Is 15 months old too young for chores?

Evan says no. He had a great time helping me (or just doing it for me) watering the flowers... All that work requires some refreshment. Also, I would like to point out that he started drinking from the "water fountains" like this all on his own with no help, guidance or pointers from mommy or daddy!

Another fun weekend...

He is definitely a boy who knows what he wants! He saw the balls (which is darn cute b/c he can say ball now). And, first, I thought he was just wanted A ball, so I got a blue one out. He was excited for all of 15 seconds when he abandoned the blue ball and pointed to the red one. I explained that he could only have one ball, and I put the blue ball back and pulled out the red one he was pointing to. He carried this HUGE ball ALL THE WAY from the back of Target to the check-out. I had to buy it for him : ). Another Target purchase. Debating for quite some time whether to get the "water park" or a regular pool. Grammy pointed out (via cell phone) that Evan LOVES activity. Water park it is...

GREAT CHOICE! Couldn't wait to get his swim trunks and swim diaper on before he checked it all out.

Naked boy on the loose!!!!!!! But, he didn't want to slip and fall when playing in the Water Park Pool, so he logically kept his swim shoes on : )!

Such a little goof ball.

Just relaxing....eating my blueberry waffle and sipping on some water. Probably should have given him a book...or the newspaper.

No one really believes me unless they have witnessed it that Evan has quite the little 'tude. THIS is my proof!
Darn it. I just can't find the best spot to put the radio so that I can rock out.

Note to Self: It is nearly impossible to get a good picture with four people (with two of the four being kids). SO, whenever we decide we would like to make Evan a big brother, if we get a good picture, it will be our Christmas Card every year until all kids are over the age of 10. Melanie, Owen, Evan and I took four pictures. In the first, one of us had our eyes closed. In the second, Evan is not looking at the camera. In the third, both babies were looking away from the camera. In the fourth, I look icky with super gross, greasy hair, BUT all eyes are open, so fourth pic it is!

New Do

Grandma G and Aunt Mal drove down from Lafayette to babysit Evan today, and Grandma G took some time to cut both Bret and Evan's hair! He is starting to look so big and grown-up!

They must be pros in wearing out little ones because Evan was so pooped today that he wanted 30 minutes of quiet time in his crib in the morning and slept for 2.5 hours in the afternoon!!! I can't even get that great of sleeping out of him when I doing my best to exhaust him with playing in the sandbox and swimming in the lake.

Happy Daddy's Day Weekend

On the way to the ZOO!! ZOO! Evan was particularly thrilled with the farm animals. We made several trips by the very large pig. This is Evan wanting to be IN with the cows.
Bunny Rabbits!! Seriously, EXTRA large bunnies. There is no way these things could hop; they probably weighed more than E.

CHICKENS!

I am studying the rhinos. Evan was studying the mud.

Water! This water park really threw Evan for a loop. First of all, they painted the water "area" bright blue. Evan was a bit afraid to step on the blue, but after tapping his toe on it tentatively, he determined it was solid ground. The next hurdle was the over-aggressive kids that were terrorizing the park. This hurdle we will overcome in at least a few months. BUT, Evan did enjoy the music and watching the water!

Running/Dancing around

Car ride home from the zoo. Rough life.

The rest of Father's Day weekend was spent at the lake cottage. It was a really nice weekend for Bret. Just a lot of relaxing with 18 holes of golf added in.

Sidewalk Chalk...not just for the driveway

Em, Chris and William got Evan some cool sidewalk chalk for his first bday. He has just really started to enjoy scribbling, so he enjoyed the concept of writing on the driveway! The first time we got it out the bucket that the chalk comes in was so entertaining, that he didn't really notice the chalk : ) This was NOT the face I was going for when I said, "Evan! Look at Mommy!" This angle looks E look like a giant...but you can also see that he thoroughly enjoyed scribbling on more than the ground. He also spent some time making my leg look like a Smurf leg

And then, he got distracted by the pure awesome-ness of the sidewalk chalk container!This was not from this weekend, but a few weekends ago on the way home from the lake. I loved how both Evan and Tillie are both showing signs of exhaustion from a LOT of playing (or stress in Tillie's case) at the lake

This is from this weekend...I was trying to show his battle scars from his run-in with the pavement at daycare. I missed the worst of it a few days ago where his entire nose looked like it had road rash. This looks like a teeny little scab : ). He also had a lovely, perfectly centered, vertical bruise on his forehead to compliment the bright red nose!

Working in the yard...

We actually had some time to do a little work in the yard this weekend!!! My fingers were definitely itching to make the yard a little more ours by changing a few things and adding some others. Definitely a lot of work still to do, but Bret, Evan and I were pleased with what we got accomplished yesterday and today!

This was this morning....one of the biggest challenges was finding the right spot for all the plants. On top of the chair was Evan's vote.

Around the tree! I have no before pics, but the reason the grass looks a bit dead just outside the stone is because this tree was being overtaken by phlox. My opinion is that phlox is the absolute best flower for about 2 weeks when it is blooming in the spring. Then it becomes an icky, brownish green mess for the rest of the summer. Therefore, goodbye phlox and hello pretty flowers, hostas and grasses!
Some of the front....so far. Imagine another boxwood in the giant hole beside the other two ; ). I will also have to put another pic in when the rows of impatiens are big and beautiful!

Pictures from the past weekends...

Fun times at Lake Tippecanoe

Grammy explaining the "rules" of the sandbox. You can see how well Evan is paying attention as he kicks the sand ; )Hey...how does this work? The sand used to be packed in here... Evan ignoring the rules of the sandbox and dumping sand outside of it while Grammy tries to put it back in....One of Evan's many "wonder if she'll let me do this" faces...
LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the water. We have had many meltdowns over water. Starting from the morning when he wakes up, barrels outside only to find the kiddie pool empty. Then, several times after I oddly will not let him just step into the lake off the pier. I have the craziest rules as a Mommy don't I!

- Cincinnati Weekend -

They never did more than roll a few feet...I SWEAR! Good thing no cops were around, and I am SHOCKED we were able to get him in is car after his few minutes riding shotgun!

All fancy (well Bret and I at least) for Byran Cuculich and Lindsay Tato's wedding in Cincinnati. Bret's Aunt Di and Uncle Jer have a fountain to our right which is why Evan is looking that way instead of at the 10 people jumping around in front of him to get him to smile. Again, LOVES water.Grandpa Jeff, Grandma Pam, Bret and I waving good night to Evan

graduation

Jen graduated from DPU a couple of weekends ago. I think Evan really enjoyed it : ). The weekend was crazy hot, so he actually spent the majority of the ceremony playing in a fountain nearby. He was soaked in a matter of seconds and thoroughly enjoyed putting his feet in the water. I think it was another one of his "subtle" ways of telling me he would really enjoy something like a water park or the lake.