Another milestone achieved.

Eve now has her own blog. She just does too many amazing things all the time- I have to share. I imagine that there are probably only a handful of people who will want to read a blog devoted to recording the intelligent, funny, and sweet things that Eve does (Hi there, Eve's Grandmas and Papas!). If the antics of a two-year-old bore you, you're reading the wrong blog. Here we go.

Yesterday, we went to First Thursday, a regular open-gallery evening in the Pearl District of Portland. Our favorite gallery (PAN) was having a show by one of our favorite artists (Sue Allen). She's done a series of pieces featuring Mt. Hood. Eve took one look and declared, "Volcano!" "Yes, it IS a volcano. What volcano is it?" "Mount. Hood." I'm thinking there might be a geology gene. If there is, Eve's got it.

Disclaimer- she calls all mountains and most conical things volcanoes. And we went camping near Mt. Hood in August. But still I think she's brilliant to remember things like that and to put it all together.

Eve often does amazing things for Dave that he reports to me afterward. I doubt that he's embellishing. I think she tries out new material on him because she knows I'd run off for the camera if she did it for me.

We have a few playing cards on the dining room table, left over from playing a game with some friends of ours (Eve played along, sitting on my lap). Tonight, she gathered the cards up, and said, "One for Eve. One for Daddy. Two for Eve. Two for Daddy," WHILE providing the said number of cards to each person! To me, that says that she GETS what numbers mean, at least one vs two.

Yeah, she can count to twelve. And if I ask her "how many" of something, she'll jab her finger repeatedly at the things she's supposed to count, while reciting her numbers, but often keeps counting longer than she should.

She sings songs now. This is new in the past week or two. Recently, her friend Abby sang the whole alphabet song, and everyone cheered and made a big deal. Eve took note, and has been hard at work learning all the songs that I used to sing to her. I say "used to" because now, when I try to sing, Eve says, "Eve's turn!" with intense irritation. Her repertoire includes:
The Alphabet Song (of course)
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
The Wheels on the Bus
Happy Birthday (to Eve)
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
Row Row Row Your Boat
Baa Baa Black Sheep

Some of her songs would be recognizable to anyone. Some are more individual interpretations of the classics. And one in particular was unrecognizable even to her own parents. For a long time, she's been saying something that sounded to me like "Carseat back door" or "Carson backhoe". It was actually a very garbled "yes sir (three) bags full". I am SO glad I finally figured it out. I thought it might be Spanish. Mom- I think that beats "the beggins".

Speaking of Spanish, Dave asked her what she learned at school today, and she announced, "Amarillo"! All four syllables! Then pointed at the squash we were having for dinner (a yellow one, from her Papa's garden). Brilliant in two languages. And I love that she remembers things about her day to tell us at dinner.