Look at that boy DANCE!

Tom was playing guitar tonight and Evan started dancing around like a maniac, so he started making up a song on the spot by singing "Evan, Evan, look at that boy dance. " Evan liked it so much that he made his Dad repeat it about 4 more times, and he continued to dance wildly around for each one. If I had even a small fraction of his energy, I could get so much done in the evenings!! Oh well!

Look at that boy dance!

Dancing in Circles

Big Boy Room

We've started the slow process of transitioning Evan into a "big boy bed" and out of the crib so that Dylan can soon move out of the bassinet in our room and into the crib in Evan's current room. I re-painted the guest room and we got rid of the Queen-sized bed and replaced it with a new Twin bed.... sorry future guests!! I got Evan a nice quilt and "airpane sheeps" for the bed and put his little table and chairs in there, and Tom brought up Spider Man and Redskin posters for the wall. The room looks great but Evan still isn't sleeping in there full time yet. Tom crams into the tiny little bed with him at night and stays there until he falls asleep. Then he carries Evan back to his crib. We were supposed to have guard rails up on the bed by now, but the fancy hide-away rails I bought had the worst How-To-Assemble instructions known to man. After 2 hours of bashing my head against the wall (figuratively but almost literally, too), I gave up and ordered some plain old stationary wooden rails, which haven't arrived yet. So the transition process is still in transition.

Potty Training! (Well, sort of.)

I bought Evan a little potty about a month ago and showed it to him, but he's never asked to use it before today. He told my mom he wanted to use it, but when I took his clothes off of him, he already had a dirty diaper. I wanted to get him cleaned up before he sat down, but he didn't give me the chance. He immediately plopped down and made a mess all over the rim of the pot. GROSS! After I got him and the pot cleaned up and got him diapered and dressed again, he sat back on the pot and said "Evan go big boy potty!” He was so proud of himself. Ah well, I guess it's a start!

The Return of Nana

My Mom couldn't stand to stay away from her grand-babies so she flew back from Arkansas last Friday and will stay with us for a couple of weeks while I'm still on maternity leave. Evan has really enjoyed playing with his Nana. He especially liked dragging her through the mall.

"Evan Eat It!"

We've had a recurring challenge with trying to get Evan to eat lately. There are only a few things that he will never say no to, such as pizza, Chick-Fil-A chicken strips, fruit, and yogurt. But as for everything else, he may love it one day and say "No, don't eat that." or "Ewww, yucky!" the next. We never know what kind of reaction we're going to get. The other night, I gave him a Kid's Dinner entree of spaghetti & meatballs, expecting to find it on the walls and ceiling, but he actually said "Mmmm, yummy! Evan eat it!" and he did! He ate every bite... well, every bite that he wasn't wearing on his face, anyway!

"Tick-A-Tee"

Evan had his first Trick-Or-Treating experience last Sunday night. I explained to him throughout the day what we were going to do and he practiced saying "Trick-Or-Treat," which he pronounced as "Tick-A-Tee." So the big moment came and we started with our next door neighbor Francisco's house. Evan kept looking back towards our house and then Tom stuck his head out of our front door and Evan was fine. He said "Tick-A-Tee" and Francisco gave him a handful of candy. But as we headed down the sidewalk to the next house, Evan suddenly burst into tears and pointed his hands towards Tom and start wailing "Da-Da!!!!!!!!!!!" He didn't understand why his dad wasn't coming with us, but Tom was staying in with the baby. So he stood there on the sidewalk bawling and I tried to comfort him. Evan didn't stop crying until another Dad pulled a wagon up to us with a little toddler dressed as a lion riding in the back, and then Evan started to smile and said "Mama, yi-yon! See it?" Then he was fine. We went to a few more houses and then I took him back to Tom, who took him out to a few more houses. He got a huge stash of candy but didn't eat any of it. That didn't stop him from acting like he had a post-Tick-A-Tee sugar rush though (see second video below).

"Nasty Bugs"

Our house has been taken over by stink bugs this Fall! I don't know how they get in, but we find several of them each day. Evan started calling them "nasty bugs" and I can't think of any term more appropriate! He's pretty fascinated with them, though, and when I brought home the Disney movie "A Bug's Life" for him, he started asking to "Watch Nasty Bugs?" every day. Yesterday in the Pumpkinville gift shop, I told him he could pick out one present, and he picked up a little plastic goat and a little frog in an inner-tube. He carried them both around for a few minutes but when he saw a bag full of plastic insects hanging on the wall, he threw the goat and frog on the floor and held both hands up as he said "NASTY BUGS! I WANT! PLEASE??" And here they are... Ugh. I think they're kind of icky but he loves them. The cockroach may have to accidentally fall into the trash because even in plastic form, those things totally gross me out!

Moon Bounce

Back to Pumpkinville

Our forecast for the first week of November looks cold, dreary and rainy. Therefore, on this last day of October, Evan & I decided to take advantage of the last bit of warmth and sunshine we may have for awhile and headed back to Pumpkinville. He enjoyed the big slides, the (very bumpy) hayride and riding the horse again today, but his favorite things this time seemed to be playing on the little playground and digging in the big sandbox. He also had his very first Moon Bounce experience and he had the whole bouncy house to himself. He didn't really get the concept of jumping around in there, though. He just crawled around and jiggled up and down a little bit while keeping his feet firmly on the floor. Oh well, he enjoyed it anyway.

What The Bat Says

In honor of Halloween, Tom taught Evan how to shriek like a bat. I'm kind of hoping that he conveniently forgets what the bat says as soon as Halloween is over!

Fall Festival

Evan's daycare had their Halloween party/Fall Festival yesterday. All the kids wore their costumes and went outside to parade around in the parking lot and to "trunk-or-treat" The teachers had the trunks of their cars open and overflowing with treats for the kids. It was really cold and windy outside and Evan's teeth were chattering so he didn't spend much time picking out his treats. I thought it was cute that he didn't take any candy at all. Instead, he chose little Halloween figurines, a pencil and a little rubber shark. Back inside, he "rode" on the big inflatable dolphin and then feasted on cupcakes and cider. I asked a fellow mom to take a picture of me and my boys. She took a few of them, and for the last one, she told Evan to say "Pumpkin" to try to get him to look at her and smile. So he sort of looked towards her and yelled "PUN-CHIN" at the top of his lungs. Happy Halloween!

New Baby, New Blog

Since blogging seems to be the closest I'm ever going to get to doing baby books of my children, I've now created a separate one for Dylan to track his adventures. So far, those adventures have pretty much consisted of eating, sleeping, and tearing through about 5 outfits a day, but I'm sure things will get more exciting as time progresses!

Check out the wonderful world of "Dylanville" at

http://dylan-ville.blogspot.com/

Haircuts, Trains, Carousels & Pizza

Evan got his hair cut yesterday and handled it much better this time. He made the stylist laugh, however, because every time she lifted her hand w/ the scissors away from his hair, he'd say "ALL DONE!" and she'd say "No, not yet!" He did cringe when she got out the electric razor to trim his neckline, but last time he had an all-out meltdown at the razor, so he's come a long way! To reward him for his bravery, I took him on both the train and the carousel, and he got a slice of pizza for lunch. All in all, a good day for Evan!

Double Trouble

Playing Outside

We've been trying to take advantage of the beautiful Fall weather before it turns into not-so-beautiful Winter. Evan loves to go over to our neighborhood tennis court and sit in the corner and play with the "nasty mulch" as he calls it (aka 'pine straw). He also likes to roll around on the court just for the heck of it.