Healthy and happy!

Evan had his 1-year check-up with his pediatrician on Friday. He's doing great! He weighs 24 pounds, 1 ounce (70th percentile) and is 30 inches long (50th percentile). He had to get some more vaccinations, this time in the arm. Poor fellow! The chicken pox vaccine stung a lot and he wailed so loudly. Even Mommy teared up! But he's recovered and is back to being his happy and giggly self again!

He now has 7 teeth! One more top one came in on January 23. And the doctor said more are on their way!

We're still moving our stuff into the new townhouse. Gosh, we have a lot! Here is what Evan got for his birthday that fits well in the new kitchen...

Evan played with this table full of blocks when he was at Grandpa and Nana's house in Michigan. He loved it! We thought it would be a great idea to have it in our new kitchen. Evan keeps busy by throwing all the blocks on the ground. He is in a demolition stage right now!
Another fun thing Evan likes to do is open and shut doors (that aren't clasped shut). We'll see him wander into the bathroom, bedroom, or closet and soon enough, the door slowly closes behind him. It's hilarous! He laughs a lot when we "chase" him and find him hiding behind a door.

Memory lane...since our baby boy is 1 year old now, I thought it would be fun to see how much he's changed over the past year. This photo was taken just after he was born on January 22, 2007. Such a sweet face...

Here'e one taken on January 25, 2007. Check out how little he is...

Evan's changed a lot in the past year. Don't you think?!

Happy 1st Birthday, Evan!

It's been one whole year since the day Evan changed our lives forever. He's a wonderful child and Mommy and Daddy are thrilled he is here. Evan is such a blast!

His first birthday was pretty good. Mommy and Daddy had to work, so Evan spent the day with his friends at daycare. When Daddy picked him up after work, Rupa, Evan's caregiver, told Jason to go to the basement, where the kids play. Turns out there was a surprise birthday party for Evan! Complete with hats, cake, and balloons!! Evan had some chocolate cake with white frosting. Yum!

Then, Evan came home to a family room full of gifts, literally! He opened the first gift and was quite content and happy with it. Turns out he had a lot more to open, so it took a while! I know this slow opening won't last long!

He proceeded to climb on this box to get his gift out!

Then came the cake! Mommy & Daddy both decorated these cakes for Evan. We put a slice in front of him and he didn't know what to do with it. Mommy tried to smash his hand into it and he got upset. Well, turns out he wanted a spoon! When we gave him a spoon, he smashed it! We taught him well...

Yummmmm!!

I think he liked it...what do you think?!Now he's officially a toddler. What will this year bring us? Lots of laughter and great memories, that's for sure!

Moppin', moppin', moppin'

Wow! I forgot that having a larger place would require SOOOO much extra cleaning! Jason and I just spent over an hour on our hands and knees scrubbing our kitchen floor. We're a great team together, as he'd scrub with a brush, and I would go behind him with a sponge. The floor looks great but our muscles will pay for it tomorrow! Here is a sneak peak at the kitchen. The room extends twice the size as what you see here. We have plenty of space for Evan's high chair, a breakfast nook, kitchen cart, and Evan's new birthday present (shhhh...don't tell him...he doesn't know what he's getting!). While we're at the new place cleaning and unloading boxes, Evan's been a dream! We try to coordinate our trips with his naps, so he just sleeps while we work. So far it's working. He's such a great child!

New digs and new teeth

We started moving boxes into our new townhome on Friday. Phew! We're exhausted already and have so much more to do! Our muscles are calling for a nice warm bubble bath in our new jacuzzi tub. Getting a townhome means getting 2 flights of stairs for Evan to climb. He LOVES stairs! He's climbed up the stairs multiple times already. Needless to say, Mommy and Daddy bought some baby gates last night. Here's a quick glimpse of the main level to the townhome (kitchen, dining room, living room)... The basement/family room. There is a ton of space for Evan to run around! Yah!Evan's gotten tooth #6!! His bottom right tooth broke through yesterday. No wonder he's drooling so much! It looks like 2 more teeth are ready to cut as well. We'll be up to 8 teeth in no time.

Wish us luck in moving more this week. If you don't have our new address, please email me and I'll forward it along.

Blue-eyed boy

OK. I'm inadvertenly learning from my friend, Betsy's, blog. She just started her own photography business and after reading her blog entries, I've learned that taking a picture in natural light is best. This past weekend, I tried to take advantage of our huge sliding glass door in our soon-to-be former apartment and captured wonderful pictures of my blue-eyed boy. This is genuine color...

Don't you just want to squeeze Evan and bombard him with kisses all over his face?! I certainly do!

Nothing too exciting is going on in the Mears household. My work is insanely busy, which is good, but I'm absolutely exhausted. 9+ hour days are becoming common this week. Ugh! We take possession of our new townhome on Thursday. So my tired evenings are dedicated to packing up our apartment. At least it's a local move. Evan has no clue what's going on. I try to pack when he's in bed, as he wants to play with me on his level in the evenings. He really is a great child!

Santa brought him a huge MegaBloks fire truck filled with blocks. Oops! It looks like the fire truck got in an accident! Evan put the truck in this position. It was quite funny to watch him play with it like this...

Curly locks...still growing. Evan will get a haircut after his first birthday next week. It's an old superstition that we're abiding by. Until then, enjoy the curly locks!

Evan's Awesome Cousins

When we were back in Indiana and Michigan for Christmas, Evan got to play with all 7 of his cousins. He has the best cousins anyone could ever ask for! Everyone just picked up and played together like they see each other every day. Evan had a blast! Multiple times he was walking around and around the house, just squealing and giggling, and then you would see a cousin or two chasing him. It was an amusing sight!

Here are Evan and Arianna (who is 1 month older than Evan) playing together on Christmas Eve...Olivia had a great time hanging out with Evan...

Shhh...don't tell anyone the secret I'm sharing with you, Zach...Nadiya, Uncle Jim, and Clayton decorated a gingerbread house...

Nadiya, Evan, and Isaac were exhausted from playing and running around so much. They crashed!Awww, aren't Evan and Connor sweet?!

Look who became Princess Nadiya at Libby Lu on New Years Eve...Evan sure loved hanging out with his fun cousins. He cannot wait to see you soon!

Kissy, kissy

Lots of photos today...enjoy!

By request, we've been teaching Evan to "kiss". Mommy and Daddy will pucker up and open our arms, and Evan will come bounding in for a smooch! It's adorable! He's getting quite good at it. Although, sometimes he leans in with his tongue out...gotta work on that one! So Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins...watch out! Evan's coming to get you!Evan's been an Energizer bunny lately. He's been staying up late (a week's vacation with no schedule will do that to you) and walking around all over the family room. He'll just walk in circles and circles and circles until he plops down. All the while he's laughing and squealing. How adorable are babies?!There are those rare calm and quiet times. Evan and Daddy enjoy a moment...Bath time! Evan really likes his baths. He'll splash a ton when we put him in the tub. He will graduate to the "big boy tub" when we move into our new home in a few weeks. I can only imagine the fun we'll have then! Goof-monster...enough said!No really, Mommy was helping Evan do rolls and somersaults today. He was having a ball!I still need to post pictures from the holidays. Maybe I'll have time over the weekend. Stay tuned!

Tooth #5

Evan's fifth tooth has decided to arrive in his mouth! His upper right tooth neighboring his two front teeth cut through yesterday. The twin tooth on the left side has definitely moved down as well, and we're sure it'll cut soon too. Such an eventful 2008 and it's only the 7th day of the year!

Feliz Seis de Enero!

Happy Seis de Enero (or the 6th of January) to everyone! Today is the Epiphany, the day the 3 wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus. This is the 12th day of Christmas, marking the end of the holiday. Jason and I always celebrate our Christmas on this day, as we are back settled in our home. This year was no exception. Christmas is so much fun with a child! We woke up this morning and had coffee and cocoa. Unfortunately, we didn't have any holiday cookies left around...something we'll remember next year!

Everyone (Daddy, Mommy, Evan, and Daisy) all opened their stockings from Santa first. Evan got some cool stuff...a book, Cheerios, snack-trap containers, and some mini cars... Daisy was really excited to open her gifts as well...Evan got a ball popper toy which uses forced air to pop these balls up and if they stay in the toy, they'll roll back down and pop back up again. He has a lot of fun with it and quickly learned how to push the red button to cause it to start. Santa also gave Evan a huge fire truck filled with blocks!We have a musical clock that opens and sings Christmas songs (or regular songs when it is not the holiday season). Evan loves the clock and will stop everything he's doing to stare at it. Here he is "ooooohing" at it...Merry Christmas everyone!