It's a.....

I know, 3 blog posts in one night, right? Who am I? Well, Jack went to bed early, and I have plenty of time to kill and the computer all to myself.

Oh right, it's a.... BOY! We had an ultrasound this morning and the tech was able to tell right away that it's a boy! I was trying not to get fixated on one or the other. I was really truly happy with either. We'd have a buddy for Evan, or one of each. But I must admit that I entertained thoughts of a baby girl a little more because this pregnancy has been soooo different! So I was quite surprised when the tech said it was a boy! We are soooo excited though! All day we've kept saying to each other "2 boys!". Evan will be a great big brother, and I'm sure will pass on his antics to little brother. Everything he did today, I now imagine him doing with a little brother. Dancing to the Glee version of Bust a Move, running back and forth with his Moe's balloon, playing football. It'll be chaos, but so much fun!

So I'm 18 weeks now, and still kind of in disbelief that I'm pregnant! I'm so distracted by Evan and life so often that I don't stop and think about it as much as when I was pregnant with Evan. I don't have a huge belly, although it has finally popped which gives me a reminder now! But I haven't really had any cravings, and baby boy is much more chill than I remember Evan being at this stage so I don't feel him as much. I realize this is when most people only start to feel tiny flutters, but I was feeling Evan swirl all over the place from 16+ weeks. I do feel tiny taps now and then, which I treasure. I've missed that feeling!

Well, I hope to keep up with blogging more often now, we'll see how that goes!




(I would love to post the ultrasound pic we got today, but our new printer doesn't have a scanner :( Maybe I can do the old school way and take a picture of the picture!)

Harvest Party

I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring Evan to our church's Harvest Party this year. We went last year so Jack could be a photographer, and I seemed to remember it being more ages 4+ appropriate, and thought Evan would be overwhelmed. Well, when I was shopping for Evan's birthday presents, I saw a little monkey costume that looked like Curious George. Given Evan's obsession with the little character (probably because he's so much like him!) I couldn't resist buying it, and at only $11 it wasn't a huge investment for a one night wear.

He really didn't want to wear it and it took a few days of just showing him the costume before we could attempt to get him into it. I admit, I had to bribe him with cookies. But we snapped up a bunch of pictures in case that was the only chance we had.



We brought him that Saturday and hoped for the best. As soon as we walked in the door, Evan got freaked out by a dinosaur costume (turned out to be my junior high English teacher, Mrs Bellamy!) and ran for the door crying. She pulled up the hood to show him it was just a person, and he stopped crying but told her "bye bye!". Off to a rough start, and we still had to get him into the costume! There were a lot of tears as we were getting him into it, that no amount of cookies could console. He wouldn't even entertain the idea of a cookie. But he eventually came to terms with it, somehow.

I'm so glad I brought him. Almost all of the activities, save the trivia and chess, were perfect for him. Bean bag toss, golf putting, basketball, throwing a football through the hoop, and many other carnival type games. He had a blast. And in future years, maybe we'll let him keep the candy!

My 2 year old

So Evan turned two on October 21! I made sure to give him lots of kisses and hugs, and grabbed him and attempted to put him on my chest at 4:30 (his time of birth), just like I did last year, and just like the midwife did 2 years ago! Well, I was trying to reminisce to myself because I knew he wouldn't understand what I was talking about and as I was, he pinched my lips as if to say "enough, Mom! I don't want to hear my birth story!".

We had a little McDade celebration on his actual birthday which was a Friday. We had homemade ice cream cake, presents from Papa and GG, and kept him up way too late! Then the next day, we had a little family party with both sides. A nice pizza party (and Evan was too busy playing with cousins to stop and eat!), cookie cake and leftover ice cream cake. We did more presents, and Evan loved unwrapping but was still a little overwhelmed with the whole ordeal. He seemed to love playing with everything though! We got him a little table with 2 chairs and GG made him some playdough and got some playdough toys, and that turned out to be the hit of the party! For all ages!

I'm sure this coming year will bring challenges, as I've already seen Evan adopt the Terrible Two phase, but he's also becoming more and more adorable every day.

Jamaica!

We just got back from a week long trip to Jamaica. We celebrated our 5th anniversary and enjoyed a second babymoon and Evan tagged along pretty much for free because he doesn't turn 2 for another week! We originally booked our stay with Beaches Sandy Bay in Negril, but after 2 nights we switched over to their neighbor and sister resort Beaches Negril which had a lot more activity and bigger pools, and was nicer. Yes it cost a little more, but it was way more on par with what we were expecting and we had an amazing time. There was some rain the first couple days but it cleared up in the afternoon, and we had a couple spotty storms later in the week, but other than that the weather was beautiful! It was plenty hot which made the pool and ocean wonderful. Plenty sunny which made us appreciate the shade and avoid getting burned for the most part! The evenings were very comfortable and the cloudy horizons led to some amazing sunsets.

The resort is a sponsor of Sesame Street so there are characters in costume that wander every day. We signed up for a character breakfast before we left but quickly realized when we got there that Evan would be terrified so we cancelled that. He enjoyed the shows, but from a comfortable distance and would cry every time they came too close! But he would always ask about all of them when they weren't around. My favorite was when he asked for "Ernie and Burped".

They had a nursery program which allowed us to drop Evan off now and then to get some time to ourselves. We had some free time on the beach and had a few kidless dinners. Evan loved the nursery and the workers there were so great with him. While we were at dinner, they even took him over to the nightly Sesame Street show so he didn't have to miss it!

After the first Sesame Street show we went to, they had a steel drum band come and perform (and Jack and I even recognized some of the performers from a show on our honeymoon!). Evan grimaced his way through Sesame Street, but he danced his little heart out to the steel drum music, doing his best to imitate what they were doing. After the show, they played some dance music and Evan actually danced along to the cha cha slide! Of course he was a step behind the whole time, but that's where he and Jermaine became dancing buddies for the week!

Evan placed his first order by himself. He went up to the bar and said "Hello", and the bartender turned around and said "Hey mon. What can I get you?" and Evan said "um, apple juice?". When he got his apple juice he said "deetoo" (thank you) without being prompted! I was so proud! My family always tells me the story of when I was about Evan's age, maybe even younger and I placed my first order at a restaurant... and it was in Jamaica! I ordered "boogoo, feyes, and wahwoo" (burger, fries and water).

We wrapped the amazing week up with a Reggae Beach Party the last night we were there and we were expecting entertainment in the form of a fire dancer, limbo dude, and others. What we got was a fire dancer and a DANCE PARTY. And Evan had a blast. Jermaine quickly picked up on Evan's favorite move (the run and jump) and did it with him for about 15 minutes straight until they were both pouring with sweat. Then Jermaine brought him up on stage with the rest of the entertainment crew and Evan let lose. He pulled out all his moves (mostly jumping and a little running with the "Evan one arm pump") and he even attempted some of the reggae moves that the entertainment crew was doing, all under the close supervision of Jermaine! He probably danced up there for at least 15 minutes until some of the dancing got a little too crazy and he might have been trampled. As soon as Jermaine brought him back to the rest of the dancing guests out front, he cried and pointed at the stage. So back he went! Jermaine was so great and the two of them had such a great time. Jermaine even came to see us off in the morning!

Jack seems to be planning our next trip already. Whenever it is, I know we'll have a blast!

Home Improvement

We will be expanding our home by two feet in April!



We are very excited to announce that we are expecting McBaby #2, due April 3!!! I've been feeling pretty different this time around. I barely had any nausea with Evan but this time I spent a good few weeks pretty sick and tired. But my energy is back and food is appealing again! No cravings yet, but plenty of first trimester aversions. I thought this baby might be a vegetarian! But meat is good again! We should be finding out if it's a boy or girl sometime in early to mid November. I guess that's all to report for now!

Evan's first prayer

Evan's bedtime routine, when we're at home which isn't that often anymore with Jack's family in town, consists of reading books in the rocking chair, saying a blessing that my dad said to me every night (Numbers 6:24-25), hug and kiss and down to bed. Lately he's been asking to pray (by folding his hands and squeaking) when we're done with books, so I've been praying with him for the last week or so, going through a list of what we were thankful for that day. When we were done last night, he wanted more so I said "you do it". And he did!

"Deetoo Fry, Daya, batz, Daddy, Mommy, Farty, poop, nono, peepee."

Translated: "thank you for Strom (Evan's uncle), the Incredibles, pizza, Daddy, Mommy, lovey, poop, fan, peepee."

I had tears in my eyes from laughing, being so moved, and maybe a little from being 5th on the list!

Summer Fun

Meant to put up this post a few weeks ago once I got a picture of the sunset from my in-laws new house off the camera but clearly, that's taking too long so here we go without the picture!

We've had a crazy month, with many different subsets of family living here. On June 27, Jack's parents, sister, brother, their 2 cats and dog, and 3 cars, and many boxes of stuff moved into our house in between house closings. Aside from some animal misbehavior, we've had a blast having them here.

Pretty shortly after moving in, Catherine's boyfriend Jeremy came down for a visit. We had fun going to Moreau, enjoyed the 4th of July parade and fireworks, and had a great day in Saratoga for Catherine's birthday. Evan rode the Congress Park carousel with me, we walked up and down Broadway, had dinner at Cantinas (YUM), and stopped at Yaddo Gardens on the way home.







After that, we have spent time with different subsets of family. Tess and Joseph headed to Florida for 8 days and the day before they got back, Catherine left for Maine for about 2 weeks.

It went a lot faster than I expected, and I'm blessed to have such wonderful in-laws. I know many would cringe at the thought of hosting their in-laws for just short of a month, but it actually ends up being a lot easier having them here than not. They have truly spoiled us, and we felt a little sad to have them leave. The house feels a lot more empty.

But we spent the afternoon into the evening at their new house yesterday and it's the start of a new and exciting fun chapter that has completely overtaken any feelings of sadness to have them move a whole 15 minutes away! Even though the movers hadn't come yet, we felt like we were on vacation at their house yesterday. Their new house is right on the Mohawk River! We swam in the river, fished, watched the boats and jet skis go by, and Evan even joined in the fun when he woke up from his nap. He's been in an anti-water phase for about a month now. He splashed, giggled, and dunked his face in the water many times. He waved and said "hi" to the boats going by. He "fished" with Daddy. We finished the evening with a cookout, watching the sun set over the river from their patio, deck and 3-season room. The 3-season room will be a favorite to all of us, being able to hang out "outside" and bug-free. Looking forward to many fun times at the new house!

Camping

We had a fun spontaneous weekend with 2 sets of Jaegers up at their family camp a few weeks ago. We joined Dan/Stacie/Ava/Loralei and Tom/Sara/Lydia for a weekend at the lake with fishing, swimming (or in Evan's case, observing from the dock), kayaking, biking, laying out, campfire and smores and lots of fellowship!

Jack caught his biggest fish to date! Dan got him "hooked" our first trip up to the lake 3 years ago and it's been a growing obsession ever since.



Jack and I got away to kayak together when Evan was down for a nap. It was so peaceful paddling into the coves and over the shallows of Loon Lake. When he woke up, we brought Evan down to the water. Evan was hysterically laughing, watching Ava jump off the end of the dock. We eventually tricked Evan into the water with a ball of course! He wasn't thrilled but he sucked it up just long enough to get the ball and go back to the dock over and over.

Evan had a great time playing with the other kids. They played with chalk, frisbees, Clip Clop (the spring horse), and chasing and rough housing.

We are so grateful for their hospitality and generosity inviting us each year. It's always a good time!

Evmeister

What's new with Evan? Well he pooped on the potty! He started coming up and saying "poop" right before he was going to poop, so I tried putting him on the toilet one of those times, and he went! Sadly, it was a one time thing. He found the experience somewhat traumatic and wouldn't even go in the bathroom the rest of the day. Now he has a potty chair that he plays with and we'll see if we can start trying again because it seems the ability is there, just not the emotional readiness!

I wonder if this contributed to his sudden water-phobia. Until yesterday, he has hated baths, kiddie pools, swimming pools, and bodies of water. Didn't matter if we were holding him, if he was in super shallow water (he wouldn't put his feet down), or if he was in a flotation device. He would just cry and keep signing "all done". But yesterday, at my in-laws' new house right on the Mohawk River, he had a blast swimming with all of us. He splashed and even put his face in the water multiple times! He stayed in for probably at least 45 minutes!

His vocabulary is growing all the time. He's getting pretty good at his first attempts of new words. He is eager to learn more as he points around the room saying "this?". He has been putting 2 words together more often. "Bye ____" (to whoever he's saying bye to), "more snack", and I'm embarrassed to admit this one, but "watch TV". We really don't watch that much! We play outside a lot!

He had a doctor appointment a few weeks ago... 3 months late for his 18 month visit. We were delayed with insurance changes. He was a complete wimp for everything. He cried through every measurement and examination. And of course cried even more for the shot. But he was fine when we left! He weighed in at 28 lbs 10oz, which puts him in the 55th or so percentile. He measured at 35.5 inches which puts him at the 95th percentile. Tall and lean! My young athlete.

He is feisty and energetic, but so lovable and snuggly and we always catch ourselves endearingly saying "that kid". We love him so much and are so lucky to have him.

Catching up

I guess I've been too busy living the blog-worthy moments to stop and actually document them here. Here is a quick summary of our summer fun thus far:

FAMILY! Lots and lots of family time. We went up to Maine for Catherine's graduation, hosted the family almost immediately after while they're house hunting. Oh, did I not tell you, blog world? My in-laws are moving back to town! So we've hosted a few house hunting visits. Evan has gotten no shortage of time with Papa Jon ("Bapa"), Gram ("Gigi"), Catherine ("Tat"), Joseph ("Doe"), Regan ("Ree Ree"), and Strom ("..." he can't even attempt that one yet, just rolls his eyes at you when you ask). We're very excited to only drive 15 minutes over to Waterford to see them now. Well, it's still a lot more than that to see Regan and Strom but when they come visit it will only be that far now!




Following a house hunting visit, Regan and Strom stuck around for some extra time with us, and we were so blessed to have them here. Regan graciously (like it took much convincing) used her decorating skills to help us finally decorate our downstairs family room after 3 years of using it with no decor to speak of! We now have a functional toy storage unit, some "theater" decor in the couch/tv area, and a nice mirror and table in the entryway. We went with a green/teal color scheme and I love it! She also helped us do a gallery wall which we still need a couple photos for frames, but it still looks great! Thank you so much!








We also had fun taking them out to Browns Tavern in Troy which has our favorite wings ever. We took them up to Forno Toscano Bistro in Saratoga and since we didn't have time to wait for the outside dining, we all felt underdressed together inside and had a delicious meal. We introduced them to our new favorite TV show, Community, and blew through the first season in about 5 or 6 sittings.

In the time that we didn't have them family around, we've been enjoying the heat wave and playing outside a lot. Since a critter came and destroyed my garden I repurposed it as a "beach" for Evan. Ok, it's a pretty ghetto beach. It's a tarp on the dirt with an inflatable pool and a beach umbrella. He sometimes likes it but isn't always in the mood. He has a new basketball hoop (thank you so much, Gram and Papa Jon. What a great buy!) and it goes inside and outside with us. Evan loves going for walks in the morning before it gets too hot, and we usually end with going to the park down the street. The last 3 blocks of the walk he keeps asking to go on the "bee" (slide) and every time we get to the park, he grabs his basketball when he gets out of the stroller and heads straight for the courts... not the slide! What an athlete.






What's new with Evan? Oh something is new every day. I'll try to recap. He is a CHATTERBOX! You have to know how to translate though. Depending on the body language, a word could have many different meanings.

Bee - slide (because he goes "beeeeee" when he slides down), "sliding" forward off furniture or stairs
Dis - downstairs, juice, eat, dance, cheese
Ba - ball, basketball hoop, frisbee
Bus - any vehicle with a diesel engine or squeaky brakes
Bas - bath
Byah - banana, guitar, piano
Bahp - apple, bubbles
Wiss - woods, raisins, horse
Ca-ee - Charlie (his buddy from church), or car
Wash - walk, watch (TV)
Zah - socks, shoes, snack
Coksh - crocs
Boot - book, boat
Boots - broken
Grge - George (he is obsessed with Curious George now)

He has started putting gibberish sentences together. He has so much to say, but the right words aren't there. Doesn't stop him from trying though!

He is a young athlete in the making. He is most obsessed with basketball, but also kicks the soccer ball around, throws the football, and as of a few days ago he can hike it. He can throw a ball in the air and hit it with a bat. The accuracy depends on the size of the ball. He's pretty good at throwing a ball up in the air and swatting it with his hand like a volleyball serve. He loves frisbee and I'm serious and not bragging here but you need to stand far back from him when he has a frisbee because he could take your head off! He's not only has a good arm, but a dynamite catch as well.

Easter

We made a last minute decision early last week to go up to Maine for Easter. Jack's family got a contract on their house after just 9 days on the market which is unheard of up there, so we want to get up there as much as we can before they close and then move back here! We headed up on Thursday evening with an iPad strapped to the headrest using 2 elastic headbands hoping it would keep Evan busy on the drive. He hadn't been on a road trip since Christmas and we had to stop about every hour to keep him pleasant. Well, it worked! We only had to stop once on the way there and the way back!

We had a great visit with Jack's family, and of course missing Regan and Strom terribly for our first visit there without them. The weather was beautiful for the most part and we enjoyed the outdoors. Evan loved the basketball hoop and loved stepping on the stones lining the house. He put on a dance show on the back deck.

(We missed you like crazy, Regan & Strom!)

Easter was a glorious day in multiple ways! Of course because of the reason for the season. It was a beautiful weather day. The company was great and the meal was fantastic. After Evan's nap, we "hid" the sport-ball themed eggs outside with goldfish and raisins hiding inside and he "hunted and gathered". That is until he remembered there was a basketball hoop. We had a good long skype with Regan (and Strom when he pulled his eyes away from the XBox!). Evan felt very connected to Aunt Regan through the computer, complete with fist bumping and kissing the screen! He is a bit confused now though, and wants to pound fists with every character on TV!

Sunny Florida

Jack approached me a couple months ago posing the question, "How would you feel about me going to Belize with the church?" My response? "How would you feel about me going to Florida while you're in Belize?" So that's how it worked out. Jack went to Belize with a team from our church to build a house for a needy family, and you can read about his adventures on this blog.

So Evan and I took off on April 1 on a direct flight to Orlando to visit my parents in Lakeland. He did great on the plane and being on Southwest with open boarding left us with an open seat in the middle on both flights. Who wants to sit next to an antsy toddler on his mom's lap? Clearly no one on a less than full flight!

We kept very busy! Only had 1 rainy day. We had a beach trip one day. We spent most other mornings doing an activity with Evan- 4 different playgrounds, feeding the water fowl (when Evan stopped eating the bread and threw it to the birds), had some lunches out and about. When he went down for a nap, I went to the pool. It was a pretty sweet setup! We were pretty spoiled!

It was a wonderful preview of all the fun we can have with Evan this summer. He loved splashing in the pool and wading in the shallow sandbar area at the beach. He had a blast shoveling sand and dumping it in his pail. He became very proficient at climbing the playground equipment and going down big slides by himself.

A huge thank you goes out to my parents for hosting us for 8 days, driving us to countless activities, treating to lunches, dinner, and ice cream. We can think of no better way that we could have spent our time away from Jack!











Doing the twisty slide all by himself!



Rainy Day Bubbles. He couldn't figure out why these new "balls" kept disappearing when he touched them.



He kept losing the sand he was trying to throw in the backswing!

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!