New stuff right and left

This past week was a whirlwind for me.  My dad, his girlfriend, and my sister's kids came to visit for the weekend before flying the kids back to Hawaii out of Denver.  This worked out well as we were able to celebrate Evan's first birthday while they were all in town (a future post will be devoted to that occasion).

During this time, Evan started showing off new tricks right and left and so before any more time passes, in which I'm sure he'll learn even more new things, I wanted to take a moment to jot down some of his latest accomplishments/stories.

1) Climbing stairs (= one nervous mama!)

Evan had been pulling himself up to stand on the bottom step for almost as long as he's been pulling himself up to stand in general.  However, this past week he started up the stairs, one by one.  We were watching him, of course, but it still made me nervous.  After he got to the second step and was making his way toward the third, we took him down.  Then a few days ago, I saw John teaching him how to go down the steps (on his tummy going backward).  He did a good job of it, sliding down them pretty quickly, although he was constantly looking to one side and thus his body started to shift so he wasn't going straight down anymore.  By the bottom step he got twisted around and thus needed John's help to get down safely.  Yesterday I practiced this with him some more, by letting him crawl up three steps and then directing him to come back down.  Again, he got tripped up on the bottom stair, only this time he managed to correct it himself.  He ended up laying sideways on the bottom step as he was trying to twist himself around, but managed to work it out and didn't fall.  Thus, I hope he's figured out how he needs to stay close to the steps, but only time will tell.  While this development scares me, I feel better knowing we're also teaching him to go down properly too.  Either way, we have to use a baby gate at the bottom of the steps now or our eyes must constantly be on him!

2) The papa factor

Evan has met my dad at least four different occasions now, and yet this time he decided to get super bashful (aka also super cute!) around him.  The strange thing is he only got this way around Papa!  And while his bashful reaction may seem like he was being shy and/or hesitant around my dad, he didn't mind being held by Papa.  Thus, I don't know what to make of his unique display for Papa...but it was quite adorable.  Better yet, when we would say "There's Papa" or "Papa says hi" he would repeat "Papa".  Thus, I think that's officially his fifth word (uh oh, da da, ma ma, and "tee"/tree).  I only am counting words as those that Evan seems to attribute appropriate meaning to.  In this case, I could somewhat randomly ask Evan "Where is Papa?" and he would look to where my dad was.  I can also do this with "Where is dada?" and Evan'll look to John.

3) Beyond the blanket

We spent a lot of time outside this past weekend and one of those days Evan finally took the giant "step" of crawling off the blanket and onto the grass.  After that, he's never looked back.  Now he will crawl in grass or even onto the patio and what's worse is that he'll pick up little rocks or bits of grass along the way and put them directly into his mouth.  Just the other day at the park he spent some time romping through the grass and started pulling it out of the ground.  Where do you think those blades of grass went?  Well, I'd say in his mouth, but Tyrah and I were working to quickly intercept his quick little hands and thus I hope he didn't ingest any.  Yet, that was clearly his intention.

This little boy loves to play in the grass now!

Stopping to pull some grass.

Inspecting whatever is left in his hand.

Tyrah helping watch over her cute little cousin.

4) Ice cream!

Whether or not it's recommended for a baby under 1 year old, Evan had his first taste of ice cream on Monday night.  We went out to dinner with my family the last night they were in town and John decided to let Evan try some of his mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Granted, I don't think he got much of it, but he definitely tried it.  (Then he of course had his first cake the day before during his first birthday party...but again, more to come on that soon).

5) Nap time shuffle?

To my dismay Evan has been having some irregular days lately.  Perhaps it was due to all of the commotion around the house this past weekend with all of the visitors and guests.  However, some of these trends had begun before the weekend visitors arrived.  It's hard to explain exactly what's happening as well, as it's been different almost every day.  However, the irony is that my last post was about Evan's schedule, and then not even a few days later, we are out of sync!  He often wakes in the 5 o'clock hour now...sometimes falling back to sleep in our bed after I nurse him, sometimes not.  He refuses some of his naps more now...sometimes it's the afternoon nap that is the problem, but other times it's the morning nap he fights.  Thus, we were wondering if he is starting the transition to just one nap per day?  To me it seems early for that to happen (maybe I'm just hoping it's too early, as I value the two naps as the main times I can get things done!), but maybe not?  Today he did the strangest thing yet though.  He woke up at 5:30am, nursed and then tossed and turned, but fell back to sleep in our bed until almost 9am (John also enjoyed the "late" sleep in I can assure you)!  But that can't really be a good thing, can it?  Of course he didn't need a morning nap, and took a pretty short afternoon nap as a result.

I also wonder if it's a bad thing that we even let him fall back to sleep in our bed, because maybe now he'll start to wake up earlier and earlier in order to be brought into our bed?  I haven't done it if it's before 5am, but he does seem to wake more regularly in the 5 o'clock hour (which stinks!) and I would love it if he slept in until at least 6 or 6:30am again.  Maybe I should be more insistent to move him back to his crib if he does happen to fall asleep, but I have to admit having him cuddle up next to me is pretty nice. :) Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to report on this soon, as we see if these current trends are phases or if they are indicators of what the future will bring.