The newest Evans baby is here!

Last night, Ben's brother Paul and wife Alicia delivered their new baby. Her name is Rachel Grace Evans. She joins big brothers Isaac and Ethan, several cousins on Alicia's side of the family, and cousins Simon and Ally on the Evans side of the family. There are now 5 Evans grandchildren; 3 of whom were born within a span of 6 months! Thanksgiving is going to be a blast!

Fall Favorites

Here are my 10 favorite things about fall, in no particular order:

1. Fall Break. My fall break was Thursday and Friday, and it was really nice not to have to go to class. Plus, my advisor let me have those two days off from the lab so I could have some time with Ally.

2. Pumpkins. This includes pumpkins as they are, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin lattes, etc.

3. Apple cider. Actually, I'm drinking some right now!

4. Chai.

5. Cool crisp days. It makes for excellent running weather.

6. Cozy fall fashions, such as scarves and sweaters.

7. Thanksgiving. Three reasons: excellent food, a chance to hang out with friends and family, and 3 days off from school.

8. My birthday.

9. The changing colors on the trees.

10. The smell of a wood fire burning.

What are some of your fall favorites?

Ally works on sitting

Ally turned 5 months old today. Over the last month, her personality has started to come out and she is beginning to master new feats of strength, including improved rolling over (both ways), sitting up, grasping at just about everything with her reach, and raising her chest supported by her arms while lying on her tummy. Here are a few pics I took today of her sitting by herself, and a short video of her playing with a toy.






Ally also had a bad cough this week. We called the doctor's office on Wednesday morning, and they seemed to think she had croup. We kept her at home on Wednesday and Thursday so that she could get a bit better before we sent her back to daycare. Her cough has improved a lot and she seems to be back to her old self.

Fun vocabulary

Here are two fun words that I have learned in my classes this semester:

From my multivariate statistics class: Kurtosis
Sounds like a disease, but it really has to do with the flatness or peakedness of a curve. Even more fun are the related terms platykurtic and leptokurtic.

From my clinical measurement/evaluation class: Schistosomiasis
The professor that teaches this class is an infectious diseases doctor, so he used this disease in one of our class examples. Actually what happened was that he asked for us to call out a disease, and someone suggested schistosomiasis, but I think they just said it because it sounded cool.

Four months old

Ally had her 4-month well-baby check-up yesterday. She is 13 lbs 8.9 oz and 25.25 inches long, which puts her below the 50th percentile in weight, but approaching the 90th percentile in height. She also got her second round of vaccinations, during which she howled very loudly. However, once I picked her up and fed her, she went back to being her happy self.

For the past two nights, Ally has gone to bed shortly after 8pm. This has been nice, because Ben and I have been able to work on schoolwork after she goes to sleep. I am wondering if this is a real shift in her bedtime, or if she is just doing this for a couple days and will revert back to a later bedtime. I have to say though, Ally has really become a very good nighttime sleeper. She sleeps through the night for the vast majority of the time, and she is even taking some substantial naps during the day at daycare. (Of course I realize that as I write this I may be jinxing myself!) She is becoming more fun every day with her smiles and giggles and interest in everything going on around her.

Ally's Baptism

Ally was baptized at St. Thomas More on Sunday. We were so glad to be able to share the experience with her godparents Jim, Victoria, and Matt, as well as my parents and several of our other friends from church. Afterwards, everyone headed back to our house for a fun spaghetti lunch. Here are some pics from the day.

Fr. Romen anoints Ally on the chest with holy oil

Ally getting dunked (yep, they baptize the babies naked at St. Thomas More!)

Fr. Romen anoints Ally on the head with sacred chrism

Receiving the Light of Christ

After Mass by the baptismal font

With Ally's godparents Matt, Victoria, and Jim

With most of our small group

With my parents

Ally enjoying wearing her baptismal gown my mom made

First week of school

It is that time again: the start of a new school year. After being a stay-at-home mom for the summer, I am now back at school full-time. I will admit, I am glad to be back, although I do miss seeing Ally during the day. I do have a picture of her as my desktop computer background, so at least I can look at her when I want.

Ally now goes to a home daycare about 1.5 miles from our house. She is with 4 other little girls and she is the only baby. Her daycare provider is a Colombian woman, whose family is also parishoners at our church. Ally cried for a little bit the first day, but now she seems to be doing just fine. One thing's for sure, she's definitely getting to see a lot of excitement with 4 other little girls around.

Ben had planning week this week, where he got to go to a lot of faculty meetings. Right now he is dressed up in his PhD regalia, attending Fall Convocation. His classes start on Wednesday.