classmates as references for many letters. So, now K is for Kylie, T is for Timmy, L is for Lucy, etc. At first Evie got a little confused and thought the letter actually BELONGED to that person, which led to many amusing scenes as Evie chased Giggsy around trying to give her the letter G while yelling, “G for Giggsy! G for Giggsy!” It is also amusing as she spots various letters around the house, and “claims” them for various people. The other day, I was wearing a sweatshirt with “LIMITED” written across the front. Evie pointed to my shirt and exclaimed, “Lucy! Ice cream! Maya! Ice cream! Timmy! Evie! Daddy!!!” So…now we are working on using the actual names of the letters so that it’s not confusing to her kindergarten teachers one day when she calls all Ws “Mrs. Walsh’s letter!”

My parents also came for a visit this month, and a usual, Evie loved being spoiled by the grandparents. The first night they were here, Joel and I left the trio to get into trouble as we went to Joel’s co-worker’s wedding. All we knew was that the grandparents were bringing presents and fudge! So, we were pretty sure Evie would have a great time! By the time we got home, Evie didn’t want Grampa and Grandmom to leave to go to the hotel, and she cried all night after they left.

By the next morning, Evie was watching out the window for her grandparents to return. We piled into our car and went for brunch before driving into Boston. My parents have been to visit several times, but we had never gone into Boston. So, we decided to check out the Children’s Museum for a day of toddler fun, which turned out to be a great idea!!! The museum was three stories of activities designed specifically for children under the age of five. And, as an added bonus all military and their immediate family got in free. So, Dad’s military ID paid for him and mom and…me! And then educators also received free admission, so Joel’s faculty ID got him in for nothing, too. Which meant the only person who had to pay was EVIE!

The first floor was a lot of fun and mess! The first room Evie ran to was the bubble room. There were short tubs full of soapy water and all sorts of instruments to make bubbles. Grandmom knelt down at one of the tubs with Evie and helped show her (and the other kids gathered around) how to use the instruments to make bubbles. It didn’t take long for her to have an audience of little children. I guess even when on vacation, a teacher can’t help but teach.

Evie also loved the boats room. However, true to character, Evie immediately found a rubber ducky among all of the boats, and claimed it as her own, carrying it all around the room from water tub to water tub. And, true to character for Joel and me, we decided against using the rubber smocks and just let Evie splash in the water and get wet. She had a blast just pouring water and splashing, while the rest of us laughed at another poor father who was trying to explain the physics behind water power to his 2 year old son.

Next, Evie loved the special time with her daddy crawling under a turtle exhibit and watching the turtles swim in the water. Of course, pretty soon other little kids became curious as to what they were doing under there and decided to join them. Joel was stuck in a tiny space with more kids than he had ever bargained for!

Evie also enjoyed the game room, which had musical chairs that played music when you sat on them, an interactive wall with projected balls that bounced when you hit the wall, and a chess set. Evie was able to play her first game of chess. She looked very serious as she studied the pieces and tried to figure out where they needed to go.

We are pretty sure she won as she finally declared herself the victor and took the knight piece as her trophy.

We finally retired to the “under two” room where Evie was free to run and play with the playhouse, train tracks, life-size car, slides, and fish tanks. Grandmom and Grampa followed her around while Joel and I sat and watched other children with their exhausted parents and were thankful to have adult help! The museum was a blast and great entertainment for both toddlers and adults. We will definitely have to visit it again soon!

The next day was President’s day, and I had the day off to visit with my parents as they played with Evie and Joel went to work. We decided to all bundle up and go outside to play in the snow for as long gas Evie could stand the cold. Little did we know that Evie would be the last one to want to go in!

I was worried that she would sink in the deep snow that we had in our front yard, but I never realized that as the lightest of all of us, she actually had the easiest time! She loved running and running as her grandparents chased her. Then Grandmom and Grampa started a snowball fight while I made our very first snowman. Evie and the grandparents helped to finish off the snowman by finding two sticks for arms and a handful of rocks for the eyes and mouth. After Evie pronounced that his name was Frosty, we decided it was time to go in. Everyone was exhausted except for Evie, of course. She spent the rest of the afternoon playing at full speed – dancing, singing, and running around – while the rest of us tried to keep up.

The next day, my parents kept Evie while Joel and I both had to work. They played at home until the afternoon when it was time for Joel to take them to the airport and it was time to say goodbye to the grandparents. Evie was ok with them leaving until the next morning when she ran to the window to look for Grampa and Grandmom and couldn’t understand why she had to go to school again. I guess it just means that they have to visit often!

Joel and I have finished off this month in adult style. This week, we both took a “personal day” on Thursday and drove up north to go skiing. Though we had both skied many times before through high school and college, we had never skied together. We were both pleasantly surprised that we were at the same level of skiing, and we had a blast enjoying being outside and spending quality time together.

Then, on Friday night, Joel’s favorite band from college, Toad the Wet Sprocket, was in Boston. So, after Evie went to sleep and the babysitter arrived, we went to Boston and joined a room full of other “30 + somethings” who were all dancing and enjoying reliving their college years. I guess we’re finally learning how to enjoy both our family time and quality time together as adults. And I think it’s good timing, too, as Evie is soon to enter into the terrible two stage! (As is evidenced from the "accidental" crayons all over the table the other afternoon. Oops, Mommy!)

The Stake Christmas Adventure

2009-02-01T14:21:00.031-05:00

Wow am I behind in posting! Things have been a little crazy back in New Hampshire after our Christmas break. We have had a round of croup (Evie), a conference work trip to DC the weekend before the inauguration (Kristi), bouts of not sleeping (Evie…leading to Kristi and Joel), and of course the usual craziness that comes along with the beginning of the semester.

So, I will make this as short and sweet as possible, because I’m sure everyone just wants to see MORE PICTURES!

We started our Christmas adventures a little late because of a massive storm that came through New England. We were snowed in for a day, and had to cancel flights and re-book last minute openings to get out before Christmas. But we made good use of our time by celebrating early and giving Evie her one (yes, we only bought her one!) Christmas present from her mom and dad – a chocolate moose. (She loves moose!)

When we finally got out of New Hampshire, we were so relieved to see Little Rock again and spend several days with Joel’s family. Evie was amazed by the warm weather. She kept looking out the window and exclaiming, “No Snow!” Evie was also amazed at the tree indoors and loved looking at all of the ornaments with Nana.

And she loved playing with Pop and the farm and making all of the animal noises for him.

She even found a little version of the farm on the Christmas tree!

Joel and I really enjoyed spending some time with both of his brothers. It had been quite a while since all three boys were in the same place together for a significant amount of time. As always, Evie loved her Uncle Jay.

And her Uncle Jon and his girlfriend Tina were instant hits…even comforting Evie when she was sad.

Evie also loved the activities that Nana had planned, like baking cookies “all by herself”... with a little guidance from Nana.

And, as always, Nana and Pop tried to convert Evie to an Arkansas fan!

Evie was FINALLY old enough to play with her cousin Chandler. He had been waiting for that moment since she was born, and he had fun entertaining her with his flips and crashing his toys and basically being a silly little boy. Evie just laughed and laughed at him and hated when he had to leave.

But we did have to leave on Christmas day to travel to Arcadia to spend time with my family. We knew Evie was going to be spoiled rotten when my parents had a stocking that was bigger than Evie hanging from the hearth.

Evie was amazed by the tree in Arcadia, too, and had to name everything that she saw for Grandmom.

Evie loved being the Christmas elf handing out presents to everyone and even getting to open a few (or a LOT) herself! (Evie with my Gran Letlow)

And Granddaddy enjoyed watching Evie open the presents from Gran and him.

The grandparents LOVED having Evie around. My dad even read books to her, which is a rare thing for my dad to read! Ha Ha! Unfortunately, instead of reading the story about sharing, he made up his own words about how good cookies taste and how you should never let anyone else eat your cookies. Typical!

Luckily Gran knew how to read the books correctly!

The grandparents enjoyed her so much that they didn’t want to let her leave their sight, so Joel and I enjoyed a kid-free night with some of my high school friends.

After spending several days in Arcadia, Joel, Evie and I drove to Lafayette to spend time with friends and family there. We stayed with Evie’s parrain (godfather) Scott and his wife Emily.

And we visited with his parents, Ron and V, who practically adopted Joel when he was a young boy.

We saw several of Joel’s college roommates (like Scottie, pictured) and went to seeUncle Jon's new house.

Evie and I took a day trip to Alexandria to visit with my college roommate Jessica and her little boy Eli, who is only 5 months older than Evie.

Eli and Evie got to play at the park together and LOVED the slide! (And look at how CURLEY Evie’s hair was in the Louisiana humidity!)

Then it was time for a quick trip back to Arcadia, where we opened more presents with my aunt and her family, and then it was back to Little Rock to fly home. Evie love the BIG balls at the airport, and had to take Nana and Pop to look for all of them while Joel and I tried to make sure our suitcases were not over the weight limit with all of our presents!

The trip was a lot of fun, but we were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the Northeast, and we were actually ready to be back at home. And Evie was thrilled when she looked out the window and said, "Mama! SNOW!!!"

Living in a Winter Wonderland

2008-12-20T12:50:00.023-05:00

A lot has been happening over the past month, and we finally feel like New Englanders. Our town has had over 12 inches of snow in the past two days, and it is a winter wonderland!

Evie loved her first time playing in the snow. We woke to a white landscape, so I bundled her up and took her outside before we even started getting ready for the day. She loved touching the snow and playing with it in her hands. But once she walked out of the path of my footprints, and realized that her feet were stuck, she decided really quickly she didn’t like EVERYTHING about snow! (Pictured left, Evie also loved when I put snow on her nose!)

Joel has also had his first taste of snowy weather. He had the fun job of digging our cars and walk-way out of the foot of snow! And it seems as fast as he can dig, more and more just keeps coming down to cover up his hard work! But for now it’s still beautiful!

What was also beautiful was the ice storm that we experienced last weekend. Unfortunately, it was also VERY devastating. There were over 1 million people without power, heat, or water for several days as the rain kept coming down and freezing on everything it touched, weighing trees and power lines down and snapping branches. Trees were uprooted, roads were closed, and nearly everyone was COLD! Our family was without power, heat, or water from Thursday night until Saturday night, but we consider ourselves lucky! Early Friday morning, our neighbors came over to tell us that there was a large branch hanging right over our cars. Joel immediately moved our vehicles to the front of the house, and less than an our later, the HUGE branch fell right across where our cars had been parked. It could have easily crucked both of our windshields and hoods, like so many other branches and trees did to other people's cars!

By 10 a.m. on Friday morning, we had decided that we could NOT stay at our house, as the inside temperatures neared 50 degrees. So, we loaded up ourselves and our two dogs and drove around trying to put our names on waiting lists at hotels. Then we dropped the dogs off at Joel’s office and ventured to the mall, because, what else do you do when you have no electricity and haven’t had a shower…shop! I think the entire area had the same idea, because the stores were PACKED with homeless-looking people all trying to stay warm! We thought we had a hotel for Friday night, but found out late that evening that they didn’t have room after all. Luckily, Joel’s co-worker Scott had power and a spare empty room. So, we brought our entire family, dogs and all, and spread out quilts on the floor for pallets and had a warm place to sleep and a hot shower.

We were very fortunate to have our power own the next day. There are still thousands without power even now, a week later. We have had friends over to wash laundry and have offered for several co-workers and even Evie’s teachers to stay with us. Two of her most beloved teachers are still without power, so we left them our spare key and told them that we would be vacationing for two weeks, please use our home. There’s no reason for our warm house to go unoccupied when others don’t have water or heat!

So, welcome to New England winters!

In other news, it’s time for an Evie update. For those of you who don’t want to “hear” much bragging about my child, I’d advise you to stop reading now. LOL

Evie is developing like crazy. Even her teachers are amazed. We had parent-teacher conferences the other week, and her teachers told us that they were very impressed with her development and she seems very advanced for her age. They even gave us a picture of her playing with blocks. Joel and I didn’t realize how special the photo was until the teachers went on and on about how she stacked blocks by herself and had balance and coordination skills WAY advanced for her years. They went on and on about how impressive it was for her to be building towers from blocks at this stage, so Joel and I guess that’s a good thing! I'm just glad the teachers were impressed enough to snap a quick photo of the act. And of course, we just HAD to go out and buy her some blocks for home. Now, she entertains herself every night building towers and stacking all of the similar colors or similar shapes together. (Pictured left, the photo that caused the excitement among Evie's teachers)

Her teachers also said that she was a very determined child, a fact that we already knew. They said that she will watch the older kids on the playground with intensity and then go over and try and try the new skill until she finally accomplishes it. And then she’s all done, like it’s no big deal, and she moves on.

And apparently she is VERY social! We had a parent’s night at the daycare this month, and we met the parents of the other children in Evie’s class. Every parent there came to say hi to Evie and commented about how she will run up to them whenever they enter the classroom and say, “HI!” or “Bye bye!” and then run off. Even some of the older kids came by to say hi to Evie. Apparently, she plays with them all outside. Her teachers showed us several adorable pictures of her holding hands with other little girls around the room. They said that she is the most empathetic one, always coming running when someone is hurt and hugging and patting anyone who cries.

Joel and I have been very impressed ourselves with her vocabulary skills. She can repeat just about any word that you say to her, and she remembers them and their context. She knows some impressive words like manatee (a magnet on our refrigerator) and adorable (something that we, of course, call her). In fact the other day I was telling her that she was adorable. When I said, “Evie, you’re cute,” she replied, “No. Evie dadorable!”

She is also doing quite impressively with her numbers. She can count on her own all the way up to five easily, and sometimes can make it all the way to ten. And she is starting to understand the concept of numbers, correctly identifying if the picture has 2 or 3 balls, for instance. Of course, that has some downfalls, too. Now when she asks for an M&M, and we give her one, she says, “No! TWO M&Ms!” I just hope she never realizes quite how many 10 really is!

We are also working on her alphabet. She will repeat the letter after you, and sometimes keep going to the next two or three letters without prompts. The only ones that she has problems with are N and W. When you ask her to say W, she will usually say, “X”! She also understands that E-V-I-E spells Evie, and will spell it herself while looking at the letters above her crib in her room.

And, perhaps the most exciting development is her understanding of instructions. One weekend we were watching football together as a family, and I was explaining to Evie that the men were catching the ball, then they’d run and run and run, and then they would all fall down! The next night, I saw her get her ball out of her toy box. She would grab it off the floor, run and run around the living room, and then drop to her knees and say, “Fall down!” Yep, she may be the next Reggie Bush.

She can also easily follow two or three simple tasks, and she is more than willing to try even when she doesn’t fully understand. The other night, Evie was playing with a bouncy ball in the kitchen when I noticed that her pants were drooping down. I said, “Evie, can you pull up your pants? Do you know how to pull up your pants?” She replied, “Uh huh!” Then she reached down to the hems of each pants leg, pulled them both up to her calf and tried to walk around the kitchen while “pulling up her pants.” OK, so maybe she’s not as brilliant as we thought!

Oh yeah, and Joel and I both had birthdays this month. Happy Birthday to us!

Walking, Running, and Booing

2008-11-07T13:45:00.028-05:00

The past three weekends have been packed full of activity and fun for the Stake family. With Evie as active of a child as she is, we have been fortunate to have many activities to preoccupy her weekends.

The first weekend, the Stake family participated in the Susan G. Koman Walk for the Cure to support breast cancer research. We knew that it would be a long morning with an hour or so of speeches and introductions, followed by a three mile walk, and an awards ceremony, so we prepared by bringing along Evie’s stroller and plenty of snacks, drinks, and toys. What we didn’t know was that Mother Nature had decided to make that morning the coldest one yet, dropping well below freezing and covering the ground in ice and frost.

Because the weather forecast said it would get up to 50 degrees, we dressed in layers and brought along a blanket for Evie’s stroller. When we got there, we found Joel’s co-workers, who were also in the walk, and began passing around the coffee and hot coco. Evie quickly grew tired of the stroller and wanted to run around the large park area where we had gathered. So, I made sure she was bundled up and followed her around while she ran from here to there without aim or purpose. Just as I was growing tired and asking Joel for help, Evie started crying. Her little rosy cheeks made us think she was cold and/or hungry, so we headed back to the car to sit in the heat and have a snack. But once we got into the car, Evie just started crying even more. She screamed and screamed and pointed out the window, so we bundled her back up and let her go outside again. But, as soon as she started running around, she began crying again, this time inconsolably. After much discussion, we decided it was not smart to set off on a three mile walk with a screaming kid. So, Evie and I quit the walk and headed home, while Joel found a ride back later.

Evie continued to cry all the way home, which is very unusual for our cheerful kid. Once we got home, I began unbundling her and trying to console her. When I finally took off her shoes, I suddenly understood her complaints. Her shoes were apparently not water-proof, and the ice and frost on the ground had soaked right through both them and her thick socks, leaving her poor little feet and toes FROZEN. I hurriedly began putting a warm wash cloth over her feet and blowing on them and rubbing them in my hands. Finally she calmed down and began playing like nothing happened. But, of course, I felt AWEFUL! I called Joel at the walk and told him all about it. And then, as soon as he got home, we all loaded up into the car, drove to the mall, and bought Evie a new coat and three pairs of water proof shoes, including one pair that is guaranteed to keep you warm up to 10 degrees. There’s nothing like guilty parents to score a kid some new clothes and shoes!

The next weekend, my parents came for a visit from Louisiana. They flew in on Friday, and we all met at the day care center to pick Evie up. Evie got to show her Grandmom and Grampa around her school, and they got to meet her teachers. I had warned my parents that it might take her a while to warm up to them, but by the time we got home Evie was already calling their names and climbing and jumping all over them.

Of course, it definitely helped that the first thing they did after walking through the door was to unload their suitcases of toys and books and clothes and blankets for Evie. They had gifts from themselves and from both sets of my grandparents. Evie loved a quilt that my Gran made for her, and carried it into every room, piling it on the floor and jumping on top of it like it was a pile of leaves. She also loved the puppy slippers my Letlow grandparents sent. She kept laughing at them and watching them on her feet as she walked, which caused her to run into the wall several times! My Bernard grandmother sent Evie a set of magnets, to which she exclaimed, “Magmet!” and put them on the refrigerator before we could even get them out of the package. She also sent a set of books that fit into a carrying case. Evie carried them around with her all weekend, even insisting that they come into the car with her. My parents had loads of warm weather clothes for Evie (which I’m sure they rushed out and bought after hearing about us torturing her at the walk the weekend before!), a little red wallet, and books, as well as some boxed Cajun food for me and Joel. Yum! So we were all really excited to see Grandmom and Grampa in town!

The next morning, we went to the ever popular Parkers Maple Barn for pancakes and shopping. Then we spent the afternoon showing my parents around our town and my new campus. We took them to a soccer game, and Joel and I watched soccer while they ran around an open field and the baseball field with their granddaughter. Evie would hold each of their hands and run as fast as she could while insisting, “More Fast!” I don’t think my parents have ever been more relieved for a game to be over, because they were both EXHAUSTED after an hour of constant running with a toddler.

The next day was Sunday, so we went to church. Joel, Dad, and I went to the service while Mom stayed in the nursery with Evie and played. By the time we went back to pick them both us, Grandmom had Evie on one knee and another kid on her other knee and was reading to them both. I guess even when she’s on vacation, she’s still a teacher at heart! The grandparents enjoyed a day of playing with Evie at home and remembering just how much energy a toddler can have.

Monday, I took off from work and Grandmom, Grampa, Evie and I went to the neighborhood park to play. We had the park all to ourselves, and Evie led Grandmom and Grampa all around dragging them by their finger. They pushed her in the swing, and slid her down the slide. Grandpa helped her climb all the way up the monkey bars and Grandmom even climbed up onto the playground equipment and went over the bridge and peeped through the looking hole with Evie. But then it was time for their flight, so Evie and I drove them to the airport and had to say goodbye.

The following weekend was, of course, Halloween! We have long known what costume Evie would wear because when they first began arriving at the stores, Evie picked it out herself. As she was riding in the buggy, Evie saw a Winnie the Pooh costume and began growling and pointing at it. I made the mistake of letting her touch it, and it was all over. She carried the costume in her lap for the rest of the trip, and then carried it all around the house like a stuffed animal. I was a little worried on Halloween night that she might be scared of actually wearing the costume, but Evie took one look at herself in the mirror, and patted the little stuffed belly and just laughed and laughed.

Because we don’t know many people in our neighborhood, Joel and I thought this would be a great opportunity to actually introduce ourselves to our neighbors while trick or treating. What we discovered is that we live in even a better, more friendly, neighborhood than we even realized. We went to about 12-15 houses, knocking on each door and introducing ourselves. Each neighbor was so interested in having someone new in the area, and wanted to know all about us and tell us all about themselves. We discovered that nearly every home had small children under 10, with two of the homes having new babies. Several people invited us to bring Evie outside to ride bikes and play with their kids in the spring and to sled down the hill in the winter. And everyone thought Evie was adorable as she smiled and laughed each time someone actually let her take a piece of candy out of their basket and put it into her bag. She thought it was just the greatest game ever!

While we were walking down the street, a car slowly approached us and rolled down the window. We could see through the darkness that there were adults in the car, so we were a bit leery of them until we realized the SUV had “Hudson Fire Department” on the side. The firemen asked if we needed more glow sticks to keep us safe and asked how we were doing. Evie loved her latest “toy” and waved the green glow stick around like a wand for the rest of the night. And Joel and I were thrilled that we had joined such a friendly and safe community. Of course, Evie was exhausted at the end of the evening and went straight to bed, while Joel and I stayed up and ate all of her candy. Well, you don’t expect us to let a 16 month old who is already very active to load up on sugar, do you? I think we did the only responsible thing!

So, life in New Hampshire is busy but good. We are getting settled more and more every day, and find that we have chosen a place that we enjoy and feel safe and secure in. The Fall has been beautiful, but I fear it is going to be over soon. But that’s ok. Snow will just be a new and exciting adventure for Evie and her parents!

Forks, Fences, and Fall

2008-10-18T20:54:00.017-04:00

Evie is learning to eat with a fork this week. Let me restate that. Evie is learning to hold a fork in her hand while she shovels food into her mouth with her other hand and occasionally puts the fork in her mouth to chew on the prongs and laugh about the clinking sound the metal makes on her teeth. So far, most of the food ends up in her hair, on the floor, or mysteriously on the wall behind her high chair.

Of course the dogs don’t mind. They have learned very quickly to sit underneath her chair at meal times just waiting for juicy morsels to come raining down. And then, as soon as I get her out of the chair, they commence in licking her pants, hands, and shirt clean of all juices. At first we tried to stop the ritual, but we’ve all but given up. She loves her “puppy bath” and squeals with delight, and of course, they think Evie taste delicious. I just hope Giggsy, the bulldog, doesn’t decide to sink her teeth in one day.

We think Evie is also going through a growing streak. Either that, or she just likes to say the words “eat,” “snack,” “milk,” “water,” and “more” because she is asking to eat all the time these days. Lately we have been buying 1 ½ pints of strawberries, 1 pint of blueberries, a bag of apples, and ½ of a cantaloupe or honeydew every week just to satisfy her hunger for fruit, which is about 1/3 of her diet. If it weren’t so cold these days (it’s in the 30s tonight!), I would grow our own garden just to save on produce costs!

Speaking of the weather, Joel decided it was time to build a fence around our back yard. What, you ask, brought on this need for a manly home improvement project? The fact that it’s getting too cold for us to go outside to walk the dogs in our PJs every night. So, last weekend, he declared that he was building a fence, came home from Home Depot and Lowes with all sorts of building materials, and the next day he and a friend spent the morning building us a fence complete with a little gate leading to our vehicles. It’s been WONDERFUL to just be able to open the back door and let the dogs run around our little yard, and Evie loves being outside without her mom and dad trailing around following her every move.

And Evie is loving being outdoors these days. The cool weather just seems to encourage her to run and run and run even more. Many of you have asked for photos of Evie in the beautiful fall foliage, but that is a little harder to manage than you might think with a 15 month old who would rather run full speed than stop and smile at a camera. So…here are a few of the “best we could get” photos from this weekend. I hope everyone enjoys their Autumn as much as we are enjoying ours!

To Everything Turn, Turn, Turn

2008-10-03T10:14:00.020-04:00

The leaves are changing beautiful colors around here and the temperature is beginning to drop. I hope we’re ready for a climate change, because I think it’s coming fast. It was 40 degrees last night, and the high today is only in the 50’s!

But the weather is not the only thing changing in our lives. I have accepted a new job as Assistant Athletic Director at Merrimack College. It is a small, private, Catholic school (Division 2) in North Andover, Mass., which is only 25 miles from our home. I start the job on Monday, and I’m hoping the commute is only 30-40 minutes instead of the 1 ½ to 2 hours into Boston. The job at Northeastern just didn’t fit me well, although I made a lot of friends and started a lot of new programs in the short time I was there. Working for a school that large, you get lost in the crowd, and I really have enjoyed getting to know all of the student-athletes over the years instead of just sitting in an office planning programming for them while never really getting face-to-face time with the students. Plus, the commute was, well…awful!

So, yeah for the opportunity of another new job! The separation from Northeastern went relatively well. I had actually informed the Athletic Director of my interest in Merrimack as soon as I was contacted for the initial interview. I knew it wasn’t conventional to tell your current boss that you were looking for another job, but I’m just not good at covering up things. So, I told him as honestly as I could, and I think he respected that. It actually worked to my advantage, too. When I was in the initial interview with Merrimack, the AD said, “Well, I am letting you know now that if we were to offer you the job, I would have to talk to Northeatern’s AD first, because he is a friend of mine.” I think I shocked him when I said that I had already spoken to him and I had his blessing to come to this interview before I ever arrived. So, everyone at Northeastern knew I was looking to leave and understood and respected the reasons why. How can you argue with “I want to spend more time with my family and less time stuck in a traffic jam?”

My job isn’t the only thing changing in our lives either. Evie is growing and learning and changing faster than we can keep up! (I know, I know…several of you have said it was about time for another Evie update!) I took her to the doctor yesterday, and she is now 32 inches in height (in the 90th percentile), and 23 lbs, 2 oz. (50%). So, she is long and lean as ever! It is getting hard to find clothes that fit her because everything in her age range is too short, but everything in 18-24 months is still too long and too wide. So, thank you to Gran for sending her a belt! She wears it almost everyday now.

She is also learning new things everyday. We literally can’t keep up with her language. I was singing “Little Cabin in the Woods” to her for the first time yesterday at the doctor’s office. She was fascinated with the motions, and in about 5 minutes could do all of the motions and was saying, “Help me! Help me!” at the appropriate time. I was shocked. Of course she was also standing up on the examining table trying to get to the picture of a moose on the wall. (She LOVES to “do” a moose by putting her hands to her ears like antlers. She thinks it’s hilarious!) She also tried to jump off of the table several times while the doctor and I were talking. She pushed the doctor’s chair around the room, and she climbed up and down and up and down the step stool to the table while saying “UP!” “Down!” “UP!” “Down” the entire time. When I asked the doctor about her weight compared to her height, she said as long as she is eating well (and she does! She eats everything in front of her.) she just seems to be a “very active” child, and the leanness is normal for active children.

Her vocabulary is very large now. Even her teachers have mentioned to Joel that she is very intelligent and inquisitive for her age. I would start a list of all the things she can say, but it would be much too long and I’m sure I would forget some. But some of them are really cute! Like, she has learned “M&M,” and says it and points to our candy jar every time Joel or I try to sneak one in. We only give her one a day, but she asks for “M&M&M&M&M” all the time. I guess she is really related to the Letlow family! (Pictured left, Evie's sense of fashion is amazing. I really think the orange sweatshirt, white bib/cape, blue belt, no pants, and one pink sock look is going to catch on soon! And yes, she put all of that on herself. She can't blame Joel or me years from now!)

Evie says “book” and “read” and “lap” when she wants to sit in your lap and have you read to her. She still loves to read, and we spend the majority of our playtime doing so. Of course, she likes to sit in your lap when you are sitting Indian-style, so if you are sitting in another way, she will literally try to pick up your legs and move them (while saying, “Move!”) until you are sitting where she can sink down into your lap. One of my favorite books to read to her is an alphabet book, but it is for purely selfish reasons. Next to each letter is a picture of something that begins with that letter, and next to the Q is a picture of a queen. Every time we get to that letter, Evie points to the picture and says, “Mama!” Yes, sweety…your mama is the queen of this house. LOL.

While I was off work this week (I took a week off between quitting my last job and starting my new one), I went to Evie’s daycare center to observe her from the second story windows that look directly over her class. I thought it would be neat to see how she acts with other children and adults without Joel or me around. What I saw was, well…amusing. The class of 12 children were sitting around a huge sheet of paper painting on it. All of the other children were sitting along the edge painting in front of them or kneeling on all fours, painting the edges. Not Evie. Evie was smack dab in the middle of the paper, sitting in a blob of red paint with two paint brushes making circles of red paint on either side of her. Her hands, feet, and little jeans were COVERED entirely in red paint. And she was just smiling and content to sit in the middle of the picture. When the other children grew tired of the activity, and the teachers began washing their hands, Evie stood up and began slipping and sliding all over the painting leaving little red foot prints and streak marks everywhere. Finally, one teacher picked her up and began washing her hands and feet. After they were relatively clean, I saw her pick Evie up, look at her jeans, look at another teacher, and both of them just shrugged. Luckily, she had an extra pair of clothes there, so they changed her and threw the jeans into the washing machine on site.

After that, all of the other children sat alone or in groups playing contently with toys and books. Not Evie! Evie ran around following the teachers and trying to “help” them wipe up the paint from the floor, pick up the paint brushes and throw things in the trash. The poor teachers had to keep smiling at Evie, thanking her for helping, and taking the wipes, brushes, etc out of her hands and asking her to not open the lid to the trash can.

Sigh…I guess that confirms it. We definitely have an “active child.” And I think she’s getting more active and too smart for her own good. Let’s hope Joel and I survive the next 17 years!

If I knew you were coming, I’d have baked a cake

2008-09-23T14:23:00.009-04:00

Last weekend, Joel’s dad and step-mom came to visit. They spent the first few days with us in New Hampshire, and then took a few days to themselves to tour Boston. Evie, of course, loved their being here. That morning, Joel told her daycare workers that we would have guests, and the teachers said all day long she kept saying “Nana” and “Pop.” That afternoon she showed her Nana and Pop around the daycare facility, and then we went to see Joel’s office and labs.

We spent most of that night just relaxing and catching up. The next morning, we took them to Parkers Maple Barn to eat pumpkin pancakes, since they were such a hit when Courtney and Kelvin visited. Evie walked Nana around the restaurant and store, pointing to things that she could identify, growling at pictures of bears and oinking at pigs.

After brunch, we went to Lull Farm. We visited the animals, as always, and decided to try picking our own apples. In reality, picking apples with a one-year-old is not the best idea. Evie basically ran around the trees while I chased her, Joel and Mr. JD tried to stay cool in the shade, and Linda climbed the trees to pick apples. Visiting the farm store was much more rewarding, as Evie loved all of the pumpkins and flowers outside, and we had a chance to get some great photos of her in the “Fall scenery.”

Sunday morning, we took JD and Linda to our church with us. Linda stayed in the nursery and played with Evie while JD, Joel and I attended worship service. After the service, our pastor came to meet JD and the two of them discussed all of the intricacies of pasturing a church. In fact, JD soon found himself being recruited to move to New Hampshire and pastor after he retires from the Arkansas Baptist Convention. We’ll see if he takes them up on the offer!

Nana and Pop stayed in town Monday and took Evie for the entire day. They played around the house and chased each other outside. When Joel and I returned from work, we were amazed to see a clean house, supper on the stove, and an apple crisp dessert sitting on the counter. We decided that Nana and Pop should DEFINITELY move to New Hampshire when Pop retires!

Linda and JD spent the rest of their trip touring Boston, throwing a tea bag into the Boston harbor, viewing the grave site of Paul Revier, and learning more about Boston than Joel and I know together. Hopefully one day we can pretend to be tourist and site see, but for now, it was a wonderful mini-vacation having the Stakes come to visit.

First Visitors

2008-09-06T10:28:00.019-04:00

The Stake family had our first visitors (besides my parents who helped us move) this past weekend. My college roommate, Courtney, and her husband, Kelvin, and their dog, Braut, came in from Pennsylvania for the Labor Day Weekend. Evie loved having more people to play with, but honestly she LOVED having another puppy dog to harass. The house was full of life with our two dogs, Braut, and Evie all chasing each other around 24/7.

We decided to let Courtney and Kelvin have a taste of our new lifestyle, so we took them to our favorite new place to visit -- Lull Farm. This farm is just a few miles from our house and has a petting area with baby goats, sheep, pigs, cows, and bunnies for the children to play with. They also have pick your own for whatever fruit or vegetable is in season as well as a large store full of fresh produce, home made goodies, fresh bread, various flowers and shrubs, etc. Joel, Evie, and I have loved going there at least once a week and stocking up on fresh produce to cook (or eat raw!) throughout the week. We have discovered that Evie LOVES fresh strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, and peaches, so we try to keep them available for her at all times.

After visiting the farm and gathering lots of goodies for our meal that night, we went back to the house to make a delicious meal of tomatoes, basil & mozzarella, fresh corn on the cob, fresh salad, venison steaks, and blueberries, peaches, and blackberries with whipped cream for dessert. YUM!

Courtney and Kelvin must have read our minds, because they scored BIG with Evie by bringing a Little People tractor and farm set for her to play with. She LOVED all of the animals and told Kelvin and Courtney what each one said. (All of them except the llama. What exactly does a llama say?!?!?)

We also ventured out to find a maple syrup barn/ restaurant that Courtney had heard from a co-worker had the best pancakes and fresh syrup ever. We all piled into one car and drove...and drove...and drove... We saw barns and farms and beautiful farm houses. But no maple syrup barn. We finally pulled over at a small produce stand on the side of the road and asked a really elderly gentleman if he knew how to get there. He really wasn't sure, but gave us the helpful directions to "go back the way you came and turn left, then turn right." Luckily Joel apparently speaks old-man-directions, and we eventually found our way there. It was definitely worth it. They had the BEST pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin muffins and blueberry pancakes and, of course, fresh maple syrup I've ever tasted.

We spent the rest of the weekend just visiting and catching up. It was really nice to see a familiar face (even if they looked a little different -- Courtney and Kelvin have both lost a LOT of weight by living a healthier lifestyle this past year!) And Evie, of course, loved the extra attention. And if anyone else is interested in fresh produce or wonderful pumpkin pancakes, feel free to head up to New Hampshire. Our door is always open (at least until we get snowed in!)

The Yankee Stakes

2008-08-20T13:49:00.020-04:00

The Stake family is now a Yankee tribe! OK, so not really. People here are constantly making fun of our accents and use of "y'all," but we have at least successfully moved north and settled in a bit. I know I have a lot of catching up to do, so I will try to do so very briefly so as not to bore you to death. And the easiest way to do so is...with pictures!

The three day move with a one-year-old, two dogs, my parents, Joel and me was a lot easier than I expected, but we were all EXHAUSTED by the time we finally arrived in New Hampshire. Evie LOVED sleeping in the bed with her mom and dad in the hotel rooms.

She also loved the Kleenex boxes that just kept spitting out more and more tissues!!!

The movers arrived only a day late (which apparently is very good according to other friends who have recently moved!) We still have several boxes left, but our duplex is starting to look like a real home. Evie helped with the move by cleaning the dishwasher, which was apparently very dirty!

Evie's first real bedroom turned out very cute, thanks to the help of Joel, my parents, and several family members who donated old or new furniture. Thanks!!!

Everything has just worked out incredibly well since we've been here. We moved only knowing that we had a place to stay, and Joel had a job. Everything else was still up in the air, but he pieces are falling in place even more perfectly than we could have imagined. Our first biggest celebration was that Evie got into a fantastic daycare center that is located right on Joel's campus. Joel and I went with her for three "transition days," and just fell in love with the center and especially with her teachers. (Pictured left, Evie on her first full day of daycare)

We were told that her lead teacher, Mrs. Walsh, is one of the best and most experienced childcare workers in the area, and we believe it. She is SO good with all of the kids, treating them with respect and talking to them like they are adults while knowing their limitations. We are so excited that we finally got accepted (we have been on the waiting list for several months now), and just in time for Joel to start his job! (Pictured right, Evie with her teachers Ms. Baloo (left) and Mrs. Walsh (right) and several of her classmates play with bubbles.)

The next wonderful piece of the puzzle that fell into place was that I finally found a job. And not just any job, but a job doing exactly what I did (and loved doing) in Lafayette. I am the assistant director of compliance for the athletic department Northeastern University in Boston. All of the people in the department seem really great and laid back (and young!) My position is a new one that they specifically created to work more with the student-athletes helping them with a program called Champs/Lifeskills, which stresses creating productive citizens out of the students. This was an area that I really wanted to concentrate on at Lafayette, and now I finally have the chance at Northeastern. I am really excited about the work I will be able to do...but...I am NOT excited about the commute. I will be driving 30 minutes to the nearest train station to catch a train into Boston that lasts an hour, and then transfer to the subway for a 30 minute ride. So...the 2 hour commute one-way does not seem like fun, but I may end up enjoying the alone, quiet time after a year of having Evie attached to my hip. (That is, if I can stop missing not having her attached to my hip!) But, the commute also means that Joel has to become Mr. Mom, getting Evie up in the morning and ready for school and picking her up from daycare every day! I'm sure he'll do a great job. I just hope I can get used to not being as "needed." I guess we really are starting a new chapter in our lives!

Summer Lovin' Had Me a Blast

2008-07-24T17:19:00.018-04:00

The Stake family is moving north tomorrow, but before we left Louisiana, I wanted to quickly share some of our pictures of our summer fun!

Evie spent many days enjoying her pool and the sun!

"Hey, you're blocking my sun!"

We spent July 4th at the Letlow family reunion where Evie met cousins of cousins of cousins.

Evie at the 4th with her Grampa, his sister (Aunt Pat) and his cousin's grandchild (Evie's 3rd cousin?!?!?)

While we were in Arcadia, we were able to spend time with some of my friends from childhood. Pictured left, Sabrina's son, Tiffany and Peyton's daughter, and Evie play in the sprinklers at a bar-b-que.

Evie loves to swing, and she's now big enough to use a "big girl" swing at my friend Sabrina's house.

Even though she can walk (and even run!) now, Evie's still a little monkey who loves to climb!

Evie had fun learning how to cook from her Nana Linda in Little Rock.

And she visited the zoo for the first time with Nana Linda and Pop JD Stake.

Evie loved spending time with her great-grandparents in Arcadia.

And she loved her ducky towel.

But mostly, this summer, Evie LOVED to run!!!

Happy Birthday to Evie!

2008-07-05T12:37:00.016-04:00

Happy Birthday to Evie! The island baby turned one this past weekend, and we all found out that she LOVES parties! And SO many people love her enough to travel quite a distance to be at her party. JD, Linda, and Joel’s brother Jay drove down from Little Rock. His other brother Jon, cousin Rachel, and his lifetime friend (and Evie’s Parrain or Godfather) Scott Thomas and his wife Emily drove up from Lafayette. My Aunt Pat, Uncle Bob, and Cousin Robby drove in from Monroe, and my Letlow grandparents and my Godmother Betty Darsey came all the way from…well, they live just down the road in Arcadia.

We found out some very interesting things about Evie that day. First of all, she LOVES parties. Evie just loved all the attention and laughed with everyone there. The party officially started at 2 p.m., and we sang “Happy Birthday” and ate “island” food of cake, fruit, vegetables, sausage with pineapple, pineapple/cream cheese sandwiches, chocolate covered cookies in the shapes of sandals and flowers and pineapples and coconut trees, brownies, chips and dip, and little oatmeal sandwiches shaped like turtles. Then we opened presents, played a cross-word puzzle game with clues that were all about Evie (congrats, again to Rachel for being the first to finish the puzzle and win the prize!), and then spent the rest of the afternoon visiting and playing with all the new toys! Because Scott and Emily Thomas couldn’t drive up until Em got off work, they arrived a little later and stayed later than everyone else. But Evie didn’t seem to mind the long hours at all. She played and partied from 2 p.m. all the way until she fell asleep exhausted at 7 p.m.

We found out that day that Evie prefers strawberries and melon over birthday cake. After everyone sang, and Grampa helped her blow out the candle, I cut off a little corner of the cake so that she could have the first piece as everyone stood around to watch her take her first bite of processed sugar. She played with the cake in her hands a bit, and then looked around at everyone totally uninterested in the sugary goodness. My dad finally broke off a little piece and fed it to her. She tasted it and thought about it a little and seemed uninterested in much more. After my dad fed her a few more pieces, we gave up and cut up a strawberry and a piece of melon for her. Those she loved! She ate them all and begged for more. Oh well! I guess there could be worse things than a child who prefers fruits to cake!

We also discovered that Evie loves tissue paper! We let Evie open all of her own presents, and I thought it was going to take forever and may end up with me or Joel doing it all for her. Nope. Evie loved pulling the tissue out of the bags and ripping off the wrapping paper from the presents. She was adorable reaching her little arm WAY down into the colorful bags to see what cool toys or clothes were waiting for her at the bottom. And she got some really neat toys and beautiful clothes, too, many of which have been buzzing and beeping and singing for hours at a time every day since (thanks again, Jay, for buying the LOUDEST toy you could find. Paybacks…somehow there will be paybacks!) Evie also received several letters from friends and family that I’m sure she will love opening whenever the right time comes. I really think that will be so special to her as she grows and matures! (And for those of you who are still working on yours, you can mail them or email them to me any time! The more the better!!!) (Pictured right, The Stake brothers, Jon, Jay, and Joel)

We also found out that, much like her Letlow relatives, Evie doesn’t mind talking to just about anyone…once she gets used to you. She proudly told everyone at the party what a bear says (growl), a chick says (peep), a dog says (bark bark or pant pant), a duck says (quack), a horsy says (neigh), a sheep says (baaa), a cow says (moo), and Grampa says (lul lul). She also called for Mama, Dada, Nana, Pop, Grandmom (Mam mom), Grampa (lul lul), Jay (gay), Jon, Bob, Pat, and our dogs Daisy and Giggsy. She had what sounded like full conversations with several people at the party, although I don’t know (and I don’t think they were sure either) what she was saying. (Pictured left, Evie with her Uncle "Gay")

It was a lot of fun having both sides of the family in attendance for the big event. Joel and I especially loved visiting with everyone and spending some “quality time” with each person at the party. And now we can add “parties” to Evie’s favorite things. Maybe we’ll have one again…say, same day next year! (Pictured right, "Grampa, maybe you should ask for new shoes for your birthday. Your Crocks have HOLES in them!")

I Would Walk 500 Miles and I Would Walk 500 More

2008-06-25T09:17:00.020-04:00

I know, it’s been forever since I’ve written anything on here, but it’s not because nothing has been happening. Quite the contrary. In the past three weeks, Evie and I have been to Oregon, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Hampshire, back to Arkansas, and back to Louisiana. Poor little girl has slept in three different time zones in three weeks. Her life and schedule has been turned upside down, but that hasn’t stopped her from growing and developing like crazy.

So, let’s see…where did I stop off? As you might have guessed, Joel wrapped everything up and joined us from St. Thomas, and now we are no longer islanders. We spent some time with my parents and grandparents in Arcadia enjoying all the new toys and the new swing that they had bought for Evie. Then we celebrated my mom’s birthday on June 2, but Evie gave her a birthday present the day before. She took her first step!!!

On June 1, Evie was playing with Grandmom and Grampa when she stood up and decided to walk over to Grampa. And so she took her first step while Joel and I were both out of the room. Luckily for us, she took several more that same day, so we were able to actually see the event. She is still only taking one or two steps before plopping down, but it is definitely progress. Which means, we had to buy Evie her first shoes. And she does NOT like shoes!!! She cries and pulls on them and tries to kick them off. But with a little exposure every day, we are slowly convincing her that she has to wear appropriate clothing now that she isn’t living the easygoing life on the island.

After we celebrated Grandmom’s birthday, Grandmom, Evie, and I all left for a trip to Oregon to see my cousin Chris get married. We met up with two of my aunts, my grandmother, a cousin, and her husband in Houston and then flew to Oregon together. It was a lot of fun spending time with all of the Bernard women…and poor Justin, who was the only male on the trip and was thus sentenced to hauling suitcases and pulling up the car and driving to places that we had no directions to and all other “male responsibilities.”

The wedding was nice, and it was great to see my cousin Chris marry a sweet girl like Tia. However, after her third wedding, it has now been sufficiently proven that weddings are not the best events to take babies to. The wedding rehearsal was held after Evie’s bedtime, and since the days were already so crazy with traveling and a new time zone, I opted to keep her in the hotel and put her to sleep and miss the rehearsal. (Pictured right, Evie with my Grandmother Bernard)

The wedding itself was held the next morning, so we got all dressed up, and Evie even tolerated shoes at least until we got in the doors of the church. She was being wonderful and cute and everyone was talking to her and playing with her and everything was going smoothly…until the wedding started. See, on this trip, Evie decided that my 20-something year old cousin Jennifer was actually a baby, since that was one of the few words she could say. She called Jennifer “Baby” the whole trip and everyone laughed and thought it was cute. So, you guessed it…when Jennifer, who was part of the bridal party, came down the aisle, Evie started saying, “Baby!” and pointing to Jennifer. Only this time Jennifer didn’t respond to her. So, Evie got louder, and louder, and louder. Until she was screaming, “Baby! Baby! Baby!” in the middle of the ceremony. Needless to say, Evie and I quickly exited the sanctuary and missed the actual ceremony. But it sounded beautiful from outside! (Pictured left, Me, Evie, Grandmom, Aunt Ann, Tia (the bride), Chris (the groom), my Grandmother, Aunt Betty (the mother of the groom), Justin, and Jennifer (aka Baby.)

The reception was held in a three-story old stone building with the most beautiful views of Oregon and the river below. We had a nice dinner, but by that time Evie was tired and ready for her nap. So, we found a quiet little room with no one else around, and I put Evie to sleep and stayed in the room with her in my arms. Luckily the reception lasted a while, and activities were still going on when she awoke. We were able to see the happy couple off as newlyweds and blow bubbles at them (and Evie) before they left. However, I must point out that while the trip was fun spending time with family, we technically missed the rehearsal, the ceremony, and most of the reception. Yep, weddings…not for babies!

After the Oregon trip, we spent several days back in Arcadia. However, they were far from relaxing as the Stake/Letlow crew each came down with a stomach virus beginning with Evie. I’ll spare you the details, but there were a lot of liquid diets and quick trips to the bathroom for the adults after spending four days cleaning up after a baby who couldn’t keep any of her own food down. (Pictured left, Evie with my Grandaddy Letlow)

Luckily we all survived and Joel, Evie, and I drove up to Little Rock the next week to spend Father’s Day with his family. Evie was spoiled to death by Nana and Pop and Uncle Jay all weekend long. Nana had found a great supply of toys at a garage sale, so Evie had tons to play with and see. Evie’s Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Chuck, and Cousin Chandler came to visit on Father’s Day, and Evie had so much fun being entertained by a rowdy 5-year-old boy. Chandler did a great job learning how to play with a baby and letting Evie play with all of his toys. Earlier that weekend, Evie had fallen in love with a picture of Chandler and regularly gave it kisses, so all day long Chandler tried to explain to Evie that HE was the boy in the photo. All of the adults were amused as he kept showing her the photo and saying, “That boy right there, Evie, that’s ME! See? We look alike! That’s because that’s ME, Evie! You don’t have to play with the picture, I’m RIGHT HERE!”

Evie’s Uncle Jon also called that day, as he couldn’t make it up to Little Rock. As he was talking to Nana, Evie started babbling by the phone, so Nana told Evie to, “Say hi to Uncle Jon.” And sure enough, Evie said, “Hi, Jon!” I think everyone was amazed that she actually said his name! By the end of the week, Evie was saying Pop and Nana and Chandler and Jay. Her vocabulary is just growing by leaps and bounds these days, so we have to be extra careful what we say around her!

We left from Little Rock to travel to our future home of Nashua, New Hampshire for a week. We didn’t have much of a schedule other than to look for housing, daycare, and meet with Joel’s new coworkers. We thought we would have a chance to relax a bit, but boy were we wrong!!! Looking at houses and taking tours of daycare facilities took up every bit of our time, and Joel, Evie, and I were all exhausted at the end of every day.

The area was absolutely beautiful, full of quaint little New England style houses (which would make sense because we were in New England!) and beautiful stretches of trees and countryside. We were able to have dinner with all of Joel’s future coworkers, and I quickly understood why Joel was so excited about his new position. His fellow faculty and their families were all just great. I told Joel that they were actually the type of coworkers that we would want to have over for dinner or get together with to grill and watch the game on the weekend. That definitely made me even more excited about the upcoming move. We also found two apartments that we liked and applied for and a daycare center that we just LOVED and put our names on the waiting list for. So, now we are just playing the waiting game hoping everything will work out perfectly for our new move.

After our exhausting trip to New Hampshire, we returned to Little Rock for two days before heading back to Arcadia. Evie was surprised by an early birthday present of a kiddy pool in her Grandmom and Grampa’s yard, and now everyone is busy getting ready for the big one-year-birthday-party event this weekend! Hopefully everything will go smoothly and Evie will have a birthday party that she will remember for…oh, no she probably won’t remember any of it…oh well, at least the photos will hopefully turn out nice! LOL

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

2008-05-28T11:31:00.016-04:00

Today is Evie's 11 month birthday, which means she will soon be an entire year old! It doesn't seem possible that we have been away from friends and family raising a child on an isolated island for almost a year, but the calendar doesn't lie.

While thinking of Evie's one year birthday, of course my thoughts turn to parties and gifts. That's where all of you come in. The Stake family is in transition right now (aka homeless), and Evie doesn't need much more "stuff" while we don't have a place to put it. But...we would like to provide everyone an opportunity to give her a "gift" to let her know how much you've enjoyed watching her grow.

So, I am stealing an idea from my friend, Jessica, who stole this idea from somewhere else. A writing assignment:

Write a letter to Evie. It's that simple. I would like to put together a collection of letters from different people in Evie's life that she can open and read at specific special moments in her life. For instance, on her first date I would like to hand her a few letters written by various people in her life giving her advice, encouragement, funny stories, or just love. So, I guess if this writing assignment has a topic, it would be "Evie, read this when..." I am going to seal all of the letters in envelopes that are labeled, "Evie, read this when _____" and give them to her unopened whenever the special event comes.

I thought this might be especially great considering how some children (not me or Joel, of course!) might get tired of hearing their parents' advice all the time and may appreciate hearing encouragement from another source that loves and has their best interest in mind. How wonderful would it be to hear funny stories from your grandfather about the first time he wrecked his car on the day that you are overwhelmed with emotions about crashing your own vehicle. Or how special to read a letter of love from your aunt the night of your first date. Or even a letter full of stories about your mom and dad when they were young written by their best childhood friend.

So, your assignment, should you chose to accept it, is to write a letter. It can be one sentence ("Evie, on your first date remember to bring extra money in case he's a jerk and you have to call a taxi to take you home!") or many pages full of stories and advice. It can contain stories about you or about Evie's parents or about Evie. It can be silly or sweet or informative. It can contain advice of what to do or what not to do. It can be whatever you would want to say (or you wish someone would have said to you) from your heart. I have listed several events at the end of this blog that you can pick from if you don't have a specific event in mind, or you can write about another event that you think is important. It doesn't matter if people write on the same topic or some topics aren't covered at all. If you'd like to write more than one letter, great! You can email me your letter, or mail it, or hand it to Evie in person. It can be typed or hand written or even scribbled in Crayon.

The details or the specifics aren't important. They are all up to you. The important part is that Evie hears several different views from several different people who love her and care about her at every important occasion of her life. All of you have had important roles in helping to mold and shape Joel and me into the people that we are, and I am so thankful that we were able to learn from your insight. Now, I hope that you will pass that on to our child. I hope that all of you who enjoy reading this blog every week will take the time to write something for Evie in return. That way, Evie's first birthday will bring her sweet memories for years and years to come!

Possible topics:
on your first day of school
when you learn how to ride a bike
when you get your driver's license
when you have a big school project to do
when you fail your first exam
when you win your first award
when your first pet dies
when you loose/break something valuable
when you loose the big game
when you think your parents are being unfair
when your parents are embarrassing you
on the first day of junior high/middle school
on the first day of high school
on the first day of college
when you wreck your first car
on your first date
on prom night
when you fall in love
after your first break-up
on your first day of work
when you wonder if God is real
when you loose someone you love
when you don't know what to do with your life
on the day you move out of your parents' house
when you are worried
when you are scared
when you are happy
on your wedding day

If you are reading this, I'll assume that you have access to the Internet or know how to get in touch with one of us. If you want to email the letter (or need to ask for a physical address to send it to) my email address is smilekl@yahoo.com.

Happy writing!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Evie (and Kristi) has left the island!

2008-05-21T10:26:00.001-04:00

Goodbye, St Thomas!

Evie Says, "Happy Mother's Day!"

2008-05-15T15:53:00.013-04:00

Ok, so Evie didn’t actually say, “Happy Mother’s Day,” but we have been quite surprised at her recent explosion of vocabulary. Just recently Evie has learned to use words to express her desires. For example, she now calls for her sippy cup (“bup”) whenever she is thirsty. Whether in her high chair, playing with her toys, or at the playground, every time she says, “Bup,” she reaches for her cup and we readily hand it over. She has also learned to call for her beloved bunny. She says, “Bubba” and crawls over to bunny. Of course, who knew that the cute pink and white bunny was really a good ole country boy! Just this morning, I was changing Evie’s diaper, and she had her cup and Bunny in her hands. I took them both from her to make the changing easier, but she started fussing, “Bup, bup!” So I handed over her cup. Then she yelled, “Bubba! Bubba!” And I said, ok, and gave her Bunny. Then she looked up at me, smiled, and said, “Dada!” LOL. I guess she figured while she was on a roll, why not keep trying! I only wish I could conjure up Joel that easily. (Pictured left, Evie concentrates on signing a Mother's Day card for her grandmother.)

Evie is also learning to make other noises and try out other words. She is desperately trying to whistle every time Joel or I whistle a tune around the house. And she now knows to growl when you ask her what a bear says and to say, “Bar! Bar!” when she sees a picture of a dog. I just can’t wait to get back to Arcadia so Evie can chase Giggsy and Daisy around the house yelling, “Bar! Bar!” She says, “Bebe!” every time she sees a baby, and she tries to say Pat for her Pat the Bunny toy, although it sounds more like “Bap.” We are just so amazed at how well she is already communicating even at 10 months old! Pretty soon we will be wishing she never learned how to tell us all of the things that she wants.

But even though Evie didn’t actually say, “Happy Mother’s Day!” this weekend, I had a great time anyway knowing that the thought was there. Saturday Evie and Joel took me out to eat at my favorite restaurant Alexander’s Bella Blu (most of the restaurants here are closed on Sunday because there are no cruise ships in.) Joel even held Evie in his lap so she could play with a napkin while I enjoyed dessert! Then we spent the afternoon shopping at one of the big tourist shopping centers. We decided we might want to actually bring something back with us that said St Thomas on it after spending a year living on this island! (Pictured left, Evie decided she was a big girl now and wanted to push the stroller around the shopping center.)

Joel told me Saturday night that he was going to get up with Evie in the morning so that I could sleep in on Mother’s Day. Then, later that morning, I was awoken by Joel holding Evie in one arm and breakfast in the other hand, while Evie was waving around a card in each hand. After opening my cards and eating breakfast, we spent the rest of the day shopping at K-Mart and eating at a local pizza place. K-Mart and pizza may not be everyone’s dream of a great Mother’s Day, but it was a perfect celebration for me. (Pictured right, at the pizza parlor, Evie couldn't decide if she wanted water or milk, so she drank both!)

I hope all of the other mothers out there had just as special of a time with their families!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen Adieu

2008-05-06T11:00:00.011-04:00

Today marks the time that Evie and I only have two more weeks living on St Thomas. We will be packing our bags on May 21st and saying goodbye to Joel and the island life. Joel is staying behind for one more week to finish up work in the office and to wrap up our moving by selling the car and giving away all of Evie’s big things.

There are several things of Evie’s that we would normally stick in the attic and save just in case we have another child. However, we’ve decided that it will cost more to ship it all back to the states than the stuff is probably worth. Luckily both a friend that I have made through the mommy group and Joel’s co-worker’s wife are pregnant. So, Evie’s crib, bouncy seat, infant bath, Bumbo, car seat, and many other things that she has outgrown will be going on to good homes.

So, with our impending departure date, Evie and I both spent some time this week enjoying for the last time some of our favorite things. Evie has spent many, many hours trying to use the bouncy seat as a springboard to launch herself into her play pen. Of course, she has failed for the 1,894th time because her silly mom and dad keep putting her back on the floor.

As for me, I spent the weekend at the beach for the last time before boxing up all of my snorkeling gear to ship back to the states. When I first arrived, there was a baptismal occurring at the beach. Several people were standing around in their Sunday best singing hymns while a preacher dressed in a white robe was baptizing others in white clothing. I stood back in the tree line so as not to disturb this wonderful event but couldn’t help myself from joining in on the singing. One of the teenage girls noticed me singing along and walked over and invited me to join them. So, clad in nothing but my bathing suit, I joined the members of Ebenezer Church holding hands and forming a circle around the newly baptized and sang hymns. It was really a very sweet act of kindness to welcome me in, and I thanked the girl so much for her sweet spirit.

After the crowd had departed, I took a long time just gazing at the sights that I will miss and taking photos of the incredible views. I joined another woman collecting shells and sea glass for the 400 or so arts and crafts projects that I have visualized in my head but will probably never actually get around to doing. I snorkeled along the rocks and pier near Joel’s office and saw incredible fish that most people only see in aquariums. I watched the sailboats drifting on the waves and was quite content that I had the entire beach nearly to myself.

Then I spent the last of my time with the fishermen. I must admit, when I first started going to John Brewer’s Bay alone, I was a bit worried for my own safety. I kept my eyes on everyone else there…just in case. But then I started chatting with the old fishermen who seemed to always be around. One in particular seemed to almost live there (or maybe he really does). At first I was a bit alarmed by his scruffy appearance, but every time he saw me at the beach, he would make comments about the weather, or ask about the book I was reading, or compliment me on my “way with the stray dogs” who also seem to live at the beach.

After awhile, I begin to look forward to seeing my fisherman. I still don’t know much about him (I don’t even know his name. He seemed content calling me “girl” while I just responded with “fisherman.”), but it made me smile every time I saw him sitting on the chair that all the other locals seem to respect as “his chair” and keep vacant for him. Or I could find him sleeping in his hammock, which may honestly be where he rests his head every night. Or sometimes I would catch him in his boat actually fishing for what looked like a meal for one. Despite his appearance and obvious lack of much education, it was comforting to know that I had a pair of old eyes and a toothless grin waiting for me and watching over me while I enjoyed the island.

This weekend as I walked toward him sitting in a group of other old fishermen, he asked what I had been collecting. I pulled out the bits of sea glass that had been etched by the sand and waves and said to the men looking at the sparkle in my hand, “Isn’t it amazing how the sea can take something ordinary and ugly like broken bottles and turn it into something so pretty?” My fisherman smiled his toothless grin, pulled on his scraggly beard, and exclaimed, “You know that’s why I had to grow this beard. The sea turned me so beautiful I had to hide some of it so everyone else wouldn’t get jealous!”

Yes, there are definitely things about this island that we will miss.

Ready for My Close-Up!

2008-05-03T15:11:00.018-04:00

Several people have recently asked for more pictures of Evie close-up. I would love to post them here...if I could get any. See, our sweet little girl has turned into a monkey overnight. Recently she has been caught climbing the bookcase, standing on top of her bouncy seat trying to jump into her play pen, and holding onto the side of her play pen by her hands with her feet dangling beneath her.

So, I thought I'd give you a taste of my most recent efforts to take photos of Evie:

"Evie, would you PLEASE sit back down on the couch, take your hand out of your mouth, and sit still?!?!?"

This was my attempt to get a photo of her really, really bad hair day.

"Daddy, would you please LET ME GO!!! Can't you see I'm trying to get to that shiny camera thingy?"

"What? Did you say you wanted a close-up of my blue eyes?"

And, the last sequence of events:

"Oh, a camera!"

"Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"Oh, a string! Look, I can pull it!"

"Is this close enough for you?"

Yeah, these days we take what we can get...

Ogres and Job Interviews and Parades, Oh My!

2008-04-26T14:02:00.010-04:00

The blog this week is a little late, but I have several good reasons. I do. Really. I returned from playgroup on Wednesday to discover I had a phone message from Rivier College. This is the school where Joel will be teaching next fall, and they were wanting to set up a time to interview me for an academic advisor position. Hooray! Then I realized…Joel has the car…and I can’t call long distance from our house to tell them, “YES!!! YES, YES, YES, a thousand times YES I am interested in the job!!!” So, I had to call Joel at work, ask if he could run home so I could use the car to go back down into town to call them back. Wonderful husband that he is, Joel came home right away. I jumped in the car while he watched Evie, and I drove into town. But when I called the HR department’s number that was left on our machine, no one answered. So, I tried again. And again. And again. Knowing that Joel had to get back to his real job, I finally left them a message to PLEASE call me back at my home number. Then I raced back home trying to get there before they called back. I made it, but only barely. The phone rang just as Joel was about to leave again. They want to interview me on Tuesday. In fact, there was a little confusion when the lady started giving me directions to the conference room where they wanted to interview me and as I tried to explain to her that…uummmm…I live in the Virgin Islands, not down the road… a phone interview may be easier.

Anyway, that was a long story to say that I have a job interview on Tuesday at 10 a.m. (Eastern) at the same school where Joel is already scheduled to work. Any and all prayers are appreciated!

Excuse number two is that this week has been carnival season on St Thomas. Carnival is like Mardi Gras but without beads or candy thrown and without much organization. As with a lot of things on this island, most of carnival doesn’t make sense to us. See, the big carnival parade with costumes and floats and performances takes place on Saturday. On Friday, they have a parade for children, where the children dress up in costumes and ride on floats and perform and basically do all of the things that the adults do. But before that, they have what is called J’ouvert. J’ouvert is basically practice for the carnival parade. It takes place on Thursday, and people dress up in costumes and ride floats and perform. Yes, it’s basically the entire full-blown carnival only two days earlier. Oh, and did I mention that it STARTS at 4 a.m.? Yes, A.M.!!! Which means since 4 a.m. on Thursday, there has been very loud calypso music blaring all over the island and so many people down town it’s impossible to drive through the streets. Except, oh wait…of course, you have to have PRACTICE for the J’ouvert, too. SO...there was a practice for the practice held at the university the day before the original practice for the actual carnival. I’m SO confused, but I think they have actually had this same parade about 4 times now.

All of this practicing would make you think that the actual parade would be FANTASTIC, but after watching about an hour of it on TV (it lasts from 10 a.m. until well into the night, I kid you not. It literally lasts ALL DAY LONG!) I’m not impressed at all. In fact, I’ve seen more organization and better performances at the Arcadia Christmas parade. For instance, we’ve seen a baton troupe, which had about 4 girls who actually knew how to twirl and about 25 others who shook their hips and used their batons to point to the 4 girls who were actually performing. We’ve seen another troupe dressed in bright, colorful outfits that all matched and walking in uniform lines under the banner “Dancing in the Desert.” I had great hopes for them until they turned on their music and basically everyone just free-style danced by themselves for FOUR straight songs. By the fourth song, one person was actually bent over out of breath huffing and puffing.

Joel and I were contemplating going to Carnival, because it is “THE THING” that St Thomas is known for. And we thought, oh fun, a parade with costumes! That was until I mentioned it at the mommy playgroup, and about 25 faces all stared at me with ARE-YOU-CRAZY expressions on their faces. So, while everyone on the island is at the carnival parade today…Joel, Evie and I went to the park!

Now, on to the actual blog…

This past weekend Yacht Haven (the same place that had the Easter egg hunt) held a children’s day. They had big, blow-up fun jumps and a huge slide for the kids. Evie was too little to play on them, but we had fun watching some of the older kids from our playgroup bouncing around. The organizer of the event held a story time under a big tent. Evie enjoyed listening to the several books that were read, and she (and her parents) enjoyed the free cookies and fruit punch that was served.

And then, Shrek and Donkey made an appearance and took pictures with all of the kids! I was so proud of Evie letting the big scary green ogre touch her and even posing for a picture with him, while children 3-4 times her age were running scared from Shrek. She even liked Donkey…until…well, Joel thought she would like touching Donkey. Wrong. As soon as Joel held her hand and stroked Donkey’s nose, Evie lost it screaming. Oh well. At least we won’t have to ever teach her to look but don’t touch!

Evie’s verbal skills have been growing by leaps and bounds lately. So far, she can say (and use correctly) Mama, Dada, Bye-Bye, Ni-Ni (for night-night), and this week she learned Pop (Joel’s dad’s name). She can look at a picture of J.D. and say, “Pop,” which sometimes sounds closer to Bop, but is close enough. She is also able to identify LOTS of items, and when we say them will look for them and pick them up. She can find her bunny, her rubber ducky (she say’s “du” so, she’s close!), her horsy, her mermaid, her Care Bear, a chick we call Peepers, another duck we call Quackers, a spider name LuLu, and several other toys. She knows the difference in the names of rooms (if you say Bunny is in the bedroom, she will crawl into the bedroom looking for her.) She knows what several things “say.” For instance, she says, “Baa” when looking at a picture of sheep, and she says, “La-lu-la-lu” while sticking out her tongue any time she sees a picture of my dad or she hears the word Grandpa (she and Grandpa stick their tongues out at each other and make that noise, so now she’s identified that with Grandpa.) And just the other day, we were playing with a stuffed fish when I quoted a line from one of her books about the fishes splishing and splashing all day long. She looked at me, and then crawled over to the book shelf, grabbed that book the I had just quoted, and brought it over to me.

I think she’s definitely understanding language. It won’t be long now until she’s chattering away, and we never have a silent moment in this house again. But luckily for now she’s still pretty silent most of the time. Now, if I could just get this carnival parade music to quiet down!

Seven Years of Celebration

2008-04-16T19:52:00.011-04:00

This week the Stake family stayed busy with celebrations, some for others and some for ourselves. One of Evie’s closest friends at the mommy playgroup, James, turned one this weekend. James is the only baby that Evie has tried to follow or imitate while at the playground. Just last week, several of the mommies and younger babies were sitting on a park bench chatting. Evie was sitting on the ground at my feet while I talked. I looked up a few minutes later, and she had followed James about 15-20 feet away from me. The two of them were entertaining themselves by banging on the plastic slide and laughing. It was the first time Evie has ever crawled away from me while out in public. James’ mom, Dale, and I just watched for a while. Then I called out, “Evie, look at you, big girl!” She just squealed and yelled, “Mama!” and crawled back as fast as she could with a huge grin on her face.

But…I digress. You have to excuse me for sharing sweet moments like that. This weekend was James’ birthday, and Dale threw his party at the playground. Most of the kids from the playgroup were there with their mommies and even a few daddies. Joel went with us and got to see the playground for the first time (Poor thing has to work while Evie and I have fun!) Again, we ended up having more fun than we expected. Evie was very surprised and a little confused, but excited, that her daddy was with her at the playground. It was very nice to see some of the other daddies interacting with the kids and discovering just where some of the kids got their looks or personalities from. And it was nice to finally introduce Joel to the kids and moms so that he can put names to faces for all of the stories that I tell him every week. We stayed until it was almost Evie’s bedtime before bringing an exhausted kid home for the day. (Pictured left, Keisha -- the unofficial leader of the mommy group, me, Evie, Dale, and James.)

Then Monday marked Joel and my seventh wedding anniversary. We debated over finding a babysitter so that we could celebrate at a nice, romantic restaurant and maybe even catch a movie. But then we decide it wasn’t the best idea since Evie has never had a babysitter (besides family) before and since a babysitter wouldn’t be able to get in touch with us in an emergency (we don’t get cell service at our apartment and our house phone won’t call outside of island numbers). So…we decided to take Evie with us. And we were glad we did!

Joel made early reservations at the fanciest gourmet restaurant on the island, The Old Stone Farmhouse. We got there early, before they had even opened, so we had a little time to walk around and see the beautiful stone building that is one of the oldest structures on St. Thomas. Luckily for us, another couple was there early, as well, and volunteered to take a few photos of our family all dressed up.

Once we were seated, Evie stole the show. The waitress loved her. The manager loved her. The chef loved her enough that when we ordered a baked sweet potato (which wasn’t even on the menu) for her to eat, he even prepared it pureed so that it resembled home made baby food, and they didn’t charge us for it. Two other couples came up to us and complimented us on what a cute baby she was and how well mannered she behaved. And…not to brag, but she was VERY good. We were relieved and a bit surprised at just how well she did sitting in a high chair and sampling some of the food while laughing and smiling and looking at the other couples in the restaurant. She lasted until almost an hour past her bedtime before she started to get tired and a little fussy. Luckily that was right as our check had arrived, so I was able to walk her around outside while Joel finished up.

As for Joel and me, we were very well behaved, too. LOL. We decided to be very adventurous with the gourmet menu and ordered several things that we had never tried before. Just as a note: Joel and I do NOT like foie gras (duck liver) or pork belly (it basically tasted like fried pork skins without being fried). We did, however, enjoy the lobster bisque, grilled peaches, lobster “elbow” sandwich, sweet potato hush puppies, and both the banana and chocolate cake and the home-made smores. Yum! The entire night was wonderful with a wonderful setting, wonderful food, and even better company. It was a great way to celebrate the past seven years of our lives.

And then, just tonight as we were putting her to bed, Evie presented us with our anniversary gift. As Joel was carrying her around telling her to “Say night-night to…” various objects, Evie actually said, “Ni-ni!” We were both even more surprised when Joel said, “Say night-night to mommy,” and she actually waved and said, “Ni-ni!”

Happy anniversary to us. It just doesn’t get much better than that!

You know you've lived in the Virgin Islands too long when...

2008-04-13T20:15:00.002-04:00

I found these on a website about the Virgin Islands, and thought they were funny and true. They were all submitted by local citizens (in fact, I added a few myself to their list), and give all of you back home a little taste of what our lives have been like for the past year!
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You know you’ve lived in the Virgin Islands too long when…

· You wear a jacket when it turns 79 degrees.

· You know 3 home remedies for centipede bites.

· You don't mind waiting an hour in lines.

· You worry about "next day" air mail getting there within a week.

· You pay $3000 for a $300 vehicle.

· You drive 45mph and you think you are driving fast.

· You tell directions using big mango trees, bars, a white wall, and K-mart rather then street names.

· You drive with a beer in your hand hanging out the car window while drving by a cop and think nothing of it.

· You have "work" flip-flops.

· It feels weird to not have sand in your sheets.

· You have a favorite road-side food cart.

· You’re not the least bit curious where those ants in your house are coming from.

· You think "OK" and "Allright" are greetings.

· You've named a lizard in your home.

· You go from 4 seasons to 2 seasons (tourist and slow).

· You only have one pair of long pants.

· You can't remember what day of the week it is, much less what month it is.

· You do all your shopping at K-mart because it’s the only place to shop.

· Trying to find everything on your grocery list is a four stop affair.

· You plan your errands to avoid difficult turns around the steep, curvy hills

· You have permenately invoked the "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" rule in your bathroom to conserve water.

· You have a completely new circle of friends every 6 to 10 months because people relocate so often.

· You quit shaving. (for the ladies)

· You laugh at statesiders who complain of their power being out for a couple of hours.

· You learn to buy it if you see it at the store because you don't know if it will be there next week.

· You go home to the states and drive a car and have to keep repeating, “Stay right, stay right.”

· You think that 2 months to get a new cable box from Innovative Cable is a pretty good turn around time.

· You celebrate an electric bill below $600.

· You can have a conversation with a local West Indian and understand about 70% of what they just said.

· You never get out of bed at night without putting your shoes on first because you might step on a centipede.

· You shake any item of clothing or towels left on the floor just in case a scorpion is hiding under them.

· You see a lady wearing make up and a fixed hairstyle and think "She must be a tourist!"

· You ask someone where they got that cute dress, and they respond "online"

· You bring an empty suitcase on your trip off-island so that you can stock up on "cheap" household goods.

· Going to K-Mart and eating at IHOP is your all-day Saturday family outing.

· Your feet hurt because you actually had to wear closed-toe shoes that day.

· Your car trunk includes water, brake fluid, 2 cans of fix-a-flat, a machete, a beach chair and a bag of trash you forgot to put in the dumpster on your way down the hill yesterday.

· You race home when it starts to rain because you have an overflowing cistern and you have to start doing all the laundry you can find and take a really long shower.

· It doesn't faze you anymore that the car in front of you stops, lets someone out, and they continue the conversation with the door open stopping traffic.

· A visit to a stateside grocery store is more exciting than a trip to Disney Land.

· Having to stop and wait for chickens/iguanas to get out of the road no longer delights you.

· You park in the middle of the street because you're just going in "one place or two.”

· You have to sweep up the lizard poop every morning before breakfast.

Three Birthday Girls, Two Turtles (no doves), and a Doctor in St Thomas

2008-04-10T15:30:00.009-04:00

It seems now that we have told several people about our up-coming move, our social calendar has suddenly been packed with events! This past week was no exception.

We were invited to a sea turtle wrangling on Saturday. OK, so it wasn’t a bunch of people in cowboy hats and spurs roping turtles, but it sounded nearly as cool. One of Joel’s friends was leading a group to dive and catch turtles at the beach near our house. Once caught the turtles were weighed, measured, tagged, and released back into the ocean. We were invited to come observe and bring Evie to see live sea turtles. Of course, once we got there Joel asked if he could help, and ended up in the ocean chasing after the beautiful creatures.

Sea turtles here are HUGE!!! And FAST!!! The researchers lowered a net that extended from the top of the water to the bottom of the ocean floor. The divers were supposed to chase the sea turtles into the net, where said turtle would swim upward to try to get around the net, and other divers would be waiting to catch the turtles as they came up. Yeah right. Did I mention that sea turtles are HUGE and FAST and apparently smarter than a bunch of scientist with PhDs? The group saw about 7-10 turtles but could only swim fast enough to catch two small ones. Joel said some of them were giants and would just swim along lazily just right out of your grasp as if to taunt you that “Ha! Ha! I’m not even trying and you still can’t catch me!” (Above left, Joel is holding the smallest of these two turtles.)

Finally the group gave in and brought in the two turtles they did catch. The two captives seemed pretty depressed that they couldn’t out-swim a bunch of land-dwellers and now had to undergo poking and prodding before getting to return to the ocean to be teased by their fellow turtles for being caught. Of course, it probably didn’t help that we also picked them up for a photo opportunity!

Then later that day we went to a beach birthday party for three little girls who were turning four. One of the girls, Kate, is one of Evie’s friends at the playgroup. We only wish that Kate would have turned four a lot earlier because we had so much fun and met SO many young couples with small children. We just kept asking where everyone had been hiding and why we had never met them before. There were doctors and chefs and online professors and coast guard sailors... about 30 families total. The two doctors both had babies within a month or two of Evie, so it was great to chat with them about all of the things our kids are going through. And everyone was SO nice. We got tips on the best places to eat and offers from the doctors to just call them if we ever need them. We even met THREE other couples who were from Louisiana!!!

Even Evie had a blast. She made friends with one of the doctor’s sons, and the two of them jabbered and gabbed away at each other. We have no clue what they were saying, but it sounded like a very involved conversation. They had cake and a piñata and a bonfire later in the evening. We ended up staying much later than we planned because we were having a great time, but we finally decided not to push our luck and returned a VERY exhausted Evie to her crib by bedtime. (Pictured right, Evie's friend Kate gets the first swing at the pinata.)

On Tuesday we took Evie to see the doctor for her 9 month check-up. Since our old nurse practitioner has left, we actually saw the “real” pediatrician this time. For those of you keeping “score,” Evie is now 28.5 inches long and weighs 18 lbs 12 oz. Her growth has slowed considerably, but she is still over the 75%. Evie was very happy that there were no shots this visit! Yeah!!! The doctor told us that she looked great, and he was pleased that we are now feeding her exclusively out of a sippy cup and introducing her to more and more of our own foods. Pretty soon she’ll be eating steak and potatoes like a real adult….that is if we can find someone to cook steak and potatoes for us! LOL

Just Because

2008-04-02T19:57:00.004-04:00

This was just for fun because I was playing around with PhotoShop. The blog is below.

Stake Sand-wiches

2008-04-02T15:29:00.018-04:00

The Stake family spent a day this weekend at the beach. We went by ourselves so that we could actually spend time introducing Evie to new things and pay attention to her reactions. We discovered two new ways Evie is like her daddy. 1. Evie does NOT like sand on her feet. Or her legs, or arms, or touching her at all. She fussed when I put her toes in the sand, and then spent the next few minutes trying to wipe off every single grain. (Pictured right, even for the photo Evie was more worried about getting sand on her feet than smiling for the camera.)

2. Evie LOVES the water. She thought the big, huge bathtub (ocean) was just about the neatest thing ever, and she thought it was crazy that her mommy was coming with her into the huge tub! She loved the water on her feet, and even laughed and squealed when I would dip her farther and farther down into the water. She bent over and splashed the waves with her hands, and especially enjoyed her mom’s jumping and yelling when the little fish were nibbling at her toes. (Although her mom did not appreciate the fish or Evie laughing at her! LOL) Unfortunately, it started raining before we were actually tired or ready to leave, but the day was a success for Evie and for us as a family. (Pictured right, Evie held onto her hat the entire time we were in the water. They could have her mom, but those fishes were NOT going to get her hat!)

Evie has also found a new best friend – her shadow. The combination of white walls and bright sunshine makes for perfect shadows in our apartment at nearly all times of the day. And Evie LOVES her shadow. She spends time everyday chatting away with it and sharing her toys with it and laughing and squealing. I always thought Joel had a little Peter Pan in him, but maybe Evie does, too.

Evie also loves playing with her toys more and more these days. She plays by herself or with her dad or mom. Her parents have learned that apparently it is much more fun to play with toys if you have EVERY SINGLE TOY spread out all across the room.

Evie now stands up and sits down easily while holding on to a table or couch.

And can even stand while not holding on (well, I guess technically she’s holding on with her belly…quite an impressive feat in and of itself!)

***Disclaimer: For those of you who get nervous when children do things that could potentially result in falling, crashing, or bleeding, please close your eyes now!***

Evie can also climb onto the couch all by herself…which would not be so bad if she knew how to crawl off the couch without falling on her head!

Evie can also climb OVER the couch. Yep, that’s right. She can hold onto the top of the couch and put her feet against the back of the couch and scale right up like a rock climber or Spiderman. (In this photo Evie is “cheating” using the pillows, but trust me, she can do it as easily without any assistance. *No babies were hurt in the making of this photograph.)

Let’s just say Joel and I are staying quite busy trying to encourage Evie to explore new things while keep our little monkey from jumping to her doom. And our little monkey is wearing herself out having so much fun!

A Three Hour Tour...A Three Hour Tour

2008-03-24T11:05:00.015-04:00

Joel, Evie and I have had a fun week on this island. On Tuesday Joel’s Aunt Becky, her boyfriend Dennis, Joel’s cousin Randy, his wife Ann, their two kids Brooke and Brandon, and Ann’s parents all came to the island for the day on a cruise ship. They had contacted us the week before to let us know when the ship would be in and to make arrangements for when we would meet them. Randy said it was just too cool to go on a cruise and meet family at the dock who actually live on the island you visit!

So, Tuesday we met them at the dock (unfortunately I left my camera, of all things!!! So I don’t have any photos at all of the fun we had! But I have plenty of photos of Easter to make up for it.) We went to the port and caught a ferry over to St. John Island, and then we had lunch at an outdoor restaurant right on the shore. There were wild chickens there that Brooke, Brandon, and Evie loved watching, and Evie especially loved Aunt Becky holding her and feeding her French fries! Of course, Evie tried to shove them all in her mouth at once (the little iggy piggy!!!), which surprised us all. But she managed to eat them, part of my hamburger, and part of my pasta salad just like she was a big person!

After lunch we caught a safari to Trunk Bay (A safari is the local transportation. It’s basically a truck with benches and a cover over the bed.) At the beach, Brooke, Brandon, and Aunt Becky all went snorkeling while the rest of us laid on the sand and walked along the shoreline. Poor Evie was so tired from the ferry ride and all of the visiting at lunch that she fell asleep in Joel’s arms on the safari and then slept in my arms for most of the time on the beach. Because most of St. John is a government-protected sanctuary, the snorkeling and the beaches there are very clean and pristine. Joel and I had never been, so we were glad to have an excuse for a mini-vacation! After spending several hours on the beach, it was time to head back so that they could all return to the cruise ship. On the journey home, Evie fell in love with Brooke, playing with her and letting Brooke carry her around. Then all of the family got back on the cruise ship and sailed away, and Joel and I had to return to the “normal” life on the island. We have a great time with everyone and were so glad they let us “crash” their family vacation!

Then Sunday was Easter, and we decided Evie was finally big enough to take part in the Easter activities on the island. After dressing in our Easter best, we went to Wikked, the same restaurant where we ate Easter brunch last year when Joel first moved down. On the walk to the restaurant, we passed the egg hunt organizers, who were busy setting up for the big event. We stopped and chatted with them, and the coordinator thought Evie was just adorable and snuck her an egg with candy inside. At lunch, the restaurant had a calypso player there to entertain guests, so Evie and I danced while Joel was waiting in line for a table. Evie got to sit in a real high chair for the first time instead of being confined to her car seat, and she loved watching the calypso player and the other children while playing with her plastic egg and eating bites of mom and dad’s food. (Pictured right, Evie quickly figured out what to do with her Easter egg and (pictured left) what to do with the sweet potato hash on her daddy's fork!)

After lunch we walked along the yacht dock waiting for the egg hut to begin. We saw several of the mommies and kids from our playgroup and Joel’s secretary and her children. Then it was time for the hunt to begin! The organizers had laid lots of eggs in open view on the lawn for the little kids and hid more in the bushes and trees for the older kids. Of course, all of the easy eggs were gone in seconds, so instead Evie and Joel stalked the Easter bunny until he finally turned around for a photo opportunity. But Evie wasn’t so sure. She was fascinated with his HUGE version of her beloved bunny, but she wasn’t quite ready to actually sit in its lap! But she did concede to her mom holding her while standing next to the Easter bunny for a picture. (Pictured right, Joel and Evie pose with Joel's secretary Amanda and her son Eson, who is just 3 months older than Evie.)

As we were walking around and mostly visiting with friends and watching the bigger kids, the coordinator lady came over to us and asked how many eggs Evie had found. I told her none, but we didn’t really come for the eggs anyway. We just wanted to get Evie out to celebrate Easter and to see all of her friends. But the coordinator said that wouldn’t do, and she went to her table and pulled out six Disney princess eggs full of candy that she had put aside. So Evie ended up with even more eggs than some of the big kids!!! She must have had a great time, because she feel fast asleep on the ride home and slept in her car seat even after we brought her into the house. (Pictured right, two of Evie's "big kid friends" from our playgroup, Norah and Elyssa.)

Although we missed seeing our families on Easter, we had a great time making holiday memories of our own. As one of the other mommies put it, “Finally something normal and fun on this island!”

Two Weddings and a Bath Tub

2008-03-19T19:07:00.035-04:00

Evie and I have been sick this week. Joel has come home more than once to the image at the left. I felt awful, and so did Evie, but I have to admit, there's nothing that makes you feel less achy, stuffed-up, miserable than a little girl crawling into your lap to fall asleep.

Because I haven't felt well, I have a LOT of catching up to do on here. Since they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words...how about a photo essay? So, here is the recap of our last trip to Louisiana...

Evie and I traveled to Louisiana by ourselves for the first week so we could attend my cousin Robby's wedding. We flew in on Wednesday, which gave us a lot of down time before the busy weekend. We spent most of the time visiting with my family in Arcadia. (Pictured right, my grandmother, Evie and my dad).

And, while we were there, Evie took her first bath in a big bathtub!

After several days of relaxing and visiting (and me getting a new haircut!), it was time for my cousin Robby to FINALLY (just kidding, Robz!) get married. The wedding was wonderful, and Robby's wife Kara was absolutely beautiful, as all brides should be! It was really fun seeing a lot of my extended family, even second and third cousins, at the wedding. And I especially enjoyed seeing Robby's cousins Lechel and Kelly. They were his cousins on the other side of his family, but he and Lechel and I were all the same age, and they grew up in the same town as Robby. So, we spent a lot of holidays and summer vacation time together as children. It was really nice seeing them and catching up after being apart for 10+ years. And, of course, it was great being there for Robby's wedding! (pictured right, me, Evie, Robby, and Lechel)

And then, the next morning I woke up to this....Evie had learned to pull herself up on things literally overnight!

And my dad and Granddaddy were SO impressed with Evie's new talent (even if they had to help a bit!)

Evie and Bunny spent the next few days relaxing and playing with the daffodils in the front yard.

Then Joel flew in, and we went south to Lafayette for my college friend Laurie Theriot's wedding. We met Joel's brother Jon for lunch while we were in town so that he could see his niece (even though she slept through most of the meal!)

Unfortunatelyat the wedding, I never actually took a photo of the bride or groom (oops! Sorry, Laurie! You'll have to send me some)...but I did take a lot of photos of our friends from college who attended the wedding. My college roomate Jill was there...

And several of Joel's college roomates were there as well, like his friend Scottie and his wife Kate.

But all of the celebrating was just too much for Evie, and she fell asleep in her daddy's arms.

The next day, everyone met at the Theriot's for a big crawfish boil. Evie had a lot of fun playing with all of our college friends. She especially loved Uncle Chad, reaching out to him to be held. Several people thought that maybe Chad was her real father since they had the same eyes. Joel told Chad that if he was the real father, he owed us lots of child support back pay!

And Evie finally gave in and sat in Uncle Scottie's lap, even though she didn't like him looking at her or touching her and kept kicking him away. (Can you blame her? LOL Just kidding, Scottie!)

We drove back to Arcadia the next morning, and Joel's dad and Linda drove down from Little Rock to meet my family for church and lunch and to be there when we arrived.

Joel's brother Jay even came down with them to play with his niece.

And Evie just loved all of the attention with all of the grandparents and family around! (Does it get any better than a Nana AND a Grandmom playing with you at the same time?!?!?)

And then we had to return to the islands. Since then, Evie has just been learning and growing so fast! She is learning to drink from a sippy cup, and now she LOVES finger foods and HATES any sort of baby food! She has found her new best friend in her shadow on the wall, and chats away with it, waving and laughing, several times a day. She has discovered she can open cabinets and can both crawl under and try to climb on top of our side tables. She is a happy, active, giggly, big girl, and we can't wait until our next trip when we can show off all of her new talents!

Oh. My. Good. Ness.

2008-03-08T15:40:00.007-05:00

First of all, let me apologize for not blogging in a while. I’ve spent the last two weeks in Louisiana attending weddings (more on that at a later date), and every free second since then has been spent working on my resume and cover letters. Why, you might ask, am I looking for jobs? Because we now know where we are going after our stay in the Virgin Islands is over. Joel accepted a position at Rivier College in Nashua, New Hampshire. It’s about 35-45 miles from Boston, and has been the only city named the Best Place to Live in America twice. We are both very excited about the move in August, and I’m working on finding a job so we can begin house hunting! But in the mean time…

Oh. My. Good. Ness!!! Evie has become a mad woman. She definitely perfected her crawling abilities while we were in Louisiana and now has no problem moving from one side of the apartment to the other and pulling up on anything that will stay still long enough. She has even started “scooting” around the room holding onto furniture while she takes a few steps at a time. But the mobility is not the problem. It’s actually very cute when she crawls up to you and lifts her hands to be picked up. What no one warned us about was the injection of adrenaline that she is apparently receiving every 20 seconds or so. The child is CRAZY!!!

In one hour the morning of our first day back on the island, Evie completely destroyed our living room. She took every book off of a low shelf and was preparing to rip all of the covers off of them when I ran to stop her. While I was cleaning that mess, she found her way to our filing system and proceeded to begin throwing receipts, statements, and other important paperwork all over the room. While I was randomly stuffing the papers back into various manila folders, she managed to crawl over to a plastic table (you know, the ones that we decided to buy instead of spending money on nice furniture because we’re cheap like that.) and tried to pull herself up, which flipped over on her spilling the picture frames onto the floor and Evie, luckily, onto the carpet rug. And while I was picking THAT up, she crawled over to the plastic bin with her toys, tumped it over and scattered every single toy across the living room. And that was all before Joel even woke up for the day. (Pictured right, crazy babies go in the play pen.)

Let’s just say that our first few days back have been B-U-S-Y!!! But, it’s all worth it because as I typed this, Evie woke up from a nap and crawled over into my lap. She caught a severe case of the giggles, thinking that everything I said to her was hilarious, and then she put both hands on the sides of my face, pushed my hair out of the way, and laughed and giggled. And just like that, all is well in the Stake house.

Love and Hate, Cute and, well…not so cute

2008-02-19T08:58:00.008-05:00

With Valentine’s Day occurring this past week, it is only appropriate that I talk about love and, well…very strong dislike…in this blog. The cutesy, lovey, how adorable part first:

This was Evie’s first Valentine’s Day, and our first one as a family with children, so Joel and I decided to include Evie in our celebration of love. Joel made reservations at our favorite restaurant, Alexander’s Bella Blue, a small, intimate, nice but not too fancy restaurant where everyone knows everyone. We went early in the evening, so as not to be out past Evie’s bedtime and to allow others to enjoy their romantic evenings without children. As soon as we walked in the door, all of the waiters and waitresses said, “Oh! That’s our table for 2 ½!” “Now that makes sense!” Each of them, including the manager, had to come over and say hi to the baby and comment on how cute and well behaved she was. Because there were so few people there so early, we received excellent service and a lot of attention from all of the staff and even a few of the other guests. (Pictured left, Evie and I got all dressed up for our Valentine's date.)

As has been our custom through the years, we only exchanged cards and enjoyed a nice dinner to celebrate. Joel brought cards for both of his Valentine’s, and Evie and I both had cards for Joel. Evie’s card to her daddy, of course, had a bunny on the front, and she even signed it herself. We stayed out a little later than planned because we just HAD to sample their desserts for the night, but it was a wonderful way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. (Pictured right, Evie signs Joel's card...upside down.)

Evie has also learned several really cute things this week. She has learned to wave bye-bye, and will sometimes say something that sounds a lot like “bye-bye” when doing so (it starts with a B, so it counts even though it sounds more like ba-ba.) She thinks this new thing is a lot of fun, so she also waves bye-bye when you walk toward her, or when she sees the landlady’s dogs, or when she’s playing with her toys, or…well…she does it a lot. She is also learning to clap, which is really cute. She loves it when you clap your hands, and laughs and smiles, so I have started clapping her hands for her, which sends her into a squealing fit. She has clapped by herself twice now for Joel, and is so proud of herself for doing so that she laughs and laughs. Yes, there have been a lot of cutesy, lovey things around the Stake family lately.

Now, for the not so happy times…

We experienced Evie’s first temper tantrum this week. Normally, I would not be telling the world about how horrible our child can act, but this was so amusing I just have to share. I was feeding Evie breakfast as usual, but this certain morning she didn’t want her oatmeal. In fact, she started screaming like crazy the moment I even put it to her lips. So, I offered her some pears, but got the same response. A bottle of milk and a bottle of juice also received ear-piercing screams the moment they dared to touch her lips. Now, usually one or more of the items offered works, and Evie is content and eats her entire meal. But not this morning…not until I walked to the pantry, then she was happy and squealing and kicking like crazy. Ah Ha, I realized. She wants Cheerios. (Pictured right, Now that she can crawl, Evie's a great critic of my cleaning)

This is when it hit me. Here is one of those parenting cross-roads that is actually about more than Cheerios. Since the other food is more nutritious, and we usually only give her Cheerios in small doses as a snack or a dessert, I would really prefer she eat her meal before giving her “junk food.” Do I give in to her demands, or do I stand my ground? So…I picked Evie up, and took her to Joel to ask him what to do. As we talked, Evie’s screams got louder and more intense sitting on my lap. You would have thought we were beating our child as she clinched her fist, her face got red, huge tears fell down her face, and snot bubbles came out of her nose. As I was explaining what she wanted to Joel, all of a sudden, she stopped. We both looked at her surprised, and she inspected us for a few seconds before returning full-force to her you-are-the-most-horrible-parents-in-the-world screaming fit.

I looked at Joel, and I looked at Evie, and I said, “Cheerio.” Instant quiet. Evie reached for my hand to see if she could find the delicious circle of oats. When she found nothing, she started back. THE WORLD IS ENDING, I HATE YOU, YOU ARE STARVING ME, WHY IS EVERYONE AGAIST ME, THIS IS THE MOST HORRIBLE… “Cheerio.” Silence.

Joel and I, being the good parents that we are, just laughed and laughed, which made Evie scream even more. WWWHHHHAAAAHHHHH!!! “Cheerio.” Silence. WWWHHHAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! “Cheerio.” Silence. It was the most hilarious thing to watch, and yet it was so scary to realize that our 7-month-old was throwing her first temper tantrum. Joel and I decided that we were not going to start a pattern of giving in whenever she cries for something, and instead we decided to take advice from the guru of parenting, Barney Fife, and “nip it in the bud.”

So, I took Evie to get a bath, and when she was clean I offered her breakfast again. This time she ate the entire bowl of oatmeal, a bowl of pears, her juice, and her bottle of milk. Yeah!!! The parents won a battle! But, I think there is still a long, bloody war ahead of us. Oh, did I mention that I fed Evie her breakfast while she was sitting in the bathtub? Hey, she was calm, and it worked. We are not above using guerrilla warfare to win this war. LOL.

Hey! Where'd you..??? How'd you...????

2008-02-12T11:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I had a nice blog all worked out in my head for this week. I was going to tell you about Play Group on Wednesday and how all of the little toddlers thought playing with Evie and touching Evie was the coolest new game. I was going to tell you how cute they were petting her and offering her their bananas and their toys and how nervous all of the mommies were saying, "Be gentle!" and "Don't touch her face!" And I was going to tell you how well Evie did just soaking up the attention and how she even let another mommy hold her while the little kids played.

I was also going to tell you about how addicted Evie had become to Cheerios and how she couldn't wait until the end of each meal when I would give her Cheerios as a dessert. I was going to tell you how cute she was getting all excited and kicking and squealing when I pulled out the box and how she looked just like a little birdie putting one Cheerio in each hand and then opening her mouth wide waiting for me to put in a Cheerio.

Ahhh, yes, it was going to be a very nice blog. But...Evie had other plans.

First, Evie decided it was time to become more mobile...

This mostly consisted of rolling all over the living room, from one wall to another.

This led to great discoveries, like oh, look a big box of important papers I can try to dump over!

And, Wow, it's just as fun to be UNDER the bouncy seat as to be in it!!!

And, Oh, look, a rocking chair I can try to pull up on while I crush my fingers under the legs! But then this weekend, Evie actually began pulling herself up into the crawling position. And then she rocked back... And then she rocked forward... And then today, she did this... And this... And now our child is a crawler. She can only take one "crawl," moving one hand and one foot, at a time before falling on her tummy, but she pushes right up and goes again. It won't be long before she's crawling faster than I can keep up. I think chaos just descended upon the nice, quiet Stake house!

The 7 month old

2008-02-05T08:56:00.001-05:00

Well, the first major event from this week has nothing to do with Evie. Gasp! I know…it’s almost blasphemy, but it’s true. Joel flew up to Rivier College in New Hampshire on Wednesday. He interviewed with their biology department for a faculty position there, and he seemed to love both the school and the area. Then he returned on Thursday. (And Evie and I survived on our own!) By Friday, he had a job offer. However, also on Friday he learned that Ouachita Baptist College in Arkansas had begun calling his references. So, he’s trying to stall the negotiations with Rivier College long enough to see if Ouachita Baptist is interested. Either way, it seems we will know where our next home will be very soon. Please keep us in your prayers as we make this huge decision!!!

Ok, now back to Evie! In celebrating her 7 month birthday, Evie gave us a surprise…another tooth! The second tooth at the bottom broke through only a week after the first. Now both teeth are fairly visible (though not all the way grown, yet), and seem to be in a race of which one will develop the fastest. (Pictured right, Alas, all of the pretty, shiny, new toys can't live up to common kitchen items!)

With the development of new teeth came another first…Cheerios!!! Evie had her first taste of the cereal this week, and LOVES them. I’ve been putting a handful on her highchair tray, and she scoops up one in each hand, holds them up in the air, and then opens her mouth like a baby bird ready to be fed. She hasn’t developed the fine motor skills to pick one up with her fingers and put it in her mouth yet, so if I’m not moving fast enough for her, she leans her face over the tray and tries to suck them up! It really has been quite comical to watch, and we probably spend more time playing with the Cheerios than actually eating.

As everyone has warned us, the developments are coming fast. Evie is now pulling her legs underneath her and rocking back and forth to try to crawl, thanks to her daddy who works with her on this every night. She is also sitting up so well that we don’t have to worry about her falling. Yesterday, we went outside, ad she sat on the concrete step while the landlady’s two husky mix dogs licked her and played with her for almost an hour. She was having a great time talking and talking to them while they rolled over on their bellies for her and let her grab their ears and noses…until one of them decided to bark. WOAH! Evie’s look was priceless until she started to cry. Then the dogs got excited trying to “help” her by barking more, and playtime was over! (Pictured left, I'm not sure if I'm more scared of the dogs' or Evie's bite!)

We’re starting to see a pattern here. When Evie is done playing…she’s DONE!

Teeth, sleep, and beaches (I know, I know, they don't really rhyme!)

2008-01-28T09:18:00.000-05:00

Evie has had some major “big girl” events this past week. The most substantial is that she now has a TOOTH!!! The little tooth in the bottom, left started breaking through over the weekend. The doctor had told us at our last visit that her gums were swollen like she may be teething, and then Friday night Joel said he definitely felt something hard when she started gumming his finger. It’s still just a little white line on her gums, but she is having a lot of fun with it! She has stopped drinking from her sippy-cup now (something we were trying to introduce to her), and in turn she just likes biting on it and hearing the clank, clank that her tooth makes on the hard plastic. She also CONSTANTLY plays with it with her tongue, but she’s starting to look like those ugly dogs (http://www.uglyarchie.com/) with that tongue sticking out all the time! So far she hasn't seemed to have too much trouble or pain, in fact she is sleeping quite well…which brings us to “big girl” event #2.

Evie is sleeping through the night!!! Yeah!!! She had regressed back to waking several times after all of our travels in November and December. Although it was causing Joel and me to get very little quality sleep, we were doing whatever we needed to help her go back to sleep at night thinking that her well being was more important than ours. Until…I read an article that said babies at 6 months old really needed to sleep through the night to get good, quality REM sleep. The more articles I read, the more the experts suggested letting her cry it out to learn to get herself back to sleep. Especially at this age, the articles said, children need to learn to sleep for 10-12 hours at a time. So, after Joel and I had a long discussion about doing this for her own good, and how this would just be the first of many times that we had to let her do something on her own without doing it for her…we let Evie cry it out one night.

It broke our hearts, and it was even harder considering her crib is only 3 feet from our bed and she could SEE us the whole time she was crying. She cried for a one-hour stretch, which almost brought both Joel and me to tears. Then she settled for about 30 minutes before crying again for another 30-minute stretch. And then….gasp…all was quiet! And she slept all the way until 7 a.m.!!! The next night she woke three times but only fussed for about five minutes each. And now she sleeps from 7 p.m. until around 5:30 a.m., when I feed her a bottle and put her back to sleep until 7:00 – 7:30 a.m. It is WONDERFUL!!! And she seems to be a much more content baby! Yeah for sleep! (Pictured left, we still don't know what to do with Evie's crazy hair!)

Our last little adventure this week was our weekend trip to the beach. Some of Joel’s co-workers invited us to go with them and their small children. We had a lot of fun for the few short minutes we were there. Let me explain, and yes, it is all my fault. After we set up chairs and slathered everyone with sunscreen, I decided it would be fun to play with Evie in the sand. Now that she’s sitting up on her own without effort, it’s easier to play WITH her instead of having to hold her while she plays. So, instead of sitting behind her, I sat beside her to play with her toys in the sand. Unfortunately, the waves were CRAZY that day. Even though we were sitting a good 5-6 feet from the waters edge, this one wave came crashing in and, SLAM, knocked Evie over getting her all wet. She never went under the water, but it sure scared her enough to scream and scream and scream. (Pictured right, Evie loves relaxing with her daddy on the beach. Of course, this was before the little wave incident)

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the end of our beach trip. I grabbed her up and dried her off, trying to get all of the sand off of her. Then Joel grabbed her and took her toward the cars to walk her around. Then, I tried walking her around. Then Joel tried walking her around some more. The poor little girl was just done. Every time we would even start to step back toward the beach, she would get hysterical. So, we packed everything up and left about 45 minutes after arriving. We’ll have to try the beach thing again so that she’s not scared of waves for the rest of her life, but that will be…later.

She’s doing a lot of “big girl” things, but she’s not a big girl quite yet.

Shots, Swings, and Subcultures

2008-01-22T08:02:00.000-05:00

This past week was a fairly eventful one considering our normally sleepy lifestyle on the island. Evie went back to the doctor for her 6-month well visit and another round of shots. Once again the doctor was amazed by our little girl.

She is now 16 lbs 6 oz, 28” long, and has a head circumference of 43 cm. Finally her head is catching up to the rest of her body (in the 50%), her weight is still pretty high (75%), and now her length is literally off the charts. Literally. An average baby her age is 25”. There is no 28” on the “range” for her age. The doctor looked at Joel and me and said, “Well, I guess the two of you are sort of tall.” LOL. In other words, I have no idea why your baby is so gigantic!

When she was asking us about what skills Evie has accomplished, she asked if she could sit up for a few seconds on her own. We responded that she can actually sit up for minutes without our help. The doctor said, “Oh, she’s learned to prop herself up with her hands for balance, then. Good for her!” We said…um…no, she can sit up on her own and play with her toys for several minutes at a time. I don’t think the doctor actually believed us until she asked me to put Evie on the examining table. I put her on there sitting up, and Evie just sat there and reached out to grab the doctor’s stethoscope. The doctor said, “Oh wow! Look at you! You really are just sitting up!” Then she picked Evie up to see how well she could stand on her own. She told us that she was very impressed that she was developing as fast as she was. Yeah for Evie!

Speaking of standing, we are now practicing standing while leaning on the coffee table. She has figured out how to lock her knees so that she can stand for a while if we just hold her hips for balance. It won’t be long now before she is terrorizing the house running amuck.

The only bad thing about the doctor’s visit is that we learned she is leaving to move to Alaska to work with the indigenous people there. We are very sad to hear that because she has been a great doctor who tells us all about the latest studies and explains things in great detail to us. In fact, Joel and I had said at one point that she was one of the things we would miss when we left the island. I guess God took care of that for us!

The day after the doctor’s appointment, Evie and I had our fist playgroup. We had learned from some of Joel’s co-workers that there used to be a playgroup that met at a park on Wednesdays. On the off chance that they still met at the same time, I went there. I was thrilled that there were about 10 moms there with children aging from 5 months to 2 years. They were all very friendly and told me there were probably about 20 total families that were part of the playgroup, but usually no more than 10 or so came on any week.

Evie loved watching all of the “big kids” running up the slide and climbing on the playground, and I really enjoyed seeing all of the kids in different stages and talking to their moms about what they were going through at that point. They had baby swings there, so I took the chance and put Evie in one (even though she’s still a little small for them). She LOVED it! She just smiled and laughed the whole time. I also tried putting her on a bouncy horse. She was too small to reach the footrest or to really bounce on it, but she held onto the horse’s neck while I held her and rocked her a bit. We both had a really good time with all of the other kids and moms, and I started feeling bad about not joining before. Then one mom was telling me about this other mom who just had her second child, and she commented that she hadn’t been to playgroup in a while because, “Well, you know, you hardly get out of the house the first six months or so.” That made me feel better that I wasn’t socially stunting Evie by keeping her to myself most days. But seeing how much she enjoyed the morning with the others, I think we will be making a regular practice of it!

Speaking of socially expanding our child, Joel and I took Evie to a Rastafarian festival this weekend. There is a large group of Rastafarians who live in the more secluded, rural area on the west end of the island. For those who are not familiar with the “religion,” Rastas, as they are called, are a cult of sorts that emerged and spread in the 1960s-70s in the Caribbean islands. Although I don’t believe in their religion, their lifestyle is very interesting. Much like the Mormons, they believe in God and in Jesus, but they believe that Jesus has come back to earth in the form of an African leader in the 1930s. (Pictured right, we didn't take pictures while we were there, but I've included a photo of a traditional Rasta as well as a more modern Rasta stolen from off the internet [We have both living in St Thomas])

Their lifestyle beliefs, however, are much like the hippies. While they live in communes, secluding themselves from the evil outside world, living by their own laws, and scorning all outside authority, they believe in peace and in embracing all others, regardless of race or beliefs. They have a strong tie to nature, eating a vegetarian diet that they grow themselves without the use of any chemicals or fertilizers, and they cook in large metal pots over an open fire. They also make all of their own soaps and lotions and incense.

There are several aspects about their “faith” that most people would recognize. They are the “religion” that started the dreadlock movement and that fought to be able to wear their long hair because of religious reasons. They are also the ones who believe in smoking marijuana to “become enlightened” (think Rickey Williams), and believe that the White people are just banning the drug to keep the Africans from learning spiritual truth. They are also the founders of the reggae musical movement (think Bob Marley). (If you are interested, here is a link to more information about their religion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari_movement I thought it was a very interesting read.)

This festival was presented by the local Rastas for the local people, so we stuck out like a sore thumb since there were NO tourists there. Joel pleaded with me to not take any pictures, as they are a private people and would probably not appreciate being on display for my blog, and after being there for a few minutes, I agreed. There were booths set up with fresh fruits and vegetables, several food stations with the huge pots over fire pits, demonstrations on broom making, and ladies selling hand made jewelry and soaps. We saw HUGE vegetables, carrots larger than we had ever seen before, sugar cane that was being chewed or pressed to make a juice, coconuts being sliced open for drinking, and lots of edibles that we couldn’t identify. There were lots of herbs, roots, grass teas, and stands selling homemade lotions and incense. Everything looked so nice and fresh, but our problem was that we didn’t know how to use anything. What do you do with a lotion made of sage? Or a huge root that’s too large to put in any pot we own? Or stuff that looked like grass…do you cook it, eat it raw, use is as seasoning, smoke it as incense, or use it to make a broom? We just really didn’t know! But we had a lot of fun experiencing it all. The people were all very friendly, and we were stopped by more than one person wanting to see the baby. And now Evie can say she has been to a real Rastafarian commune.

Ah, the things this child has experienced in her short 6 months.

Who's Holding Evie?

2008-01-14T10:58:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is the "all the other stuff we did on our vacation" blog. I decided that a chronological account of all of the events may drag on a bit, so I decided to write this blog a little differently and just use photos and captions. And, thanks to many hours of reading children's books, this blog may sound a bit like a baby's board book. Hee hee hee...hope you have fun reading "Who's Holding Evie?"

Who's Holding Evie? Evie's Godmother Courtney and Kelvin Bentley. My college roommates, Courtney, Jessica, and Angie, and I have traditionally tried to get together for Christmas every year. With the constant addition of new family members, this gets harder every year. Unfortunately this year, Angie and her family couldn't make it, and Jessica's son got sick at the last minute. So, we had a nice relaxing lunch with Courtney and Kelvin at The Wok in Alexandria.

Who's Holding Evie?Sabrina Boyd Sherrill. My childhood friend now has a son of her own, who is an adorable ball of energy. Evie was awed by Collin when we visited them in Arcadia. Sabrina and I lost touch through college, but thanks to the Internet we talk frequently now! It's like we never skipped a beat!

Who's Holding Evie?Ms. Sheila Boyd. Ms. Sheila is Sabrina's mom and was my kindergarten teacher and like a second mom to me growing up. She just had to come over to hold Kristi Letlow's little girl, and I was so glad to see her!

Who's Holding Evie?
Evie's Godfather (Parrain) Scott Thomas. Scott is Joel's childhood friend, and they still talk almost daily. We had to go visit Lafayette so that he could hold his goddaughter and tell us how wonderful she was!

Who's Holding Evie?Mrs V. Scott's mom, Mrs. V, was like a second mom to Joel growing up. Then when I moved to Lafayette, she adopted me and our dogs, too! Scott, his wife Emily, Joel and I went out to eat, but we just had to stop by Mrs. V and Mr. Ron's house before dinner.

Who's Holding Evie? Kristine Vennen. Kristine was a friend of Emily's who became a friend of ours in Lafayette. She was also, conveniently, our vet! We had a lot of great times going out for dinner and having dinner parties with Kristine, Scott, and Emily! This trip, we enjoyed both the dinner and meeting Kristine's new boyfriend (woo hoo! He was a cutie, Kristine!)

Who's Holding Evie? Kevin Purcell. Kevin quickly became Joel's best friend in the biology department at UL. He and his wife Jessica were one of our closest "couple friends." Kevin amused us all by giving Evie a tour of his house pointing out all of the photos of himself and telling her how wonderful he was. Of course, it was all true! He also gave Evie the little stuffed horse she's holding, saying, "Every little girl needs a pony. I bought you the first one, but your dad will have to spring for the next one."

Who's Holding Evie? Jessica Purcell. Jessica got to practice "being a mommy" while Evie was there. She did a great job, too! Doesn't she look cute with a baby? (Hint, hint, Kevin!!!)

Who's Holding Evie? Aunt Cathy. Joel's Aunt Cathy (his mother's sister) lives in New Iberia, just outside of Lafayette. Evie had a great time playing with Aunt Cathy's little doggy and the baby toys she had from her own grandchildren.

Who's Holding Evie? Rachael Lacy. Joel's cousin Rachael was one of the first people to ever get to hold Evie at the hospital. Her foster son, Tavist, is such a cutie and a sweetheart. Even Evie thought he was adorable!

Who's Holding Evie? Aunt Eloise. Joel's Aunt Eloise actually cooked (that's a big deal for her!) for us when we came over to visit her family. Her husband, Uncle James, is Joel's mom's brother, and they have always been very close to Joel and his brothers. We always enjoy getting together with them whenever we can.

Who's Holding Evie? Karen Faber and Paula Rice. Karen is the secretary for the athletic department at UL and Paula is the accounting specialist. While we were in Lafayette, we had to go by and see all of my former co-workers and attend a home basketball game. After all, these were the people who had to put up with me every day while I was in my last trimester and Joel had already moved to the islands. Then we up and moved without them getting to see the baby after all that time! Mrs. Karen was the only one who was able to come by the hospital to see her before we moved across the ocean. Evie loved being spoiled by everyone there (and eating all of the office supplies!)

Who's Holding Evie? Mr. Danny Cottonham. Mr. C was my boss when I worked in academic advising for the athletes. He quickly became not only a great boss but also a wonderful confidant and friend. Evie obviously knew what a wonderful person he was, because she was fascinated with him and his beard. Mr. C even said, "This is the longest any baby has let me hold her without crying!"

Who's Holding Evie? Lane Luneau. Lane was my co-worker when I worked in academic advising for the athletes. He's a great uncle to his little niece, and I'm sure he'll be a great daddy one day. He just has to find a girl with no feet first, as he is especially opposed to gross, nasty feet. LOL Luckily Evie was wearing stockings that day!

Who's Holding Evie? OK, so everyone knows who this is holding Evie, but it was so cute I just had to include this picture of Evie with her daddy!

The 1/2-Year-Old

2008-01-12T08:57:00.000-05:00

Evie's 6-month-birthday was on December 28, while we were at my parents' house in Arcadia. To celebrate, I spent most of the morning making a 1/2 cake and 6 muffins (one for each month). Although I had a lot of fun making and decorating the cake and muffins, I can't take credit for the idea. My mom made a 1/2 cake for my 6-month-birthday over 30 years ago, so the idea is not new!

That morning my Aunt Judy (my mom's college roommate) came over for a visit, so we all got to sing Happy Birthday to Evie and sample the goodies. Evie REALLY wanted a piece of her cake, but, unfortunately, she's still a little too young. If her 1/2 party was any indication, I think she is going to have a blast in June at her 1 year party! My mom and Aunt Judy went shopping later that afternoon and returned with a Happy Birthday doll that sang the tune when you squeezed her. So, Evie's "trial run" birthday was a success with cake and presents!

Later that night, my childhood friend Claire drove all the way from Nachitoches (over an hour) with her husband, Pete, and son, Mason, just to see Evie for the first time (and so we could see Claire's cute belly as she's pregnant with her second). We are very fortunate because Joel and Pete have a lot of fun together, so it's nice to get together with them whenever we can. And Mason was too cute giving us a taste of what's to come with all of his energy and his curiosity about "that big dog" (Giggsy).

The Christmas Blog

2008-01-09T07:57:00.000-05:00

The Stake family has just returned from the mainland after a 3-week-long vacation. In those three weeks, we spent a significant amount of time in 6 different towns/cities. As you can imagine, there are enough stories to fill a novel! I’ll try to be kind to you and not give you every single detail, but because we are hoping Evie will be able to read this herself one day and enjoy all of the adventures she had her first year, I do want to include as many as I can. So…I’m going to divide up our vacation into a Christmas Blog and an “Other Stuff” Blog. Hopefully that way you won’t fall asleep halfway through reading them. (If you do, just don’t tell us!)

Our vacation began with an adventure in itself. After about 13 hours of traveling through airports, we landed in Shreveport late at night. Well, Joel, Evie, and I landed in Shreveport. Our luggage, however, was still hanging out in Miami. After about 45 minutes at the airport filling out lost luggage forms, we drove the hour journey to Arcadia. Luckily I still had some clothes there from high school that fit (YEAH!!!) and served as sleepwear, and my mom had bought Evie pajamas for Christmas that she let us open early. After getting Evie down, my poor mom stayed up washing all of our clothes so that we would have something to wear the next day, and Joel stayed up half the night calling the airport to see if our luggage had arrived.

Finally, at 8 a.m. the next morning, the airport called to say our luggage was in Shreveport…would we like them to mail it to us? Mail it??? That would take days! Hello, people!!! We have no clothes! So, poor Joel threw on his clothes from the night before and drove the hour journey back to Shreveport to get our luggage and the hour journey home. Ah, what a way to start vacation! (Pictured left, Evie opens Christmas presents with Grandmom Letlow.)

Because of the delay, we got a late start and missed Joel’s stepsister’s husband, Chuck’s, graduation from the police academy. We were really looking forward to surprising him by showing up to celebrate with his family and the rest of the Stake family that was there. Sorry, Chuck! But his immediate family and his mother were nice enough to hang around Little Rock waiting for us to arrive so that we could at least spend a little time with them before they went back to Searcy. Their son Chandler was SO excited to see his cousin Evie again. He had a great time showing off for her and trying to remember to “play gently” while near her, as everyone kept reminding him to do. (Pictured right, Aunt Jennifer, Cousin Chandler, and Uncle Chuck with Evie.)

The next day Jay came over and he, JD, Joel, and I all went to an Arkansas Razorbacks basketball game while Linda babysat Evie. Although Linda gave me a t-shirt to wear so I could “fit in” with the home crowd, a little bit of the Ragin’ Cajun came out in me, and I just had to boo under my breath at the new coach (who used to coach for South Alabama, a rival of the Cajuns). I must admit I was glad I at least looked like I fit in because I would not want to be an opposing team’s fan at a Razorback game in Little Rock. There were thousands of fans at the almost-sold-out arena, and it was a wee bit spooky when they all simultaneously started saying “Oooooooooohhhh” to “call in the pigs.” If we were in South Louisiana, I would swear they were putting a Voodoo curse on you! (Pictured left, Uncle Jay, Pop JD, Nana Linda, Kristi, Evie, and Joel.)

After the game, we all headed over to Heber Springs (about 1 ½ hours away) for the Stake family’s extended family Christmas. Linda and JD left before us because we wanted to feed Evie before getting on the road. Joel, Jay, Evie, and I planned to arrive just a few minutes after they did, but that was before the wrong turn. Those of you who know Joel’s uncanny sense of direction may be surprised by this, but he took an exit too soon, and we drove quite a while before he stopped and exclaimed, “This doesn’t feel right.” How in the world he knew it wasn’t right, I’ll never know. The road we were on looked just like the road we were supposed to be on to me, but somehow he knew, so we turned round. Unfortunately after the late start and the misdirection, that put us about 1 ½ hours or so late to the event, but everyone was still there by the time we showed up. (Pictured right, Joel's Aunt Becky holds her great-grandniece for the first time.)

All of JD’s 5 siblings came in, and most of the first cousins made it as well. It was really nice to be able to visit with everyone in one place. Two of Joel’s cousins had babies this year, also, so there was a house full of babies and lots of talk of baby stuff. Joel’s Aunt Becky and Cousin Randy and his family drove down from Missouri, so it was the first time we had visited with them in a while. By the end of the night, we were all exhausted, and luckily Evie slept for most of the trip back to Little Rock. (Pictured left, Baby fever with Joel's cousin Carrie and her son Jackson and Joel's cousin Jayme and her daughter Morgan.)

Then another adventure began. When we got back to the house, it seemed a little cool, so I tried to turn the thermostat up to make it warmer, especially for Evie who is used to 80 degree weather. Evie was especially fussy that night, and the house never seemed to get warmer even though I tried to change the thermostat again several times throughout the night. By the time we woke up, it was very COLD in the house. Poor Evie was lying on her tummy with her arms and legs pulled up underneath her, despite the thermal pajamas and blankets we had pilled on her. JD had to preach that morning, and we were all planning on going with him. But after checking, we discovered the furnace was broken. So, we all bundled up and gathered in front of the fireplace while poor JD had to take a shower in the freezing bathroom to get ready for preaching. Luckily, a nice member of their church, who is in the heating and cooling business, agreed to stop by on his way to church, and he was able to fix the furnace (Hooray!!!) (Pictured right, Evie all bundled up in her "finest" winter wardrobe.)

Because Jennifer had to work on Christmas Eve, we were driving to Arcadia on Christmas day, and Jon was visiting his birth mom in California and wouldn’t be joining us at all, we decided to reschedule Christmas for when it was more convenient and have it that Sunday afternoon. With the furnace fixed, Christmas was saved! Jennifer, Chuck, Chandler, and Jay came over that afternoon, and we all had a blast opening presents and watching Chandler ABSOLUTELY LOVE each and every gift he got. We had a delicious dinner (as usual!) full of all of the traditional Christmas foods. Nana Linda bought the grandchildren Christmas pajamas, so later that night they gathered in front of the fireplace to read Christmas stories before the Grays headed back to Searcy.

The next day was actually Christmas Eve, but we had a VERY relaxing time doing some last minute Christmas shopping for the Letlows and Bernards, wrapping presents, and letting the Stake grandparents play with Evie. Then on Christmas morning, we got up early and headed for Arcadia. We arrived around noon and spent most of the afternoon opening presents at my parents’ house. There were TONS of gifts, especially for the first grandchild, and Evie loved RIPPING the paper off of all of her presents (and of course, trying to put all of it in her mouth!) Absolutely her favorite gift of the entire holiday, however, was a pair of camouflaged Crocks shoes that my father received. She LOVED putting them on her own feet and kicking them off.

After turning my parents’ living room into a disaster area, we went to my Letlow grandparents’ for the Letlow family Christmas. My Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob were there with my Cousin Robby and his fiancé Kara. Again, we had a lot of fun opening presents and playing with Evie. As the newest member of the family who could understand English, Kara was given a hard time and a lot of teasing by the rest of the family. But she took it quite well, assuring that she will fit in nicely! Then we settled in for a wonderful dinner of ham and dressing and all of the “Christmas fixins’” (except for the “pink stuff” that Kara will be in charge of from now on since she’s the only younger person who likes it.) (Pictured left, I hold my baby while Robby holds his – That Franky doll was originally my Aunt Pat’s, but Robby and I played with him growing up, too. Poor thing has seen better days!)

Later in the week (see, I told you I was skipping a lot, believe it or not!), we drove down to Lake Charles for the Bernard family Christmas. Since we’ve traditionally spent Christmas Day at my Aunt Betty, we drove to her house first to see her decorations and visit with her and her family before we all headed over to my Aunt Susie’s for the party. My Grandmother Bernard and all of my aunts were there (except for Aunt Ara, who has moved back to her native home of Cambodia!), and several of my cousins were able to come also. We had a good time visiting, and everyone enjoyed holding their great-granddaughter or great-grandniece. (Pictured right, Four generations of Bernard women.)

Instead of everyone buying presents for all of the Bernards, we played the “Steal a gift” game where each person takes a turn either stealing someone else’s already opened gift or opening a new one of their own. All of the men did a great job taking cues from their wives as to which gifts to “go after,” so there were many of us all fighting over the same gifts. I was, of course, given a hard time for stealing picture frames from my grandmother, but that was only after my own mother stole a book from me! So, all is fair in love and Christmas gifts. (Pictured left, My Aunt Susie and Aunt Rosie with their great-grandniece.)

Speaking of Christmas gifts, thank you to everyone for all of your generosity! Evie has so many new toys that we had a hard time packing them all back in our luggage, but now we are able to enjoy one new toy every few days. It’s like Christmas is just going, and going, and going…(much like this blog! LOL).

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T15:55:00.000-05:00

The Stakes will be away for a while visiting friends and family in the states! Until we return, we hope you enjoy these holiday photos! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas in the Islands

2007-12-17T09:32:00.000-05:00

This week, our family got a taste of what Christmas in the Virgin Islands is like. Although the weather is still beautiful and in the 80s everyday, there are Christmas lights and decorations all around the university and the island. And this week, there was a boat parade, where sailboats decked in Christmas lights sailed around the harbor with festive people on board yelling “Merry Christmas” to onlookers.

On Friday, Joel, Evie, and I went to Miracle on Main Street, an annual local event downtown. Usually all of the shops downtown close as soon as the cruise ships leave everyday, thus making it hard for locals who work until 5 or 6 p.m. to shop. So, one night a year, all of the shops downtown stay open all night with huge sales for the local people. There were also bands on every corner playing Christmas music, school children performing traditional dances or Christmas performances or steel drum music, vendors with Christmas items, food stands and drink stands, and just about every person on the island dressed in Santa hats and visiting with all of their neighbors. (Pictured right, Evie "unwraps" her first Christmas gift.)

It definitely made the island seem like a small town, as EVERYONE knew EVERYBODY. We had a lot of fun just being in the festive spirit and talking to the friends we have made here. Evie even seemed to enjoy herself, as she stayed wide-eyed smiling at everyone until way past her bedtime.

On Sunday, we went to Megan’s Bay, the nicest beach on the island, with some of Joel’s co-workers and their families. Matt, the master’s degree student that Joel works with, is finishing up this week. His family was on the island helping him move, so we all went to the beach with them to say goodbye to Matt.

Evie did really well, playing in the sand and wading out into the water. She did look a bit concerned, though, as she watched her feet sinking further and further into the wet sand as each wave buried them more. I think she was relieved when I picked her up and her toes were still attached! Joel even walked on the sand and swam in the ocean (for those of you who know his aversion to the beach, that’s a big deal!)

And to top off the festivities, I received one of the best Christmas gifts from Evie on Monday. She said, “Mama!!!” She still doesn’t yet known what it means, but that’s ok…it was nice to hear it after hearing Dada all week!

After celebrating Christmas the island way, we are excited to get on a plane and go to the cold weather of Arkansas and Louisiana to celebrate Christmas as it “should be” with our family and friends!

Baby Blues

2007-12-13T13:59:00.001-05:00

Evie doesn't know what Christmas is yet, but she is already VERY excited about it! We've been playing Christmas music in the house during the day, and she received her first Christmas present from Mrs. Hilda, our landlady. Those big blue eyes just light up whenever we tell her how much FUN it's going to be! And she loves dancing around the room with her mom and dad to all of the Christmas tunes.

Joel and I are both very excited to go back to Arkansas and Louisiana in a week as well. We miss everyone so much!

This week, we took Evie to Mountain Top. As the name sounds, it's the highest spot on the island, and from there you can see all of the other Virgin Islands, both American and British. It was a big cloudy on the day we went, but it was still a beautiful view.

As with everything else here, Mountain Top is also a heavy tourist trap. There were lots of shops and concession stands. We thought there was a restaurant, so we went at lunch time expecting to eat. Well...there wasn't one. So, then we drove to a restaurant we had tried to visit before but was closed for renovations. Guess what? It was closed again! No reason, just the doors and windows were shut. We are getting quite used to having to travel all over in search for things that we want, including open restaurants!

Speaking of food, Evie started eating in a highchair like a big girl this week. Of course, that meant that she can now grab the bowl that is on the highchair tray. It has been very interesting trying to feed her while keep her from putting both hands right into her oatmeal! I finally gave up the other day and let her try it for herself. For her first time, she didn't do too bad putting the spoon in and out of her mouth. Of course, most of the time the spoon ended up upside down and there was more food on her bib than in her mouth, but it was amusing to watch. At this stage, our doctor tells us it's less about getting the food in for nutrition and more about letting Evie learn to love eating. So, I guess we'll count the oatmeal in the hair and sweet potatoes on the floor as a "learning experience."

Little Evie Foo-Foo

2007-12-07T09:09:00.000-05:00

Evie’s love of all things bunny has just grown stronger now that she is 5 months old. She still doesn’t go anywhere without her toy bunny, and right before Thanksgiving she decided that her favorite book was one called “I am a Bunny.” (Actually it’s a book my Aunt Susie gave me in 1980 that has now been passed down. Thanks again, Aunt Susie!) Then, the past few weeks her favorite game to play has become Little Bunny Foo-Foo. All you have to do to quiet her from fussing is grab the nearest stuffed toy (or the TV remote has even worked on occasion) and begin acting out Little Bunny Foo-Foo. As you can imagine, that little rhyme is sung a lot around our apartment!

And then this week…she fell in love with carrots. She loves them and eats them well, so we try to feed them to her along with other new foods as often as we can. Of course, everything from spoons to burp cloths, to bibs are stained orange, so maybe she’ll find a nice, neutral colored favorite food soon. But I guess there could be worse things that a 5 month old could love. She is surely too young to make the connection that all of these things revolve around rabbits, but I truly think she is going to turn into a bunny soon.

With all of the kicking that she still loves to do, we should call her Thumper. Except I think she has to learn to crawl before she can hop. It doesn’t seem it will be long before she does that, though. She has learned to pull her little legs up underneath her and move them in a crawling fashion. She just can’t get her arms to cooperate, so she ends up face-planting right into the play mat. But she’s still trying!

She’s also trying to sit on her own. She can prop herself up, tri-fold style, using one hand to steady herself while reaching with the other. But this only lasts a few seconds because as soon as she leans forward to reach for something, she topples over onto her head. I’m really surprised she doesn’t have bruises all over her face at this rate.

Evie has also found a way around her temporary immobility. At playtime on the play mat / quilt, I try to put her toys just out of her reach so that she has to practice rolling and trying to crawl to get them. But this week, she outsmarted me. As I laid her on her back on the mat, she just looked from side to side at her toys, then reached over, grabbed the quit, and pulled the toys to her, quilt and all. I guess that will show me for trying to out-think a 5 month old. I’m not sure if that makes her a brilliant problem solver or just lazy!

But the most obvious new development this week has been her vocalization. One of the cutest things she now does is to “sing” with her toys. Whenever she plays with a little CareBear doll that sings the alphabet song, Evie coos very softly along with it. I think this has to be her form of singing, because everything else she has done lately has been LOUD!!!

Evie has found her voice and has discovered how to make B, K, and D sounds. Mix the two together and you get a very loud, constant chatter. It’s nowhere close to words yet, but it sounds more like a real language than the squeals and vowel sounds from just a week ago. She has even accomplished Da Da several times now, but it is usually intertwined with other nonsense babble. “Caa-Aaa-Baa-Aaa-Baa-Daa-Daa,” is how it usually comes out. We’re not sure exactly what she’s telling him to do yet, but she definitely means business as she yells it at him most of the time. And she talks CONSTANTLY! It really is quite funny to hear, and Joel and I can’t help but laugh most of the time.

Most of the time. All of this new learning has apparently interrupted her sleep patterns because has started waking around 4 am to talk. She just lies in her crib talking to her hands, her feet, or her crib toy and kicking the side rails of the crib. One of them must be hard of hearing, because talking soon turns to yelling, which after about 20 minutes or so turns to crying. And then, if we weren’t before, we are all definitely awake!

According to all the expert books I’m reading, this is normal at this stage (great!) They also say that from 6 months on, children begin changing and learning at a more rapid pace. I’m not sure we can handle any faster changes! Does anyone have any ideas on keeping her 5 months old?

Evie’s first Thanksgiving trip

2007-12-01T09:22:00.000-05:00

I know, I know…this blog is late. But Evie has had some sleepless nights after returning from our Thanksgiving trip, which has led to incoherent thoughts for her mom. And I needed to be able to think clearly to write this week because I have a LOT to report. A LOT. (Just remember, you were forewarned that this would be long!)

We left bright, sunny St Thomas on Saturday. The flight wasn’t nearly as bad as last time. It definitely helped that there were two of us! But Evie did have one 30 minute screaming fit that I think made everyone on the plane hate us. Oh well…not much we could do about it! We got to Louisiana late that night, so we decided to be bad and skip church the next morning. Evie usually wakes up a lot the first night she’s in a new place, but she slept pretty well this time, thanks to my mom’s wonderful idea of putting an air purifier right next to her crib for the “white noise.”

Sunday was very low-key visiting with my mom and dad (Grandmom and Grandpa) and my Letlow grandparents. Gran and Granddaddy Letlow came over for lunch and we all had a really good visit. Mom cooked my favorite lasagna with little crunchy garlic bread. Then Joel, Mom, and I all went to the Arcadia mall. We don’t have many stores here on the island, so one of the top things on our to do list was to SHOP!!! I was very glad that we did because we ran into some of the ladies from our church, including my godmother, Ms. Betty Darsey, who cooed over Evie and told us how beautiful she was. Later that night Gran Letlow came back over and played for a while, then we all went to sleep pretty early. I was very glad for that first relaxing day because the rest of our trip was pretty jam-packed with activity. (Pictured right, my dad with his newest birthday present...the shirt, not the baby.)

On Monday we drove to Little Rock. We were very fortunate that Evie slept most of the way, and Joel and I had several hours of peace and quiet to just talk and enjoy each other’s company. Most of you reading this are probably sick of the wet, southern winter weather by now, but Joel and I kept saying how much we were enjoying gray skies and falling leaves. Paradise is beautiful, but changing seasons are nice, too!

When we arrived in Little Rock, Joel’s dad and step-mom (Pop and Nanna) met us in the driveway. It was, after all, the first time they had seen Evie since her birth. But they were very patient, letting me hold Evie while we explored their house and she got comfortable with them and her new surroundings. I think we are beginning to see her little personality. I think she is going to be one of those people who needs to take it all in before she jumps into a situation. Not a bad quality to have! Just as soon as Evie felt comfortable, Linda took over and held Evie and played with her for most of the night. We were really glad that Evie didn’t cry or get fussy. Hopefully she is over the stranger phase from the last trip! Linda spread out a quilt and she and JD played with their granddaughter until supper time.

Joel’s brother Jay came over that evening to see his niece for the first time ever! I was very pleasantly surprised with Uncle Jay. Not that I thought Jay would be a bad uncle, but he has always proclaimed that he didn’t want kids, so I didn’t really know what to expect. But Jay seemed to actually enjoy playing with his little bundle of a niece. He got down on the quilt and played with her for a long time, letting her suck on his fingers but NOT letting her pull his hair (for those of you who know Jay’s hair, you understand why! LOL). He even held her for long periods of time all throughout the weekend. Who knew Uncle Jay liked babies! For all of you who know Jay (and there are a lot of you out there!), he has done really well for himself lately. He has a new job as a caseworker for a counselor at a local junior high / high school. Jay is basically the front man, keeping up with the kids, knowing what’s going on in their classes and with their everyday life, and reporting back problems to the counselor. He really seems to enjoy it, and his boss says he does a great job. I’m really excited that he’s found something he likes that he’s really good at!

The next morning, Linda and JD kept Evie while Joel and I went SHOPPING!!! I think we were so overwhelmed by all of the stores and choices that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We drove all over going to tons of clothing and shoe stores just to look at all of the things that were in stock! LOL! We finally ended up realizing that there were some items we actually needed to buy, so we headed to Target. We had missed Target SO much!!! We walked up and down every aisle. I think we probably made fools of ourselves with our excitement. At least I did! One of the things that is hard to find on the island is Pantene shampoo and conditioner. As I turned the corner of the shampoo aisle in Target, thinking that Joel was right behind me, I exclaimed, “LOOK AT ALL THE PANTENE!!!!” The lady behind me, that I thought was Joel, just looked at me like I was crazy and kept going down the row. I just had to laugh. If only she had known how many trips I’ve made to a Kmart with empty shelves, she would understand!

After returning back to the Stake house, we found a worn-out child exhaustedly asleep from Nanna and Pop playing with her so much! They must have liked her a little! Linda spent the rest of the afternoon cooking and making this incredible “island cake” for the Stake family party later that night. They had sent out invitations to all of Joel’s Stake aunts and uncles inviting them to come meet Evie. We were glad that all of them, except Aunt Becky in Missouri, were able to make it, along with a few of Joel’s cousins. I think Joel had really missed seeing his family for so long, so it was a good idea to have everyone over. There was a house full of people, but Evie was pleasantly happy with being passed around and talking to all of her “new” family members. Eventually she was pooped, so I took her off to bed while Joel continued visiting with all of his family. I’m really glad we got to have that night of seeing everyone and showing off our new addition. (Pictured left, Evie and Aunt Connie. Pictured right, Evie and Aunt Joann)

Wednesday Joel and I took Evie to the Little Rock mall while Linda and JD got ready for the early Thanksgiving dinner we were having that night. Again, Joel and I loved going in all of the stores and being in a “real” mall. We also had fun spending the birthday money we had gotten earlier from JD and Linda. Thanks again!!! Then we met Jay at his friend’s Chinese restaurant for lunch and another trip to a different Target store (there’s more than one!!!) to look for a few things on our list we had yet to find. (Pictured left, the really neat island cake that Linda made for the Stake party)

Later that day, Joel’s other brother Jon arrived with his girlfriend Tina, and Linda’s daughter Jennifer came over with her son Chandler. Jon hadn’t seen Evie since she was born, Jennifer and Chandler had never met Evie, and we hadn’t met Tina. So we all had a fun night of getting to know each other. As we knew he would be, Jon was a fun uncle, playing with Evie on the quilt and having pillow fights with Chandler. Tina was also a real sweetheart (and brave fitting right in with the crazy commotion.) She and I “helped” Linda in the kitchen as much as two people who don’t like cooking could (Yeah! There are more females like me out there!), while the boys played with the kids.

Poor Chandler, who is 4, had been looking forward to meeting his new cousin for a long time. He was planning on showing her how to ride a bike and play with all of his favorite toys. I think he was a bit disappointed when she was so little and couldn’t play as much with him yet. But he did a good job of winding up toys for her, picking out books to read to her, and making silly faces on Mr. Potato Head for her to laugh at. I told him that there were going to be a lot of thing he was going to have to teach his new cousin, and he replied, “Yeah, I’m going to have to make a list!” LOL!

The next morning was Thanksgiving (and Joel’s birthday, even though I almost forgot! Thank you to Chandler, who when I asked him that morning what day it was, thinking he would say Thanksgiving, replied, “UNCLE JOEL’S BIRTHDAY!”) After getting dressed and having breakfast with the Stake clan, we drove back to Arcadia where both my Letlow relatives and some of my Bernard family were already at my parents' house ready to meet Evie.

There was a house full of people, including some new faces. My cousin Jennifer brought her new husband, Justin. My cousin Robby brought his new fiancé, Kara. And, of course, Evie was new to all of the Bernards. My mom and some of the other females worked hard in the kitchen while the rest of us chatted and played with Evie. Then we all sat down for Thanksgiving dinner, with my mom and I taking shifts holding Evie and eating. There were so many people that my Uncle Bob had to bring in two huge tables from his shop, and we still had people overflowing into the breakfast room. (Pictured left, Evie and Uncle Bob)

After lunch, we all had fun playing with Evie and chatting and catching up. Evie showed off for everyone demonstrating her “baby pilates” by lifting her head and legs to form a V to look around. My Aunt Betty, who is an aerobics instructor, thought it was so funny she had Jennifer make a video while she voiced over “And up! Hold it, hold it. And down!” I think she should market it to all of the obese babies out there! LOL (Pictured right, Evie with Aunt Betty)

Later that afternoon the Letlow group all returned home while the Bernards, who had driven in from Texas and south Louisiana, stayed over. That’s when it began -- the competition. It seems every time the Bernards get together, a competition breaks out…tennis, board games, croquet…the game really doesn’t matter. And now that the new, ultra-competitive (and willing to cheat for the win!) cousin Justin has joined the group, the fun was elevated even higher. Of course it took us at least 30 minutes just to decide what game to play and how to divide up into teams. After that heated debate, the Pictionary battle began. It was actually a really close (and intense) game. I still say my team won more individual competitions by guessing the right words…we just couldn’t roll the dice well to get around the board! So, yeah, yeah, yeah, the other team (Joel’s team) won by one roll. (Justin, you should have cheated more!!! LOL) (Pictured left, Evie and Aunt Ann)

The next day was my birthday! Yeah! Joel had to get up early to go to Alexandria for Scottie Brooks’ wedding rehearsal. Then all of the Bernards, including my grandmother’s sister Aunt Peggy and her son, came over for more visiting. Evie had fun watching college football with the men. And then the dreadful (or incredible, depending on if you’re from Arkansas or Louisiana) game came on. Most of the Bernards had to leave to return home, but Aunt Peggy and her son stayed to watch the LSU v. Arkansas game, that went on forever and forever! After 3 over times, and a lot of disappointment from the Louisiana folks, everyone left and my mom, dad, and I watched a movie together. (Pictured right, Evie and Grandmother Bernard. Pictured left Evie with Cousin Justin and Cousin Jennifer)

The next morning, I got up and went to Alexandria to join Joel for the wedding. My parents were brave enough to volunteer to baby sit Evie overnight so that Joel and I could stay out late and enjoy all of our college friends at the wedding. From what I understand, Gran and Granddaddy Letlow came over to help baby sit. During the whole visit, every time Evie saw Gran, she just stared and stared at her. I guess she knows they have a special connection sharing the name Evelyn. From what Mom said, Evie just talked and talked to Gran all day long.

The wedding was a lot of fun and the perfect way to end our Thanksgiving Day reunion trip. Scottie was one of Joel’s college roommates, so lots of Joel’s close college friends were there, and we had a lot of fun catching up with them. Also, the girl that Scottie married, Kate Murphy, was a member of the BSU with me in college and they both go to the church that Joel and I attended while at LC. So we knew practically everyone there. Several of our old professors that we loved and have kept in touch with over the years were there, too. Kate is an artist, so she had the church beautifully decorated with banners and topiaries and had designed the programs with watercolor drawings of the decorations. The reception was at an art gallery where her work was on display, and she had beautifully decorated the reception hall with old-timey photos of both of their families from the 1800’s and 1900’s. We had a great time dancing and talking and reminiscing. Then Joel and I were able to retreat to the hotel and get an uninterrupted, full-night’s sleep.

The next morning Joel and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Cracker Barrel (so leisurely, thanks to a mix-up in the kitchen, that the manager didn’t make us pay for our food, in fact! Even better!!!) Then we headed back to Arcadia for one more visit with my parents and grandparents before packing up to catch the red-eye flight back to St. Thomas the next morning. (Pictured left, Joel and me with Jim and Gina Crawford. Jim was Joel's soccer coach and spanish professor. Gina was my advisor at the school paper. Both were our "mentors" and just so happened to be married!)

This trip was truly a Thanksgiving trip as Joel and I spent lots of time with a lot of the people that we are truly thankful for in our lives. It was so good to see everyone and to share the excitement of our new daughter with everyone, and we both felt very refreshed, albeit tired, by the end of the week. Thank you to all of you who made our Thanksgiving memorable.

Yummy!

2007-11-13T12:31:00.000-05:00

Evie has tried solid food, and there’s no turning back! On the very first day, I mixed a small amount of rice cereal with a lot of formula, sat Evie tentatively in her Bumbo chair, and thought I might be in for a long, hard fight to get her to eat solid foods and to get her to eat out of a spoon. Boy was I surprised when she opened her mouth and attacked the spoon right off!!! No problems here! The girl loves food. (notice on the photo to the left, the food on the cheek was totally my fault. It's a lot harder to put a spoon in a baby's mouth while focusing a camera than it looks!!!)

Or, I really think she just loves the spoon. The food got in, and most of it swallowed. But I think after watching her mom and dad for so long, the “fun” of finally getting to bite a spoon helped ease the eating process. Except at first she more “attacked” and “bit” the spoon than was really interested in eating off of it! Sometimes she even shook her head a bit, like a dog shaking a stuffed toy, which made for lots of food in interesting places. LOL (pictured right, the "after" shot from her first eating session)

But now, after 7 days, she is an old pro at this. She does really good opening her mouth when she sees the spoon and getting most of it into her mouth and swallowed. We have accomplished rice cereal and peas so far. She wasn’t so interested in the newness of the rice cereal because it mostly tasted like formula (I’m guessing, I didn’t actually taste the squishy stuff!), but her expression when she first took the peas was priceless. I tried to grab my camera, but the moment was gone. Let’s just say that the first few seconds were the perfect photo op for the word “surprise!” It wasn’t a look of “yuck” or of “yum,” it was truly a “Woah!!! That was NOT was I was expecting!!!” I’ll have to have the camera ready when we try squash! LOL

And for the first time, she is finally enjoying being on her tummy for a bit. She can easily roll from her back to her tummy, but hasn’t yet figured out how to get back to her back. Up until now, she just screamed every time she ended on her belly until someone “righted” her again. But, this week she has started actually staying that way and trying to get to and play with her toys. She is kicking and kicking her legs, but she hasn’t quite got the motor skills to crawl yet. Thankfully! We aren’t quite ready for a mobile Evie. I like my nice, stationary kid for now, thank you very much!

I also like my husband very much. This weekend, I came down with a nasty cold, and didn’t want to move from the bed. So, thankfully, Joel took over most of the full-time duties of parenting Evie. I know he was exhausted after the weekend, but it worked out perfectly because by Monday morning, I was feeling much better! And, I also got to hear what every stay-at-home mom longs for. Joel admitted Sunday night, “Taking care of her is a LOT of work! Being a stay-at-home mom is a hard job! I sure wouldn’t want to do it!” Like the job requirements or not, Joel is really good with Evie. He even got down on the play mat with her and showed her how to roll over. I’m not sure if Evie understood what he was trying to teach her, but she laughed at him nonetheless.

And, one more note on the “awe...too cute” factor. We knew it was going to happen eventually. We just didn’t know it would be this soon. Evie has fallen in love. And it’s the true love…the I-can’t-go-a-second-without-you kind of passion…the always-having-to-be-in-constant-contact kind of infatuation. Neither one of them can keep their hands off each other, and last night Joel and I found them together on the couch, enwrapped in an embrace. I think they’re moving too fast, but Joel says it was only a matter of time. At least we approve of her choice…

We thought it was normal for Evie to touch bunny for comfort, but this is a little silly!

The Joys of Being a 4-Month-Old

2007-11-07T08:46:00.000-05:00

While we were in Arcadia last week, Evie turned 4 months. So this week we took her to the doctor for her check-up and second round of immunization shots. The doctor measured and weighed her. Evie is now 26 inches long (in the 95% for girls her age!!!), weighs 14 lbs 6 oz (75% for her age), and has a head circumference of 40.5 cm (35% for her age). So, she is very long with a head that’s too small for her body! LOL.

As the doctor was checking her over, she asked us if we were giving Evie plenty of “tummy time.” As we sheepishly explained that she screams every time we try, the doctor rolled Evie over and she shot her head right up, looking around from side to side. The doctor cut us off saying, “Well obviously you give her enough. She is REALLY strong for her age!” So, I guess the hours of “flying” Evie around the apartment like Superman and letting her climb all over us and the couch are substituting quite nicely for the regimented “tummy time.”

The doctor also gave us a lengthy questionnaire which evaluated Evie’s development compared to other babies her age. The doctor explained that we needed to answer honestly, checking yes, sometimes, or not yet, to really see where she was developmentally She also explained that there were questions intertwined in the survey that she was not supposed to be ready to accomplish at her age (to make sure parents didn’t just check yes for every question.) Joel and I spent quite a while discussing each question to make sure we were answering it as honestly as possible. Then the doctor “scored” it. I am proud to say that Evie scored very high in every category. She scored perfect in “Fine Motor Skills” (grabbing objects, reaching for things, scratching different textures, etc.) even accomplishing some of the things she wasn’t supposed to be ready for yet. She scored almost perfect in “Problem Solving” (following a toy with her head, staring at and reaching for things that she wants, etc.) And she scored in the upper 90% in “Communication” (squealing, laughing, calming down when you talk to her, etc.), “Gross Motor Skills” (holding her head up, grasping her hands together, etc.), and “Personal-Social” (smiling at people, trying to hold her bottle, calming when she sees her bottle, etc.). So, as we all already knew…she’s a genius! (Pictured right, Evie does a backbend over her toys and pillows while Joel....well...watches football.)

Ok, now that I’m through bragging, back to reality – the immunization shots. My mother has always talked about how upsetting my shots were because I was so happy and giggly right before they gave them to me, and looked so shocked that someone would actually try to hurt me. Now I understand what she was talking about. Evie was so cute lying on the table squealing at a stuffed parakeet dangling above her head and kicking her legs in excitement. I held down her leg (Joel was admittedly too chicken to help!), and the nurse stabbed her with the first shot. Evie just looked bewildered for a second and then burst into an ear-piercing scream. Poor thing just screamed all red-faced while I had to hold her down for the second shot in her other leg. The nurse tried to console her for what seemed like an eternity while I just wanted her to get out of the way so I could pick up my child and comfort her! I tried holding her for a bit before handing her off to Joel to play with her and calm her down. She settled down before we left, but I’m pretty sure she gave that nurse a good glare as we passed her in the hall on our way out. (Pictured left, Evie lifts her skirt to show everyone the bandages on her shots.)

The doctor also gave us the green light on introducing solid foods. She gave us some advice that I had never heard or read before. She said that most people start babies on rice cereal, but some people are actually allergic to rice. With all of the stomach complications Evie has had, the doctor suggested we try introducing green peas or green beans if she didn’t take to the rice cereal. Apparently there are NO reported cases of allergic reactions to peas or green beans.

Of course, that meant we actually had to find rice cereal and baby food on this island. We had to go to three stores before we were successful. At the first store, they didn’t have rice cereal or baby food other than fruits. So, we thought, we’ll just buy a can of green beans or peas and blend them up ourselves. Only problem…the store was out of both of those, too. So, we went to store #2. It had a starter pack of Gerber vegetables with peas, carrots, and squash, but no rice cereal. So, we had to go to store #3 before we finally found rice cereal (but limited amounts of baby food.) Ahhh…how we love island life! So, this next week should be adverturous as we try to introduce Evie to strange new things like spoons, swallowing solids, and keeping things in her mouth.

On the other “Evie updates” front, Evie now has her first job. That’s right. Joel and I are determined that she will not turn into a spoiled brat, so we’re starting her to work early. Call the child labor laws people, if you want! Her first assignment is…holding her feet while we change her diaper. She’s pretty good at it, too! As soon as we lay her down to change her, she starts reaching for her feet. The only problem is she is too good at it and we sometimes have to coax her to let go of them!

And, Evie has a new favorite past time…splashing. Apparently this week, Evie realized that if you kick in the bathtub, it makes this cool sound and the water goes EVERYWHERE! So far, the counters, floors, Joel’s work bag, a music CD, and some of Joel’s papers have fallen victim to the huge amounts of water that Evie can force out of the baby tub. But Evie LOVES it. I’ve gotten into the new habit of putting her in the bath, and then standing back to let her enjoy herself, squealing with the delight of flying water. We want her to think baths are fun, right? I may be paying for that down the road, but for now the counters and floors are getting thoroughly cleaned every day as I wipe up the pools of water from Evie’s new game.

Ah, the joys of being a 4-month-old.

The Girls Go It Alone

2007-11-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry this post is a little late this week, but I do have a pretty good excuse. I surprised my parents and grandparents this week with a last-minute trip to Arcadia. I found a good plane ticket fare, and Joel said, “Go!” So, Evie and I set off by ourselves to Louisiana.

For those of you who have never tried it, traveling alone with a 3 month old is…um…an adventure. Our first plane out of St. Thomas was 30 minutes late. No one knows why we were 30 minutes late, we just sat on the run way for 30 minutes…with no other plane in sight…just sat there…Of course, Evie got tired of sitting in my lap about 30 minutes into the flight, so the next 1 ½ hours of walking her up and down the aisle while she fussed was a lot of fun.

Then we arrived in Miami 30 minutes late, and we only had about 20 minutes to catch our next flight. That’s where the real fun began. Of course, I had to wait for Evie’s stroller and car seat to come off the plane before I could go anywhere. Once I got her in the stroller, we went into the terminal with her diaper bag in the basket below the stroller, and my rolling carry-on being dragged behind us. The first thing we saw was an escalator. So, I asked the flight attendant where the elevators were. She said there were none. I and another mother sat at the bottom of the moving stairs just staring at each other for a while. I held her baby while she got her stroller fixed, but then I told her I had to go! So, I grabbed Evie out of the stroller, threw my carry-on into the stroller, and pushed it up the escalator while holding Evie.

Once at the top, I checked the boards for our flight, but didn’t see it. So, I asked a guy at the desk if he could tell me what gate to go to. He looked at the screen and said, “Oh, that flight leaves in 15 minutes, and it’s in concourse A…about a 40 minute walk from where the tram drops you off.” So, I threw Evie back into the stroller and took off toward the tram. Once on the tram, there were no announcements as to where it was stopping. So, the first time the doors opened, I looked out and saw “Concourse E.” Knowing that I needed concourse A, I stayed on. Much to my surprise, the tram went right back to my original gate. When new people got on, I just announced, “Does anyone know how to get to concourse A?” This man told me to get off at concourse E, then go down the elevator and it was a 40-45 minute walk from there.

By this time, I just knew there was NO way I was going to make this flight. I thought about just asking about getting on the next flight out, but I knew that would make me miss all of my flights and I would end up having to spend the night in some airport with a baby. So, when the doors opened, I ran to the elevator, and once on the right floor, I just took off in a full sprint. Now, I know I must have looked utterly ridiculous pushing a stroller with one hand, dragging a carry on with the other, sprinting through the airport huffing and puffing and yelling, “Excuse Me!!!” as fast as my not-quite-back-to-pre-pregnancy-shape body could go.

At the end of one hall was another escalator/elevator, so, I got on thinking the gate must be close. When I got to the top floor, there was just another long hallway, so I started sprinting again. After running forever and seeing no gates, the hall ended at another escalator/elevator going back down. By this point I was beyond frustrated, and it must have shown as I exclaimed, “Oh, you’ve GOT to be kidding me!!!” A lady in her mid-40s was waiting with a man in a wheel chair by the elevator. She asked me how much time I had to make it to my gate. After looking at my watch, I said, “Exactly 2 minutes.” She asked, “Until boarding or until the flight leaves?” I responded, “Until the plane is in the air.” She told the man she was with that they had plenty of time and asked if he would mind her helping me.

So, she grabbed my carry on and asked what gate I was going to. When we got off the elevator, she started sprinting down the hall yelling, “Dear Jesus help us make this flight!!! Dear Jesus help us make this flight!!!” as I ran after her. I guess we must have really been a sight, because people got out of our way! When we were about 30 feet from the gate, she yelled, “I’ve got a lady with a baby that has to get on this plane!!!” The flight attendants told us that the plane doors were closed, but they would try to get Evie and me on. As I hugged the lady and told her thank you, she said, “Don’t thank me, thank Jesus!” The flight attendants grabbed the bags and my stroller and escorted me on the plane. They didn’t even take my ticket, they just rushed me down the ramp.

Exhausted, out of breath, and dripping wet from running the entire way, I settled down into my seat. But the fun didn’t stop there. Right after take-off, a flight attendant came to my seat and said that they just realized that I was in an exit row, which is not allowed with a baby. So, as the rest of the passengers looked on, two more flight attendants came to move all of my stuff and Evie to another seat as the plane was still ascending. FINALLY, I was able to relax a bit. The rest of the flights went really well, and Evie slept through most of them (probably because she was overwhelmed by all of the craziness!) (Pictured right, Evie with my Aunt Pat)

The visit also went well for the most part. Evie was a bit apprehensive about the new surroundings and fought going and staying asleep in a new crib. So, the nights were reminiscent of her new-born days. She also started this strange habit that no one has been able to explain yet. She loved all of the men who held her (my father and grandfather), and would coo and laugh and play with them. But, she screamed every time another female tried to hold her (my mom, grandmother, and aunt). It was very strange, and I know it just broke all of their hearts. She finally settled down at the end of the visit with my mom and grandmother, which was a relief! But it was very odd at first, and even her doctor hasn’t been able to explain it. (Pictured left, Evie with Gran)

Evie and I enjoyed a few relaxing days in Arcadia, going for my haircut, shopping at the mall and in Ruston, going to my parent’s church, and playing with the dogs (which my parents are keeping for us while we are away). Evie was very curious about Daisy (our cocker spaniel), pulling her ears and trying to touch her. But she was very apprehensive about Giggsy (our bulldog), who was just DYING to get to her and lick her all over. She also loved sitting in her Grandpa’s lap and watching college football. My Aunt Pat, Uncle Bob, and Cousin Robby all came over for Sunday dinner and a nice long visit, and of course, Gran Letlow and Grandaddy Letlow (my grandparents) came over every day to play with Evie. She let Gran feed her and hold her, and she talked and talked to Granddaddy while gripping his fingers with her toes. (Pictured right, Evie tries to pet Daisy while Giggsy tries to eat the camera)

After all of the craziness, the trip turned out to be exactly what I had hoped for – a relaxing break and a chance for Evie to visit and get used to everyone in Arcadia before the crazy whirlwind of a visit at Thanksgiving. We are now back in St. Thomas, but we are already looking forward to our trip to Arcadia, Little Rock, and Alexandria in a few weeks!

Party Time!!!

2007-10-23T20:58:00.000-04:00

This weekend Joel and I hosted a lab party at our apartment. We invited all of his students and his boss and her family over for a Louisiana-themed night. (pictured left, Dr. Sandra Romano, Joel's students Semoya, Matt, Tryphena, Elisha, and Cherissre, and Joel)

Joel cooked a shrimp gumbo, and I made chicken and sausage jambalaya and corn maque choux. Everyone seemed to like the food, even though a few of them said it was a bit spicy for them. Gill, the vegetarian, even tried the jambalaya because he had heard about it and always wondered what it tasted like (Yeah!!! We converted one! Even if for just a night!!!)

We played Cajun music, and showed everyone how to two-step and waltz (OK, Joel and I aren’t the best Cajun dancers in the world, but we got the basics down). His students loved pairing off and dancing around our apartment as we all laughed. Then, they decided to show us some dance moves of their own!

We even educated them all about Louisiana. I told the story of the Cajuns settling in South Louisiana, and we described the difference between Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana. Several people were genuinely interested and had lots of questions. I also made a list of Cajun words and phrases and had everyone try to guess their meanings. Of course Joel’s boss, Dr. Romano, knew them all because she had lived in France and spoke French fluently. But we were all surprised that several of his students knew the terms and used them. They didn’t recognize them on paper, but when we said them out loud, they immediately knew their meaning. Apparently a lot of the phrases are also used by the French Creoles here in the Virgin Islands.

Unfortunately, the night was a bit much for Evie. She enjoyed watching all of the action, but she fussed and cried every time someone tried to hold her or talk to her. I guess she’s not used to 9 new people laughing and dancing and having a fais do do!

But Evie has been having some fun of her own this week. She is still loving to laugh at random things. Sometimes they make since, sometimes they don’t. Like the other day when I was holding her while talking on the phone. For some reason she thought that was hilarious and laughed the entire time I held her.

She is also starting to get more mobile. She loves crawling up Joel and me whenever we try to hold her. Her legs are getting so strong, and she uses them to “stand” and push up our laps and climb up our chest (and face and head…she doesn’t seem to care who she steps on to get to the top!) She also is learning to move around to get to something she wants. She rolls and squirms on her “toy mat” until she positions herself to reach the toy she wants, and she rolls all over the couch from both a lying and a sitting position.

And…Evie has found her feet. She loves to grab them with her hands and play with them, and she loves to hold them up in the air and rub them together. And she thinks it’s hilarious to kick…HARD. Poor Joel gets the brunt of this as Evie loves to sit in his lap facing him and kick his chest as hard as she can. She has tried this with me, but Mommy doesn’t exactly appreciate kicks to her chest.

So, for now Daddy is the human punching bag. I just hope she doesn’t try kicking as she climbs up his face one day!!!

Photos!!!

2007-10-17T05:40:00.000-04:00

This week has been fairly routine without many adventures or developments to tell you about. Joel has been a bit discouraged at work because two of the machines in his lab are broken and he can’t get much work done. Evie and I haven’t been out of the apartment much except to visit with our landlady upstairs.

Mrs. Hilda Daniel is really a delightful local lady in her eighties. She has entertained us with stories of being recruited by the Army to go to nursing school during WWII, of living in Queens, NY in the 50s and 60s, and of moving back to St Thomas in the 70s before tourism was so prevalent. We asked her this week if it would be ok to have guests over for dinner on Saturday (we thought it would be polite since we are literally living in her basement and sharing a driveway with her.) Not only did she say, of course we could do whatever we wanted in our apartment, she also volunteered to come down and cook dinner for the event. Sigh…apparently my reputation for not cooking has followed me all the way to St Thomas! LOL

Anyway… without much to report, this will be the perfect blog for those of you who don’t like reading our stories, and would rather just see pictures. So, without further ado, photos:

Evie dreaming of all of the things her Parrain can buy her that her Daddy says no to.

Ah...This is the Life.

Evie in her corner of the bedroom.

Evie surprised that the Cajuns finally won one game this year!!!

Evie and Joel bonding over football.

Evie saying, "Go, Arkansas! Go, Hogs!"

Evie enjoying her new favorite game of see how far I can kick my toys across the room.

Two Great People and Two Great Developments

2007-10-10T14:50:00.000-04:00

I feel bad that I haven’t yet written about my parents’ visit two weekends ago, but we have been very busy around here with our 3 month growth spurt (“we” being Evie…Joel and I are working on our shrinking spurt. lol) and all of the new developments…and new clothes…that have gone along with it.

So…here it is. My parents were missing their granddaughter so much that they came to visit us again over an extended weekend. They flew in on a Friday afternoon and left on a Monday afternoon, so we had several days to visit. As all grandparents do, they brought along…gifts! Hooray! They brought a big stack of my old children’s books as well as a few new ones. This was a perfect present, because Evie LOVES books. My parents were impressed at how long she will sit and stare at each page and how intently she studies every picture. Every time we read her a new one, she squeals with delight and kicks her legs. Because they brought us such a great collection, we are still reading one new book everyday without running out.

They also brought her a yellow rattle (anyone who knows my mom could have guessed it would be yellow!) and a talking dog. The dog sings different songs and says different statements depending on where you press him. Evie loved the rattle immediately, and of course, put it straight in her mouth! The dog is still a little overwhelming for her, but it sure made the rest of us laugh as he just kept and kept talking even after we put him down!

Thankfully, they also brought new clothes. As I mentioned before, Evie has recently hit a growth spurt and all of a sudden all of her clothes are too small for her. Luckily we had enough friends and family who knew how fast babies grow and bought us 3-6 month old clothes. She has already outgrown a lot of the 3-month outfits, and is moving into the 6-month clothes quickly. She is just so LONG that anything for her age that snaps or is fitted is too small. So, thank you to all of you who were smart enough to consider how fast babies can move through clothing!!!

While my mom was here for advice, I decided to enlist her help on my home decorating project. Because our apartment is white concrete walls with white tile, it isn’t very “homey” feeling. So, I decided the cheapest way to correct that would be to add hand-sewn things like pillows, cushions, and slipcovers to the mix-match of furniture we have. So, on Saturday, we all piled into the car for a “quick” trip to the fabric store. Joel had called for directions, but was still a little hazy on where the store would be. So, I called back and got more directions to the shop.

Well…thanks to “island directions” our quick trip turned into a LONG adventure. The lady told me to take a right at a certain light, but we took a left. If we had taken a right, we would have ended up in the ocean. So, then we started questioning if the lady had her right and her left confused the entire time, and all of the directions were backwards. We decided to chance it the way they were given, and ended up down a street of shops. The store was described to Joel as a gray and blue building with a white iron fence right on the corner of two main roads. We drove, and drove, and drove around the area and didn’t see a gray and blue building. Then we went back to the beginning and drove the whole thing backwards (because of the left/right issue) and still didn’t see a gray and blue building. Then Joel just began going up and down all of the streets in the market area. FINALLY out of desperation, we turned down what looked like an alley. And, there it was! Apparently, what the island people referred to as a main road, you and I would consider a small back alley that no store in its right mind would have as their main entranceway.

Once we were inside the shop, the selection was pretty nice. I found some brick red material, needles, stuffing and matching thread. My project for the next few weeks is to sew 2 throw pillows, a seat cushion and a slip cover all by hand with no sewing machine or measuring tape!!! Wish me good luck!

After the crazy fabric store trip, the visit was probably even more wonderful for Joel and me as my parents volunteered to baby-sit while we had a nice “date night.” Mom said that she and my dad just wanted to hold their grandbaby, so they didn’t mind at all keeping her while we went out and “played.” So, while they cooed with Evie, Joel and I enjoyed a dinner alone Saturday night and a snorkeling trip the next morning. Then it was back to reality time as they boarded the plane, and Joel and I waved goodbye.

Unfortunately for my parents, they left just a few days too soon to see Evie’s latest developments. First of all…Evie has become mobile. She isn’t yet crawling (in fact, she hates to be on her tummy!) Instead, she is scooting along the couch and floor back-bend style. She lays on her back, moves her feet under her, and pushes along on her head. It is very strange to watch, but she’s moving along, albeit very slowly. So, of course, Joel and I, being the good parents that we are, stand across the room and cheer her on saying, “Keep going, keep going. You’ll get here in about 8 hours!” I guess as long as she has developed the desire to be mobile, the actual method used isn’t important for now. (Pictured right, Evie was sitting up leaning against the Boppy pillow, and then scooted her way down into a laying position and across the futon...And...There's the first of my throw pillows completed!)

The other fun development of late is the laughing. Before now, Evie has squealed and giggled…but this is a full-belly laugh. The first time we heard it, Joel was goofing off and trying to balance Evie in a sitting position on one hand. He was walking around the room trying to balance her and saying, “Woooaaaah!!” when all of a sudden she started laughing and laughing. Well, that was it. Joel and I cracked up ourselves, and then started doing everything we could to get her to laugh. We have been virtual clowns around here for the past few days making funny faces and trying goofy things just trying to hear that elusive laugh. Evie’s just teasing us...mostly smiling and squealing at us. But every once in a while, she’ll laugh at loud, and Joel and I crack up. I guess this is why they say parents are embarrassing. Now that we’ve joined the ranks, we are doing all sorts of “not cool” things just to get a laugh!

Evie turns into a 3-month-old

2007-10-03T10:42:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have been reading this blog lately and thinking, “OK, OK…enough about you and Joel. We want to hear about the baby!” here is a 100% pure Evie blog.

Evie is now three months old, and with that she is changing and growing every day. Recently she has discovered her hands and her mouth. She can now grab her toys and even hold them up herself. She has surprised us by how well her hand coordination already is. She can grab her pacifier or a corner of her blanket and place it in her mouth. And she tries to help out holding her bottles, although her hands usually just get in the way. She also loves to clinch her mom’s finger with her little hand, all sweet and loving, and then shove it all the way in her mouth, hold it fast with both hands, and gnaw hard on it.

But her favorite thing to put in her mouth is her teddy. She has learned how to hold it upright on her belly. She will talk and talk to it until she gets frustrated with the one-sided conversation. Then she grabs it, and shoves its nose in her mouth, gnawing hard and shaking her head. It’s funny to watch her go from complacent, happy chatty child to ravaging destructor baby. But, I can just see it now…little Evie playing nicely with her new friends in kindergarten, and then turning into a wild animal and running around the room biting people. Maybe we’ll outgrow this phase soon. (Pictured right, Teddy is about to get it!!! Pictured left, Evie is playing with her bunny while Teddy recuperates from his latest assault.)

Evie has also entered the world of the sitting. Well, she’s not quite doing it by herself yet, but with the help of some pillows, she can sit upright most of the time. She has been fascinated with the new view from the sitting position, and she has found a new delight…television. I know, I know, the experts say that babies shouldn’t watch TV, but she’s just so darn cute sitting by her dad watching football. And she LOVES football. She will laugh and squeal at the TV (and at her dad when he gets all riled up). And it really does hold her attention throughout the game. So, after reading an article that said having the TV on in the background is far worse than actively letting your child watch TV, we’ve decided to let her entertain herself with it in small doses. Plus, it gives her mom an hour or so of time to herself! (Pictured right, Evie is already becoming a Tom Boy. Pictured left, watching football can be exhausting!!!)

And another thing that Evie does like her daddy….talk in her sleep. Over the past few weeks, when Evie has cried out in the night, I have picked her up only to hear her gasp and look around surprised and begin screaming in shock. That was such a strange response that I began turning on the night light and just watching her before I picked her up. That’s when I realized that the light was actually waking her up…she was crying in her sleep. So, now when she cries in the middle of the night, we just let her cry. She never gets louder than just fussiness, and she stops in about 10-15 minutes. It’s hard to ignore, because her crib is only 2 feet away from our bed, but as long as we don’t startle her while she’s crying in her sleep, she easily sleeps for another 2-3 hours without waking. I’m just waiting for the night when Joel is talking in his sleep and Evie is answering back with cries. LOL

Actually, when Evie finally does wake on her own, she usually just lies in the crib watching her Ocean Wonders mobile and letting out short bursts of, “Aahh!” We have interpreted that to mean, “Mother and Father, I am now awake. Not to bother you, but when you have time could one of you please change me and feed me?” And, yes, she does say that in a proper English accent. It’s amazing what 3-month-olds can do!

Our Weekend With "The Girls"

2007-09-27T10:10:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, Joel, Evie and I spent most of our time with the undergraduate students that Joel works with. On Saturday, Joel’s boss, Dr. Sandra Romano, invited all of us to the sailboat that she lives on with her husband, Gill, son, Skyler, and daughter Kaya.

All of the students in Joel’s lab were there. Tryphena and Semoya are seniors who have been working with Dr. Romano for a while. Tryphena was here when we first visited at Easter, so I already knew what a sweet person she was. But she spent the summer in Washington DC, so she just returned for the Fall semester. Semoya also spent her summer in the North East working for NOAA. (pictured left, Semoya was nervous the first time she held Evie, but she looks perfectly natural!)

Cherissre and Elisha are both underclassmen who spent the summer with Joel in the lab. They are helping with the same project that Dr. Romano hired Joel to work on, so Joel has been a bit more hands-on with them. (pictured right, Evie loved when Tryphena played with her while Skyler watched.)

We all met at the pier, and Gill and the kids met us with the dingy. After a short ride to the boat, we disembarked and Dr. Romano showed us around. The boat was a three-bedroom sailboat with a small living room / kitchen and two bathrooms below deck. Above deck, there was a small table and sitting area. Dr. Romano showed us how the kitchen counter stored the refrigerator below the counter. While it was very space-efficient, she laughed about how hard it is when you are cooking and have all of your things spread out across the counter, and then remember that you forgot something in the fridge.

The table above deck was also a cooler, and we experienced how complicated daily life must be living on a sailboat as every time we wanted something more to drink, everyone had to lift their plates and glasses off the table to get to the cooler. Dr. Romano served cheese and crackers for an appetizer and a salad made of potatoes, tomatoes, snap beans, olives, tuna, and capers that she learned how to make while she lived in Nice, France.

Everyone chatted and ate around the table above deck, and I got to finally meet all of the girls that Joel tells me about everyday. All of them were very sweet, and I could tell also very smart. After we ate, Dr. Romano had “craft time” planned, and we all made paper flowers out of colored tissue and wire. Joel’s turned out the worse, and the girls had fun teasing him about it.

Then Dr. Romano brought out a birthday cake that she had made. Since everyone’s birthday in the lab was between September and November, she decided to make one cake for everyone. On the top, she decorated it with a DNA sequence. The girls started talking about how crazy “you science people” are, until Joel reminded them that they were also science people, and he and Dr. Romano were just them 10 years from now.

We enjoyed the boat and fellowship until Evie began to get fussy from missing her nap. On the way home, Joel confessed that staying on the boat for the day had squelched all of his previous ideas of us living on a sailboat one day. While it was nice…it was SMALL! I just don’t think our family and two dogs could be happy there. But it is definitely nice to visit.

On Sunday, the university held a science symposium for all of the undergraduates who are working in the various labs. Each student had a poster and gave a presentation to the judges. We went and heard the girls give their presentations, and all of their work was very impressive. Evie was, of course, the only baby there…but Joel wanted to expose her to “real science” early on. And it was nice for me to see exactly what the girls have been working on. We didn’t stay long because the room wasn’t air conditioned, and Evie got fussy from being too hot. But it was nice to spend some time with the people Joel works with and see how they live. Maybe soon we will have to have them visit our apartment and eat some Louisiana Cajun food. (In the photos, Elisha (left) and Cherrisre (right) give their presentations at the symposium.)

Our Almost Church Home

2007-09-19T13:14:00.000-04:00

Every Tuesday morning on the island is laundry day. Joel watches Evie while I go to the laundry mat. It’s sad, but I really look forward to laundry day because being the typical, southern lady that I am, of course I strike up a conversation with anyone who looks my way while waiting for the clothes to wash and dry. This past week I started talking to a lady about my age from Texas and who happened to be the minister of music at a non-denominational church on the island. Because Joel and I hadn’t found a church home yet, we decided to try her church this week.

Now, first of all…let me tell you what Joel and I already expected before we went there. We expected the worship style to be much more charismatic than we were used to. We expected the service to run very long. We expected to be the only Caucasians in the building. We expected the experience to be nothing like what we were used to at a traditional Southern Baptist Church.

Here’s what actually happened. After getting all three of us up and dressed and to the opposite side of the island by 9 a.m. when church started, we entered the bottom of the bowling alley where the service was held in a small basement. The minister of music recognized me and came over to chat and to introduce the pastor to us. There was one elderly white couple in the church, who also immediately came over and started a conversation with us. As more members came in, they were all equally friendly, and we felt very welcomed. The minister of music invited us to stay for lunch after the service. That was the first time I saw Joel gulp. Remember it was 9 a.m., and she’s talking about lunch...so we started to realize we needed to expect the service to run about 3 hours.

The first part of the service was great. There was a band composed of bongo drums, steal drums, a trumpet, and a bass guitar. The music minister announced that the songs would mostly be in Spanish this week, but translations were in the bulletin (A lot of people on the island are from Puerto Rico, so a lot of things are in Spanish here.) The music was very upbeat, and the congregation sang, and raised their hands, and clapped and danced…really danced…in the aisle, shaking your booty kind of dancing. But it as fun, and even Evie smiled as she took it all in.

Then the pastor got up. Before she began her service, she said she wanted to have a prayer of healing. So she had everyone touch the part of their body that needed healing and she prayed. At the end of the prayer, she had everyone move the part of their body that they were touching and see how much better it felt. Then it started…

She noticed an elderly lady in the back of the room who did not move her hip that she was touching, and she called the lady out. She went down into the aisle and made the lady join her. She then proceeded to berate the lady for not obeying, yelling at her and asking her, “Don’t you believe that God can heal?!?!?” She yelled at the lady, “Touch your toes!” The lady bent down and strained, but couldn’t do it, so the preacher yelled, “Stand up!” She then lectured the lady again about not believing before demanding she, “Touch your toes!” Again the lady tried, but could not. Then Joel and I noticed a large man walk around behind the lady. Neither the pastor nor the lady acknowledged him, but we figured he was there to catch her or help just in case the pastor pushed the lady too far. The pastor began yelling at the lady that when her sons were young and she gave them a command, she did not expect them to TRY to do it, she expected them to OBEY! And the pastor expected her to “OBEY ME!!!” She kept commanding the woman to “Touch Your Toes!” and when the woman failed to “Stand Up!” After about 15 minutes of the pastor yelling for her to OBEY AND TOUCH YOUR TOES, the poor little lady finally bent over to her side and lifted up her toes a bit and touched them with one finger. The pastor then proclaimed that a success, asked the lady why she didn’t just believe that God could do that in the first place, and went back to the front.

Then another lady brought her toddler son up to the front to ask the pastor to pray for him, but the pastor declared it was not the boy but the mom whose soul needed praying for. Another woman from the congregation came and took the boy out of his mom’s arms. Of course, the kid started crying, so the woman whisked him to the back and out the door, which sent the son into hysterics being dragged away from his mother like that. The preacher then began praying for the woman’s soul. She asked the congregation to raise their hands toward the woman and bow their heads, which we did, and she started screaming at Satan to come OUT of the woman. The congregation all shouted, “Go!” at this woman.

Once the pastor felt the woman was properly prayed for, she sent someone to get the toddler from outside. The boy was brought in kicking and screaming and red from crying outside this whole time. She prayed over the boy that he would be 10 times smarter than any other boy and would be of sound mind and successful.

Fortunately (?) just about this time, Evie started crying uncontrollably herself. I picked her up and carried her outside, and Joel quickly followed…before the pastor called us to the front and tried to somehow heal poor little Evie…or me and Joel!!! We decided that 1 ½ hours of this church service would be enough to consider it “Remembering the Sabbath.” We also decided that God would understand our leaving and skipping the preaching and the free lunch afterward. While we enjoyed most of the service, and enjoyed the people there, and even enjoyed the “experience,” I think we’ll keep looking for that church home. Maybe I just haven’t talked to enough people at the laundry mat yet…