Oh Baby!

Last night I was the hostess for a Lia Sophia party. My friend, Toni, is a new representative for the company, and I was happy to host one of the first parties for her. She brought trays of beautiful jewelry. Hearing that, you would think the 8 women at my house would be completely focused on shopping for jewelry, after all, what is more fun than that? Now, let's add 4 infants to the mix, and where do you think all of our attention was? On the babies, of course!! Three of my co-workers and myself all had a baby within a 4 month period. Something was definately in the water at Millennium School!! First came Kristen's little boy, Carter, in November. Then came my Evan in January. Kim's little one, Benjamin, was next. Then finally, Dana had a little girl, McKenzie in early March. It was so much fun seeing all the babies together and sharing our stories of mommyhood. It was amazing to see the huge difference in the oldest baby compared to the youngest, which will be insignificant in a few years. Throughout the night, each baby took his/her turn needing to be fed, being fussy, or crying. That was until the end of the night when each baby was strapped into the carseat and they were ALL crying!! (Except for Evan since he was the lucky one at his own house!) We couldn't help but laugh!

More New Faces

Last weekend was a busy one for Evan, seeing many new faces. On Friday, my cousin Diane was in town with her 3 year old daughter, Madison, and her 1 month old daughter, Paige. They were all very excited to meet each other! Paige was adorable, and I couldn't get over how big Evan looked compared to her. It's amazing what a difference a few months makes when they are so young!

On Saturday my friend Carrie and her husband, Steve, came from Indy to visit. Evan gave them a taste of what parenthood feels like! The four of us went out to Hollywood Blvd (a great theater that everyone should visit) while Evan stayed home with Aunt Alexis and Uncle Curtis.

Here are the latest Evan updates:
He started playing a game where he will stick out his tongue, then wait for you to stick yours out at him. This goes back and forth for awhile, and the whole time he has a great big smile on his face. He is also purposefully putting his hand in his mouth, although sometimes he misses and hits his cheek instead.

Here's Evan in his daddy's favorite outfit:

Butler Bulldogs

Congratulations to the Butler Bulldogs for winning against Old Dominion and Maryland and making it to the Sweet Sixteen!! They've become the team that "everyone loves to love." =) Let's wish them luck when they play Florida next Friday!!

Video Troubleshooting

For those of you who were unable to view the videos on my last post, here's a link to the troubleshooting on YouTube. You will probably need to download the latest version of a Flash Player.

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=56115&topic=10560

A Cute Video

Here's videos of Evan playing with his farm animal play gym. It's actually only 1 video but I had to break it into 2 because of the size. Sorry if the quality isn't the greatest...

It's a Sunshine Day

Growing up I loved watching reruns of the Brady Bunch. Yesterday reminded me of one of the Brady Kids' (in)famous songs, It's a Sunshine Day. Some of the lyrics:

i think i'll go for a walk outside now the summer sun's callin my name I just cant stay inside all day I gotta get out get me some of those rays... everybody's smilin sunshine day everybody's laughin sunshine day everybody seems so happy today it's a sunshine day

After weeks of cold weather, the sun was shining and the temperature hit around 70 degrees. How can you not be in a good mood with weather like that in the middle of March in Chicago?! I put Evan in the stroller and we took our first walk outside. His enthusiasm about being outside didn't exactly match mine, and he slept the whole time. Maybe next time he'll look around a little more. On top of the gorgeous weather, Evan slept for 6 CONSECUTIVE hours the night before! Of course, though, when I woke up after about 4 hours, I was a little worried and my ear was glued to the monitor to make sure that he was OK. Too bad he reverted to his typical 2-3 hour routine last night! But, maybe this is a sign of good things coming soon!

In other updates, I know he is too young for this, but Evan is learning to manipulate us at a very young age. His new thing (well, he's done it a few times) is to spit out his pacifier and smile. It's really quite funny! Evan also had 2 month old dr's appointment last week. While the doctor had him on his tummy, Evan decided it was time to show off and rolled over for the doctor. The doc was pretty suprised to see how strong he is! Evan also survived his first set of immunizations - 2 shots in each leg. I expected him to be cranky for the next day or so, but he was acting his usual self! The shots didn't seem to phase him. Hopefully the next ones go just as well!

Our First Road Trip

This past weekend we took Evan down to Effingham, which is about a 3 hour drive, to meet Rick's family and friends. We loaded up the car Friday afternoon - who would think a 2 month old baby would need so much stuff for just 3 days?? The cargo area was filled! The trip down there went relatively smoothly, except for a "pooping" incident when we stopped to feed him at a rest area. Let's just say thank goodness for baby wipes and for packing extra outfits!

Throughout the weekend Evan had a lot of visitors! Rick's grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins stopped by, all taking turns to hold him. Our friends Kevin and Jen brought Benjamin, their adorable 10 month old son over. It was fun watching the two of them look at each other! Soon they'll be playing and getting into trouble together. We were also able to visit with our friends Dave and Debra and were thrilled to hear their good news! Will another boy join the group or will it be a girl??

We all had a great time seeing everyone and can't wait to visit again!

Rick's grandparents meeting Evan for the first time. He really was happy to see them!

Evan and Ben

A Happy Baby

Yes, I've been slacking with the blog the past few weeks. There's not much to report here, so I figured I'd post a few new pictures. As you can see, Evan is smiling a lot now, and he's become much more active and alert. We've had a few outings, and they've all gone well. Evan slept through shopping in Target and Trader Joe's. My biggest problem is getting his carseat into the shopping carts. I think I need to start lifting weights!! Plus, when people park too close to my car, it makes it nearly impossible to open the door wide enough to fit the carseat through. They need to make handicapped-type spaces for moms with babies!

Playing with the animals