Stair Climbing in Bisbee

On the weekends, Evan and I head down to Bisbee to "walk the stairs" to get in shape for the upcoming Bisbee Stairclimb in October. There are three legs to the course and we did the first two legs today.

Evan was thrilled as usual:



We're trying to grow grass in the backyard and luckily I got the seed down before we had some good monsoon rains. The yard looks a mess right now and unfortunately the dogs have to stay off of it until it grows.



Evan wondering when he can play on the grass:



Evan enjoys doing his fence-security walks...

Fore!

Dad is much happier to see Evan using a real club! Evan chose this one out of the garage (from the plethora of unused clubs).

Pics

Evan has found the cloth storage bins are a fun place to sit. He fits perfectly in them.



Evan is improving in his musical skills (if he culd just control the drooling)!

Artwork Update

Evan had some undated artwork...

"Chalk on Black"


"Mmmmm Linguine"


"Blu/Yello Blob"

2nd Tumbling Class

Evan had his second tumbling class today. Our temps have been soaring lately, but luckily today we had some clouds to keep the heat down. The gym was hot (as expected)...but we dressed for it this time.

Evan did much better on some different equipment, but his attention span to the teacher is non-existent (as expected). He did great walking on the real balance beam with me holding on to him; he totally understood the one foot in front of the other process. He's liking the trampoline a lot more and ventured into the foam pit. They have this piece of equipment (I think it's called a spring board)...it's that thing they use to get up on the balance beam or go over the vault...Evan enjoyed walking up and jumping off that. Since the boy weighs next to nothing, the spring board didn't "spring" for him. He did hang from the rings all by himself for a few seconds...so by next week he'll have the "iron cross" mastered!

Big Boy Haircut

Evan's hair was getting a bit ratty (especially in the back)...so it was time for the dreaded haircut. We took him to a place owned by the wife of T's co-worker. Luckily we didn't have to wait and Evan was lucky to get Daphne (who usually cuts T's hair). She did a good, quick job on him despite the crying. He started out o.k...but as the cut went along, so did the tears. Overall, it wasn't a terrible experience. I have an "after" picture to post later.

Happy 23 Months!

Evan is such a big helper around the house (I dread the day when than ends)! I was shredding some old software with a disc shredder and Evan thought it was a fun thing to do. No worries about his fingers getting caught, the opening of the shredder is the width of a floppy disc. He helped me shred the entire pile!

Artwork

First "Tiny Tumblers" Class

In an effort to get Evan moving his body in different ways; I enrolled him in a "Tiny Tumblers" class with the local gymnastics group. He goes to class once a week for 45 minutes (which is definitely the maximum attention span for him). He didn't quite know what he was supposed to do, which I expected. He was more interested in hanging out with the older girls (of course). It was extremely warm in the gym (welcome to the hot days before monsoon season comes)!

Evan "stretching" before class:



He wasn't sure what to do next:



At the first station where he is supposed to hang on the rings and walk a little thing that simulates the width of a balance beam:



Trying to hang on the rings:




"Walking" the balance beam:



Trying the rings again:



Moving on to the next station (the trampoline and pit), Evan sat back and observed first:



He ventured out onto the trampoline:



Going into the pit:



One thing he did like was flipping over backwards:



At the third station they are supposed to hang from the bar, roll down the wedge, go through the tunnel and do a cartwheel



Evan did like going through the tunnel...although here he decided to go backwards:



"Cooling down" at the end of class, I had to chase him down a few times to come sit down, he wanted to be with the older girls working on their floor routines ;-)



Whew! All done!!

Sand/Water Table

Our back porch and back yard isn't a very exciting place for Evan to play. I got him a combination water table and sand table to give him something to play with. He was excited about spilling the sand out of the table.

Ribbon Art

Splat Art

Artwork

Weight Check!

We had to get one of Evan's vaccinations done today since he missed getting it back in January. It had been a while since we had a weight check on Evan, so that's one good thing that comes out of visits to the doctor's office.

We put Evan on the scale and it read 19 lbs. 11 oz....still no 20 pounds yet! We didn't check his length but we are very sure he's gained a bit of height. Evan did so well for the shot; he barely cried. We think he's just so used to shots that it doesn't bother him as much. We set up his 2-year old appointment for next month and fingers crossed, no shots at that appointment.

Moving Up To The "Older Ones"

Today Evan was moved into the "older ones" room. They decided to move him into the other room since he's getting close to his 2nd birthday and they want to try to keep him with the kids close to his age. He was pretty much the only kid in the "younger ones" classroom who helped to clean up and do other more advanced things. He still doesn't talk much, but compared to the others in his class, he's right about at their levels. The big difference in this new classroom is that when they eat meals, they sit in real chairs at a low table.

We also had a home visit by the occupational therapist, Mandy. She's working with us to help advance his eating skills. She was impressed on how "mature" he's getting in his walking and drinking from a straw. He has improved a lot on his school eating, but still isn't a big eater for us at home. At home we can get him to eat sweet potatoes (of course), tomato soup with crackers, Cool Ranch Doritos, Chips Ahoy Soft and Chewy cookies, Cheez-Its....WHOO HOO the Pittsburgh Penguins won in triple overtime....(sorry for the aside)....tortilla chips, and cheese. It's an odd diet, we know! At daycare he'll eat what he's served, so he is getting a wide variety of food. Evan has been chewing and swallowing much better (he used to stuff his cheeks full and then spit it all out). Mandy is going to continue observing him at daycare and doing follow-up home visits with us. Tomorrow we have a home visit with the speech therapist and his case worker.