Rule #94: Laughter is contagious

This is a video of Evan playing with our friends puppy. Yes, as large as she is, she's only a puppy still. Evan was having the time of his life with Cosette. When he laughs and squeals with delight I can't help myself...I laugh myself silly too!

Enjoy!

Rule #93: Riddles don't always have an answer.

Which came first, the bat or the vampire?

This is a very belated Halloween post, but I've just got to get it in there. Evan got dressed up twice on Halloween, in two different costumes. That morning Doug and Susan took him to Boo at the Zoo. It was rather chilly, and we didn't want to get his "real" costume dirty, so we sent him off in last years warm monkey costume. Luckily, my boy doesn't grow much and it still fit. It was a tad short, but it got the job done.

He had a fantastic time with his grandparents, can you tell?

Later that night we dressed up both the boys and took them around to see the grandparents. Including Great Grandma Mary, but we failed to get a picture with her.

Evan was less than thrilled about getting dressed :)

Here is Aunt Chrissy holding Graham, dressed up as a bat.

My Papa meeting Graham for the first time. (He was in China for his birth)

Evan and Dave (Pappa)

Graham all tuckered out after his first Halloween

Even Jasmine got into the spirit of the holiday

Rule #92: Actions speak louder than words

Evan has been a regular two year old lately. Tantrums, testing his boundaries, you know, the good stuff. And as maddening as it is to put him in time out a thousand times a day, he does provide some good stories as well.

Case in point. While walking up the stairs to our landing I hear Evan cheerfully saying "Oh, Evan No! Oh, Evan No!"

Worried and grumbling, wondering what he has gotten into I turn the corner and see that my happy toddler has dumped Jasmines water all over the landing floor.

Without missing a beat, and unable to contain myself I groan, "Oh, Evan...no!"

It seems he must hear that phrase a time or two :)

And time outs seem to be thoroughly ineffective. I saw him hit Jasmine, put himself in time out, say "sorry Jas" just to take himself out of the corner and hit her again....and walk himself right back to the corner!

But having a toddlers not all bad. He's a delight to be around, when he chooses to grace me with his charms. It's usually really easy to get him to laugh and play. His new love is play dough, and puzzles. Man that kid would put together (or rather take apart) his dinosaur puzzle all day if we let him. He's actually getting pretty good and putting it together without our help. And once he's mastered that, I think I might just LET him do puzzles all day long if it makes him happy.

He's talking very well now. When he's in a comfortable environment he'll talk your ear off. He can rattle off 6 or 7 word sentences. He's also starting to understand jokes a little. Like I said, when he has a mind to, he's an adorable little boy.

He's been loving having a baby in the house. He's excited to see him every morning, and if Graham happens to be asleep, he lets us know just how disappointed he is. He gives him lots of hugs and kisses still. Graham is finally becoming aware of his big brother, and is very interested in this loud noise maker when he gets close enough to see.

Rule #91: Pick your role models wisely

Evan has gotten into a habit of lifting up his shirt, mostly just absent mindedly. Because of all my People magazine exposure, my mind keeps referring back to one person.

"The Situation" from Jersey Shore Meet the new situation

Rule #90: Fat is subjective

Graham had his two week check up today. He is doing everything a 12 day old baby should, and he is growing very well.

This little fatty is in the 50%! I honestly didn't think that would ever happen with any of Alex's children. I'm not saying I expect Graham to stay in the "average" (or in our minds "fatty") category forever, but just the fact that he's started out so hefty is a feat! :)

His weight: a whopping 7 lbs 11 oz (50%)
Height: 21 1/4 inches (75%)
OFC: 14 1/4 inches (50%)

He's just average all around it seems. And just as cute as a button!
My sister Annie made Graham two onesies. This one with the letter G and one that says [handmade] on it. Both very cute! Thanks sis! You can't see the G very well in this picture, but look at that face! I had to post it.
This is a typical afternoon hanging out with the family. Evan does love his brother not that you'd be able to tell he's interested at all in this picture.

Mom and Graham (I love yawning pictures)

A better view of the G, although it is a bit washed out due to the flash. Trust me, it's adorable!

Graham is sleeping like your average newborn. He has a few good hours in the morning when he's awake and alert. Then sleeps soundly most of the day. Sometime has another awake time in the late afternoon, but if not....is awake around 2 am. For a few hours. Yeah, I can't wait for his schedule to turn around.

But otherwise, he's a very calm baby, similar to Evan in his temperament so far. We'll see if it lasts. I don't want to count my chickens, I know that things could change, but Graham doesn't seem to have a fussy period in the day yet. In some ways it feels like he's been part of our family and routine for much longer than 12 days. I love this little man to pieces!

Rule #89: Sometimes two is easier than one.

Graham Douglas Davis was born at 6:48 AM. He weighs 7 lbs 6 oz and is 21 inches long. Both he and mom are doing very well. Meghan's recovery is much smoother and quicker than last time.

Saturday night we had friends over for dinner and a movie, and during the middle of the movie Meghan started having contractions. (This is the same scenario as Evan, with friends, about 10pm, born 9am the next day.) By 1 AM they were frequent enough to head out. April stayed with Evan during the night. Between 2 AM - 6 AM Meghan had her epidural and two doses of antibiotics for GBS (ask her if you want to know more).

At about 6:35 AM the room became an efficient little beehive of acitivity going from one nurse to 6 personnel including the doctor. Two contractions later baby was out, had his cord cut, got sucked out, weighed, etc. By 7 AM it was just mom, son and I.

Rule #88: Don't forget mom's favorite season

The best season of the year is finally here! It took it's sweet time getting here too. (I was getting pretty tired of 90 degree weather in September.) But now that it's here I'm trying to soak in as much as possible before the baby comes and I'm more or less confined to the indoors.

We met up with the Dalys at the Pumpkin Patch this weekend to bring in the fall. Evan was really excited to meet up with his cousins. He loves that Sanders will play his favorite game with him. "big circles". Pretty much they just run around each other, with Evan saying "big circles" over and over. It's a riot to watch.
There was a haybale maze for the kids, and then everyone got to pick out their own pumpkins. Karaia was all about picking out pumpkins for everyone in her family. Which was difficult to do. There were so many "perfect" pumpkins to choose from. It was a great time. We even picked up a tiny pumpkin to represent the new son we will have by halloween. :) Welcome Fall!

Evan running "big circles" in the maze

This was an attempt to get all three boys looking at the camera. Yeah, it worked really well. :)

Tennyson showing me how strong he is

Evan showing off his mad verbal skills :)

Rule #87: Nothing bad about a two year old

I know, I know. This post is months over due. No excuses, just down to business.

And that business is all about Evan. Here are his two year stats. (finally)

Weight: 23 lbs 13 oz (7%)
Height: 34.5 inches (55%)
OFC: 18.5 ( 10%)

He's keeping his trend of being in the low end of normal for his weight, but that's better than Alex did at his age. He really was off the charts for years. So we're happy with his consistency. I don't expect him to switch gears on us anytime soon.

As far as Evan's mad skills are concerned...he has a lot, and he just keeps getting better and better every day. Karaia taught him how to climb a ladder at his birthday party, and now he's pretty good at it. It still makes me a little nervous, because that's just who I am, but he has yet to hurt himself on his playset, and he LOVES getting to the slide by himself.

Evan is a BIG fan of jumping. He will jump on anything he can find, or just the ground if that's all he's got to work with. It's so cute to watch him get both his feet off the ground.

He's big into drawing/coloring right now. He's even started to label what HE is drawing, instead of just demanding that I draw a big cloud, flower, sun etc for him. He knows most of his colors and practically all of the alphabet. He knows numbers, and can usually count to at least 4 or 5 in sequence. Although numbers and counting don't actually mean much to him.

He transitioned into a big bed at the end of August. (I know, it's a post in and of itself, also way past due) We hadn't gotten the room ready yet, but have since painted at least. Once we get a few more details in place, I'll post pictures. He's done really well for the most part...but he's also become a two year old in the last few weeks. Complete with stubbornness, tantrums and defiance.

The tantrums would be slightly comical if they weren't so frequent. Because of our hard wood floors, Evan won't throw himself to the floor and scream. Instead, he slowly melts to the ground, then as soon as his head softly touches the floor, he starts his fit. But it can be about anything and everything. Welcome to toddlerhood I'm told.

He's also started becoming a defiant little person. Raising his eyebrow while he looks at me, just before he does what I have told him not to do three seconds earlier. So, we are working on disciplining and molding our son, hopefully to be a respectful, kind boy. We'll see how well that goes.

Verbally he has blown all expectations out of the water. I have no idea how many words he says at this point. Everyday he adds at least one more. Which is why I think it's so frustrating for him to disobey me, because I KNOW he understands what I'm saying now...no benefit of the doubt any more! I'm thrilled that he has progressed so quickly, and I can't wait for when we can more involved conversations with him. Alex taught him the word "usurper" the other night. And while Evan doesn't know what it means, I love that he tries to say it anyway. It was really cute.

He's starting to recognize the names of family members, and loves to see them all. He still talks about Sanders/Tennyson's fan almost daily, and it's been weeks since we watched the Dalys.

He's still a very loving, MOSTLY mild mannered boy. Although the mildness seems to be wearing off a bit.

He's the light of my life and I can't imagine living with out him. I will admit with these new traits I'm slightly anxious about how Evan will respond to his new brother. But hopefully his loving side will win out and things will go well!

Rule #86: More work is often less work.

This year we made some upgrades to our garden area.  We added weedcloth, more bark, and stepping stones.  It's much lower maintenance now.  It was finished a while ago but I never got around to blogging about it.

Weedcloth and the boy.

Bark and stones.

All done, plus the boy.

Garbage can nest.

The boy's fake laugh.

Can you read two books at once?

Evan raiding the Lucky Charms for the marshmallows.

Rule #85: 2 is better than 1

We celebrated Evan's 2nd birthday on Monday. I just can't believe that my baby is 2, and then it hits me, he's not my baby anymore. He's my big boy. My toddler. Crazy.

It was a fabulous day spent together as a family and to top it off so many of our friends and family were able to join us in the evening for dinner and cake! Thanks to everyone who was able to be there and celebrate with us.

We were missing a few grandparents and siblings, but that's just the way life goes sometimes. We know they would have been there if they were able.

I didn't get a picture of Evan and his cake on my camera, but some family did, so when I get those shots, I'll upload them.

Evan was throwing a fit when it came time to open the presents, so we whipped through them pretty fast. But I wanted everyone to know how much he really did love the thoughtful gifts that you gave them. So I made sure to get a picture of each and every one of them. So here we go.

Evan giving kisses to the potato head cat from Bri and family

Playing with the water toys from the Millers

Green truck from Amy and the kids

Reading the book from Grandpa Guy and Grandma Emma. Playing with their puzzle below

Reading the book from Great Grandma Davis

Dressing his Evan doll made by Emile

Playing with the cars from Aunt Chrissy. Not shown is Evan dancing to the music card from Chrissy. It was priceless!

Loving the Golf clubs from Dave and Christina

Riding his new power wheels from Grandpa Doug and Grandma Susan!

Drawing on the magnadoodle from Mom and Dad

We lucked out just barely with the weather. It rained just a little before the party, and then the rain came down and kicked everyone to the curb at 8! Which was the end of the party anyway, so it worked out well. I, for one, was thankful for the rain. It meant that it wasn't quite a thousand degrees for this pregnant woman!

Evan has his two year checkup on Friday, so I'll post all of the amazing qualities of my son when I post his stats. I like to keep his fans on the edge of their seats. :)

Rule #84: Inaminate objects are at your mercy.

Recently Evan has been playing toddler games on Sesame Street's website.  If he sees the computer he starts repeating "Elmo?  Elmo?"  The only games he can play yet are ones where you can push any letter or number of the keyboard.  But he has had trouble because he often hits keys that bring up other menus and so forth.  So I finally figured out I could pop some of the keys off an old keyboard and make one just for him.

Aforementioned highly modified keyboard.

Jasmine wearing a glow collar.

The couch tried to eat Evan while he was watching Signing Time.

Sesame street game with Elmo.

Evan likes to feed Jasmine his snacks, which we hopelessly try to discourage.  So one time I tried shutting Jas in another room while he snacked.  The attempt was futile as usual.

A cat was sitting on our fence, which Jasmine was not keen on, the cat however seemed indifferent while Evan was more interested in a large pot that the ensuing spectacle.