My first kiss...

I spent the last week away from Evan while I attended another work conference.  It was a great conference and was really fun and productive for me, but it was still hard to leave.  In the past month, Evan has really started to grow more attached to me (calling out my name sometimes instead of just always calling for daddy), and he's learning so many new things each day that it's hard to miss out.  We only managed to skype once, but I did get to "talk" to him on the phone several times.  When we did skype, he got very excited to see me, called out "mum mum", and then started looking behind the computer to see where I was.  It was pretty cute, but very confusing for him I'm sure!

In just this past week away, I came home to Evan saying several new words like: Cassie (a girl at his daycare who he really seems to like!), koala ("kawa"), boogers (sadly, this sounds pretty much like the real word, and I guess given his cold and the dry winter air, we've used this term enough around him that it stuck), toes, and downstairs ("dah-dah") to name a few.  An example of how if you don't know what he's saying you won't understand him happened when I first heard him say koala.  He was digging in his diaper bag saying "kawa, kawa" and I had no clue what he meant until I saw him pull out his Koala beanie baby plush toy and give it lots of cuddles.

Another exciting thing that happened while I was gone was him finally drinking milk from a straw; served cold and at a time other than morning/night.  While he had taken sips from a straw before, it didn't really click for him until this past week while I was gone.  Now he'll down a small glass of milk with a meal or snack using a straw.

However, the most exciting thing that happened, and luckily it just happened Friday night so I was here to enjoy it, was that Evan started giving kisses!  The first time this happened I was giving him a bath.  He was standing up and I was trying to get him to sit down.  He started laughing and while I was up close to him telling him it's not funny, he looked over and gave me a kiss on my cheek!  While I know it probably wasn't good to stop following through on my message for him to sit down, I couldn't help but get distracted by it!  It was pure bliss to have my smiling son lean toward me, with his dimples and sparkly eyes lighting up his face, and plant one right on my cheek.   Since then he will often give me a kiss (and has given one to John now too) when we ask for them, or when he sees us kissing.  I cannot get enough of them. Some are a bit more slobbery than others, but they are all magical!