This post will be heavy on pictures, but we had a great Easter celebration!

Dyeing eggs for the Easter Bunny

I've been decorating Evie's basket for a few weeks now. I plan to add an animal or two each year. Behind it is carrot we left for the Easter Bunny. Evie was pretty impressed the next morning to find evidence that he'd nibbled on it!

the stage is set.

a victorious hunt

The Easter Bunny checking on our egg-hunting progress. He left unimpressed.

Hold me, Two Thumpers

Evie had another big event on Sunday--she slept in her new toddler bed! The first night was a little rocky with two lengthy wake-ups, but she's been sleeping like a pro ever since. That is, until I wrote that sentence. I can now hear the unmistakeable sounds of a little girl pulling toys out of her closet when she should be napping. Well, at least I got one good night out of her...

Thank you, Craigslist!

  
She can now count to thirteen! Not on command, but on the stairs she will count to "dirteen", then repeat "poteen, yiteen, poteen, yiteen." I have no idea where she learned this! She put her skills to work yesterday when she requested "yiteen" crackers.

Every night we read books in the rocking chair and always finish with Goodnight Moon. That's Evie's cue that it's time for bed, and she wiggles her way through the story, trying to find a good snuggling position for when I rock her. She apparently does listen because last night she said, "E read it!" and opened the book to the last page and said "Goonight noise everywhere." Clever girl!

Exchange at Mellow Mushroom the other night:
M- "Evie, do you know I love you?"
E - "Buh boy, Mama." (pats my head and leans in for a kiss)
She does that sort of thing a lot. I'll be so sad when she stops calling me a good/bad boy! 


Our flight leaves Saturday at 6am for Denver. Yikes. It will be a grueling day of travel with a long flight followed by a long drive, but hopefully it will be better than our last trip out west when Evie refused to sleep for 36 hours!

Dancing!

It's been a while! I've had some design work that has kept my attention during my downtime, so the blog suffers. But Evie and I have been busy. One of her favorite activities is dancing and her musicians of choice are the Wiggles or "aWeeawoos." We've been taking a dance/music class for several months now and while my progress has stagnated, she's really taking off! One of her favorite dancing songs is Rock-a-bye Your Bear, as seen below (I would have cut the video after the song ended, but my program kept crashing, so my apologies for the length).

When she's not dancing, you might find her eating a Fig Newton ("Wig Newnut") or yelling at Jack for eating one of hers ("No, no, NAWWWW! Bad Bo-EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"). Or repeating one of the following phrases:

"Hold me, _________"
Usually, she's asking someone to hold her, and will use this phrase to request a loved one's presence. Several times a day, I hear "Hold me, Nana?" or Dada or Baboo. Favorite examples:
"Hold me, home?" - while tired of running errands
"Hold me, Mamo Hand" - while in the bath, hugging tenderly her sponge shaped like Mickey's hand
"Hold me, more cheese?" - while in Whole Foods
"Hold me, moon?" - her obsession with the moon continues

"Dat NOISE!?!"
These days she asks for an explanation of every sound she hears. It's cute to see her interest in the world around her and I enjoy the chance to teach her about it. Funniest Example:
Evie, after pooting loudly: Dat NOISE!?!
M: Yeah, Evie, what was that noise?
E: Roar (thunder).

As has been previously mentioned, she also loves scolding people, animals and inanimate objects (this morning her sippy got an earful for spilling milk). While it can get tiresome to be the subject of it, it's hilarious on the whole. I do hear "No, no, Ma! Bad BoyEEEEE" quite a bit, but luckily it's balanced by plenty of "Buh Boy, Ma" (Good Boy, Ma) with pats on my head. The other day, she started dumping buckets of water out of the tub and when I sternly told her to stop, she said, "Yeah!! No, NO, Baff!!!" She's a creative deflector. She has started training us in etiquette as well. The other night Matt burped loudly and Evie said, "Duse me, Dada!" (Excuse me, Dada), which cracked us up!

Unfortunately, our plans for baby #2 have been put on a temporary (hopefully brief) hold. I went in for a baseline ultrasound a few weeks ago, intending to start my next round of treatment. However, they discovered a complication created by the previous treatment and now we have to wait it out until my body decides it's ready. I always seem to be on the wrong side of the statistics! I have another monitoring appointment in a few weeks, so hopefully we'll see some improvement by that point. We need to take advantage of the insurance coverage we have before we lose it when our plan changes this summer!

Next week we're off to Steamboat with Matt's family, so we'll be celebrating Easter this weekend. Evie's getting pretty pumped about the Easter Bunny's visit, but I seriously doubt she's as excited about it as I am. Pictures to come!

A photo tour

of the past two weeks

First, a visit with Nana and Baboo

"Hi Duck!"

hamming it up after she saw the camera

riding the kee-cats with Nana and Baboo

Fun with Ma and Daddy:

classic.

looking sharp in Dad's work shirt. I love the grip on the crayons.

an attempt to trace dad's face

tracing Evie: one of her new favorite activities

"Ook, Ma! Huwwy!"

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El Negativo (that's Spanish for "not pregnant")

I was hoping for a different update today, but my blood test confirmed that this cycle was a flop.

When we started again down this path, I was hopeful and rational. I knew that statistics weren't on our side, particularly with these injectable cycles, and planned to just put one foot in front of the other, hoping it would work out. I wouldn't become too emotionally involved in the process, reminding myself that we'd be lucky for it to work. Oh, how delightfully naive! The truth is that it's impossible not to become emotionally invested. I spent an entire month experiencing pain and facing fears, nurturing my body as though it were pregnant. The medication I was taking made me experience morning sickness, headaches, and a long list of other more subtle pregnancy symptoms. With each one that popped up, it was impossible not to wonder if it was the real thing, because there is no way to distinguish between the two. The worst came when I got a positive pregnancy test and was elated, only to discover my body was ridiculously slow to metabolize the HCG (pregnancy hormone) from the ovulation trigger shot.

I hope that this cycle will be less of an emotional roller coaster and that I can be more in control of how invested I become, but I know it's impossible. Obviously, if I truly believed these cycles weren't likely to work there's no way I would inject myself with burning medication that produces migraines and stomach aches, and I wouldn't be stoked about carrying Schrödinger's Cat in my belly for two weeks, hoping every day that I'd find it alive. This cycle forced me to acknowledge how much I want another baby and how scared I am that it won't happen. But on we trod, hoping for the best!

The good news is that I've found a foolproof way to lift my spirits. I just pull up any photo of a beautiful woman and ask Evie who she sees. The answer is almost always "Mama," and I choose to ignore the fact that she responds the same way to mildly deformed or otherwise unattractive women. This is a phase that must not end!

More happy, photo-filled updates to come! Evie's been a doll lately, making us laugh constantly. I love that girl!!!

Bayboro Visit

Last weekend we went to Bayboro to visit the Lee grandparents. We ended up visiting the NC Aquarium on Sunday and were treated to a tour by my former roommate from App, Carmen. Evie was a little apprehensive after recognizing her from our last visit, but was happy to hear there are no dolphins at this aquarium.

Carmen gave us a tour of Discovery Cove when she worked there as a dolphin trainer. Turns out Evie doesn't think too highly of them.

We told Evie it was time for breakfast and as we were preparing her plate, we looked in the dining room to see that she had sat herself at the table and placed a placemat in her lap like a napkin. What a little lady!

Evie is a huge fan of Brenda, Grandparent Lees' prehistoric-looking mastiff, who she renamed "Big Dog." I'd say that's pretty accurate.

As she was trying to pet Brenda, she said, "Hold me, Big Dog?" I don't think so. Later that night, I was rocking her and said, "Evie, Mama loves you" and she responded with, "'ow 'bout Big Dog?"

Above the shark tank with Carmen

a couple of cuties

Thinking about joining Dad for a dip in the pool, a.k.a., "big baff"

This is so Evie. Cracking up at her dad with her finger in her belly button.

For some reason, Evie has started pointing at the house across the street and calling it "Dada House" and the house next door is "Mama House." I asked her if Mama House was pretty and she responded with, "Mama pretty." Admittedly, I was fishing for that one, but it's still sweet!

Last night Evie delivered her first unsolicited "I love you!" As we should have expected, one of our pets was the recipient. I was rocking her before bed and she reached back to pet Murray who was perched on the back of the chair and said, "I yah, Mowwy." So cute, that girl.

Yesterday afternoon my parents drove in to visit their favorite granddaughter. Evie and I were taking a walk on our street and when my parents drove up, Evie excitedly waved at the car, shouting, "HI, BEE BEET (beep beep, what she calls cars)!!"  When they stopped right next to us, she saw who was inside and was STUNNED. Her eyes were like saucers. She reached out and practically fell into my dad's arms and melted into the sweetest hug ever. She didn't even talk for the next 30 minutes, she just wanted to hug her Nana and Baboo.

Update

We had our last monitoring appointment this morning and it went well! We have three potential follicles, which in theory could mean three babies, though with our history that's highly unlikely. It's a weird place to be simultaneously worried about not getting pregnant and getting pregnant with multiples. Now for my least favorite part: waiting. I'm not so good at it.

She likes to pretend to put Dada to sleep and usually strokes his hair and tucks him in. This night she decided to snuggle in next to him.

Inspecting the "mailbox"

Lookin good in Dad's coat

Evie's starting to recognize more letters from the alphabet, or "OEIs" as she calls it. She correctly identifies "B" but "D"is "B for Dada". Ha!

Sometimes I think I'm being tested to see how much I'll endure to get pregnant. I had to give myself an injection this morning because our stupid pharmacy forgot to order my meds, which I discovered after business hours last night and about 30 minutes before I was scheduled to take my first dose. My doctor gave me an extra vial from their office and told me to take it ASAP. Matt has given me all of my shots until now because I'm not a fan of needles. Getting past the mental hurdle of giving it to myself was not easy, but I did it! It opens a lot of doors for new things I can inject in the future.