GOOOoooo-oooooAL !!!!

England made one, the USA made one... of course, that officially resulted in a draw, but in my eyes, if the objective was to make it out of the first round of the World Cup, then I guess we won!

More importantly (at least in our egocentric eyes), was our own personal goal for Evie this weekend - to crawl in the FORWARD direction. She met that challenge head on and passed with flying colors.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend of forward progress:

Why should I crawl if you're already going my direction, Dad? Can't I just hitch a ride on you?

She's got a pretty good squat going.
Future power lifter, posiblemente?

Stop! Stop! Stop!
I'll do this my own way, thank you very much.

And by "my way," I mean I'll sit and clap for myself and the good job I'm doing!

One of the many reasons the USA "won." Good karma vibes sent from the Yankee and Peach kitchen.

"Gooo - ooooal" cupcakes. You can't just have one.

 

This is the face of summer. Excitement over fresh blueberries!
If only you had seen Daddy and Momma's excited faces after those blueberries progressed their way through her little digestive track.

I'm so ashamed I can't even look at you. My mommy dressed me like a girl.

 Dressy dress, hairbow, girlie shoes.
Oh, I cannot even look at the camera. This is so embarrassing.

What, you say there's a mud puddle outside I can play in? I'm ashamed no more! Tomboy revenge at last!

Mom's always passing me off to be fed by other people. My sweet friend Vallie came for a visit and decided to take over mommy duties for a little while.

 

Uncle Battle gets the honor of filling my belly too!

We're also having some forward progress in the teething department, if a runny nose and chewing on everything she can get her hands and mouth around are any indicators. Evie got her two bottom teeth at 4 months, but nothing has emerged since then.... guess it's about time!

Food tastes so much better when you have entertainment accompanying it!

Uncle Battle is becoming a pro at this food dispersal stuff.

Here's a reward for making it all the way down to the bottom of this post:  Crawling videos! 

They are short and sweet, but you will get the point: She's MOBILE!

SUPPER AND A SHOW

Grandaddy and Mumsy Neal stopped by the Yankee and Peach abode to play tonight. They dropped in under the auspices of "visiting Evie" but we all know they really just fancied some of Katie's cooking for supper.  Those crafty kinfolk are always sneaking in and finding a place at the supper table (and now we know where Uncle Battle gets it.)

Can't these people find where the food goes?
My mouth is RIGHT HERE!

Evie's grandparents were just in time to feed Miss Priss, play outside in the baby pool with the little lady, get shoo-ed out of the pool by Nomar-the-water-crazy-dog who decided to sit on Evie (whilst IN the pool), then get eaten by mosquitoes after tonight's rain, and then trudge back inside for some yummy gnocchi, chicken, garlic bread and salad that Katie whipped up in a Julia-Child-on-drugs style frenzy. It may sound like a gourmet dinner-  but, in actuality, that was the extent of the sustenance inhabiting Katie's cupboard - at least till Knight-in-Shining-Armor Chris got home from Publix with bags full of reinforcements.

After we were all fat and happy from the pigs-at-the-trough-chow-down, it was time for our post-dinner entertainment. Obviously, that means Evie was running the show.

I've got skills. Check out the balancing act.
 Don't try this at home, kids.

First face-plant of the evening into the carpet. 
Crawling in the forward direction just wasn't happening.

Okay, really Grandma? I am not a vacuum cleaner!

Haha! Victory is mine! 

The pink ball holds the powers of the universe! 

Or maybe just some nice spittle from Trot.

Mother, you are only a small mountain between me and that magazine.
I will conquer you, as I will conquer the tearing of each and every page in that glossy publication.

Yes, we frequently leave our child crying on the floor with potential suffocation hazards nearby. We believe it builds character - as well as lung capacity.

By our next post, I hope to have something to report in the way of forward motion. It may not happen and we may quite possibly just have a backwards crawling child. That's fine with me, as long as the backwards-ness doesn't carry over into other future skills to be learned. Like potty training. I'm not even going to carry on with that thought...

Evie "Walking" after Trot

Put my thing down, Flip It, and Reverse It

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!
In Lane 1, we have Evie. She's in the starting blocks,  revving her motor skills...  she's on her mark... she's set... and off she goes...  IN REVERSE! 

Our little lady crawled for the first time this weekend. Except she went backwards. Yes, in reverse. As in, the opposite direction of forward motion. She was down on all fours, doing the wiggly-butt bouncing motion that munchkins do to get their momentum going.  

She was all psyched up - you could just see it in her determined little face. She was working so hard and with such fierce concentration. She pushed off from a sitting position, braced her arms, got her little knees under her, -- and then went scooting backwards. The look on her face was a combination of "holy crap, I'm moving!" and "holy crap, that's not the direction I wanted to go!"

Chris and I were cracking up. She was so focused on going forward, but then her body kept betraying her and she would go the opposite direction.  Oh, well, at least she's getting somewhat mobile, which means momma and dadda have to really get on babyproofing everything soon. Evie just has her gear stick confused - she's gotta get out of reverse and put that thing in drive! 

Here's a few photos to document what we thought was quite a hilarious occasion:

Yeah, I got this sitting stuff down pat!

Watch out, doggies! I'm coming for you.

 
Hey, uh, Trot... you mind doing a quick diaper check for me? I was working pretty hard, might have let some slip.

What?!   A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Just like everyone else in this household, Trot does my bidding.

Go get me a ball, Trot.

Okay, back in the starting position. Uggggghh... not sure about this.

Head down, check.  

Elbows locked and ready, check.
Good form, check.
Bouncing butt, check. Here we go... 

Whoaaa! Too fast, too fast! I gotta slow down.

And in other non-crawling news, we spent another Saturday at the water park. This time, we plied Uncle Battle to go with us with the promise of a home-cooked meal for lunch. (the joke was on him, it was MY cooking!)

Actually, he really wanted to go. He's an adorably hands-on uncle to Evie - even though he has yet to change a diaper. (gggr!)  I told him the water park would be us and a bunch of one-to-twelve years old kids and he realized that this age range is right at his maturity level and he was all for it.

I only tolerate these people for the food...
and the awesome hot pink shoes.

Like his niece, Battle only tolerates us for the food.

This picture will be on the next cover "Out and About" Magazine for their cover article "Modern Family: Two Men and a Baby."

The little rockstar's gotta have her sunglasses on to go to the pool.

I love my dadda. Such sweetness.

Battle's plan to pick up ladies using Evie as bait didn't work.  

That's actually a really good thing, considering all the lizz-adies in attendance at the waterpark were either young enough to put him in jail, or old enough to know better.

He decided to show off his skills on the slide instead.

Dadda and EvieBug in the lazy river.

There's actually nothing lazy about this river- the river's current is quite fast so it's a pretty decent workout to make it around while holding a baby afloat, especially if you decide to be a rebel and go against the flow.
 

A few more weekends in the not-so-lazy river might be a benefit to momma's post-prego bootie. (Well, that and a membership to Jenny Craig and a little lypo wouldn't hurt.)

Memorial Day Memories

Evie and her parents had quite the Memorial Day weekend. She swam in a pool for the first time (her pool time in California doesn't count, since that was technically a hot tub), she swam in a lake for the first time, and road a horse for the first time. And by swam, we do mean she was happily plopped down on her diaper clad bottom into the water, where she could have sat and merrily "patted" the surface for hours on end. 

With hair like mine, I plan to scare the other kids out of the pool.

Mommy, will I have flotation devices like you one day?

Okay, guys. Just between you and me... what do you really think about carrots?

I asked for a pony, but you guys gave me a HORSE!

(2nd runner up for caption contest: Ride a horse, save a cowboy.)

Give or take 30 seconds, but this might be the precise moment where Evie fell in love with horses and Daddy's wallet just got lighter for the next 18 years.

You ride horses, you eat like a horse.

"What do you mean I have something on my face?"

On a final note, Evie loved her water baby time so much that we broke down and bought her a small "paddling" play pool. It may not be a cutsie pink baby pool from BabiesRUs that is painted in designer colors with fabulous images plastered all over it (our pool was purchased for a massive $9 at PetSmart, and it just might be a lovely shade of dog-gone blue and be covered in dog bones) but her parents think it's FANTASTIC and so does Evie.

Baby Love

Our little lady is growing so fast. It's amazing to watch Evie learn about her surroundings and her own capabilities. In just three days, she went from sitting with lots of support to being able to sit and play for hours at a time.  Her balancing abilities have grown by leaps and bounds - which makes her look less like a drunken sailor on a bar stool and more like a professional sitter-upper.

She has been "standing" with help for a few months now, but she is now taking "steps" (while holding our hands of course).  She's only 7 months old  - I don't want her walking just yet! But I'm so proud of each little accomplishment she makes. Time to babyproof the house though.  Our lives are about to get a lot more complicated!

Mom and Bebe

 

Little lady on our bedroom floor

A wee Scottish bairn representing!

And last but not least, here is the gratuitous nekkid baby shot.  In order to avoid being accused of posting baby p*rn online, I've covered her girlie bits with the obligatory pink heart. I hope it doesn't distract from the adorableness that is a Dancing Nekkid Baby.  Gosh, she loves her pre-bath nekkid time. (ah, but who doesn't?)

"throw ya hands in the air and
wave 'em like ya just don't care"

We'll see how long it takes for her to outgrow this nekkid stage.  It's obviously hilarious while she's so little and adorable, but if she's anything like her Uncle Battle, the constant need for nekkid time could become a problem later in life. 

(only kidding, B!)

Well, not really...