Merry Christmas!

Well, this was definitely our best Christmas so far with Evan. It was really wonderful to have both sets of grandparents and Uncle Brian & Kayle in town to celebrate with, and the days surrounding the holiday with visits from special friends and cousin Veronica! Evan was treated to a live lobster dinner AND a seafood boil (both of which he devoured), and so many presents he was clearly overwhelmed by all of the new toys. It was incredibly fun to watch him get so excited about Santa and opening presents, and a riot when he joined in for some Wii action. We are so thankful for a wonderful year, and for our amazing family & friends who continue to fill our lives with love & laughter!

More Fun...

Evan is loving to talk about Santa, the red nosed reindeer (and watching for the "reindeer" in our yard), the Christmas specials of his favorite cartoons, and eating out a lot since mommy doesn't want to cook! Here's pix of making brownies, meeting Evan's adorable new friend, and the Zoo Lights - very fun!

Christmas Season

This holiday season has been so much fun with Evan, and there's so much more to look forward to! We can't get enough of the pre-Xmas activities, and were enjoying the great weather...until this week - brrr!!

Making a gingerbread house:

Wrapping presents, playing outside, and snoozing on the way to visit Santa:

Still a "Big Boy"

We had Evan's 2 yr. check up today, and he's still topping out the charts for height! He's an even 3'-0" tall (90th %tile) and 29 lbs. (50th %tile). She sat observing and asking him questions for over 30 minutes, and kept saying, "Are you sure he's only 2?", and that she was "just in awe" of how advanced his communication and physical skills are for his age - especially considering he's a boy. She thought that he was so amazing (I think after he counted to 10 for her), that she even commented that if she were me, she'd be scared to have another child because Evan has set our standards so high and it's not typical to have such an advanced 2 year old! One of her first ?'s was if I thought he might have 50 words - I told her that a year ago, he had close to 50 signs (which they count as words) - and that he speaks in 3-4 words sentences now. Maybe we just have an easily impressed pediatrician, but we do think that he's pretty special. Ok - enough gushing? :)

On a Happier Note

Aside from being very sick, we got to go get our Xmas tree in warm, sunny weather! We also did one of Evan's favorite activities, he "walks" Lucy down to the pond and will spend all afternoon throwing rocks into the water if you let him.

Sick

Evan and I have been sick for a few days - we thought it was just a cold to start, so we hung around the house trying to keep occupied, we even made some Christmas cookies! But on Sat. night, Evan was pretty bad and we made our first trip to the emergency room. Of course, he thought it was great - they have popsicles, a fish tank, and cartoons, what's not to like? The doc was surprised to find that he had a pretty severe double ear infection, because he was being so well-mannered - and he had pink eye on top of that! The pic with the hat (where he is obviously not doing well) is on our way to the ER around midnight. Evan's usually pretty healthy, this is only the 2nd time he's been really sick, so it's pretty scary for us - he's doing much better now, back to his usual energetic self :)

It Takes a Village

I'm sure that anyone with kids can relate, but sometimes it really strikes me - like when we get together with friends and let the toddlers run wild. On Friday night we had 10 adults, 5 toddlers, 3 pregnant ladies, 1 baby, and a partridge in a pear tree! The kids loved the Trail of Lights at the Botanic Gardens, and it was pretty funny to see them literally run in every direction (the term "herding cats" comes to mind). There was a pretty cool treehouse that they hilariously all got up into, and then proceeded to have an impromptu dance party! It may not be your child's nose you're wiping, or your little one you're swooping up to keep from running into the trees/water/drop-off - but it doesn't matter, and you know that even if your kid isn't within immediate sight, they're in the group and someone's looking out for them! Good times, it was nearly like before we all had kids and used to go out on Friday nights...