The Small Things

For the past month or so I've been keep a running "notepad" on my computer of all the small things that Evan has said or done. Here they are:

• For the longest time, Evan insisted on doing EVERYTHING on his own. All we heard was, "Evan do it!" Now he has reverted and wants US to do everything for him. He wants to be carried. He wants us to pick up anything he needs. Etc. Etc. Etc.
  
• We were at the furniture store a few weeks ago buying his new bedroom set. As we were walking through the store, Evan farted very loudly. He laughed and said, "Evan farted." Later in the night while we were still there he of course asked to be picked up, but then told us "Can't walk, legs are broken."
• On vacation in North Carolina we ate lunch at Panera. A GoGurt (yogurt in a tube) came with his sandwich. He kept saying, "Mmm, tastes good!"
• When talking about certain things, he'll say "Very, very, very far" or "Very, very, very hot."
• He finally figured out how to blow bubbles.
• We recently had AT&T U-verse installed, and the installer was at our house for several hours. Evan was intrigued by the process and was keeping a careful eye on everything. When we put him down for his nap that afternoon, he kept calling for the "man" through the monitor.

And my favorite:

• When we're in the car Evan will look out the window and say, "Hi! Coffee please!"

Such a Big Boy

Evan has gone through some major changes the past few weeks. Shortly after our trip to North Carolina I began potty training with him. I was not sure if he was ready but figured we would give it a try before I go back to school. I prepped for Day 1 by getting his Elmo potty ready, all his new underwear (Elmo, Cars characters and Thomas the Train) washed and a reward system in place. This was the plan: go directly to underwear and only use diapers/pull ups for nap and bedtime and place him on his potty every 15 minutes or so. I created a reward system for him by putting plastic Easter eggs in a decorated plastic shoebox with a piece of chocolate or small toy inside each egg. He received 1 egg for going #1 and 2 eggs for going #2. To say the first day was rough is an understatement. I expected the accidents but did not know how emotionally difficult it was going to be. For the first half of the day Evan was completely hysterical when I put him on the potty. I think that he really needed to go, but he was afraid of the "release". But, by day 2 he was getting the hang of it and after only 4 or 5 days we made it through a day at Brookfield Zoo with no accidents. He is now telling us when he has to use the bathroom and rarely has accidents. And in case you are wondering, I am not like Kate Gosselin - I did not take any pictures of anything IN the potty.

Evan enjoying his first reward

Yummy!

Running around in his Elmo underwear

I also took a video of Evan in his underwear behaving in typical goofy Evan mode. (Please ignore the mess in the background. This is our spare bedroom.)

We decided to also put Evan in a big boy bed (again since I'm home and it's much easier to deal with any difficulties when I don't have to work the next day). We've been working hard the past few days changing his room from a nursery to a boy's room, and tonight was the first night he slept in his new bed. I'll post more pictures of the actual room when it's fully complete, but for now here's a few of Evan in the bed.



My little baby is growing up too quickly! Sniff Sniff

Vacation in North Carolina

Once again, I am slacking in keeping up with my blog. Even though I've been home, I just don't know where my time goes. Oh yeah, I'm trying to chase a very active toddler all day long!

Anyways, over the 4th of July long weekend we visited my sister, Alexis, and her hubby, Curtis in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. Our trip began with Evan's first airplane ride. We were VERY nervous about how Evan would react to the plane and deal with being confined for the 2 hour flight, but he did amazing. It helped that we were over prepared for the trip and brought with us a portable DVD player, coloring books, new markers, a few new toy cars (including a Lightening McQueen) and several of his favorite books. His favorite part of the trip was taking off since the airplane went "FAST!"

Watching a movie with his bear headphones

The second day there we drove to Wilmington and went to Wrightsville Beach. It was a beautiful area and the weather was perfect. This was Evan's first time on a beach or seeing the ocean. He was very reluctant to walk in the sand but with some coaxing he did collect some shells and build some sand castles. Evan was basically petrified of the water, and no matter how hard we tried to make the water fun for him, he was not interested.





On July 4th we toured the USS North Carolina.





That afternoon we drove back to Raleigh to watch a local fireworks display. Evan recently became fearful of thunder and as we expected, he did not like the fireworks either. He spent almost the entire time hiding his face in our shoulders.

These pictures were taken before the fireworks started.

It was raining on our last full day visiting them, so we went to a children's museum in downtown Raleigh. Evan LOVED being there, however we adults were getting very annoyed at the other children there and the lack of supervision by their parents. I could go on, but I won't...






We all had a great time and were sad to leave, but we're already planning our trip back there next summer!