Evelyn's Uncle Ed

Over the last year Evelyn has developed a deeper bond with her Uncle Ed and it warms my heart.

My older brother Ed, who has been involved with the Army since 1986, was recently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. While this is great, it also means that Ed has spent many months away from Evelyn over the short 3.5 years of her life. This last year has been very different for Ed and Evelyn than the previous years, since they have been able to spend much more time together. Although Ed was stationed in Kansas City for the last year, he was able to return home about once a month for long weekends. Before he left, and after he returned from Kansas, he spent a month or more with Evelyn.

Over the months Uncle Ed has taken Evelyn and his two daughters to the movies, to the store, to eat, they went putt putt golfing, and to a water park. Uncle Ed also knows how much Evelyn loves those singing cards, so guess what? Uncle Ed sent Evelyn a singing card the other week which totally rocked her world. Evelyn was in the bath tub, taking her sweet time and getting all prune-like, so I decided to use the card as a way to get her out. I held up the envelope, she could read her name on it and I told her it was from Uncle Ed. She immediately stated, "I'm done, I want out". She opened the card and laughed and laughed at the Yo-Yo and Hoops characters singing "happy sunny day happy sunny day".

Recently Uncle Ed has started calling Evelyn "Mowgli", from The Jungle Book. Uncle Ed thinks Evelyn's skinny legs, coupled with the fact she often just wears her underwear about the house, makes her look like Mowgli.

Now has come the time for Uncle Ed and Evelyn to part for longer than she has been away from him in a long time. Uncle Ed is leaving in a few days to return to his base and from there he will leave for Kuwait. I really haven't done anything to prepare Evelyn for his long departure. Maybe this is because I don't know how. Maybe it is because I don't want to, since it will make it more real to me as well as to Evelyn. Evelyn said goodbye to Uncle Ed tonight. Somehow I know she will ask me in a few days when Uncle Ed is coming back and by that time I need to figure out what I am going to say.

Maybe this is what I will say, "Evelyn, your Uncle Ed has to be away for awhile, but he loves you very much and is going to miss you very much. Uncle Ed will come visit you again as soon as he can." Evelyn is going to miss her Uncle Ed. Uncle Ed is going to miss his Mowgli.




The real Mowgli and then Evelyn as Mowgli



Uncle Ed gave this MagnaDoodle to Evelyn for Christmas. My brother thought it would be cute to draw a picture of the two of us. While laughing his head off, Ed stated something to the effect of "Linda your the square and I'm the star!"




Just some pictures of Uncle Ed at Christmas and sledding.


Soon I will add a picture of just Evelyn and her Uncle Ed.

Evelyn, camping with our friends, and rain

Evelyn went on another camping trip, this past weekend August 23rd. Evelyn went on another camping trip with her mom and dad. Evelyn went on a camping trip with her friends; our friends. As we were preparing for the camping trip I was talking with Evelyn about who would be on the trip with us. I said that her friends Gracie, Nolan, Brynn, Kyle, and so on would be there. I went on to say that my friends Carrie, Holly, etc...would also be there. Evelyn stated back to me...Carrie is my friend too. So we made the correction immediately and made sure when we spoke of the weekend we said "our friends" not "her or my friends". Cute!

We just went to the State Park a mile from our home! We decided to have a trip close to home in order to make it easier on all the families involved as well as to save gas money. When we booked the camp sites we didn't realize a third reason would come into play in regards to why we picked a spot so close to our houses. The RAIN!

Friday was a hot and humid day, somewhere in the 90's. Families arrived, three families in campers (two pop-ups and one motor home) and two families were in large tents. Friday night was filled with kids running all around, enjoying each others company, talking about S'mores and going to the beach the next day. Saturday morning proved to be the same hot and humid weather as Friday, so we headed to the beach for some relief. Once on the beach we were hit with large winds blowing off the lake, making for a more pleasant temperature, but the occasional blowing sand was not so nice. After about a half hour on the beach, Evelyn climbed into my lap, covering herself with her beach towel to block the wind and sand. She proceeded to fall asleep! Evelyn slept on the beach for over 1 hour, possibly 1.5 hours! I must say, Evelyn has fallen asleep on my lap a few other times while on the beach and it is one of my most favorite moments with her. It feels so great to have my baby on my lap, sleeping, cuddling, and enjoying some rest together. The favorite time I remember happened a year ago on the beach of Lake Michigan, where the weather...the sun...the gentle breeze...were all in perfect harmony. It was a total pleasure to have my child sleeping on my lap! Well, I digress...let me get back to camping this past weekend.

Saturday around dinner time, the weather was still hot and humid, yet within an hour or so of eating, we realized the weather would be changing soon. A cold front came in, bringing hours and hours of drenching rain! When the rain hit, Evelyn and I went into the motor home with all the other kids, where they watched a movie on the little TV set and ate snacks. When the rain hit, Andy was in our camper, a few spots down. His plan was to wait for the rain to lighten and then he would join us. Well the rain lasted and lasted and lasted. The rain was heavy and heavy and heavy. One tent family assessed their situation and decided the pooling water underneath their tent was not a livable situation for the night, so they bailed and went home. The other tent family felt their tent might make it, but as time went on and the rain did not cease they decided to call it a night at their house too. The other pop-up tent camper family had a camper that was holding up, but still decided to call it a night at their house due to the fact they had 4 kids couped up in a camper for hours and all were cranky and not asleep! Andy ended up driving our truck over the two camping spots to pick Evelyn and I up, to take us back to our camper. The rain had pooled all over the place, making the chance of even a semi-dry walk back by foot out of the question. Our pop-up camper kept us dry for the night, but it wasn't the fun night we wanted. The next day, the three families who escaped the night before returned to pick up camp and be out by the deadline. We spent the entire morning drying things out, cleaning things up, and packing things up. (I heard on the radio that the amount of rainfall we had that night was the same amount that had fallen in the previous whole month).

Even though the rain was more than we would have liked, Evelyn camping with our friends was wonderful and worth it.

Family weekend in the woods

Hello again.

Well the Wright family spend the weekend of August 16th in the Manistee National Forest. We went camping! (Go figure!) We left by around 11am that Friday and returned in the late afternoon on Sunday. It was a nice family weekend; just the three of us. Evelyn was, of course, a pleasure and she enjoyed herself very much. Even though the lake water was chilly, Evelyn still splashed around in it. Most of all she played in the beach sand. Sometimes the playing consisted of rolling around repeatedly in the sand, covering every inch of her body! At one point Andy had her buried in the sand. On our second day at the beach, around the lunch hour, Evelyn and I were sitting on the sand together, just a foot apart or so. Andy was in the water, right in front of us. The waves had created a sort of sand ledge that easily fell away the moment someone touched it with a foot or hand. Well, Evelyn was making a habit of sitting right on the sand ledges, allowing herself to "fall" the few inches. Right after a "new fall", Evelyn moved on to a new spot and what can you imagine would appear out of the sand? A HUGE sand spider! Evelyn freaked out. At first she just pointed to the sand and made a little squeal/grunt. When I looked at what she was pointing to and when I realized how HUGE of a spider it was...I freaked out too! I pulled her to me and we scrambled down the beach! If there is anything I have passed on to Evelyn, it would be a fear of spiders! Andy came to our rescue and buried the spider with more sand. We moved to a new spot on the beach, yet this incident spelled out the end to Evelyn's desire to be on the beach. She was skeptical of any movement on the sand, immediately suspecting and expecting it to be a spider moving. Evelyn asked to go back to the camp, so we did.

We didn't let the spider ruin our trip. The whole family had a wonderful time in the woods. So great, we are going back for more soon!

A weekend without Evelyn

Recently I spent a weekend without Evelyn. It felt good, but strange. My girlfriends and I (a total of 9 ladies) went away for the weekend to our friend's family cabin on a lake. It was a good time overall, with lots of catching up and talking about our kids. The weather could have been nicer. We suffered a few rainy episodes, but that did not dampen our mood to hang-out with good company and be "kid-free" for a short while. Andy stayed home with Evelyn and he took her shopping, twice! While I was away, Andy and Evelyn were nice enough to think of me while shopping and I came home from the weekend to a nice new pair of pajamas.

It was a weekend without Evelyn, physically, but mentally...Evelyn was on my mind!

Cousin Owen

Evelyn and her Cousin Owen (18 months) had a wonderful time together over this past weekend. Andy and his brother Dan (father to Owen) were out of town for a guy's camping trip. This left Evelyn and I with a weekend to fill of mother and daughter time, which I was very much looking forward to. I was hoping that my sister-in-law Cat (mother to Owen), would be able to join us for a play date. It turns out that Cat had offered to cover a co-worker's shift for the weekend. Great for the co-worker to have someone as wonderful as Cat to help her out, but terrible for me! Ha ha! It turns out that Andy's parents (grandparents to Owen) were going to be watching Owen for the weekend. So the wheels in my brain started moving and I came up with the idea to borrow Owen from them for a little while over the weekend. My plan worked!!

A group of my girlfriends were putting together a play date at a local park last Saturday, since their husbands were out of town too. I asked Cat's permission to take Owen with us to the park. Cat said yes! I then asked Evelyn's permission, who as an only child might have issues with sharing her mother with a younger, more dependent child. Evelyn gave a resounding YES and gave multiple suggestions relating to the things we could do with Owen while at the park!

So Saturday morning around 9:15am I picked up Owen from my in-laws house. Although Owen knows me from family events, I had never taken him anywhere or babysat him, so I was thinking he might be shy with me. No way! Owen took to me with no problem. He waved goodbye to Grandma and off we were. At the park I placed Owen in a baby swing - which he absolutely loved. I took him out of it to place sunscreen on him and he whined to be placed back in the swing. So far he was enjoying his day. Evelyn was in the swing right next to him.

After the playground we went to the SplashPad/park. Owen was a hoot here. He was running through all the sprinkles laughing. Evelyn liked it too, but to a lesser degree (sprinkles were a little too cold for her). We ate lunch together, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (a meal I slaved over before leaving for the park)! Owen and Evelyn were great little eaters. After their nourishment, we went on to the beach. Evelyn loved playing in the water with all the other kids, which left me with some great one on one time with Owen on the beach. Owen grew tired and laid his head on my shoulder, falling asleep within minutes. From there we created a swim towel canopy and laid Owen down for a nap on the beach (another small child - Da'Neese's youngest- was sleeping in his stroller). Owen napped for about an hour and then we had to get going. By this time, we had been at the park for 4 hours!

On the way to take Owen back to my in-laws, Evelyn kept asking me if I would go to work and leave her at Grandma's so she could play with Owen. It was Saturday! I wasn't going to work! We compromised and said we would stay at Grandma's for a little while, together, to play with Owen more. We stayed for awhile, but I was REALLY tired so we went home after an hour or so (Evelyn wasn't too happy about that)!

It was a wonderful time and it gave me a glimpse of what it would be like with another child. Hard (but... Evelyn and I love Cousin Owen)!!