12 May 2013

21st Month and More

It's been too long. Did I miss month 21? Well, here's a little of what's been up...

Evan is talking so much. He's starting to put two or three words together, which is really cool for us. He can pretty much repeat anything, which is something that we need to be constantly aware of. He's transitioned from "Mama" to "Mommy" and from "Dada" to "Daya". Occasionally he'll say "Daddy" but he really prefers "Daya". Weird. He calls himself Eba.

He's recently started saying, "I love you, Mommy" after I say "I love you, Evan." Melt my heart!

When asked, "Who's at home?" when we're driving home, he answers Lars and Laika (and Daddy if it's just the two of us.) When asked, "Who's at daycare?" or "Who are you going to play with today?", he starts naming his classmates. When we pull out of the driveway toward the west, he starts saying "Meijer". Apparently we go there too much. He knows the outside of Meijer (obviously) and Target and likes to announce where we are.

Every morning, he runs out into the driveway to look for the moon. When it rains, he sings "Rain, rain..." but that's all he knows of the song. He's fascinated with umbrellas, but also a little bit scared of them. He laughs out loud when the wind blows in his face.

He points out airplanes when they fly overhead. He likes to stand at the door and watch for motos (motorcycles) and buses. He watches traffic while we drive and says "vrrrroooom!" and "beep beep".

He knows his shapes and colors, counts to 10 and says his alphabet, but usually stopping around i and saying random letters. He can identify some letters.

He can throw mega fits, but he's mostly happy and funny. When being held, he'll say "flip!" to get me to flip him onto the ground. He'll also say "baby" because he wants me to rock and sing to him and then toss him to the floor when I get to "Down will come Evan, cradle and all."

He loves puzzles and still enjoys books. Although, he's not as book-crazy as he used to be. We have a Scholastic DVD that's almost like books on tape but with the pictures, that he loves. He loves his animal and dinosaur magnets that he sticks to the doors and fridge.

Lately, we've been all about playing outside. Even when it's chilly, we just bundle up. We spend most of most evenings outside. We've had play dates with several friends.

One, with twins that are just a few months younger than Evan. It turns out that two year olds don't really play together. So, when my friends (the twins' parents) and I managed to get out kids to play on the same thing at the same time, we got to chat. Otherwise, we were all just going in different directions. Specifically, I spent most of my time around the puddle.




Scooping up the water and drinking it. Gross kid.

We also played with some older friends. They are 5 and 6 years old. Evan loved, loved, loved following them around. And then they started jumping off of things. Evan was ready to go for it. He repeated their names for days after they visited.

(picture by our friend, Leah)

When we're not playing at the park, we like to chillax in the backyard. Evan had a great time picking the dandelions when they were yellow, and now likes to pick the "blows".

First, he looks at them...
Then he smells them...
Then he tastes them...
Then he throws them. 

Watch out! Here comes a highly professional business kid.

When we're not playing outside, Evan likes playing with the latch board I made him. I'm pretty proud of it.



Or, just lounging around. 


Or reading with Dad.

Sports Car Magazine, of course. 

We've started giving Evan jobs. It's never to early to let kids know that they need to contribute to the household, right? Every day when we come home, his job is to let Laika out of her jail. In the mornings, his job is to take Laika her treat. When we're outside in the evenings, he helps me water the garden. We each have our own watering can. He has to pick up his toys before bath each night. (Not usually all of them, but enough for him to know that it needs to be done.) And, most recently, this...


07 May 2013

Reminder

He may be turning into a big boy, but pictures like this remind me that he's still my chubby baby.


22 April 2013

Lion, Rawr!

Evan got a new shirt with a lion on it and he was so excited. When I put the monkey shirt on him instead, he was very upset. He found the lion shirt with some stuff that was waiting to be hung up. He carried it around, played with it and tried to take it to daycare.

The next day, I put the lion shirt on him. He loved it.



David: "Evan, what's on your shirt?"
Evan: "Yina, rawr!" (That's how he says lion. All 'L's are 'Y's right now...Yaika, Yars.)

When we picked him up from daycare that day, his friend Rylan came up to him.

Rylan: "What's that?" Pointing to Evans shirt.
Evan: "Yina"
Rylan: "RAWR!"
Evan: "RAWR!"

And then they just sat silently on the bench next to each other.


18 April 2013

A Digital Sticky Note

Imagine this is a yellow post-it and I'm writing things down to remind me of these times...

On a walk, about .5 miles into 2, we saw some flowers. I asked Evan what color they were. Purple. Then we saw some more. Yellow. We finished the 2 miles, dilly-dallied in the house for a few, played in the backyard for about 20 minutes, washed hands and ate dinner. As we're sitting and chatting as dinner is finishing up,

Me: "Evan, tell Daddy what color flowers we saw on our walk."
E: "Purple."
Me: "And what other color?"
E: "Yellow!"

I did not think for one second that he would remember. I nearly fell out of my chair. My boy is SMART!

Also, while we were outside playing, I caught him scooping snot from his nose and smearing it on the brick. Snot. Smeared on our house. WTF, kid? Maybe he's not so smart.

09 April 2013

Butterfly

Like "Maga"...

June 2009; Cox Arboretum 

Like Grandson...

April 2013; Cox Arboretum

Except he's slightly less excited about the butterfly bench. 

01 April 2013

Spring So Far

Spring! No wait... not yet...
Several weekends ago, we had some really nice weather. We pulled out the wagon for the first time in 2013. We wagoned to the park. It's amazing what a difference 4-6 months has made in Evan's ability to climb around on the playground. He's officially a sliding pro. We watched the ducks in the pond. He found sticks, spotted squirrels and fell in some mud. Good times were had by all.

When we were returning home from one of our wagon trips, Evan was pointing at some robins. I got to tell him a fun story... "When we were little, my Grandma Lil always told us that you know spring is here when you see the first robin. ...(thinking for a minute)... But, now the robins don't go away during the wintertime. That's called global warming." What a fun lesson to share with my offspring, eh? 

We had a great time playing outside during those couple warm weekends. And then it snowed 6+ inches. 

Cheese! 
King of the Sticks
"Can Lars come out and play?"
First Wagoning of 2013
"Hey ducks!!!" 

Parent Teacher Conference
We had Evan's biannual parent teacher conference last week. I was sick and couldn't make it, but David gave me a full report. Evan's right on track in all areas... except jumping. The kid's a lousy jumper. He's bound to be tall, but white boy can't jump. Bummer for our NBA hopes. 

Ms. Solomy reported that he's very well adjusted socially. He doesn't hit, doesn't bite, doesn't steal toys.

He doesn't bite, but others do. :(
He's (surprisingly, to me) very aware of emotions. It's something they work on at daycare. They have emotion dolls-- happy doll, sad doll, angry doll, etc. She said when another kid is having a rough day, Evan will take the sad doll to him. How sweet is that? Additionally, he does this really cute thing. When we ask, "What does the cat (dog, horse, cow, etc.) say?", he'll answer accordingly-- "Meow." When we ask what does the baby cat (baby dog, baby horse, etc.) say?", he says "wah" and motions with his fist like he's rubbing his eyes while making an incredibly sad face. 


So, what we're wondering is, does he give the other kid the sad doll and then tell him "wah wah"? If so, that probably explains the bite.

He's also really good at making at making faces of different emotions...

This is his angry face. 
New Furniture
We got new furniture about a month and a half ago. David and I were super excited about it. Evan turned out to be even more excited. A little too excited. He finds a special kind of joy in the couch. So strange. But, I'm glad it makes him happy.



Sickies
Evan and I had a really bad virus (I truly believe it was the flu, but by the time I could get out of bed and go to the doctor, I was well enough that she didn't test for flu.) Before I was on my own deathbed, I spent one full day and two half days home with sick Evan. On one hand, it was nice to have him slowed down and a bit lovey. He fell asleep on me one day, which was probably the first time in at least 9 months. On the other hand, he was miserable and it was obvious. I thought it was a case of the early Terrible Twos but I'm fairly certain now that it was just miserable baby. He cried and threw one fit after another for hours each evening. After a couple weeks, though, it all went away. I'm happy to report that my occasionally moody, but mostly happy-go-lucky boy is back. For now, at least.

Sick day dress-up:
he chose the hat and insisted on the hoodie

Sick, lovey boy

Polar bear PJs, Spongebob hat,
reading about gorillas-- makes perfect sense
Easter
David and I haven't celebrated Easter in years. Even though the Easter Bunny and Easter baskets and dying and hiding eggs isn't something that I care much about, I wanted to give Evan at least a little Easter experience. We dyed eggs... which he didn't care about. He enjoyed the egg hunt on Easter morning. I hid plastic ones that were filled with various flavors of Goldfish Crackers. Once he realized that they had snacks in them, the hunt was on. He got to Facetime with grandparents so that made it an extra special day.


"Whatever... I guess it's cool." 
He got a dollar store golf club/ball in his basket, which has proven to be very fun.



Most golf pros wear neck tie t-shirts and dinosaur rain boots, right?