Handy Hand-Me Downs!

When Alysa was one year old, Em slaved over the most adorable little skunk costume for her.   At the time she made it, I begged her to please keep it.  It is the cutest costume ever and is complete with a detachable, car seat friendly, tail.  I wanted her to keep it and couldn't wait for the day that I would have a child that could get to wear the little costume.

This year, when deciding what Evan should be for Halloween, I found the most adorable pattern for a sheep costume.  While I had the skunk costume in the back of my mind, it was all the way in Utah, and I really wanted to get the sheep materials.  It was just too tempting to see if I could actually assemble all the fabric into something that might resemble the cute little picture.  After a few late nights and one slight mis-hap with the hat being too small (I had to make a second one), the Sheep costume is done and it is OH SO CUTE!  I was quite impressed with my sewing skills and couldn't wait for Halloween.  However, Evan was not quite on the same page.  He hates the sheep outfit.  Everytime I put the hat on, he gets real mad and pulls it off.  When I tried on the little booties, he looked at me with the most concerned look and then shook his feet frantically.  I think it might be the fuzzy material.

I was talking to Em on the phone and told her about Evan's distain for the sheep costume.  "all my hard work and he hates it, blah, blah, blah."  At that moment, she graciously offered to send the covetted skunk costume to me.  Oh the tearing of my heart strings!  I had just slaved over his little sheep outfit.  I had made his first Halloween costume - all by myself.  The material is fuzzy!  BUT... HOW COULD I PASS IT UP?  I had dreamt of this day for 8 years already!  The skunk.  My kid could wear the skunk.  In her nicest, most naturally calm voice she said, "well, I will just send it to you and then you can have a back up." 

She packed up the skunk, sent it to me, and when it arrived it was even cuter than I remembered.

Thankfully, dad and Kristi had a karate party tonight where he could wear the skunk and I can still try the sheep for the actual Halloween night. 

Also, luckily, the little skunk costume came complete with a detachable hat that can be enjoyed by all.

15 hours of driving later...

This weekend, my Portland friend, Courtney, planned a "friends with kids" weekend at the Oregon Coast.  She doesn't have any kids yet, but decided it would be fun to have all her friends with kids get together at a beach house at the coast.  She said that all the families with babies always had to miss out on fun things because they didn't want to be the one couple with a baby on weekend getaways.  So, this weekend was a "babies only" (plus Court and Sean) weekend and it was so much fun!!!  We loaded in the car on Friday (10:30 departure) and arrived in Lincoln City at around 6:00 pm.  We thought we were going to go insane from traffic and couldn't believe how well Evan did, but we were excited to be there.  The house was awesome.  It was a huge 4 bedroom house complete with a hot tub, brand new flat screen tvs (since the old ones had been stolen as part of a break-in earlier that day), plenty of space, and some pretty extravagant mint green paint throughout the whole house.  (There was also a pesky raccoon that lived outside the front door that we were a little worried about, but were lucky to not see lurking in the middle of the night).

Court and Sean were already there when we arrived and, in true Sean style, some delicious organic Potato/Leek soup was brewing on the stove.  We got settled, ate our delicious dinner, talked, caught up, put Evan to bed and got into our competitive evening of game playing.  Courtney and I got beat pretty bad at Milles Bourne and then again at Trivial Pursuit, but we had a great time!

In the morning, the other couples and their kids arrived and we made our way down to the coast.  Evan loved the water and loved seeing all the dogs down there.  It was a little cold, a little windy and the Hawkeyes were playing Michigan so we headed back to the house.  After a good football game and a nap for the baby, we had another yummy, homemade soup, made -with love- by Sean.  It was tortilla soup with beans, corn, tomatoes, onions, chili's, and something else spicy.  It was the chunkiest soup I have ever seen and, I have to admit, I was a little nervous about it when I saw all the ingredients going in.  For the record - I do not like tomatoes, onions, chili's or something else spicy.  Or at least I didn't think it did... When the soup was dished up, I decided that I needed to stop being a baby (after all, one of the babies was actually eating the soup!) - CHUNKS and all.  Sean dished me up my vegetarian version, I put a thin layer of cheese on top to hide the ingredients underneath, dug my spoon in, closed my eyes, and took a bite.  DELICIOUS.  Bite after bite, I loved it.  It was a weird moment for me.  Mentally, there were so many things that I don't like in the soup that I was convinced I wouldn't like it - and if I looked at it too long my head started taking over and would make my spoon pick out big chunks of onion and casually sneak them into Steve's bowl.  BUT after all was said and done, I ate a huge bowl of the soup and was astonished that I had done it.  As I sat there thoroughly enjoying the soup, I made a silent vow to myself to stop being so lame about food and to start trying things with a little less hesitation.

That night, we re-visited the trivial pursuit game - (lawyers vs. non-lawyers) and we redeemed ourselves!

It was an awesome time and I am glad that we made the trek down.  I am also glad that I have a friend like Courtney who plans fun things, and that she married someone like Sean, who makes chunky soup that tastes really good.

9 Months.

Even though it is the middle of the month, on October 7, 2010 we had Evan's 9 month check up. 
Stats:
Height - 28 1/2 in. (56%)
Weight - 21 lbs 9 oz (66%)
Head - 48 1/2 cm (99%)

Because he has a teeny tiny little cousin, I start to think that he is an abnormally big kid.  However, with the recent stats I see that he is not too heavy or too tall.  His head, on the other hand, still remains a mystery.  :)

 He is still as awesome as can be.  He loves Steve more and more each day and is starting to cry when he leaves the room.  We are still working our way through not-so-smooth food.  He ate macaronni and cheese on Thurs and LOVED it.  He threw up after eating peas on Wed. and gagged on the apricot jam covered toast we tried last week.  He still has his daily dose of prunes and loves peach yogurt.  (I am in love with YoBaby Peach yogurt.  Totally organic, and totally yummy!)  He is learning to pull himself up on things. and is on the verge of crawling.  He pushes himself up on one knee and one leg and then sits himself back down.  Tonight he got up on both knees, looked at his hands beneath him and starting laughing before sitting back down.  It was as if he knew what came next and was too excited to actually continue. 

He has done so many awesome things lately.  The other day, he was laying on my chest on the couch, realized that his favorite person was not in the room, pushed up on two hands, looked around frantically and then said "dada."  I would like to believe that he was just babbling and it had no connection to Steve, but I am quite certain that his first word is not going to be "mama" despite my constant coaching.

He still waves hello and goodbye and will even start waving at something on his own.  (For example, if I try to make him sit through the whole "there is a monster at the end of this book" book, he may start waving at the book when we get to the page with all the bricks.  "bye book - I have had enough of you."  OR when we go to get the mail, as soon as we walk out the door, he starts waving at the house.  "bye house.")

He also played a game of "catch" with Steve the other day.  Steve has a baseball mixed in the basket of toys and is constantly showing it to Evan and telling him (and me) that it is a major league baseball (as if that makes it way better or something?)  Anyway, Steve always rolls it to Evan - preparing him for grounders, I suppose.  The other day, Evan got the ball, picked it up and tossed it back to Steve.  (I use "tossed" very losely.  We are dealing with a 9 mo old, remember.)  Steve was SO excited.  They did this back and forth a few times and I seriously haven't seen Steve get so excited about something in a really long time.  It was awesome.

Yes, Steve is Wearing a Tank Top.

In that small, little bike trailer behind the man in the tank top, you would find this:

Although he looks skeptical, he did really well.

And our first family bike ride was a success!

P.S. I got a bug on my contact right when the ride started and I thought I was going to die when we had to ride UP the huge hill by Beth's house, but going back to my previous statement - despite the bug and my burning thighs - we had a really good time.

Can life be in a nut shell?

This evening I went shopping at Kohl's with Jen, Owen, Ivy, and Evan ---
Jen: who forgot her wallet/id/and debit card;
Owen:: who insisted on purchasing a buzz light year/woody combo jammie when he HATES regular jammies;
Ivy: who adamantly told Jen she did NOT want the little black shoes Jen had picked out - please note she is only 15 months old; and
Evan: who cried the ENTIRE time because he was so tired and couldn't believe I would actually bring him to Kohl's on a day like today.

Anyway, today, while shopping at Kohl's, Owen picked up a hideous stuffed squirrel/chipmunk thing and, wihtout any hesitation, said, "Here, Non.  YOU would probably like this." 

Hmmm...

Bear.

When my mom was here visiting Evan when he was first born, she bought him a bear.  A lovely, little, cuddly bear with a scarf.  I decided to take his monthly pictures with the bear to have some sort of frame of reference.  I cannot believe how big he has grown!

I do love month 4 to be quite honest.

Being a mom is hard.

I know, most of you are probably thinking, "Yes.  True.  And?"  (or something similar).  However the other day, I had a moment where being "the mom" was really hard.  I know, now you are thinking "there are a lot more of these moments to come."  OR  "If she only knew."  Thanks for your advice and your wisdom, but it didn't make it any easier.

Evan wasn't feeling well.  Maybe it was his tummy.  Or his runny nose.  Or those additional teeth that are threatening to pop through.  He just kept crying and crying.  While all of this was really sad, it was not the hard part.  The hard part was when he was crying and crying - inconsolable - and he only wanted Steve.  He was already crying his head off and when I would take him to try to comfort him, he would start crying even harder and look at his dad with this little face, like "I don't want her!"  So, in my efforts to calm him, I would hand my sobbing son over to Steve.  His crying would lessen, but wouldn't stop.  Steve wasn't rocking him the way he liked and wasn't letting him lay on his favorite blanket all bundled up under his head.  He wasn't singing to him OR telling him a story about the little squirrel that we had seen earlier in the day.  Steve was trying, but he wasn't doing it right, so Evan kept crying.  I sat there feeling totally exposed.  There was NOTHING I could do.  He didn't want me.  He wanted his dad.  His best friend, dad. 

I know, I know, it doesn't mean that he doesn't love me or that he doesn't need me.  It just meant that, at that particular moment, he just wanted the big, strong, loving, arms of his dad.  So, as Steve held him, Evan and I both cried.  Obviously for different reasons.  :)