Pot Luck Entry

* Evelyn has a new "look". This is because her hair has finally grown to the point that we needed to have a rather heated discussion about her current style. She wanted it left alone to "grow and grow and stay in her face". I have a real problem with kids that walk around with hair in their face, looking all kiddish and nonchalant about life (you know like kids are supposed to be- we all know that I am a bit neurotic). OK at this point I KNOW that my sister is rolling around laughing because actually this hair growth? Is like unnoticeable to anyone but Evelyn and her Mama, and Lissa just thinks it's so funny when Ev forces a tiny wisp over to her eyes and postures for someone to notice her hair and how LLLLOOOONNNGGG it is. Well, we reached a compromise. Evelyn may grow her hair and have no bang trimming (well there will eventually have to be a "cleaning up the edges" type of trim) and can have her hair grow all out to one length if that's what she wants, BUT she has to wear hair bobbles to keep her hair out of her face. No arguing, no fussing and no taking them out after 20 minutes. This is day 2- so far, so good. There are two bonuses here for me 1) I can FINALLY start using the gazillion hair bobbles that I bought before we ever went to China and 2) She looks really cute.

* Evelyn still has a few idiosyncrasies to her speech. I am dreading the boring old day when she has it all figured out but for now we still enjoy those quirks. For instance:
belt seat = seat belt
measure tape = tape measure
black = white
white = black
tall or too big = small or too little and vice versa
cartoon = tattoo
see ya later calculater=se you later alligator
There are others that are much cuter but wouldn't you know, I can't remember them right now.

* We have just gone through and come out the other side of what you might call a rough patch. Several things converged on Evelyn at once to make what Les and I call, The Perfect Storm of Four Years Old. Overnight she was like this GIRL and not a toddler or in an in-between phase. A little girl that wanted more Independence and responsibility and her parents were about three stages behind her. Leslie and I had fallen into this pattern of being more strict than we needed to be , just because we got a bit lazy and Evelyn had had enough. THEN apparently she was going through some adoption issues internally and she was playing out all of that negativity with ME. I won't bore you with the details of how each of these things occurred to us and how we have tried to fix them, let's just say that we are now chuggin' along okay and Evelyn is a more improved version of herself.

* I want to thank my Mom for loving Evelyn like she does. My Mom loves Evelyn with a ferocity and deep running strength that truly rivals my own. Since the minute that Mom laid eyes on Evelyn and seen us together as a family, she has been advocating for a more relaxed attitude when it comes to how we deal with Ev. She has faced me down time after time and I have to say, she was right. Thank you Mom for being such a good Mom that you made me a better Mom.

*The other night at bedtime, I told Ev that I loved her and we would see each other in the morning, like I always do, she usually answers the same thing. That night however, she sighed big and drooped a bit and said "yes I will see YOU, but not my (big inhale, extended exhale) Grand.....parents......." droop, sigh, flop, sigh, sad expression.

*The love of Link continues and has actually intensified since the making of "The Costume". Now she locks herself in her room so that she can kiss her Link posters with no one the wiser (except me, I always know, mwah hah hah). Too cute.