Evan Update

Evan is so full of life and Dan and I are loving this watching him explore and experience all these new things. He is crawling all around faster and going further each day. We recently took Evan to Clearwater beach to see the sun set with some good friends. This was only the second time Evan had been to the beach. The first time was when he was just four months old. As we were walking down the beach to the shore I caught Evan with this sweet, shy little smile on his face. When I put him in the sand he started crawling around with his best buddy, Joshua. He is teething a lot, so his hands are in his mouth all the time now. Which is usually fine, expect at the beach... he ended up eating a ton of sand! But he didn't even seem to mind :)

Evan is starting level 3 at Gymboree next week. His teacher approached me and felt Evan was ready to move up to the next class. We tried the level 3 class about a month ago but he was too overwhelmed. Now since being back in level 2 a few more week he has gained a lot more confidence, so I think his is ready now!

Evan loves standing by the front door window waiting for his da-da to get home from work. It is so stinkin' cute!!

Ready for Fall

I spent last weekend getting Fall/Halloween decorations out of the garage and decorating our house for fall. I love bring out the pumpkin candy dishes, spiced candles, and hanging friendly skeletons on our doors. When Dan and I were at the mall we could not resist buying some of this amazing pumpkin bread with pecan butter with from William Sonoma that we sampled. I can't wait to make it for my family. Just might become a new family tradition :) I am also looking forward to picking out Halloween costumes and planning trips to pumpkin patches and fall festivals. I sure do love this time of year!

September

This month has been busy, busy and has given us a lot to celebrate! Dan joined a softball leage at work and Evan and I have enjoyed going to the games to cheer him on. Dan's friend Steve came into town for a visit at the beginning of the month. While he was here we had a party at our house for the USF game. We also celebrated Grandparents Day. My sister turned 26 on the 14th and my parents celebrate their anniversary on the 23rd. Rachel's boyfriend, Jess found out he passed the FL Bar and Rachel passed the Ethics Exam, Wahoo! Dan and I took Evan to the FL Aquarium and spray park. Plus all the playgroups, gymboree classes and playdates!! As Rachel says "Evan has a better social life then anyone!" And the month is not over yet... :)

Evan is doing great! He is busy crawling and exploring and he wants to pull himself up on everything. At the end of the month Evan will be getting braces for his ankles. Since he is spending more and more time standing this will help with ankle strength and alignment. Today Evan's Early Interventionist, Ms. Star brought over a tunnel for Evan to play with. It took so convincing but eventually he went through :) This is such a fun stage!

Yay Evan!

I finally got a couple good crawling videos... The first one is one of the first times he crawled. He loves crawling towards the Wii Fitness board :)



The second video is one I took later that week.



Evan has not been sick in such a long time, but our luck ran out this week and Evan caught a cold. When Evan gets sick he REALLY gets sick and he does not bounce back quickly. He has been very clingy and winy but we are hoping the medicine starts working soon and he can be back to his happy self soon! Even though he is under the weather he continues to amaze us. Today he stood in his crib for the first time!! Dan saw him this morning and he did it again for me this afternoon :) I can't believe all the new things he is doing in just 2 weeks. Dan ran and got the camera so I could get a picture of him standing up... the picture is not the best since he is sick and screaming for us to come get him. Not exactly the way I envisioned the first picture of him standing but... I will take what I can :) Poor little guy did not understand why we were so happy and snapping pictures. He just wanted OUT of his crib!!


Practicing trying to standing... :)


Update on baby proofing: Evan tried to pull himself up on one of our bar stools and knocked it over... scared me to death! Thank goodness he was not hurt. So for now, the bar stools are going in the garage.

Moving and Grooving

Here are a few pictures of Evan having fun
exploring and playing around the house!

Exciting New Milestones!

These last few weeks Evan has became our curious little monkey AND has started to crawl. Dan and I are beaming with pride and excitement! Evan is exploring our house and touching everything he can get his hands on... baby proofing, here we come! When Evan started to crawl I was so hesitant to say he was crawling out loud because I did not want to jinx it. But his physical therapist witnessed it herself last Friday and gave us the go ahead to say he is officially crawling!! The first toy he crawled to was his play drum that my friend Margaret got for him. I love how he now has the freedom to go where he wants to go. It is fun to see what he is interested in. The other day he made his way down the hall and headed straight for the bathroom. Another favorite place to explore is our bedroom.

He is also starting to show the signs of wanting to pull up on things like the coffee table, toy box, and window seals.



We have been spending a lot of time outside letting Evan play at his water table.



I have not been successful at getting a video of Evan crawling... he does not crawl for long stretches yet. Hopefully I can catch him in the act soon :)

Painting With Pudding

Evan did his first art project this morning! Miss Star comes over on Wednesday mornings to work with Evan. This morning she had a great idea to try painting with pudding... kind of like finger painting, but perfectly okay and yummy if some gets in his month! I was not sure how he would like this project. He usually is not a fan of getting his hands messy, but he did really well!! Since this art project is not one I can save... I took a picture for his baby book :)

New Videos

Here is a video of Evan when he just got up from his nap. He is the happiest baby!
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The next video is really long... but the cutest part is at the end :)
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Evan Update

Today is Day 3 of our Sippy Cup Experiment! So far, so good. We gave it break for a while but now he seems a little more interested in it. Evan is also starting to clap his hands. He does not do it on command. As my friend says, Evan has to find something really "clap-worthy" in order for him to clap! He still loves going to Gymboree classes. There are unlimited classes for the summer so we are taking full advantage. Plus it is just too dang hot to play outside so the air conditioning is a definite plus. Evan has been practicing getting into the crawling position and gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. He loves being read to. His favorite types of books are the ones with textures and/or flaps. I love seeing his personality develop. He is getting pretty strong willed and expresses his definite likes and dislikes. He has even started to have little fits when he does not get his way. We are getting ready to take a family trip up to Philly for a family reunion. This will be Evan's 4th plane ride. I can't believe my baby is going to be 18 months in a few days!

Model Baby!

I thought it would be fun to enter Evan in a baby model search contest on the Parenting.com website! Please take a minute and vote for my little cutie!!


Click here to VOTE: http://modelsearch.parenting.com/contests/showentry/292378

You can vote once a day. Thanks for your support!