A Few of Her Favorite Things

Now that Evie is almost 15 months, her preferences and personality are getting more set in stone. This is going to be a page in her baby book, but I wanted to make sure that these facts were, in fact, factual before printing them up. However, these have been some of her favorite things since before her birthday, so I figure it's safe for me to publish them now.

• Favorite Animal: Lion
• Favorite Colors: Orange & Yellow
• Favorite Toy: Giraffe
• Favorite Food: Clementine Oranges
• Favorite Movie: "The Lion King"
• Favorite Book: Love You Forever
• Favorite Song: "You Are My Sunshine"

She also still loves it when I sing "I've Been Working on the Railroad." When she was born, I started singing a simple little song I'd made up for her. It's only 2 notes repeated over and over and the words just go, "E-vie. Ba-by. Evie, Evie, baby girl." It isn't much, but she loves it when I sing it to her. It calms her down, and she's started trying to sing along. Her version sounds a lot like, "Bee-bee, bee-bee, bee-bee-bee-bee-bee-beeeeee." Oh, but I love to hear that little voice chirping all day. Evie definitely loves to sing and to dance. She dances along to everything. Even the washing machine! Once the water stops filling up and the motor starts churning the clothes, she stops whatever she's doing and cocks her head to one side. Then she gets a huge grin on her face and starts rocking side to side in time to the rhythmic churning. About a week ago, I picked her up and sat her on top of the washer so she could feel the rhythm as well as hear it. She thought that was so cool!
She also really enjoys turning lights on and off. She found the light switches, and once she figured out how they work, she loves being the one to turn them on and off for us. Sometimes, when her Daddy is holding her, she'll point to the light switch and ask him to take her over so she can turn it off. Then she'll point to the light switch 5 feet away and ask him to take her over to that one so she can turn the light back on. They'll walk back and forth for a couple of minutes, playing with the lights. It's hard to concentrate on anything else when you're in that room, but it's fun to see the glee on her face.
Evie has discovered that she likes being a "big girl." I cannot count the number of times I've caught her trying to put on her Daddy's shoes, my flip flops, or my fuzzy slippers. She concentrates so hard on getting her little feet into these big shoes, and then she tries to stand up and walk in them. More often than not, she falls down again, but she still looks so proud of herself when she sees me watching her. She's also discovered my sunglasses. I don't wear contacts anymore, so I can't really wear my sunglasses either, and they've been packed away for a while. When I unpacked that box, she found my biggest, roundest pair, and tried so hard to perch them on her little nose. I don't know if she's trying to wear glasses like Mommy and Daddy, or if she was just curious, but she loves them! She'll shove them onto her face and try to keep them there. When they fall off, she'll bring them over to me so I can put them on her properly. They're huge on her little head and don't stay on her ears very well, but she likes them. She knows she's a cutie!
She likes being "oh, so pretty!" She loves to brush her own hair, and she'll sometimes even come over and try brushing mine. When I put her hair in ponytails and bows, she tries to sit still and wait until I'm done, and then she softly touches her hair and smiles. Then she goes over to her Daddy for some admiration. Todd is her go-to man for praise. When she puts her Rock-a-Stack donuts on her arms like bracelets, she likes going and showing her Daddy so he can tell her how pretty she is. Earlier this spring, she loved going and picking the bright yellow dandelions in our front yard. She'd twirl them around and show us the pretty flowers she'd found. I tucked a couple behind her ear one day, and she was thrilled! She had to show her Daddy her new ornaments. Todd is very good about giving her the praise she asks for, but he's also wary of putting too much emphasis on her looks. She gets really absorbed in watching what I'm doing when I put on my makeup or paint my nails, but he's asked that I not paint her nails for a couple more years. He wants her to know that there's more to her than being cute. Hair bows are fine for right now, but nail polish is more permanent and more responsibility, and he feels that she needs to be a little older before wearing it. Even more permanent than that is pierced ears, and we both agree that we're not going to pierce our daughters' ears until they're old enough to take care of them themselves. We're still hammering out whether they can have pierced ears when they're 10 or 12, but we still have a few more years before we have to come to a final decision.
Evie is, however, as interested in her personal hygiene as a one-year-old girl can be. She likes to brush her teeth while I brush mine, although her methods seem to have more to do with chewing on her toothbrush and sucking off the toothpaste than with actually getting her teeth clean. She is getting better, though, and often tries to imitate my movements. She also loves taking baths, although she's not a fan of getting her face wet. Really, her baths just give her an excuse to play with her duckies. She still gets so excited every time she sees them; she points and squeals "Duggies!" She also gets excited about "Doggies," and the two sound virtually identical. I usually have to see what she's pointing at so I can distinguish between the two.
She loves playing with her balls too. Every time she sees one, her eyes get big, she points at it, and exclaims "Baa!" There have been many times when I suddenly hear "Baa!" and look up in time to see a golf ball rolling past followed soon after by my daughter. Then, coming from the other direction, I hear "Baa!" and look up to see a baseball rolling by followed quickly by Evie. Finally, I hear the most excited "Baa!" yet, and look up to see her big bouncy ball roll past with Evie hot on its tail. When she catches it, she brings it over to me and says "Baa? Baa!" and then she throws it across the room and chases after it. Along the way, she runs into the golf ball or baseball, and the game starts all over again. I've joked multiple times that she reminds me of Luxo Jr. from the Pixar short:

Probably her favorite balls of all are the celestial bodies. Evie loves playing outside in the sunshine. She's perfectly content to just sit out on the grass, reflecting the sun back to us and rivaling it for warmth and light. In fact, she loves it! And if she sees a picture of the moon in any of her books, she excitedly points it out to us. Every time. And every time we go outside at night time, she looks for the moon and gets so happy when she finds it. It doesn't matter if it's full or crescent; she'll spend whole car rides ooh-ing and ah-hing at the moon.
Once we're home, though, she snuggles to sleep under her fuzzy blanky, cuddling her stuffed giraffe. Her favorite game of all is peek-a-boo with her fuzzy blanky. She'll pull it over her head and wait for us to say "Oh no! Where's Evie? I've lost her! Oh, Evie! Where are you? Come back, baby girl!" Then she'll pull the blanky off of her grinning face, so pleased that she fooled us, and then start it all over again. This game can go on for as long as we're willing to play with her. Sometimes, we hide under blankets of our own and wait for her to "find" us. Other times, I change the rules by saying, "Oh no! I've lost Evie. I'm so sad! All I can find is this fuzzy bundle! I guess the only thing I can do to cheer myself up is to tickle it until Evie comes back!" Then I grab her and tickle her ribs and thighs through the blanky while she just giggles and giggles. Then she finally pulls the blanket off her face and I say, "Oh, Evie! I'm so sorry; I didn't know that I was tickling you. I thought you were gone; I'm so glad you're back!" Then she pulls the blanket back over her face, and we start over again. Really, this game can be played with any blanket, not just hers. She feels no compunctions about stealing other people's fuzzy blankies, and sometimes she'll grab all of them that she can find and burrow herself into the huge pile. She gets such joy out of being covered in soft blankets that, even when she pulls our blanket off of our laps when we're watching TV in the living room, it's hard to be irritated that we're cold. The only blanket that she's not thrilled about "sharing" is hers; it's definitely an Evie-only blanky. And she doesn't like going to bed without it. As long as she has her fuzzy blanky to snuggle and her stuffed giraffe to cuddle, she'll usually go to sleep with a minimum of struggle, ready to wake up in the morning for another day full of her favorite things!