Summer in Review

Summer was here and gone in the blink of an eye. Of course I had every intention of blogging frequently about all the fun things we were doing, but that didn't happen. So here I sit a week after Labor Day throwing all of our summer updates into 1 posting.

In July we met up at Fair Oaks Farm in northwest Indiana with my BFF, Carrie, and her little boy, Brett (who you've read a lot about on here) and my friend Cathy from college and her 2 little boys, Chris and Sam. It was really a cool place to visit. We saw a baby cow being born, ate delicious grilled cheese, and played with their farm themed toys. Evan's favorite part though was driving miniature tractors. He was not happy when we had to leave the tractors behind to go home!

Brett, Chris and Evan inside the ball pit

Chris and Evan going down the slide

Watching the baby cow

Chris and Evan riding on the train

One morning we went to a place called Pump it Up with my friend, Kim, and her 2 boys, Alex and Benjamin. It's an indoor party place with lots of different inflatables for the kids to play on. I was worried that Evan would be hesitant about going on them, but he loved every moment! (Unfortunately my camera battery was in the red so I only took a few pictures.)

Benjamin and Evan jumping

Going down the smaller slide

Kim, Benjamin and Alex going down the big slide

Evan and I took a trip to Indy to hang out with Carrie and Brett (and of course Steve too!). We visited the Indianapolis Zoo, which I have never been too. It was really nice!

"Hey, Evan, just follow me. I'll show you where to go."

"Did you see the animal? It was over THERE!"

Watching the stingrays swim by

Playing Brett's baby-baby grand piano. He asked me to take his picture.

We took Evan to see the Wiggles in concert again. At first he didn't know what to think of everything, but after a little while he was completely engrossed in it. At the end of the show he kept asking to see the Wiggles again!



And finally, here's some random cute pictures that I couldn't leave out:

After church one Sunday Evan insisted on wearing Rick's tie and asked me to take his picture.

Firefighter Evan

Evan is wearing my high heels and again wanted his picture taken...

and with my green purse.

Evan has recently realized it's funny when he shakes his booty. He's all smiles at the beginning of the video then all of a sudden says, "No take picture. No look! No, no look!"

What a ham!!

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!

Let the Summer Fun Begin

I've been out of school for about 2 weeks now and have had so much fun with Evan already. Most of the time our activities are spur of the moment. I had planned on signing him up for some classes at the park district but really wanted to not be on a strict schedule (with the exception of his nap and bed times). Here's tons of pictures to show what we've been up to.

After his bath one night Evan wanted to sit on his Elmo potty (which he still has only peed on once) and then wanted his Elmo slippers on too.

I've been trying to get my "Spring" cleaning done. I was washing the windows in the living room, and Evan insisted on helping too, so I let him wipe the front door.

"So clean I can see myself in it!"

After a slow start the summer temperatures finally reached us in Chicago. It took Evan a long time to actually get in his pool once we set it up. He stood on the outside and was content pouring water from the cups and bowls. Finally he went inside but would only stand up and insisted on holding my hand most of the time.

Evan running around the house after coming in from the pool, complete with firefighter's hat.
Silly boy!

Evan was very crabby one morning so I decided to take him to a restaurant called Choo Choo Johnny's. It's a train themed restaurant, where a train runs along the counter and brings your food to you. There's also a train running around the entire restaurant near the ceiling. He really enjoyed it!

Evan found one of his diapers in the diaper bag, then asked for his bear and started putting it on the bear.

Today we went to my co-worker, Michelle's house for a playdate. The other kids jumped in the kiddie pool immediately but Evan preferred watching from the sidelines.

Driving the car with his friend, Carter

Dinosaur Videos

Here's two very short videos of the dinosaurs at Brookfield. Make sure your volume is turned up so you can hear them Roar!

Free at Last

My summer break finally started this past Tuesday at 10:30 am. After having such a crazy and busy end of the school year, it was an incredible feeling to walk out of my building that last day (although I had a bag full of work in tow to do over the summer months - 3 months of vacation for teachers, HA!). I am so looking forward to being a stay at home mommy, even if it's only for a short time.

We started our summer adventures today by going to Brookfield Zoo. Although we went a few times last summer, Evan was still a little young to really understand what he was looking at, however this time he really enjoyed seeing everything. This summer, Brookfield also has a special dinosaurs exhibit, where they have life size dinosaurs that move and make noises. It was pretty impressive how realistic they looked, and Evan was scared of them. He kept covering his mouth with his hands and clung to Rick the whole time. We've probably scarred him for life! Despite his fear, though, when we ask him what he saw at the zoo the first thing he says is "dinosaur".

Riding on papou's shoulders

Not part of the actual dinosaurs exhibit, but the dinosaur in the famous fountain at the zoo was a "preview" of the exhibit. It moved its head and neck and was very loud!

One of the first animated dinosaurs in the exhibit

Evan's first reaction to the dinosuars

This one moved its head and actually blinked its eyes.

Evan wouldn't even look at the giant t-rex, which I forgot to take a picture of but did take a video, which I will post soon.

He didn't mind seeing the dinosaur from afar.

Checking out the polar bear laying out in the sun

Getting close to a lizard