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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.

We Have A Wii

We finally were able to find a Nintendo Wii a few weeks ago. After Evan goes to sleep, T's evenings (and sometimes early mornings) are spent playing Mario Galaxy. I bought the Wii Fit last week and it's a a lot of fun (but a lot of work)! If any of you out there have a Wii and want to link up with ours, just send me your Wii number via e-mail. So add this system to our Xbox, PlayStation 2 and old Nintendo 64.

Hello??

Evan's newest thing is to drag one of our phones around and act like he's talking to someone. It's pretty funny to see and hear.

Hanging Out In the Neighbor's Yard

Evan's after school routine is to look for our neighbor's cat, Christian. Max and Sadie would like to eat Christian, so it's an interesting thing when Evan comes in the house smelling of him. Luckily, Max and Sadie have not tried to eat Evan yet. Christian comes right out to and loves to get manhandled by Evan.

Evan also loves hanging out in our neighbors front yard. Sometimes it's hard to get him to come into the house. That's Max you hear barking (he and Christian have issues). Christian loves to sit outside our bay windows and taunt the dogs.

On the Big Kid Slide

There is a new playground in town with a really nice area for younger kids to play. We took Evan there today and of course, his favorite was the biggest slide. We lost count of how many times he climbed the whole way up to go down the slide.

Trying to Catch Him Babbling

Evan has been experimenting with more and more sounds. Today I overheard him talking at Max (Max was thrilled). I tried to catch some of the conversation on video, but Max moved. Some of the newest conversation is "Puh-tuh, puh-tuh" which I think you can hear in the second video. He also likes my phone (I fear one day it will end up in the toilet or diaper pail). He realized the backlight on the phone can be a helpful flashlight.

Giving Max A Brush

Max was thrilled to have Evan come after him with a brush. He was a patient guy and let him do a little brushing. Evan catches on pretty quickly how to do things.

22 Months Old Today!

Can you believe Evan will be 2 in 8 weeks!!?? We're getting closer to getting him caught up with his actual age. We're still struggling with getting Evan to eat like a normal toddler. We've found that he loves tomato soup, which is very odd for a kid his age. We crumble up saltine crackers into it and he'll eat almost all of it. So add that to the sweet potatoes and that is pretty much what we can get him to eat for dinner.

We won't have a weight update until his 2-year check-up in July, but we're guessing he has gained weight. Maybe he'll hit 20-pounds at 2 years (about a year late)? The one thing we've noticed is that his babbling is coming along and he is getting close to forming words. Max is still "ba" according to him, but ball is also "ba", and he can almost say "bubbles". If we ask him to go find his bottle, he'll go and find it in another room, so he's defintely understanding things much better. He's a great cleaner-upper...he'll take things we hand him and put them into the trash; he likes to close the dryer and dishwasher doors and put clothes into the washing machine. He even knows which buttons to push on the washing machine to get it to start (luckily he's too short to reach the buttons, so he can only do it with adult assistance).

This is the way Evan starts his day after his double expresso...checking his phone for text messages and voicemails from his girlies.



Evan finding a good use for his putter:



Evan's daredevil side is coming out. he now likes to stand up in his wagon like he's surfing:

More bubbles please!

Evan loves playing with bubbles!

Class Picture

Here is a picture of Evan's daycare class...you can find him on the far right sitting on Ms. Kathy's lap.

Under the Weather

Evan's been a bit under the weather the past few days. We've had to keep him home since Monday due to his high fever. We couldn't get an appointment to see his pediatrician until next Monday (crazy)! So we had to go to one of the local urgent care clinics. They took Evan right away due to his fever; but the doctor on call ruled out an ear infection and gave us a prescription for amoxicillan anyway just as a precaution.

Late today his fever finally stayed down instead of spiking like it's been doing since Monday. He still doesn't have his eye teeth yet, so maybe they are coming in.

Here is a pic from the Sierra Vista March for Babies the other weekend.

Hmmm, what's a parent to choose?

After Evan and I participated in the Tucson Walk for Babies today, we stopped by Toys R Us with the intention to buy Evan a "Bubble Mower". He's been obsessed with bubbles, so I thought it would be a neat thing. We found the Bubble Mower and got that, but in the same store row, there was the "Corn Popper"! Can you believe they still make it! There were two different styles, one was the classic one all of us remember; but the other one had lights, music and counts 1-10 when you walk with it. Hmmm....what's a parent to do...do you go classic or go modern? View the vid and you'll see which one I got. By the way, the dogs LOVE this toy, especially when Evan is coming straight at them with it.

Limited Edition Reproductions On-Line!

I've finally gotten around to scanning the artwork Evan has been doing in daycare. I'll be posting them to the dates he created them, so to view all the artwork...click the "artwork" label on this post and it will pull up all the old posts with the artwork.

I'm not sure what one would call this era of artwork..."Early Classical Evanism"..."Modern Evanism"...Neo-Evanism"? :-)

Daycare Picture

It only took 3 times to get a picture of him. He is actually sittng on the lap of one of his teachers and she leaned out of the picture.

Last Synagis Shot!

Today was Evan's last Synagis shot for he season. He won't have to get the monthly shots anymore since he'll be 2 by the next RSV season. Evan didn't gain much weight (3 oz.) since last month...he was 18 lbs. 14 ounces. That was to be expected since he hasn't been eating much.

The Moving Guy

Evan's new thing is to take the little table out of his room and push it around the house. He's graduated up from pushing his walker to pushing his red wagon through the yard, and now furniture.



The one nice thing is that Evan does like putting things back...like his table. He is also great at throwing things away in the trash can for us.



Accident waiting to happen...we had to put his chair away since he now likes to climb on it, stand on it and rock it back and forth:

Sierra Vista March For Babies

Today was the Sierra Vista March For Babies. Team Warrior 06 formed up again to walk the 5k around Veteran's Park. The weather was perfect for the walk (we froze last year). Evan had a good time running around the playground. Anna (who was in charge of the event) had asked me to make a display board showing Evan's progress. She took a picture of us after the event and I'll post it as soon as she sends it to me. We'll also be walking in the Tucson event next Saturday up at the University of Arizona.

The vids below are of Evan playing in a "tent" that was a birthday gift from our friend Kelly. It was a neat gift that had this tent along with an inflatable chair (Evan likes sitting on) and minature versions of a soccer ball, football and a baseball to throw at the nets on the tent.

Artwork

"Bubbles"

We have witnessed Evan saying the word "bubbles". Of course, when we try to get him on camera doing it, he won't say it...:-)



Evan had a home visit today with Carol and Mandy from the Blake Foundation. Mandy is an occupational therapist and she will hopefully help with Evan's eating issues. Today was just answering a lot of questions for her to start her case report. She was happy to see that Evan can drink out of a regular cup (with a lot of help from us holding it). She and Carol both gave us some more tips to use to try to get Evan to eat more. He's falling back into his old pattern of not eating a whole lot. He did eat a lot of lunch today (tomato soup and grilled cheese), but barely any dinner for us again. Mandy is planning on visiting him at daycare within the week to do another observation.

21 Months Old Today

Evan hit the big 2-1 today...21 months that is. Here are some pictures of him pondering his big day ahead of him.

Roller Painting

Symmetrical Painting

Feather Painting

Sticker Collage

3-D Petals

Crayon Drawing

Sports Collage

Finger Painting

Mya's Birthday Party

Today was Mya's 1st birthday party at Joey's house. Crazy to think it's been a year since Mya was born (she's come so far)! Joey has a swing set in the backyard and Evan was liking the car swing.



I snapped this vid of Mya "digging in" to her birthday cake:

Evan's A Medal Winner!!

Evan was overjoyed to be pulled out of bed early to run the Thunder Mountain 5K/10K with Mom (NOT)! He was mister grumpy until the race was over. We ran the 5k in 36 minutes (and I think we were bypassed by the winners of the 10k, but that's o.k.). The course was uphill (a lot), so I think we did fine considering.

After the race, they held a "Diaper Dash" for all kids under 5. Evan was the third place winner (out of 3 kids). He did great considering the other 2 kids had him on height by like a foot.






This is a pic of my co-workers who also ran/walked the race:

Follow the Bouncing Ball

Wallpaper Collage

Door Open...Door Closed

Evan has this peculiar thing that doors cannot stay open. We've already experienced a few smashed-finger incidents; but he's getting smarter about moving his fingers out of the way.

Finally Seeing A Good Weight Gain

It was time for Evan's monthly Synagis shot today. The upside to it is that we get a weight check on him. Today he weighed 18 pounds 11 ounces, which is is 1 pound 5 ounce gain in one month. He still has a long way to go to get caught up on weight, but he's getting closer to that 20 pound milestone. The nurse told us he only has one more Synagis shot for this season at the end of April.

Dr. Hassan (the gastroenterologist) is keeping Evan on the Prevacid a bit longer. He wants us to wean him off of it (day on/day off) for 30 more doses (so 2 months longer). It will be nice not having to ambush Evan every morning to dump the granules into his mouth (he's getting good at anticipating it).

? Painting

Flower Collage

Fabric Collage

Easter Egg Hunt Part 2

Evan had a more successful egg hunt at our neighbor's house today. Evan joined in the fun with Tina and Robert's grandkids (of course Evan was the smallest/youngest guy there)! He and Ethan had some time to hunt before the older kids came out. He needed some coaxing, but finally figured out what he was supposed to do.

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter egg hunt day! We had two events to choose from, the city egg hunt or the post egg hunt at the PX. My friend Sunny suggested we go to the one on post since it's smaller and they hide gift cards in the eggs. Evan "found" one egg and Sunny snuck two into his basket (despite another parent telling Sunny the hunt was just for the kids...whatever...the boy isn't even 2 give him a break)!!



Here is a vid of Evan "finding" his egg:

Follow the Bouncing Ball

Evan was having a good time with this little plastic ball that looked like a basketball (it had a Florida Gator on it)...until Max got it.

Yarn Art

Artwork

First "Therapy" Session

Evan's first daycare meeting with Elizabeth and Carol was today. Elizabeth is Evan's case worker (so to speak) through the Blake Foundation which is part of the Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP). They observed him during breakfast time so Carol (who is a speech therapist) can see how he eats and interacts during the mealtime. Of course Evan barely ate anything (they were served biscuits and bananas) so they saw a typical morning for him. He interacted well with the rest of the class (like he usually does).

The next visit will be next Monday at our house so they can work with him in our home environment. They also want us to put objects close to our mouths when we say the names for them so Evan can see how we are forming the words.

St. Paddy's Day Art

Happy St. Paddy's A Little Early

O.k....I know these look a little freaky, but I thought it spotlighted Evan's dancing ability very well.

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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.

Undated Artwork Circa March 2008