Eva and Some New Firsts

Eva and I have had a busy, but very fun week.  On Tuesday, we met up with Melinda and Aiden to take a walk through the Zoo.  It had been a while since we got together, so we were excited to catch up and see how much our little babies have grown.  It was so much fun to see Aiden and Eva together.  They loved watching each other, smiling and giggling along side each other as we pushed their stroller.  They are also old enough now that they were becoming quite fascinated with the animals.  Here we are with the giraffes...

On Thursday and Friday, we met up with Heather, Rowan, Kierce, and Merrick for some fun in the sand.  Eva hasn't seen sand in a while, so Rowan showed her all the fun things she could do with it.  They climbed a big sand hill...

And when they reached the top, they threw sand all over.  Eva LOVED it.

Heather also snapped a pic of Eva taking a ride on Rowan's skateboard while eating popcorn (my little multi-tasker)...

After the beach, we took Rowan for the night so she could redeem her birthday sleep over.  We made dinner together, entertained Eva, then tucked in for an early night.  We went to the park the next morning where Rowan helped Eva climb to the top and go down the twisty slide together...

But, that just wasn't enough of a challenge for Miss Eva.  We also taught her how to climb the steps to the mini-playset, turn her butt around, and then go down the slide by herself.  It only took about 3 attempts before she was doing it all herself.  I managed to get it on video, but no pictures of it :(  You just have to believe that my smart little girl figured it all out herself.  Rowan and I were very proud.

But, that just wasn't enough for Eva.  She surprised us with a few more firsts over the weekend.  On Sunday, she started calling Daddy just that, "Daddy".  She knows exactly who he is and as soon as she gets a look of him, she immediately, happily and proudly, says "Daddy!"  She has made the noises before, but now it is so obvious that she says it only to Dana.  It is so cute.  You can see how much she just loves him and loves to call for him :)

And, just hours after that, as Daddy was in the shower, Eva and I were playing in the living room.  As she was standing next to the couch, I called for her and rather than crawling to me, she decided it was time to just walk on over.  She took about 10 steps.  I couldn't believe it and thought maybe it was a fluke, but she, too, was excited about the new moves and got up and kept doing it over and over and over.  Our little girl is going to be taking over our house really soon.  Yikes!