Little Neva

Our little Neva (also known as Diva-Deeve, the princess, buttercup, lady bug, rotten, and delicate flower) is growing up. It's almost like she woke up one morning with a huge personality and it hasn't stopped growing. She makes us laugh, roll our eyes, and gives us glimpses of the girl she is going to be. Of course we are feeding into all of her "rotten-ness" by spoiling our girl as much as we can and imparting important life lessons - which is why she got to ride in the cart at Target instead of the stroller with the boys! (This was her first trip to the promise land known as Target - we spent a lot of time in the shoe department - like I said, important life lessons!)

Neva can do a lot of things now, when she wants too. She can pull herself up, crawl, jabber jab all day, hold her own bottle (she only gets one these days), and attempt to take steps while holding our hands. Our favorite thing about her right is that she tries to repeat everything we do (I am sure this will come back to haunt me one day soon). She blinks her eyes slowly in response to a wink. On command she can cough, clear her throat, sniff over and over, cross her fingers, and stick out her tongue. Once when Matthew was sobbing over something she stared at him and then mimicked his cry. She is obsessed with noses. She waves goodbye. She is starting to share her cheerios, but most of the time she snatches them back. When she gets excited she flaps her arms, kicks, her legs and screeches something that sounds like "nnnnaaaa nnnnaaa naaaaa" and I reply "Nana's not here, I wish she was too".

A vivid memory of mine is Granddaddy teaching me how to tell if a watermelon is ripe. You thump the melon, if it makes a certain sound it's ready to eat. Once after a huge dinner Neva's stomach was poking out so I thumped it, told her she was ripe, and she laughed so hard. Now after almost every meal she pokes her stomach out real far and I thump it - then she tries to thump it but it's really a harsh pat to her rib area. I love it, every time I feel Granddaddy right there with us laughing too. I cannot wait to tell her that story and I know this is something we will do forever. Well, as long as a girl will stick out her stomach and let you thump it.

The sweetest thing Neva does is give kisses. Her kisses consist of leaning into our mouths with her lips parted for a split second OR keeping her head perfectly still as we lean into kiss her. These kisses are on Neva's terms only though. You may be granted none, one, or ten, it's all up to her. If she isn't in the mood or has lost her patience with our need for affection you get a harsh hand slapping your face away. Maybe she is teaching us life lessons?!!?

Brian and I am making an attempt to have 1-1 time with the babes lately and when its mine turn with Neva we go to the bedroom, shut out the boys, and have girly time. It includes things like playing with all of my jewelry, playing with my scarves, and playing with (cleaned) makeup brushes. We also play a one-sided game of dress up where I force her to put my stuff on that I think she will look cute in. Again, I am sure this will come back to haunt me one day but right now it's just so much fun.

Incase you were wondering why would we call our daughter "rotten" see the above picture. What do you think she is doing?? Resting? Crying because she got hurt? Crying because she is tired? No, this would be Neva after deciding she just cannot crawl anymore and needs someone to pick her up and carry her to her desired location - most of the time the high chair. It goes like this: she crawls a few feet, looks up crying and reaches her arm out, sits up and cries, throws herself belly down on the floor and continues to cry. Sometimes she goes for the face smooshed into the floor cry as well. Repeat this about 57 times and she still hasn't made it out of the playroom. At this point Matthew has devoured tons of cheerios and is tired of his "appetizer" so we end up going to pick her up. The whole time in my head I hear a voice saying "Don't give in, don't give in.... you are giving in....this is the beginning...this is how she gets spoiled...you just spoiled her...." but whatever. I tell myself that 14 months is too young to be spoiled right? She isn't playing games, there is a real reason that she cannot crawl that far. She is tiny for her age, she was a premie, she needs me....one day I won't be able to pick her up...

Let the fun begin!