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: