Nothing and a Lot

I have a lot to say and nothing to say. Life just goes on, day by day. I think I'm a little overwhelmed by Evan's development and it's rendering me speechless. I know I want to document it all, but I'd much rather spend my time enjoying it.

Signs and Sounds
They do all kinds of crazy stuff at daycare. We don't really hear about all the stuff they do. I've said that before. Here are some examples of things we've randomly discovered.

Evan hands me his elephant toy.
Me: "What's this? An elephant? Can you say elephant?"
Evan: Arm up in the air (like a trunk) and makes an elephant noise.
Um. Yes. Exactly.

Mid-Elephant Noise

He's expanded his reading list to include some other books. Namely, all 25 of his cardboard books which I mistakenly moved to the bookshelf in the living room. A day is not complete until all 25 of those books are off the shelf. While reading about dogs, horses, donkeys and cows, we discovered some things.

Any time we see a dog, he makes a sign with his hand by putting all four of his fingers to his thumb. After questioning the daycare workers for a while, we learned that the sign for dog is a snap. Very similar to what he's doing.

When we see horses and donkeys, first he'd slap his legs and then he started rocking back and forth. When they talk about horses at daycare, they gallop in place and slap their legs to sound like trotting horses.

And when he sees cows: "Mmmmmmmmmmm..." He doesn't get the "oo" part yet.

He can say "brown bear" now (we're probably the only people who'd understand it.) He brought me another book and said "brown bear". I look at the book to discover that there's a brown teddy bear on the cover. Seriously. That was not a fluke. He's done it many times. I think that's really smart.

Studious Kid

Imagination
I'm not sure when kids are supposed to start imaginary play. This seems rather advanced though. The other day, I caught him putting something in his mouth. Then I realized that he didn't have anything. He was pretending to take things from his left hand, put them in his mouth and chew. A couple days later, he was in the bath and David was at the edge of the tub. Evan started pretending he was taking something from David's mouth, putting it in his mouth and chewing. Weird kid but cool development.

Outside Time
Since he's walking better, outside time is becoming more and more fun. The backyard is fun for him to explore. He walks all over, watches the squirrels and birds in the neighbors' yards, picks up leaves and sticks, laughs at Laika and loves on Lars. Lars is strangely mellow when he's outside. I'm not sure if it's because he's so happy to be out or because he knows he doesn't have a safe place to hide or what, but he's weird when he's out there. Evan often takes advantage of that.

The park is also a lot of fun now. I'm not nearly as worried about him falling off the elevated walkways but it's still totally stressful. It's been cool lately, but the perfect weather for a sweat shirt and some playing outside. Apparently lots of parents don't agree because the playground has been pretty empty. I like it that way because the big kids stress me out.

You know what else stresses me out? Dogs. Evan's love for dogs, and animals in general, is a little over the top. Every time a dog walks by the playground, he drops everything and starts running excitedly toward it. Unfortunately, the owners always think that is super cute so they stop to let him pet. Which is fine except he's not a very good petter. And regardless of that, he needs to learn that he can't just run screaming towards strange dogs. It's a tough lesson for me to teach at this age. And it's not just dogs. He'll also wander off following squirrels across the park.

The Backyard Adventurer

"Will you please stop it with the camera?"

*love*

Poke

He had the park to himself this morning. 

I feel like there should be some tumbleweeds blowing by...

Me: "Evan, sit here so I can take some nice fall pictures."
Evan: I'll just chomp on this stick and throw
a holy fit if you try to take it away. Mmkay?

Out for a stroll

Lastly, just what I've always wished for: a Pink Floyd fan kid. (I got the shirt at Target. How cool is that?)