Guess who got Glasses?

After several days of excessive blinking, I took Eva to the eye doctor and low and behold she needed glasses. To prepare her for that possibility, I said, "if you have to have glasses, you'll be like Lila (a friend at school) and (cousins) Sarah and Susannah." To that she said, "I'll be like you, Mom." And so she is. Before we went to get the glasses yesterday afternoon, she said she wanted "rainbow" frames. I was thinking that would at least be better than Spiderman frames. Alas, my fears were allayed; Lenscrafters did not have either rainbow or superhero frames. She did try on nearly every children's frame, however.

Once the glasses were ready, she spent quite a bit of time peering through the glasses and then lifting them up to compare the blurry world to the clear world. Ahhhh. She's done a great job with wearing them so far. And today she even said, "sometimes I forget I even have them on." She really likes to use the spray cleanser and special cloth. I know most of us are looking for good investments these days -- I'd recommend Lenscrafters stock just for the cloths and spray we will be purchasing, not to mention the inevitable replacement glasses (actually, I bought two pairs already!).

Recent Quote

Sunday at lunch with our friends the Lees, we were talking about all the fun their daughter, Virginia, has had at Camp Widjiwagan (where Eva will go a few weeks this summer). Virginia mentioned how fun the banana boats are, and I asked if they were like jet skis, as I had ridden a jet ski before but not a banana boat. Eva then said with great awe and excitement – “Mama, you’ve ridden on a jet ski”?!?! and then after a slight pause, “what’s a jet ski, Mama”? :)

Report Card

Eva received her second report card today, and here’s what Mrs. Flynn had to say: “It is so exciting to see how far Eva has come. Her letter/sound and sight word knowledge are both excellent. . . . She is doing wonderfully! Keep working hard and challenging her at home! Great work, Eva!” I couldn’t be prouder.

Christmas Fun

Wow – what a Christmas. Eva started her school break with great disappointment that she didn’t have school and quickly learned that winter/Christmas break is a lot of fun. She went to a gymnastics camp for two days and had a great time. Then, it was time to jump full-force into holiday fun. On Christmas Eve, we welcomed Aunt Jan and Uncle Tom and then had friends, Andrew, Doug and Eva Maria join us for dinner. Eva Grace was most intrigued by the huge bags Eva Maria arrived with, and sure enough they were for Eva Grace. Eva Maria had saved her cabbage patch dolls (and accessories) from her childhood and passed them along to “Little Eva.” Eva Maria was Little Eva’s best friend that evening and chose to have Eva Maria get her ready for bed and read to her!

Christmas morning could not come too early for the little missy, and her mom and great aunt and uncle managed on a little less sleep than ideal to humor her with a 6:00am start to the day! Before I go any further, I should mention that a few days before Christmas, Eva and I were at PetSmart to get live crickets for Lou the Gecko (class pet we hosted for the 1^st week of break), and who should be there having photos made with pets but Santa. He welcomed a human child and Eva shared that she would like a pony and a hamster for Christmas. Well, Santa came through – not quite the way Eva hoped (i.e., not live), but still she got ponies (and a barn and horse trailer to boot) and a hamster (a battery operated hamster in a clear ball). She was delighted with everything she got, and spent considerable time on Christmas (and since) playing with the horse barn and accoutrements.

We were delighted to have my friend, Sarah, and her friend Emma, who is a Chinese graduate student at Vanderbilt, join us for lunch on Christmas Day. Eva was able to greet Emma in Chinese, which tickled Emma to no end.

And the day after Christmas we left for Ohio to spend 2 days in Columbus with my cousin and family and 2 days in Lancaster with the whole Whalen clan. Lots of fun. A Columbus highlight was seeing the Christmas lights at the Columbus Zoo, particularly considering the weather was downright balmy (60+) the evening we went. That’s where I got the picture of Eva on the giant W; so glad they had “our” letter as part of a display! The lights were beautiful and Eva enjoyed seeing the animals we could see and the aquarium. We watched the manatees “dance” for some time.

It would be hard to pick just one highlight from our time in Lancaster, but if I had to it would be the white elephant. For the 2^nd year running, the hit of the exchange was a rubber band ball that I brought; little did I know last year what delight that silly thing would bring and that I would know what to bring for years to come. Of course, we enjoyed playing games, putting together puzzles including one made from a photo of our family from Whalen Family Week last summer, and swimming at the hotel pool.

We hope you and yours had a lovely holiday. Eva and I greatly enjoyed receiving Christmas cards and all the photo cards are up in our kitchen and may be for some months to come; they really brighten our days. So, thank you to all who were in touch. We love staying connected in that way. And Happy New Year!

My little peppermint

Shortly before Christmas, Eva's dance school put on a production of the
Nutcracker that was absolutely adorable. Eva was a peppermint! For
those of you who have seen a more professional production of the
Nutcracker, you might be wondering where the peppermints come in; well,
it appears their school took a little creative license and added a candy
or two to make sure everyone in the school who wanted to be in the
production could be.

The photos above are from the dress rehearsal and were the best shot I
had at getting any photos of her at all. The night of the show, the
dancers were sequestered in their dressing room and not costumed until
immediately before their part of the performance. Eva loved everything
about it and was not a bit nervous. When you are next in Nashville (or
for those who are local stop on by), we will share the DVD of the
performance, which we just received on Tuesday and have watched numerous
times already. She knew the routine well, and she had pretty good form,
but most importantly you will see Eva's great joy, enthusiasm and
delight in performing. She's itching to be a gumdrop next year!