Training in Bisbee

In a previous post I think I mentioned how Evan and I are usually in Bisbee every weekend "training" for the annual Bisbee 1000 Stairclimb in October. Evan has been doing great in the backpack and manages to find a comfy position to sleep in during the walk! My co-worker Terri has been joining us and these are some pics she took with her camera phone.

A view of Castle Rock and the Bisbee "B":


Evan and I making it up the last set of stairs (Perley Street steps):


Evan waiting for the "magic door" to open on the van:


Is this kid too cool or what?!

Sand Art

Last Check-up with the Pulm

Today Evan had a check-up with his pulmonologist, Dr. Brown. It's great that Dr. Brown comes down to Sierra Vista now. Of course, Evan was sounding crispy thanks to one of his daycare buds having croup the week prior. We weren't expecting a huge weight gain (and we were right)...20 pounds 14 ounces (and that was him fully dressed). He measured at 30.5 inches, so I think that's a .25 inch gain in height from his 2-year old check up in July.

Despite Evan sounding horrible, Dr. Brown doesn't need to see him anyone! He wants us to continue giving him the albuterol treatments every so often when he's sounding bad.

Checking Out My Favorite Shows

Evan has been fascinated by the Playhouse Disney page on the computer. He can't quite work the mouse, but understands how to click. His current favorite TV show webpages to view are "Handy Manny", "My Friends Tigger and Pooh", and "Little Einsteins".

Evan's an Ambassador!

Today I got a call from the March of Dimes office in Tucson and was notified that Evan will be an "Ambassador" at the Sierra Vista Jail and Bail Event in September. We're not sure what all that entails (I don't think he gets a crown)! ;-)

Info on what Jail and Bail is all about:

One of the March of Dimes favorite events, Jail & Bail brings together community leaders and ordinary citizens for a common cause... fighting birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Since its inception in 1957, more than 5 million citizens have volunteered their time in the name of fun - and a good cause.

At this event, volunteer "jailbirds" serve time in a "mock jail." "Prisoners" are arraigned before a volunteer judge on trumped-up, outlandish charges, such as "reckless golf-cart driving." They are then sentenced to spend an hour in "the slammer" to raise bail in the form of donations to the March of Dimes. Nearly 500 events are held annually across the country.

Yummy Garlic Powder!

Evan has found a new "fun place" in the house...the corner cabinet and spice rack. He does a great job taking lids off....but it's the putting them back on that he hasn't mastered yet. Needless to say, the smell of garlic powder sticks on ya for a while.

Cool Dude

Ever since we can remember, Evan has never liked wearing hats or having anything on his face...it seems he's taking a liking to a pair of sunglasses. His nose is still a bit short to keep them up on his face.

Today we went to an open house being held by our church...Evan was the cutest guy there with his sunglasses on (of course). He even ate a few bites of a hot dog for me! He was the biggest helper running back an forth to the garbage can throwing away his plate and cup.

Back To His Normal Self?

Evan's cranky-pants phase at daycare has passed quickly (for now)! After experiencing the "tough love" from the teachers, he's back to his regular self! His eating habits still change from day to day...2 days ago he was a crazy-good eater; yesterday, not so much; today, a good eating day (2 servings of mixed veggies.....what's up with that)?. He's definitely doing things on his time! All of a sudden, he has started using sign language for "more". He's also able to point to an object in a book after we ask him to find it.

Bubble Machine

Evan loves bubbles!



Even Dad likes playing with the bubbles!

Extreme Cranky Pants

For the past few days at daycare, Evan has had a big personality shift (so to say). Towards the end of last week, Evan started getting very clingy and wanted to be held all the time. The teachers thought maybe he was sick since the funk has been going around; but we noticed he was fine at home.

Yesterday, he pitched such a fit that we had to pick him up at 10am. As soon as we headed out the door of the daycare, he was absolutely fine....hmmmm, there's a pattern here. This morning, he went into his usual fit when I dropped him off. I watched him via the close-circuit camera system at the front desk and saw he was an absolute cranky-pants (which is not his usual self). He got so bad, his teacher had take him away from the breakfast table since he kept flinging his head backward.

One of the head ladies at the school watched with me and we realized that Evan was totally "playing" Ms. Sara, his teacher. Whenever she walked away, he would go into a fit; when she would try to comfort him, he would quiet down (what a player)! We decided the course of action would be for Sara to totally ignore him and it worked! Sara called me later in the morning to say he was settled down. I think he realized at a certain point that it wasn't working and turned back into his regular self.

It seems Evan's behavior is the unfortunate result of him being so well liked by the teachers that they do tend to coddle him more than the other children in his class. Since he's the "little guy" they like to protect him from the bigger (but younger) kids. So now they have to be a little "tougher" on him, which is fine since he can't be out of control in class.

Here is pic of Evan doing a very bad thing...sitting on Max. For some reason, Evan tries to ride Max and Sadie and he'll chase them all over the yard and house (poor pups). With Max's hip problems, it's a big no-no, and Evan just doesn't understand.

Playing in the Yard

You can see in the video that Sadie had a little surgery today. She had a tumor on her right front leg (I guess you could call it the shoulder area). The vet said they were able to get it all, but we have to keep a watch on the area since the type of tumor she had can return.

I had her shaved down at the groomers a few days ago since she was shedding like crazy. She has a Siamese-cat-like look to her now!

Tissue

Blue

2-Year Old Check-Up

Evan had his 2-year check-up today and we were hopeful to see him post a weight over 20 pounds. He made it with an extra 2 oz! So Evan at 2 years and 1 day, weighs 20 pounds 2 ounces. His height is now 30.25 inches, so he's gained a bit of height.

No significant things to report from the doctor's visit aside from Evan sounding a bit wheezy to the doc. Never fails that Evan gets congested right before going to the doc; so we'll try to give him an albuterol treatment to help clear him out.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Happy 2nd birthday to the Ev-man!

Blowing out the candle on his cake:



Evan likes imitating Dad when he's playing with the Wii:

2-year Old Pics

Evan turned two today...and with pictures today, he had to turn "terrible two"! We were lucky to get what we got!

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!

Artwork

First "Tiny Tumblers" Class

In an effort to get Evan moving his body in different ways; I enrolled him in a "Tiny Tumblers" class with the local gymnastics group. He goes to class once a week for 45 minutes (which is definitely the maximum attention span for him). He didn't quite know what he was supposed to do, which I expected. He was more interested in hanging out with the older girls (of course). It was extremely warm in the gym (welcome to the hot days before monsoon season comes)!

Evan "stretching" before class:



He wasn't sure what to do next:



At the first station where he is supposed to hang on the rings and walk a little thing that simulates the width of a balance beam:



Trying to hang on the rings:




"Walking" the balance beam:



Trying the rings again:



Moving on to the next station (the trampoline and pit), Evan sat back and observed first:



He ventured out onto the trampoline:



Going into the pit:



One thing he did like was flipping over backwards:



At the third station they are supposed to hang from the bar, roll down the wedge, go through the tunnel and do a cartwheel



Evan did like going through the tunnel...although here he decided to go backwards:



"Cooling down" at the end of class, I had to chase him down a few times to come sit down, he wanted to be with the older girls working on their floor routines ;-)



Whew! All done!!

Sand/Water Table

Our back porch and back yard isn't a very exciting place for Evan to play. I got him a combination water table and sand table to give him something to play with. He was excited about spilling the sand out of the table.

Ribbon Art

Splat Art

Artwork

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