Gymnastics

Evan LOVES gymnastics.  He asks to go all the time, and on the days we go he wakes up remembering that it is the day we go to gymnastics.

Peak gymnastics has an indoor play park where kids can play on all of the equipment (trampoline, balance beams, bars, floor, etc.) as well as a giant inflatable slide.  It is not a structured class, but he enjoys it so much and tries EVERYTHING!  Recently he learned to climb the inflatable slide and slide on his own, he does it over and over again.  The trampoline is another favorite and he loves when I get on and bounce him high.

My little gymnast.

On the trampoline he does more running than jumping

He learned to "climb the mountain"

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

I love this little boy so very much!  I am so lucky that he is mine!

You Amaze Me!

Evan amazes me every single day.

Every day he says something new or something hilarious.  Today it was "love you too mom" and "Daddy look, penis is stickin' out" (of his pull-up).  While I was paying bills I pulled up the Sears website, without missing a beat Evan says "Sears mom?"  A flyer for JC Penny came in the mail and he says "here Penny mail"  When we drive anywhere, he can pick out any pizza place from a mile away weather we have eaten there or not.  He hears airplanes before we do, knows exactly where every train that he is going to see is and can look at construction vehicles and tell me if it is a backhoe or a tractor.

Yes, Evan amazes me.  His attention to detail and his memory of what we do and where we go is impeccable. 

While painting one day Evan painted an arch and said "rainbow mama"  "Wow!" I said, truly amazed and asked him to do it again to make sure it wasn't a fluke....sure enough he really is drawing the shape of a rainbow. 

All I can say when I look at my son every day is "You amaze me and I love you more than you will ever know"

Cousin Fun

We just had a nice 4 day weekend in Idaho visiting Stefanie for her Tattoo shops grand re-opening.  It was the first time all 3 of the cousins (Evan, Naomee and new addition Madison) got to be together.  We had a a blast and both of the older cousins LOVE their new baby cousin.

The weekend was filled with swimming, a party, some frozen yogurt and of course a few tantrums.

 Evan got brave and kind of jumped into the water when swimming.  Naomee is a fish and as long as her water wings are on she is in swimming heaven!

The grand re-opening of Untamed Art was a huge success and I am so proud of Stefanie and what she has accomplished.  The kids had a great time at the party.  Evan of course found pleasure in the simple things.....the water cooler!  I couldn't keep him away from it.

Evan and I shared a room with Matt and Randi and baby Madison.  She is just 2 months old and sleeps through the night AND Evans night terror that I am sure the rest of the hotel didn't sleep through.  She is such a good baby, always happy and smiling....rarely did I hear her cry.

We tried a late dinner at Applebees with 2 tired kids, a mom and a Nana and Papa who were low on patience and it was a disaster!  Needless to say we ordered our food to go, Nana and I scooped up a 2 and 4 year old screaming and crying and made our way to the car while Papa waited for our food and took some deep breaths!  It will definitely be a night we will never forget :-)

We took the 2 older kids to the county fair and they had a blast!  They rode rides together, checked out the animals with Papa and Stefanie and went on a fast ride with Nana.  They even got to play some carnival games where they win a prize every time so they were really excited when they won.

Some pictures from our weekend:

Beautiful baby Madison

My sister Stefanie in her element

Cousins

Hula hooping at the farmers market

Naomee-Jean

Of all the toys and tumbling mats, Evan stacks cones! :-)

So proud

Obstacle course

At the tattoo shop Naomee has her own play area

Evan loved it

The water cooler

"Tasty mom!"

First ride riding alone

Smile says it all, hes having fun!

They loved the roller coaster

Tilt-a-Whirl with Nana

Silly kids, best friends!

Highlights From the Week (and a half)

I have been really bad at keeping up on this blog, one of the things I said I was going to keep up on once I stopped watching kids for the summer......well I guess it's never too late to get started to keep up!

Some highlights from the last week and a half are:

Preschool Trial and Error 

I decided to try to put Evan in an early preschool program for 2 year olds.  My thinking was that since I am going to enroll him next year as a 3 year old, this is a good way for him to become acclimated to a school setting and gets him used to structure with other kids his age.  His very fist day he was so excited and loved seeing all the new toys, activities and kids to play with, he even said goodbye to me when I left, but I received a phone call 40 minutes later Evan just wouldn't calm down.  His teachers suggested we try one more week and then maybe wait a few months to try again.  We tried again today and again it was a no go right from the get go.  He really wanted to be there but he wanted me to be there too, so when given the option to stay and play by himself or leave with mommy, he chose to leave :-(  He is just having some separation anxiety right now and hopefully in a few months we can try again successfully.

Carrying his backpack to school

He took right to the kitchen area

"Ok bye Mom!"

"I DO IT!"

Evans new favorite saying is "I DO IT!" He has become so independent which is a great thing when he is getting himself in and out of the tub, or picking out his own PJs, or putting on his rain boots...heck he can even let the dog in or outside!  But when it comes to getting dressed, pouring juice, getting food, etc. it is a long, tedious and sometimes messy task!  I am trying to get him to understand without hindering his sense of independence, that there are some things that mommy HAS to do for him or help him with....most of the time he doesn't like it, but eventually accepts it! 
Getting dressed is one thing I am trying to let go of and letting him experiment more with.  We have started out with PJs because we don't have time constraints at night and they are generally a little easier to get on.  Here is one episode of "I DO IT!" and it ONLY took him 20 minutes to get this far!

Forgot the arm holes



Somethings not right here



This works for me!

Mt. Peak

I have lived in Enumclaw for about 7 years now and have never climbed Mt. Peak (blushing).  So Evan and I decided to give it a try.  It is a wonderful, steep and peaceful hike in the woods.  Evan did a great job considering how far we went. I felt like we went a long way before Evan said "hold you" and I knew he was done walking, but I asked a passer bye how far we had made it and he told us we were only about a quarter of the way!  Oh well I will have to try it on my own next time :-)  But it was a great workout for me and fun for us both.

Collecting sticks

And cool leaves

Our hike

"Ok mommy lets go!"

Puyallup Fair

This year the Puyallup Fair was a lot of fun for Evan, and us.  He is old enough to enjoy the rides and lights and people now.  This year we didn't have to pack a diaper bag, just a diaper and wipes in my purse, and he was able to eat what we ate at the fair.  It was very enjoyable.  Evan loved the rides.  He jumped out of his stroller when he saw the Extreme Scream and yelled "Oh My Gosh!....Mama, up...down!!"  We bought him tickets to ride rides but did not trust him to ride alone for fear that he would jump out when he was "all done" so I took him on the rides we could ride together.  He absolutely LOVED the kiddie roller coaster, we went on that one twice, the train ride once and a ride that spins around really fast once.  He was not a huge fan of that one!  We went to the petting farm, ate Krusty Pup corn dogs and bought new rain boot for Evan.  It was perfect weather and a perfect family outing!

Kiddie roller coaster was a favorite

Family train ride

This one was a little too scary....no tears, but no fun either!

Fair food

Evan loved the goats

A long blog post, but it was a few posts in one!!  Time to get a grip and keep up :-)

A relaxing weekend

We had a nice family weekend!

Saturday we went to Bellingham to visit Nana and Papa, Uncle Matt, Auntie Randi, Uncle Jason and baby Madison.  Evan was so excited to see Madison!  He held her on my lap and refused to let go....I've never seen him sit still for so long :-)  He sure loves her. 

Sunday Evan and I went shopping.  We hit Barnes and Noble where there was a train table that was a lot of fun.  It was really hard to leave the train table for Evan, even though he has a train table....HAHA!  We bought his Halloween costume at Old Navy....a dragon...it is adorable.  I am just hoping he will actually wear it on Halloween!  I also got him a few essentials for the fall, including a pair of brown semi dress shoes that he LOVES to wear.  He even wore them grocery shopping on Sunday with a pair of shorts :-)
Later that night we pulled out the train table pieces that we had put away when Evan got his train because he was not quite old enough yet.  Tony, Evan and I sat and built a big train track and played trains.  Then we ate dinner, watched part of the Bee Movie together and it was bed time for the boy.

Sunday we did some grocery shopping as a family, put away the camping equipment that was still out and just hung around the house playing.

I love weekends when we are just together.  And now Evan and I are on our own once again as Ashley, Autumn and Alex went to school and daycare.  I will sub this week and Evan starts early preschool tomorrow.  So exciting!

Circus

Last night we went to the circus and had a BLAST!  I haven't been to the circus in years...it was quite a show!

Evan's favorite TV show is Yo Gabba Gabba, it is the only one he watches and we have DVR'd every episode we can so we have them to choose from at a moments notice.  Anyway, one of his favorite episodes features Weird Al Yankavic (sp) and he is a circus ring master.  Evan LOVES this episode and really wanted to see a clown.  Needless to say these clowns were not as funny as he thought they should be up close and personal, but he did love seeing the elephants, the motorcycles and the people swinging through the air! 

Tony and I thoroughly enjoyed the show as well and are so thankful that we were able to take him and let him experience it. 

Here are some pics from our night:

Waiting to get into the circus....Happy boy!

Not too sure of the clowns :-)

Awesome acts!

Blurry, but shows how excited he was about the acrobats

All eyes on the show (yes with his binky....don't judge!)

We LOVED the elephants!

We switched seats at intermission and had a better view

Motorcycles in the cage were "COOL!" said Evan

Performers were a lot of fun