a wordy update with lots of pictures

here is an overview of last week and the weekend...

most days we stay around the house maybe only leaving for a walk around the neighborhood.  i used to always think there wasn't a point in getting fancied up if i wasn't leaving the house but i've come to realize since much of our time is spent at home it is worth it to put on makeup....and even red lipstick some days because maybe if the world isn't seeing me i feel better when i'm done up.  besides i'm sure it doesn't bother will to come home to wife that has done herself up a bit....especially since the last nine months he has seen me undone more often than not.  

there is just something about red lipstick that makes me feel fancy even if while i'm wearing it i'm wrestling a wild nine month old all day.

ever loves her yaya (my mom) something fierce and the feeling is very mutual.  it is wonderful to witness the bond between those two.  the past several months have been rocky ones between my mom and i for the first time in all of my 32 years.  changes have taken place that i at first had a really hard time with and that my mom had a difficult time adjusting to in many ways.  since my dad relocated to heaven 11 years ago my mom started dating a few months ago for the first time.  something i never thought i'd see her do because she swore she never wanted to.  but as you know things change...she is very happy and that is nice to see.  she is actually getting married on valentine's day this year and i'm sure there will be more talk of that soon so i figured i might as well share.  even when my mom and i have been at odds and not spoken at times she and ever don't seem to miss a beat when they see each other again.  their relationship is truly special.

i always cut will's hair and since ever was born he seems to go really long spans between haircuts because it is just hard to accomplish with our wild one.  she woke up from her nap during his haircut the other night so i set her in the empty bathtub next to us while finishing will's hair.  it made for quite the nice wrangling device for a few minutes.  she really enjoyed it.

ever has been a fan of headstands for a couple months now but i don't think i've mentioned it on the blog or managed to capture a picture.  a couple days ago i caught her in the headstand act with her teething necklace in her mouth (naughty) and wipes in each hand.  she had been busy "cleaning" the mirror prior to showing of her trick.  

it seems that every time we leave the house for a stroll ever wants to take a friend and that friend is usually sophie the giraffe.  she loves sophie.

modeling her new pajamas a few nights ago.  she recently got a big batch of new jammies and leggings because she is growing like crazy.  they are all so cute and i'm sure you'll see them here in the near future.  shopping for her is still my most favorite thing.  when we go to target i don't even look in my section anymore and i'm fine with that.  

lately ever thinks peeking out the window is great fun.  there is something about it that i find positively adorable.  

houndstooth never came home and not to sound all negative but i doubt she will.  i had big hopes the first week or two that she would appear but now that it has been 3 weeks i just don't feel like she will be coming home.  we have had 2 calls from all of the flyers we posted around the neighborhood but unfortunately neither call amounted to anything.  we are going to take the flyers down this week which is really sad. her disappearance has caused many shed tears from the humans in the house and the felines...mama kitty (who houndstooth was a twin of) and brother kitty pellegrino pictured above have definitely shown their sadness as well.  pellegrino seems to be taking things really rough.  his happy sparkle has vanished.  he spends much of his time hiding inside or getting as close to ever as he can.  he doesn't even mind when she plays rough with him.  i think in some ways ever is a sort of replacement for his feline sister houndstooth.  she certainly doesn't mind the extra attention from him and has added kitty to her growing vocabulary.  i think with kitty she is at 9 or 10 words she regularly says.  i suppose we might always have a tiny bit of hope in our hearts that houndsie will return although we know chances are so slim.  ever is definitely a cat lover as well as a dog lover which we established months ago with my moms dogs.  she was really happy about a pair of kitty print leggings we got her at target over the weekend.  she held them as we shopped and kept saying kitty.

will brought this home to me friday and although it is just a piece of paper it meant the world to me that he thought to make this cute little award.  i am so happy to have will as my husband...he is just perfect for me.  

i have been in the process of reorganizing the office/art room in order to make the most of the space.  basically since before ever was born the room has been an unorganized disaster.  i would tackle little bits of the mess when i found time but a couple weekends ago i took hours to really dive in and move things around because it finally became really necessary to sort of make it more baby friendly since this little lady is all over the place lately.  i put a bunch of drawer things that were out in the open in the closet because i was worried ever would either takes things out of the drawers that she could hurt herself with or pull the stacked containers on top of herself.  the room is feeling much more organized which makes me want to create things even more and want to actually spend time in here.  putting things in the closet didn't stop ever as you can see.  i now have chairs blocking the closet door so she can't slide them open but here she was on friday before i blocked her from the fun.

this picture was taken at lunch over the weekend after we left target.  while shopping i let ever play with a bag of cadbury mini eggs (my most favorite candy) to keep her content in the cart.  next thing i know will says...i smell chocolate.  we then notice that ever chewed a tiny hole in the bag and she was trying really hard to get to the chocolatey goodness inside.  we instantly took the bag away which created quite the scene from ever.  we laughed that she must remember that yummy candy from the womb since she was born right before easter last year and i ate my fair share of them prior to her arrival.   

this is what it looks like when i try to feed ever.  she is really picky about eating and creates the biggest mess.  she seemed to enjoy the little organic fruit and veggie pouches i started feeding her at first but now she gets kind of annoyed when i try to feed them to her.  she grabs the pouch or spoon and flings food all over then rubs her face and head.  she gets so mad when i put a bib on her or try to control the mess.  hopefully she will enjoy food more soon and not make such a mess.  right now she enjoys baby mum-mums the most....little rice cracker type things and organic fruit and veggie cereal puffs.  i try cutting up fruits or toast or pasta like her pediatrician recommended but usually it ends up on the floor or she spends more time gagging over texture than actually eating.  picky little lovable control freak.

ever enjoyed some pretend driving over the weekend.....in fact she loved it.  

she drove us right on over to the grocery store so we could do our weekly shopping.

she tried to eat a few things in the produce section.

we got ever this valentine sippy cup with a straw over the weekend.  she thought it was the coolest thing.  drinking out of the straw made her so happy.

it also made her look like popeye on occasion.

ever has been really interested in the lorax movie as of late.  i mean it's not like she will sit and watch the entire thing but she dances to the music and gasps when she sees the truffula trees.  i catch her smiling at certain scenes with the cute critters.  saturday night i checked out the special features on the disc and it turns out there is a couple minute tutorial for kids on drawing the characters.  i got really excited about it and followed along and drew the humming fish along with the lorax.  i'm a nerd like that.  will just laughed and told me he loved me.

if i remember i'll take better picture of the valentine garland i made for our living room.  i found some valentine decor that i almost bought at target but since my cart was pretty full i eliminated the items that weren't super important so the valentine decor was ditched.  i cut x's and o's from cardstock then ripped up a bunch of doilies and taped them on the letters all sloppy but cute like and added some love washi tape to keep everything in place then i strung that along with the heart doilies up on red and white baker's twine.  i'm quite happy with the end result.  will said it is way better than the stuff we were going to buy but he loves to say wonderful things about my creations.  

ever is always flashing this closed mouth smile lately and i melt when she does.  something about the look in her eyes combined with the little smile kills me because it is so cute.  

and last but not least here is ever climbing on a trunk in the office this morning.  i was getting after her for climbing it and she gave me this adorable expression.  she is just too much.  way too much fun and so feisty.