Daddy loves Evie Mae

One of Daddy's favorite things is making Evie Mae look like a "big" and sitting her up in chairs, couches, and in our bed...

This is one of our favorites...

"Hmmm...let me think about this guys..." Evie Mae


P.S. - This is one of her first church outfits. Grammy crocheted it for her :) A lot of time and love went into it...

One month older and wiser too...

Evie Mae has grown so fast. When we got home from Modesto, Evangeline turned a month old.

At her one month appointment, she measured 10 lb 11.4 oz (80th percentile), 22 inches (73rd percentile), and 39 cm in head size (83rd percentile). The doctor said she was growing very symmetrically, which is always nice to hear :)

During her first month, Evangeline...

- slept very well during the day but decided her bedtime was between 11:30 and 1 am.
- enjoyed lazy mornings and waking up more/ being more alert around 10 or 11 am.
- spent lots of time sleeping in her Snuggle Nest (co-sleeper) in Mommy and Daddy's bed, on Mommy and Daddy's chest, snuggling with Grammy or Papa Chris, or sleeping in her fun swing (until she realized someone wasn't holding her).
- didn't have any stomach issues until Mommy ate raw broccoli in the broccoli salad at Christmas dinner (that was a huge mistake since she just screamed for several hours starting around 1am) or eggs cooked with runny yolks (I'd thought it was chocolate from Christmas fudge but figured out it was the non-scrambled eggs I'd started eating since I wasn't pregnant anymore).
- was pretty excited to do tummy her first week (she did a full 180 rotation on her stomach ha ha - my mom saw it and was freaking out!) but after that realized it was not fun and was a lot of work.
- the day after we got home from the hospital and had a home visit from the nurse, the nurse said she was "a mover and a shaker" and that the Gerber baby better move on over because that baby didn't even compare to Evangeline :)
- LOVED stretching and Mommy loved watching her stretch. Evangeline would wake up, we'd hold her on her sides, she'd keep her legs crossed, and she could arch her back until her head was almost touching her little bottom!
- had her first smiles in her sleep during her first week and would even laugh in her sleep but by about week three she could copy our smiles when she was awake but wasn't actually smiling on her own yet.
- became more efficient at nursing by week 2-3 and began nursing 8-10 minutes a side instead of 15 like in the first week - she's a quick learner apparently :)
- during week two let Mommy and Daddy know that she didn't like her vitamins the doctor gave us (a vitamin D supplement that had A and C in it too). We knew something was wrong when her behavior become more colicky (meaning screaming in pain), her poop turned brown and was almost all water, and she'd projectile spit up almost immediately after we'd give her the vitamins. We had to give her an entire dropper full of vitamins, which she hated, and she'd just choke on the vitamins no matter how we gave her the vitamins. Thankfully, we took her back to the doctor and our pediatrician suggest we just buy vitamin D drops at a health food store that only requires one tiny drop a day! And it is clear instead of icky brown and it tastes like berry instead of bitter cough syrup - poor Evangeline had to endure taking the icky ones for several days until we figured it out :(
- HATED riding in the car especially if she woke up while we were still driving because she'd want to eat RIGHT THEN
- would break Mommy and Daddy's hearts when she'd get so upset and scream until she was bright red, her voice would quiver, and then she'd get to where she was almost not breathing. It was heartbreaking.
- had a lot of tummy aches from gulping tons of air when she'd nurse. She'd eat so fast that she'd just gulp no matter what position we'd try (although the clutch hold worked the best for a while).
- had several favorite songs: "I Love to See the Temple," "I Love You So Much," and "Ma Belle Evangeline" (Mommy sang these to her while we nursed and got to know each other better and these were definitely the winners).
- ALWAYS got the hiccups (just like when she was in Mommy's tummy) and HATED when she'd get them. Mommy would have to nurse her just to help calm her down and get rid of them.
- loved her Moby wrap and the newborn hold and Mommy loved it because she got to still feel close to Evangeline and she got to keep her baby warm in the cold SF December.
- learned to love taking a real bath instead of a sponge bath (which she hated)
- LOVED watching Mommy while nursing
- LOVED watching Daddy all the time :)
- started "kissing us" during week four right before we went home to Modesto

This was when she woke up and realized she wasn't being held anymore. She was not happy with Mommy...

Mommy loved, loved, LOVED all her snuggles and held her every chance she got :)

Goodbye 2011

We were in Modesto for New Years and had a blast bringing in the new year with Grammy and Papa Chris.

Here is Evie Mae's little santa suit. It was so adorable...

Evie was not happy about being kept up to bring in the new year...

Once she calmed down, she showed us how tired she was from staying up late...

Evangeline loves looking at Daddy...

Until she remembers that she is supposed to be sleeping...

But Daddy does a good job calming her down again.

She was excellent at imitating us even though she was still so small. She was already copying our smiles at this point too!

Before we said goodbye to 2011, we did enjoy a very Merry Christmas.

Evie enjoying loves from Travis and Hannah while in her Christmas pjs.

Papa Chris multi-tasking...He was in charge of watching Evie Mae while the rest of us followed his clues for the Youngberg scavenger hunt. However, he had to talk to Michael at the same time and answer all of our questions about the clues since it had gotten a little confusing.

Evie was so happy to have Christmas presents.

And decided to let everyone know that these presents were hers.
She slept through the actual opening of the presents though.

The best was seeing her first thing in Christmas morning :)

Just swinging away...
and sleeping of course :)

Santa brought her special "baby" things in her stocking :)

What else does a brand new baby need right?

Daddy loved being out of school and just having tons of quality time with his baby girl.

We loved spending Christmas with our favorite Christmas present...

Merry Christmas

Someone tried one last effort to impress Santa and slept last night, even after sleeping all day Christmas Eve.

I just couldn't wait to share

Jeff's Grandma was soo kind she spent the last year smocking this gorgeous blessing gown for the next grand-baby that was a girl, which was our Evangeline.

We couldn't wait and Grammy put the bonnet on Evangeline. Let me just say, I thought it was beautiful before, but when we put it on her, it was seriously the most precious thing ever. But we have to leave some pictures for the actual blessing day right?

Check out these details!


I love the scalloped edges...
And to top it all off, Grandma Sally even sent it in a garment bag with the tiny edging done by Jeff's Great-Grandma Mac.

Evangeline is one lucky little girl.