Good News!

Just got a letter from the doctor - Evie's lead levels are in the normal range. Now I'm sorry that I put Evie through the trauma of the blood draw. I guess it's better to know that everything is alright, though.

the Money Jar song

We have an old milk bottle where we collect all of our spare change. Evie loves to find coins to put in the Money Jar. She loves it so much that she has made up a song about it! She even sings it to Grandma over the phone!

Presenting, Evie with the Money Jar song! (by the way, "may-may yar" = "money jar"!) Every time she sees this video on the computer, she runs to get Muh, then she sings along!

Evie silliness

Pigtails!






K-state shirt. I think my Uncle Doug gave this one to Emily years ago. She's pushing Muh and several babies in her doll stroller. She usually has more than one baby in the stroller at a time so no one gets left out.

Evie is having a Bad Day

Today I took Evie to the doctor to be tested for lead. We have learned that many children in Dongguan, Evie's hometown in China, have dangerous levels of lead in their blood.

She had to be held down by me (in a bear hug and restraining one arm), and another guy (restraining her legs and holding the other arm out) while the nurse held her head with one hand (to avoid headbutts) and managed to draw the blood with the other. I was expecting a finger prick, but they had to take it out of her arm. She kicked and screamed and head butted, and wiggled all over the place. It was horrible. I feel like such a bad mom to make her go through all of that.

Now she is snuggled on the couch, watching the Doodlebops with Muh and Dandelion and Yellow (her 100 Wishes quilt that her Nana made for her), and she keeps signing "hurt" and saying "ow". She won't let me take the pink bandage off of her arm until Emily gets out of school - she needs to show Em her boo-boo.

No No, Nana!

We went out to dinner tonight, then ran some errands. Evie and I waited in the van while Richard and Emily ran in to Best Buy. All of a sudden, a little pink Hello Kitty shoe came flying to the front seat and whacked me on the head. I turned around and asked Evie (the only other person in the van at the time) who threw it. Apparently, Nana threw it. Since Nana lives in Texas, I am assuming that she has great aim and a very good throwing arm! I'm not sure how she managed to get the shoe off of Evie's foot, though.

Who has a ponytail?

Evie does!












She's so excited. She calls all jewelry and hair pretties "oooh-la-las", and is very jealous of big sis Em who wears lots of oooh-la-las, all the time! We finally found some oooh-la-las that work in her baby fine hair, and she is so happy about it. She even managed to leave one in the other day for about half an hour!

Here are some more ponytail pictures from another day!

A Walk by the Mississippi

The heat of summer has passed, and now we have jumped right into fall. Temperatures have been unseasonably chilly here. It is good baking weather, and soup weather, too! We got down into the 30's last night, and everyone got an extra blanket or two on their bed!

This past Saturday we took the opportunity to go on a walk by the river.






Evie likes to ride in her new stroller. Since she can't undo the buckles herself to get out, she has also figured out how to get around on her own while in it!








There are usually lots of geese at the river, ready to beg (or steal!) breadcrumbs, crackers, or your leftover lunch. This time we only saw ducks, though. These are begging from Em, but they soon figured out that we didn't have anything for them. It is against the law to feed the birds, but people do it anyway! In fact, I should have snapped a picture of the family standing right in front of the "It is Illegal to Feed the Waterfowl" sign while feeding the ducks!






We saw mallards, American black ducks, and one that I can't identify yet.
















We wondered if this one felt like the Ugly Duckling. I think it's the AFLAC duck on vacation!










More ducks. Emily crept down on the rocks near the river to take the top picture:









Heading back toward the car, Evie wanted to walk, so I pushed the empty stroller and took some photos.









A picture of the I-74 bridge over the river

Bigfoot is a bad, bad cat

Someone drew lovely crayon circles all over the tv screen in the living room. They're green and blue, and about Evie height. I asked Evie who did it, and she blamed Bigfoot. She always tells me about the naughty things he does. (unplug the fan, jump on the couch, get into Em's things, spill a cup of water, etc.)

That darn cat.