big week

This was a very very weird week...I hardly took any pictures of Eva.

Actually that's not completely true.  I took so many I think she would have grabbed my camera and smashed it if she could just control those little arms enough, but luckily she still has my coordination.  However, I'm working on a project and I don't want to share the majority of those pictures just yet...so you just get to see the rejects.

It has been my weeklong goal to get her to smile at the camera - but no such luck, she just stares!  If Eli is with me she'll smile at the one not holding the camera, so that will have to do.  I did get her laughing hysterically again, it was soo cute.  And, lucky me, I had my camera within reach so I was able to turn it on without her getting distracted and tape her from the side, so you can't see her the whole time but you can hear her.  Once again I cannot get this to upload.  I'll still try though and maybe add it on.

Oh and it has been confirmed that her hair is still sticking up.  Eli gave her a bath the other night and did not do the oil part, and the next day her hair was sticking straight up (and it was all dry and flaky too).  So it looks like she hasn't outgrown it. (this isn't necessarily a picture of that, but I just thought I'd give the hair update since I'm sure you're all so concerned) 

 I don't think it could get much cuter than this

 wait yes it can.

 the best part of this week?  Eva finally has good aim and can suck her thumb!  She is doing it consistently, which means she is great at soothing herself now!  She goes down for naps like a champ and she went down at 9 and almost slept through the night on Wednesday night woohoo!  And Eli makes fun of me, because I say she woke up once in the night...but it was at 7:00am.  But in my world, if she goes right back down and hardly even opens her eyes to eat then she hasn't woken up yet (or if it's before 7am and she's wide awake after a feeding then I'll hold her so she won't cry but refuse to acknowledge her or play with her so she'll go back down pretty quickly - I'm doing everything possible to avoid having one of those kids that wakes up at 5am...until she's 3 and can watch herself until I wake up :)  haha, just kidding...I think. 

Back to the thumb - it is so adorable.  In the middle of the night sometimes you just hear these loud sucking sounds, too cute!

oh and the bassinet has about 2 extra inches at her head and 2 at her feet.  Looks like we need a new house soon so we can get her into a larger crib (we don't have room in this house for a shadow, let alone a crib)!  But maybe she's like a goldfish and will only grow as large as the pond (or bed) will allow.  If not, the pack 'n play will work until the new house/crib.

More big news of the week: Eva had her first real-life babysitter on Thursday for about 5 hours!  Eli and I had his company Christmas party to go to, so my friend Kelsey (a friend from highschool) lives out here and she watched Eva for us.  I was a little hesitant because I fired Kelsey without pay (I had bribed her with 50 cents initially) last time she was in charge of Eva because she talked on the phone the WHOLE ENTIRE time that she was watching her.  Poor Eva was practically (attention) starved to death.  Kesley assured me though that if I left Eva with her for longer than last time (which was about 2 minutes in the car while I ran into Walgreens) that she would do a better job and she wouldn't talk on the phone the whole time.  So I gave her a second chance and it all worked out.  She said Eva hardly ate anything (bottle refuser) but she was happy anyway and did a good job being away from Mommy and Daddy!

So, on Friday night I had a cookie exchange party to go to.  I didn't want to have Eva's nighttime sleep disrupted twice in row (with being out and falling asleep then woken up to get in her carseat, then woken up to get in her bed) so I left her with Eli.  He had all of the boyfriends, fiances, and husbands from my cookie exchange friends over at our house.  So it was Eva and the boys last night.  Once again she refused the bottle and went to bed hungry, but then she woke up soon after (I guess cried a bunch) and then finally took over 2 ounces from the bottle woohoo!  So that was very exciting.