Things to stare at: Big Shiny Glasses, Penguins, and Our New Ikea Play Gym

When I found out that I would not put my classes or internship on hold when Evelyn was born, I immediately began to think of ways to kill two birds with one stone.  How could I spend my days with my darling little baby, while still fulfilling my requirements?  Well, one of the things I came up with was that I would go visit homebound church members with baby Evelyn.  

We have been having so much fun.  It's a win-win-win situation, you see, because not only is it good time management, but the homebound members and other nursing home residents love to see her, AND Evelyn could stare at the giant shiny glasses that many of them wear for hours! 

Visiting a homebound church member
along with some other church members,
 a retired pastor and his wife.

Today was our second trip, but we've seen four people so far.  The first visit included one woman saying that she liked, "when babies used to wear baby clothes instead of dressing like teenagers."  She was referring to Evelyn's outfit, which was this shirt and some leggings:

I love the lack of edit mode that elderly often have. 

But today, one of the things that was so great about the trip was that on our way out, we passed by a group of nursing home residents and nurses sitting in a big circle telling stories.  They invited me to bring E into the circle and introduce her.  It was so great to see so many faces light up when they saw her big bulgy eyes looking into all their big glasses!  She is such a blessing.  She just brightens up the day.  

On another note, I wanted to share a couple photos of Evelyn looking at things.  Her very favorite thing to do (okay, besides eating) is staring at things. I know you're probably thinking, "umm...don't all babies stare at things?"  Well, I don't know.  I've never had another baby.  But I know that this baby loves it.  This is one of the best methods of entertainment we've found: 

And today, her Ikea play gym arrived.  As you may know, Ikea often doesn't ship their stuff and there aren't any in the area.  But they have this play gym I really like that is wooden and takes up less space than most play gyms.  Plus it was pretty inexpensive comparatively.  So, a woman from my online birth group (a group of a bunch of other women who had babies in August) picked one up and shipped it to me!  So awesome!  It arrived today.  Evelyn already loves staring at it, too.