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!!