Bath Rumble

After Alex's bath tonight Evan joined in for the bundling and drying phase, and the three of us got a bit tangled up in the process:

Chicken Wing

I can't for the life of me remember what prompted this, but after dinner tonight Evan came up behind Alex while Steph was holding him and started flapping his arms like a chicken:

Then he gave Alex a big hug (that actually isn't so unusual):

Alex didn't know what to make of any of it:

D Bunny

I don't remember if there was anything more going on here than Evan playing with D Bunny ("D" because his cousin Delaney gave it to him), but I like the picture a lot so I thought I'd share it:

Visiting Terrapin

My best friend from college, Katy, came out to the Bay Area for a conference this week and she stayed with us for a few days afterwards. As is our way, we hardly turned the camera on the two days she was here, but we did take this one picture of her with Evan:

At least in the only picture we took he was wearing the Maryland shirt Katy brought for him (it's one of his new favorite shirts).

Obviously you can't tell from a single photo, but Evan had a great time having an extra person to play with around the house! Over the last few months he's become much more willing to interact with new people, and he took to Katy right away. He even requested she join in with our bedtime ritual of reading a story, saying what we did that day, and singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. That was the first time either Steph or I can remember anyone who wasn't a family member or his regular babysitter participating in bedtime, let alone at his invitation.

Running Man

I know I've mentioned before how much Alex likes to kick his legs. Well, as you can see, he comes by it honestly:

More Car Lineup

Evan spends a fair amount of his time lining up cars in nice rows, so we have plenty of opportunities to take pictures of him doing it. These pictures start to become a bit repetitive, but he looks so cute we can't help ourselves:

Take Your Bow

With all of the enthusiastic dancing Evan does he needs to learn to take a little credit for the entertainment he provides every once in a while:

Potty Practice

We've been working on potty training Evan a little bit at a time over the last month or two. So far there are four main challenges we're facing:

1. He is pretty unwilling to go pee in the potty unless we're changing his diaper anyway, at which point if he wasn't wearing a diaper it would already be far too late;
2. He insists on standing up to pee, so the degree of difficulty is a little higher;
3. He likes the idea of pull-ups and big boy underpants but resists even trying on either; and
4. He vehemently refuses to even think about going poop in the potty.

The first three issues are all things we feel like we can make progress on, but on the fourth he's been quite recalcitrant. We now consider it a victory just to get him to sit on the potty even to read a story (which should be good practice for pooping, right?):

Hard Hat

One of the really cool Christmas presents Evan got this year was a hard hat with a built-in microphone/loud speaker, headlamp, and flashing lights from his cousins. Only he didn't think it was that cool, or at least its scariness (he didn't much like its random "construction site" sounds) and awkwardness (he doesn't like hats to begin with, and this one is much heavier than any other hat he's ever worn) outweighed its coolness.

Recently, though, Evan has become so obsessed with Bob the Builder that he wanted to wear his hard hat, so we had to document the occasion:

It's still a challenge to get it to fit him well, but now instead of just walking away he keeps pestering me to adjust the sizing. Actually, I'm not sure this is better....

Callie Kitty

A few posts ago I mentioned how much Evan likes to sing the Bob the Builder theme song. Well, he was at it again today, this time while dragging Callie Kitty along for the ride:

I'd translate what he's singing for you... if I could figure it out. I think it's basically the lyrics of the BTB song if every line ended with "Callie".

The Hard Way

Evan is quite a fan of his learning Learning Tower, and he's become very adept at climbing into and out of it in creative ways:

Folding Clothes

It's always a challenge to find tasks you can perform while wrangling a baby, especially as that baby becomes more interactive and figures out how to use his hands. One chore Steph has found she can get done is folding clean laundry, which is a task we both seem to be pretty good at avoiding. You've just go to do it a certain way so that Alex stays entertained:

Bob the Bunny

Bob the Builder is Evan's new favorite show, and he's taken to singing the theme song at any occasion with a variety of lyrics. I'm sure he picked up that habit from us (Steph and I are prone to changing a line or two when we're singing around the house), but the bunny obsession is entirely Evan:

Happy Dwarf

Evan came across one of Alex's hats lying around today and thought he should try it on for a laugh (yes, he knew it would draw a laugh):

I think he looks like a dwarf from some '50s movie for some reason.

Long Train

Evan has been spending a fair amount of time recently building very long trains, of which he is quite proud:

Brother Feeding Brother

As soon as Evan saw there was something new going on with his brother he immediately wanted to be a part of it:

Somehow Evan feeding Alex wasn't any messier than anyone else feeding Alex. That's still pretty messy, though:

Solid Food

Maybe it's because he's a second kid, maybe because he seems so big for his age, or maybe because he chomps his gums whenever anyone eats anything around him, but we decided to try solid foods with Alex about a month earlier than we did with Evan. Of course we started with rice cereal, so "solid" food is being a bit generous:

These pictures are just from the very first meal. I'm pretty sure there will be more (pictures... I'm quite sure there will be more meals) in the future.