Long time since last update! Late Jan 09

Very due for an update!!

Evelyn Margaret Umlauf was born on October 29th, 2008. She was nearly born in the van! My water broke at 11:30pm on the 28th, and we all hopped in the van and rode the last ferry (12:15am) to Mukilteo. I realized I was starting to push when we were on the ferry. We made it to Suzanne, our midwife's house, at about 1am and Evelyn was born just before 2:30am, into a birth pool. It was a quick and easy birth, and completely, utterly fantastic.

Eve was pretty fussy from about 6 weeks to about 13 weeks. She is a fairly finicky nurser and rarely falls asleep nursing. She does take a paci though, and that seems to really help her. Since birth, she has slept well at night... that is awesome! Also, she is incredibly animated. She smiled very early, about two weeks, and is very "communicative." She squeals, "talks," and coos and makes all sorts of noises. She rolled over just a few days ago from tummy to back. She's very very big, and wears 6-9 month clothes easily. A very sweet baby, very thoughtful and sensitive.

Anna is over 2 1/2 now. She talks well, but can be hard to understand. I get a kick out of hearing her talk every day... she is always trying out new words and pronouncing things interestingly. She still calls Thor "bubba" because she can't say his name. She also talks about herself in the first person, instead of saying "me." So she'll say, "Anna go tar tore." (I go to the star store.)

Anna has been slow to potty learn. When we still lived in Alaska when she was only 20 months or so, she was already going in the potty. She'd go by herself, even. But then for the past 8 months it's been up and down, and lots of pooing and peeing on the floor! We actually put her back in diapers for several months after Eve was born, and now sometimes she wears diapers and sometimes she doesn't.

Personality-wise, Anna is very willful and independent. She is not super cuddly, and she wants to do everything herself!! She gets into everything because she thinks she can do it all herself. Brushing teeth (squeezing out the toothpaste!), getting things out of the fridge, pooping on the potty and trying to wipe herself (not so good!), getting dressed (good, but takes forever), feeding the cats, etc. She also LOVES to help me cook. I swear, she's going to grow up to be a chef. She loves to do everything, from chopping vegetables, measuring, stirring, even cleaning up and washing the dishes and loading the dishwasher. She's very industrious. It's nice, but it can be difficult because she will not take no for an answer if you don't want her to do these things! I try to remind myself to just be patient and not worry about messes. But when you're in a hurry or the baby is crying, it's a bit difficult. I think it's an awesome personality trait, though. Anna also loves to paint and draw and is very good at both. She recognizes a lot of letters as well.

Thor is an awesome little boy. He is still his super cuddly self, and still loves to cuddle and nap. He's very physical in general and loves to run around, jump on the furniture, and play movement games. He loves to play outside and climb trees. He also really likes to play with building things, such as tinkertoys and anything that connects together. At school (2 days a week) the teachers say he LOVES the music time, and loves to dance and sing. He is often singing under his breath. He's not super interested in writing yet, but is obviously getting the basics for reading and can recognize all the letters and knows a lot of the sounds. He gets excited when he recognizes his name and other letters. He can write his name but doesn't do it often. Thor loves a teacher he has, LaLaina, and has really bonded with her. He's very sweet and very sensitive, emotionally. He is a pleaser, and tries to please me a lot. He doesn't get into things at all and I can trust him to be by himself if I'm getting Anna and Eve to nap. He loves our cat Chewbacca a lot.

One amazing thing about Thor is that he has memorized a TON of nursery rhymes and songs. He can say nearly our entire nursery rhyme book by heart and loves repeating them. It's really impressive.