Truckin' along

Much to the dismay of our dog Nicky (look for his cameo appearance in the video below), Evan is getting really good at pushing his car around.

This is not only great because it wears Evan out before naptime, but also because our apartment is so small that Mommy gets a really good workout picking up him and the car every ten seconds and turning them around for another lap across the family room.

If I had a hammer . . .

One of Evan's birthday presents was a hammer and toolbench (thanks Bunn family!) and Heemstra family lore is that John had one of these as a kid and used to play with it for hours on end. Like father, like son.


Evan is such a fan of the hammer that he walks around the house hammering at everything. This is usually entertaining, but occasionally results in "Evan, no, no" when he decides to hammer things like the heat radiators (and, of course when we say "no, no" he just turns and laughs at us). It is also entertaining at bedtime when he won't put down the hammer and insists on switching it from left hand to right and back again multiple times as we change into his pajamas.

Oh, and the title of the post is because every time I see Evan with his hammer it reminds me of the song:

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

Party like a rock star

Although Evan's birthday was on April 9, we felt that it would be in bad taste to have a birthday party on Good Friday. So, he had to wait an extra week to celebrate with his friends. After all that waiting, he was very excited when the day finally arrived.

He got all fueled up for the big day with juice from his sippy cup (which he pretty much hated up until this point) and goldfish crackers (which are now one of only 3 "chunky" foods he will eat - the other two being cheerios and ritz crackers).

We, then enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with Auntie Sun (not pictured because she was too busy taking most of these pictures), Soren and his parents Carol and Jeremy, and little Kaitlyn and her parents Heather and Brian.

After an unpleasant prior incident with a birthday hat (I wasn't careful enough and the elastic snapped Evan a little bit), we decided we wouldn't risk putting the hat on, but we had to try to at least get a picture of him with one.

And, no party is complete without cake. Thanks Sun for making AWESOME cupcakes!!! Again, despite descending from a long line of cake-eaters, Evan was only interested in the frosting.

Easter and Birthday Fun!

Okay, so I know Easter was a week and a half ago, but our daycare is closed this week so I get to stay home with Evan a couple of days and actually get to things like updating our blog. Yay!

Evan turned the big 1.0 on August 9, and Grandma and Grandpa Heemstra were able to come out from Chicago to celebrate with us and stay through Easter.

One of Evan's gifts from Grandma and Grandpa was a push/ride car. Evan was happy to help Grandpa put it together.

Then Grandma took Evan to the park and he had fun riding the swings, even though it was a little cold out.

Later, he got to try his first cupcake. Unlike his Mom and Dad, he is not a big fan of cake. But, he did enjoy the frosting.

Easter was a wonderful day as we got to go to church and celebrate Christ's resurrection with family and friends. Later, Auntie Sun and Uncle Dan came over for Easter dinner, and Evan had a blast playing with the new toys they brought him.

Oh, and Grandma even managed to get some pictures of Evan with the Easter bunny. She wisely used the plastic eggs instead of real ones, given Evan's propensity to pick things up and whack them on the table.

My new hiding place

Evan has found his new favorite hiding place. Unfortunately, because the table is kind of slippery, he often topples out before he can get fully situated, but this time he was able to get nice and cozy.