2 nights ago when we were watching a (rather gross) video on youtube.com of a chicken laying an egg close-up, Evangelina started calling out, 'Eat-eat! Eat-eat!' She recognized her food even as it came out of its 'mommy'!

the 3 recognized drinks of evangelina: 'nene' (milk), 'tete' (water), & most recently 'bucha' (our family drink kombucha, especially with a recent prolonged sale on them at vons).

this morning evangelina built a tower of 4 small blocks on the carpet (!) & later also said, 'I wanna play' for the first time ever (with the words together).

eangelina's first experience with Santa (tonight) was a flop! tearful, she didn't even want to look at him much, &when told to thank him for his present, she said quickly, 'Thank-you-no-no-no!' from my arms!

Eva's singing & talking (mostly Evangelese) spontaneously so much these days! It's so funny because all she utters has the prosody & rhythm of mature speech that you can tell she's really telling you (or singing) something important & meaningful to her!

Evangelina spontaneously said, 'A B C D' today!

we've noticed for the last several evangelina's a much more innately skilled kicker than jadon was at her age. (he was far better at throwing, though she's not bad herself)

these days evangelina is so proud of her ability to jump (in place, from furniture)...sometimes she'll walk away with a swagger or a self-satisfied chuckle!

In the last week Evangelina has caught on to the fun Jadon & I have when I whistle at Mommy & together say, 'Hot Mama!'... after the whistle, Evangelina just calls out, 'Mama!!!' even before we say it ourselves!

push-ups for a 17-month-old?

Yesterday after her shower Evangelina went over to my T-shirt lying on the carpet, sprawled across it, then -- in likeness to my own exercising (but last probably almost 2 months ago!) on my T-shirt -- started doing push-ups!  She actually did quite well with the push-ups though she did them with her knees down.

..that seemed to say, 'That was funny, wasn't it?'

A few weeks ago Evangelina was playing in the living room with her pushcarts when she headed to the dining table where she ('unfortunately') has begun to climb in order to fiddle with the different things we put there. Well, on this particular day she rolled a cart to the side of the table & climbed onto it in order to reach onto the table to grab something. All of a sudden, the cart rolled over to the side, & there she was, suspended diagonally between her hands grasping the edge of the table & her toes still on the cart, holding a tenuous tension at that diagonal for what seemed about 5seconds. She couldn't muscle her legs enough to pull the cart back directly under her, & she finally fell onto her hands & knees & stayed there quietly for a few seconds, seeming to wonder whether she should cry. She didn't, but turned over to me & made a big smile at me...

several nights ago i was putting evangelina down after her bottle, & in order to soothe her (& encourage her to stay down), i (daddy) was gently & rhythmically patting her bottom & lower back to let her i was beside her. after awhile i stopped, but continued to lay quietly beside her to see if she had already fallen asleep. without getting up, she turned to the side (to peek if i was still there), then reached back with her right hand & started patting her own butt with the same gentle rhythm!

lately evangelina's been copying us quite well, picking her nose (like jadon), praying with hands folded before eating, playing 'high-five'& even last night acting like me (daddy) when i pumped my fist & said, 'yesssss!' (only her version was abbreviated: her fist was held high while she smilingly called out, 'Ssssssss!'

lately in the last 2weeks evangelina has been engaging in pretend play: 'getting' cream from a tube & 'applying' it on her face, 'getting' food from your hand (with & without a fork/spoon) & 'eating' it, 'cooking' with pans

the last few days evangelina's been spontaneously playing peek-a-boo with us!

baby took 11 steps today! & they were preceded with an screaming smiley face!

yesterday was the first time evangelina used a spoon to feed herself! (avocado pieces on a trainer spoon)

Evangelina's been a crackup lately, as she's been holding books & 'reading them' with her gibberish talk. What's extra funny is that she sometimes holds the book right on her face as she reads (we know you're copying us but we aren't that short-sighted, Baby!), & she's extra amused when we crack up at her antics.

evangelina is sitting in front of me trying to put on jadon's clothes!

our adorable little sinner

For the past several weeks we've been discouraging Evangelina from sucking her thumb. Whenever she puts her thumb in her mouth we gently tell her "No" & remove the thumb from her mouth. In the last week we've started to find her covering her face with a sheet as she sucks her thumb... sneaky little lady!

today: head 45cm (60%), length 28.5"/72cm (50%), weight 20#/9.1kg (45%)

Evangelina has been saying, 'Hi' for a few weeks, but this week she began saying, 'Bye' with a wave consistently!

Yesterday when Evangelina & i picked Jadon up from school, he told me that Kaitlin O. gave him Christmas gift. Evangelina was relatively quiet the whole time so far. A minute later he said, 'Daddy I feel like I want to kiss Kaitlin & marry her.' Evangelina (seeing Jadon's excitement?) began to squeal & jump with her own excitement. What funny timing!

measurements

44cm head circumference, 28.25inches height, 18.7# weight

today @ akong & ama's tustin house evangelina climbed the stairs all the way to the top on her own (with daddy right behind of course)!

we just handed some of her words to dennis & joan-en for elisa today, but in case we didn't record evangelina's first five sight words, they were 'mommy', 'daddy', 'jadon', 'ball', & 'piano'.

last night while daddy was reading the Bible to jadon in his bedroom, evangelina was playing with her toys next to me, then moved on to play with the door, then left the room. i followed her without her seeing, & she got all the way to the hall bathroom. not sure if she wanted to see the bathroom or see mommy (in the kitchen) but it's neat to see she knows her home & has a 'map' of sorts in her mind to get around.