Catching Up to Reno

This post will consist of random photos of Everdeen to catch us up to our trip to Reno last weekend.

First:  (Not-So-)Exotic Locale Photo Shoot No. 2.  By way of explanation, Jim and Sam, while on a surf trip, came up with this idea of freaking out Tatum and me by placing mannequins around the house as though they were human.  For instance, I'd go downstairs one night to get a drink in the kitchen, and I'd see a mannequin peering in the kitchen window.  Or I'd go in to take a shower, and there would be a mannequin on the toilet reading a newspaper.  Or I'd go downstairs in the morning, and there would be a mannequin holding a cup of coffee at the breakfast table, or out on the lanai smoking a cigarette, or hanging from the ceiling.  You get the idea.  Sam and Jim went back and forth, building off each other, and the whole thing escalated until they really believed they could make money off this thing.  (I kind of did too, actually.  It's so weird that it just might work.)  Jim came up with a GENIUS name:  Shenaniquins.  Mannequins engaging in shenanigans.  They discussed creating a blog or website of some sort where they would post a daily picture of a Shenaniquin.  People would check the website every morning when they got to work and be like, "Hey, did you see what the Shenaniquin did today?"  And eventually a Shenaniquin movie would be made, wherein the Shenaniquins would take over the world, and Jim and Sam would quit their day jobs.  So Jim's obsession with putting Ever in weird places and making it look as if she got there by herself is sort of inspired by the Shenaniquins. 

With that background, here are the Shenaniquin shots of Everdeen in our bedroom, taken right after her bath (and hence with her hair in full bloom): 

Happy on the headboard.

The T.V.

The random end table that is in our room because it has no place else to be and because we needed surfaces upon which to place baby junk.

The decorative vase.

Then there's Dean (thank you, Cornyee, for that nickname) just being Dean.  I was going to say this is after our first successful day at church with the Wee, but it wasn't really very successful.  Jim was rounding at the hospital that day.  Dean and I didn't make it to church until Sunday School had started (we missed sacrament meeting), despite the fact that I started the morning process two hours before church started.  She started fussing about two minutes after I sat down.  I realized she was probably hungry again, so I headed to the mother's room.  She wouldn't really eat and then had a crazy blow-out right before Relief Society, where I had to teach.  I was frantic.  Jim arrived in the nick of time, and I muddled through my lesson, totally out of sorts.  She was pleased with herself:

 
Burp time:

Just a really good hair day:

Sleeping with dad, arm behind head:

Sleeping champion-style:

Just cute:

When her hair is down in the front and then up in the back like this, it reminds me of the "emotional" 'do of an extremely effeminate Asian dude I used to see on the subway in L.A. all the time.  Is that wrong?

She gets major dreadlocks.  I've cut off three so far.

Exotic Locale Photo Shoot

Jim instigated another photo shoot featuring Ever in various odd locations in our partially-built kitchen and TV room.

Wall art:

On the island:


(Jim wants it to look as if we just stumbled upon Ever hanging out in these weird places, but I think it's funnier to see him hiding.)



In the cabinetry:

Atop the speakers:

I love how much he loves his girl.  I keep taking pictures of them together on the couch.



Matching.

I don't appear in very many of our pictures so far, which is probably best.  I'm usually not properly dressed or put together these days.  I am clothed in this one, though au naturel in the face: 

I held a photo shoot of my own the other day after I changed the wee one.  She just looked so cute. 

She's had terrible acne and a majorly flaking forehead for a couple weeks.  It seems to be a little better the last day or two, maybe.  We're hoping it resolves soon.  She's so ashamed. 

I realize I am posting millions of pictures of my baby.  That's what you get when you make me blog! 

The Champion

I wanted to do a big post about Ever's birth using all the photos Bags, Ann Marie, and Jim and I took while the fam was here.  But alas - because it is taking me too long to get it together, and because Toots is begging for pictures, I will post some more recent shots of the wee one.  And then I will brag about her.

Ever is the best stretcher in the whole world.  She always stretches after she wakes up and after a satisfactory feeding session.  I haven't really been able to capture her best moves.  She stretches her arms above her head, hands in fists.  She turns her fists in, then rolls her wrists around and turns her fists out.  She puckers her lips. 

And sometimes she just relaxes with her hands behind her head. 

 

  

She likes to keep her hands by her face.  It started in utero; the ultrsound techs had a hard time getting clear shots of her face.  Sometimes she covers her ears as if she's trying to block out noise.  Sometimes she puts her hands under her chin as if she's doing a really cheesy photo shoot.  Sometimes she just vogues.

Jim likes to make Ever do weird things, like drink his Coke...

... and sit on the mantel.  Ever wasn't happy about the left side of the TV but quieted down when perched on the right...

Last night Jim gave Ever a fro after her bath (which bath, by the way, she tolerated without crying at all).  Check out the perfectly circular hair.

And tonight they watched TV together.  (So much for the no-TV-until-two-years-old recommendation.)  Note that the hair is still perfectly circular.

Ever used to go super cross-eyed a lot.  She seems to be growing out of it now but still does it occasionally.  Here's a mild example:



She seems so much more alert now.  She just looks at us. 

It's hard to capture her cute expressions - especially her smiles.  Tonight she smiled at me for about a whole minute while I talked baby talk to her.  I know she's still young for social smiles, but she really does seem to be smiling in response to us the last couple days. 


(Note her giant pants, which Jim has named her "Elvis pants," gifted by Tutu.  Won't be long before she's grown into them.)

She stares with her eyes super wide, and I'm certain that if she could talk, she would say, "I see dead people."  It really freaks me out when she does it when I'm up with her in the night.  She looks possessed.

A few days ago, I actually left the house and ran a couple errands with Ever.  I thought I had turned a corner and was going to start being productive.  But alas.  I tried to go to church yesterday but had to turn around because I realized I had taken the wipes out of the diaper bag and had forgotten to put them back in.  By the time I got home to get them, Ever was crying.  I took her in to change her.  Then I had to feed her.  Then sacrament meeting was almost over, and I gave up. 

Similarly, all I have to show for today is an hour of continuing legal education (have to finish a couple more hours before the end of the month) and a load of laundry - cleaned, but not folded.  But part of the reason I got nothing done today is that Ever and I were sleeping a lot. 

This is where the bragging comes in.  Ever is a champion sleeper.  I know it may not last, but for now I am basking. 

Last night was the second in three nights when Ever went about seven hours between feedings.  She ate from about 8 to 10 P.M. last night, with breaks for diaper changes and for my trying to convince her that she wasn't hungry anymore.  Then we read to her, sang a song, prayed with her, and put her to bed.  I had to pick her up for a few minutes to bounce her, but I crawled into bed at 10:49.  She woke up at 4:30 A.M. to eat.  I let her eat a long time, changed her, and put her back to bed.  She slept until about 9:45 A.M.  I got her up, fed her, changed her.  She seemed tired, and I was still tired, myself.  So we went back to sleep from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M.  As of about 2:30 P.M., we had eaten and slept and changed some diapers and clothes (thanks to a lot of spit-up).  And that was about it.  For that, I am unspeakably grateful.