"MAMA"!

Today was very exciting for me...Evan said "Mama"...we can't tell if its b/c I taught him or if he just started doing the "mmm" sound on his own - but either way it is absolutely adorable and makes my heart feel so warm and big! This morning I was feeding him breakfast and I kept saying "say MMMMama" and all of the sudden he did it. I almost jumped out of my chair, it was THEE coolest thing and made my whole wkend. I cheered really loud and clapped and went bananas and he laughed and shook his head. The head is his new thing that he does when he gets excited - he learned it from all his big kid friends & cousins. One day he started doing it when I began to play with him and talk silly. I realized its b/c kids always make him look at them and wiggle their head and make silly sounds. I thought that was so smart and fun to pick up. How awesome. Take that all the people that said "oh don't be sad that he says "Dada" 1st"...nope not my E! :) Yahoooo!!!

38 weeks is quickly approaching...

WOW it is incredibly surreal that Evan will soon be living in this world the same amount of time that he lived inside me. This is going to really be a day of celebration. I plan on doing something special, just him & I that day. Sometimes it seems so surreal- all that happened. Its like it was so long ago, but yet yesterday all at the same time. I would write to Evan, about Evan, and talk about him but truly had no idea if I would ever KNOW this precious soul I loved so deeply. Last year I was reading someone's blog post that talked about this same thing, their child was 27, 32, or 41 weeks, however long it was that they carried them. Can't even remember but I remember thinking wow, I wonder if I will ever be able to write that? This was very early on in the pregnancy when no one thought he would even make it to 28 weeks. Yet I was blessed with a full term HEALTHY beautiful precious baby that I now get the honor to take care of and raise. From the very beginning we have made a great team and we have the best connection ever. The entirely LOOOONG 38 weeks that I carried him has now turned into the most amazing 38 weeks of my life that has just flown by!

Evan - 2 weeks from today we will party! WAhoooooo!!!

Don't blink...

or all of the sudden your baby might be 8 months old!!! My tiny little cuddly baby is now a mobile -getting into mischief -hilarious -darling infant! About 24 hours to go until E is 8 months old - so amazing. Tonight E & I went to my sister's. The 3 boys and I chilled out while my sis & BIL went to curriculum night. E was in his stroller playing with toys watching us on the trampoline and I had one of those 'whoa' moments where I just stopped and looked at the 3 of them and was just so incredibly thankful. I can't remember if it was Kyle or Alex, but one of them must have either had one too or felt that I was having a moment or it was just one of those random coincidences. He stopped what he was doing, looked at Evan and said wow he's getting so big...seems like he was just in your belly. Of course the other one piped in and said ya when you were fat! so funny. Thinking back now to before I met Evan is just so crazy. He is our life now and I just can't imagine NOT knowing his personality, the way he looks at me, the way it feels to hold him - I would lay there soooo many nights wondering what it feels like to hold MY OWN baby and now voila I continue to be thankful so many times each and every day. I thought earlier - hmmm, I feel like I just write the same thing in his journal, well our journal I guess. (This blog). When I look back and read this 10 or 20 years from now will I be like gosh move on, you sound like a broken record. Then I thought nope, this is my blog, for Evan, and the feeling of elation that I am his Mom will always feel fresh even when he's a grown man.

In what's going on with E news...

- E, you are now a professional crawler
- you are NOT a professional "puller-upper" (yet!)
- that day I wrote about last time when you very first pulled up on something (your crib!) you have pulled up on things ever since. Each day you get more brave - 1st 'brave event' was when you tried to climb Mimi's stairs, then used her plant pot to stand up and attempt to eat her plant!, then you pulled yourself up and stood in your play pen thats on the deck (this one impressed me most b/c there was nothing to grasp - STRONG MAN!). Today's was pretty funny. It was going to be Mommy's 1st 'stay @ home Mommy day' but then this morning I was asked to work so I did which was good b/c it made Mimi's day :) Anyways, so you went to Mimi's and when she put you down for a nap you stood up in the pack & play and every time she left you would stand up real quick she said. Then you finally gave up & stayed laying when she got you cozy again!
- When you go to bed at night or when you wake up you play in your crib and blow bubbles and squeal and scream. We watch you on the monitor and laugh so hard.
- Your eating schedule and diet are changing & are SO big boy! Instead of 1/2 soy & 1/2 milk-based formula you are now having 8 oz (vs 6 oz) alternating bottles of each. You still have 1 bottle during the night. We have a pretty good routine down in the evening - you eat dinner which is 1 veg & 1/2 fruit (both stage 2) around 4 or 5, then after bath, after baby einstein movie, & before bed you drink 6-8 oz then you sleep until anywhere btwn 11-3. That window has gotten larger, you used to eat @ 11ish then again @ 3, 4, or 5. You have a snack I guess you would call it before you get up if its been a while since you've eaten (about 4 oz soy). Want to write you whole eating menu here...so then you have bkfst around 8 which is 3 tbsp rice cereal (oatmeal makes you gassy, will try again in another month or so), & 1/2 fruit. Then to get the Dr's recommend oz's in we do an 8 oz bottle for lunch (this one is milk-based). Very soon I think you will move to cereal & 1/2 yobaby yogurt for bkfst, veggie or veggie/meat & fruit for lunch, & cereal & other 1/2 yogurt for dinner. I'm just trying to figure out where to fit in your bottles when we make that switch. I'm wondering when the oz's/day moves from 24 oz's? And do the oz's count when they are used to make cereal?

Right now you have tried...
- sweet potatoes (your favorite veggie)
- squash
- carrots
- green beans
- peas (made you gassy)
- applesauce (you don't like it alone - too sour, you make a funny face and shiver so we've been mixing it w/ cereal if we give it to you)
- pears
- bananas (your favorite fruit)
- yobaby vanilla yogurt

My schedule at work has changed for now, not sure how long it will last so I plan on soaking in every single second of the days I have with E! I will work 3 9 hour days and have off the other 2! Well, will be on call the other 2 really. This is so exciting b/c now that E is mobile and getting older he will really enjoy and benefit from activities. Thursday I plan on taking him to the group Parents as Teachers play room where they have a whole area for babies. I'm hoping he'll meet some friends and that I will too :) Last wkend we went to visit some friends that were camping and he met a little friend that is turning 1 this month. Amazing to see how much knowledge he will display and how different and communicative he will be in just 4 months! We put the babies on this big rug with a ton of toys and they crawled around and his little friend kissed him and took toys away from him. With this new, even if temporary, schedule also comes giving up a little control. I am the one who drops off and picks up E. Now 3 days/wk Mike will and 2 of those days they will be home for about an hour and 1/2 before me. Different for all of us. I find I strive to be superwoman and do it all but have seen recently that it is not necessary & healthy to do - that Mike should be responsible for doing as much for E as I do - physically and emotionally.

Well its 2 days after I wrote this - E & I had our first Mommy & Evan day yesterday and it was great! We went with my sister and Kyle to that playroom which was SO much fun. What a great place! Then we went to our old spot LA Cafe for lunch then took the boys to a library play group. SO MUCH FUN!!! Evan has 2 top teeth coming in! For the past couple of months they have been playing peek-a-boo but this time I think they're really gonna come down! Poor little guy - his gums are so tender and he is having a very hard time sleeping - hope for his sake they just hurry and come down so he can have some relief! We're going to try a treat tonight - a frozen banana in one of those baby mesh bags! Can't wait to see what he thinks of it!!!

Please don't wake me...

These past few weeks, well really past 7 1/2 months have been like a dream. I think it has really hit me this time that I am a Mom and that Evan is mine forever. He is starting to become a "kid", and this past week he's been changing SO much. It is hilarious and very very cool to experience. Everything has turned into "big boy". His babbling consists of vowels and I can tell he is not far from making words. His most common babble sounds like "rah rah". He yells it really loud like he knows what he's talking about and thinks we should know too! A few days ago on one of the first days of September I heard a "thud" (which is a common occurrence nowadays) followed by crying. I was putting him to bed which is quite a process - talking -squealing -screaming -crying, and repeat until he just can't party anymore and he passes out. He doesn't want to miss anything, therefore, he is not a sleeper. Anyways, the crying stopped and I heard excited screeching. I was already outside his bedroom door so I quietly peeked in and he was standing in his crib! You could tell he was shocked that he succeeded in pulling himself up and was so very proud. Since that day, he tries and tries every time he goes in his crib to recreate that moment but has not done it again! He is a pro at crawling now, I'd say he mastered that about a week ago. He cruises around and just yesterday began getting into things. He laughs so hard when Max runs and gets a toy and tosses it around. I was the only one to witness this until yesterday - Mike, his Mom, and one of his Grandma's were here and the belly laughter began when Mike & Max were playing fetch. It is so cute that tears come in my eyes. He has always loved Max but lately he really is his best friend. Today he thought it was hilarious that Max was eating his bone so he thought he'd try a bite too. He crawled over to him, took it away and was raising it up to his mouth when I caught him! Other news of the month - he has 2 top teeth coming in! I see the little white buds. I'm hoping they actually come out instead of retracting back in like I think the bottoms ones did. Hopefully that will relieve his discomfort because some days you can just tell that he is miserable and searches for relief. There aren't enough teething tablets or Motrin or teethers in the world to soothe him. I spent this afternoon baby proofing the living room and it was SO much fun! We have baseboard heating and tile on the wood-burning stove end of the living room so there was a lot to cover - I'm not one of those freaks who will pad the whole house but I wanted this area to be safe and a place where we can be free of worries from bad boo boo's :) I began a no shoes rule in the house also. We have never been strict about people not wearing their shoes on the hardwood floors but now since we have a crawler all shoes will come off in the breezeway. This is so exciting!!! A whole new page has started - each stage with Evan is just as exciting but different than the previous one! Who ever thought I would be so pumped about enforcing a no shoes rule in my house?! I'll admit it, I am crazy :)

Some pics of our new baby playland & one of his very first time in a swing at a park Saturday (he LOVED it - and would've fallen asleep in there had we stayed longer!)