The Great Outdoors

It's lovely springtime in Colorado! We had a wonderful week hiking, playing in the park, BBQ'ing with friends, etc. Evan loves to be outside, and as a typical boy is usually throwing rocks or playing in the dirt. It's been so fun lately to watch him really interacting with the other babies - they still mostly parallel play, but he especially likes to chase the girls around and make his friend, Laven, giggle. His vocabulary keeps getting bigger, I've lost count! Definitely his favorite exclamation is, "Oh NO!".

Yee Haw

We had a great trip to Austin to vacation and visit Uncle Brian. It was so fun to finally get together with our friends there and watch our kiddies play together! Evan is picking up dozens of words, too many to count lately - he even started saying his first rendition of "Grandpa" this week...."baba"!

Weird Eater

We've been having a great time with Gm. & Gp. Lundgren in town, lots of playing and showing off our usual hang-outs. He's picking up words and chattering a lot lately, the best thing he says lately is, "Oh-KAY!". This is Evan eating the heck out of my seaweed salad...that's about all I can say.

All Good

Whew, a tough week with Evan, he was the sickest he's ever been - he's really only had a cold before. We had a fun Easter with him at a friends house for brunch after he was better, though. The only good thing about him needing to stick around the house and sleep a lot was that we got to watch all of the bball games! I swore we wouldn't let him watch TV, but he's absolutely obsessed with "Jack's Big Music Show". Usually, he just pats the couch when he wants up, hands us the remote and says, "dar-doo" for cartoon. We tried to suffice with a different cartoon (gasp!) yesterday, until he pointed at the TV and said, "Jah!".

Happy Green!

Recovering from the Big Ten tourney and gearing up for mom's favorite time of year...March Madness!! I know Evan's looking forward to watching lots of basketball the next couple of weeks. We celebrated St. Patty's day at lunch with friends (4 moms & 4 babies - who wouldn't need a Guinness for that?), then mom got to go out with the girls for the evening. Evan is running around pretty quickly, has around 35 signs, 10 words, and does about a dozen animal sounds - great party tricks! We caught a better video of him doing "tickle, tickle, tickle", while also mimicking dad's whistling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STzfz25amAg

Chipotle, Anyone?

Here he is enjoying his first "burrito bowl"...
We just had to get Evan the incredibly obnoxious ball machine that he's been coveting at his friends' house, we love how every time he turns it on he says, "Wow! Wow!" - like he's still surprised the balls come flying out the top. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EenFLEWHxc
His cutest phrase lately is "tickle, tickle, tickle", which we managed to catch a little bit of on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IY8IZPHQ68

Helping

Just helping Grandma with her glasses, and making it easier for dad to fix the screen door! This morning Evan helped me transfer the clothes from the washer to the dryer, and lately he loves to help sweep the floors and clean up spills! I think we'll keep him.

A Great Week

What a treat it was (for mom & Evan!) to have Grandma here for a whole week! Grandpa Lundgren was also here for a few days, and both got to watch Evan play at The Little Gym. We go once a week, and usually Evan just loves it - but this week he was a little under the weather and unfortunately cranky in front of his cheering section. We also went to the Children's Museum, swimming and the zoo - and enjoyed a 74 degree day on Sat., followed by nearly 1' of snow on Sun.! We had a great time watching MSU's victory with the Spence's, but then had to send Grandma back to MI. I was very lucky to have been hired as a hike leader for our Mountain Mamas group! The conditions are ever-changing right now so there's not too many hikes on the schedule this month, but I'm really looking forward to another great season of hiking with Evan - and the excuse to "train" for my job :)

Kisses, Zoo & Bubbles

We had a busy time last week, and a great visit over the weekend from Uncle Brian and friends. Now, we're enjoying a week with Grandma filled with more fun! He just loves having company, and more people to play with and give him attention. Here's Evan trying to kiss his friend, Laven, enjoying a ride on the train at the zoo, and playing with bubbles.

These Days

Evan just becomes more amazing all of the time, I am so lucky to have the opportunity to spend my time with him - to hopefully ensure that he grows up to be a confident and love-filled adult. Despite the hard moments, I cherish my days with him and am thankful to finally have my dream job! Lately, he just seems to understand everything we say. It's great to have him answer "yes" or "no" (with nods) when we ask him questions, and he's using about 28 signs. Every day is an adventure to him, he loves to point things out to us and be outdoors. We've been hiking a lot lately with the nice weather, and he seems to get just as energized from the activity as mom! His favorite thing to do lately is feed his fish, every morning that's the first thing we do. Although, numerous times throughout the day I find myself digging random things out of the tank (raisins, crackers, fuzz). He also is great at giving kisses lately...big, open-mouthed ones :) We are lucky to have an amazing group of friends that we're able to do lots of fun things with throughout the week, they've been such a source of support, friendship and inspiration over the past 14+ months - I'd never stay sane, and Evan wouldn't have great playmates without them!

Where Did It Go?

A favorite gesture of Evan's lately. Check him out saying "hello" to his friend, Boone's, future sibling!

Yay - Neked!

This is a sure fire way to cheer up a

grumpy baby. Evan likes it so much, it

makes us slightly concerned about his

future choice of career...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPd_nKBloIM

New Tricks

Evan is learning how to eat with utensils (maybe spaghetti isn't the best choice for practice), and has figured out a clever way to get his bottle up off the floor! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQS8agAgv-U

Go Green!!

It's good to start them early! Evan wanted to go to the bar to eat wings and watch MSU stomp those nasty Wolverine's, so we had to oblige - we're good parents like that. Oh, and we bought him a fancy new hat!

The Usual

Let's see...we've been swimming, to the Aquarium and snow shoeing - not too much is new! 2 more molars, and 3 new signs, and Evan's enjoying walking all over in his new "big boy" shoes. Here's a picture of his new friend, Magnus - he likes ceiling fans. We had a fun day celebrating Audrey's 3rd birthday!

Fun

Check out my awesome scooter from Gm. & Gp. Langhorst! This week we went to the Children's Museum (much more fun now that he's walking), swimming and snow shoeing.

Snow Time

Evan got a new sled from Gm. & Gp. Lundgren, and he loves it! I think he's an even bigger fan of eating the snow, though. I made a list of the signs he uses today, and it's actually 21 - and growing daily!

Things I Love This Month

Cheesy puffs (eating in general), walking & playing chase, carrying around chapstick, playing in the bathroom and using lots of signs (about 14)! Here's a couple of clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC8FmSZvIJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOfz5kJJngc

And...Happy New Year!

Evan will sleep through the ball drop, and likely so will mom & dad...

But we did have fun snowshoeing on our neighborhood trails!