Our night time routine

Bath Time has become Eva's favorite time of our night time routine! Before bed we always take our bath and its our time to play and laugh. Tonight was no exception. Check out how much fun we had ... and notice how I played with her hair. Then we're happy, clean and ready for bed time!

Green Peas... Yummy!

Rice cereal may not have gone well but so far green peas are a hit! I started trying veggies this weekend and while she hasnt totally mastered swallowing them she loves them!! She'll grab the spoon and shove them in her mouth suck on them then spit them out. I keep trying to put them back in but hey, at least she likes them. Now we have to learn the technical side. That can be taught! Now what shall we try next.... maybe sweet potatoes or squash... yummy!!

Missin Daddy

Its been a long week with Jon gone. We've been through an ear infection with Eva, I got food poisoning Thursday, then my sinus infection came back Sunday. So needless to say I didn't post near what I had hoped while Jon was gone. Now that the Whittaker girls are on the mend and coming back to reality, here are some new shots from when we got home today. She was just looking so cute and check out the lovely card she made for her Daddy! 

Jon, we love you and miss you terribly. We're praying for you to have another great week! Eva says thank you for her first Eagle and hoping there are more where that came from. Cant wait to see you when you get home! 

Love, your two favorite girls

We like to put everything in our mouth including our dress... sorry we're not very lady-like yet.

Even the card looked yummy and she tried eating it a couple times!

So we moved locations to try and get a better shot. Too bad she wouldnt look at the camera for anything.  You get the idea!

Lovin' Louisiana

Jon and I feel so blessed that we have such amazing friends and family in our life. Today was no exception. On Eva's 5 month birthday, I got home from a long day at work to find a wonderful treat on my front door step. Our wonderful, sweet friend Ms. Lisa (she'll be Ms. Lisa to me until I am 80) sent us this awesome Baby Einstein Jumper for Miss Eva. Her dear parents went in with her as well to make it that much more special. 

The memories with this family go back literally before I was born and I get teary-eyed thinking about it now. Short version is that my grandparents were good friends with Faye and Chalmes Williams in Louisiana, their daughters Ms. Lisa and my Mom grew up together and are still best friends even when the Douglass family moved to Arkansas for Papaw's job. Later in life, they had me and Jeffrey then Lauren and Stacey all relatively at the same time and we grew up together and remain friends still. Now Jeffrey has a little boy who is a year older than Eva. Its just so perfect. We've shared pictures, sleepovers, summer vacations, weddings and now babies with this family that I completely consider them part of ours. So, I can not wait for them to all meet Eva this summer at Stacey's wedding when we'll all be together again.

Until then, we send the biggest hug and the biggest thank you to our family in the bayou! Here's a picture I took of her and a video we made. Sorry for my cheesy voice but I am the Mom of a 5 month old. What do you expect?!

We love you and will see you in a few months. 

Amanda, Jon and Eva

Poor Baby

Well, we have now had our very first "sickness" where Mommy had to leave work and come get her from daycare. 

After a night of waking up at 4:30 am to a snoring little girl and then rushing to get to school and work by 8, I got a call at 11 that she'd been dealing with a really runny nose, cough and just sheer fussiness. Now, I say all this and some of you may think, hmmm, it happens, she's a baby. But Eva Beth is usually just the happiest baby. Very low maintenance so the only time you hear her fuss is if she's hungry or tired. Neither were the case today. The girls at school know her well enough to know she was not herself. 

So I finished up some things at work and went to get her. Fortunately I was able to get her in to see Dr. Robinson (Maye Maye's grandpa as he called himself) yesterday afternoon and we found out that its not RSV, not Pneumonia, but it was a pretty decent right ear infection. Bless her heart. The runny nose was only irritated by it and the coughing was a result of the drainage. So after all that, we got our first Rx of amoxicillin (please note I apparently lived on it starting at her age so pray this isn't a reoccurring thing) and went back home. After the first dose, a bottle and a nap, Eva was good as new.

She slept better last night and was her usual bubbly self this morning. Still fighting the runny nose but hoping it'll clear up soon now that we're on the antibiotic. Got the update from school that they are so happy to see her back to normal! Yay! 

Sweet baby before we went to the doctor was so happy to just snuggle with Mom

But this is more like my happy little angel playing and posing by 6 pm!

Mommy Daughter Date Night

Well, here we are again. Golf season has begun. Jon left today to head to Louisiana for the first tournament of his year. It'll be really strange not having him around and I think it really hit me today how much of a change it'll be. So instead of sitting at home thinking about it, Eva and I decided to get out and have a date night. We had a lovely dinner at Red Robin (mmmmm my favorite fries!) and then walked around the mall for a while. She was cracking me (and everyone else in baby Gap) up when she'd do her precious screams! She has this adorable squeal then gets giggles at herself.

Now that I have figured out the video function on my camera I thought I would post a snippet of the walk around the mall.  I promised Jon I'd post lots so he doesnt miss out on anything but also figured you all would get a good kick out of it. You can also see a little girl getting sleepy and tired of Mom having a camera in her face! Apparently :30 was all she could take.

We love you and miss you Daddy!

Visit from Tulsa

Eva and I were so excited that we got a visit from Uncle Phil, Aunt Beth, Adrian and Kate this past weekend! We got to catch up and play at the house for a while then go have pizza for Adrian's birthday. On top of it all they went and got Papaw so he could get out and join us. He was having a good day and so Eva and I took advantage of the time with him. He hadnt seen her since she was only two weeks old so she's changed quite a bit! Its so special to me for Eva to get to know him. I grew up so close to my grandparents and now that they live so close to us I hope she'll get to know them and love them as much as I do. What a great visit and special time for all of us. 

Our First Goodbye

So there are very few friends in my life who I can say have been around me during most of the key moments of my life. Evelyn is that friend for me. She and I met the summer before College and have been the closest of friends since. From living by each other, living together, weddings, dinners, crying and laughing we were there for each other. Then we ended up having our first babies only 18 days apart. I have these images of the girls growing up together and being there for each other like Ev and I are. Awww..... Well I promise all those things will still happen but from about 5 hours apart now. Evelyn, Nick and Claire are officially moving today from NWA to Magnolia!! Yep- 15 miles from the Louisiana border. Its an amazing opportunity for them and I am so happy for their new life but breaks my heart when I think about us not being less than 20 minutes from house to house. So before the Uhaul left today, Eva and I had no choice but to go see our sweet best friends. The girls got to play for a while and we got to visit then say our first goodbye to our first friend! Never thought I'd say I cant wait to go to Magnolia, but its true. I look forward to staying as close as ever and not missing a thing even if its miles and miles away.

We love you Wades and miss you terribly already!

First Foods

Following Eva's 4 month appointment the doctor said we should go ahead and try rice cereal once or twice a day. So I got real excited and got her all set up that weekend only to find out my child must be as picky as I am when it comes to food. I am telling you now, Eva B did NOT like cereal and wanted nothing to do with it. So the first food experience wasnt the best and I didnt understand why. She'd try it then scream, then calm down and try it again and scream. I even tried it myself to see if it was bad and oh my gosh, it was terrible. So to be honest I dont think I can blame her for not liking it but being the stubborn one I am I kept trying. Finally she had a complete breakdown and we gave back into the bottle. Life was good again. Thank goodness my mother-in-law suggested putting the cereal in her night time bottle and thats worked like a charm! As bad as it was, I of course had the camera handy so you all can see it for yourself. Most our pictures are always the smiling, beautiful Eva but these show a very different side. Still beautiful but not happy with Mom & Dad.

I'll probably try it again maybe with something mixed in. I am open to suggestions on this whole feeding thing. Seems like such a big deal but not sure what she'll like. Stay tuned for more updates.

hmmm.... not so bad yet...

so Dad tries again...

started the protest by trying to push Dad's hand away...

That didnt stop us so the all out standoff began!

Patty & Aunt T Come See Baby E!

We had such a great weekend when Patrick and Talia came up to visit us. We'd been anxiously awaiting their visit since Eva was born so when they came it full on fun time! We played lots, introduced them to Jack's Big Music Show, ate Mellow Mushroom and did some shopping! Biggest event of the weekend was that apparently E decided she was going to roll over for T and Jon while I was showering Saturday morning. I still deny this as there is no proof but exciting none the less. Thanks T for so much help and Sully, I know you'll be singing the coo-coo-cachoo song for the rest of the year :-) We love you guys and feel so blessed to have you in our lives!