19 months and growing strong!

          

Evan is 19   months old now.  He continues to love the alphabet and has been drawing letters for some time now.  Evan has excellent fine motor skills and is very adept with pencils, pens and crayons.  He has started to spell words also - for example, he knows how to spell Evan, Mommy, Dog, Hug, Baby, Cat, Moon and Star.  

Here are a few photos from a recent visit with his birthday buddy, Stephanie, at and around Alki Beach.  

Oh and have I mentioned he loves to climb up on things - the bumps and bruises years have started...

Halloween 2008

Here are a few photos of us having fun at a pumpkin patch a few days before Halloween.  Sorry, no pictures of Evan in his Halloween outfit - he refused to wear it...

18 month old trapped in a 3 year olds body....

Evan had his 18 month check up today and got an A+ bill of health from his doctor - well, except the sleeping part.
We all got a D in that department - spared an F for our efforts, as we are all trying very hard to sleep!
18 month update: Height 50%, Weight 10% (doctor says that's great - not underweight - not overweight).
Evan knows all of the letters of the alphabet, can point them all out when asked and can verbalize most of them clearly.
He also knows his numbers from 1 - 10, can point them all out when asked, and can say some of them clearly.
Evan can "read" a few words - he recognizes the words baby, mommy, mum mum, evan, dog, apple, star and more.
He can say about 30 words and has been stringing some words together.
Evan has started to write also - he can draw letters and numbers best of all. Not all of them, but quite a few.
Doctor Christina says Evan is a 3-4 year old trapped in an 18 month old's body!
In addition to his appetite for learning, Evan has been enjoying gymnastics class and climbing all over our furniture.
Here are some recent pics - mostly from our recent trip to Mt. Baker.
We are exhausted but totally in love with our smart, amazing, funny, loving, beautiful boy...

Friends, Big Boy Baths and Peaches

Nothing necessarily related here, nor much to post about. Evan has been meeting new friends and seeing old ones but he seems to be enjoying socializing more and more. He hugs friends and plays with them more - sharing, not sharing and crying when they take things from him. The sharing extends to inanimate objects - here is a photo of Evan sharing crackers with "Duck".



We saw friends from our birth class and Evan and Bo hugged and kissed. I'll update with last years picture of the two of them for comparison at another date.




He LOVES baths so much that we can't even mention it if we're not serious about giving him one. He requests it several times a day. He started taking baths in the regular tub all by himself and he thinks this is the greatest!



The peaches? We're enjoying boxes of produce each week from a local farm and Leslie caught this delicious peach one morning in such nice light. It's a little homage to our friend at Alki who take gorgeous photos.




And we'll end with a sleeping baby in the car ride home from seeing my dear friend Kelly with her kiddos in Olympia. I guess we wore Evan out! We wish they weren't moving back to KC!

Back to School

It's back to school time!
Although Evan doesn't have new shoes and won't be filing in to meet his teachers yet, his love of learning is evident. "M" is still a favorite, but it's clear now that he recognizes all the letters of the alphabet and numbers one to ten. His favorite number is nine and he says it clearly.

We bought an activity table with a paper roll and some crayons for his room. He's so happy to work on it everyday - all the time. But we try to strike a balance and find other things to do as well - this means hiding all writing instruments in the house. Sometimes this doesn't even cut it because then he wants us to write letters in the dirt at the playground, with water on the slate floor, with his fingers on whoever is holding him...

He's keeping us on our toes!



He is also stringing two or more words together when talking. "Apple butter" and "apple bar" are favorites. Mommy (Leslie) is "Monny" and I am "MumMum". He's quite fascinated by the moon and if it's not out then we have to find an image of it - "book, moon".

The smile that melts his mommies hearts

Who is the cutest of them all?

random pics from the past month or so.
evan is growing in leaps and bounds - sweet and smart, brave and adorable...
we love, love, love, love, love this boy!

The Letter M and more

As many of you already know, sleep has been our biggest challenge in parenting. All the sleep "experts" say to introduce a lovey for your child to sleep with. Apparently the idea is that they will take this small stuffed animal to bed with them, feel it in the middle of the night and be soothed back to sleep knowing that they are safe. However, I would like to gently explain to these dear experts that whenever we offer a lovey Evan throws it overboard declaring Leslie and I the only lovies worth mentioning. But today for his nap, Evan fell fast asleep clutching his letter M. I had to go grab the camera because it was so cute! He didn't even let go of it even after falling asleep!

Letters remain THE activity. Here is another picture of Evan showing us the letters he knows on a license plate in a parking lot. We don't get anywhere very quickly, for as you know, letters are EVERYWHERE! Good times!


We ask him, "what word begins with the letter M?" And he signs "moon". We are trying to teach him his web site address but so far all he's got is "dub, dub, dub" - which is probably a pretty good start for a fourteen month old. One more cute picture of a smiling and blurry boy who was very proud for climbing on top of his box. Check out the cute frog shirt that his Auntie Karla got him!

School Is Out

Evan and I attend a baby and parent class once a week at our local community college.

It's a great way to meet other parents, learn new games and songs, and watch Evan play.
These are some pictures that another parent took on the last day of school before summer break because she was smart enough to remember her camera.

As you can see, he was looking quite dapper in a new sweater from his Great Aunt Jane!

14 Month Update

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Originally uploaded by hrharman

It's been FOREVER since we've posted anything. Needless to say, Evan and life (Evan) are keeping us very occupied. We are having a blast with him! He's almost 14 months. He's walking (running), climbing, and exploring.

His favorite thing to do is read. We go to the library at least every other week. Right now we have 18 books checked out and we read them all. Books about the characters Maisy and Max and his sister Ruby are favorites as are the alphabet books.

Evan L-O-V-E-S letters. He recognizes letters everywhere we go and says sounds for many of them. We will try to get it on video soon. "M" is his favorite letter and you must say it back to him and point to it when he says it. Otherwise toddler meltdown and yelling will ensue!

Among his other favorite things are gardening, basketball, Legos, and climbing the slide.

We've been working on sign language with him and it's really paying off. Instead of yelling for what he wants he can now communicate with us. It's also given him a lot of confidence. The signs that he uses the most are: bird, moon, hat, ball, dog, water, flower, more, book, cow, mouse, and milk.

It's so fun watching him develop. Leslie and I are amazed by his growth everyday and can't believe how quickly it all happens. It's so much work but at the same time I realize that some day he'll be off to college and I'll be missing him so much.