Setting Up the Pool, Part 2

Unfortunately, Evan's first baby pool bit the dust, so we bought a new and improved pool. This one has a ring toss, ball toss, and a mini slide with sprinkler over it. Evan liked it, especially when we turned the sprinkler part on. He's still too scared to actually sit in the pool, but at least he enjoys splashing around!

18 months old

Evan turned 18 months old on July 5 and had his check up with the doctor this week. Everything looked great. He grew 2 inches and gained 1 pound since his last appointment 3 months ago, which puts him at the 50th percentile for height and between the 10th and 25th for weight. We acutally don't have to go back until his 2nd birthday, and after that it's just once a year! Kind of strange when we've been going at least every 3 months for the past year and a half.

Since Evan's birthday falls so close to Christmas, I never had 1 year old pictures taken, so I decided to get 18 month old pictures taken. We went back to Portrait Innovations again, and as usual they did a great job! Evan was not completely cooperative - whenever we asked him to do something, he shook his head no, but he smiled while he did that and they were still able to get some great shots. Here's a few pictures out of the 40 proofs they took:

4th (and 5th) of July Celebrations

Rick's parents and little brother, Jeff, came up and stayed with us for a few days during the 4th of July weekend. Evan was excited to have grandma and grandpa at our house. On the 4th we also had my parents over for dinner. Although Tinley Park puts on a pretty good fireworks show each year, we decided to skip it not knowing how Evan would react to the loud noises and huge crowds of people. He was content staying home and stepping on the little white things that snap when you throw them on the ground (can't think of what they're called at the moment).

Evan with Jeff and Lisa

On July 5th my friend, Missy, was having a barbeque at her house. Evan was entertained by all of Missy's relatives, especially her little cousin Aiden who is 7 years old. He let Evan wear his Sox hat (even though it SHOULD have been a Cubs hat) and shared his handheld Nintendo with him.

Smelling the pretty flowers

Evan and I with Missy

Our First Family Vacation

Growing up, there was never really a question of where we would go on vacation. Most summers we would make the drive up to Wisconsin Dells for a few days of fun and some great memories. So, we decided to continue the tradition and take our first family vacation to the Dells. It's only a few hours in the car, so we figured it would be a perfect place to go. Evan did great in the car ride, thanks to the new portable DVD player we bought (of course to watch The Wiggles) and also planning the ride around Evan's nap time.

After checking into the hotel, we walked in the downtown area where all of the touristy shops are and to buy delicious fudge! We then went on the riverwalk path and had dinner at a pub that overlooks the Wisconsin River. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and Evan went in a real pool for the first time. He was a little hesitant but had fun playing with the tiny fountains in the kiddie area. Eventually he made his way to the top of the play set (with some help) and went down the water slide with Rick. He loved it!!

The next day we went to Storybook Gardens/Timbavati Wildlife Park. Now, Storybook Gardens has been around for a very long time. There are displays and activities all tied to different nursery rhymes and characters. It's a very cute concept, but not quite exciting enough for kids today. They added the wildlife areas to jazz things up in the past few years. It was great and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with children. There were all different kinds of animals in cages, but unlike at the zoo, you are able to get fairly close to the animals and you're not dealing with huge crowds of people. There were kanagroos (with joeys in their pockets!), monkeys, birds, zebras, tigers, etc. The really nice part was that you were able to feed many of the animals - ducks, llamas, goats, and.... a giraffe! They also had a little train that went around the park that Evan went on twice, along with a carousel (which was quite old, but Evan doesn't know the difference).

Eating with The 3 Bears

An Evan sized house!

Riding the train with daddy...

and with mommy.

On our last full day the weather was not as beautiful as our first 2 days. We drove out to Wollersheim Winery and took a tour, then did a wine tasting. Not easy to do with a toddler, but it worked out OK. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures while we were there, but the area is beautiful! You would never guess it was in Wisconsin. The rest of the day was cloudy and rainy, so there wasn't much else to do for someone Evan's age. We tried going to an indoor amusement park, but all Evan could go on were the little rides that you would find in front of KMart. He did go on the little firetruck and thought it was fun.


At some point in our trip, we also tried to take a peek at Lake Delton. For those of you who haven't heard (it made National news), with the horrible rain storms the midwest had in late June, a levy that joins Lake Delton (the major lake in the Dells) with the Wisconsin River broke, and all the water from the lake emptied into the river, leaving a dry lake bed. This isn't the greatest picture of it, but just imagine all of the brown sandy areas covered in water, and that was Lake Delton. The area is really suffering from the lack of tourists there this summer - very sad - but they're hoping to get it refilled by next summer.



Anyways, Evan did great the whole vacation. Luckily he behaved in all the restaurants, and we avoided any huge meltdowns. It was a great first vacation for the Repking family!

The Wiggles

To say that Evan loves The Wiggles is an understatement. Now that he has learned how to say Wiggles (Wi Wi), I hear it all day long. We have some episodes recorded on our DVR and also have 2 DVDs. It is our savior when he is cranky or when I need to get something done around the house. If he finds ANY DVD (not just Wiggles), he brings it to us and says Wi Wi, Wi Wi, Wi Wi... For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it is 4 grown men singing and dancing to children's songs. Kind of creepy? Yes. But, he loves it, so whatever makes him happy. The sad thing is that now I go around all day with the Wiggles songs in my head! They're coming to Chicago in August for a concert so we'll be seeing The Wiggles live - hope Evan likes it!


Here's a picture of the Wiggles. See, I told you they are creepy!

Here's a video of Evan dancing to The Wiggles. If you listen closely you can hear him singing along in some parts.

Setting Up the Pool

On a beautiful day in June I decided to set up Evan's baby pool. Being the big boy that he is, he wanted to help me. After we inflated it, I took out the hose and showed Evan how to fill the pool up with water.

He tried...

and tried....

and finally got the hang of it!

The water was pretty cold coming out of the hose, so we filled the pool with some warm water from inside, but it was still too cold for Evan. So mommy kicked off her shoes, stood in the pool and splashed water at Evan. He had a blast!

Will Return Soon

I promise I will post updates soon. I thought I would be able to catch up once school ended, but then the power cord on the laptop with all of my pictures broke... It should be fixed by early next week.

Until then, here's some of Evan's new words:

hat
Wiggles (says WiWi)
help
bubbles
fruit
book
Papou (grandpa)

Also, if we ask him what a pig says he says "oink" and a cow says "moo". So fun!!