Toes

One thing that I like about Evelyn is that she always wants her toes painted. She loves when I make different designs on them, you can often find the both of us hunched over her tiny feet consulting on what colors to use and painting them on with toothpicks. These started out as ladybugs but ended up rather like strawberries, so that's what we called them. She is currently wearing the color that I call 80's Renegade, a chrome pink, for those of you out there keeping track of that sort of thing. ( I,myself, am obsessed with knowing the name for make-up/polish/paint colors)

I should also mention that in my family, we take pictures of feet. Alot of pictures of feet. This started with my Dad I think, so blame this particular weirdness on him.

Moody Blues

This is an illustration of Evelyn's current emotional state (please note: pictures taken within a 15 second time frame). Yes she is on a roller coaster and when she is not laughing or crying, she is doing her best to ensure that one or both of her parents loose it. I know this is a phase and as my Dad reminded me , this too shall pass, but , man! she can get snippy.
This stage of hers also happens to coincide with a "phase" of my own , a 5 day abscence of her father and some physical growth on her part that has resulted in her winning the award for Klutz of the Week! Needless to say, since the emotions are all over the board, the slightest bump can be magnified into a life threatening disaster, I can not tell you the times I have had to say " No Evelyn I will not make you a doctor's appointment for this ( a stubbed toe or something of that nature) ". Also since Les is away for a few days, I am all on my own here and I need re-inforcements in the best of times.
Hopefully with some extra patience from me ( where do you get that?!?!!) and some time, we will find our stride again, until then I am afraid my mother technique can be classified as 80's trailer park. eek. Seriuosly though, I am trying to change the way that I am reacting to some of this stuff and hopefully this will result in her coming along with me, that , or I will either be canonized OR imprisoned. ha.
I love Evelyn and really even though we are both acting like bee-othches we are still having some fun and I make sure that we end each day on a positive note, with story time, and cuddling and rocking in our rocking chair together, that's about all I can do until we are back on track.

Afternoon in the sitting room

Just a quiet afternoon spent in the sitting room..... The mosquitoes were really too bad to play in the yard (yes truly, as even if you were coated in bug spray, they were STILL swarming and eating on you) , this was a lull between house activities and a trip to the beach- thus the strawberry bathing suit.

Feet First

We are going to get this kid in the Halloween spirit yet. I decided to start at the feet and work my way up. So far, so good, the ghost socks are a hit. She is blowing a kiss in the first picture and then in the next you can see that it's true, Billy is never very far away from Evelyn. She also got a pair of socks with pumpkins on them, she does like those the best, but they are regular pumpkins as opposed to a particularly Halloween type. I think that she just doesn't like all of the faces and such for the typical Halloween stuff.....meanwhile my nephew is nuts about the stuff and is cuddling up to his Grandma's stuffed witch!

Bubble Bath Fun

Last night after an evening at the beach, it was time to get the sand off and freshen up for bed. What was going to be a simple little bath, turned out to be a whole different thing when you add Papa and some bubbles....

What we are reading, watching and listening to.....

I thought I would talk a bit about what we are doing for entertainment , for those of you that would be interested....
Evelyn:
Right now the two favorite books of hers are, Honey, Honey, Lion! by Jan Bret and Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by D.B. Johnson. The Jan Bret came from the library, this will be the second or third time that we have checked that one out, and it is a tale from Africa , there are lots of realistically drawn animals in this and a simple but engaging storyline. The Henry book was a gift from Aunt Jenny and her gang, it's based on a story form the life of Thoreau. Essentially Henry and his friend decide to go to Fitchburg and Henry walks while his friend works to earn money to ride the train- they want to see who gets there first. Evelyn never gets tired of this story! The pictures are wonderful and they appear simple at first but they are actually full of details. Last night when we were reading this story, she asked if we could go to Fitchburg, she wanted to go there and ride a train and then find a blackberry patch.

Leslie:
Les is always reading about 3 or 4 books at a time so I didn't try to get pics of his. He is now reading one called The Cork Boat , from the library; he was reading The Golden Compass, but has set that aside... I am sure that there are others stashed about the house.

Michal:
I am reading The Tin Roof Blow Down, sent to me by my Dad. It's the latest in Burke's Dave Robicheux series. I love this series. Dave is a New Orleans on again, off again police detective and these are mysteries around his cases and life. The stories are gritty and can be dark, but Burke's writing is clear and concise with vivid images brought to life by his poetically descriptive style. The secondary character of Clete Purcell almost single handedly makes the books worth reading. After this I am going to jump back into the world of Harry Potter. Recent e-mailings with my in-laws have gotten me in the mood to read this series again. That is all I will say, if I write anymore, this entry will end up being a 50 page breakdown of why the HP series is so great. Then Les and I are reading the latest Martin Cruz Smith, Stalin's Ghost. This is the latest in Smith's Arkady Renko series and we have read all of them aloud, Renko is never a disappointment.
One of my other hobbies is Crochet. I just got the Amigurumi book in and I have started on one of the projects already. I am working on the fawn and will start the monkey next. I am also crocheting a Christmas afghan for our house. It's a snowflake pattern on a pine green background, made in hexagons and then stitched together.

Watching:
We just started watching Planet Earth, a BBC series that is phenomenal. The images and photography in this are astounding. They used a new kind of high-def camera for filming and they are able to get stuff that has never been filmed before. I highly recommend this.
Update: OK although this series is enjoyable and incredible , there is ALOT of cute , fuzzy things being eaten by predators. Seriously. Alot. One particularly harsh sequence involving a tiny, fuzzy, yellow baby snow goose and an arctic fox. Now I realize that these things happen in nature , but do I really have to see it over and over again , for each species?? I think not. OH and if I ever see another seal get eaten by a shark again, I believe that I will loose my mind. SO maybe watch this one with the kiddies and one finger on the fast forward.


Listening:
Neko Case, Anne Savoy, Chris Isaak, David Gray and Dwight Yoakam....

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