Fun nights with the E-monster

Some nights when Evan is getting ready for bed, he gets this amazing energy and doesn't act tired. He'll be running all around his room and the upstairs doing anything but getting sleepy. One thing he loves to do is play with his little Nerf basketball set. Someone has to lift him up to reach the basket...

Lining up the shot...

Shooting...

Scores...

Evan will also run into the computer room and want to watch Elmo. Here he is watching Elmo and Grover...

Oscar 1999-2008

Jason and I just had an impromptu funeral for one of the members of our family. Oscar, our flying fox fish (example image above), passed away this past evening. He had been acting a bit strange the past few weeks, so we were aware that this might happen soon. Oscar had a long life in the Mears family. He endured the move from Birmingham to Atlanta to DC and has been in our family since 1999. Rest in peace.

Awesome Daddy!

Mommy's birthday was yesterday and my Daddy is awesome! We slept in a tiny bit and he cooked a yummy large breakfast for her. We relaxed and then went to the pool to swim around. I was initially afraid of the kiddie pool but eventually warmed up to it with the help of a beach ball and noonoo (aka "noodle"). A little girl jumped in with us, was throwing the ball around, and playing with the noonoo. It was fun! That's why I look so tired in the picture above.

Then my daddy cooked a huge and fabulous dinner for Mommy and also baked and decorated a cake! He did a great job making her feel special on her birthday. She really enjoyed it. Here's a sticker that I gave my Mommy in her card. Do you like it?!

Love, Evan

Black Hill Regional Park

Today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to a nearby county park, Black Hill. It was nice. There is a large lake in the middle of the park that you can rent rowboats, take pontoon boat tours, and go fishing as well. Around the lake are a lot of trails and pavilions that people can rent out for parties and get-togethers. We decided to get back to our pre-baby activities and go hiking again, with Evan and Daisy of course.

Evan did great! We started out on a paved trail and he was trekking up the hill like a pro. He was panting and "running" up it! People that we passed along the way were giggling at Evan and how much fun he was having. He really enjoyed picking up leaves and rocks...We also stopped plenty of times to drink some water.

Evan made sure to stop often and take in his surroundings...

Doing a great job hiking...After a while, the paved trail turned into a dirt trail, and eventually some rocky terrain as well. During some of the hiking, Evan hitched a ride with Daddy...Note Evan's wide-opened mouth...he does that a lot now and it's so funny. It's his version of being surprised!

Daddy and son...

Daisy saw a trail to the lake and was extra eager to jump in...

Mommy giving Evan a lift...Tuckered out Evan...

"Where did ddiosuo sogish go?" (aka Evan slang for, "where did he go?")

Baby blues...

Ahhh, I love the color of Evan's eyes...He's absolutely adorable, don't you think?

Let's see what's new with Evan...his vocabulary is growing every day. He likes to say "umbrella" and "button" (for belly button - oh and he'll try to look at your belly button too by lifting up your shirt - true! Ask Alyssa!).

He has another tooth coming in. Evan's top right canine is breaking through. The others are soon on their way.

This child loves to make us laugh. Here he is being goofy...
Cutie pie Daisy... She's such a good sport with Evan. They like to chase each other in circles. It's really funny to watch.

Ha! Doesn't this look like he's getting caught doing something wrong?

"Melmo"

Not too much has been going on in the Mears household lately. We're enjoying the Olympics, especially the swimming events. That men's relay race was awesome! Evan's doing well. He seems to be getting into literally EVERYTHING now!

He knows where the spoons and forks come from, so he always opens the drawer and says, "poon?". His latest craze is Elmo, or "Melmo" as Evan calls him. He loves Elmo very much! We have a couple of Sesame Street CDs and Evan can always pick out Elmo when he's singing. It's cute! Evan also loves to dance to his Elmo radio. He'll put it on the kitchen table, hit the start button, and twirl around and around, dancing! We got it on video last night, so we'll post it soon on here.

Some of Evan's other fun times include taking all of his stuffed animals out of his red wagon and climbing in himself. He'll then pick up every animal off the ground as Mommy or Daddy pushes him back and forth. They always say the next generation is always more technically savvy than the previous...here's proof! Evan loves playing with the computer mouse. Sometimes we put Sesame Street's or Thomas the Train's website up so Evan can click on fun things. At the end of the day, he's usually exhausted. Ahhh, another sweet, sleepy picture of Evan. Good-night!

Happy, healthy, and wise

Evan had his 18-month check up yesterday and is doing great! He weighs 27 pounds (65th percentile) and is 33.5 inches long (80th percentile). He was the same percentiles for his 12-month, so he's growing proportionally. All of the check-points the doctor asked Evan has been doing for a while now. It seems like he knows more words than expected. His doctor was suprised to hear how many words Evan knows...he had even counted, "two, three" earlier that morning. So he's doing great!

Evan's got 12 teeth in total now. Four top front teeth, four bottom front teeth, and 4 molars (2 on top and 2 on bottom). His cuspids are starting to come through as well. Using all of those teeth, some of Evan's favorite foods are pizza, chicken fingers, pudding, grapes, and blueberries.

He's always into something...his favorite body part on himself (and others) is the belly button. He'll go up to most anyone and lift up their shirt to find the "button". It's really cute. He's also a social butterfly. When out to dinner or at the grocery, he'll always be the friendly one and smile and wave to a lot of people. He always brings a smile to everyone's face.

As the night draws on, here's an adorable picture I got a few nights ago when Evan was deep in sleep...Night, night!