Ok I know. Really too long between blog posts. It’s kind of hard with a 14 month old toddler in the house!
Well the first new development in our lives is that Evelyn has learned how to throw a tantrum. Every time she doesn’t get her way she has a meltdown, throws herself on the ground and cries angrily. Like just now when Dan wouldn’t let Evelyn hold the camera. It’s hard not to laugh, actually, because she’s so dramatic.
We have also started Evelyn on pacifier detox. Evelyn has already shown signs that she is outgrowing the pacifier and was able to go the whole day without using it. She needs the pacifier to sleep at night so we are trying to get her to sleep without it. I have to say it was my fault … I started her using it to go to sleep when I was terribly sleep deprived (Evelyn was 4 months old and still not sleeping through the night) and Evelyn had Jet Lag. Three nights ago I tried to put her to bed without it and she cried for about an hour. I finally gave in and gave it to her. Last night I tried again and she eventually did sleep without it, although she cried for about 45 minutes. When she get really angry and threw her carrot on the ground I came and read her 4 stories and then left her with one of the books and that seemed to have helped. Tonight she went to bed with only a short-lived whimper. I think it helped that she didn’t nap much during the day (only half an hour in the sling). It’s true what I read on web forums … the first night of pacifier detox is the hardest, then they pretty much forget about it.
We have also started very gradually the potty training process. So far we have started doing two things: 1) when Evelyn looks like she wants to poo we take her to the potty so she associates the two. 2) We encourage her to sit on the potty and give her a special toy that’s only for the potty to play with. So far it’s working well except for the fact that when she’s in the process of doing the deed she doesn’t want to sit down. I think it will come with time.
We have been very busy lately. Dan’s parents came to visit in early May and we visited Quebec city with them. Then my Dad came for a visit and we went Vermont with him and right after he left we went to Ontario for the long weekend. We visited Waterloo, Toronto and Ottawa. It was a lot of driving for Evelyn but we managed it. In the hotel in Ottawa we had a beautiful crib for Evelyn (not a playpen, a real, miniature crib) but Evelyn didn’t sleep in it because she was too scared. We turned on the GPS to get directions to the Parliament building and the voice said “Turn around when possible” quite loudly and scared the daylights out of her. So she spent the night with hear head near our knees jammed against our legs and preventing us from pulling up the sheets.
Feeding Evelyn on the trip was tricky, of course, but we made an interesting discovery. Evelyn likes hummus! More surprising still: the hummus we gave her was Jalapeno flavoured! Probably the highlight of the trip was visiting the Farmer’s market in St Jacob’s although it was far, far too busy! Anyway, I think we’re done with road trips for a while.
Also when Dan’s parents were here Dan had an intensive training course in handymanning. Dan unclogged the bathroom sink and installed the gate in front of our exterior stairs.
Evelyn is talking quite well now and says “story” very nicely as well as “up”. She says “doggie” every time she sees a dog (or a picture of a dog), which is about 30 times a day given how many people in NDG have dogs.
We decided to use part of our tax refund to buy a bike trailer for Evelyn. We have gone on several short excursions nearby and then used the newly completed downtown bike path to Park Lafontaine a few weeks ago.
Dan got food poisoning yesterday (from something he ate at a pub) so I came home early yesterday and stayed home today. Fortunately he’s over it how and based on the time it took him to get sick I think it must have been Staph. And this only 6 months after getting Norwalk at Christmas!
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