Evelina's 1st Easter

Easter Sunday blessed us with a beautiful day, colored pastel eggs, a first Easter basket filled with books and goodies (even peeps for Papa), a visit from Evelina's Great Aunts and Great Uncle, and endless smiles, all topped off by a delicious meal. 

Coloring Eggs; Easter Lily; Egg Nest Table Setting

Pretty Easter Dress

Evelina Bunny; Easter Basket including a cool recorded book by Mimi

Sunshine!!

Papa Love; Aunt and Uncle Love; Cracker Love

Childproofing

Since Evelina isn't a speedy "crawler", we haven't spent much time childproofing. The extent of our efforts have focused on covering outlets that are located near her designated play areas, moving the monitor video camera from the back of her crib and mounting it out of her reach, and swapping out our previously rectangular coffee table complete with glass top (so not childproof in anyway) with an upholstered storage ottoman.  

Up next on the childproofing list:  covering additional outlets and securing cabinet doors and drawers.  We can already tell she is going to LOVE opening cabinet doors considering when we're holding her in the kitchen she immediately leans toward the knobs and opens and closes the door after inspecting the dishes.

Workin' On Skills

Despite Evelina having yet another cold (arrghhhh!!!!), she has certainly been a joy over the last couple of weeks, perhaps thanks to no new teeth!! In between her constant waving and babbling (even a couple distinguishable "Hi"s), she has been spending a lot of time working on improving her gross motor skills. 

She isn't crawling on her hands and knees, but she does a lot of rocking back and forth in an attempt to launch forward.  She goes through spurts of army crawling, dragging herself forward with her arms while pushing with her feet.  Last week Auntie K and I witness her going back and forth with her knee and opposite arm and "crawling", similar to being on all fours but still on her stomach...it was quite interesting.  Although, her favorite mode of mobility is most definitely the butt scoot.  Especially on non-carpeted surfaces. As soon as she is sitting on the floor she will place her arms down and pull her body forward while tucking in her feet. She really goes places that one.  

In other news, she has been caught on a couple of occasions going from laying down to sitting.  I witnessed it once during our mommy and me group a couple of weeks ago and then this morning when Chris got out of the shower she was sitting up in the crib hanging out....too cute. She is also determined to pull up, but still needs to get the kneeling motion mastered first.  If I've learned anything about Evelina, it's that even though she CAN do something, she WON"T do it, or, even if she is sooo close to mastering a new skill, it could still take another month+ for her to be successful, case in point, rolling from back to belly.  Either way, it looks like it is officially time to lower the crib mattress and remove her mobile that she loooovvves to pull on. 

So much going on for our little one and it's all so exciting.  It still amazes me that one day she can't do something and the next day she can.  Amazing, amazing...babies are amazing. 

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

Over the weekend while Chris and I were in Austin, TX celebrating the union of my dear friend, Kate, to her southern gentleman, Jason, Mimi and Auntie were having a blast with Evelina.  A trip to the Children Museum, taking in the sites of the 115th running of the Boston Marathon, lunches out, lots of play time, and, my favorite activity, a trip to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny. Other than arriving home to big smiles, reaches, Mamas and Dadas, the next best thing was seeing this adorable photograph.  We just love this little being more than words can say....man, did we miss her.   

PS: Here is Evelina's picture taken with Santa.  It will be so fun to look back at these each year to see how much she has grown.