Evan's First Dentist Appt. and Drew is 13 Months Old!

Evan had his first dentist appointment today and everything went very well. We talked about it a bit this weekend and Evan seemed most excited about picking out a new toothbrush after the cleaning was over. I explained to him about the chair, and leaning back, the hygienist looking at and cleaning his teeth, and he seemed okay with everything, and he was! He opened wide when they asked him to, they counted his teeth, and he loved the sucker thing that sucks all the paste and water out of your mouth. At the end he picked out a new toothbrush and a ball. He had the ladies in the office cracking up as well. They asked him how old he was and he shyly looked at the ground and softly whispered, "Fhree." Then they asked him what his brother's name was and Evan said "He has one!" and then Evan pointed at me and said, "You're Firty!" (Thirty.) The ladies found this quite, quite funny. The picture quality here isn't the best, I was trying to take fast photos and the camera didn't have time to focus before I snapped.




Open wide!



Show us your pearly whites! Evan says, "My teeth are not yellow anymore."



Drew is 13 months old!



Drew is taking a couple steps here and there, I think he will be walking by the middle of February, latest. Drew eats anything and everything, but he is finally getting a little more discriminating about the floor trash that goes into his mouth. He doesn't like to be restrained, and is still putting up a fight to get dressed, which is a continuing tradition since the time he could first roll over. Drew hears the word, "No" and he takes it as a personal challenge to try the offensive activity with even more glee and fervor. He is a snuggly lovely little baby.





Some more pictures for you from this past week. Drew wants us to take the cap off.



But this is why we don't:



And this:





Evan loves spelling his name.

Airport

We met Lindsay, Penelope, and Abigail at the airport today. I am trying to get the kids out and about as much as possible since that 3 week bout. We were originally going to play outside and I thought we could make it for a bit, but I didn't realize it was 36 degrees out until Lindsay let me know, so she suggested the indoor observation area as opposed to the outdoor one. It was really nice and the kids had a lot of fun and ran around. They have a nice little cafe there as well. The terminal looks out to where they park private small planes and jets and then the main runway beyond that where all the planes take off. The kids really love watching the planes take off of course. Drew loved climbing on the coffee tables when he shouldn't and heading towards a steep and open staircase whenever he could manage to try to sneak away.

Abigail and Drew. Drew loved pointing at all the airplanes and vehicles going about their business.



So cute.



This was in the middle of doing things they shouldn't. Penelope was jumping up and down on the couch and Drew was trying to climb on the coffee table, again.




Victory for both.



Evan had fun alternatively running around with Penelope and going outside to watch the planes.



This is a really pretty mobile-like piece of art hanging in the middle of the terminal.

Welcome to Earth, Alex!

My good friend, and Evan's godmother, Lavanya, and her husband Sharat, and their son, Ryan, just welcomed a new family member to the world, Alex. He was born January 21 just about a week early.

Welcome to the world, Alex!






Here is the link to Ryan's entrance.

So, it Has Been a While...

We have pretty much been in the darkest corners of the Eighth Circle of Hell here. Okay, maybe not that bad, but it hasn't been fun the passed few weeks for any of us.

On January 6th, after running some errands, Evan asked to lay on the couch while I cooked dinner. It was odd, but fine, lay on the couch. I came out and found this:



I covered him up and he napped a while.


When he awoke, I took his temperature and it was 101 or 102, I forget. We went to the doctor and Evan ended up having "walking pneumonia." It was odd because he hadn't had a lot of cold symptoms before but I guess everything was draining right into his lungs. So he went on an antibiotic for that.

Then about a week or less later, Drew started a stomach bug, with messy diapers and a terrible diaper rash. Some throwing up, all of that. Then I contracted it for about 4 days, and now Evan has it and he is on day 5. Poor guy. So here we are, January 2008, completely wiped out. We all have been stuck inside so long, I am having fantasies of running around the park with the kids every day in February, freezing temps or no. I think Evan's muscles are starting to look like something from the chicken wing sale section at the grocery store.

Here are a few pics I have snapped over the passed few weeks, and there aren't very many but at least it is something until we are all better and ready to take some fun pictures again.





On the phone.



Evan brushed his hair in a mohawk.



Showing me some moves in between the pneumonia and the stomach flu.







We got some snow the other night, very very little snow. Evan wanted to go back inside and Drew was pretty fascinated.





Evan has been here for about 4 days.

Drew is One! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Drew turned 1 at the end of December and oh my how the time flies. It really does seem like just yesterday we were leaving for the hospital. Drew is standing alone and taking a couple reluctant steps here and there. He is pointing at things and saying "that!" and he likes me to name things for him. He is still my number one fan and will seek me out across the house to find me. Except when he is gleefully sneaking up the stairs to thump around until we discover him and chase him down while he is giggling madly.



Car seat is turned around!



We had a very small celebration for Drew at my parents' house while we were up there for the holiday. My friend Tina and her family came to wish Drew a happy first birthday. Here are Evan and Nate playing in the tent.



Evan helped Drew blow out his candles. Evan was very excited to blow it out.



Drew didn't know what to make of the cake at first and he never dove in with reckless abandon, but he did sample quite a bit of icing and a little bit of cake.





Later, all cleaned up and having fun. We opened a couple of presents and that was that!



Santa came to Evan's play group party so all the kids could remind him right before Christmas what they wished for under the tree.





Evan's preschool class also had a quick Christmas party which I helped host. Evan was very excited to see me at his school.



Before we left we opened some presents from Grandma (James' mom). She gave Evan one of his favorite gifts, a Diego "huggacopter" as Evan calls it. He likes it so much that, a) he gasped when he saw what it was and b) he talked about it in his sleep.





We arrived up to Virginia the Saturday before Christmas, so we all had time to relax. (Except my Mom who works so hard cooking and cleaning while we are there, which we eternally appreciate.)







Christmas Eve morning, Evan awoke throwing up. He was getting another stomach virus! We called our pediatrician, and they called in an anti-nausea medication for Evan. He took it by early afternoon, and then another dose before dinner, and he was asking for food. He ate a huge lunch and then was eating Chinese food by dinner. Every Christmas Eve, our family gets Chinese food. It is an approximately 15 year old tradition. Evan wanted to use the chopsticks so badly, I might pick him up some kids' chopsticks. He did insist every bite of cashew chicken be delivered into his mouth with chopsticks.



Grandad read the The Night Before Christmas and we told Evan it was time to go out and sprinkle the reindeer sparkle to help light the reindeers' way. (This is something the preschool gives the kids before break, it is a mix of oatmeal and glitter.)





Christmas morning. I told Evan Santa had brought presents. I realized with in his response, that I had never talked about Santa leaving after he left the presents. So when I told Evan Santa left things downstairs for him, Evan asked if Santa was downstairs. I said that he had to leave to bring other children presents and Evan looked just a bit disappointed, for about a millisecond.



He was a bit overwhelmed with all the new toys.







We actually need to move the seat up on the tricycle, I don't think Evan had enough leverage to push. I think he liked the helmut most of all.



Finally, the crowning present, my brother gave Evan a Power Wheels. It is a very big, very loud, Jeep. Evan liked the idea of sitting in it, and us pushing him in it, but not pressing the gas to go. Ah well, we have many years for that.



A pretty view on a walk Evan and I took.



A twisty tree.



Spaghetti boy.



After an empty cup.



Finally another Evan anecdote. We have a fridge toy that has plastic letters you plug into compartments to make 3-letter words. Lately Evan has been taking the "D" and giving it to James and saying "D" for Daddy." Then I get "M" for Mommy, and Evan gets "U" for "me."