Evie's Easter Eggstravaganza

Now officially last easter was Evie's 1st... but really I don't think it counts seeing how she was only about 48 hours old. Anyway, Evie's "first" Easter was a multi-day many partied event complete with THE perfect outfit.


Last Thursday we were fortunate to receive her Easter duds in the mail from Oma Monique who crocheted them from scratch! As you can see from the photos, this is not an outfit folks this is a work of art!

The weekend started with the dress debut at Annie's b-day party. We had a ton of fun and even hit the pool for the first time this year. The too cute bathing suit is courtesy of my aunts Barbara and Anita Mary (Evie is such a clothes horse... she has more swim suits than I do!)

Then on Sunday we showed her off at an annual easter egg hunt/brunch at a friend's house where I walked her around and helped her procure an egg or two. This had to be the coolest easter party ever. There were tons of kids and the eggs were hidden all over the desert behind their backyard. I can't wait until Evie is old enough to actually hunt herself!

And then finally easter dinner at my aunt and uncle's house complete with another egg hunt. This hunt was coordinated by my 7 year old cousin Melissa who was thoughtful enough not only to just place the eggs on the grass so Evie could easily "find" them but also to fill them with Ritz crackers so Evie could actually eat what was inside. They have two very pregnant pygmy goats so we were hoping for a little easter birth but no such luck. Evie enjoyed the goats so much that we are thinking about adding a few to our yard :)

Whew what a weekend!

Mmmessy

This past Friday it was so beautiful out I decided that Genevieve and I just had to go play in the backyard... with water. I knew this was going to be a messy endeavor but boy howdy did I underestimate her capacity for filth creation. By the end of our backyard playtime she was soaking wet with mud, grass, leaves and dog hair. So bad that I felt the need to strip her down to her skivies before letting her back in the house. It was great! The best part about it though was that she was totally oblivious to just how wet and messy she was!

EVS DAD

A pretty momentous weekend for the Lacroix household. No Evie did not say her first word... no she did not finally figure out how to open the fridge (aka baby mecca)... it wasn't even the momentous I can really truly walk weekend.... No indeed this weekend was the weekend that her dad graduated from just plan old Patrick to "I-am-super-cool-I -have-a-fast-car Patrick" Yes as many of you know this day has been long in the coming. Many nights were spent purusing E-Bay, Craigslist and you name it. Many days were spent a-dreamin' of the speed and now that the moment has finally come let me tell ya Patrick has an unerasable smile etched onto his lips. So with out further ado I present to you... the newest member of our household, our 2003 Honda S2000 in Belgian Racing Yellow named Puppy!! (You'll have to ask Patrick about the name :)

A thankless job

I tell ya what folks; this motherhood gig is a thankless occupation. I know, I know its trite and has been said before by many before, but by god add me to the list of millions….

After all my hard work and sleepless nights, my babbling baby girl will not utter a single mama for her mama. Her skills in the dada department are, however, very well developed. So well refined in fact that she does a perfect, clear as a bell, “daddy”. Now this isn’t to say that Patrick is undeserving of her vocal attention, he certainly does his part, but even he will admit that most of the more grueling baby tasks fall onto my shoulders.

Being the proactive parents we are, and in an effort to right this wrong, we have begun Say Mama Bootcamp. Genevieve now has a series of daily Say Mama exercises that must be repeated ad nasueum:

Exercise One: Patrick points to me and says there’s Mama. I then wave and say Mama. (We originally played this game with me pointing to myself and saying Mama and Patrick pointing to himself and saying Dada…. But after a week or so the result was a baby who pointed to herself whenever we said Mama or Dada….)

Exercise Two: Whenever I leave the room Patrick says “Where’s Mama” I then respond by calling out Hi or some other such thing to her.

Exercise Three: Stare at Evie and repeat over and over and over again mamamamamama.

Exercise Four: (This one is hard core) Set Evie up in her highchair facing a doorway. We then hide on either side of the doorway and take turns jumping into view and saying “I’m the Dada (or Mama)” or just a plain old excited proclamation of “Mama!” or “Dada!” (Sometimes we have to quit this exercise early because Evie gets nervous with us disappearing and reappearing on her like that.)

So far this workout has led to mixed results. A few mama utterances have been recorded in recent weeks but never in my presence. Here’s to hoping she gets it soon because this sort of routine really wears you out!

In other news we went on a fabulous hike this past weekend with Ben, Annie and Maxine. It was really great to get out and spend sometime in the desert. Evie figured out how to use the camelpack and I think spent the entire hike drinking water because at the end of the hike all 1.5 literes were gone! The other momentous event of the weekend was Evie taking two honest to goodness steps… only two at a time so far but she is definitely on her way to walksville.

B-day Party!

Last weekend was a blast! Patrick and Annie threw me a 30th b-day party at our new digs. The theme was shoes and beer... two personal favorites, everyone was supposed to wear their fav shoes and tote their best beer. (As a result we have a ridiculous amount of beer in the fridge now but hey I think Patrick and I are up to the challenge :) Annie made fabulous carrot cake cupcakes and Patrick put together all sorts of yummy appetizers. It was pretty funny though... given the age of some of the participants (i.e. the babes under a year old) the party was all said and done by 8 pm... woohoo are we crazy or what!

Because we got to sleep so early we were able to easily make it up to Phoenix for the annual Wheels of Britain car show. Dad had both of his Lotus entered into the show so he needed Patrick to drive one of them home (goodness knows mom and I didn't want to stay for all 6 hours of British cars... been there done that :) At Patrick's request below is a picture of his favorite car... a Lotus Formula Ford... in British racing green of course.



Anyway, thanks to everyone who came to my party this weekend or who sent their well wishes... y'all certainly made me feel special! Here's looking forward to the next fabulous 30 years!!