auntie lora

winning bluebonnets, originally uploaded by Kristy and Eva.

lora's here (we're in the second half of a nice month-long visit), so i haven't been blogging much. here are a few snippits i've been wanting to mention:

eva spends at least an hour a day wandering around the house with two of my geometric-print synthetic shiny fabric shirts. she wears them like floor-length dresses, and announces "i wearing one-two mama shirts!" then dances in a circle. on, off, the shirts go, then she balls them up and tucks them under her head as she lies on the floor, then "look papa, eva have mama shirt", and she's off again prancing around in my silly going-out shirts. (one still has the tags on it, i don't go out much these days obviously.)

auntie lora made eva some sculpy beads and painted them blue, green, and brown. eva loves her new necklace and bracelet, added to her massive beloved collection. "auntie lora make neckie for eva!" which brings me to eva's new favorite phrase:

"for eva!" eva asks me what i'm doing (or what someone else is doing), and no matter what i say, she adds on (sometimes as a question, but generally as an excited declaration) "for eva!" as in: "what mama doing?" (we were in target) um, mama is looking for a pregnancy test. "for eva!" hmm, well, that's not really for eva, no... or, look eva the sun is peeking out from behind that rain cloud. "peeking at eva!" sure, i guess it is. or, what is mama doing, mama's baking a cake. "for eva!" no, this cake is for wendy and her baby, ella's new baby sister or brother. (then we descended into a day-long conversation of how "mama make happy cake for wendy. ahn for ella baby brother. ahn for ella baby sister." (if wendy has twins or a transgendered child, we've decided that's eva's doing.) or (upon hearing the neighbor's dog bark from our living room): "eva hear dog barking... at eva!" (that's a variation, "at" instead of "for".) how unusual, a toddler who thinks that the world pretty much revolves around her. :)

julie was noting and it's becoming the running joke/commentary in general -- eva has no internal dialogue (as would be expected for her age). as a result, everything she sees or thinks comes out her mouth. nonstop. at all times, even when she's asleep. it's hard to really describe, you sort of just have to experience it. "eva eating (with) green fork. eva look (for) hummingbird? mama doing? mama please get cheese stick for eva? eva eat all up. eva throw yogurt for lemma. eva drop dat. mama sit. mama food all gone. eva have flower plate. eva want sun plate! i wear bim ("bib", but she thinks it's the character from a dr. seuss book). eva do by self. eva make mama crazy." (that covers about 45 seconds of breakfast. multiply by about 2000 and you've got a typical day. i love it, most of the time. once in a while i'm all done, like when she gets obsessive, asking "i see yellow man again?" (continued for 30 minutes in the car after seeing a balloon man on the roadside) or stating "eva ahn river saw big helicopter. too loud! helicopter flew away..." etc (continuing for about 6 or 7 weeks after a certain helicopter made a big impression).

eva sings all the time (as i think i've mentioned before). the most recent funny example was when she made up an excited little song on the way for her first really swimming experience of hte season, driving out to hamilton pool: "eva swim in da wah! eva swim in da wah! eva going swimming... swim in da wah, i get all wet. eva swim in da wahhhh..." (ask lora, this went on for about 15 miles. too cute.) she sings "rocking chair" all the time (along with "sunshine", those are her favorites), but she likes to just sing a narration of her day or experiences.

i get frustrated at my inability to really describe how this goes in daily life. i guess no matter what i type, reading it won't really make anyone fully understand... and that makes me sad. part of the reason for this blog is to bring loved ones who are far away into our lives -- and sometimes i feel like i just can't make that happen. but, i'll always try, because it's what is important to me. that, and the eventual development of reliable and affordable teleportation.