Enough Said...

He loves his walker so much, he wouldn't wait to get some clothes on!

Update

Evan has officially made the transition from primarily crawling to moving around in an upright position most of the time. He cruises along furniture and walls (can "hop" doorways now) or uses his walker. He is becoming quite the speed demon in the walker, and does not want any help in steering from mom or dad. In fact, he will stop and try to push our hands off the walker.

In an attempt to balance his desire for independence with our need to have some way to "reel" him in, I bought a retractable dog leash to attach to the walker. Unfortunately, it really only works to keep him from getting too far ahead of us (it's not very effective at steering him in the direction we want to go). And it didn't take long for him to figure out what was holding him back. He was mad and tried to take the leash off!

Evan has also developed a recent love of the outdoors. First thing in the morning, he goes up to the back doors and tries to twist the knob open. He loves to play on the back patio and he also likes to play "tree" with daddy. Dad lifts him up to the canopy and Evan likes to put his hands on the leaves and branches. He giggles and giggles.

Father's Day

Dear Daddy,

Thank you for taking such great care of me. Although I don't have any experience with other daddys, I think you have to be among the very best.

You know me so well. You can tell by the (non-verbal) sounds I am making if I have gas or am hungry or am just being mischievious. You can tell by the way I am sleeping if I have an ear infection--so well that my doctor trusts your instinct.

You make me feel safe. You make sure I get to all of my appointments, you comfort me when I have to get blood drawn or my ears looked at. You reassure me everything is going to be okay.


You play with me, and teach me about the world with my toys. I love my doggie and kitty, and you thought of using them to motivate me to try new things. We "wrestle," make messes, and play cars (you give the best "car massage" ever)!


You love mommy and take the best care of her, too. She so appreciates that you take care of the house, the laundry, and dinner--plus me--so much of the time. There are not words strong enough to say how greatful she is for that.



Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Love,
Evan and mommy

My Trike

I like my tricycle. I still have not figured out pedaling, but I can push forwards and backwards with my feet. I also like to "ring" the bell (kind of ironic, since I can't hear it. Daddy thinks I can feel the vibration though).



I'm all finished. Time to get off and go to bed.

Gone Fishin'

Evan has a fish puzzle with little magnetic thumbtacks embedded into the fishies, and a fishing pole with a magnet for "bait." The dexterity required to actually use the pole to retrieve a fish is beyond him at this point, but he was very interested in watching mommy or daddy fish. I guess he is more of a "catch-and-release" type of guy, because he loved pulling the fish off the hook and sending them flying!

Shoes and...PJ's???

Evan has taken a real interest in shoes the past week or two. It started with daddy taking off Evan's shoe and then trying to put the tiny shoe on his big foot. Evan thought that was pretty silly, and giggled. Pretty soon, he would put his foot into daddy's big shoes. That was funny, too. Then he would pull his own shoes off, and try to put them back on. Now he takes it a step further--he will bring us his shoe, put it into our hand, and then climb up on us so we can reach his foot.

Of course we have been taking advantage of the communication opportunity by signing "shoe" to him like no tomorrow. He hasn't signed it back yet. For being a boy of no words and very few signs, Evan still amazes me with all he has to say.

Karma

It's so cliche, but true--what goes around comes around.

As part of our fundraising for the March of Dimes this year, I distributed coin boxes to around 15 local businesses. We didn't make a lot of money that way, but it was a way to gain even more visibility for our cause. Unfortunately, the box from our local take and bake pizza was stolen. We didn't lose all of the money because the staff had periodically emptied the box into the safe. But it wasn't the amount of money stolen...it was the principal.

Today, I had a voice mail from the store manager. It turned out that they had video survailence tape catching the perpitrator in the act. Using the time stamp on the video, they were able to trace the transaction. The theif had paid for his pizza with a personal check, complete with his name, address, phone number, and bank account number--how smart was that? The manager wanted to let me know they had filled out a police report, and were pressing charges.

I don't know that the March of Dimes will ever get any money back, but it makes me feel better knowing that the person is not going to get away with his theft.

Camp Prime Time

We spent the weekend with some other families from our local Parent-2-Parent group up at Camp Prime Time. We went last September also, and there are so many families who want to use the camp that usually a group only gets to go every 2 years. But the camp had a last minute cancellation, and we had enough families who were able to go.

Evan enjoyed about a 2 second horse ride. He showed more interest in the horse than we thought he would. After his brief encounter up on Cameo's saddle, he later reached out through the fence to try and pat her (a little misguided--his fingers were headed straight for a nostril). We think he even signed "horse"--we were signing "horse" lots to him, and at one point he brought his right hand up to his forhead with the first two fingers bent. We also went out on Clear Lake in the pontoon boat, and had an indoor sing-a-long (it rained, and he was technically asleep...but mom and dad enjoyed the singing). Evan also spent a fair amount of time showing off his walker skills.