Man Fort

Here are some pictures of Evan in his man fort. He's even had guests!

One More BIG Gift!

Pa-Pa and Mimi decided it would be fantastic to buy Evan a "Brownie." Brownie is a toy bouncing horse Andria and I used to have when we were kids. Every 18-month-old needs one. The bad part is that as soon as we uncovered it, I turned to my mom and said, "You know he doesn't like carousels." Here are some pictures of a VERY reluctant Evan on his Brownie. We haven't put him on it since Saturday when he got it. We're letting him warm up to it. He shared his milk with Brownie the other day, so that's' progress.

Pa-pa and Bad Habits

Here is a 47 second video of my dad teaching Evan bad habits. He's been trying to get Evan to do this for months. Now that Evan is in the "mockingbird" stage, it worked.

Tagged

I got tagged by my cousin Joy! That means I had to go to the 4th folder and the 4th picture of my pictures folder. That folder is entitled, "Amber-Alea." This is a picture of Andria (my sister) and Alea (my BFF) from my wedding. I compiled a bunch of pictures of Alea and me for her Christmas gift last year. It was a photo frame that held 3 photos. This was one of the finalists. (I'm not sure if I chose it; I probably did though - we look good.)

Alea and I met in college when we were in zero classes together. A couple of my other friends had all of their classes with her. We would all hang out in the Classroom Medical Building (That was actually the name of the building - shout out to IPFW!) and chat before they went to science and I went to poly-sci.

We've been friends for 10 years! She's one month and one day older than I am. We moved away from Fort Wayne on the same day in 2002. I remember driving down I-69 just sobbing because the next time we hung out, one of us would be on vacation. So, I take a "girl" vacation each year to go tear it up with her. She speeds through Applebee's parking lots at 10 o'clock at night (she's got the Tampa road rage). We are obnoxious and loud when we're together - it's fantastic.

I tag: Karen. I know she'll do it. ;-)

Any More Gifts?

As you'll read in the next few posts below, Evan had quite a few sessions of spoilage over the last two days. He found his way up on our dining room table after it was all overwith last night. It looks like he's looking for more gifts, but really he's just checking things out because he likes to be in the know (and he wishes he was tall). I also added a picture of his stepstool my Uncle Mark made. Evan's a big fan because it helps him reach things he thinks he needs.

Evan's Christmas - Part IV

Grandma and Aunt Judy came over on Christmas Day for dinner. They brought more gifts for Evan. He got a Bob the Builder video as well as a dog (that barks, walks and wags its tail). It's just a play dog since Dad's allergic and we already clean up enough poop around here. I named the dog Bob because Evan can say it. Mike named the dog Babe because Babe Ruth was a great baseball player. It's pretty cute.

Evan's Christmas - Part III

Auntie came over and spoiled Evan on Christmas Day. He got a bowling set, some clothes and a sweet car. Here are some pictures of a surprisingly patient Evan waiting nicely for Auntie to get his new car out of the box.

Evan's Christmas - Part II

Evan got some cool gifts from Santa (and Mom and Dad) yesterday morning. He got to drink hot chocolate, and he got an awesome Star Wars play tent.

Evan's Christmas - Part I

We went to Mike's family's house on Christmas Eve morning. Evan's Grandma Mary (Mike's mom) sewed all of the grandkids (all 9 of them) a new quilt for Christmas. He also got a firetruck (along with a few other trucks). He is also playing with his cousin, Paul, but Paul's not so much a fan of being packaged up.

Halfway to Mom!

Look at what I can do!

Evan and I went to his new doctor today for his 18 month well-baby check-up. Evan is 33-1/2 inches tall, in the 85th percentile for boys his age, which means he is more than half my height (64 inches). He weighs about 28 pounds, which is in the 75th percentile for boys his age. He is thriving and doing well. He's grown 2 inches since his appointment in September.

He figured out yesterday that he can reach the light switch to the loft. We prefer that to him pushing a chair over to the kitchen counter and turning the switch on and off there. Here are a few pics of our big kid. ;-)

...and I'd like fries with that!

So Evan is part monkey these days. We have no chairs at the kitchen table because he scoots them and climbs up to the countertop to wreak havoc on the three feet and higher parts of our house. When he saw the kitchen chairs were gone, he decided to climb another chair. Mike looked over yesterday and Evan may as well have been giving a take-out order.

MMMM Ketchup!

Evan loves ketchup (just like his mom). I told him the other day to go get his ketchup. He went to the fridge and waited for Mike to open it. When it was open he went right to the bottle, grabbed it, shook it up, and said, "Kshp!" We embrace the ketchup messes. Ketchup comes off pretty nicely in the tubby. :-)

Painful.

So Evan has discovered this high-pitched shriek. He uses it in our kitchen, in the car, at restaurants. It's painful. We're hoping it's a quick stage, much like the teeth grinding stage (that one was fun too). Take a listen and say a prayer for our eardrums. I shiver each time I hear it.

I'm not so sure about you, Santa.

We went to see Santa tonight. We waited outside of his little cabin in the windy cold weather and then we spent about 2 minutes in the cabin for pictures because Evan was not a fan of the hairy stranger in red. Maybe next year....

Hot Dogs and Chinese

Evan ate his toddler hot dogs for dinner tonight. Then he decided some of my Chinese food (chicken fried rice) would be good too. He really liked it - especially when he decided he was done and it should be out of his way.

Big Boy Chef

I was making treats for one of my classes tonight, and Evan decided he NEEDED to help me. He pushed the kitchen chair over to the counter and dug right in to being head chef. He did this both times I was making the treats; it was pretty cute.

Evan sat still!

I took Evan to a 7th grade basketball game tonight. He sat on me for an hour and a half and then he stood on in the stands and clapped and yelled, "Go! Go! Go!" Middle school basketball catches his attention (thank goodness something does). :-)

So big!

(December 7, 2007)

(December 7, 2008)

Evan weighs 28 pounds and 1 ounce as of last week. He's grown a lot in the last year. He'll be 18 months old on the 20th.

Are these not my size?

Evan loves shoes, but he absolutely loves one of Mike's pairs especially. He's always playing with them, and Mike has to loosen the laces every time he puts them on because Evan has pulled them tight.

I'll help you cheer on the Bears, Dad.

Mike has to watch the Chicago Bears on the computer when they have the same game time as the Colts. He sits and watches the game and Evan helps by climbing up and obstructing his view.