Christmas

Apologies up front - this is going to be a long post and is long over due.  This year has been a snowy one in Seattle - so snowy in fact that we almost didn't make it out of town!  

Luckily our plane took off and we made it to Philadelphia (though some of our friends were not so lucky).  

We kept ourselves right on the edge of busy and relaxed with a number of fun activities.  We went to the Please Touch Museum. Evan had a blast playing with all the exhibits and riding on the restored carousel.

We visited an outdoor train garden where Evan saw trains winding and whizzing around outside through a very well constructed landscape.

And we went to an indoor play gym with large "bouncy" toys that Evan seemed to love (click the picture to play the video and see Evan in action).

Don't worry - there was plenty of time to spend with family, open presents and eat.

We had a fantastic trip.  Even though we left a white Christmas for a warmer, rainier one, it was a blast.

Drummers part two

Evan loved the drummers and songs at Candy Cane Lane outside the Bellevue Square Mall so much that we went back again so he could see the entire performance.  Just like last time, he was amazed by all the loud drums and the gigantic princesses, bears and penguins.  Here's some video of Evan getting down to some tunes.

Snow in Seattle

We usually get snow here in Seattle once a year.  This year is very very strange.  It's not even the end of December and we've had snow on the ground in the downtown area for 5 days now!  We got Evan a new pair of snow pants and boots (his jacket fit him from last year)  and took him out for a few walks.  I think it's safe to say that other than these pictures, Evan doesn't like the snow all that much.  There's usually a lot of crying while we suit him up and once he's outside he wants to be carried (he slipped once and is a fast learner).  He was mildly interested in the snowballs Jill was making and throwing.  I hope that once he gets on a sled again and remembers how fun it is he'll adjust his view on the snow.

 

Holiday Happenings

Over the past few weeks we've done a bunch of holiday related activities I wanted to share with you.  First, we went to the Bellevue Square mall so Evan could get his picture taken with Santa.  We're still waiting on the picture (they take it and prohibit "outside cameras"), but unlike last year it has a chance of being good as Evan didn't cry the entire time.  He was actually quite excited.  He asked Santa for a Cheese Stick for Christmas and got a lolly pop which he took his time enjoying.

After the photo the mall has an event outside in the evenings where there are real drummers who drum and sing songs.  Evan ran into a friendly penguin and said hi.

He spent some time dancing (he kept his treasured lolly pop close at hand the entire time)

A few days later we headed out for dinner with Evan, Zoe and Liam and arrived a bit early so we could take a holiday train ride around Redmond Town Center.

Evan absolutely loved the train ride - the driver was blowing his "train whistle" and ringing the bell constantly.  Evan kept "chugga chugga chugga choo choo!"'ing the entire ride.  

It's been a busy December but we still found time to have a bit of holiday fun.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

December has been busy.  Before we knew it December 10th was upon us and our tree was not up.  Tonight was the night we fished everything out of storage, set up the fake tree (though this is its last year - once we're in the new house we're going to get a real one!) and were ready to decorate.  We've been talking to Evan about Christmas, Santa, and singing songs.  On top of that, Jill decorated the house a week ago with all our little Christmas decorations, and Evan can't stop talking about all the little decorations!  We just assumed that he'd be real interested in helping us hang the ornaments.  It turns out he wasn't.  He would run over to the tree every few minutes and usually pull the top out of one of the ornaments, claiming that it was now "broken" and he proceeded to jam a screwdriver inside.  

What fun.  He spent most of his time running around the room playing with his toys while Jill and I did the bulk of the work.  Maybe we'll have better luck getting him involved next year.

Caroling

For the past few years Jill and I have gone to see the Christmas carolers sing at the Figgy Pudding caroling competition at Westlake Center -- we even took Evan along last year.  The contest was tonight and we went again.  Evan enjoyed seeing all the lights and hearing all the groups of people singing.  Some even tap danced.  He clapped at the end of each song along with the rest of the crowd and seemed to yell "Yay!" for the groups he liked the most.

Evan at the Symphony

B and Mini got us tickets to take Evan to the Seattle Symphony's Tiny Tot series this year.  Today was the first show.  I was slammed at work so Jill and Evan brought Kate along.

From what Evan told me, there was a lot of singing, someone playing the piano, and some drums and a guitar.  Jill said he loved it.  He was dancing around a lot and relay enjoyed seeing the instruments.

Look at all the lights!

This evening we went to the Bellevue botanical gardens with Evan and saw a rather large and impressive light display.  We met Liam, Evan and Zoe there and both boys loved seeing all the thousands of little lights all arranged.

About twenty minutes in, Evan started hugging Liam, getting down on his knees and pointing to his jacket.  It turned out he was a bit obsessed with his Curious George jacket.  He LOVED the "monkey on the jacket."  He tried to convince Liam he was hot by taking off his own jacket in the hopes he could get a chance to play with the George jacket a bit more.  No dice.  We all went to dinner where Evan did get a chance to examine the jacket up close.  

 

Thanksgiving Parade

We braved the rain and the cold yesterday to take Evan to the Thanksgiving Parade in downtown Seattle.  We boarded the monorail bright and early with our friends the Goldrings and took a short walk to the parade route.  Despite the weather, Evan enjoyed seeing all the bands, floats and especially Santa at the end of the parade.

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks to the Goldrings for having us over for a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner.

First trip to the dentist

This week Evan had his first visit to the dentist.  When we got there I filled out paperwork while Evan played in the play area with his monster Monster.  When Evan got his name called, we walked back with the assistant to the exam room.  Upon entering the room and sitting on my lap, Evan announced to the assistant that "Evan's going to cry".  Evan's dentist came in, introduced herself and started explaining what all her tools were to Evan.  She put on a set of purple latex gloves that smelled (and apparently tasted) like grape.  Evan loved that.  Next the dentist counted all of Monster's teeth, and then it was Evan's turn.  Evan opened his mouth wide and she counted his top and bottom teeth.  He has 20 - that's all his baby teeth.  She said Evan's teeth looked good and that we should continue working with him to brush his teeth twice a day.  

Evan never cried.  I actually think he enjoyed himself.  We go back in six months - we'll see how it goes then.  After our trip to the dentist, we went out for a fantastic pancake breakfast as a reward.  Evan loved it.  

Let's Make Cookies!

Evan has a new book that he got at music class all about making cookies.  The other evening Jill decided to bake some cookies with Evan.  He was so excited he could barely contain himself.  He kept saying each step in the cookie making process over and over again.  I heard all about it on the phone the next day.  "Evan mix the butter.   Evan crack the eggs.  Evan mix the cookies."

"Mommy pop them in the oven."

"Evan be patient.  Cookies not done yet!  Evan cried.  Cookies too hot to eat.  Evan eat the cookie!"

Today Evan and I went to music class, where this whole journey started, and he told Teacher Sharon all about his cookie making experience.  That sure was one fun activity! 

Tot Day at the Seattle Aquarium

We're members of the Seattle Aquarium and go from time to time.  They have tot days every month or so and Jill and Evan usually try and go.  Today I got a call from Evan on the phone where he feverishly explained to me what he did at the aquarium.  According to him, he saw fish swimming in the water, an octopus who was sleeping, and touched a starfish with one finger.

Much to my surprise, when I talked to Jill later in the day I learned that things went down just as Evan had said.  Evan left out the part about him running from place to place, but other than having to keep up with him, it sounds like I missed a great event.

Where's the cheese?

A few days ago I was giving Evan a snack after he woke up from his nap.  He was eating a cheese stick that I had cut up for him.  He decided he wanted something else to eat.  I told him that after he finished his cheese I'd get him something else.  Evan grabbed a piece of cheese in his hand, pulled it towards his mouth, made a loud "chomp!" sound, and proceeded to put the cheese up the sleeve of his shirt.  He did this a few more times and said "All done!".  I told him I saw the cheese in his sleeve.  He proceeded to pick it out piece by piece and eat it after which I gave him the apples he so desperately wanted to eat.  Just thought I'd share this funny story with you.

Fun with our fingers

This weekend Jill suggested that the three of us finger paint.  At first I was a bit apprehensive and didn't want to get my fingers all icky, but it turned out to be a great time.  Evan loved mixing the colors on the plate, drawing on the paper, and making sure that my hands were completely covered in paint when I made hand prints.  Here he is with one of his masterpieces.

Grrrr - It's Halloweeeen!

This Halloween Evan dressed up - in his words - as a "very fuzzy brown bear". He had a love/hate relationship with his bear costume. He wouldn't put on the bear hat for the longest time and cried when he got into the costume. After a bit of counseling from Mom he actually started to enjoy being a fuzzy bear.

We went to the top of Queen Anne and walked down the street from store to store getting candy. Evan went up to each store and said "Trick or Treat!", got the candy and put it into his pumpkin bucket.

Every so often Evan decided that rather than putting the candy away he'd try and unwrap / eat it right there on the street.

After going up and down the street we headed home and Evan treated himself to a lollipop.

Happy Halloween!

Pre-Halloween

Today we went to a pre-Halloween party today given by one of Evan's friends.  We gave Evan the option of dressing in his costume, but he decided he didn't want to.  Instead he went as plain old Evan with an orange-black ensemble.  Evan had a blast playing with cars, balls and eating but he spent most of his time playing with all the different ink and stamps making some art.

We always knew Evan liked stamps but I don't think I've seen him sit still for a half hour for the longest time.  Time to go out and get some stamps!  After a nice long nap we carved out the pumpkins we picked up during our recent trip to Leavenworth.  Evan spent his time watching us and refusing to put his hands into the pumpkins and pull out the goop.  I was surprised and a bit disappointed, but he seemed to enjoy watching us do the work.

After we were all done, Jill put some small candles into the pumpkins for some pictures (as you can see below, you can't quite see the candles lighting up the pumpkins, but they looked real nice!).  Since there was a candle lit, Evan decided to sing happy birthday to the pumpkins and then blow out the candles.  

We had a fun and busy day today.  I'm convinced that if Evan cooperates and keeps the hat to his costume on we're going to have a fantastic Halloween next week.

Where's that green sheep?

Last week Jill took Evan to see a play based on the book Where is the Green Sheep?  He loved seeing the actors on stage with their big wooden painted sheep, acting their way through a book whose story he knew.  At the end he was able to go see and touch the sheep up close.  Unfortunately it was past his nap time and he wasn't up for picture taking.  Here's one that did turn out.

Our second trip to Leavenworth

We had such a great time on our trip to Leavenworth last year (see that post here) that we decided to go again.  We had fantastic weather while we were there and spent our days watching parades, taking walks along the river, listening to music, picking out pumpkins, petting animals, eating, and generally having a great time.  It's better to let the pictures do the talking, so enjoy the slide show below.

Sleeping in a big-boy bed

On our trip to Leavenworth this year there was only a small pack-and-play at the condo we rented and Evan was not too interested in sleeping in it.  Our choices were either to sleep with Evan the whole weekend or brave it and see if we could get him to sleep in a real bed.  It took a little bit of work but I'm happy to report that Evan slept the entire weekend -- naps and night time -- in a big bed.  He didn't even roll off onto the floor (much to my surprise).  Yay Evan!

Evan is the muffin man

Yesterday Evan and Jill went to Trader Joe's to get some food and passed some pumpkin muffin mix that somehow made its way into the shopping cart.  When they got home the two of them went about baking the muffins.  I got home just as they were cooling off after baking.  Evan was SO excited he could barely speak.  After taking a deep breath he told me "Evan made the muffins.  Evan crack the eggs.  Evan add oil.  And Evan mix the muffins.  Evan wait for the beep [of the timer].  Beep!  Beep!  Beep!".  He was so proud that he made the muffins with Mommy.  I think the process of cooking was even more enjoyable than eating his still-warm muffin.

Farm Trip Number Two

This past weekend the three of us headed over to Craven Farm to enjoy a tractor ride, some pumpkins, seeing some farm animals and drinking a bit of hot apple cider.  Unlike Evan's previous tractor ride, this one was not all that bumpy.  It also took us through a corn field that Evan was intrigued by.

After waiting patiently in line Evan climbed aboard an old tractor and had a blast driving and shifting gears.

Evan didn't enjoy running through the pumpkin patch too much so we carried him - and he seemed to enjoy that.

All in all we had a fantastic fall family farm day.

Evan in crib-climbing action

I figured it'd be nice to do a bit more show-and-tell on Evan's new crib-climbing abilities.  Check out the video:

It's proven a bit of a challenge to keep Evan in his crib now.  It's like a big game of hide-and-seek to him to get out and find us.  The first night it took us 3 hours to put him to bed.  Last night was 20 minutes, and Jill got him down for his nap with no "crib exiting incidents".  Let's hope it goes well tonight. 

Getting out of bed

Today Jill and I were reading in our room during Evan's nap and much to our collective surprise we heard a voice getting closer and closer to our room. Eventually Evan popped his head in around the door. What does it all mean? Evan can now get out of his crib like a little monkey. This being the case we're putting the railing down now so he has an easier and safer trip down to the floor. This sure should be an interesting development.