One Month to Go . . .

Since there will be a new addition to the family soon, I wanted to share a picture of this baby before he/she is born. I was so great about documenting my pregnancy week-by-week with Evan. However, this baby hasn't gotten quite the same attention.


With Evan, the weather was warmer and I was able to get outside at Longwood Gardens to get some maternity pictures taken by my talented friend (documented here on her blog): http://www.blog.modmemento.com/2010/05/waiting-for-baby.html

I also took pictures every single week to document my growing belly. With this baby, I think I've taken all of 3 photos of my growing belly. Here is a picture we took last week with one month to go until the new baby's arrival:
While we opted to keep the gender a surprise, I am fairly convinced this baby is a boy. My pregnancy has been the same - carrying the same, feeling the same, craving the same things, etc. I'm even getting to the point now (as happened last time) where strangers are coming up to me and telling me it's a boy. Many of the "old wives tales" about boys are holding true as well. I'm so convinced it's a boy, in fact, that I have only bought a boy outfit to come home from the hopsital. If it ends up being a girl, my mom will have to do some shopping for us!

Evan doesn't really understand what's happening. If you ask him what is in mommy's belly, he will say "baby". And if you ask him who will be sleeping in his old room, he says "baby". But he doesn't have any idea how his world is going to change. He is not a fan of sharing his mom or dad with others so we shall see how this goes!

However, whenever we ask Evan if he's going to have a brother or sister, he says "sister". And if we ask him if the baby is a girl or boy, he says "girl". Brian is also convinced the baby is a girl, only because I am so sure it's a boy. While I'm so happy we have decided to wait to find out the gender, I'm also anxious to see who we will be adding to our family. If it's a boy, I will be thrilled to give Evan a brother and for Brian to add to his clan (even if it will mean I'm outnumbered). If it is a girl, I'll be thrilled to get to buy some girly clothes and to experience all things "girl". Only time will tell . . . here's to hoping our St. Patty's Day baby arrives on time!

Camden Aquarium

We are trying to get some quality time in with Evan before our new arrival, so we headed to the Camden Aquarium on Saturday. Evan is very into animals right now and he loved seeing some of his favorites up close, including this alligator:Up close at one of the many fish tanks:Trying to touch the fish:
Very happy to be up close and personal with the fish:

And a close up as he walked down the stairs near the hippos:

Getting any pictures of Evan where he is even remotely looking at the camera is difficult these days, which is why my blog updates have been few and far between. There is no sitting still and certainly no cooperating with the camera/mommy for the time being.

Evan's Got a New Room

In preparation for the new baby, we made the big move this week into Evan's "big boy room". We worked hard over Christmas vacation to get this room together and the furniture was delivered in mid-January. After a week of doing the bed-time routine in the new bed (but sleeping in the crib still), we thought he was ready. The first night was easy - a few tears but slept through the night. Last night, he cried a lot at bedtime and woke up crying 3 times during the night. We've got at least a month to get him adjusted before the new baby arrievs and hopefully each night gets better. Of course, he hasn't realized he can get out of his bed yet and it'll be a whole different story once he does. For now, he has this huge bed and sleeps like a frog on top of his pillow - using no more than 2 square feet of the bed space.

Here are some pics of the new room. The first looking in from the doorway:This is taken from the closet looking at the bed. And yes, we do need to work on artwork for the walls:

And finally from the windows looking out:

I think we are really on our way to being as ready as possible for baby #2 to make his/her appearance in the next month or two.

Let it snow . . .

Our first snowstorm of the season happened this past weekend. We bundled Evan up and took him outside to play:
It took a couple of tries to get the mittens on (which didn't easily stay on):

And here is Evan a year ago playing in the snow (oh how nice it was when he used to smile for the camera):He's not quite sure what to make of it . . . but at least he's not crying:With his daddy:Love this photo:And the neighbors came out to join in the fun. Notice Evan has fallen over here and needed some help to get himself up:And why not play football in the snow?
We spent much of the rest of the weekend inside, happy to be cozy and comfortable in our sweatpants :)

Another trip to the Please Touch Museum

We headed to the Please Touch Museum on January 7th with a large crew (7 adults and 6 kids). Evan has been there twice before but long before he could appreciate it. Here is running into the musuem:

And here I am trying to get in a photo with him:

He could have stayed at the "duckies" for the entire time. After a half hour, we had to drag him away crying. But we could play with ducks at bath time and it was time to move on:

We headed to Alice in Wonderland downstairs:

And over to the big truck, which he was happy to pretend to drive:

And onto the mail truck next:

Probably my favorite part of the museum is the miniature grocery store. Evan had a blast pushing around his own cart:

He didn't want to put too much in his cart and usually immediately removed whatever was put in there:

Still pushing around his empty cart:

He loved this exhibit where the ball is being held up by forced air:

And an attempt to get a good number of kids on the mini train. Evan wanted nothing to do with this:

All in all, it was a fun trip. But Evan really does not enjoy having his photo taken right now . . . which is why these blog updates are few and far between.

The rest of Christmas vacation . . .

. . . was spent like this: Evan was sick and spent much of our week off in bed.
He had a 103+ fever for 6 straight days. On top of his hand-foot-mouth disease, he came down with a nasty cold which turned into an ear infection. While it put a damper on Christmas, it was nice that we were both able to be home to care for him. And it gave us ample time to get Evan's new room ready. It is painted now, the carpet comes in on Friday and the furniture on Saturday. We shall see if we are able to move this 20 month old into a bed before his baby brother or sister arrives.

Christmas Past & Present

Since this blog wasn't around last Christmas, I feel the need to post some pictures from last year. This picture below is probably my favorite one ever taken of Evan . . . back in the days when he would actually sit still and smile for the camera:How different does he look?Happy, happy baby:Fast forward to one year later . . . and this is what it looks like when we try to take a picture of him:Unfortunately, illness put a BIG damper on Evan's Christmas. But I'll start with Christmas Eve, which was day 1 of his hand-foot-mouth disease. It was not too bad - fever started and some sores started appearing. Evan got to go to Aunt Karen & Uncle Cliff's house for Christmas Eve and got to see their horse, Chief. Evan is loving horses right now and was just staring in wonder when he saw Chief for the first time:Here he is helping feed Chief

Afterwards, he jumped onto the tractor with cousin Morgan:

Family photos:

Happy baby with mommy (only because I'm tickling him):

Or he'll smile for the camera if you put him up to touch the ceiling:

Uncle Brian with Morgan and a running-away Evan:

Brian in one of our "ugly" sweaters. The sweater Janet is wearing won me 2nd place at an Ugly Christmas sweater party a few years back . . . though she thinks it's just beautiful:

Morgan & Evan playing with Uncle Cliff's train under the tree:

And here we are with our baby girl, Lily:

The rest of Christmas vacation . . . not so enjoyable and no more pictures. More on that later . . .