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