Evangeline at 9 months

Evangeline Elizabeth at 9 months

Eva is a happy little girl, proud of her new-found ability to move where she wants to go.  Eva pulls herself to stand and cruises around the room, holding onto furniture.  She isn't afraid of falling!  Eva also has learned how to climb the stairs.  Her favorite game is to crawl to the bottom stair and giggle while we come to pick her up and move her away. Time for a baby gate!  She has actually made it up all of the stairs with David or me behind her.

Eva loooves food.  She relishes every food we have placed in front of her, though she especially enjoys feeding herself.  After her meals, she is absolutely covered with a sticky layer of whatever she has eaten.  Bibs are useless. She is an interactive eater.

Eva thinks her brother is the funniest little guy around, and the two of them have been spotted several times lying on the floor, giggling.  On trips in the car, Elijah often entertains himself by "making Eva laugh!"

She is a water baby! She loves kicking her legs in the kiddie pool or the bathtub.  Kicking her legs is kind of her trademark  "happy move." She flaps her arms and kicks her legs when she hears music, too.

Eva makes the sounds "ma-ma-ma" and "da-da-da" though we're not convinced they are attached in meaning to us.

We're sure she'll be walking by next month, and probably saying "Mama" and "Dada."  We love watching her excitement at accomplishing new things.  She is clearly so proud of being able to crawl to us.  Sometimes she just stops where she is and claps her hands!

Elijah and the Lego Rocket

We got a little rocket lego set that I put together with Eli. He absolutely loved the experience of building and playing with the rocket.

breakthrough!!

Breakthrough!!

Eva stayed in the church nursery for the entire hour of my Bible Study today!

Though she cried, she crawled around and distracted herself til the end, only screaming her little head off for the last 5 minutes.

Still... 

If you know our little lady, you know what a big deal this is!

Chemical Reactions or "Fizzy Rainbow Sand"

It was time to do a science experiment with my little man.  A little vinegar and baking soda seemed to fit the afternoon's bill.  I explained this was called a "chemical reaction" to Elijah, and he got very excited. 
"Just like rocket ships!" He observed.  "An action and a reaction makes rocket ships LAUNCH INTO SPACE!"
Wow.

I will note here that my son is 3 and I can no longer answer his questions about space to his full satisfaction.  Thankfully, I refer him to his father, the rocket scientist.
Thanks to David's cousin, we learned about making just such an experiment.  She called it "Fizzy Rainbow Sand," but Elijah called it "Making celebrations!!"

The instructions are simple.  Just add a little food coloring to vinegar, and drop it by eye-dropper into a plate of baking soda.  A delightful, colorful fizzing is the result.  I kid you not, my "on-the-go" Elijah was content to do this for nearly 2 hours.  We ran out of baking soda and had to make a quick grocery store run to get more so he could keep at it.  He kept telling me that "Daddy's gonna love this when he comes home!". Eva sat in her high chair looking on with delight.  We'll wait until she stops putting EVERYTHING in her mouth before we let her participate.

Each time Elijah would drop the vinegar on the baking soda he would shout, "Look, a celebration!  I'm making a celebration!!". It was adorable.  And science is fun.

Back at the sand park

Eli woke up this morning and first words out of his mouth were, "Can we go to the sand park?!" We've been here since 7 am. He had a blast on his vacation, but this boy needs his Digging and Dumping time.

Eva learned to clap! She applauds us all the time. It is so very cute!!

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sent from my mobile phone

On the Road Part II: Voss Family Fourth of July

Continuing on our journey to the Midwest, we now have been:
1. Nashville for the High Altitude Balloon Conference
2. Illinois for the Voss Family Fourth of July reunion

We had a great time reconnecting with the 70+ people gathered at the farm.  It was HOT! We finally realize "dry heat" now that we are reminded of 103 degree heat with high humidity!  Wow. Hot.

Elijah the Extrovert absolutely adored spending so much time with his cousins.  "I really, really, really like my cousins," he told us one night.  He barely slept he was so excited.

This was the first time the family met little Evangeline.  She was a little sweetie smiling at everyone, with careful grasp on her Mommy.  She did let her great-grandma hold her for a little bit, thankfully!

We'll have a much more complete post when we go through the thousands of pictures we took this weekend... Highlights include:
1.  First ever Family Fun Run 5km... David ran with his camera slung around his neck snapping action shots, and I pushed Eva and Eli in the double jogging stroller.  So much fun!
2. Ever a favorite slip and slide, fire truck ride, cook out...
3. Rockets with David and his Dad...
4. Gourmet smores (Eli is a big fan...)
5. Fishing (Eli has been looking forward to doing this for literally months.)

The best... being with family!
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sent from my mobile phone