Over the hills and through the woods

Ok, part of the reason for a lack in posts is because we've been travelling a lot in the last two weeks to visit grandparents. We figure that this will be the last month where we do any long road trips since I'm approaching 7 months pregnant. Two weeks ago we drove to Hilton Head for some much needed R&R while G&G Terreri gave us a break and watched Evan for the weekend. It had been a long week with the toddler bed transitioning.... suffice to say that we ALL lost a lot of sleep. It is going much better now, and although Evan still wakes once or twice during the night, we are able to walk him back to bed and he falls back to sleep easily. Getting him to fall asleep at naptime is still a struggle, but it's coming along. Today was a little bit of a setback though-- it took Jason 3 hours to get Evan to fall asleep.

Anyway, back to our travels. Hilton Head was a nice little break-- so much so that we don't have any pictures to show for it! A few days after we got back, we left again to see family in Florida. Coincidentally, we hit the road the same afternoon that it decided to snow/sleet/hail/rain in Georgia. Snow?! We live in the "South"!! Our 8 hour trip to Sarasota turned into 9+ hours. My uncle Warren was nice enough to let us stay in his beachside condo. Unfortunately, the weather during our trip didn't allow for much sun bathing. It was cold, rainy and tropical-storm-like windy. We still had a great time though visiting with "Nana" (my mom), Uncle Nate, Aunt Rachel, Great Grandpa Donnie and Great Grandma Bonnie (pictured above with Evan), Great Aunt Nellie and Great Uncle Rich. Evan was doted on by all. He was great for almost the whole trip. Given the fact that he stayed up late every night, ate "vacation" food (ie, pizza, whip cream, diet Pepsi), and spent hours in the car, he was a real trooper. We didn't take as many pics as we would have liked, so here is a small selection.

My grandparents' back yard lanai has a lovely water feature, which Evan quickly discovered a short time after our arrival. Oh yeah, he had a LOT of fun with this.

There was one small window of time when it was nice enough to visit the beach.

Bullit was pooped after 4 days with his yellow lab girlfriend, Belle. Yes, this is Bullit, asleep, covered up, in our bed.

Show me your....tummy!

Yes loyal readers, I've been on blog hiatus. No particular reason; to be honest, I was shocked to see that my last post was Jan 5! Oh well. A few updates to follow.

Evan gets a little enthusiastic about showing off his tummy/belly button. Jason's happy that he's not a little girl-- that could start a bad habit!

Jason modified one of his running visors and Evan loves to wear it around the house.

My new assistant

He's a great multi-tasker!

Big changes

In preparation for #2, we started to transition Evan to a "big boy" bed. The process began last night. Jason disassembled the crib, assembled the toddler bed and set it up with all of Evan's crib snugglies. For the next hour after it was set up we all had such fun watching Evan climb in and out, jump on his new bed, giggle, laugh, squeal....






The real fun began about an hour later when we started the night-night process. Evan first went down at 8:15. He was up and down in and out of his room every minute until about 8:30 (not bad). Then, after he realized he was supposed to stay in his room, he would only come to the door, crack it open, stick his head out until he saw us, then slam it closed and run back to his bed, crying. This continued until about 9:30, when he finally gave in and fell asleep. "Success!" we thought. "We broke him!" we said, pleased with our parenting ability and impressed with Evan's understanding of the new concept. We settled onto the couch to watch some TV before bed. At around 11, we wearily climbed into bed after a long week, ready for some restful sleep. Sleep? Yes. Restful it was not. We took turns returning Evan to bed at 12:30, 12:45, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00..........long break.....5:00, and he finally woke, happy, for the day at 7:30 am. The key, which we realized around 3 am, was turning on his night light. He didn't like waking up to a pitch black room. All in all, considering this was such a big change, we felt it went well. We're hoping, however, that the process will get easier in the next few days.

New Year's

Our friends the Bergers invited us over for New Year's eve dinner. We ended up staying for New Year's day breakfast and dinner. It was fun, low-key and we had great food. I'm not sure if we'll be invited back next year seeing as how Evan woke everyone up around 7:30 am. Jason and I expected this; our friends--sans children--were a little less prepared.

Evan rang in his new year in a crate.

Little percussionist

Evan's buddy Tai got a new set of drums for Chistmas-- a real set of drums. We went over to their house for dinner last weekend and Evan got a chance to play a few sets. He's a natural! I suggested we buy a set for our house; Jason said he could play the triangle.

Resemblance

There's no question that Evan looks a lot like Jason, but I was curious to see how much he looked like me as a child. I dug up an old photo and was surprised to see that Evan looks a lot like me when I was his age. Although it's not a great quality photo, I've posted it for you to see.

More of the little red car

Like I mentioned, the car was Evan's favorite Christmas gift. Until today, he's been taking it on short trips inside the house, climbing in and out, discovering the ignition, the horn, the gas cap, and getting stuck on quite a few occasions (very funny-- we run to grab the camera, then help him get out). This afternoon, we took him out on the golf cart path and let him take his new wheels for a spin.

Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home, just the three of us. I cooked dinner for us on Christmas eve, with plenty for leftovers to pick at all day on Christmas. Before bed, Evan was allowed to open one gift, per the tradition. Some good friends of ours stopped by on later that evening to say hello (they live in Alaska and were back visiting family), play some dominos and help us put together Evan's toys. Considering the picture below, I'm amazed there weren't any leftover parts. While everyone else enjoyed a cocktail, I got to open my stocking early to enjoy some virgin peach bubbly. Good, but just not the same.











Christmas morning, Evan woke up at 6am-- it was like he knew! Typically he doesn't get up until 7:30. We had a few unwrapped/Santa presents sitting out for him and when we brought him out to the living room to see, he had a huge grin on his face. He ran right over and started playing with what would be his favorite toy all day long-- the Cozy Coupe car. This was a present from Uncle DJ & Aunt Heather, and by far, it was the gift that trumped all others. Evan also loved his new racetrack and new set of fridge magnets that sings an annoying song for each new letter ("Every letter makes a sound, and B says 'buh'"-- yes, I already know all of the words). He still wasn't too into actually unwrapping gifts this year, but loved playing with all of the new toys. He stayed busy all day long playing with each and every toy-- it was great! It was nice because we opened a few gifts, took a break to have breakfast, and then opened some more. This will be the last year that we're able to do that!



Waffles and whip cream, yum!

Go Colts!

Not surprisingly, Evan just loves Elmo. He was very happy with the giant Elmo he got for Christmas.

Belly pic-- at 23 weeks (almost 6 months). Extreme lower back pain, sore feet and tiredness have all come on recently. And still 17 weeks to go-- yikes!

Christmas was tiring for this basset hound.

New/old traditions

At my dad's house every year, my step-mom and sisters decorate Christmas sugar cookies with different colored icing. During the years that I visited them for Christmas, I always had so much fun doing this, so I thought it would be neat to start the tradition with Evan. While he didn't really "decorate" a cookie, he did have fun licking icing off a spoon and eating the cookies. I'm not sure all the sugar was such a great idea, but it can't hurt every once in while, right? Oh yeah, I roped Jason into the activity too. His decorating skills were... interesting.

My latest project...

I've been on a hunt lately to find Evan a set of table and chairs. I found one this past week at a kid's consignment shop. It needed a new coat of paint and new chair cushion covers, but at $20, it was a great deal. I fixed it up yesterday and Evan tried it out today. He loves it!

Pre-Christmas fun

Lots of pre-Christmas fun to be had around our house.

Bullit and dog-friend Belle enjoy some presents (yes, they were meant for the dogs).








Evan's favorite new activity: sticking Christmas bows on his forehead.












Awww.... brothers!












Our own little drummer boy (this picture is for Nancy). The drum, by the way, was from some of our close friends. Thanks, guys.

Winter training

This past week, Jason took Evan out on his first winter night run. We bundled Evan up (two layers of everything!), Jason wore his headlamp and off they went! Evan seemed to enjoy all of the Christmas lights in the neighborhood.

Surprise!

Last weekend, I took a surprise trip to Indiana for my Dad's 50th birthday. My step-sister, Amanda, and I planned the trip to surprise both my dad and step-mom, Marilynn. We planned it in conjunction with a surprise party that they had planned for him that weekend. His actual birthday isn't until Christmas day (yeah, lucky him), so the plan was to have the party earlier so he wouldn't suspect anything. Not only did he not suspect a party, but he was stunned to see me there! The reactions were great. Coincidentally, the weekend turned out to be the biggest snowfall they've had all season. Thankfully, it didn't interfere with any of my travel plans.