Favorite time of the day

Nearly every night, Evan takes a bath before going to bed. He loves it because he gets to play and be silly. I love it because it means that bed time is less than 30 minutes away!!

Independence comes with a price

Like most kids his age, Evan likes to assert his independence. Whether exploring on his own or insisting to use the fork/spoon himself, he can be a very determined and insistent little boy. So, instead of allowing me to hold his hand and walk with him on the cement around our friends' pool, he insisted he walk by himself (with me closely behind). The picture below shows the results: top and bottom fat lips. This little incident comes two days after Evan decided to pick up a glass and shatter it on our tile floor. Let me tell you how much fun it was to search for and remove tiny shards of glass from a squirmy 14-month-old. Thankfully, there were just a few small cuts.

Seriously? Only 14 months old? How many more of these "little incidences" do I have to look forward to??

Bright ideas

I often bring Evan upstairs with me to the office in an attempt to do some work while he plays. Lately, he's been driving me crazy to use my keyboard, and since he can now reach a lot more things on the desk, I'm having a hard time keeping him from grabbing it. So, I had the brilliant idea to let him play with an old laptop (riddled with viruses and no longer works). We brought up his cool little wooden desk (thanks Aunt Nellie & Uncle Rich!) and let him play. This worked to divert his attention for a little while, until A) he wanted out of the desk and couldn't do it by himself, and B) he closed the laptop and couldn't get it open by himself. My "brilliant" idea turned into a nightmare, when, after the whining and continuous fits, I put the desk and laptop away, at which point, Evan threw a monumental tantrum. Wow, did that backfire!

Fun toys

In the last few weeks, Evan has become more interested in and able to maneuver his ride-on toys. This zebra bouncer-spinning-rocker-thing is really cool and Evan seems to like burning off some energy on it. Thanks Aunt Kim & Uncle Shane!

Mariachi serenade

For my birthday, we celebrated at a local Mexican restaurant with some friends. Jason surprised me during the meal by having the mariachi band come outside and sing happy birthday. The band was entertaining, but even more so was the look on Evan's face as he sat and stared at them. My friend Becky was able to capture his expression with her cell phone camera.

Back-dated photos

Here are more photos from our trip to Indiana back in May. They were taken mostly by my sister Alex. She graduated from high school this year and is starting college at Purdue in August. We're so excited for her!

Evan's first birthday cake was in Indiana. Blue and red icing was fun...

Baptism, cont'd

I'm way behind on posting, but here are some additional photos taken during Evan's baptism and at the celebration afterward. And a few more pics from our week in Hilton Head.


Evan not happy: Exhibit A






Exhibit B





Evan with his Godparents, Uncle DJ & Aunt Heather





A post-lunch nap on the floor at the restaurant. The waiter was kind enough to bring out an extra table cloth.


We also celebrated Hugh & Barbara's 35th wedding anniversary. Quite an accomplishment!









Fr. Gerard, DJ, Heather, Shane, Kim, Barbara, Hugh, Jason, Cara, Fr. Karl (L to R)

Awww. See, there is life after children.





Evan loved playing in the hammock.

Baptism

The other reason for our trip to Hilton Head was for Evan's baptism. Since the church in Hilton Head is more meaningful to Jason, and the central location made it easy for family friend and priest Fr. Karl to give the ceremony, we chose to baptize Evan in Hilton Head. It was mostly a beautiful ceremony. The baptism was scheduled for 10 am. Considering that Evan's morning nap is usually at 10 am and we forgot to give him a snack before going into the church, he did pretty well (when he wasn't squirming or screaming). The funniest moment was when Fr. Karl went to lay his hand over Evan in blessing and Evan reached up to give a high five. If only we could have captured that moment!

surf & turf

A trip to Hilton Head wouldn't be complete without a day at the beach and countless trips to the pool. Evan swam nearly every day. He's getting really brave around the water. He would walk right off the edge into the pool if you let him-- and one time, we did! He flailed and "swam" to the top, coughed a little and that was it. Didn't faze him. And he loved the ocean. He was constantly walking in and out of the waves and he would squeal and scream with delight. For myself, however, I realized that the "relaxing day at the beach" no longer exists. G-Terreri, Aunt Kim and I all took turns walking up and down the shore with Evan. We were all tired at the end of the day!

July 4th

July is one of my favorite months-- and not just because it's my birthday month. I love summer in all of its hot, sunny and bug-ridden glory. And I love the 4th of July. I never met a July 4th I didn't like. Evan also seems to share in my appreciation of the holiday.

We spent the past week over the 4th in Hilton Head at casa de G&G Terreri. It was a great week-- Jason's sister Kim and her husband Shane, and Jason's brother DJ and his wife Heather were all there too. The July 4th tradition in Hilton Head is hot dogs and fireworks on the dock. Evan did not get to enjoy a hot dog, but he did witness fireworks for the first time. He loved them! He stared in awe-- mouth open-- at the lights and did not even flinch once at the noise. I was shocked at how calmly he reacted to the whole thing. I guess it's right in line with his easy-going personality.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the events apart from a couple of Evan in his patriotic outfit (thanks G-Bonnie!). I wish I could have captured the look on Evan's face. My brother-in-law Shane said it perfectly when he remarked that, "it's not often that you get to witness someone's reaction to their very first experience of something."

It's about time!

I know, I know, it's been a while. We've been busy and on vacation, which accounts for the lack of posts. Lots to report on, but I'll start with a cute picture of Evan:

Jason says he should have a real mower. That's not a bad idea-- have you seen our yard??