Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Evan can walk!!!!!

Evan has been on the verge of walking for awhile now, and with some coaxing on his birthday, he took one pseudo step. He's maybe done this once or twice since then, but has been mainly resolute to walk only when hanging on tightly to one of us. Whenever we gave him encouragement to stand or walk on his own, he would plop his bottom right down on the floor. As long as he could hold onto us, Evan wanted to walk endlessly, though, and so Mark and I have been walking with Evan hour after hour for the last month at least. The last week he has been especially interested in holding on with only one hand, and his sense of balance has definitely improved.

Yesterday I renewed my encouragement for him to stand on his feet, and he did so successfully for several seconds a few times. The main difference was that he actually liked doing this! Any other time I would encourage him he had no interest (bum on the floor).

Tonight, right before bed, Mark and I decided to see if we could get him to take another step. We sat about 3 feet apart, and I stood Evan up and encouraged him to walk to Daddy. He did (2 steps), and he loved it! Then he tried again, and was again successful. The next time round, he just kept going, doing 7 or 8 steps before being stopped by some furniture. We were amazed! This video was the 5th try, walking from Daddy to Mommy:




Evan just wanted to keep walking, and after 15 or 20 minutes, he was walking 9 or 10 feet, and he could stop in a standing position and gently bring himself to a sitting position without falling over.

We are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo proud! Hooray for Evan!!!!!!!!!!!

We put him to bed after that, and instead his usual bedtime routine of the normal high energy kicking followed by suddenly falling asleep, he was still and quiet, but did not fall asleep for a long time. We could tell he was thinking about what just happened, and processing what it meant.

Our lives just changed drastically...we can sense it...

Sunday, April 25, 2010

One year ago today...

On this day last year, I looked like this:


Funny thing is, I feel exactly the same way today (little boy teething, not taking a nap, resulting grumps, etc.)...

ps--Evan does not resemble his photo from a year ago at all (i.e. he's NOT sleeping)!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Bathtime image...

Imagine Evan in the bath, banging on his toy drums he got for his birthday, laughing at the motion of the water...

Imagine Evan standing up, hanging on to the edge of the tub...

Imagine Evan sitting down fast and being surprised by the splash he made...

Imagine Evan realizing he can get the same effect if he just squats fast...

Imagine Evan doing this again and again, slapping his bum against the water and laughing at the resulting explosion of water...

Can you hear the laughter of MKE?

You've come a long way, baby...

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Evan's birthday week...

We celebrated Evan's birthday over the course of many days. He opened some presents on Tuesday, and Grandma and Grandpa Baxter came over the weekend to help him celebrate even more. Here are a few snapshots of all the fun...
















And perhaps the best present of all was given by Aunt Ruth and Uncle Keaton on Thursday evening, April 1st. They gave Evan a cousin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome Soleil!! We can't wait to meet you!