Bravery at the Playground

After two weeks of a deep freeze, the North Carolina weather decided to give us a few days of spring.  So, before winter returns Evan and I decided to spend as much time as we could outside.  On Monday, we headed over to a local park to enjoy the great outdoors and spend some time with our friends. 

As Evan watched his friend Carson on the swings, he decided that it was the day to be brave.  Up until that point, Evan had just said no to all swings except his baby swing where he napped.  He was always curious about them and would walk up just close enough to get bonked in the nose, but every time I tried to set him up in the swing his body would go rigid and he would scream.  So, needless to say, we did not play on the swings at playgrounds before Monday.

On Monday, like I said, Evan decided to be brave, or he just had a change of heart.  When he saw Carson on the swings he gestured to get up in the swing.  When I put him up there, I expected to hear him scream again, but he didn't.  I pushed him and he actually began to have a good time!  I was amazed.  Since then, he's asked to get back in the swings several times, and it's even been hard to get him off of them sometimes. 

I think this bravery is beginning to extend to other parts of his life, he has also suddenly been going down slides on his own as well.  Who knows what he will do next!

(My happy boy on the swing!)

(More evidence of his bravery, this time with puddles...also evidence that you should never wear white to a park!)

Cooking with Evan

We have discovered that Evan is destined to be a master chef!  How do we know, you might ask?  First, he pulls our cookbooks out of our shelves and flips through them saying "cook".  The cookbook on the edge of our bookshelf is "Mesa Grill" with a big picture of Bobby Flay on the cover.  Evan is always passing by that one and saying "Bobby".

If that weren't proof enough, recently he's been wanting to cook with Ian and I.  We pull up a chair and he whisks the eggs, "chops" the vegetables, or "grates" the cheese.  When we're in the kitchen, he has to be a part of it.  It's been a lot of fun. 

Yesterday, Evan and I had a morning at home, so we decided to head into the kitchen again.  This time, we were experimenting with orange Jello boats.  Experimental cooking is always the most fun.  First, we squeezed the oranges which he happily did.  Then, he was able to drink some fresh squeezed orange juice while I cleaned the rest of the pulp out of the oranges.  Next, he helped put some mandarin orange slices in the the orange shells, stirred the jello as it dissolved, and supervised as I poured the Jello into the orange bowls.

That night, at dinner time, we cut the set Jello oranges in half and Evan added the little toothpick flags with wax paper.  He thought they were beautiful and delicious.  I can't wait for more experimental cooking with my little boy!

The Steps in the Orange Jello Boat Preparation:

1.  Squeezing the oranges

2.  Adding the mandarin oranges

 

3. Admiring the finished product

4.  Enjoying the fruits of our labor

Next Stop, Mt. Everest

Ian and I had a bit of housework to do this weekend, so we pulled the ladder upstairs.  First, we had to reattach some of Evan's glow-in-the-dark stars to the ceiling in his bedroom.  The minute he saw the ladder he started saying "ladder" and "climb", uh-oh.  Ian climbed up and reattached a few while I entertained Evan and all was going well.  The lesson that we learned that day...never turn around while Evan is near a ladder, or for that matter anything that he could climb.  We turned our head for a second, turned back around and this is what we saw... 

We're thinking he's going to be a great mountain climber someday, but for now, I think he'll stick to furniture.  I'm a little nervous about where our little monkey is going to end up next!

Playdate Carnage

There was a time when Evan's playgroup would get together and all of the moms would say, "I can't wait until the kids are older and more independent so we can just watch them play and sit and relax.  Well, now, our little guys are definitely older and more independent, but play dates certainly haven't become less work for the mommies.

As our little boys run around the house exploring, mommies are following close behind with comments such as:

"No, you shouldn't pour goldfish in the dogs toys."

"Don't jump off the couch!"

"Don't give those raisins to the dog!"

"Thank you for spitting that grilled cheese in my hand."

"How'd you turn that TV on?"

"Please share!"

"Stop crying there is more than one ball!"

"How did he get up there?"

I'm sure there are many more quotes, but I know that those all came out of our mouth to some degree at our play date today.  Two of Evan's good friends, Quinn and Nathaniel, came over as well as their moms and Quinn's little brother Jonas.  Although the boys are definitely full of energy, a good time was certainly had by all as boys explored all the toys and moms enjoyed some good conversation and yummy treats. 

One of the unfortunate side effects of our older, more independent toddlers is the carnage they leave behind.  They truly haven't learned to clean up after themselves, so they leave a trail of toys and general chaos in their wake.  It definitely takes a bit of tidying and I was thankful for the help of the other moms at the end of the day.

Evan and I are so grateful for all of our mommy and toddler friends.  The kids will keep playing, learning, and exploring, and the mommies will keep wondering if they will ever be able to actually sit down at a play date again!  Does anyone have an answer?

Here are some pictures of the chaos left behind:

He's Growing Up

My little boy is getting so big!  Two days ago, Evan got up from his nap, looked at me and said "pee".  Since he had gotten his potty for Christmas I decided we'd head into the bathroom just for kicks.  So, we went in there, stripped off Evan's diaper, and I sat him down on the potty.

He sat on there for a few minutes, made some faces, then I looked, and sure enough he had peed in the potty!  I was so proud, and shocked!  We had just gotten the potty for him as something for him to play with and get used to for a while.  We didn't think he was ready for it yet.

It's been two days since then and he's used the potty successfully about six times since then!  We'll head in there when he gets home or wakes up and he sits right down and goes.  I think he just goes right now because he wants to flush it down the big toilet, but that's fine with us, whatever works!

So, now, I'm a bit unsure where to go from here.  We're so proud of our big boy, but we don't want to push anything on him while he's too young.  On the other hand, I've heard they go through phases where they show interest, so we want to make sure we capitalize on this chance while we have it.  I don't think we're nearly ready to give up diapers, but we'll see how he does, you never know!

It was definitely one of those moments where a parent is taken aback by how grown up their child has gotten.  Before you know it he will be going off to college!

20 Cent Sour Cream? I'm hooked!

So, in the new year one of my goals was to save our family a little money.  I have heard that some people were able to save a lot of money with coupons, so I thought I would try it.  I bought a Sunday paper and printed some coupons off the internet to see what would happen. 

Then, I realized that my grocery store had double coupons, so I took one of my coupons that I printed off the internet, took it to the store, and bought some sour cream that we needed.  The sour cream that should have cost $1.39 was 20 cents!  I was hooked. 

It felt almost like gambling as I walked out of the store with the sour cream as my prize.  Since then, I've been trying to search out more coupons to see if I could be like one of those ladies you see on TV that turns a $200 grocery bill into a quarter or something.  Wish me luck, HA!

So, if anyone knows of any good ways to save money or any places to find coupons, let me know!  I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

Here's a picture of the prized sour cream!

The Nature Museum

While we were in Charlotte we decided to have a little adventure the day after Christmas.  So, all of us headed to the Nature Museum for a little fun and exploration.  It was a great place to go because Ian and Reid had gone there when they were kids.

(Exploring the Nature Museum)

Turns out, it was still a fantastic place to explore!  They had animals to watch, including baby chicks and owls.  There was a butterfly room where Evan got to watch butterflies flying around up close.  There were also plenty of rooms where Evan could get his hands dirty and explore things himself.  He loved the stream of water and the earthworm room where he could crawl through tunnels like a little worm.  Turns out it's a bit trickier for Gram and Daddy to squeeze through! 

(Look!  Butterflies!)

(Definitely the cutest bug)

(Another bug...I think he's watching us!)

(A river runs through it...and Evan's hand dips in it.)

Evan's favorite part of the museum, however, was the puppet show.  We were a bit wary because we didn't know if he could sit still through a show.  He was a bit squirmy at first, but then, he settled in and was entranced.  The story was about a bear who decided to wake up for Christmas one year.  He loved watching the puppets, lights, and sounds.  I will definitely have to find more puppet shows to go to in Durham.

We had a great day!  It was really fun to be able to head to a museum with the family for once.  Hopefully, there will be another adventure very soon!