Hangin' with "Arizona" Grandma

Evan got to spend all week hanging out with his "Arizona" Grandma, and as you can see, he had a blast.


Grandma brought him a rolling toy with little spinning ducks to help encourage him to crawl, but he prefers just to strettttcccchhhh his arms out to get it instead. Hey, that's okay, Mom and Dad are really really hoping for a basketball scholarship someday, so it's never too early to start working on that reach.

Block party!

Evan got some blocks for Christmas (yeah, we let him "open" gifts early - and I say "open" in quotes because I never acutally wrapped the gifts . . . next year . . .). Anyhow, he especially loves the yellow one because when you press on the side with the duck it goes "quack, quaaaaack." His face completely lit up upon hearing this. He also had fun knocking down all the block towers that Mom built and having a block war with Dad.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't know if it was the fun times with friends or watching Mom and Dad eat way too much, but Evan had a very smiley Thanksgiving. He did say that he really really really missed his family, though.

On the move

Evan is getting soooo close to crawling. He can get up onto his elbows and knees and rock back and forth, and sometimes he actually makes forward progress. I'm sure he's baffled by how excited we get over this - we go absolutely nuts cheering and clapping. But hey, it's probably best that he figures out now that his parents are a bit crazy :)

Squash on the head and peaches in the cabinet

Evan has had some big adventures at feeding time this week! Through quick thinking and stellar reflexes (okay, maybe just really good luck) he managed to intercept a spoonful of squash with his hand and fling it up into the air. Most of it landed on his head, and I'm sure he was thinking "yeah, really great parenting, Mom, taking pictures instead of cleaning the squash off my head."


Also, his high chair is right next to the hutch, which has a mirror inside. Evan loves to stare at himself in the mirror. Sometimes I "join" him in the cabinet, which typically wins me a smile, and on some days his peaches even show up in the cabinet, too.

Are we there now?

Yup, I have finally been shamed (uh, I mean, motivated) into keeping a blog. So, welcome to "are we there now?" I was going to use "are we there yet?", but the url was already taken. I'm glad, though, because "now" actually works even better than "yet" to describe us.

I chose "are we there now?" because John and I are both 30 year olds who are more or less still in school, and still talk about a "real" job in the future tense. So often, we are tempted to look ahead to this time, only to forget all of the wonderful things that God has for us right now. The biggest of these, of course, is Evan who is now 7 months old and growing up so fast that it scares me sometimes (Evan also motivated the blog title because I'm sure it is what he must think when we drive 17 hours to Grandma and Grandpa's house). Anyhow, I've just come to realize that if I am always thinking ahead, life will spin past and I will be left wondering where it went, so I realize that I need to make a conscious effort to live and enjoy every single day with love and thanksgiving.

Okay, enough personal philosopy and on to the part that you all signed on to read about . . . EVAN! As you all probably know, his favorite hobby right now is putting things in his mouth. When confronted with a new item, the first goal is to try to fit it in his mouth. I gotta give the little guy credit for persistence in the face of adversity, as highlighted in the picture above. Evan has also begun to take quite an interest in Nicky lately, and Nick to his credit has become okay with letting Evan pet him for a little while. It's very sweet.