Evan has to check out every rock, car and flower on our walk. I let him walk all the way up our street, then I plop him in the stroller or it would take an hour to get to the playground or pool.
Every morning we're usually gone for 2 1/2 hours at the playground and/or pool. This day we spent some time at the library too. We stayed longer than expected because we ran into some of Evan's friends and their moms. He usually conks out on the walk back home.
So this is how our days usually go (when we're not on vacation or at the shore). Evan wakes up anywhere between 7-8am. We both eat breakfast, Evan gets his vitamins, we both get dressed, brush our teeth, we play with toys for a bit and are usually out by before 10am to go the playground or pool or both (both are walking distance away, both are FREE). If Evan doesn't eat much breakfast, we stop at Starbucks for an iced soy latte for me and a chunk of pumpkin loaf for him. Even if he eats nothing else, the boy will usually eat pumpkin loaf. I know most of the people at the playground now and we usually chat it up with the moms, dads and kids, which is how we found out about storytime at the library, which is actually located between the playground and our house. We also checked out a new playground with fountains coming out of the ground for the kids to play in (we stopped and pet the horses and donkeys at the agriculture school first, then we walked through a really cool house that was for sale and chatted about it with a worker there. I checked... the house is already under contract.)Evan usually has lunch or a snack in route home, usually a piece of fruit or something. When we get home he gets a story then to bed for a nap. Sometimes he's already asleep by the time we arrive home (as you can see above). He has a late lunch when he wakes up. This particular day it was my left over dinner of whole wheat pasta, homemade spinach pesto and shrimp. He may or may not have a snack between then and dinner (he's usually not that hungry after lunch). We then play either in the house or outside until Mike comes home. Then we all eat dinner together while watching Hannah Montanna or Ruby & Max. We have some playtime with Mike, then head upstairs for teeth brushing, stories, a prayer, some booboo milk and ideally off to sleep. Evan's been a little off since we got back from our 2 week vaca, so he's been having a hard time settling down in his bed and staying there. Altho he went down fine tonight. Maybe things are looking up again in the sleep dept.? I don't want to jinx it.
Marti and the boys came over today. I love it, because I can have an adult conversation while Evan is just fascinated with everything John and Jude does. Soon Marti will be adding little Maggie Rose to the mix - due in 9 weeks!
Tonight we walked back to the park because I thought there was going to be a Zydeco a Go Go concert tonight. Wrong night. We walked down and found out it's next week. So we stayed and played. Mike and I ended up yelling at a kid who ran by and shoved Evan twice (unintentionally). He also had kicked another kid in the groin and was hitting someone else (intentionally). We both felt bad when the kid's uncle stepped in and said something to us - he was there by himself watching 5 kids! But still, it makes me mad when people pretend not see their kids acting out. Anyway, we'll be back next week for the free summer concert!
So here's a bunch of random stuff for Evan's 18 month milestome. So I'm trying to teach him his colors and it's not exactly catching on. If I ask what color something is, he always responds blue "boooo!" I guess he doesn't get it yet. He always shouts "Melmo!" when he see Elmo. He calls fish "Sss". Probably because I annunciate the "sh" so much. He always says this one word and I don't have any idea what it means "bop". It's so cute when he says it, so I'm going to try to record it. Sometimes he says "bipbop" or "bopbop" both of which he uses for the word "flip flop", "sponge bob" and "Aunt Brittany". He always puts the accent on the last syllable so it's more like "bip-BOP". Mike just recently taught him how to say "Bravo!". We went to the Cape May County Zoo last weekend and saw a bunch of turtles at the reptile house. So today we were reading The Very Quiet Cricket and Evan saw the cricket and yelled out as clear as day "Turtle!" Evan hasn't bitten or hit me for a very long time, which I totally credit to timeouts. In fact, I can't remember the last time he had a timeout. I wish I could record a timeout.. It's so cute! but I don't want to humiliate him. If I ever utter the word "timeout", Evan hugs me and says "maMA!" (sometimes he pats my back like he's comforting me) because he's trying to shmooze his way out of it. When it doesn't work, he sits there with the funniest expression on his face, staring at me intently.
Evan has also had his appt at the feeding clinic at Chop. He met with 6 different doctors. All of them said he's right on target with the milestones, but gave me tons of great tips to get him to eat more. They watched him eat through a 2-way mirror, asked tons of questions. Then Evan had to get some blood tests. 5 vials were taken, but Evan was completely awesome. He cried during it, but as soon as the needle was removed , he was chatting it up with the nurse. They checked to see if he was anemic, syliac, had a zinc deficiency & glucose - all which came out fine. We were there for 3.5 hours that morning. Next he has an appt at a GE specialist for his reflux, then he returns back to CHOP in September. Those people were completely thorough, but I think my pediatrician thinks it's an overkill. She thinks that Evan' just tall and thin. His weight did go up from the 1 percentile to the 10th. Yay! and he's tall - nearly 34 inches - yay again. And he's eating like crazy again - woohoo! His favorite thing of the moment - corn on the cob! He loves eating it off the cob. What's out of favor now? Strawberries! Oh ya, as for the shrimp he couldn't get enough of, well he won't eat it now. Such is the life of a toddler... but we'll keep trying!
Evan loves to "help" around the house. If he spills something I give him a towel and ask him to clean it up and he does! When I ask him to throw something in the trash he does it. I'm trying to teach him to scratch my back, but it's not working. He does it for like 2 seconds and walks away. Just like Mike.
Ok, that's enough for our 1.5 year update. Happy Birthday, little stinker!
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