The Great Outdoors

I'm barely able to report that we spent nearly the entire day outside today! I'm barely conscious right now, but so thankful for the nice weather that allowed us all day work and play outside. We headed out around 10am when it was a mere 38 degrees but it was above freezing, and that's all I was looking for! I brought a soccer ball and a rake out, bundled Evan up and hoped for the best. The soccer ball hardly got used, but we spent the whole morning outside until 11:30 when we came in to get cleaned up for lunch. I raked about 1/3 of the front lawn and Evan did his best to help. He grabbed handfuls of pine needles, pinecones, and acorn shells and tossed them in the bag. He tried to rake. I even got him a little paper bag to collect pinecones, which only lasted about 30 seconds! He explored so many things about the front yard: the pine tree bark, tapping acorn shells on the bark, pulling pine needles apart. It's so cute to watch him learn!

I headed back out to tackle more of the lawn during Evan's nap while the air continued to warm up to a balmy 51 degrees! I was out there in a short sleeved shirt.... FINALLY! I took a leisurely walk to the park down the street to see if the snow was melted enough to enjoy it and the snow was all gone except on the baseball field... perfect! When Evan got up we headed to the park. I have been anticipating taking him to the park so much now that he's mobile enough to enjoy it. He LOVED it. After a few lessons, he was able to climb up and go down the slide by himself (video below). He also loved the firetruck and swing.

The sponge

I'm going to take a few minutes to brag about my kid, if that's alright with you all reading. He is just amazing me with how much he learns each and every day. His vocabulary is growing, and while everyone might not be able to understand what he's saying, I can decipher more and more, and he's beginning to attempt repeating things we say. I think this has a lot to do with weaning him from the pacifier down to just naptime and bedtime. He learned how to say "hi" and "bye" today. He can say ball, bath, cat, dog, juice, sock, shirt, shoe, eye, water and waffle (which both come out "wah"), book and my favorite - poop, and attempts to say a lot more! When asked where it is, he can point out his eye, nose, ear, hair, mouth, hand, belly, bum, and toes! He knows the sign language for "more", "all done" and "eat" and uses them all properly without being prompted.

He is becoming much more agile too. He's becoming a climber, climbing all over our couch downstairs. We played at our neighbor's house this afternoon and he learned how to climb up and then go down the slide by himself. He learned how to go down the stairs (safely going backwards) this evening. He helped me clean up his toys tonight. He told us when he pooped and got out the changing mat, laid it out and laid himself down on it. Some might see this as a sign that he's ready to potty train, but I don't think any of us are quite ready for that!

He's quite the eater these days. The last time I made fish tacos, he had a fillet and a half of tilapia! That's about 6oz of fish! He grabbed a whole peach out of the fridge without me noticing, while I was getting something out yesterday and helped himself. He ended up eating about half of it without having to cut any of it up!



He's been making mental connections a lot now too. He sees a bear on his Baby Einstein DVD and he'll go get a book and open it to the bear page.

This kid is amazing, and I feel like he's grown up so much just in the last week. I can't wait to see what's coming up this next week!

Parlay!

As I'm writing this, I see a few scattered flurries outside. We're not expected to get any accumulation, but I'm still frustrated at the sight. We've had well over 7 feet of snow this season so far and we honestly can't handle any more. Jack has thrown his back out a few times from shoveling and mine is sore. Our snowbanks have gotten so high that we can't see oncoming traffic when we're backing out. Our mailbox is barely accessible. If we do have to do any more shoveling we'll have to get a ladder and climb about 7 feet up to toss each shovel load. This is what causes me to yell "Parlay!", "Mercy!", "Uncle!", "Enough!" every time I see a flurry.

Furry Friend

Ever since Evan became mobile, he has fallen in love with Bella. Well, any cat. Well, any furry thing that moves. But Bella actually sticks around to socialize with him. Before Evan was born, she was used to a certain level of attention and nothing has met her expectations since he was born so she'll put up with anything at this point! He loves laying down on her like a pillow. He also loves pulling her tail and wailing on her, which we're working on. But she usually doesn't run away so I don't feel too bad for her! There's a sweet video after all the pictures! Pay attention to Bella's face at the end... it's hilarious!