First Days all around!

Today was Julia's First Day of Kindergarten and Gabe's First Day of Preschool. (Plus it was my first day of preschool for this year and Evy's first day as a napper through preschool. She slept the whole class. Atta girl.) What an exhausting emotional roller coaster for me...

Most people already know how I feel about sending Julia off to kindergarten. But after she left today I only had time for a tear or two before I had to get ready for preschool to begin. And it's a good thing I kept busy or I may have cried a lot more. I am not a big crier. But Julia is my first baby and has been at preschool with me since before she was born. I loved having my big boy Gabe in preschool today, but I truly missed my girl. I just love having my kids at home. They are my peeps. And my being slightly resistant to change doesn't help much either.

Julia, on the other hand, was ecstatic about her first day. All morning she carried around her back-pack and said things like, "I can't believe my first day is actually here! I just can't believe it!" So imagine my shock when she was all-frowns at the end of school. I asked about her class and she just started crying. All I could make out was that she fell at recess. But it was not like her to carry on about that.

Well you can imagine what I did! I hugged her and rocked her and rashly told myself she was never going back to school again. Back at home I noticed she was hot so I checked her temperature. Sure enough, it was high. After some Tylenol, resting with a TV show, and flowers and pink milk from Daddy, she was back. She told us all about her teacher and the classroom and the playground and how very very excited she is for the 100th day of school party. (They must have begun the count down. This could be a long 99 days...)

I asked questions and listened and loved hearing all she had to tell. (Especially her recount of seeing a neighborhood friend at recess. She said, "I told him, 'Hey, I under-spect you. You are Nathan!'" She meant "recognize." I suppose understand/expect could mean about the same as recognize.) And then I resolved to let her go back tomorrow, temperature-pending. Bummer. I thought for a second there I got to keep her for good. My baby loved school just like I knew she would. And I guess I really shouldn't cry over that. Or at least I'll try not to.

Not sure why Gabe is so sad in every picture. 

He really was quite excited for preschool.

 There's my Gabey!

Oh brother, he is already looking too cool for school.

Julia loves her sparkly shoes.

And here is Evy. May her next 5 years creep slowly by...

P.S. Here is Julia on the second day - just as excited as the first. Hopefully she comes home with that smile this time!

The Evy-lution of a Name

Years ago Jonny and I easily agreed that Evelyn would be the name of our next baby girl. (She is named after his Grandma Evelyn, and Ju Ju is named after my Grandma Julia.) But we weren't quite in line with what nickname to adopt. I was all for Evie (rhymes with TV) and Jonny was liking Evy (rhymes with heavy). During the pregnancy the kids started calling her Evie. I figured I had won the nickname debate and that was that.

Then, nearly three months ago, along came Evelyn. And that's what I called her. Evelyn. Even though the kids would sometimes call her Evie, it wouldn't roll of the tongue for me. The few times I did call her that I kind of had to force it and it just didn't sound right. 

Meanwhile, on occasion Jonny was calling her Evy. He surely wasn't doing it out of spite, as of course it comes more naturally since it has the same vowel sound as her full name. And do you know what? I really started loving the sound of it. It even occurred to me that she looks more like an Evy than an Evie. 

So Evy* it is. And I love it. But mostly I love her. She is getting more and more chubby, which makes her funny little knee dimples even more adorable. She coos and smiles at me when she wakes up in the morning. Gabe always wants to "have a kiss of Evelyn" and Julia loves babbling baby-talk to her. As for Jonny, I am sure he is in love with every little thing about his Evy.

*I am still not positive Evy is the best spelling. At first I thought Evvy looked right. But that looks like it has a w in it when handwritten. Hmmm. There is also Evi, or Evey, or even Evie could be pronounced that way. So I suppose it doesn't really matter. I think I like the simplicity of spelling it Evy. And who knows, maybe she will go by Evelyn most of the time so it won't quite matter. 

Eveyln's Blessing Day

Eveyln was given a sweet blessing by Jonny at church on June 10th. She wore the same dress that Julia was blessed in five years ago, which made me realize yet again how very fast the years go. We are so thankful for our darling Evelyn Paige.

 The traditional ice cream "Nightmare"

 Gabe polishing it off:

 Pictures by Aunt Cami

 Attempts at a photo of all three:

"Celebrate good times, come on!"

I didn't just use the lyrics of that cheesy song because it's been stuck in my head ever since Julia received a musical birthday card and has been opening it non-stop, but also because it describes what we've been doing the past few months. Here are a few of the good times we've recently celebrated:

Gabe's 3rd Birthday

 

 He made sure Evelyn wasn't left out of the festivities.

 

We may need to work on Gabe's form.

 

Jonny, on the other hand, has that swing down.

 Julia's 5th Birthday
a Butterfly Party

 

 

Gabe told me he was "Mister Smee Butterfly Bad Guy." 

 I gave her my old, beloved Baby Feels So Real doll. 

She named her Evelyn. Original!

 Grandma Myra 
 came from Colorado to meet baby

and  

Aunt Mimi
visited from Maryland

Like I said, good times!
Thanks to all who made them possible.
 (Including Aunt Barb and Uncle Dan for the musical birthday card and post title inspiration.)