Spring?

Today we FINALLY had decent weather (it actually hit 71 degrees according to my phone).  Considering that when I drove home from work on Monday night it was snowing heavily, I would call this a win.  Hopefully we are finally done with winter!  I shouldn't have to put on snowpants in April...

Since the weather was beautiful it seemed like a good day to get out of the house and spend some time at the park.

Here are a couple of pictures I got with my phone (thus the less than amazing quality) and some video of Madelyn on a big girl swing and Evan trying out the baby swing.

Tonight, after Evan was in bed and Madelyn and I were hanging out in her room talking I asked her what her favorite part of the day was (fully expecting that she would say being outside or going to the park) but she said "When we cleaned up my playroom together mom - that was teamwork."  That is a good reminder for me not to underestimate the value of simply doing things together.

Madelyn and Evan's Wedding Debut

Last weekend Madelyn and Evan were in a wedding.  Madelyn was the flower girl and Evan was the ring bearer.  Madelyn pulled Evan down the aisle in a wagon (sucessfully!).  Here are a couple of pictures and a video of the day :)

Pictures!

5 Months Already

Today Evan is 5 months old.  Part of me can't believe that these last 5 months have gone by so quickly, and the other part of me can't really remember what life was like before Evan was a part of our lives.

Evan is continuing to be a very social baby.  He loves interaction with anyone who will pay attention to him, although he is an especially big fan of his big sister.  He is also a little chatterbox.  He is pretty much constantly making some kind of noise unless he is sleeping, and he usually does it at a high volume.  Sometimes it is hard to hear whatever else is going on over Evan's "conversation."

Although we are continuing to see signs of discomfort and teeth below the gums, so far nothing has come through.  Evan's current favorite thing to chew on is my chin, although I do keep trying to get him interested in teething toys instead.  I tried freezing a couple of the teething rings, but he was not a fan of them being cold so we are back to giving them to him at room temperature.  The teething seems to have disrupted his ability to sleep at night, so we seem to only be making backwards progress and not heading in the direction of sleeping through the night at this point in time.

Although he is not always great about sleeping the night through or going to bed, Evan is great about taking naps.  As long as he is swaddled he is pretty happy to take naps during the day.  He is usually taking a morning nap for about 45 minutes, an early afternoon nap for an hour or two, and a late afternoon nap for about 45 minutes.  He is much happier when he is getting his naps in, and it is nice to have some time to spend just with Madelyn as well.

Evan has continued to like being in his bouncy seat, and we are just starting to give him time in the excersaucer and a jumper may not be far down the road.  He strongly prefers to be in a standing position to sitting, so he is not making a lot of progress on sitting up on his own.  He just pushes his legs to try and get to a standing position when I try to sit him up.

The next big change we are anticipating for him is to start him on foods in the next couple of weeks...it should be interesting!

The things she says

Madelyn often surprises me with the things she comes up with.  Here are a couple recent ones that have been memorable.

We were at a Babies R Us when Madelyn suddenly had to use the bathroom...I guess it is pretty sudden when you are not quite 3.  Sometimes she tends to be a little squirrelly when on an adult size toilet so I cautioned her to be careful and sit still.  She looked at me and said that she agreed she needed to be careful because otherwise someone might come in and flush her down the toilet.  (I did clarify with her that no one would flush her down the toilet and my concerns were more along the lines of her falling and getting her clothes wet.)

Last week when we were having dinner out with my parents Madelyn was observing to my dad that Evan was looking around a lot at things.  She said "his head goes around and around...like the earth goes around the sun..."  Although not a perfect comparison I was nonetheless impressed by her use of simile.

Last year Madelyn was pretty distressed during the fireworks on the 4th of July and so at the time we assured her that fireworks would not come again until after Daddy's birthday (which is the 3rd).  Today we were talking about her birthday since it is coming up and she wanted to know whose birthday would be next.  I let her know that Daddy's birthday would be next and she immediately got upset and said "I don't like fireworks!"  Evidently we need to make sure we only tell her things we want her to remember...

Four Month Update

On February 5th Evan was 4 months old!

Our laptop is on the fritz so I can't currently get to my photos to upload and although I love my iPad, writing a blog post on it is more challenging so I am going to keep this short :)

Evan's stats:
Length: 25 1/2 inches (70th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs 10oz (20th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16 inches (20th percentile)

Evan has become a very social baby, cooing and vocalizing most of his awake time, and smiling whenever he is interacted with,  He has continued to be a very happy baby and loves to watch his sister in whatever she is doing.  Evan is becoming more sturdy every day and if given his choice prefers to be standing with some stabilization.  He has also started rolling over so tummy time doesn't happen very often any more since he just rolls over :). So far he hasn't rolled from back to front, but it is probably on the horizon.  He really likes his bouncy seat, but is not all that interested in the playmat or swing which is a big contrast from Madelyn at this age.  He is also starting to show signs on teething and has some telltale white bumps below the surface of his gums.  Consequently he is putting everything he can get into his mouth, a tedtament to his improved hand/eye coordination.  He likes toys, particularly rattles and teething toys.  He frequently laughs when he is being interacted with...sometimes Madelyn asks why he is laughing at her sice she doesn't necessarily think it is a laughing situation.

The only hiccup we have had is that Evan currently has a mild case of RSV, but he has not had breathing trouble and we are hoping he will be on the mend soon.  He definitely shows a dislike for the nasal saline when I squirt it up his nose :(

All in all it has been a lot of fun to see him grow and change these last few months!

Making Up Songs

Madelyn has been making up a lot of songs lately...this song from Christmas was a big hit :)


Singing about a vital piece of clothing