Sweet Dreams

While I was pregnant with Evan, I started singing the Dixie Chicks' song Sweet Dreams to him. Once he was born I continued singing it to him almost every night before I put him down to bed. When he was an infant, he would just go with it and did not seem to react. But as he started getting a little older, he would smile when I started singing it and sometimes say "again" when I was done singing. There are some nights where he doesn't want to hear it, and that's OK. There are days where I am not in the mood to hear certain songs. In the past week or two, though, he has started trying to sing along with me. It is the sweetest thing hearing his little voice saying some of the words with me.

Here is the video of the Dixie Chicks (well, just Natalie) singing the song at one of their concerts. I actually went to that concert here in Chicago. It was the first time I had ever heard the song and immediately fell in love with it.

Cooking Class

Last Monday was MLK Day, which meant no school for me! I had been wanting to make playdough with Evan for a long time, so it was a perfect day for it. He really enjoyed adding all the ingredients and stirring it with a spoon, since he is always wanting to help me when I'm cooking. When the playdough was ready he immediately starting smushing it with his hands and playing with all the playdough tools. He kept saying "Yay playdough!"

Adding the flour

Stirring

Wow!

Here's the recipe if anyone is interested:

2 1/2 C Flour

1/2 C Salt

1 T baby powder

3 T oil

2 packets Kool-aid - the ones without sugar added, any flavor

1 1/2 C boiling water

Stir all ingredients together. You'll have to keep adding more flour (sometimes more than a cup) until the playdough is no longer sticky.

Winter Blues

This has been a very long winter, and it's still only January. If it's not snowing, it's been extremely cold. What hasn't helped is that for the past week and a half Evan and I have been battling bad colds. Needless to say, Evan was trapped inside our house for about a week since he was too sick to go to our sitter's house. This weekend he was finally feeling better, but he was extremely crabby. We're guessing a lot of it was that he was just bored and going stir crazy. Yesterday, on a whim, we decided to take Evan to Odyssey Fun World, which is comparable to a Chuck E Cheese with various video games, mini kiddie rides, etc. They also have Mini golf and other activities outside which will be fun once the weather gets nice again. This was a VERY good decision that we made. Evan had a blast. The best part, besides the fact that there were hardly any other kids there, was that Evan enjoyed all the little kiddie rides without even putting money in it! He was content just sitting in them and "driving". We also spent a good amount of time in the play area with all of the tubes, climbing nets, and ball pits. Evan did really well trying out all of the new climbing activities since he can often be leary of new things.

Evan's expression upon seeing the first ride inside

Crawling through one of the first tunnels

Throwing a ball in the ball pit

Going down the slide on his tummy

Crawling around with daddy

2 year old Stats

Evan had his 2 year well visit on Tuesday. He normally is a pretty good boy at the doctor's office and overall this time was no exception. He initially had a little melt down when the nurse came into the waiting room and when we all went to get his weight. I think he was just scared of the unfamiliar place and people, and he did comply with everything he was asked to do. The doctor said Evan is doing great and he can go down to 2% milk or even lower if we want. He is still on the smaller side with his height and weight - 33 inches tall and almost 26 pounds but he's growing so that's what it is important (and it's not like he's coming from a family of basketball players!). His head continues to grow too, and thanks to his Repking genes (HAHA) he's around the 90th percentile for head circumference.

Surprisingly I have no new pictures to post!

My Little Eskimo

I hate snow. I hate everything about it - cleaning my car off, leaving home even earlier in the morning to get to work on time, tracking it into our front hallway, etc, etc, etc. About the only thing I used to like about snow was looking at it from inside the house on a day where I had nowhere I had to go. Luckily Evan has changed my opinion - slightly - very slightly. Here in lovely Chicago we have already had several significant snowfalls, including some over the past weekend. On Sunday after Evan's nap, we bundled him up for the first time to play in the snow. We weren't sure how he would react since he can be very hesitant about new things, but he really seemed to enjoy it immediately. We had bought him a little sled a while back and were anxious to let him play with it (especially since he threw a HUGE tantrum in Babies R Us the day we bought it because he wanted to sit in the sled in the store). He seemed to have mixed feelings about it. He would be smiling one second then have a scared look on his face the next. Although we couldn't build a snowman since the snow was too light and fluffy, he did really enjoy throwing the snow up in the air. There's always next time...

Halfway through the dressing process - Evan insisted on wearing my hat for awhile

The snow was up to his knees!

A Supreme Wiggler

As promised, here's more footage of Evan dancing to the Wiggles. The first one is the Shimmie Shake again. I tried to get the TV in the video so you can see Evan really trying to imitate some of the dance moves. You can also even hear him change pitches with the music. The second one is Old Man Tucker. On the movie, the main Wiggle is wearing a cowboy hat and dancing. Evan decided to grab his firefighter hat and use that as his prop. At the end of my video, Evan lays down on the floor, which is what the Wiggles character does at one point in the song. What an entertainer!

The Art of Stalling

Stalling must be some innate skill that all humans posses. At the young age of 2, Evan has mastered that skill. It started just a short while ago, mostly at bedtime and naptime. Before bed, we always read several books with Evan, and he usually is able to choose what books we read. Now he will walk to his bookcase, squat down and say "Hmmm, Hmmm" as he is deciding which one he wants. He will also pull a book out, look at the cover, say "Mmmm, no" and put it back. Then he will try to trick us. He pulls out a book and acts like he wants to read it by walking over to the rocking chair, but then he'll just set it on the ottoman and walk back to the bookcase. His newest strategy is asking for milk or rubbing his tummy and saying "Hungry."

Here is the newest video of Evan dancing to the Wiggles. We bought him a new DVD for Christmas called You Make Me Feel Like Dancing. It has some really upbeat songs from the 60's on up. Evan has really gotten into this DVD and he's dancing and singing along more than ever. The song in the background is called the Shimmie Shake and was made to look like The Beatles (it even has an introduction like the Ed Sullivan Show). Make sure to turn up the volume so you can hear him singing a little. He actually isn't into it as much as he normally is in this video, but I hope to get a better one soon.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Evan!

Evan turned 2 years old day. Seriously, where did the time go? It's just amazing to think of how much he has grown in just 2 years. Although we didn't really do anything to celebrate today, we did have a family party 2 days after Christmas. Since Elmo is Evan's new favorite character, we had an Elmo themed party, especially since the Wiggles one I found was WAY too creepy. Evan opened more presents (for the 4th day in a row) and received lots of fun toys. Alexis made Elmo cupcakes, and although he didn't eat the cupcake part, he loved the candy that was on top!

Opening his Little People airplane from Auntie Lisa and Uncle Mike

Snuggling up in his Pooh blanket from Uncle Brad and Wendy

A talking Elmo doll from Alexis and Curtis

Evan's expression at seeing his new kitchen from mommy and daddy for the 1st time

He immediately started playing with it!

Going down his slide from grandma and grandpa

Yummy!

Enjoying his Elmo candy

Trying to get a family picture with an anxious Evan wanting to play with his new toys

A look back to Evan's original birthday

And a year later...

Christmas in Chicago - Part Dos

The day after Christmas we finally had our Christmas "morning" at our own house. We started by opening more gifts with Evan. Again, as soon as he opened something he liked, he wanted to just play with that toy. With some encouragement he opened all of his gifts. We then enjoyed a breakfast of waffles (using my new waffle maker). Evan spent the morning playing with all of his new toys, and we tried to recooperate from a very busy week. We look forward to being home next year on Christmas morning, when Evan begins to truly undesrtand the concept of Santa, and beginning our own family traditions.

Santa came!

Opening his first gift - MegaBlocks

Santa's gift tag

Evan's favorite toy - a vet hospital with keys for each kennel and a set of vet's tools (stethescope, thermometer, etc.)

Dr. Evan

And finally, a short video of Evan opening his new Wiggles DVD

Christmas in Chicago - Part 1

Resuming from where I last left off, we headed back home from Effingham after Christmas brunch. We had a very nice trip back - little traffic, no weather conditions to worry about, and Evan slept the whole way back. Once we got home, we unloaded the car, relaxed for a brief moment, then headed to my parents' house for dinner. Alexis and Curtis were also in town for the week, so we were very happy to see them. We opened more gifts, ate a delicious dinner, and then we put Evan to sleep in the pack and play so we could continue our annual tradition of a very competitive game night. Around 1 am we brought home a very sleepy boy and finally prepared our own house for Santa's arrival the next morning (he came to our house Dec 26th this year - how nice of him!).

Evan sporting his Diego backpack

Opening gifts as Alexis and my dad look on

Playing with his Wiggles' big red carHappy to see his nouna and nouno

Relaxing with the Tickle Me Elmo doll I received as a gift in high school - glad we saved it!