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...our new computer! Oh i'm so happy. Right now, I am typing on a keyboard that has all of it's keys. Crazy, I know. We were a little worried about getting a new computer, with Evan's grabby little fingers around, but our setup seems to be safe and mildly Evan-proof so we are quite pleased with ourselves.

More importantly, a lot has been going on around here! First, we had Evan's 2nd birthday, during which great fun was had by all. We had some friends over, and Evan had some friends over, and we ate lots of cake.

mmm. Hot dogs and strawberries. Best birthday ever!

When we asked Evan what his favorite part of the day was, he said blowing out the candles (more or less).

Mike got him a little tool set, which he has been playing with non-stop since he got it. He especially likes to "fix" all his tractors and trucks, and he even knows which tool is which! Daddy's little helper. He is pretty much over the moon with all his new birthday toys.

Also, my girlfriend Jeanine came to visit and we had a blast. We got fabulous haircuts and spent a lot of time shopping, so it was a good trip. We (and Evan) spent a wonderful day at the beach, and the water was warm enough to swim in--Evan loved jumping in the waves and he made a bunch of friends there. I think we're getting spoiled with this warm beach business.

In other news...we're going to have another baby! It's due February 24, and Evan says he wants a baby sister. I don't think he knows what that means though, because when we ask him if he wants a girl or a boy he says "boy". We will be happy with whatever we have, but we are definitely excited to find out--we have an ultrasound scheduled for September 25. I'm feeling like myself again (although slightly larger), and things are good in the Smith Household!

Potty time?

The other day, this innocent looking little boy took off his diaper and pooped on the floor. It was pretty funny, mostly because it wasn't messy, but I think it's time to work on this potty training business. He refuses to sit on the potty most of the time, but yesterday I let him run around diaper-less in the backyard until he peed on himself. He seemed pretty concerned about it and was all about sitting on the potty--for a little bit. I don't see this going well, but I figure if he knows when he has to go, it's worth a try, right? Wish us luck.

Hello!

So, I haven't posted for a while. I know. Two reasons: we've been keeping busy (which is good) and I haven't been taking pictures (which is unfortunate, but goes hand-in-hand with keeping busy). Two things I have taken pictures of recently though, are the things that have been taking up all my free time (a.k.a., when Evan's sleeping).

This is Evan's quilt that I just finished. It's supposed to be twin size, but I think it's probably full--it's huge! This is my first quilt, and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I used Heather Ross' Mendocino, Lizzy House's Red Letter Day, Kona Cotton backing, and Warm & Natural batting. The Kona Cotton is a pretty heavy weight, and with the size of the quilt, it is heavy! I figured out how to use the free-motion foot on my sewing machine and quilted it myself, which was physically exhausting. I don't think i'll be making a quilt this big again any time soon--but I'm so glad I did. Also, since Mike insists on having the AC on full blast and is always hot--and i'm always cold--it has made a good addition to our couch and i've already gotten some use out of it.

This is my February Lady Sweater (not my name, just the name of the pattern) which I knit on size 8 needles with 5 (i think?) hanks of Cascade 220 wool. I had a hard time getting a good picture, and I haven't gotten a picture of me actually wearing it, but thats all that was really hard about the sweater--i loved knitting it. I've even gotten a chance to wear it (in July! Crazy!) and I couldn't have been more pleased. I knit every day, but I've mostly been knitting small things like socks and scarves, etc., so I don't talk about them much. I'm just so pleased with both of these projects that I thought I would take my chance to be publicly proud of myself for a little bit.

Thank you for indulging me.

As for my lack of photos of Evan--good news! I'm taking him to get pictures taken on Thursday. He never slows down for me to take pictures, so hopefully Sears can do the job for me. Wish us luck!

However, I was just looking at some older pictures of Evan, and thought I would share some of him from last year at this time.

Little guy. And here are the only two pictures I've taken in the last month.

Evan loves to get into my closet and tear everything out--usually he comes out with shoes. I was impressed that he was able to get these on and walk around in them!

Sun at long last

I'm pretty sure it has been raining here for a month straight, and now it's finally sunny! I am so pleased. It's not humid yet either, which is a big bonus. We've been spending almost all of our time for the last couple days out in the sunshine and I think Evan is really greatful to be able to get out and run off some energy. From our house we can walk all the way to the fence that goes around the base and watch airplanes take off. We went on such a long walk yesterday that we ended up having to carry Evan and his short little legs. It's a long walk for Evan, but he loves those airplanes!

We finally got him to say "plane" yesterday. He's been calling airplanes "goo-goo" for months now, and considering that a plane flies over our house about every five minutes, he's had plenty of opportunities to learn the word. I think he just liked "goo-goo" better. I can't believe how many words he has, and they're getting a lot clearer too. He's pretty fun to have a conversation with.

This morning we went to our favorite playground in Billerica (which is also one of the biggest I've seen) and spent some quality time in the sandbox. This sandbox is huge, and there are Tonka trucks and other sand toys that are always there--needless to say, Evan loves it. Last time we went, he spent two hours straight sitting in the sandbox being industrious with construction equipment. Today wasn't much different, but he took a few breaks to go climb around and go down the slides and whatnot.

This picture's from about a month ago. I think the only pictures I'm going to have of Evan in the near future are when he's playing with this "diggers"--otherwise he doesn't stay still long enough!

By the way, this little girl is our neighbor Riley, whom Evan calls "honey". I think he's smitten. I can see why--she's just as rough and tumble as he is!

zoo time!

Hello! Our weather here has been crazy lately, and Evan and I have been itching to get outside inbetween rainstorms. Yesterday we went for a walk in the rain, which was fun. But on Saturday we had a legitimately nice day, so we all (including our friends Scott and Anne) went to the zoo, and it was wonderful!

We asked Evan what his favorite part about the zoo was, and he said the gorillas. Well, actually he said "ah ah", which usually means monkey, so I'm assuming thats what he meant. He was especially pleased about the gorillas because one of them was trying to take a nap. He was very excited about that.

This gorilla had it's own blankie that it was laying on. Adorable.

Speaking of adorable, how wonderful is my family? I know.

Evan also got to go on a carousel with daddy. He wasn't too sure about it, but I think he enjoyed it. A little.

He definitely enjoyed riding on this tractor though.

Speaking of tractors, Evan has recently become obsessed with construction equipment.

This is his "digger". He takes it everywhere with him, and yes, he sleeps with it. We have to go into his room later and move it so he doesn't roll over onto it at night. Mike's been playing softball, and luckily there is a random pile of sand that all the kids play in...perfect for digger use. Needless to say, Evan loves going to daddy's softball games. By the way, he calls softball "hit".

The boy can spot a backhoe from a mile away. He's so cute.

Welcome to June

Wonder of wonders, my husband eats sushi. Not only that--he likes it. I'm very proud. He tried it a few weeks ago, and today he suggested we go get sushi for lunch. I am a happy girl. Evan eats Chicken Katsu--basically just the japanese equivalent of chicken nuggets--and he eats a lot of it. Today, he also ate Miso soup! Adventurous just like his daddy.

I think eating with the cool spoon was an extra bonus. I can't believe how big he's getting.

He's even driving already!

Ok, just kidding. Our friendly local firemen had all the trucks out on Memorial Day so we could check them out, and Evan was a big fan.

Speaking of Memorial Day, how many of you can say you have minutemen in your Memorial Day parades? Well, we do. Actually, they're everywhere.

With Lexington Battle Green, Concord, and Minuteman National Park, all within minutes of us, people around here seem really into getting all dressed up like patriots and participating in reenactments. Or parades, for that matter. It's kinda cool.

See? Here's some in April reenacting the march to Concord/Lexington for Patriot's Day. Never heard of Patriot's Day? Me either...it's a Massachusetts thing.

But I digress. Back to Evan.

Here he is yesterday looking nice and clean (if not slightly crazy) with his shirt tucked in and everything. We were on our way to our friend Scott's promotion. (congrats again Scotty!)

He looked nice for about five minutes, and then he started doing donuts in the yard. If you're not dirty, you're not happy, right?

Crazy boy.

I feel like we've done a good job so far teaching him about the world...all except for what sound a horse makes. Poor Evan, he knows all his animal sounds, but somehow "horse" isn't quite right. We try to show him what a horse sounds like, he's seen lots of real horses, and we show him on the TV. But he is determined to put his own spin on it. Check it out:

Now it's turned into some sort of party trick--out friends think it's hilarious, and I think now he knows it makes people laugh so he'll probably just keep doing it forever.

But that's okay.

March to your own drum Evan.

...and I'm back.

Hello! Like I said, I'm still here, and now I have some catching up to do. Where did March go? It seems like such a long time since that last snow I wrote about (which wasn't our last snow, but it's much nicer now, so no biggie) and we've been busy!

First off, Mike's been busy growing an icky mustache. Acutally, I didn't hate it--as far as mustaches go he didn't do so bad--but I think he looks much nicer without it. Apparently, it was "mustache march" on base (which i'm hoping is strictly a Hanscom thing...) and people competed to see who could grow the best mustache--somehow they made it into a fundraiser, so that was a plus. Surprisingly, Mike didn't win. I think he should have.

Sweet mustache, eh? I think he was proud. Evan looks doubtful. Hey! What's with the hats on in the house? Come on guys...

Mimi Kate came to visit us early in March, and we all had a fantastic time. We knit (knitted?) a lot. And we might have visited a few yarn stores, but we don't need to talk about that...

Like the giant indian? We're in that picture as well, I swear. I love the name of the store too-- "Big Indian Shop"--how creative! We went out to western Mass to see maple syrup being made, which turned out to be an awesome day.

We went to Davenport Farm, and they taught us all about maple syrup.

Behind those two handsome men is the evaporator, where they boil the sap until it turns into syrup. Yummy.

Also while Mimi Kate was here we went to Boston to explore, and Evan got to see the Make Way for Ducklings statue.

We read the book all the time at home, and I don't think he made the connection--but he loved the ducks anyway. Literally--he had to give them all hugs. Cutie.

Last weekend, we went to the New England Aquarium, which was pretty cool. Evan had a great time, and now he's really into turtles and penguins. Well, he was for a few days--I think he's over it now. Still, he liked seeing all the fish, and running from tank to tank.

I liked Myrtle the Sea Turtle. Those things are huge! Pretty cool.

For an Evan update, his new favorite thing is "tash". Every time he finds some bit of something he deems trash, he needs to throw it away. Which is pretty cute, and also somewhat helpful because so far he's pretty good at discerning what is trash and what is not.
Also, he likes to tell everyone when he toots, and he points to his butt and says "toot". The other day, he burped, looked confused, pointed to his mouth and said "toot". Silly boy. He gets smarter every day!

minor mommy accomplishments!

It's almost 8 am and Evan's still not awake...silly boy. Actually, I hear him stirring, but he's not quite there yet--apparently he was extra sleepy this morning. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I'm not quite sure what to do with myself, so I'll update you on the vegetable situation in our house. Yesterday....

(dramatic pause...wait for it...)

Evan ate carrot sticks. A lot of them. He loved them! In fact, when they were gone, he asked for more. I couldn't believe it. Carrots are one of those things that I keep giving to him over and over (with no success) with the hopes that one day he'll eat them and it finally paid off. Hopefully since he discovered that he likes one crunchy vegetable, he'll branch out to others too.

He's just getting so big, I can't believe it. He walks everywhere by himself now, which is good because he weighs 30 pounds and I don't really want to carry him around, and he knows he needs to hold my hand. He has his 18 mo checkup today, which I can't believe. I love taking him to his checkups and seeing how much he's grown since the last one...plus our doctor is kind of far away and we get to go to Subway for lunch afterwards. We don't have a lot of Subways around here--sad.

By now, Evan is talking to his stuffed animals, and occasionally saying "uhoh" because he dropped his binky behind his crib. I suppose we should get this morning started. Now I think he's singing. What a cutie!

Greetings from sunny Massachusetts!

The most wonderful thing has happened! It's sunny! And warm! I'd say its at least 50 degrees outside. Which to me, feels almost tropical. I can't wait for Evan to wake up from his nap so we can go for a walk. Although right now, I am sitting on the couch in the sunshine with all the windows open and it is quite enjoyable. Aaah.

I didn't realize how little time we've been able to spend outside all winter, and now that it's sunny, I'm aware of how much I missed it. It's just so cold here in the winter--and now I'm really looking forward to spring. It was actually pretty nice this weekend, so we busted out Evan's wagon and went for a walk.

He loved it. He walked for a little bit, and stomped in some puddles, and got quite a kick out of riding in the wagon. The best way to travel, I guess. I'm just happy that it has seat belts in it so he can't bail out mid-ride. Or stand up. Because he would. These Radio Flyer people really know what they're doing! (thanks, Gamma!)

So, that's what we'll be doing again later this afternoon. Tomorrow, we're going to go to the Discovery Museum again--I knew we wouldn't be able to stay away for long!

By the way, we gave Evan a haircut again. He needed it--see?

Too long for this Air Force family! Definitely not within regulations. Now, keep in mind that we're still new to this "using clippers" business and with each haircut, we will get better. I think.

The "buzz" wasn't really the look we were going for, but it was a joint effort. I actually like it--although it makes him look much older and kind of catches me by surprise sometimes. No bald spots though--that's a plus.

Mike says that now Evan looks a lot like he did when he was little, which I totally agree with. Actually, Mike claims that he remembers Matt with hair like this during toddler-hood, so I guess he thinks Evan looks like Matt. Same thing though, right? Whaddya think Smith's--is he a mini Mike-or-Matt? I wish I knew how to use our scanner (I think we have a scanner) so I could add a baby pic of Mike, but you will just have to use your imaginations!

Now my sun has gone behind a few clouds. Bummer. It'll be back. I never thought I would like living in a warm climate (hello, Oregonian here) but now that we have the possibility of moving to somewhere in the upcoming year where it's warm most of the time (California, the Southwest, Florida), and after living in Massachusetts, It's looking more and more appealing. It would be weird not to have snow, but I think constant sunshine would even that out for me. Wherever we go will have pros and cons though, so bring it on!

Discovery!

Grandma Jean was here for the last week, and we had a great time. I think Evan was pretty happy to have a new playmate!

But now she's gone and Evan just has me for a playmate during the day...bor-ing. Poor little Evan, his life is so unfair...

Just kidding, Evan's pretty happy. He was especially happy when we took him to the Children's Museum in Acton this last weekend. This place is officially the coolest place for toddlers ever. It might be the coolest place for moms too...not only were we as entertained as Evan but I think he could have kept himself completely busy there all day. I'm in love. So is Evan.

And it's cheap too! We got a pass from the library that made addmittance only $4.50 each. I think we'll try to make a trip there once a month. At least. We are so lucky to live where we live.

One room was a ball room. There were tubes and tracks running all around the room and ceiling and you could watch the balls roll around and activate little doo-dads and thingys. My favorite part was this dark little hidey-hole with christmas lights in it. I wish I was small so I could just sit in there with the pretty lights. In fact, I found myself wishing I was about 3 feet shorter all day.

The entire attic of the house (did I mention the museum was in a cute little house?) was ship themed. Pretty awesome. They even had ocean sounds playing over some speakers. At one point I looked over and noticed that Mike and his ship-mate had taken up residence in this little life boat and I thought it was pretty funny. Silly daddy.

Another room was a diner and it was by far Evan's favorite. In fact I had to drag him out of there (literally) when it was time to leave. (he has since obtained a kitchen set at home) Evan and this other little guy spent quite some time serving their grandmas some food.

Pretty fun. I can't wait to go back.

Long Overdue

I have neglecting my blog, so to cut down on bulk lets post in bullet form, shall we? Ok.

We bought a pair of clippers this weekend and gave Evan his first at-home haircut. It went about as well as expected. Mike fed him cookies and kept him entertained while I cut. I was only able to get the back, (squirmy-wormy) but that's all he really needed and it turned out quite well. No more rat's nest hair!

Mike also vacuumed him.

On Sunday it snowed. Quite a bit. I took an unavoidable trip to the commissary in the snow and tried to avoid other crazy people--it went pretty well.

On Monday, a bird flew out of our basement. Into the living room. I screamed and hid with Evan in the bedroom. Mike calmly shooed it out the window. It was a giant bird, I swear... terrifying...It's still a mystery how that came about, as we couldn't find any obvious points of entry and we're still coming up with theories.

Evan yanked the "g" key off of the keyboard and I'm having a hard time typing.

Evan also has recently started to refer to his binky as "num-num", which I think is adorable. He also has been shaking his finger and saying "no no no" which is also adorable but kind of sad. And he likes to dump Cody's water dish on the floor. Sometimes he does those last two at the same time.

Doesn't he look naughty? He's cute though, so it's ok.

Also, I finally finished a case for my knitting needles, which I started two (or three?) weeks ago and didn't pick up again until yesterday.

It turned out perfectly, and now my needles are no longer a jumbled mess in the bottom of my knitting bag. I wish I had thought this up a long time ago.

For a knitting update--I started my boot socks on two circular needles and have been working on them intermittently. I had to start over a few times, and casting on made me physically ill--knitting with two circular needles was at first for me just knitting a tangled mess of pain and frustration--but now they are coming along quite nicely. And it turns out it's not so hard once you get the hang of it...

Believe it or not there's a budding pair of socks in there.

Once I summon up a serious amount of knitting energy I'm planning on making this:
The cardigan, in case you were unsure. It's name is Mr. Greenjeans, and one of these days I will be wearing it.