Nap Time Disrupted

Today Evan crawled down the hall and into Maddeck's room. He climbed into Maddeck's bed while he was napping! Maddeck woke up and was not happy at all to have his little bro in his bed drooling on his blankets. One of Evan's favorite things right now is to climb into Maddeck's bed. Maybe it is time we move Maddeck to a larger and taller twin bed.

Speaking of climbing, Evan climbed on top of his BMW and stood on the seat today. He also climbed up and was standing in the shopping cart seat. No more riding in carts without buckles. The next store we went to I buckled him and he still managed to get on his knees in the seat. He is a busy, busy boy.

Steps

Evan took four steps last night. His Papa was holding the remote control in front of him and he finally took some steps to reach it. We'll see when he feels like doing it again. It was pretty cool that Papa, Mimi, Kyle, Elisa, and I all witnessed his first steps. He also did the sign for bird this morning. Auntie Sarah and Uncle Pete got Evan a little bird toy that tweets and he absolutely loves it. Everytime it tweets I do the sign for bird and now Ev is doing it.

Evan Update

Evan will be turning 1 year old on September 18th!! He is not walking but is certainly a speed crawler and he can stand unaided for 5 minutes. He just got his first top tooth yesterday. It seems like he has been teething forever and we are thankful to see a tooth after all the rough days he has had lately. It looks like his incisor on the left side is moving down as well, but hasn't broke through yet. He did the sign for 'milk' two days ago which is going to come in really handy with his communication. He consistently does the sign for 'finished' and 'up' and he waves all the time. He says "Da Da" and "Ma Ma" (Only mom when he is crying ... nice huh?). This morning he learned how to stack rings with one of his toys. I realized that Maddeck could stack rings before he turned one and pulled it for Evan and he can do it too! Kids learn what you teach them. It was a nice reminder for me that I need to be trying to teach Evan new things all the time.

Story Time with Maddeck

Maddeck is always asking us to tell him stories. We take turns making up stories. Here is one of Maddeck's stories that I recorded. His stories can be quite long. Believe it or not, this one is a little shorter then most.

Great 8!

We have been happily married for eight great years! We are blessed. We thank the Lord for each other and our great marriage. Here are some pics from our anniversary night at Lake Chelan.

Waterslides

Yesterday we spent the day at Slide Waters in Chelan. It was Maddeck and Evan's first time at the slides. It was a hot day, over 100 degrees, and perfect for taking the boys in the water. We met some friends there and it was so much fun. Maddeck went down the big slides all by himself. Maddeck's friend Caed has no fear and since he was going down alone it gave Maddeck the confidence to go as well. We just had to catch him at the bottom of the slide because he couldn't touch the bottom. I took Evan on the long slides several times and he seemed to like it. Evan didn't like the shorter slides for some reason. He liked sitting in the kiddy pool the best.

Here comes Maddeck!

Maddeck likes the simple frog slide too.

Kyle and Maddeck

Little Ev

All of us.

Maddeck, Evan, friend Caedmon, and me.

Swimming in the River

Coffee Cabin

We went to the Coffee Cabin for a short visit with my nieces this week. Maddeck calls it the "Coffee Cabinet". They have a room inside with a bunch of toys and books and a kid table and outside there is a playhouse and helicopter toy. It was so fun for the boys to see Ella and Romy.

Swim Lessons

Maddeck's favorite part of swim lessons is going down the frog slide at the end of his class.

Maddeck holds on to the side of the pool and bobs underwater while he waits for his turn.

Maddo and Caed hanging in the water after swim lessons.

Maddeck jumps in without help from his teacher. He couldn't do that last week and continues to improve. Below is a video of Maddeck heading out of the pool after his lesson. He doesn't like to get out and wants to keep practicing going under. He stayed in the water a few extra minutes after class today.

Colchuck Hike

Me with my friend Courtney who is visiting from Texas. Beautiful Lake Colchuck

Allison, Court, Jodi, and Me

Taking a rest by the creek.

Pretty rainbow on the way to the hike.

One of the bridges.

All of us.

Kyle watched the boys last Saturday and I went on a hike with some friends. It was my first hike since I was pregnant with Maddeck. It was so much fun.

Swim Lessons

(*Yes we do feed our son despite how skinny he looks with his rib cage protruding)

Maddeck and Caed played "heroes" and "bad guys" all morning. Caed wore a viking hat and rain boots and shot bad guys with his toy gun and skill saw. Maddeck wore a fireman hat with rain boots and shot bad guys with his squirt gun. Maddeck was SUPER excited to have his friend spend the night at our house!

We decided to put Maddeck in swim lessons after all. We are happy we did. He is showing a lot of improvement. We are starting his second week of lessons today. I will post some pictures if I can remember to actually take some pictures this week. His friend Caed is in the class and he is a good swimmer. I think Caed is an excellent motivator for Maddeck as he can see what he is capable of doing. He watches him and then tries to do some of the same things.

Evan & Maddeck

m-a-d-d-e-c-k

Maddeck and I have started doing "school" in the morning while Evan is napping. Today we worked on writing letters and drawing shapes. His favorite learning activity is his United States puzzle. He is learning the names of many of the states. His favorite state today is Oklahoma because it is a panhandle state. He also likes Nebraska because it looks like it has a tiny little panhandle. He doesn't like writing his letters, but he is working on his name. Maddeck can write m-a-d-d all by himself. The e-c-k is more difficult and he needs a little help. Once he learns how to write his name I think he will start to enjoy writing more.

Well Baby

Evan is healthy and wonderful. His doctor appointment was today and everything went well ... especially because he didn't need shots at this appointment. Yippee! He is almost 22 pounds and 29 inches tall. He falls in the 50-75 percentile in all the measurements. We are so blessed to have a healthy young boy. All praise to our Lord.

New Sign

Evan signs to get up from his high chair and when he is finished eating. For 'up' he puts both fists above his head. For 'finished' he swings his arms out and side to side. Not sure anyone but us understand his signs because they are still pretty sloppy, but he is certainly communicating, which is fun to see.