It's been a good 6 weeks since our last update, but I suppose that's because there hasn't been a whole heckuva lot of news to share.
Eva is very slowly adding words to her repertoire. The problem we're having is getting her to actually use the words and respond to ours. You know...the same problem we've been having since day one. I guess the silver lining is that now, when she actually does decide to talk, we can actually understand a little bit of it.
We usually lay her down at night with a sippy cup of juice, and about an hour after laying her down we go in to retrieve the sippy cup and check on her. Last week, when we went to get the sippy cup we found her asleep on her bed, stark naked! On the floor we found her pajamas, a diaper (a pull-up) with a small pile of poop in it, and about 50 wipes. Apparently she was uncomfortable with the dirty diaper so she took it off and attempted to wipe herself. We took this as a sure sign that it just may be time to potty train her!
Earlier tonight when I went in to check on her and get the sippy cup she was awake on her back unzipping her pajamas. The strong smell of poop overwhelmed me, so I obviously had to change her diaper. I asked her, "Did you poo poo?" and she responded with, "Poo poo." Followed with, "diaper." I guess the next step for her would be to volunteer that info rather than waiting for us to ask her. Next week, when Christmas break starts and we're all at home we're going to work hard to potty train her and hope for the best.
On a different note Eva and Mollie are starting to interact more....in the form of fighting! It's actually pretty funny. Eva will have a toy that Mollie wants to play with, so Mollie will walk over to Eva and hold our her hand asking for the toy (she seldom snatches the toy away). Eva then willingly gives her the toy, but then breaks down crying saying, "No! No! No! Mine!"Of course Eva is strong enough to simply take it back, but I don't think she realizes it.
Eva is also finally recognizing that she has her own Elf on a Shelf...now that it's her third Christmas with him. We decided to call him Leroy...not sure where that name came from! Because Eva can't comprehend the story and that she's not supposed to touch Leroy we have to be sure to keep him out of reach during the day. He's usually hanging from a light fixture, sitting on a shelf, or something similar. She won't initiate the hunt for Leroy, and if we don't bring it up she'll go the entire day or days not giving him a second thought. However, the instant we ask, "Hey Eva. Where's Leroy?" she will start saying "Leeeeeeeeerrroyyyyy" (she tends to really draw out her words!) and walk around the house looking up until she finds him. She then stands looking at him for several seconds saying, "Leeerroyy! Leroy!"
She's also recognizing Santa Clause, but it still a little hesitant to go up to him. Trace Crossings had a Santa visit the preschool program for pictures last week. Eva wouldn't sit in his lap, but she at least stood next to him. We're still waiting for the pictures, but as soon as they get here we'll post them.
We'll try to remember to update a little more frequently!
