Merry Christmas!

Teaching Evan to shoplift as a “cost savings” approach to this year’s Christmas shopping probably wasn’t the best idea after all…..

More Pictures from Evan's Birthday

Max is such a little sweetie.

Scott's old friend, Layne, and Scott.

Ed and Jenny.

Ed, Steph and Mom.

Evan turns 3 years old

We celebrated Evan's birthday with a very small family get-together. Work and an incredibly hot summer made the thought of throwing a bigger party a little too much to handle right now.

Evan had a great time with his cousin, Max, and his aunts, uncle and Nana. Just the right amount of presents and birthday cake, too.

Evan and the rain

It rained!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG, we need rain! Evan got a super cute pair of rubber boots and umbrella from his Nana and they finally came in handy!

Easter Egg Hunt at Home

This year Evan really "got" the Easter Egg Hunt, as I told in my previous post. At home, we did another hunt for him on Easter Sunday. It's so funny, though, b/c he lives in the moment, so each egg had to be opened as soon as he picked it up. As you can imagine, it was a slow process...

And Scott, bless his heart, tried to get a few cool things for the eggs besides candy. He got some cute little stretchy bunnies, little stretchy animals, little spongy animals that come in capsules that enlarge in water, AND...fireworks! I say FIREWORKS b/c they were little flammable bottles where you pull a string and that triggers a "pop" and flings streamers. They're more like caps for cap guns, in that they have a tiny little gun powder charge that goes off and shoots whatever is in the bottle. It smells awful, just like fireworks, and scared the crap out of Evan.

I didn't want to spoil the day, so I tried to act cool, but inside I was going, "what the hell?!" You gave my child fireworks? The label said in all caps "FLAMMABLE" and "NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN". Fortunately, Scott circled back around and said he didn't realize what they were and was surprised b/c he bought them at WalMart in the "holiday" section. He thought the bottles were like the eggs you can buy where you crack them open and there's confetti inside--no explosives, very low-tech. No, Scott, next time bring your reading glasses and read the label.

It was funny b/c Scott pulled the string on the first one to show Evan how it works. It went "POP" and Evan looked and then said say in his little-bitty voice, "That's scary, daddy!". The intonation was so cute and yet, so matter of fact.

Evan's Easter Egg Hunt at School

This year was Evan's 2nd year taking part in the MDO Easter Egg Hunt. Last year he didn't fully understand the hunt but he had fun. This year he realized that the eggs had goodies in them and, thus, were very valuable.

Last year, Scott and I both attended with Evan but this year I couldn't make it since I'm working full-time. But Scott did a great job of taking pictures to commemorate the event. Unfortunately, he forgot to send Evan's Easter Basket along, so Evan had to use a paper bag, but that's OK.

Out of the mouths of babes...

OK, so this morning I am putting Evan in the car and as I am buckling him, he snorts from a stuffy nose. I sweetly say, "Oh, poor baby, you've got boogies?" Boogies are what he calls snot and boogers.

He replies, "Yes, momma, I got boogies." Nothing out of the ordinary about that, BUT, then he follows with "I don't eat boogies, I drink boogies".

Um......hmmm......OK. I guess the good news is that it sounds like he knows he shouldn't eat them. After that, I'm at a loss.

Moving on. We have some more chicks. Evan loves them. He is so gentle with them, thank goodness.

My Little Reader

Evan is such the little person nowadays. He wants to be just like mommy and daddy.

Yesterday morning, he pulled the kitchen stool into the middle of the room, climbed up with book in hand (not a child's book either) and announced in a very studious manner that he was going to read. I had to grab the camera and preserve the moment!

So, it's been a while, again, since I've blogged. What can I say? I am a terrible blogger.

November is flying by, I just got back from a trip to Georgia which I will probably write about later.

I know Halloween was 2 weeks or so ago, but I wanted to post Evan's Halloween pics. He didn't go trick-or-treating b/c we don't really live in a good area for that, so we took him to a Halloween party at our Gym and he had a Halloween Parade at his MDO Program. This year he was a Bumble Bee.


There were some good costumes at the Halloween Party. I liked the Storm Trooper-very realistic.

Evan and his Daddy both chowed down on popcorn. I couldn't get a good pic of Evan in the Moonwalk Castle (behind them in photo), but it was hysterical watching him get bounced around by all the other kids jumping. He loved it! I don't know if you can see him in the photo, but there's a kid who looks like he's trying to escape the moonwalk. I can almost imagine him yelling "let me out of here!"

This kid was a little too scary looking for me.

Evan had a great time. He didn't choose his costume this year but I'm pretty sure that by next year he will be old enough to have a strong opinion about his choice of costume.

Evan, the 2 year old toddler!

My baby is 2!!!!!!!!!!!

He had his birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was a very small affair; daddy, baby and mommy. We thought about a party but things have been a little off lately so we decided against it. We did have a cake, balloons and presents. That was plenty for my little guy.

He is into his "bossy" phase now. I mean REALLY bossy. He tells me, daddy, the pets, kids at the playground, everybody what to do. If I'm in the wrong frame of mind, it can be a little annoying....

He's awesome, though, and I love him terribly!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost 2

Here is probably one of the last chances to see Evan as a One year old. He turns 2 shortly. I cannot believe he's growing up so fast.

He's quite the talker now. It took a while but now he repeats everything he hears--which is not always a good thing. He has cut down on the use of the word "sh*#" because we have made a monumental effort to stop saying it but we still hear it from him occasionally. I guess the good news is that he knows how to use it in context. For example, he might trip and drop something he's holding and the word will pop out. I wince on the one hand, and feel an irrational pride that he knows how to use it, on the other. Like I said, though, he is using it less and less--thank goodness. Cross your fingers, he hasn't used the "F" word yet.

Rodeo Day!

Evan's "Mother's Day Out" Program has an annual "Rodeo Day" where all the kids get to enjoy some outdoor fun. There's a petting zoo, hay rides, pony rides, llamas, horse shoes and other fun games.

Even though the day was overcast, the weather was mild and it was a lot of fun.

Evan adored the animals in the petting zoo and loved the pony ride. He cried when he had to get off the pony and give another child a turn.

I found myself wandering back to the petting zoo several times in order to cuddle with the bunnies and hang out with the goats and pigs. Evan wasn't terribly interested in the llamas, but one of them, in particular, was incredibly soft. I enjoyed petting him, too.

I wanted to scoop up a bunny and hide it in my purse, but I don't think bunnies and cats mix very well. Maybe I can do some more research on that.... Also, I think we should get Evan a pony. I know Scott will not allow that to happen, but I still think it would be a great idea.

Toy Box

Happy St. Patrick's Day. I'm not really sure why we celebrate this holiday? And by "we", I mean Americans, in general, not me specifically. I guess it's fun for small children who still love Leprechauns and dressing like little shamrocks and people that like to drink lots of Old World beer, but other than that, what are we supposed to do today?

Anyway, things are a little better on the Evan sleep front. I had sort of a "Come to Jesus" talk with Scott about getting on the program and not interfering with Evan's nighttime routine.

On a more fun note, I've been wanting to get Evan a toy box but couldn't find what I wanted that was also the price I was willing to pay. I finally decided to get an inexpensive plain white toy box that I had to put together myself. The process went very well because I actually took the time to read and follow the directions exactly.

After that, I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some paint, stencils, big letters to spell Evan's name and a few little wooden decorations like birds, a sun, a star, a turtle, ladybug, lizard, dragon flies and frogs. I painted the letters and glued them on top with the little turtle, then glued on the other little creatures and stenciled on some leaves, flowers and more dragon flies.

I think it's pretty cute and a lot less expensive than some of the boxes I was looking at. Plus, it's made especially for Evan!

The other night I was sitting with Scott and Evan and it occurred to me that they had the same expression on their faces, so I grabbed my camera and tried to catch a photo of it. Sometimes they look so much alike. Evan is growing up fast. He's talking more, too. He says "hi" and "bye", "hot" (which doesn't really mean "hot" but more "warm"), "no" (of course), "cow" (his first word), and his favorite word after "no" is "CHOO- CHOO" ( meaning the train). It is so cute. Oh, he also picked up one of my sayings. Whenever something is mildly surprising he says "Oh wow", just like me:)

Halloween

I decided that Evan's costume would be tied in with our home life this year, so I got him a chicken outfit for Halloween. I had hoped to get all of the chickens around him to make the photograph look like he was just another chick in the coop. Unfortunately, neither chickens, nor Evan pose for pictures when asked, so I was lucky to get what I got.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier but Eleanor has gotten into the habit of jumping on me when I'm outside. She usually jumps onto my head and then I gently push her down to my arm. I guess it's fun for her b/c she seems to enjoy spending time riding on my head and/or arm. She's sweet. Anyway, Scott took a picture of her once and when I was photographing Evan, I got another pic of her hanging out on ME. She's a hoot.

I'm planning on taking Evan into town for Halloween to what it's all about. I hope it goes well...

The Chicks Are Growing Up

Wow, my little chicks look so different now. They are feathered out and look sort of like miniature copies of adult chickens. They are very cute. They have claimed the hummingbird garden as their turf. The older chickens don't normally hang out there so I guess they decided to take up residence there. They are kind of making a mess of it, though. They love to scratch and kick a lot of the mulch out of the garden and onto the walkways. I feel like I'm constantly sweeping it back in the garden. That's OK, though, b/c it seems to keep them entertained.

Evan is still addicted to the water hose. Anytime he sees it on, he runs for it. He ends up soaking wet but very happy.