Professional Haircut

Steph took Evan to get his first professional haircut today! In the past we've cut his hair at home (actually, as I've related before, Steph would cut and I would entertain), but it's always been a bit of a struggle in one way or another, and Steph usually comes away feeling like there was a part she missed or could have done better on. We're heading up to Seattle this weekend for a friend's wedding (more on that in a few posts), so she figured it was time to try taking him to a kids hair salon (where the chairs are all cars of various types):

It may appear in this picture like Evan isn't having the best time, and there's a reason for that... he hated it. There's something about high-pitched motors he really doesn't like (we can't use the blender or the dust buster when he's around unless we want to deal with him pitching a fit), so having the electric clippers right next to his head was more of a challenge than he was able to deal with. That, and he's a little kid -- do any little kids like having their hair cut? If so I haven't met them.

Anyway, this was the only picture Steph had time to take before he started bawling. Fortunately the ladies who work there are used to this reaction, and they're also super fast, so the whole ordeal was over in just a couple of minutes... and his hair looks very nice now.

Birthday Party at the Park

Our neighbors' two youngest daughters had a birthday party at the park this weekend and they insisted that Evan should come. We certainly didn't want to disappoint such nice little girls, so as soon as he woke up from his afternoon nap we headed over for food, party games, and playing around on the jungle gym:

Evan is a little too young for hula hoop or water balloon toss contests so we didn't actually participate in any of the party games. He did appreciate eating birthday cake and playing with the balloons, though:

Clapper

Within the last week or so Evan has transferred his enthusiasm for waving into a passion for clapping:

He's quite proud of his new skill.

Cleanup

One of Evan's favorite activities is taking things out of containers and putting them back in. More often then not he doesn't get the balance between these two activities quite right, which leads to rooms of the house looking a bit untidy... kinda like a 1-year old was there. Sometimes the pendulum swings in the other direction, though:

If we can just figure out how to trigger his "put things away" instinct we might be able to make a serious dent in our housework load.

Spray Nozzle

I've mentioned in the past that Evan likes playing in and around water, whether it be splashing in his baby pool, taking a bath, swimming at the YMCA, or just playing with the hose:

It's possible the hose, when accompanied by its constant companion the spray nozzle, are his favorite water "toys" yet. They certainly make watering the plants in the yard more fun.

Dog Picnic

Every summer the group of people we know from walking Peekay at the park get together for a barbecue/potluck, and this year was no exception. Last year this picnic was one of Evan's first outings after coming home from the hospital (although oddly enough I didn't mention it in the blog), so he spent pretty much the whole time in our arms. This year was obviously a bit different... he spent most of the afternoon pushing his stroller around:

A still image doesn't do it justice... after all, you've seen him standing next to things before. I mean that he was really pushing it around:

This is one of his new favorite pastimes. Whereas our evening dog walk used to consist of us taking two laps around the park, nowadays we take one lap with Evan in the stroller and then spend about the same amount of time letting him push the stroller around in the grass. The dog keeps herself occupied by resting in the shade and sometimes chasing squirrels.

After an hour or two of pushing the stroller it can be nice to get a ride back to the car when it's time to go home, though:

NASCAR Baby

When I went to get my hair cut a few weeks ago the stylist asked if I wanted to enter a contest as I was leaving. Never being one to turn down free stuff I figured it was worth a shot, although I didn't quite catch what prize I was entering to win. Needless to say I was a little surprised when I got a call a week later informing me I'd won 4 tickets to a NASCAR race up at Sears Point. Neither Steph or I had ever been to a NASCAR race (and didn't have much ambition to), but we figured free tickets were the best opportunity we were ever going to get so we thought we'd give it a shot. And since Meg & Rob were coming down for the weekend anyway we had an easy time figuring out what to do with the other two tickets.

I won't bore you with a description of the race... luckily Sears Point is a windy, hilly track (I really can't imagine what is interesting about watching cars make left turns on a big oval for three hours), but it was still basically just a bunch of cars driving around and around. I think we had pretty good seats -- there was lots of passing and several minor accidents in the turn right in front of us, which I think are the things race fans are supposed to like to see -- and there was plenty of room for Evan to walk around and pick up rocks. Here's a shot of the view from our seats (Steph and Evan are on the walkway on the right side):

We were fairly worried that the noise would be too much for him (we brought along earplugs for everyone which we never used), but it wasn't nearly as bad as we'd anticipated. Evan certainly didn't seem to mind:

All-in-all we had a pretty good time, although it was a beastly hot day and there was no shade to be found unless you had bought extra-expensive tickets beforehand to get into the special pavilion (which obviously goes against our "we'll go if it's free" ethic). We were able to cry our way into the tent for a little bit by claiming baby distress (Evan was looking awfully hot and he was still recovering from his ear infection and cold) so we could feed him out of the sun, but we left pretty soon after that. Here's Evan getting some last looks before we head out:

So, I wouldn't say we've been converted to NASCAR fans, but we might go again if I can win another pair of free tickets.

Noah's Ark

A surprise package for Evan showed up on our doorstep a few days ago. It turned out to be a birthday present from his Aunt Hilary and Uncle Brian, a Noah's Ark ride-on toy. He doesn't quite get the ride-on concept yet (his legs aren't long enough to reach the ground when he's sitting on it anyway), but he loves to press the buttons and dance to the music:

This is the first toy where Evan seems to understand that the different buttons make different sounds, and he's certainly developed his favorites (the song you can hear in the video, followed by the monkey sound). He'll press the button for the song over and over again so he can keep dancing, in fact.

Refrigerator

I don't know if it's because the weather is warmer now that summer is in full swing, or that it's full of food, or all the shiny surfaces call to him, but for whatever reason Evan has become a hard-core refrigerator fanatic recently:

This scene (Evan climbing into the fridge, not necessarily the dog eating spilled broccoli and cauliflower off the floor) repeats itself pretty much any time you open the fridge unless you get in and out quickly. In fact, we can use the fridge to test a variety of his developing physical attributes:

• Reaction time: How fast can he start moving towards the fridge? Early results indicate this needs to be measured in milliseconds, so we're going to need better instrumentation to get an accurate measurement.
  
• Balance: How long can he stand in the fridge? We haven't found a time limit yet... he'll stand there as long as you're willing to keep the door open.
  
• Hearing: How far away can he be in the house and still know to make a beeline for the fridge? Because this test requires a secondary observer to be run successfully it entails a little more planning and dedication to science than we have shown thus far. Anecdotal evidence suggests no place in the house is too far away for Evan to respond to the siren call of the refrigerator, though.
  
• Strength: How far can he climb into the fridge, and how long can he fight off the door as it's closing on him? To perform this test with any real rigor requires a more impartial (or, one could argue, cruel) practitioner than I. It is fair to say that lightly shutting the door is insufficient to dislodge him. Don't ask me how I know this.
  

If you can think of any other experiments that should be added to the study I'd be eager to hear them. If feasible we'll include them in the next round of trials.

Birthday Cake

Our next-door neighbor Carol (you may remember her from way back in the beginning) brought over a birthday cake for Evan, which was very sweet of her. As with his cupcake this weekend, at first he wasn't sure what to make of it:

I realize that Evan looks a little sullen or disappointed in this picture, but rest assured that was not the case. We just didn't take very good pictures of the occasion, and he might have been concerned that he couldn't read the writing since it was upside down. The next one after this was him diving for the cake, which he thought was wonderful:

Cheerios

Evan has been a big fan of Cheerios as part of his breakfast pretty much since he started eating solid food. A breakfast session always starts with the fruit-and-mush course (a baby food jar of some type of pureed fruit mixed into oatmeal, rice cereal, or something like that), then alternates between fruit-and-mush until he pushes it away and a handful of Cheerios, then back again. This cycle is pretty predictable, and it has been going on every morning for the past 4 or 5 months.

In the last few days Evan has decided the transitions from eating mush to eating Cheerios would be smoother if, instead of us offering one or two spoonfuls of mush too many (thereby forcing him to push the spoon away and look at us indignantly... "Clearly I don't want any more of this stuff. Why can't you people figure this out? Give me the Cheerios!") he just pointed at the box of Cheerios and said "Ohhhs". Of course, we agree that this is indeed easier and takes the guesswork out of when to offer the Cheerios, so from now on that's how the morning routine will go.

Fortunately Evan doesn't just say "Ohhh", since that wouldn't show up very well on camera. He also makes an Ohhh face (very similar to the face he makes when he says "Uh-oh" after he's thrown something to the ground and expects you to pick it up... we're working on the difference between accidentally dropping something and deliberately tossing it away), which shows up in a photo quite nicely:

1 Year Old

Evan turns 1 year old tomorrow, which we chose to celebrate today since I'll be at work tomorrow. Originally we were thinking of having a real birthday party for him, but since he wouldn't appreciate it anyway and we weren't that excited about planning it we decided to just have a private celebration instead.

First we opened his presents. Steph wrapped most of them because we thought he might have a good time tearing the paper open (he loves methodically shredding napkins so this seemed like a reasonable assumption). He humored us a little bit:

but in the end he was much more interested in opening and closing his toy hamper:

I guess napkins have more satisfying ripping properties... or something.

Next came the obligatory "baby eating cake" photo op. Steph felt we would be doing Evan a grave disservice if we did not bake him a cake and take pictures of him smearing it all over his face. I don't recall seeing photos of any such rite of passage in my baby book (and I think I had a pretty happy childhood), but Steph and her sisters all do so he was going to have them too. Neither of us looked forward to splitting a whole cake between ourselves, though (assuming Evan wasn't going to make much of a dent in it), so we made cupcakes instead of a regular cake -- just as yummy and messy but a tidier package for adding to a work lunch.

Anyway, we wheeled Evan's high chair into the kitchen to aid in the inevitable area cleanup and let him tuck into his just reward for surviving his first year. He wasn't sure what to make of his cupcake at first:

He pretty quickly figured out it was food, though, and (to paraphrase one of my favorite movie lines) he went after it like it was made outta ham:

After he was finished with his cupcake we moved on to playing with some of his new toys. Most of them he wasn't super interested in yet (the puzzles and fridge magnet numbers are probably a little advanced for him at this point), but he seemed to like the pop-up tent and tunnels Steph got him:

Here he is enjoying his new fortress of solitude:

And that was pretty much the extent of Evan's first birthday celebration.

Dog-Seeking Missile

I guess I haven't mentioned it in a while but the relationship between Evan and Peekay is constantly evolving, and it's something we pay pretty close attention to. The executive summary of the situation is that he absolutely adores her but she's not so sure about him. Unfortunately Peekay is not by nature the most kid-friendly dog, so we try to take advantage of any training opportunities as they arise and reward them both (especially the dog) for behavior we approve of (like resolutely accepting Evan's pulling and prodding and getting out of the way when he's trundling along). As Evan becomes more and more mobile her chances to practice restraint and good will are becoming ever more frequent:

Picking Up Leaves

Our magnolia tree goes through a major shedding cycle at the beginning of each summer, leaving a fresh supply of big waxy leaves strewn about the front yard almost every morning (you'd think it would run out of disposable leaves in a few days at the rate it drops them at this time of year, but evidently you'd be wrong). So every day or two someone has to spend 15 minutes or so picking them up and putting them in the yard waste bin (fortunately they're easy to pick up since they're so big). It looks like before long this can be one of Evan's chores:

Earfec

Steph caught a cold just before we went to Lake Tahoe, and by the time we were coming home Evan had caught it too. On top of that, he picked this week to contract his first ear infection (his pediatrician was very impressed that he'd made it almost through his first year without one), which we would call an earfec in my family. Evan handles being sick fairly well -- he's not that much fussier than normal, and his appetite remains somewhere between ravenous and voracious -- but his sleep routine gets thrown all out of whack. This leads to a very tired baby who falls asleep in unusual situations:

You'd expect the Jumparoo to be an exciting toy that would stimulate a child, or at least keep him awake. Normally that's the case, but when I say Evan has been tired, I mean he has really been tired:

If food can't keep Evan awake a Jumparoo stands pretty much zero chance.

No Caption Needed

This happens sometimes:

Dinner in Sacramento

On the way home from Lake Tahoe we got to spend the afternoon in Sacramento with Megan and Rob. We spent some time walking around Land Park (we'd hoped to take Evan to Fairytale Town but the elves evidently have a pretty strong union because they were all clocked out and home for the day by 4:30) before going out for dinner at the Tower Cafe (which is next to the Tower Theater, a Sacramento landmark). After an excellent meal we spent some time playing around in the theater courtyard, particularly around the fountain. Evan loves to practice walking, and he loves water, so he was pretty happy:

I'm not sure how much fun this was for the non-parents in the group, but Meg and Rob didn't seem to mind too much:

Table 10

We went up to Lake Tahoe this weekend for the wedding of one of Steph's friends from college. We pretty much only see people in this group when someone gets married (I met them all attending a wedding, in fact, which was also the trip when Steph and I got engaged), which does not bode well for the future because there's only one more guy in the group who is still single, and it looks like his days may be numbered. We'll have to make more of an effort in the future, because the kids had a great time playing together.

And there are kids aplenty now. We made a name for ourselves as Table 10, The Fun Table, three or four weddings ago, but times have changed a bit. We were still the fun table of course, although we didn't employ quite as much lubrication as in days gone bye, and we didn't necessarily close the place down this time. I guess that's what happens when there are little people at home that will demand breakfast and playtime at the accustomed hour regardless of the previous night's festivities.

Speaking of the little people at home, this was a big weekend for us because it was our first time leaving Evan with a sitter he didn't know for any extended period of time. One of Steph's friends orgaized getting a nanny at their condo for the duration of the wedding and reception, which ended up being almost 8 hours. Steph was very nervous about leaving Evan for the evening, especially the possibility that he would pitch a fit when we walked away. Fortunately we forgot the full page of instructions she'd prepared at the hotel, and when it was time to go he was totally distracted by a box of big-kid toys (hard to say if he was more interested in the toys or the box, but the effect was the same). As it turns out the nanny usually watches a family of 5 kids, so keeping track of 4 little boys between the ages of 1 and 5 probably wasn't the hardest thing she's ever done. She even apparently took them all for a walk, which in Evan's case means carrying him the whole way or holding his hand and walking very slowly, but it evidently went very smoothly.

Unfortunately we have hardly any pictures of the whole weekend since we either left our camera in the car or in a pocket most of the time. Almost all of our photos are of us playing at the hotel kiddie pool one afternoon, which is kind of ironic since it wasn't really warm enough for swimming so we were only in the water for 5 minutes or so. When you follow a "bring camera but do not use" policy, though, your pictures aren't necessarily representative of your whole experience: