Evan

Trains and More Trains

2008-11-10T14:34:15Z

In case you hadn't heard, Evan really likes trains. A lot. So for his birthday we headed down to Alexandria to the Amtrak station and watched trains. Mostly the Metro trains on the other tracks, but a couple of VRE commuter trains and Amtrak trains went by.
His party on Saturday evening was also a train-filled affair. We painted a bunch of cardboard boxes to look like boxcars and an engine (I used the Mr. McGroovy's rivets to make the engine out of two boxes). He loves his new train table, aka our new coffee table. The only problem is that we now have bits and pieces of three different types of Thomas the Train sets: the classic wooden, the "Take Along" plastic, and the Lego Duplo. Not a lot of room left for things like, oh, furniture. Luckily, we are dual-purposing the train table as a coffee table, so there's that.

The train table, with the wooden tracks ready to set up.

Evan and his buddies AJ and Henry playing with the cardboard train we made. Aside from one box car ripping, the train held up surprisingly well to their abuse.

Another one of Lisa's masterful cake creations. Evan looks a little worried that it's going to topple over, but it stayed put. OK, the very top did fall over, but it landed right on the chocolate, so we were able to just get it back on top without too much trauma.

The obligatory cake face picture. Note the skillful use of spoon in one hand and fork in the other for optimal cake consumption.

Happy Birthday Evan!

2008-11-07T13:31:52Z

Time to add a new category to the blog, because Evan turns two today! I can't wait to get home and show him his present: a train table and wooden train set. And his birthday party tomorrow is going to be train-themed as well, complete with another one of Lisa's epic cake creations.
Happy birthday little guy!

Tain!

2008-09-17T17:32:35Z

Ever since we went to "train central," AKA Gardner, KS, Evan has been really into trains. He carries around a toy train, loves to point out the Metro trains as they pass, loves to climb on the caboose at the farmers market. So it comes as no surprise the utter glee that came to his face when he saw the elevated subway trains passing by Yankee Stadium. Yes, this was the picture we finally took of his face after the FIFTH train passed by, still just as excited as when the first one passed. By the way, the subject line is not a typo, that's just Evan-ese for "train."

Ready?

2008-09-05T12:39:01Z

I haven't had the chance to update on the fun things that Evan is doing. Maybe that's because he constantly attacks you by throwing rocks, or headbutting your thighs, or worse yet, biting. But he does have his cute moments. We're not entirely sure where he got it from (maybe Discovery Channel's "Ready Set Learn"?), but his favorite thing now is to warn you when he's about to attack:
"Ready? Go? Set!"

Words

2008-05-13T12:02:53Z

Evan is getting quite the vocabulary. Not complete sentences, but many words which convey his feelings and/or desires.

No, go, down, more, mine, bana (banana), bana bread (banana bread with chocolate chips: do NOT get in the kid's way if it's in the house!), baby, and many more including the old standbys Mama and Dada. Can you guess which words are heard most often in our house?

Update: Of course, everyone got "no" right, but the most popular word is "Mama," not "mine." Mama is his go-to word for when he doesn't know a word, or just wants your attention (yes, even dad's attention). Many times, we turn it into a Marco Polo game. "Mama!" "Evan!" "Mama!" "Evan!" "Mama!" "Evan!"

Oh Boy!

2008-04-18T13:17:32Z

I remember, after Evan was just born, watching our neighbor toddler Henry, who was then about as old as Evan is now, and thinking, "That's a scary preview of what Evan will be like in a year or so." And sure enough, everything prophesied is coming true.
The climbing on everything: The other day Lisa was vacuuming the dining room and moved the chairs into the kitchen, and was a little slow moving them back. Evan, in the meantime, climbed up one of the chairs, pulled open the oven door (much like he does with the play kitchen), and climbed on top of the stove and was pressing all the buttons, including self clean (aka really freaking hot oven!).
The escape artist: Yesterday, I was pulling weeds in the front yard, and Ellie was helping me scour the lawn for the occasional dandelion. One minute, Evan was pressing the horn on the toy car, and the next, he was halfway down the sidewalk (not the street, thankfully!) to the house next door.
And pretty much all you can say is, "Oh, boy!"

Climbing Pictures

2008-02-13T01:22:09Z

As previously promised, some pictures of our climbing boy.

Climbing up on a chair so that he can reach and play with the deadbolt. The irony being that I used to love to play with locks myself, just like him.

Little devil.

An ingenious little devil though. Notice how the dishwasher door is open so that he can use it as a step up to the top.

Proud as can be. We're not so brave (or stupid) as to let him climb up on top of the fridge though.

Interpretation

2008-02-01T23:52:59Z

Evan is babbling away these days. He really thinks he's saying something, as he looks at you expectantly after finishing a "sentence." About the only things we can understand him saying are "Mama" and "Dada." And yet, these do not mean what you think they are. Just now after dinner, Evan was reaching for his sweet potato puffs, saying "Mama, mama, mama." Interpretation: "I want, I want, I want." Then, he pulled down the plastic bins in which we store toys, climbed up on one and said, "Dada, dada, dada." Interpretation: "I'm doing something dangerous! Look at me!"
Then he fell off, and cried. No interpretation necessary.

Such the Boy

2008-01-07T12:17:27Z

From the moment we first set a car in front of him, and he grabbed it and pushed it back and forth making "Vroom vroom" noises, we've known Evan is a full-fledged boy. He also knew exactly what to do with a ball: throw it (though he may have picked that up from watching Ellie). While visiting his cousins in Michigan, he had fun playing with the boys, especially when he tried to take Colin down, WWE style.
We finally got batteries for his newest toy, a ball spitting train contraption, and I set it down in motion to see what he did. He started cracking up laughing when it would run into him, and he'd back up a step, it would hit him again, he'd laugh and do it all over again. But the key point was when the train stopped moving. He looked at it for a moment, and his index finger IMMEDIATELY went right for the button that started it again. It's like his brain is hard-wired for this stuff.

Evan's Walking

2007-12-14T17:53:55Z

My goodness, this poor kid gets the shaft for being second-born, and he's barely a year old! This time, I has been remiss in mentioning that Evan started walking. He's been doing it for a couple of weeks now, and the official "10 steps" moment came last week sometime. Now, he tends toward toddling everywhere, which makes it harder to keep track of him. When he was crawling, he was very noisy (thud thud thud across the floor). Now we have to rely on him vocalizing the fact that he is walking and use the doppler effect to pinpoint his location.
It should be a lot of fun seeing him and cousin Sam toddling around after each other this Christmas.

First Haircut!

2007-11-19T03:07:41Z

Now that Evan's had his first birthday, and a botched haircut won't screw up those important pictures, it's time for him to get a haircut. It may not have looked long, but it was getting in his eyes more often, and hanging over his ears a bit too. So off we went to Cartoon Cuts.

He was bit nervous at first, and was definitely having none of sitting in his chair on his own, so he had to sit on Mom's lap.

The TV distracted him for about 30 seconds, enough time to get a couple of snips in.

Big locks of hair from the first cut.

Taking a bit off the back.

And of course, the reward at the end, playing at the playground. It was hard to get a good shot of how great he looks now, but he is a handsome devil! Not only that, but with the new haircut, he looks like a very cute BOY, not a baby!
Did I mention he took his first toddling steps today? Not quite walking, but definitely getting there.

Evan's First Birthday Party

2007-11-14T03:13:53Z

Finally, pictures from the party!

Another fine creation by Lisa.

The kids are shivering with antici...pation.

Singing Happy Birthday and getting ready to blow out the candle. Luckily we had a few kids willing to do it, since Evan couldn't quite do it on his own.

Birthday boy wearing birthday shirt and hat. Just getting started on the cake.

Chowing down now, forget the hat, it was just getting in the way of the uncoordinated hands trying to shovel food into the mouth, and mostly getting face.

Double fisted cake eating action.

Caught him in the act of his favorite head slapping.

I'm not sure when the crown came in, but Ellie's always been a birthday princess, so why not a birthday prince?

Later, adding ice cream to the mix. What the heck? Couldn't get messier?

Proud parents with the birthday boy!

Evan Turns One!

2007-11-08T12:43:22Z

Evan officially turned one year old yesterday, and he celebrated with a cupcake from Buzz. We did something similar when Ellie turned one, sort of a test run to see how they would like their first big treat. And trust me, both of them were really into it.

Evan ponders: "What is the strange concoction? Is it mine?"

Well, I put everything else into my mouth, I might as well try this. Not bad!

Like his sister, he's still working on the frosting at this point, but he's clearly loving it!

Getting the hang of it. He loves feeding himself, so this was doubly fun for him.

Really into it now. Somewhere around this time I made the mistake of looking at the floor. What a mess! I tried to clean up as much as possible afterward, but I really needed a vacuum to do the job.

Slowing down a bit now. I think he was starting to go into a sugar-induced coma. Dude, you gotta get in on these munchies man!

The cupcake was officially demolished. We're pretty sure he will do just fine at the party on Saturday. The hard part is going to be keeping him away until we sing and blow out the candle!

Happy birthday little man!

Definitely My Boy

2007-11-06T14:06:03Z

Last night, I was giving Evan a quick bath before I had to head off to curling. Like Ellie, he loves bathtime and splashes around. Lately, he's taken to picking up bath toys and dumping them over the side of the bath. He's definitely in gravity-testing mode as he does the same thing with his food at the dinner table. So anyway, he's splashing around after having emptied the bath for the third time, when he opens his hand, looks at it, and proceeds to smack himself in the head with it, Homer Simpson style. Doh! I laugh, because it just looked funny. He starts giggling too, and then looks at his hand, and does it again! Smack! More giggling and smacking for the next five minutes, until Lisa walks in and just shakes her head at us.
We were having a good time, but then he decided to lean forward, dipping his face in the water, and sucked up a lungful of water. Bathtime over.
Definitely my boy.

Obligatory Cheese

2007-10-25T15:52:13Z

When decorating for Halloween recently, Ellie found a pumpkin ink stamper and went nuts with it. Bathtime that night was spent scrubbing ink till the water ran black.
Unfortunately, Evan also found the stamper, but he hasn't quite figured out how to use it yet.