Evan updates: 27-28 months

As always the months keep flying by and, when I look back on them, I realize so much happens in Evan's life in that relatively short amount of time.  No wonder they seem to fly by I guess!

Firsts: 
-Tumbling class (or any organized/formal class for that matter)
-Playing in the autumn leaves 

-Trick or treating
-Sleeping in toddler bed

Growth:

Evan is working his way into 3T clothes now.  We've gotten rid of all of his 18-24 month size clothes from his wardrobe, but he still wears some of the 24 month/2T sizes.  It really just depends on the brand of clothes.  He wears size 7 toddler shoes still, but I'm guessing he'll be up to an 8 in just another month or two perhaps.  Again it depends on the brand and style of the shoes, but his nice Polo canvas shoes that I bought in size 7 are already getting snug on him (perhaps they are too slim for his feet rather than too short though).  He's still in a size 5 disposable diaper.

Sleep time:

A few months ago Evan asked us to sing "Dusty" before bed.  This is a silly song from one of his Mighty Machines episodes, and ever since then we have to sing him this song before every nap or bedtime now.  In the past week or so, though, he's started asking us to sing other songs again, and the best part is he sings along with most of them.  Other typically requested songs are "baby" (Rock a bye baby), "been around the world" (Give me a home among the gum trees), or "Mighty Machines" (the theme song to the Mighty Machines show).  The funniest thing about the latter song is that in the song, there are two strong musical beats before they sing the words "Mighty Machines", so when John and I sing it we usually sing "doh doh, Mighty Machines" to represent those two beats.  Now Evan does the same thing, and I find it adorably hilarious!

He sleeps through the night pretty well (bedtime 7:30-8pm, and wake time around 7-8am) and despite being in a toddler bed, he still stays in bed all night (or all nap) long!  When he wakes up he just sits, or stands, in his bed waiting for us to come get him.  There was a stretch recently where he was sleeping until after 8am...it was nice on the days neither John nor I needed to be up early, but on daycare days he was getting there pretty late!  There have also been a few nights, though, where he wakes up crying and we need to go comfort him.  He's started asking for his sound maker (white noise machine) to sometimes be turned off, but he loves to sleep with his stars on (from his Twilight Turtle).  He also loves his blanket that has his "oldy" tag to tickle his nose with.  We'll have to make sure to bring these sleep staples to Australia!

Meal time:

He eats good at some meals and almost nothing in others.  He's started asking for milk at most meals now (I realize we probably should have been offering that to him more than just at breakfast, but I also want him drinking a lot of water too).

Evan doesn't like skin on most of his fruit.  He'll often eat his pear slices with skin, but peaches and apples are a no go these days with skin.  The same goes for crust on bread for his sandwiches.  At least he still likes most all fruits, but he rarely eats his vegetables.  Thank goodness for the pouches that have pureed vegetables in them!

He likes to sit at the table without his high chair whenever we will let him (which isn't too often).  He also loves candy now (thanks to Halloween), and that includes my homemade fudge that I just made for the holidays.  He'll do almost anything we ask him to if we offer fudge.  Haha.

Play time:

Evan loved helping me rake up leaves in our backyard.  I thought he'd just want to play in them, but he helped load them into a bucket to take to the compost bin too.  Then when the compost bin got full, and I needed to rake them into another pile, he started to just want to play (or "get stuck" in them is what he kept wanting...).  When we found a ball under some of the leaves he then went to go play with it instead too.  He got pretty upset when I moved some of his pile that the would "get stuck" in to mulch the base of our trees.  Now he loves to get himself "stuck" by barricading himself behind a pile of his toys, or his blankets and pillows on his bed, etc.  This was of course first inspired by playing in the pile of leaves.

"Stuck" in piles of leaves, and showing off his new "cheese" face (left).

Click to see videos of Evan helping and Evan playing in the leaves

We recently got a new toy "cubical" organizer for our living room, to replace the big toy tub.  I wanted this because not only does it look a bit nicer in our living room, it also allows him to see some of his toys on display rather than having them buried in the bottom of the toy bin.  So, he's been resurrecting interest in several of his older toys, such as a small toy cell phone, his inch-worm/caterpillar push toy, among other things.  He got a new fire truck as an early Christmas present, which he loves to play with, and he also likes to push around his bus or play with his train still.  He currently likes to pile all of his stuffed animals on his train track to get it "stuck".  He really is into this getting stuck thing!

Getting himself "stuck".  When we still had the toy tub (pictured above), this often meant pulling out each and every toy into a pile around him.  He did not often like to pick this pile back up.

Evan really loved his tumbling classes and he started to do quite well at them.  He would listen and follow the circuits much better, and did a good job at most all of the exercises.  We enrolled him in another 3-week session for November after completing the October session.  Now that they are over (for awhile, until we get back from Australia at least) he still asks if we're going to them on some days.

Other developments:

Evan started the "no no no" phase last month (~27 months old; which then morphed into him learning to say "no way" as a response too this past month).  When he doesn't want to do what we ask/want him to, he'll say no (or sometimes scream/shriek it out) and throw an all out tantrum.  He's also learning how to push our buttons and test us to the limits.  It gets tiring to feel like we're constantly telling him he's being naughty and/or will get in trouble, so I think we need to choose our battles.  However, he seems to know exactly what to do that will be the battle we feel should be fought, over and over.  He'll go from doing one naughty thing to the next to the next if he's in a "mood".


Evan's also starting to recognize his emotions...especially sad and happy.  He sometimes tells us after we bring him home from daycare that he was crying..not sure when, but we can only assume at daycare, and so we're not sure why.  It breaks my heart though.  He also tells us that he's feeling sad.  :(   My heart breaks when I hear him say this, but at least I know he may be starting to understand his feelings.  I sometimes think he uses this to express that he's just not feeling good either (tired or sick, etc).


Evan started to say "cheese" for photos, and he created this super cheesy face to go along with that.  Eyes squinted closed, nose scrunched, and an open-mouth smile were the trademarks of this cheesy pose.  He also has a new face that he does, which John dubbed "evil eyes".  He looks downward with his face, tucking his chin to his chest, but looks at you with his eyes just past his brow line.  Not sure where he got the idea, but it's pretty funny.

Cheese! (while wearing my "I voted today" sticker)

I am very happy to report that Evan now has random moments of politeness (lots of thank you's, and he often immediately says "welcome" after he says thank you.  Daycare told us she's been telling him that's her role to say the "you're welcome"...haha).  We often still have to remind him to ask for things nicely instead of demand them, but the thank you's and even the self-formulated polite ways to ask nicely are starting to occur!



Evan counts to ten very well now (I love how he says seven and nine), and he's working on counting to twenty (he still skips a couple numbers in that latter part of the sequence though).  He's also learning how to count things.  He started catching on to when there was two of something (he'd say "mommy I got two ones" meaning he had two of something).  Then we started counting things in his 1, 2, 3's book, which he recently told us is his favorite book.  He occasionally misses one or two of them, but he has the idea at least.

Click here to see a video of Evan counting to ten

One of the most common things we hear Evan say lately is "what is that sound mommy?" He says it for every little thing he hears given he's become quite afraid of a lot of things lately.  For some of the more common household sounds (like when the furnace turns on or the refrigerator running) I can now tell him that he knows what that sound is and then he'll tell me.  But for other new sounds that don't happen so often, he needs us to tell him it's normal and what it is.

Favorites:

Favorite books over the past two months: "Mozzie" and Snug as a hug (current top hits), Why I love Christmas, An Aussie Night before Christmas, Colors (with a Toucan on the cover), Counting Kisses, Grug, Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Tootle, and he recently declared his "1, 2, 3s" book his favorite.

I've mentioned that Evan sings songs now.  His favorite songs (or at least those he can sing most words to) are: Rock a bye baby, "Dusty", Zipadee Doo Dah, London bridge is falling down, "Mighty machines", and Give me a home among the gum trees.

Our cell phones probably still rank as his favorite "toy".  He loves to plays games, but also likes to call people, look at photos and videos we've taken on it, and take photos (in which he puts it up close to his face and says "cheese" and usually his finger covers most of the photo.  If you ask him what he's doing he'll say "I'm taking photo mommy"...so cute).  He also loves to hang up our cell phones...when we are on a call with someone that he's helping talk to, we'll put it on speaker and then he likes to hold the phone.  The funny thing is that he usually has his finger hovering over the "End call" button for most of a call, waiting for the good bye when he can hang up.  Luckily he doesn't often hang up too early any more (i.e. in the middle of the call), but as soon as he hears good bye he's on it!