Bay Fest

On Saturday Mike, Evan and I spent the day at Somers Point Bay Fest with my mom, Aunt Doris, Uncle Rick, Becky & Chris. Here are some highlights.

It was hot like a summer day. We were completely overdressed. Notice Evan's new classic Vans? They're the hit of the playground.


There were pony rides (this is a video btw)


Here's us with Aunt Doris and Uncle Rick...


Then Aunt Doris stepped out and mom took her place.


The Celtic band was VERY LOUD.


Evan and Mike pose with a nerdy moose.


Becky, the lover of animals, took Evan into the petty zoo. They brushed goats - and Evan brushed the chickens too. He still loves his chickens. Unfortunately, he did get pecked by a pissed-off chicken.


Becky's official farm girl shoes.





This was after Evan was bitten by the mean chicken.


We then went on the slide. I took him up once, then Mike, then Becky, then my mom. Each time, Evan would insist on going up and then just lay on the big squooshy steps, forcing us to push him up each one. Finally, on the last run my mom had the brilliant idea to chant "go Diego GO! Which allowed him to scramble up by himself.




My mom then took a sleepy Evan home (he fell asleep in the stroller) while Mike and I stayed with Chris and Becky to drink some. When Evan woke up from his VERY LATE nap, my mom and Aunt Wanda took him to see Samantha off to the prom. He was one pissed-off little stinker, but he went along anyway. Here's our beautiful Samantha on the right. Her dress was beautiful. I would love to borrow it, but I don't think anyone at Acme would appreciate it, plus I'd have to stuff the top with all of my socks.



Evan was still sleepy and mad. Click on the pic to enlarge it - Evan's face is priceless here. You definitely could never call our child a poker face - he wears his moods on the expression of his face.


He was fully recovered for the beach the next day.

Beachy time

On Sunday my poor Mike had to drive to New York for work. We were sad, but made the best of it... Evan, my mom and I packed up our stuff and met Becky at the beach.


The arcade is Evan's favorite part of the beach. We literally could spend hours there. I'm wearing long sleeves because my arms were very sunburned from Bay Fest.


Becky brought Evan these crazy teeth. He's inserting them here with his sandy hands.


And looks horribly disfigured (they tasted like bubble gum).


And here's what became of Evan's lunch. The kid is eating like a bird lately. He even refuses Mac & Mancos pizza!


That wraps up our summer-like weekend!

Who gave this guy a license?

Evan inherited Olivia's old jeep. My dad fixed and cleaned it up and look!



He likes to fill up the back with rocks and sticks.

Evan's 1st Dental Visit

On Friday Evan had his VERY FIRST TRIP TO THE DENTIST! It was a beautiful, summery day and it was only a 5 min drive to the doc. When we were sitting in the waiting room Evan kept asking "Where the dentist?" He entertained himself by playing with the arcade games there... QBert, Donkey Kong and such. He's usually cool just pretending to play, but this time he asked me for money. Luckily we were called back shortly. First we were in a room with a statue of Papa Smurf who was Evan's height. Then the hygenist brought us to a room with a bunch of different colored dentist chairs. Evan was seated in a red one. She asked Evan if he wanted bubble gum, orange or strawberry, which he answered "bubble gum", getting giggles from the other hygenists behind us. Then she gave him a big sticker and asked him where he wanted it and he answered on his hand. More giggles at his cuteness. The sticker was was bigger than his hand, but oh well. Evan was awesome - I think he was in sort of a daze during the whole thing. One thing he kept doing was refer to the Little Critters book at his grandparents' house when the little porcupine goes to the dentist.. In fact, Evan brought it up in the parking lot and I was like - oh ya - just like the book! So anyway, he was reclined back and opened his mouth wide when asked. They polished his teeth, flossed them and then put a fluoride rinse on them. Then the dentist came in and used the mirror on a stick (just like the Little Critters book at his grandparents' house). They asked me if he brushes and I answered YES - twice a day! and then they asked me if I floss him. What?! I tried once when he was watching me floss my teeth, but I didn't think it was something you had to do everyday with a 2 year old. The dentist did say that Evan's gums were swollen in the back and that the molars would be breaking through soon. His front teeth are chipped, which is no big deal and everything else looked great! After it was over, Evan asked for a lollipop (like the book), but was given a bucket instead and was asked to pick out a toy. Evan picked a green dinosaur. They then took his picture and put it in a little cardboard frame with Batman on one side and Evan on the other. It was the cutest little dentist appointment you've ever seen. Afterward we drove immediately to the playground and ate our lunch in the sunshine.


Evan at my parents' house showing off his teeth with his plastic dinosaur and photo.

Phillies game: Sad, but no photos

Evan went to his 4th Phillies game on Friday. The tickets were given to us by Mike's boss and we took full advantage and went to a 7:05 game. So the traffic was really bad on the way to South Philly and after sitting in a parking lot (actually Kelly Dr.), Evan puked as we passed the art museum. He didn't have his motion-sickness wrist cuffs on. I didn't think he'd need them for a 20 minute drive, but it took us over an hour. After puking, he felt great. I mopped him up in the back seat the best I could and got a little misty eyed as we passed Ritner St., which is where Mike's apartment was when we first started dating.

We had special parking pass and after we got out of the car we found our fantastic seats and I took Evan to one of the stores in the stadium and bought him a $40 sweatshirt because he was cold in the wet, puked up banana shirt he was wearing. I bought him an $8 box of popcorn, which we lost on the way back to Mike. So Mike had to dish out another $8 because Evan turned his big, sad eyes on me and asked "Where ma popcorn, mama?" It sounds like a terrible time, but we really had fun. Evan chomped on his popcorn and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I packed. People screamed and shouted and Evan sat as cool as a cucumber, eating away.

Then I took him the indoor/outdoor playground in the stadium and he was in heaven. It was completely packed with a million kids and I was a bit nervous. At one point Evan climbed up a big tube to the 2nd floor (there was a 2 story thing with tubes and nets and stuff). I was freaking out as big kids were pushing past him and he just kept climbing. I tried to go up after him and a playground worker stopped me and we talked him back down. Evan looked through a hole in the tube on the way down "hi, mama" to reassure me.

So after that we played for about an hour until they kicked us out (it closes after the 7th inning). We went back to Mike and stayed for a half hour later until after the 8th inning. We got back to the parking lot by 10pm with a sleepy Evan on Mike's shoulders. Mike then had Evan pee in the parking lot, we put on his jammies and we were off. BTW Evan stayed completely dry in the stadium. We went to the bathroom 2 times and once in the parking lot. What a big boy!

On Saturday I took Evan to Houston playground about a 10 minute away. Houston has a cult of mothers like Gorgas. They were checking us out like 'who's this lady?' We ate at Salad Works where Evan picked. He's having problems with this new molars coming in and he's barely eating anything. He had 3 bites of tuna and spit out the 4th. He fell asleep in the 5 minute car ride home. When he woke up, the 3 of us immediately left for Lansdale. My college friend Janna was having a few people over for a cookout. This time Evan wore his wrist cuffs and we had a close call on bumpy, cobblestone Germantown Ave., but no puke! It was Janna, her husband Mark, their beautiful daughter Giordana, who has these gorgeous, enormous brown eyes. Their son Gavin was at a boyscout camp. Two old friends from my Tyler days were there - Alan & Eric. Alan came with his wife Tara and 5 of their 6 kids! 4 of them were boys... Evan rode their skateboards and soaked up Giordana and Maya's babying him. Giordana kept saying "HE'S SO CUTE!!". You would think that there would be trouble with a group of kids of that size, but there was none. They were the sweetest, coolest kids ever and were so great with Evan. We moved in the house when it got late and Evan played with everyone in the finished basement. After 10pm, I had his jammies on and we were saying our goodbyes when Evan laid his head on my shoulder and said "I tired mama. We go home?" So we did.

Sunday, we took a family walk to Starbucks, then hung out on the porch and ate lunch with Brandon. Mike and I were on our porch and Evan stayed with Brandon on his. I guess Mike and I weren't cool enough for him. When Evan woke up from his nap that day, Mike walked in and he was still laying on his bed. I heard "NO, DADA!!! Shut door. I still sleeping!"

Later in the afternoon we walked to Adobe Cafe for a delicious Mexican dinner. Evan ate only chips & salsa and maybe 2 bites of my fish taco. He turned up his nose at the cup of lobster bisque we got him. Pretty much the kid is only eating pizza, fruit and soy milk smoothies these days. Which brings us to why I scheduled Evan's Very First Dental Visit on Friday! It's a pediatric dentist and I'm very excited to talk to him about Evan's new molars and the chip he has on one of his teeth.

So today Evan and I went to Old Navy and bought some shorts for him and a few things for me. I wanted to only get clothes for Evan, but I really didn't see much. Believe it or not, I'm pretty picky when it comes to my son (obviously not with myself). But I'm picky in a crazy way. I don't mind him wearing stained or ripped stuff, but I would never put him in denim shorts or pants with too many crazy pockets - which is pretty much the staple of boy clothing in any store

With that said, Evan pretty much only wears 4 pairs of pants. One of his standard pair that he wears constantly is a hand-me-down from his cousin Jack which Evan wore a hole in the knee. The only others that he wears is a pair of Jack's old jeans, a pair I bought months ago and a pair of brown pants. I saw some toddler pants in Old Navy and hated them all, so we left with 2 pairs of shorts for Evan and a few things for me. He was very cute in the dressing room as we were both trying things on. He's obsessed with female bellies. He said "ooooh, mama's belly!" and would rub it after everything I tried on. He told me what he liked (the shirts) and when I tried on some sweatpants I was going to buy as pajama pants to replace my holey ones he said "oh no mama. No like". He's probably right. They were royal blue clown pants, but so soft. He wore a pair of yellow sunglasses he found around the whole store and I caught him lifting up the shirt of a female mannequin and softly caressing her stomach while I checked out. All this stomach and breast obsession has forced me to finally stop nursing Evan. I stopped for good on Good Friday. He was pretty distraught about it for a few days, but it had to happen. He's getting so big and he really is starting to act like a full-fledged little boy. He still asks for it when he wakes up, so I make him a "milkshake" instead. I will definitely miss that special baby time with him and the look of complete calm and contentment on his face, but at the same time I am SO happy to be free!

E A S T E R (Eve)

So here I am making Evan's tuna fish lunch on Easter Eve. The day before (Good Friday) Evan wanted tuna for breakfast - and he got it.


Evan's big feet... He's resting up for the Easter festivities later that night.


Later on at Aunt Ella's... Uncle Larry gives his classic pose.


The men hung outside the whole time. The women stayed in the living room. And the kids ran all around. This is how it always is at family parties. We're very segregated.


The ladies are gossiping.


Evan went back and forth through the doggie door.


And now for the egg dying. Uncle Larry always throws a few raw ones in there to give Aunt Donna a little surprise (she's always in charge of making deviled eggs for Easter dinner the next day). One year Uncle Tom brought a left-over Easter egg in his truck and cracked in on the steering wheel to eat. Unfortunately it was one of Uncle Larry's trick eggs...






Evan shows off his Easter hands.


Egg dying is finished and we're all in a sugar coma. We literally dyed a hundred eggs.





Now it's dark on the men's porch. Josh has had a few beers.


Dad ventures into the living room to hang out with the aunties.


Jeff and Aunt Genie got in a fight and Jeff almost didn't come. We had to call him and sing to him to get him over Aunt Ella's. Now all is well as you can see by Jeff sitting on his mama's lap. Aw!

E A S T E R (Morning)

After 2 very late nights (like 11:45 pm on Friday night!) Evan woke up on Easter morning in a very bad mood. Luckily all was better once we searched for our Easter baskets. Brittany and Josh had a joint basket and so did Mike and I. Evan's basket was hidden in his favorite spot - in the downstairs shower! He was so happy.


Notice the seasonal jammies? Oops. We didn't even get him an Easter outfit this year. It was all sweatsuits all weekend.




Evan sniffs his new colored soaps. He loves them because they go on like deodorant. Evan loves deodorant.


He also loves his new magnifying glass!



He insisted on bringing his Elmo basket up for breakfast. Who wants homemade wholegrain blueberry pancakes after eating 8 lbs. of chocolate? Luckily he did eat it. Slowly, but surely.


Dad is tired after the big rush. His Easter basket sits next to him (his was hidden in Evan's toy box).

With all the madness, we noticed the time at 8:30... And mass was at 9am! My mom, Evan and I quickly got dressed and met Aunt Donna and Olivia at church. Everyone else stayed home and rested. This is Evan after church with his chocolate stained sweater. We use that sweater as an all-purpose dressy top so I hope the chocolate comes out.


No time for rest - time for the big Easter egg hunt!