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.

18 months

18 months and off we go into the Christmas season. As ever December turned out to be busy month but this year we made a special effort to kick back and enjoy the season. It was worth it. My mom and Charlie came out to visit for Christmas and New Year's, which was both fun and productive, as Charlie is the home project king.

Here we are enjoying the Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo as a family. It's a fun event every year, and being Phoenix, it's totally fine to spend a few hours outdoors at night. As you can see we still bundled up (ah, how the blood gets thinner when you've been here 7 years), but I like to think it was all in the spirit of the season.

This was a highlight: watching Evan enjoy the wonder of the lights (never mind letting my child blatantly get so close to the wonders of electricity!)

And this I thought was pretty cool: It's the giraffe enclosure. Obviously they were sleeping but what a pretty place to lay your head, if you're a giraffe.

One Sunday evening we went to our favorite local Christmas tree farm (read: the parking lot of Home Depot) to pick out our Horne Family Christmas Tree. Surprisingly those suckers stay alive for a reeeeealllly long time in Arizona - we had our tree up 'til well after the New Year this year. One could state laziness as the reason, but again, I like to chalk it up to keeping the Christmas spirit alive. Evan had a lovely time running around, but stopped short of actually touching any branches. Apparently spiky pine needles don't look like much fun to play with. Maybe next year.

Then one day we got Evan bundled up in his new jacket, for no reason other than to pretend it was winter. He loved it and Mommy got a cute picture. A win-win if you ask me.

Christmas time was fun fun fun with Gramma and Grandpa Charlie in town.

Here is my favorite Christmas picture...

And here's Gramma helping Evan get over his fear of pine needles.

Christmas morning was a hit, but very a 'la toddler. Evan was fascinated and very pleased by his first gift, a push toy from Uncle Jony, but then didn't understand A) that there were more presents to open, and B) why on earth he would want to open another present when the toy he just got from Uncle Jony was the coolest thing ever.

Eventually Gramma convinced him that Thomas the Tank Engine is equally cool and worthy of opening on Christmas morning. Then Grandpa Charlie showed him his new matchbox cars and both were in auto heaven.

And the family by the Christmas tree.

After Christmas we took my Mom and Charlie to the Desert Botanical Garden for the Las Noches de las Luminarias which is a beautiful lantern and musical event they hold every year. The evening was beautiful and enchanting, though at the time marred by my mmm...impatience with Dave, as he neglected to check that the camera batteries (both camera and video camera) were charged before we went. This is the only picture we got of the event. Looking back perhaps I was not at my highest point of joy and forgiveness and grace that night, though to his credit Dave was, and took it in stride. (Seemingly he's seen this side of me before?) In any case two months later I'm over it and can now simply enjoy the pretty picture. :)

The other news of the Christmas season (which everyone who is reading this will likely know by now), is that I had another little present growing by Christmas as well. Which made Christmas actually quite a nauseous day for me, and I couldn't even blame it on rum cake. We had Evan march out in a "Big Brother" t-shirt to announce to news to Mom and Charlie, though they'd already been suspicious (they wondered why I kept refusing wine at dinner) and the news wasn't a big surprise. But baby news is happy news in any case. And my mom did a great job keeping the news a secret for the next couple of months until we were ready to spread the word.

So that's the real instigation for me to get this blog up and running again. I much enjoyed having pregnancy blog for Evan, and far be it from me to start the favoritism early, so I shall make every endeavor to keep pregnancy updates in this blog as well. To that effect, here's me at 5 weeks. Nothing much (nothing at all, actually, except me at baseline), but bigger bellies to come...

17 months

Getting into the holiday season already! We were fortunate enough to have a visit from Grampa and Grandma Sharon in November, and then to spend Thanksgiving with them and Steve's family in California. Lots of fun times, good (sometimes cold and windy) weather, and good memories.

First, Evan enjoyed all his playtime with Grampa and Grandma Sharon. Here we have our little civil engineer in the making, and also Evan wanting to fill some big shoes.

On Thanksgiving we all (or most of us) enjoyed wearing hats my mom sent:

The weather was nice enough to spend a good bit of time outside on Thanksgiving. We had our own version of the family football game, and Evan and Landon jumped on the trampoline for seemingly hours at a time. Evan thought the trampoline was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

One afternoon in California we had a little family field trip, on base, to some place with lots of planes. My brother will probably roll his eyes that I can't describe that any further, but that's what it was, in a nutshell.

Evan for the first time turned into a real little boy on the trip, getting down on the ground, into rocks and dirt, and quite happy about it.

A couple of days after Thanksgiving the whole family trooped outside to help put up Christmas decorations. Evan didn't help too much, but Landon did, and Evan had a grand old time riding around in Landon's cool push car toy.

And, of course, the cousins enjoyed some time just hanging out:

Landon prepares for a future on the runway...the fashion runway, modeling his spiffy clothes.

We took some time out for family pictures too...

First the hosts...

Then the guests...

Then the grandkids...

Then the grandparents and grandkids...