Taking a stand

First of all Evy and I went on our first road trip last week. My sister Sandy came into town from Texas and she took my mom, our other three sisters, myself, and Evy on a day trip to Moab. Yes we drove four hours each way to spend a few hours visiting with friends and family there. Overall Evy did well and it made me hopeful that she will be ready for a family vacation next summer. Evy was somewhat unimpressed with the natural beauty Moab has to offer, but she did have a great time hearing how cute she is. Also, she loved Berdine's famous pinto beans. Yummy!


Evy sits on the trail up the the King and Queen thrones.
A great place from my childhood.


The view of Moab from our resting place on the trail.



Evy sits in her great-grandpa Day's wheel barrel.

Evy also has exciting news to share. She now has enough hair to fashion into a do. See the pic below.


Really this bow is clipped to hair.

Lastly, Evelyn has taken a stand against the need to crawl. Let me update you to the fact that Evy can crawl. She will go hand-knee, hand-knee accross the floor. But there are just four things that motivate her to do this. Dog ears, dog toys, cat's tail, and the remote. Unless you dangle one of these things in front of her she will not crawl. What she does do is skooch backwards until she can prop herself into a downward-dog, or stink bug position. Hands planted in front, legs straight, butt in the air. She has done this ever since she played with Shayla and saw her do it to stand and walk away. Evy really wants to walk. So much so this is how we found her on Sunday after her nap.


"See Shayla, I can do it too!"

Lightning in a bottle

Let me start by saying that having a mobile baby keeps you busy. I turn my back and she is rolling in the garbage and chewing on shoes. I am not even going to mention the dog toys. Yuck! But this is not what has stopped me from posting. I have not posted because I need to amend the last one, and I have not wanted to do so.

Evelyn has caught lightning in a bottle several times in her short life. She will do something once, or for a short time and then not do it again. In fact sometimes she really struggles to repeat the action. For example, when she was in the NICU she could mimic the facial expression for and say the sound oooooo.



Yet soon after she started, she stopped and to this day she has not said it again. In fact, she only sings the EIEI part of EIEIO.

And so it is no big surprised that Evelyn has not crawled again. Not a surprised, but a bit of a disappointment. Of course not crawling has not stopped from getting around. She rolls, turns, and stretches herself into lots of trouble. In fact right now she has found a dog toy and is waving it around trying to catch the dogs attention. Oh yeah I was not going to mention the dog toys. Sorry.

Her not crawling is not for lack of trying. She has all the movements but not the coordination. It is as if she is on a sheet of ice. Her attempts always end with her crashing and bumping her head. Because of this I have put away all her hard toys until she gets stable on her knees. I just don't know what else to do. I have tried everything I can think of to help and I have done everything her developmental specialist has suggested. I just want to do it for her, but of course I can't. The only thing I can do is try not to worry and believe that someday soon she will crawl. I have to remember that in order for her to coordinate all the movements needed to crawl she has to make new neural pathways in her damaged cerebellum. But she is feisty, and she keeps getting up on her knees and reaching out for what she wants. That is my Evy!

Stay tuned the next crawl alert will be coming soon.