Hanging out at City Lake

Evan and I met my friend Sherri and her daughter Natalie at City Lake on Saturday. Evan and Natalie had a great time on the playground, riding the train and the carousel. Although I think their favorite activity may have been throwing rocks in the lake. It was also great to catch up with Sherri. It is amazing how much they have both grown over the last year. Make sure you check out the last two pictures I have posted and you can really tell the difference.

Evan on the fire truck at City Lake


Evan and Natalie


Waiting on the train


Evan and Natalie--June 2010


Evan and Natalie--June 2009

Strawberry Patch

Evan's class at daycare went to the local Strawberry Patch. As you can probably tell by looking at his face, Evan loves strawberries. His teacher said he would pick a strawberry, take a bite and then put it in his basket.

Evan's Daycare Picture

These are pictures of Evan taken at daycare in April. I thought they turned out pretty good. In the 20 months he has been attending daycare, this was only the 2nd time he has been present for school pictures (didn't buy the last set). It seems that everytime the pictures have been scheduled he has been sick or out for surgery. So finally, school pictures.

Heartstrings

Although Kevin and I regularly tell Evan we love him, he has never been one to reciprocate. You would ask him, “Do you love me?” and he would grin and shake his head no. It has only been in the last few weeks that he reciprocates by saying “I Love you too”. You don’t realize how much those words mean or how you have longed to hear them until they are said.

Another really sweet thing happened last night. Kevin is back to working two nights per week at the golf course and since it gets dark later and later, Evan is generally asleep by the time he gets home. On those nights, Evan wants to know when Daddy is coming home, why is he working late and can get whiny. He generally will not even play in the bathtub very long either. Last night, Evan was getting ready for bed and had just finished brushing his teeth when Kevin got home earlier than usual for a golf course working night. Evan threw himself in Kevin’s arm and hugged him and told him “I missed you”. He sat right beside Kevin on the bed while we read bedtime books and would keep hugging and telling him “I missed you”. It was such a sweet and heart melting moment.

Evan learns to ride his Big Boy Bike

Granna had bought Evan a bicycle with training wheels for Christmas. We have worked with him off and on but he never seemed to understand the concept that you could not pedal backward like with a tricycle. If you pedal backwards on a bicycle, that is your brakes. Well, on Friday, April 30th it all seemed to click and he has been riding that bicycle as fast and often as he can. He has also been willing to wear his helmet.

More Pictures

Evan Update

I know it has been a long time since I blogged. I am sure I probably wrote that same statement in previous entries. Time just seems to get away from me. Evan is doing great and growing like a weed. Items of interest:

1. He had a follow up appointment in March for his surgery in February and everything looked great.
2. I had to take him to the Doctor on March 19th. He woke up and told us his knee was hurting and he wouldn’t walk or put any pressure on his left leg. I took him on to daycare thinking that once he got to school he would start playing and forget about it. Well, that didn’t happen. His teacher called and said he was crying, not putting any pressure on his leg and crawling. So off to the Doctor we go for a two hour visit which involved x-rays (me and a tech having to hold him down) and a finger prick. Luckily the Doctor did not find anything wrong. She said it could have been a virus that was making his upper leg hurt. Well, he took a nap and within an hour of waking up, he was running around playing like nothing had every happened. It was a traumatic morning but at least it was nothing serious.
3. We had a really busy Saturday on March 27th. I took Evan to Bumper Jumpers and he bounced and jumped to his heart’s content. That afternoon it was off to an Easter Egg hunt at the local Rec Center and that night, a neighborhood cookout/Easter egg hunt. He was one tired little boy that night
Easter Egg Hunt at the Rec Center

4. Easter we spent with our families. We were at Mommaw and Poppaw’s for dinner on Saturday night with the family and the kids had a great time hunting Easter Eggs. Although, Ashley and I conveniently left the kids’s bubbles behind. Easter Sunday found the arrival of the Easter Bunny. Evan was really excited to get a new lawnmower and two Dragon Tale DVD’s. Easter lunch that Sunday was with Granna and more Easter presents. Of course, Evan didn’t want to sit still to have a picture made in his Easter outfit



Adele, Yancy and Evan--waiting to hunt Easter Eggs


The infamous bubbles

Evan with his Easter Basket

Easter Outfit

5. Evan had his follow-up hearing test on March 13th and it also went well. His hearing seems to be right on track and we don’t go back for a year. The audiologist is hoping to get him to the point where he is willing to wear the headphones for the test. Dr. Phipps (ENT who did his surgery) also came out to talk to him. I told Dr. Phipps that he was the only Doctor Evan didn’t cry about having to come see.
6. We met with our Social Worker on Friday, April 30th for our 3rd Post Placement Report. They are required at 6 months and years 1, 2, and 3 home. So only one more to go. It went well and it is always exciting for someone to see how much he has changed.

3 Year Old Check-Up

Evan had his three year old checkup on Friday, February 26th and is doing very well. He is now 36 inches tall and weighs 28 lbs and 10oz. So he has grown almost 2 ¾ of an inch and gained about 3 lbs since he turned two. The Doctor stated he was on track. However, he did get a shot which I was not prepared for. Apparently a booster had come out for a shot since he turned 2. He wasn’t too happy about the shot but it quickly became a distant memory. I then took him to Pump It Up so he could bounce to his hearts content and then off to Chick-fil-a to meet Daddy for lunch.

On a side note, Evan did return to daycare last week and it went better than expected after being out for two weeks. Of course, it only took three days before he caught a cold. The never ending cycle of a runny nose and cough begins again.

Surgery Recovery

Evan is recovering well from surgery to have his tonsils/adenoids and a 2nd set of tubes on 2/9/10. His surgery was scheduled for 8:30 that morning so we had to be at the hospital around 7am. Evan was a real trooper about not being able to eat or drink that morning. We had been preparing him by reading Franklin goes to the Hospital. I will have to say it was heart wrenching to hand him over to Dr. Phipps who carried him into the operating room. It wasn’t this hard when he had the 1st set of tubes but this time we knew he would be undergoing general anesthesia. He was able to take his blue blanket and Snowman (stuffed animal of choice at this time) into the operating room. We spent one night in the hospital and he did so well. He didn’t bother the IV which stayed in until we left. Of course he never got out of bed until we left the next day. The hospital gets Nick Jr., his favorite TV station which helped to keep him entertained. We have been able to keep him eating and drinking and he is doing much better. Dr. Phipps said his adenoids were extremely large and they had to get fluid out of his ears. The Doctor also said that once he heals we should see a big difference. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Fun in the Snow

Evan had a great time playing in the snow. We didn't get out on Saturday as it was so cold but Sunday he was able to play a lot. We spent the morning playing at home and in the afternoon it was off to Mommaw and Poppaw's where Evan helped build a snowman and went sledding.


Even the snow doesn't keep a boy and his tractor apart

Riding the 4-wheeler with Daddy


Evan decided the snow could use some mowing.

Playing Hide and Seek with Daddy

Helping with the snowman

Evan and Yancy


Evan had the easy part, Daddy pulled him up the hill on the slide and brought him back down.

Pending Surgery

Yes, Evan is having another surgery. We went back for follow-up with the ENT Doctor today. As I mentioned earlier, his tubes have come out of his ears. Well, the fluid is already building back up. Evan also has extremely large tonsils that the Doctor has been keeping an eye on. Evan doesn’t snore a lot but he is a heavy mouth breather. Also, due to the fact that Evan continues to have a lot of colds/cough/runny nose and two cases of strep, he will be having tubes put back in his ears and having his tonsils and adenoids out on February 9th. We will be spending one night in the hospital. So keep us in your prayers.

Evan turns 3!

It is hard to believe but Evan turned 3 on Friday, January 22nd. He is growing up so fast. He had cupcakes with his classmates on Friday to celebrate his birthday. Today we had a small family party. He had a great time playing with his cousins and was excited about his Thomas the Train Cake.

Where has the time gone?

I know, I know, there has been no update since October. Time seems to just get away from me these days. We have enjoyed the holidays and spending time with family. We had an early Thanksgiving the Sunday prior. Evan had a great time playing with his cousins.

Evan enjoyed the Christmas lights wherever we went and checking out the Christmas trees. I didn’t put as many ornaments on the tree this year but I also didn’t have to put them on the upper half of the tree. I put some of Evan’s non-breakable ornaments at the bottom. I still had to keep an eye on him or he would have had them off. We did go see Santa but he didn’t like sitting on Santa’s lap any better this year.

Evan also enjoyed the snow. He was running a slight fever but we did let him tromp through the snow for a little while. We went to the Doctor the Monday before Christmas and he had strep. So 10 days of the pink medicine and he recovered.

Hope you enjoyed our Video Christmas Card. It is amazing to us to see how much he grew and changed during 2009.

On Christmas Eve, Evan and I made cookies for Santa (okay, they were the store bought ones, Evan did add the sprinkles). We left cookies for Santa along with milk, orange juice and a bottle of water. When Evan woke up Christmas morning, he wanted to know if Santa was still here. I told him no but did he want to see if Santa had left him anything. I believe his favorite present was his leaf blower and goggles like Daddy’s. He also liked his jeep that came with a drill to take it apart and put back together. As with most kids, the clothes didn’t generate much interest.

Now we are in a New Year and starting it off sick again. Evan went to the Doctor on Wednesday (1/6). He had an ear infection. His tubes had been in a year just after Christmas. The tube in his right ear has come out and they took the tube out of his left ear. We will just have to hope this is a one time ear infection and don’t start occurring frequently or it may be tubes again.



Evan in his Christmas Outfits


Enjoying the Snow. He actually had snow boots for this snow. If you remember the last time we had snow, I had to put plastic bags over his tennis shoes.


Cookies for Santa

Christmas Morning