And I just thought these pictures were cute...

E-V-A-N...Evan...

Something occurred to me after I posted about Evan's supercool mittens last night: I forgot to acknowledge some OTHER cool things that my friends have made! There's the fantastic thank you card that Mary made. There's the awesome tutu that Shannon made for Hannah's party favor at Evan's birthday. There are the cool shirts that Sofia made...and most recently, the fantastic letters made by Brandi. Have I got some talented friends or what!?!?!?!?!?!

Here are some pics of Evan with his letters. He HAS to read them every night before he goes to bed: "E-V-A-N...EVAN! Spells Evan, Mommy!" He usually yells this. He often has to do this during the day as well. And before nap. And just because.

The boy loves him some letters!

Mittens!

Check out the awesome mittens that my friend MaryJane (MJ) knit for Evan! Okay...so the fact that he is shirtless while wearing the mittens may be a bit distracting...but bear in mind that we had spaghetti for dinner, so the shirt was stripped off before the carnage.


Isn't MJ talented? You can check out her coolness here... Seriously...I want this woman to adopt me. She's amazing. :) :) :)


Thanks, MJ! And thank you, Evan, for being such a fantastic hand model...

Out of our gourds...

Today Evan, Daddy, and I met Ivette and Hannah at the Pumpkin farm. We had a GREAT time...despite a few meltdowns over who got to control the wagon (between Evan and Daddy...NOT Evan and Hannah). Those two-year olds are certainly opinionated!

In retrospect, given that it is Texas-OU weekend, we probably shouldn't have dressed him in orange. Oh well. Live and continue to learn.

Also...while taking our somewhat circuitous route to said Pumpkin farm...we learned that Evan has customized his own song. Instead of "pattycake"...we now have "Spiderman." It goes a little something like this:

Spiderman, spiderman,
Baker's man.
Bake me a cake
As fast as you can.
Roooooooooooooollll it up...
Roooooooooooooollll it up...
Frow it in the pan!

You go, Spiderman.

After a tasty lunch at Bone Daddy's (a BBQ joint with killer food but questionable waitress attire), Evan is napping and Mommy and Daddy are prepping for a Husker miracle. SURE we can beat Tech! You just gotta believe! :) :) :)

Here are a RIDICULOUS number of pictures from the Pumpkin patch. Photos of carving to come later...when we actually get the pumpkins carved...

Ol' Blue Eyes...

So tomorrow is Evan's last day at the Montessori. I haven't really blogged about the whole strange situation because it's been...well...strange. Having already been through the "death" of one daycare...I've come to recognize the signs of another one in trouble. Losing 8 teachers in a month does NOT bode well for the future of the institution.

Evan is handling the change fairly well...despite the fact that he has lost all his favorite teachers. What strikes me as funny is that the current "teachers" seem completely clueless as to why the children might be a little "off." Let's see...teachers (and students) keep disappearing left and right, their whole world is different, and they don't know what to expect. Seems like the children should be proceeding entirely as normal...don't you think?

Here are some transcripts of today's conversations:

Teacher 1: Does Evan know he's changing schools?

Me: Umm...we've talked about it a little bit...he knows he's starting a new school. (scratches head)

Teacher 1: Well he's been very sensitive the past week or two.

Me: Ummm...could it be because {insert lead teacher's name here} is leaving? He's pretty intuitive.

Teacher 1: Oh yeah. That makes sense. He's spent a lot of time on her lap and next to her recently.

Brilliant. It's that sort of insight that makes for successful classroom interaction.

Here's another one...

Teacher 2: Evan has seemed restless and upset today. He wouldn't nap. And he keeps mentioning visiting someone named Jacob. Are you visiting Jacob this evening?

Me: We don't know any Jacob. Are you sure he was saying Jacob?

Teacher 2: Oh yes. I'm certain it was Jacob.

Me: Ummm. I dunno. We don't know any Jacob.

Teacher 2: Are you sure?

Me: Yeah. I'm sure.

Me (in my head): He's two. Jacob could be his pet name for his shoelace. Or, more likely, a book character. And he's restless and upset because his classroom is entirely different than it was yesterday. And he misses his teacher. And he sees Mommy getting that slight twitch in her eye that can only mean we're switching daycares. Again.

Me (out loud): Have a good evening!

Me (in my head): Tomorrow (his last day) can't come soon enough!

So anyhoo...he's starting a new daycare. Wish us luck.

On a happier note, my troubled restless son had no problem relaxing with me this evening to watch a little television and croon a few tunes. For your viewing pleasure, I present, "Ol' Blue Eyes" singing his celestial song:


Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star from Rena on Vimeo.

Evan's friend Hannah is TWO!

If you've never been to Chuck E. Cheese with a somewhat reserved 2-year old...then you haven't LIVED! :) We went to our friend Hannah's birthday party yesterday...and had a BLAST...even though we refused to ride any rides or play any games...other than perpetually stealing Aunt Kel's skee balls. Oh...and Evan wanted to ride a game that you couldn't ride.

Oh well. Here are some photos. Click on the slideshow to see bigger photos and to control the speed...

A pirate says arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhh....

A pirate says arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhh... from Rena on Vimeo.