2 Year Old Pictures

I took Evan last week to get his 2 year old pictures taken. They turned out so great I could not choose which one I wanted. So, of course, I ordered 4. Then I got the CD for free, which is perfect! 

Some things about Evan as a 2 year old:

Favorite Foods: broccoli, avocado, pasta with butter and parm, waffles with syrup and butter, yogurt smoothies, blueberries, bananas, hot dogs, black beans, yogurt, milk with a drop of chocolate, grilled cheese, chicken and ranking #1 is KETCHUP.

Words: He speaks in full sentences now, it's awesome. It still amazes me the things that come out of his mouth, like "No way Jose". I know exactly what he wants (for good and bad)

Personality: He is so full of life and has a great spirit. He is very very opinionated and independent. He must do everything on his own-from preparing his morning waffle from putting it into the toaster, putting all the fixings on it and cutting it. He must chose what he wears (he prefers his Horsey shirts (polo) or ones with footballs and baseballs on it. He could be the happiest kid I know, most of the time. Being so strong spirited, there are some tantrums when things don't go his way, but for the most part, he can be reasoned with, it's really nice! He is such a creature of habit, he must do things the exact same way every time (like having a waffle for breakfast EVERY morning), to climbing in the car seat himself, to wanting to watch the same thing on TV every day (Sesame Street & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the movie Peter Pan)

Favorite Toys: Thomas, geotrax train, 7 dwarfs, diner, tool bench, basketball, baseball, soccer, cars

Skills: He is great at catching the ball and hitting it with a bat or golf club and kicking a soccer ball. I'm amazed by how good he is at these games. He loves to play his matching game (Brown Bear, Polar Bear). He can count to 15, knows his ABCs (memorized the song), knows his colors. We are working on our shapes and identifying his letters. 

Grandma & Baba's Visit

So, they came the day after Christmas, it's still been less than a month, right? That's "news"! We had a wonderful time with my parents when they came to celebrate Christmas & New Year's with us. We went to Sea World, celebrated Christmas #4, saw it "snow" in Celebration, went to the ICE thing at the Gaylord Palms, had lots of park time and finally finished some things around the house. Hopefully we'll get to see them again soon!

Slacking

I've been slacking on this lately, sorry. Obviously being better at my blog was not on my New Year's Resolution List. My resolution was actually to stress less (HA!!), so less blogging time is inevitable. I've got more important things to concentrate on, like Evan and Joe. But I hope to keep up with this, maybe not as regularly though. But if I lose my job, I could go crazy with it. We'll see where 2009 takes me.....

Christmas Day

We celebrated Christmas morning on the 26th, since we flew home on the 25th. Thankfully Evan has no concept of time, so he didn't know we did it a day late. He had a wonderful time and was so excited to come downstairs and see all of his presents. He loved opening all of his gifts and mine and Joe's as well. I'm not even sure I could saw which presents he loved the most, he loved them all. Of the ones he got on this Christmas day celebration, I think he liked the tool bench, diner, seven dwarfs and mailbox the best. He loves baby Jesus' birthday as much as he loves his own. He keeps asking if it's still baby Jesus' birthday. Sorry buddy, no more presents for 11 1/2 more months...Christmas morning was just how I always imagined it being with him. Magical, exciting, relaxing and full of joy.

Cousin Bonding

Evan got to hang out with Griffin and Connor a lot while we were in MD. These are a few of my favorite pictures of him with them. As you can see, we tried visiting Santa for the third time this year. Third time was the charm, since Evan did not have to sit on Santa's lap!

Christmas #1

We celebrated Christmas with the Hogan family (Joe's mom's side) the Saturday before Christmas at Kevin & Kate's house. It's always so much fun getting together with all of them, they are such a close family and love to have a good time. This day began the Christmas marathon that would continue for one week. It was fantastic since I am always so bummed Christmas night because it's all over. It wasn't this year, not even close. But the time we were finished celebrating (on Dec. 27), I was ready for it to be over. It was a perfect celebration!

Hanging with old friends in MD

While we were in MD over Christmas, we got to see our good friends we met when the kids were just babies. It's so nice that we are always able to see them when we go back. The group is expanding as two of my friends have had their second babies and the third has another one on the way. It was great getting the kids together and seeing how much they've all grown up. 

Evan's Actual Birthday

I remember when I found out I was pregnant with Evan. In addition to being very surprised and excited, I was so sad for my baby that his/her birthday would be so close to Christmas. So concerned that I begged my doctor to induce on my due date so that s/he would not be born on Christmas day. I'm convinced he would have stayed in that long (imagine how giant he would have been, since he weighed over 10lbs at birth). Well anyway, I would say it is safe to say, that although it is insane the amount of presents he received from everyone (thank you all, you were all WAY TOO GENEROUS and Evan is very very spoiled), he's doing okay with his birthday so close. December seemed to be Evan's birthday month.  He LOVED his birthday this year, most especially eating cake and opening his presents. He loved ripping the paper and seeing what was inside, and then he was onto the next one. The cutest thing of all was on his actual birthday, he didn't realize it was still his birthday, he had moved onto Christmas. He kept saying it was  "Happy Birthday Jesus". So, Bryan taught him a song and dance (more like throwing in the air) that taught him that it was his birthday.  Once it was actually Christmas time, not Evan-time, Evan would sing happy birthday to baby Jesus and ask where His cake was. I think from now on, we have to make a birthday cake for baby Jesus.

We spent Evan's actual birthday with Aunt Laura & Uncle Bryan in Arlington, VA. Bryan & I took Evan to Red Robin for lunch where he had a grilled cheese and french fries topped off by a chocolate sundae delivered by the singing wait staff. He had a blast, as did Bryan and I. Later that day, we had a celebration at B&L's home and Laura baked him a cake. They gave him a Thomas take along train set and he played with it quietly in another room for 30 minutes while we ate dinner. This was the FIRST time he has ever played like that and let me eat a meal. It was fantastic!! The only missing piece was Joe, he had to be in WV, but he joined us the next day for birthday party #3 at Nani's.

Evan's Birthday continued

Okay, I know it was well over 3 weeks ago, but I have some more pictures from Evan's 2nd birthday party. I just love them. Sorry for the slacking in the blogging, the past month has flown by. We had so many guests stay with us from before Thanksgiving until we left for Maryland on Dec. 17. We returned home on Christmas day and then my parents came the next day. Needless to say, not much time for the computer and blogging. But we had a blast. Where does one even begin with the catching up?? I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. We sure did!