Eva's Favorite Things

Eva's been on the move for the last couple weeks, and its fun to see more of her personality develop.  She certainly has a mind of her own, and can be quite strong headed.  Luckily (or not so luckily for us), neither Alison nor I can blame it on the other.  We're probably both equally responsible for that characteristic.  But here are some of Eva's favorite things:

2.  Animals - she LOVES animals.  Loves them.  Now that she can walk, when I take her outside she starts to chase the stray cats.  Sometimes I'll put birdseed outside her window so pigeons and finches will come and eat.  Of course, she loves her stuffed animals (though not so much other stuffed items), and gets excited whenever grandma/grandpa or nana put the pets on skype. 

2.  Books - often in the mornings she'll pull out all the books from her shelf, sit on the floor and page through them.  Sometimes she reads silently, and sometimes she reads out loud.  It's really cute.  Her current favorites are "The Hungry Catepillar", Baby Bunny and anything that has flaps to lift up/tear off.

3.  Buttons - She particularly likes my cell phone.  I'll lock it, and she loves pushing the big middle button that lights the screen up.  So far, she hasn't been able to figure out how to unlock it.

4.  My Kindle - She found my Amazon Kindle (an ereader) the other day, and opened up the flap that covers the kindle.  She was already excited that she's found a book, but her eyes got huge when she opened it and found BUTTONS.  A combination of two of her favorite things!  That one quickly got confiscated.

5.  Putting Things in Places:  She likes the toys where you can put the shapes into a container.  However, she also puts the shapes in other places.  We've found them in cushions behind the couch, the letters bag in the Scrabble box, and in the recycling bags.  I'm sure there are other hidden treasures we will find years later.  She also just likes putting objects into containers and taking them out.  Its not uncommon for me to come into a room and find her putting all her blocks in the bin, taking them out again, and then repeating.

I could probably think of more, but I'll leave it there for now.  Not much of significance going on, so I can't use up all my ideas at once!

Eva On the Move

Eva's started walking!  In just a couple of week's she's gone from whining when we put her upright and make her walk to toddling around by herself.  In the last couple of days, her preferred method of mobilizing to destruction has been walking.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Eva!

Happy Birthday Eva!  On January 2nd, she turned one.  We had a very small celebration - we went to Dairy Queen and she had her first taste of icecream.  At first, she wouldn't eat it.  I think she thought it was yoghurt.  However, she came around, and eventually started eating, playing and flinging her new beloved food all around the restaurant.  Evidence below. (Overkill on the video?  Maybe.  But Grandma and Nana eat it up.)

Cultural Tidbit:  In contrast to our small gathering of three, it is customary for our friends from India to have very, very large parties when a child turns one.  I was told that this is a tradition because in the past (how long ago "past" means, I'm not sure) many babies did not survive the first year.  We went to what was described to me as a small celebration, which turned out to be no less than 50 people.  Fantastic!  Its also common for parents to shave their child's head - it helps the hair grow quicker and thicker (we are sometimes tempted with Eva's bald head).

On Saturday, we had a small gathering with some friends at the wild life preserve in Bahrain.  It's not big, but Eva was able to see some neat animals:  giant tortises, heyenas, a variety of dear-type animals, and a donkey that licked her fingers and scared her a bit.  At the end, we sang her happy birthday and she had her first taste of cake!