Yarn Art

Watercolor on Coffee Filter

Roller Painting

Finger Painting with Cotton Ball

Check Out This Walking Kid!!

Check out this walking kid!! Later on he did do a forward dive and got a mouth full of dead leaves and grass (yuck).

More Pics From the Ren Fest

Mom's braces are finally off!


My co-worker Terri


This was one of the ladies who works at the feast, she loved Evan (of course)

Apple Stamp

Evan the Computer Geek

Evan was having a good time with the laptop...he can even type without looking (just like his dad).

Renaissance Festival in Phoenix (Vids and Pics)

Today we took Evan with us to the Renaissance Festival in Phoenix (Apache Junction to be exact). One of my co-workers got married at the fest, so a few of my other co-workers also attended. The weather was perfect, not too hot or cold. After the wedding ceremony we experienced "The Pleasure Feast" which was way too much food (6 courses)! It was a fun event and we plan on coming back next year when Evan is older so he can see more. I'll have more pictures to share when I get them from my co-workers.


Since all Evan wanted to do is walk (the whole day)...we stayed off to the side while the ceremony was going on:





This was after the wedding ceremony:





After the wedding (before the dinner), we went over the petting zoo (since it was free). It wasn't a great assortment of animals (and we learned geese can be mean and hiss at you). Evan wasn't too thrilled with the sheep as you can see:









Waiting to go into the feast:

Hand and Foot

Weight Gain!

Today we had Evan weighed at the pediatrician (by Dr. Hassan's request). He weighed 17 pounds 14 ounces, which is about an 8 ounce gain since last week. Yea!! He's close to catching up to the weight he's was a while ago.

Brush Painting

Results From Evan's Evaluation

I forgot to mention that last Friday Evan was re-evaluated by the local Blake Foundation to determine if he is eligible for any programs to help get his development caught up. The Blake Foundation is a part of the Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP). Luckily on Friday Evan was in a good mood when the ladies came to the house to do the evaluation. He did get extra points for being so darned cute (just kidding).

The evaluation consisted of the ladies observing Evan playing with the toys they brought and asking us questions about his motor, cognitive and language milestones. We found out Evan is eligible for their programs since his scores were low. He scored highest in the cognitive category (so he's not a dumb kid by any means); but his motor and language skills are very low relative to his age. We had figured that since his younger peers in his daycare are far more advanced in walking and talking.

Next week we have a meeting with the same ladies who did the evaluation to develop a family action plan. The plan will outline what programs/specialists Evan will see and how we can help at home to get him caught up.

Ring Painting

A Little Better Day Two

Evan had a better day today. They did finger painting and Evan participated along with everyone. It wasn't a great food day (he didn't eat much at school); but he ate sweet potatoes for us for dinner.

Rough First Day With the 1-Year Olds

We anticipated Evan would have a rough first day in his new classroom (and we were right). The good thing is he didn't throw up the whole day (it's the little victories). His new teachers are Miss Sarah and Miss Kathy. Today the class went outside and did chalk drawings. Evan held on to Miss Sarah and watched (he wanted to be held a lot today). He ate pretty well (no breakfast), but he ate tomato soup and 1/4 of a quesadilla for lunch.

Medication Working?

Today was the first day we saw a big difference in Evan's eating. He's still not a big breakfast type of guy, but he did graze on Cheerios and crackers during the morning. At lunchtime and dinner we were able to get him to eat his old standard sweet potatoes with half and half and butter (yum). Hopefully the Prevacid is doing it's thing! We still have a ways to go to get him caught up on all the weight he's lost. Odd thing, but yesterday I had him at the mall and he seems to like to eat in a big crowd. He actually ate a few baked Lays potato chips which I've never seen him do. Too bad I didn't have the camera since it was a funny site to see him sitting in his stroller with his feet up eating chips.

New Medication and New Classroom

Two big changes coming up for Evan! One is his new reflux medication, Prevacid. The Zantac we gave him previously was in liquid form, which made it easy to administer. The Prevacid is in capsule form...hmmmm, how do you give a pill to a toddler?

Dr. Hassan had told us yesterday to open the capsule and sprinkle it on a spoonful of applesauce. Ummmm, hellooo, the kid isn't eating (and applesauce is something we've never been able to get him to eat). So now, we figured out that we have to open the capsule and dump it into Evan's mouth. I get to be the bad mom and administer it in the mornings. The trick is to pinch his nose to get him to open up, dump it into his mouth and give him a milk chaser to get all the little balls of medicine down.

We also found out that on Monday, Evan is moving into the 1-year old room. All the teachers said it's time for him to move up since he's starting to walk a little more now. He'll be in with the young 1-year olds, so he already knows most of the kids in there.

Check Up With Dr. Hassan and Upper GI

Today was the last minute appointment with Evan's Gastroenterologist (Dr. Hassan). We're fortunate that he comes down from Tucson about once a month now. Before Evan's 9:30 appointment, we had to get an Upper GI done on him at Sierra Diagnostics. Dr. Klein was the doctor who did the procedure, which didn't go as well as planned.

The x-ray technician who prepared the Barium drink made it really thin. I was prepared with one of Evan's bottles with a y-cut nipple for thick liquids. Of course Evan went crazy when it came time for him to lay on the x-ray table. When we gave him the bottle with the Barium, he was laying on his back and all the liquid rushed out through the nipple. Poor guy probably felt like he was drowning, so he didn't get enough good swallows for good pictures.

They also took a chest x-ray since Evan had a bout of pneumonia last fall. It was just a precautionary thing to make sure he didn't have any lung damage. Dr. Klein was able to see that all his digestive anatomy was in place; which we pretty much knew already.

Our appointment with Dr. Hassan was quick. He decided to give Evan a prescription for Prevacid; so we stop giving him Zantac and give him this instead. We have to get Evan re-weighed next Thursday at the pediatrician and if he is still losing weight, Dr. Hassan wants a call from the pediatrician. He weighed 8 kilograms when they checked his weight (about 17.6 pounds)

Monthly Synagis Shot

The dreaded monthly Synagis shot was today. The one good thing about the shot is that we always get a weight check on Evan. We were sad to see he has dropped a good bit of weight (he weighed about 17 pounds 6 ounces). Evan was up over 18 pounds; and we knew he would have a drop in weight since he's eating pretty much no solid food now (even on the Zantac).

The nurse was also concerned and was proactive in calling Dr. Hassan (Evan's Gastroenterologist) to see about getting him to see Evan ASAP. We were able to get him in the next day when Dr. Hassan would be in town. The doc wanted an Upper GI done on him before his appointment on Thursday.