January, continued

Moving along, the last third of the month was packed, as usual. We kept busy trying to sort through our things to decide what would be going to Japan, or staying, or getting donated. Looking back, I think this is the time when our sleep deprivation began. We still have not caught up. We still made time for fun though.

21 Jan: Mischief's new play place. Evan loved it equally as well. I'm just happy Mischief actually stayed in one place long enough for me to take a picture of her. It must have been cozy in there.


22 Jan: Good to the last drop. 'Nuff said.


23 Jan: Playdate! Our dear friends Jackie, Brad, and Molly moved into a new house, and we went over for awhile to help them get settled. Molly was excited to show Evan her new digs.


24 Jan: Like son, like father. Dave hops on the bib trend at Joe's Crab Shack. Evan was pretty tickled that Daddy had to wear a bib too.


25 Jan: Emery's new ride. Evan was quite impressed. A race ensued. Evan and his car won.


26 Jan: Emery's first shower. I'm not sure she's all that clear on how she feels about showers, but she seemed relatively happy to see it through.


27 Jan: Just a normal evening in, with Dave actually looking happy to make dinner. Or maybe he was just making nice for the camera. :)


28 Jan: Our car ride out to California. Evan kept himself fairly amused by the various construction equipment and vehicles along the way, and Emery...well, we prefer to forget that chapter in her life. Suffice it to say Emery and car seats don't much agree. I love this picture of Evan though, love his big brown eyes.


29 Jan: I love, love, love this series of pictures and it was really hard to choose just one. The lighting and the setting was perfect for some late afternoon kite-flying. It was Evan's first time flying a kite, and he was utterly fascinated. Dave mentioned in passing that maybe we'd have to get Evan a kite when we got back to Phoenix, and that's all Evan could talk about the rest of the weekend.


30 Jan: Cousins! Motivated by our likely upcoming move to Japan, I got in touch with Kristin when we were out in California. She and her boyfriend Dan were kind enough to meet us all for lunch on Sunday, after her birthday party/go-kart adventure the night before. Of course I forgot my camera that day, but Amy's cell phone to the rescue!


31 Jan: Evan was dying to have Landon show him how to play the piano. Finally we were able to sneak a little time in tickling the ivories before Landon went to school and we drove back to Arizona. Evan was quite impressed.

January

11 Jan: Evan's Eye View: Peeking through the blinds, watching cars drive down our street.

12 Jan: Dave, starting Evan's love for motor sports early.

13 Jan: Every month we have a pot luck at work. Here's my effort to make a pomegranate-blueberry cake. It was a little dry, but good with milk.

14 Jan: Evan and Emery, with Hartington and Sheffield, their Stuffington Bear Factory bears from Granny. Thanks, Granny, we love them!

15 Jan: Up in Prescott Valley, at my friend Amy's baby shower. What a beautiful day surrounded by friends!

16 Jan: Evan - the picture of fascination. The City of Phoenix had to replace a water pipe in our front yard, and the comings and goings of the digger and dump truck kept us all enthralled for hours. There's nothing like free entertainment!

17 Jan: PJ time with Granny, the night before she left to go back to Delaware.

18 Jan: Evan showing Mommy just the right way to play with his parking garage.

19 Jan: Big girl, sitting up by herself, two days shy of 5 months old.

20 Jan: Snuggling in Evan's new Big Boy Bed. He took to it right away, and was so proud of himself.

A Fresh Start

A new year, a new project, a (soon to be) new start in Japan. I think this calls for a resurrection of our blog. Let's see if I'm any better at it this time around.

As ever, I do not have the ability to simplify my life. In the midst of planning for a move, I also decided to start two year-long projects. Both have turned out splendidly so far. For one, I got a calendar and now nightly write a little note about what Emery and Evan did that day. I'm interested in chronicling all the little details that are so cute at the time but that get so quickly forgotten. Two, just like my cousin Peg, I am also taking a picture daily. I am actually shocked that (knock on wood) I have not yet forgotten to take a picture. Call me narcissistic, but I'm immensely enjoying this tracking of the daily minutia of our lives. My goal for this blog is to, if nothing else, post the daily pictures. So here goes:

1 Jan: Enjoying the warm Arizona winter, outside planting with Daddy.

2 Jan: Emery's sweet little toes

3 Jan: One last look at our Christmas tree...we started un-decorating it the next day, and it was recycled by the weekend.

4 Jan: "Ooooh, donut!"

5 Jan: Emery, enjoying her tummy time

6 Jan: A look at our family heirloom Christening gown. My Gramma's mother made it, Gramma and all her brothers and sisters wore it, my dad and aunt and uncles wore it, numerous cousins have worn it, Evan wore it, and now it's Emery's turn. I love tradition!

7 Jan: My little boy, trying to fill Daddy's big shoes.

8 Jan: Time to take down the Christmas lights! Evan had a ball climbing the ladder, and felt ever so important helping Daddy.

9 Jan: Happy Baptism, Emery! At First United Methodist Church

10 Jan: Still hanging on to the Christmas spirit: our Christmas card wall

Mama's Little Chatterbox

I'm taking a break from the month-by-month updates to try to record some of Evan's words. He is quite the chatty one, full of words and very happy to express himself loudly whenever the mood strikes. Restaurants and church are prime places to let the joy out, apparently.

Okay, milestones:

First words right around 12 months old

First sentence: 12/20/09 - 18 months old

Evan's first words were Mama, Dada, and No! I like to think Dave or I won out, but in actuality I'm pretty sure his very first word was "no". Pretty quickly it progressed to "No no no no no!"

Over the next few months Evan started saying:

Wow!, puppy, car (kah), vroom (nyoom), kitty cat (ki-ka), ball (ba), hi, bigcar (for trucks and busses - thanks to Daddy who taught him that one), choo-choo, night-night (ni-ni), bye bye, up, uh-oh, please (mi-mi - not sure where that one came from), down (dow), shoe (choo), woof (wow wow), baby, banana (mana), wherego?, and juice (ju). That's all I have recorded in his baby book.

His first sentence was "Hi kitty!" . Some of his earlier pronunciations have progressed nicely: ki-ka is now kitty, kah is now car (with an honest to goodness /r/ at the end), please is still 'mi' or now 'pees', shoe is shoe, juice is juice.

At 22 months it seems like Evan has a million words, though often he just loves repeating what we say. He has quite a few words in his vocab though which he spontaneously says.

Transportation is a big hit - in addition to car he can now say truck, bus, t(r)acto(r), whee(l), tire, he(li)co(pter), train, and would love to say airplane but he never can seem to remember the word in the heat of the moment when an airplane flies overhead. He says 'wee-ooh wee-ooh wee-ooh' and 'beep beep beep' for all things with sirens or horns, and makes one heck of a 'vrooom' noise for anything going fast.

Food is another favorite of course - Fruit: banana (mana), strawberry (strawbar), grape (gape), pear, apple (appoh), applesauce (appoh-so), avocado (cado), raisins (raisy). Veggies: carrot (ca-ot), and 'soupy' or 'dippy dippy' (thanks to his veggie boycott we often turn his veggies into a soup or a dip.) Drinks: milk (used to be miku, now is mok), juice (juicy), water. Favorite foods: egg, toast (toe), ce(r)eal, chicken nuggets (nuggy), pizza and pasta (pata for both), soup, rice (ricey), cracker (cah-ker, which goes for all manner of snacks), snacks (nahku or nahky), hummus, san(d)wich.

Activities/Favorite items: go!, wa(l)k, jum(p), co(l)or, ba(th), poo-poo, potty, pee pee, phone (hone), blow (bow), bubbles (bubo), sleep (seepies), pacifier (ni-ni), wash wash, bib (bibby), naked (nakey), c(l)ose, push (pus), doo(r), kno(ck) knock, book, read (weed), eat, hung(r)y, chair, ou(t)si(de), tickle, f(l)owe(r), cam(er)a, pi(c)ture, cheese! (when taking pictures)

Animals: puppy, kitty, piggy (on a good day), gorilla (goa), shee(p), goat, horse (ho-sey), co(w), duck, monkey, bear, woof (whoa whoa), meow, rooooooaaaarrrr

Shapes: circle, sta(r), heart (hot), moon

Colors/Numbers: yellow (yeyow), purple (popo), two

Sports: ba(ll), foo(t)ba(ll), ba(sket)ba(ll)

Clothing: shir(t), diaper (di-di), socks (hock), sho(r)ts, pants, pocket

Body parts: eye, ea(r), no(se), mou(th), tummy, toe(s), knee, tee(th), hand, hair

People: mommy, daddy, Evan (ah-ni), baby, grandma (gaga, gama, ganny), man, Aunt Amy (an-Amy - though to be fair to poor Uncle Steve who got shafted on this deal, he also says an-Amy in a bunch of different contexts, the meaning for which we have yet to figure out)

Miscellany: hi!, bye bye (which he says anytime someone comes and goes quickly, like a waiter at a restaurant, or anytime he hears us hanging up the phone), oh!, ooh!, yay!, uh-oh, sorry, thank you (sanky), more, I love you (used to be 'wah-wu', then progressed to "I gaga" after a trip to England and saying I love you to Granny all the time), night night (ni-ni), he(l)p, up up, all done (ah go), kiss (kissy), hug, home (homo), ouch/ouchie, (s)neeze, achoo, try, this, (a)nothe(r), stuck, and his very latest: coool! (as in, when given the choice of his circle bib or a bib with cars on it, Evan chose 'coooool bibby')

He's combining his words into all sorts of sentences, mostly surrounding what Mommy and Daddy do - Daddy car, Mommy car, Where Daddy? Where Mommy? Where Daddy go? Hi Mommy, Hi Daddy, Where kitty? Where go?, More strawbar, More car, etc. Every once in a while he comes up with a three word sentence, a 'la 'Where the car?', but those are very inconsistent still. He's starting to make some demands, like "Mommy chair?", which means Mommy sit in this chair please. It seems like everyday he comes up with something new that I didn't know he could say, which does make sense, and is a joy to hear.

Evan never really got into baby signs, but he does sign fairly consistently for please, thank you, sorry, and he blows kisses like a champ. He does love to sing, and often dances and spins to accompany his vocal styling. His latest interest is imitating facial expressions. It's really cute to see your own expression mirrored in a toddler's face, complete with quizzical look and raised eyebrows. Evan also does an exact impression of the "Evan's in trouble" face - brows furrowed, pouty lips - but then ruins the effect by breaking into a big toothy grin - designed, I'm sure, to make Mommy forget why Evan's in trouble in the first place. Ah, toddlers. What a joy.

20 months,and the Telling Game

February was BUSY. Busy busy busy. We started out with a visit from my friend Beth, who not surprisingly was ready to escape the Chicago winter for awhile, and therefore decided that the desert sounded like an excellent place to go. We were excited to have her, especially since she was the first friend we got to tell about Baby H2. The thing about telling people you're expecting is that with every person told the pregnancy becomes more real. Heady stuff. Oh, and earlier that day we had our first ultrasound to "meet" baby. Too soon to tell (I was just 12 weeks) girl or boy, though to my eyes Baby H2 looked exactly like Evan did in his ultrasounds. Go figure. And for those of you making predictions based on heart rate, Baby's heart beat at 161 bpm during my February doctor's appointment.

We took advantage of the tourist opportunities and trekked up to Sedona for the day; en route we saw Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well. For those of you not in the know (like I was prior to my visit), there was no actual Montezuma anybody in Arizona; rather the Sinagua people, who lived there 600 years ago, built houses literally in the cliff-side, and then one day mysteriously disappeared. So Montezuma Castle is literally a ghost town, Arizona-style. But someone back in the early 1900's who first came across it decided it looked Aztecan, hence the name. The well is a natural phenomenon, a collapsed limestone cavern that has a spring running through it and is apparently incredibly unique and biodiverse. Enough of the history lesson; here are some pictures.

Then we went to Sedona, which happily had some snowy peaks, and Beth got to be enlightened by a new-age tourist information guide who was excessively into the vortexes of Sedona. Apparently many of the red rock formations have a vortex, or "spiraling spirtual energy", which is said to be able to facilitate prayer and meditation and healing, and an "energy flow that exists on multiple dimensions." The lady said one you get drawn into the energy, rumor has it you never leave Sedona..."I got married on vortex 8 years ago and I'm still here." Happily there were no nuptials in our little party that day, so we made it out of Sedona safe and sound. The red rocks are indeed impressive though.

We also took Beth to our favorite Phoenix tourist spot - Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain to watch the sunset and see night fall over Phoenix. Sadly there was no real sunset that day, but the stellar views never disappoint.

(This one is for Kristen, whenever you read this. The big yellow building in the middle of the picture is the PCH expansion. They're making lots of room for you to come back and work there someday):

Here's Evan looking at all the planes coming out of Sky Harbor Airport:

The day Beth left was Superbowl Sunday (sadly, no Cardinals to root for this year). Like much of the U.S., we rang in the occasion going to a Superbowl party, though unlike the rest of the U.S. we also decided to announce Baby H2 to my brother and Dad (why not make an already great day better?). Dave'd told his sister a few days earlier. I was about 12 weeks and feeling confident that all was going well, though it would be another week or so before we told the general population of family and friends. Needless to say the family was all very happy. We also announced Baby H2 to our friend Jackie and Brad, gracious hosts of the Superbowl party, and proud parents of baby Molly, whom Evan knows well because Dave and Brad get together fairly regularly to do stay-at-home-Daddy outings with the kids. But I digress.

Shortly after Beth's trip, my friend Brianne and her daughter Corinne came to town. Naturally, we met up for a playdate. Evan and Corinne were happy to see each other again and to play with someone exactly their own size (they're 3 weeks apart in age). Brianne was the third friend I announced my preggers to, which was funny because she also announced to me that she was preggers herself. This time I'm about a month ahead of her. I guess great minds think alike.

Then, Dave's friend Brent came into town briefly, so they could hop up to Flagstaff and go snowboarding for the weekend at Snowbowl, taking full advantage of the extreme amounts of snow Flagstaff got this winter. I know Dave wishes he could go snowboarding more than once a year, but nevertheless he was happy with what he got. In any case Dave was happy that finally he had a friend to tell our good news to.

That weekend was also Valentine's Day, and I chose that day to announce "to the world" the news of Baby H2. Ah, technology in the form of Facebook. Why would a lazy person like me go to the effort of typing a whole long email to family and friends, when I can type a simple one-sentence post and let the news disseminate from there? Facebook, you are my friend. (Though in hindsight I suppose it was a little rude not to at least call my closest friends and tell them specially...). This is how I announced Baby H2: "Apropos for Valentine's Day...My heart is going to grow soon...excited to add a new member to our family." At almost 14 weeks along, the news was finally out, and the congrats rolled in. Ah, how loved we felt. To give Dave his due, he also announced Baby H2 to the wider public on FB, with the post: "Ever so thankful - for a wife with whom I am still falling in love, for a son who brings me new joys daily, and for the miracle of a new life." Well just push me over with a feather...thoughtful and grammatically correct? Who couldn't love a man like that?

In the middle of it all were the Olympics, during which our little family became sports-obsessed and sleep-deprived, and even Evan started training for the snowboarding events...at least the gear anyway. Add to that a trip to the Phoenix Public Market downtown, the annual American Heart Association Heart Walk in Tempe, some more outside playtime with the favorite toys of all time..."CARS!", and that just about rounded out our month.

See what I mean when I said busy??

19 months

January 2010 started out about the same as the end of 2009: "winter" in Phoenix, and Mom and Charlie still in town. We did take advantage of the beautiful weather though with lots of outside activities. My favorite was my mom's "spring cleaning" urge that struck on New Years Day...our first day of the new year was spent with Dave and Charlie fixing the sprinkler system in the yard, my mom scrubbing the doors and shutters and washing windows, and me simply hanging out with Evan. I like those kind of days!

A few days later we took a trip downtown to ride the Light Rail (our new public transit system) and to look at a cool art piece my Mom'd read about in a magazine. We had a good time showing off downtown Phoenix. It has a nice vibe to it, and is undergoing a sort of urban revival, though it's still virtually a ghost town on the weekends and after business hours. Evan's favorite part, other than playing "Jump the Evan" in a city park, was playing with the Herberger Theatre dancing girls sculptures. He gets a kick out of them every time.

Life imitating art:

Here's the art. I don't know anything about it other than it looks cool. And that it must not be that exciting to look at when it's not nighttime.

About a week after my Mom and Charlie left, Dave and Evan made a trek to England, for the sad reason that Dave's Grandpa Bradley passed away. It seems that often the only times families come together are for weddings and funerals, and such was the case here. Nevertheless, Dave was happy for the opportunity to visit England, have Evan meet Dave's aunts and uncles and cousins, and to spend some time visiting with his Mom and brother Jony. Basically a synopsis of the trip was this: frozen, snowy even. Quite the unusual feat for England. Not surprisingly Evan learned the word "cold" that trip.

As for me, I had grand plans to do all sorts of organizational things around the house when they were gone, but was in actuality knocked for a loop by the first trimester sickies. So I spent the bulk of their vacation sleeping my spare time away and eating cereal and take out because I couldn't bear the thought of having to wait for my food while I cooked it. Here's me at 10 weeks. Still not in maternity clothes yet, much to my much shorter (and therefore earlier-showing) sister in law's consternation.

Finally at the end of the month I started to feel better, a little anyway, and got in some "winter weather" playtime with Evan.

Oh, and at the end of January, the tally of family who knew about preggers #2 was this: my mom and Charlie, Dave's mom, and brother Jony - all those who we could tell in person.