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

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.

Trying to Get Well!

I guess when it rains, it pours! We both got back to work this week, I'm still hacking up a lung though. To top it off, on Tuesday, I got a bout of food poisoning. One of my co-workers also got sick (we ate cherry turnovers from Safeway). T is almost back to normal, so hopefully we'll be all better by the end of the weekend.

Not Much to Post From the Sick Family!

We've finally experienced the whole-house sickness. It started last Friday night with Evan running a high fever that never broke the whole weekend. The entire weekend he wanted to be held. I had to sleep with him on my chest for three nights (ouch)! I managed to get Evan in to see the doc on Monday and found out he had a blazing ear infection. He got a shot of a high dose antibiotic and I had to bring him back on Tuesday for a second course of the antibiotic. This is only his second major ear infection, so that's not too bad I think. We were able to get Evan back to daycare on Wednesday afternoon.

T took to the sick bed on Sunday and didn't really emerge until Tuesday to go the doctor. I started getting the funk on Sunday and I'm still trying to kick it. T has a sick-pass from the doc for work, and he stayed home all week. I went in to work yesterday feeling miserable and stayed home today and slept most of the day. T's prescription cough medicine worked miracles!

Hope to back to our cheery selves this weekend. ;-)

A Little Snowy Day

Living in southern Arizona, we get some odd weather. Yesterday and today we had some snowy weather blow through. It's not much snow, but always fun to see for the few hours it's here.

Funny Shirts

I found this website on -line called www.cafepress.com. You can find t-shirts with a whole host of slogans and such. I did a search on "Japan" and found a handful of cute youth-sized shirts for Evan. I tried to get a picture of him in this one: Club Sumo Train Hard and Eat Plenty.

Happy V Day and 19 Months!

Evan hit the 19 month mark today. Thank goodness I threw out the baby books a long time ago since I would be depressed reading about what he should be doing at this age. One website says at 19 months he should be able to: use a spoon and fork; Runs; throw a ball underhand; enjoy helping around the house. That's a big no-go here! I had to back-track on the website to see where he does fit in and there was no one age since he's all over the place on what he can do. Some of the 16 months tasks he can do: turn the pages of a book; and discovers the joys of climbing (he loves climbing down the bed and couch so much to the point he's dangerous now). Being that he was 10 weeks premature, I guess that's not too bad.

Tomorrow we have a preliminary meeting with the Blake Foundation people to do a reevaluation on him.

Kicking the Ball Around

Evan kicking the ball around the backyard. Evan is getting the hang of the walking-thing, he only needs one hand to help him now.

Jello Painting

EGD at TMC

Today Evan has his EGD at Tucson Medical Center. The EGD was a "Esophagogastroduodenoscopy"...um, yeah, real easy to say. Basically, Dr. Hassan put a camera down his throat to view his esophagus, stomach and upper duodenum. Evan was put under local anesthesia so he didn't feel a thing during the procedure.

The procedure was very quick, only about 5 minutes, but the prep time to put him under took the most time. Of course Evan was not a happy guy even at the beginning when the nurse was getting his weight and other vital signs. We had to wait a while since there was a back-up of patients, so Evan eventually calmed down and just watched all the nurses go by taking care of the other adult out-patients having similar procedures done. When it came time for the procedure he went right to the anesthesiologist.

After the procedure Evan was vomiting a bit of blood and mucus, which is common with the procedure. It took a little while to get him calmed down and to get him to drink some Pedialyte since he hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the night prior. We met with Dr. Hassn and and he said Evan does have GERD, but it wasn't an extreme case.

He gave Evan a prescription for Zantac that he has to take for the next 2 months (twice a day). If we don't see an improvement in his eating in about a week or so, Dr. Hassan wants to see him again. If we see improvement, we don't have to do a follow-up until 2-3 months. Dr. Hassan thinks this will solve his eating issues. We'll see!

"Walking" in the Backyard

Evan "walking" in the backyard with some help:

Visiting With Grandma

Evan's Grandma and Aunt Yoko were out here visiting for the week. Evan got to play hooky from daycare.







He walks a few steps in this vid:

Baby Steps

Still no big walking steps from Evan. At least we've convinced him to let go of the coffee table and he stumbles a few steps towards us. He's happy to give high-fives after he does it, so hopefully he is understanding he's doing a good thing.

Trying to Get Out of Daycare Early

I got a call today from daycare, this time it was that Evan was running a fever (102 degrees). Poor guy was all red in the face when we picked him up. The big worry is with all the RSV cases, that possibly Evan was picking it up late. I called the doctor's office (at 2pm on a Friday, good luck getting anyone)...one of the nurses called us back. She reassured us that if Evan had RSV it would be very evident. We gave him some Tylenol and his fever eventually broke. We figured it was Evan's old way of getting out of daycare early on a Friday. ;-)

Walking??

I get a call from one of Evan's daycare teachers today (my first thought was that he was sick), but Sarina called to tell us Evan took a few steps today. We weren't able to get him to walk at home later that day, but we hope to get him on video as soon as it happens.

More RSV Cases

T said 6 kids were also diagnosed with RSV, but one of the infants on Evan's side of the room tested negative. Still no signs of sickness in Evan, so it looks like he's riding this one out.

Tomorrow is his appointment with Dr. Hassan, the Gastroenterologist. Evan is still eating like a bird...eating a little bit of table food at daycare, but pretty much nothing for us at home. He'll usually drink 8oz. or more of the Pediasure since he's chasing the dogs around with his walker, so he's getting some calories. He usually zonks out around 7:30-8:00pm and never shows any sign he's hungry. His vomitting has pretty much gone away (figures now that we have an appointment with a specialist).

A Lonely Kid At Daycare

When I dropped Evan off in his daycare class this morning, he was one of three kids (usually there are a lot more there). With the RSV outbreak, all the infants are staying home. Not sure if that is a facility policy or if parents are keeping their children home. Funny that the one kid susceptible to it is there...Evan!

Here is vid of him...still not walking on his own, but running with his walker after Dad and the dogs. For some reason, he's been in a no socks or shoes mode despite the cold tile floor.

RSV Outbreak at Daycare

We found out today that one of the children in Evan's daycare class was diagnosed with RSV. Yikes! The child had it since last Friday. Evan hasn't shown any signs of being sick...so those monthly Synagis shots must be doing their job!