Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a safe and festive Halloween! Dress-up pictures to come!

Oct 30

We had the pumpkin carving extravaganza last night. Here are the finished products.

I got to go to school today with Evan. His teacher asked that I help with their Harvest project - making applesauce! I got to meet some of his classmates and it was fun to see how every child is so different. There was a girl who was very personable. There was one who just wanted to talk and talk and took forever to cut her apples up. There was a boy who was all business and very meticulous about cutting. There was one who liked getting help from me and one who pushed my hand away and said, "I can do it myself!" Such great kids!

Oct 28

Evanisms:

* I have to admit, the control freak in me had a hard time adjusting to Evan going off to school and me not knowing exactly what he did there. I had all summer to get used to this and I ask him the same questions every day. So now I have a pretty good feel for what he does all morning. Sometimes he volunteers the information without my asking. Today he told me about an incident at recess. He said, "I boomed a girl down. I was playing too rough and she got sad. The teacher made me sit on the porch." So we had to have a little talk about that!

* I love seeing how my boy's brain works. He thinks about words and puts things together on his own. A blender blends. A diver dives. A teacher teaches. One day I was cleaning out the humidifier and he asked me what the filter was. I told him it's a filter. He said, "How does it filts?" Another example. We were reading about road machines and there was an asphalt mixer. He asked, "How does it asses?"

Ellenantics:

* Baby girl is doing well. She is such a happy, mellow girl and so pleasant to be around. She has the sweetest smiles and has started chatting up a storm! We can have conversations and she gets such a kick out of it.

* Today Ellena was fussing in her chair. I stepped out to take out the garbage and I overheard Evan say to her, "It's ok, Ellena. Momma will be right back. I'll take care of you."

Happy birthday, Grandpa Joe!

Oct 27 pic

Ellena is 3 months old! And I thought she couldn't get any cuter - until I put on a headband!

Busy Week

Besides the usual busy-ness (getting Evan off to school, laundry every other day, dinner prep, errands, etc.) this week has been exceptionally busy.

Ellena and I went to Uwajimaya and did a huge shopping run - stocking up on all the yummy-goodness since everything in the store was 10% off. It was also Evan's birthday so we tried to make his day as special as possible. I also took El and Ev to take pictures at JC Penneys for El's first photo shoot. We got some great ones of the two together - can't wait to get the pictures in! Yesterday was Evan's "medical maintenance day" - 6-month dental check up and 3-year wellness appointment. Very brave stuff for the big boy and no pokes!

What's coming up for the rest of the week: Evan will be having his "birthday circle" at school today and I get to join in the fun! We also have soccer class and we'll be taking Evan to the theatre for the first time - Backyardigans are in town!

I don't want to jinx it, but...

...This is the fourth straight night that Ellena has slept 12 hours! OMG! We give her a bedtime bottle around 8 and put her down at 8:30ish. She has consistently slept all the way through the night and waking around... now! Sometimes I even have to go in and wake her at 8 cause we need to get ourselves going and get out the door.

When she turned 2 months old, she was giving us an 8-9 hour stretch. After 2 glorious weeks, she started waking again every 3-4 hours... So I'm going to just enjoy my sleep for now and see how it goes... But it does make me think of something I've heard before: "One time is a fluke, two times a coincidence, three times a trend..." What's four again? Oh well... Four is a well rested Momma!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Evan!

This past Saturday we had Evan's birthday party at the Aquarium. It was so great to see our friends and family and celebrate together. The Aquarium did a great job hosting the party by providing a private room, tasty food, and two cool activities for the kids - a private touch tank experience and a visit from their mascot, Sammy the Sea Otter. Our guests could then tour the Aquarium the rest of the day and experience Evan's favorite place!

Monday was Evan's birthday and he had a hard time understanding that it was his birth-day. He kept asking if we were going to go back to the Aquarium... because it was his birthday. Sorry kiddo. Your party was on Saturday and now it's over! He did have more presents to open, so we got to do that, but it was overall a letdown after the big shindig on Saturday. Plus, Grandma and Pops came down with strep throat, so we were on our own. But Evan rolled with the punches and I think it was a good birthday overall. :)

Pumpkin Carving

Today we carved one of our pumpkins. Evan loved designing his jack-o-lantern (Do you want circle or triangle eyes? Triangle. Do you want circle or triangle nose? Oval. How many teeth? Five.) Check out my mad photographical skills (again, love that movie, Evolution) in the above picture. I was able to get my pumpkin carvers AND the two cats! Just me and the girl missing from this family picture... Ellena was doing her own thang - see below.

Oct. 16 Evanisms

* On our way to the pumpkin patch, we passed a lot of rural property. We saw goats, cows and horses. When we pointed out the cows to Evan, "Look Evan, cows!" Evan replied with an enthusiastic, "Yum!" We thought that was so funny... and random. Poppa said proudly, "My little carnivore..."

* Evan came home one day saying, "Ninja powers! psssh psshhhh pow psshhh." He was doing all these sound effects and punching motions. I asked him where he learned ninja powers from. He said from his teacher. I thought that was a little strange... Okaayyy... A week later, he started getting a little rougher with his ninja powers so I again asked where he learned it from. He said, "My teacher... She said no ninja powers at school." Okay, now that makes more sense... and a totally different side of the story came out!

* We had a new Diego episode to watch about a kinkajou. I told Evan, "I'm not quite sure what a kinkajou is, but do you want to watch it?" Evan replied in the most serious voice, "We can learn about it, Momma."

* For all you Diego fans (or those who have kids that are Diego fans and you have the pleasure of watching it with them), Evan got a rescue pack to complete his Halloween costume. It came in the mail yesterday and he has not stopped wearing it. (Although I do insist he remove it before going to the potty.) So Evan straps on his rescue pack and runs up and down the hallway singing, "Rescue pack! Coming to the rescue! Al rescate! Rescue pack! What do we need to get up the river? A skateboard? Noooo... A motorcycle? Yes, a motorcycle! Oh no, it's the Bobo Brothers! Those naughty monkeys are always up to no good! Say freeze, Bobos!" No joke, he recited the whole episode.

Oct 16 pics

Evan is so excited to have Cousin Aaron in town!

Ellena was chilling in her chair for about half an hour with her fist in the air. It was so funny. When I got the camera out, she put her fist down (of course!). So I asked her, "Ellena, where's your fist?!" She then responded with the biggest smile and shoved her fist out for me to see. What a cutie!

Here she is doing tummy time. Her neck is really getting stronger - the boppy has helped. When I lay her flat on her stomach, she tends to be a little lazy and just lay her head down. The boppy seems to force her to work a little harder. As Evan would say, "Yay Ellena, yay Ellena!" He's a wonderful cheerleader!

Oct 13 pics

How cute are they?!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Madeline!

When I Grow Up...

Here are all the things Evan has said he wants to be when he grows up:

* A diver man

* A trash man

* A roofer man

Here are all the things Evan has said he will do when he grows BIG:

* Clean the kitty litter

* Learn to drive a car

* Play with his tiny Legos (ages 5 and up!)

* Sleep over at Grandma's house

Pumpkin Patchery

After visiting the Salmon Hatchery the other week with Grandma, Evan started calling the pumpkin patch, the Pumpkin Patchery. Too funny. We went to pick our Halloween pumpkins yesterday from the "patchery." Evan is now looking forward to "cutting off the top, scraping it and pouring chemicals inside, and then making a jack-o-lantern!"

Facing His Fears

I've noticed lately that Evan has been facing his fears. I don't know what clicked in his brain, but everything that used to scare him (and I mean, really frightened him!), he is insisting on checking out.

Last year around Halloween time, QFC had one of those animated witches set up by the florist department. Evan hated going in there and we had to avoid that entrance. I totally understand - it's really scary for a little one! The same witch is now displayed at Fred Meyer - where we shop every weekend. Now, Evan holds my hand and asks to walk by the scary witch. As we shop around, he keeps asking, "Where's the scary witch? Can we walk by her?"

The first Diego episode Evan ever watched was a special 1-hour long episode that had a witch that was really a mosquito that landed on a magic wand. She was cruel to the animals and she turned elephants to stone, took away the zebras' stripes, etc. Evan was so afraid of this witch, it took him about a year to try out another Diego episode (the regular episodes are much tamer and he absolutely loves them!) However, a few days ago, he asked to watch the episode with the witch. He made it through the show and I think he was proud of himself for not being afraid. He has now asked to watch it again after his nap today.

He's also started watching movies like Monsters, Inc. and Lion King. We skip the scary parts, but he sometimes insists on watching those too.

Costco has a big inflatable Halloween display set up. Evan insists on walking around it to see the "scary car wash". I looked at it from the back and thought, Yeah, it kinda looked like a scary car wash. It had a frame and streamers hanging down it like a car wash. When we got to the front, I realized it was not a scary car wash, but the gates of hell. Okaaaayyy... But Evan calls it the scary car wash and wants to check it out at every visit.

Now there are two other fears that I'm not pushing him on. One is a tiger. I think one of his most vivid nightmares was of a tiger in his room. Whenever he has a rocky night of sleep, he says the tiger came back. This hasn't happened in a while, but I'm not going to go there. The other thing he's afraid of is thunder. Sadly, I think our warm days are over... but that also means no more thunderstorms! We talk about this a lot - everytime it rains, so A LOT! He always asks if there will be thunder when it starts raining. And then we talk about how Poki is afraid of thunder too. I think that makes him feel better.

So, the little guy is growing up so fast. I'm really proud of how brave he is and wow, what a change in just a year!

Oct 7 Pics

When I put Ellena on the Boppy for some tummy time, Evan wanted to join in. Here are the two doing some tummy time together.

Ellena-Antics

The term "Evanisms" flows so well... I'm having a hard time coming up with something to describe our little girl. The best I've come up with so far is "Ellena-Antics". Any ideas?

For now, we'll go with Ellena-Antics...

* Ellena is starting to giggle! It's the cutest thing. She is in a smiley mood and then we tickle her neck and she giggles! She really is a happy, mellow baby - we are so blessed!

* Last night during her bedtime bottle, she started smiling at Pops. But that made her choke! Poor girl! But we couldn't help but laugh at her sweetness...

Oct 1 Pics

Happy Birthday, Kim!