Age 2

Merry Christmas to All!

December was a busy month filled with Christmas parties, cookie baking, Ev's Christmas program, an ugly sweater party, train ride with Santa on Christmas Eve, and it was all topped off with a wonderful Christmas Day!

Ev was a very good boy this year! Santa brought him a lot of presents including:

• Basketball hoop
• Slide
• Bike
• Puzzles
• Saw
• Fisher Price Barn and Animals
• Bulldozer
• Books
• Clothes

Now where do we put all of this stuff? Thanks to everyone for thinking of Ev and us even though we stayed in Atlanta :-) We are truly blessed.

Here are some of my favorite memories we made this month.

St. Nick:

Cookie Baking:

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party:

Santa Train Ride in Blue Ridge, GA:

Christmas Day: 

Happy 2nd Bir-day!

Happy bir-day, Evan! You are a sweet little boy and we love you very much.

His two year doctor appointment was a nightmare. He was scared and unfortunately cried the entire time we were there. I left the sheet with his stats on the exam table because we were in a rush to leave. I know that he was 36" tall (90%) and he was 50% in weight (I think around 26-27 lbs).

Likes:

• Elephants
• Bambi (aka Bunny, he likes Thumper)
• Helping mom and dad do anything (cook, rake the leaves, clean)
• Going to the park
• Books, puzzles, music

Favorite phrases:

• Evan do it.
• Help you. (Means, help me, but doesn't quite get it!)

Dislikes:

• Getting dressed in the morning
• Having his diaper changed
• Clipping his toenails (or even getting remotely close to looking or touching his toes) 

Evan now understands the concept of presents. Numerous packages have arrived at the house for his birthday and for Christmas, and he thinks all of the packages are his presents and we have to open them! 

His vocabulary has really exploded over the last month. He now is putting together short sentences (mostly commands like, Mommy. Sit. Carpet.!)

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from his birthday because my camera battery was dead while we were in Wisconsin :-( We had an Elmo party at the Schloerke's and a cake at YiaYia and Papau's house. Of course there were lots of toys too...a Little Tykes gill, a remote control train, new clothes, puzzles, drill and tool set, and more! Thanks everyone.

I think my favorite LOL moment of his birthday weekend was Evan playing hide and seek with YiaYia. It was Evan's turn to hide. He went into the living room stood in front of the coffee table, put his head down and butt out. I wish I had a picture or video because we couldn't contain the laughter!

Sorry for the scatter-brained post. I don't have the time or energy to keep up with the blog anymore. But I wanted to at least put down a few sentences about Evan's birthday. Here is what I am calling his 2 year picture, even though it was taken two weeks prior :-)

Singing's my Favorite!

Ohmigoodness! MY new favorite is Evan singing! While giving him a bath tonight, I sang Pat-a-Cake, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Jesus Loves Me. Apparently he now knows the tune and some of the words and tries to sing along. Adorable!

We also had to play bread butter. Translated equals YiaYia's game of "spread a long piece of bread and butter." I had to cut it about twenty times!

An Ordinary Day

It was an ordinary Monday that I don't want to forget. Evan moved up to the toddler room at preschool today. He normally goes to this room in the morning for drop off, but he had a hard time saying goodbye this morning. Usually, he will give me a kiss, a big squeeze,  and then go about his day. But today he cried and gave me a choke hold hug. Broke my heart that I had to go to work.

At pick up he was very happy to see me, however, it took him awhile to put the books away he was reading. We piled in the car and cranked up the tunes for the ride home.

Ev loves to color almost as much as I do! Yeah, he's totally my kid. I wish he would learn to color inside the lines though :) We colored upstairs for a while, and then played with Chuck (a truck) until I needed to start dinner.

We can't do anything around this house without music. Evan instructed me to "dance." Which means I have to put my iPhone on the dock and turn on the music. Note: I can't just turn on the iPod. It HAS to go on the dock! Once that was settled, it was time to cook.

I made herbed chicken parmesan, which he loved! Score one for me! I love it at the end of the meal when he tells me "all done," and then proceeds to stuff his face with what is remaining on his tray! Now envision a total mouthful and then he tells me "all done" again. I just want to eat him up!

After dinner there was some throwing the ball to Palmer. Actually, a lot of throwing the ball mixed with some crying because Palmer (Malmer, mine!) won't give the ball back. After ball, Evan found the Sponge Bob giant color sheets, so it was back to coloring. He wouldn't let me clean up dinner. I got a "sit" command, followed by "color." He told me.

After coloring, Evan fed the dog. While in the pantry, Evan decided he wanted a snack. Coloring works up an appetite. Popsicle it is, Evan. I can't remember how he says it, but it is cute :)

Bedtime called shortly after the popsicle was finished. We gathered up Mimi (his blanket) and Malmer and headed upstairs. Bath time included more coloring with washable crayons. My little naked boy then ran (he took those short, quick steps that I LOVE) back into his room to put on a diaper and jammies. We brushed his teeth, combed his hair, read four books, and said his prayers (aaaahmen). Evan said bye to Malmer (aka, goodnight), and then Mama got another kiss and he put his head on my shoulder.

Sweet dreams, little man. Can't wait to see your toothy smile in the morning. XOXO

Catching Up

Sorry for the lack of posts. We've been busy playing at the pool, keeping sicknesses at bay (Evan had strep, Miquel had strep, Evan had a viral rash, Miquel had strep again, and Evan had the stomach flu - what a summer so far), marathon training, and trying to stay cool in this hot Atlanta summer.

At 20 months something in Evan's brain clicked and now he is a talking machine! He's in a stage right now where he points to everything and says, "that?" His current favorite book is, There's a Wocket in my Pocket, so it make the "that" game interesting. I'm not sure what a Zelf is, but it is on the shelf.

He also hearts Elmo. Daycare played an Elmo YouTube clip one day, and it has been downhill ever since :) If I have to hear Feist sing 1234 one more time...! It's my own fault for encouraging it. I needed him to calm down in the car one day and played a clip from my phone. I bet you can guess what happens now. Yep, he wants to watch Elmo or puppies on every car ride.

I'll leave you with a story from the pool today. Evan and I were playing in the water, and all of a sudden he says bye-bye and starts walking towards our towels. He picked up the bag and said bye-bye again. Apparently he was done playing at the pool and wanted to go home. First time that has happened!

Video: What does the Gorilla Say?

Video: First Merry-Go-Round Ride

This is from back in April at the mall. Evan chose to sit on the tiger!

18 Months

Chad and I have a little chatterbox on our hands now. Ev has replaced most of his signs with words. Half of the time I don't know what he is saying, which leads to a lot of frustration for both of us, but it is cute! He is a master of imitation. If you ask him to repeat something, he gives it a try. Let's see if I can remember everything he says (or tries to say):

Mama, Dada, Palmer (malmer), milk, water, up, down, bath, outside, no, eat, YiaYia, Papau, cracker, please, more, phone, shoes, night, hi, bye, blanket (mimi), walk, puppy, cow, owl, bee, me/mine?, that/this?

Likes:

• Playing outside with his water table
• Watching birds, dogs
• Watering the flowers
• Books
• Music
• Drinking out of a "real" up. What a mess!

Dislikes:

• Wearing anything other than his brown tennis shoes
• Flies
• Dirty hands
• The loud noises of the neighbor's landscapers: the blower, lawnmower
• Showers (guess we will have to stick to baths for a while longer)

He is becoming a little more picky in the food department. Gone are the days when he will eat anything I put in front of him. Although I found out that he will eat hamburger if he can dip it in ketchup. He is all about the dipping - hummus, gaucamole, and now ketchup. 

Ev has pretty much mastered his shape sorter. He can get all the blocks in without our help now. The stacking rings are still a challenge though. He can also make the correct animal noise for the following: cow, horse, duck, puppy, lion, and gorilla. I took a short video of this, and will post later for your viewing pleasure. :-)

Ear tubes were put in 3 or 4 weeks ago. So far, so good as far as ear infections go. His 18 month appointment was on Wednesday. Of course, that couldn't go smoothly! He was diagnosed with strep, and couldn't get his shots. So now he has to go back in next week for the shots (and another co-payment...awesome how that works!)

18 month stats:

• Weight: 24# 14 oz (40%)
• Height: Evan had a meltdown when the nurse tried to measure him. She calculated 34" which is 90%, but when we came home I measure him and he was 32.5"
• Head Circumference: 19 1/8" (75%)

Hoppy Easter

Because I'm lazy, I am combining over a week's worth of Easter activities in one post. Easter festivities started the Sunday before Easter at the John's Creek Easter Egg Hunt. The paper said that pre-hunt activities started at 12:30, and the hunt started at 1:30 sharp. We arrived shortly after 12:30 and the park was zoo. The line was a mile long to see the Easter bunny, the "make a bunny mask" station was out of supplies, and we barely got two strands of Easter necklace beads. E is too small to go in the bouncy house, so we sat around for an hour for the hunt to start. The park was nicely divided out by age group so the toddlers didn't have to fight with 5 year olds over eggs. The organizers let everyone on the soccer field about 5-10 minutes before the start. Mass chaos ensued. The toddlers wouldn't stand still. At 1:30 sharp (they weren't messing around), the horn went off and 30 seconds later the hunt was over! 30 seconds. Not kidding. Evan ended up with 8 eggs, and only because mom and dad helped put them in his basket!

On Tuesday night we colored eggs. Evan LOVED it. I boiled a dozen eggs, and when we were finished with the 12 he cried because he wanted to do more.

Evan found his Easter basket without much trouble. (I had it on top of the ottoman in the family room.) He knew right away it was for him and he dug right in :-)

After church we took a family photo on the front porch. (We took one last Easter as well, a tradition, perhaps?)

We headed over to Uncle Mike's and Aunt Wendy's for Easter dinner (yum yum). Uncle Mike dressed as the Easter Bunny. Ariana and Evan were a little unsure of the bunny! We had such a great day (until Evan had a meltdown because he didn't want to leave even though he was UBER tired)!

Pretty picture of Ariana in her Easter dress

Family group shot!

16 Months

Another new month, another cold turned ear infection! We were referred this week to an ENT. Little Evie may be getting tubes :-(

Daylight savings and a new nap schedule at daycare has really screwed up Evan's bedtime schedule. Gone are the days of 6:30 to bed every night. Depending when he gets up from his nap at daycare, bedtime is now between 6:30-7:30. It's nice that Chad is able to see him for more than 10 minutes in the evenings.

Evan moves at warp speed! He is a little runner now, and especially likes to take walks in the park. We tried flying a kite last weekend. He was interested for about 3 minutes, and then decided he would rather run up and down a hill!

New Tricks:

• He is getting pretty good with the shape blocks. If we point to where they go he can get the blocks through the sorter.
• Evan is picking up on what the animals say. So far, he knows what the puppy says
• New sign: bird
• Getting very good with a fork and spoon.
• Gives kisses and hugs

Likes:

• Music and dancing
• Playing outside
• Birdwatching
• Playing ball with Palmer

My 35th

So 30 was nowhere near as traumatic as those that came before me made it out to be. So for 5 years I have been challenging 35 to bring it, and today it did. Don't feel older. Don't think I picked up any new greys today. Did not wake up with a sore back. Still not sure what all of the getting older fuss is about.

It was a great weekend. Miquel got a sitter and we went out on a 35 year old married couple with a 16 month old's version of barhopping (2 bars- both had great beer). Met some friends and had a great time. We hit the park today where Miquel snapped this picture- judging by my face you would think I am not at all happy that this day came- and it was the best smile of all the shots! Really, I am happy to be 35. Seriously. I mean it.

We shopped at Lowes where I purchased some items needed for my next big project- remodeling the bathroom. Miquel said I could get what I want for my birthday so I am posting a poll to solicit your feedback on what I should get. Your choices- a tile saw, covers for the chairs i built, supplies for finishing the bathroom, supplies for finishing the basement, or a wine rack. Put some thought into it and send me your feedback- thanks.

All in all a great weekend. Thanks to all of the facebook well wishers, Miquel and Evan for the drawing, cake and lovely singing.

15 Month Stats

Weight: 24# 6 oz (50%)
Height: 31 3/4" (70%)
Head circumference: 19 1/8" (85%)

Evan is looking good according to the doctor. His weight came back down from his 12 month appointment to where he has been trending from birth. I am shocked since all he does is eat! Have I said that before? :-)

His lower right molars are also coming in. This could explain the 3 hours he was up in the middle of the night earlier in the week.

15 Months

It surprises me every day how much Ev comprehends what we are saying to him. Even the teachers at school say that he is one of the few who follows directions well. In terms of signing, it seems we have regressed this month. I've tried to teach him a few new signs but lately he has resorted to pointing and grunting. I am working with him on the signs for water, bird, chicken, hear, where, wait and want.


The morning daycare drop-off crying has thankfully ceased. He learned quickly that breakfast awaits him! Speaking of food, the kid loves to eat. I swear as soon as we finish a meal and clean it up he is giving me the eat sign again. Do kids still only eat when they are hungry at this age?


New tricks:

• New words: Mama!! and uh-oh
• Folds his hands to pray

Likes:

• Music and dancing
• Playing outside
• Coloring
• To help do just about anything - feed Palmer, rake the leaves, start the dishwasher, load the washer

My First Swim Lesson

On Saturday Evan had his very first swimming lesson at Dynamo Swim Club. I thought he would absolutely love it, but I think he was freaked out by all the things that were going on around us and the teacher. He was definitely a stage-5 clinger (Wedding Crashers reference in case you were wondering)!

There were brief moments of enjoyment. He "paddled" several times, and I even got a smile while spinning him around. Evan also found the lane dividers particularly interesting! Here's hoping he likes it more next week!

Here is a short clip Chad took. You can see at the end that he was about to freak out!

Fever

I received the dreaded call from daycare this afternoon. Come pick up E because he has a 100.3 fever. Ack, not again! He can't seem to shake this cold. Can't wait for this winter to be over.

Little Helper

Chad walked in on Evan loading the washing machine! What a helpful kid :-) I guess he is really paying attention. I wish my camera would have been charged, we might need documentation 15 years from now.

14 Months

January got away from me, so here I am a week late or so on Evan's 14 month update. The big change this month is we have a full-fledged, full-time walker! He gave up crawling during the week of vacation snow days! He hasn't had an injury in awhile, until this weekend. We were up in the Georgia mountains again with a bunch of friends. He tripped and hit his head on a door. A lump. A cut. Crying. Ice. Even more crying.

This week he started a new room at daycare - pre-toddlers. Evan is adjusting well, but drop offs have been a little harder these last two days because he isn't familiar with the early teacher. Things are a lot different in the pre-toddler room. No high chairs. No cribs. Evan apparently really likes sitting at the table to eat his food (I wonder how much of it ends up on the floor?). And nap time is going well too. I'm shocked! He slept 2.5 hours on Monday and 2 hours today - on a cot - where he can escape. Crazy, I know.

New tricks:

• Walking
• New signs: please, help, light
• Knows where his head, eyes, teeth, ears, mouth, belly are (in addition to nose and tongue that he knew last month)
• Words: hi, bye, Dada, Yia Yia
• Going down stairs

Likes:

• Petting Palmer
• Crayons
• His mama :-)

Video: Moon Crawling

Moon crawling is much like moon walking, made famous by the late Michael Jackson!

Snow Day

We had a huge snowstorm (as far as the South goes) last night. It brought us a good 4 inches. These 4 inches have caused major havoc throughout the city. School, government, and business closings. Traffic accidents and numerous abandoned cars on the side of the road. The storm dominated the local news all day. I heard that the snow plows were out in full force - all 11 of them!

Daycare was closed today. It is closed again tomorrow, and I wouldn't put it past the district to keep them closed on Wednesday too.

Chad took the opportunity to introduce Evan to the snow. It had a layer of ice on it though, so he really didn't get the full effect!

13 Months

2011 started with another illness - croup. Evan is doing better now that he has been on medication all week. The barking cough has subsided, and even the cold isn't as bad as it was on Monday.

We still don't have a full-time walker! Although, he is walking a lot more than he was two weeks ago. It's crazy how fast things change! Evan is very cautious when it comes to walking. He doesn't take many risks, and doesn't go very fast. However, when it comes to climbing stairs, crawling on the fireplace, or trying to climb in/out of the toy box he is fearless.

Yes, more crazy hair! The left side doesn't cooperate!

New tricks:

• Giving kisses and hugs
• Blowing kisses
• Can point to his nose and tongue
• Signs: milk, more, again, eat, bath, drink, all done

Likes:

• All Mommy all the time
• Books
• Baths (especially with the new Flow n' Fill Spout Santa brought him)
• Electronics
• Whole milk
• Turning on/off light switches
• Brushing his hair and teeth

Dislikes:

• Naps
• Diaper changes