Party Day...Let the Rains Begin!

It started out a beautiful day...we had high hopes that the rain would hold off! By 4pm the skies had clouded up, the wind shifted and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees...we still had high hopes the rain would hold off! Well...the rain came down...hard!!

You can see a storm off in the distance...but that wasn't the storm that would visit us! The deluge came from the mountains in the west.




As the storm approaches (you can hear the thunder)...we tried to get Evan to open presents (it just wasn't happening). He got locked on to Joey and Deb's present.




A vid of the die-hards who rode the storm out. Thanks to everyone who helped us load up.

Trying to Get Caught Up

Apologies for the lack of posts...with the grandparents flying in, it's been hectic. We hope to get things updated after this weekend. I got an e-mail from one of my oldest friends from high school (who ironically also is a Theta)...she and her husband will be travelling to China in a few weeks to pick up their new daughter! I added Tracey's blog to my list on the right, so you can read about their adventures.

New Slideshow

Here are some pics from the past year...the blog page cuts off the right side unfortunately. You can mute the music on the window since it loops the same song over and over. :-)

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Spider Bite! :-(

One of the downsides to all the monsoon rain we've been getting, it brings the spiders and bugs out. Today at daycare Evan was "bit" by a tarantula. The daycare director said this was the first time in the 20 years she has been there that this has happened. The kids were outside for waterplay and they managed to capture the spider so we could take it to the ER with us. It was just a precaution to take him to the ER since the daycare personnel had already contacted poison control and knew this wasn't an emergency situation.

Luckily, Evan didn't have an allergic reaction to the bites. By the time we picked him up, he was playing like nothing unusual happened aside from all the attention he was getting. The spider was definitely the hit of the ER for the morning. We figured out it was a male and it was about 4-5 inches across.

The spider left 8 marks on him that look like bite marks, but the spacing between them seemed too big for a bite. The ER doctor thinks maybe the spider pinched him, which he said is typical for tarantulas. One of the ER nurses thought maybe Evan was having an skin reaction to the hairs on the spider since that is also a defense mechanism for tarantulas. After about an hour in the ER we really don't know exactly how the marks got there (if it was a bite, a pinch, or from hairs), but Evan's absolutely fine. T took the spider and released him back into the wild up on post.

The bite trail:




Evan was his normal nutty self waiting for the doc:


Click here if you want to read more about tarantula bites: http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/TOPIC550.HTM

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!