Archive for the ‘Firsts’ Category

All posts in Firsts category.

Evan’s First Penn State Game

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts

Amy and I were planning on going to the Northwestern game (Penn State was in town) and we went back and forth over taking Evan with us. It was a night game, he did not have a nap, would he be interested, etc? At the last minute he asked us if he could go so I of course could not resist. By Evan’s age – I was already committed to going to Penn State so I thought I would give him the same chance. I did not get any commitment from Evan that he wanted to go to Penn State but overall he had a pretty good time.

With that said, if you ask him what his favorite part of the game was he will tell you it was going home. His second favorite thing was getting to hug the Nittany Lion (pretty lucky guy). He also liked screaming with the other fans, and eating the big hot pretzels (he had 2).

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Evan’s Robot

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Categorized: Firsts

I came home the other day and saw that Amy and Evan were outside drawing on the sidewalk. Evan has been known to make circles and even some rough people sketches from time to time but I was pretty impressed with is robot drawing. Nice work Evan!

Amy’s robot drawing can also be seen below.

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First Day of School

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts, School

Evan had his first day at pre-school today. He has his same teachers as he did last year and he was quite excited to go back. Hard to believe the next time we take this picture he will be going to Kindergarten!

The Ladies’ Man

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts, General

Well – I cannot say this for sure, but I think I witnessed Evan’s first kiss yesterday. Ginny and I picked him up from pre-school and on his way out he was looking around for his friend to say goodbye. He found her, gave her a big hug, and then kissed her on the lips and told her he would miss her. Ginny and I both had to laugh a little – as did the girl’s mother. Look out ladies – Evan is on the prowl ;)

Evan’s First Day of Pre-School

Posted by: Jen | 2 Comments »

Categorized: Firsts, School

E in front of school

Today was E’s first day of pre-school (how time flies!). For the first day – the school wanted to have the parents go with the kids for one hour to give everyone an idea of what to expect. Everything is scheduled – which is great for E as he has been able to do pretty much whatever he wants whenever he wants during the day (pluses and minuses). As soon as you get there each day – the kids have to wash their hands and can then go into the back room and freely play for 15 minutes. There is a sand station, a table for Play-Doh, a few easels for painting, and a little house/kitchen area.

E playing

When the fifteen minutes are up – the kids then go into the front room where they all sit around in a circle and sing some songs and listen to the teacher read a book. When that is done – they then learn about the craft for the day that they are going to make (it relates to the book they just read), and can go and play either in the front or back room and/or make the craft. After awhile of that – the teacher rings a bell which signals the kids to put all toys away and go back into the front room for some final activities (more songs).

We live a few blocks from his school so we walked there and back on a beautiful fall day. Evan looks forward to going back – and so do I…since I forgot his backpack on the first day. Hey – at least I remembered it…after initially forgetting it. ;)

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Why?

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts

I knew it was coming – but I was not ready for it when it actually did. On Friday Evan started asking “why?” about everything anyone said to him. At first I decided I would humor him and go as many levels deep as needed – but after everything I said spurred another “why?” – I quickly got exhausted.

A perfect example happened when we were in my car on our way to O’Hare to drop off Grandma Z. Evan is really big into letters and words now and when he sees a word – he always wants you to tell him what it is. He saw the “Warning” on my passenger sun visor (about air bags) and he started off by having Grandma Z read the word “Warning” to him. He quickly wanted to know what the other words were so Grandma Z read him the whole warning and soon got asked “why?” about the statement. I decided to humor him and we went about five levels of why deep until we got into why doctors worked at hospitals. (Warning – serious injury can occur… > Why > because even though the air bag is made to help people – it can also hurt kids, etc > Why > if a child sits in the front seat and the airbag deploys during an accident – they will need to go to the hospital > Why > that is where all the doctors are to help people who get hurt > Why > the doctors work together at one place with all the equipment so they can effective treat people…

All in all – this got really old (instead of cute) by yesterday morning. There are two outcomes I can hope for this this…

  1. Keep asking a string of why’s until I can get to the start of the universe (theories like the Big Bang/Multiverse)
  2. Start having him tell me creative answers to why

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The Water Slide

Posted by: amy | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts

Luckily Evan and I have been able to get out of the house a few times to go to the local neighborhood pool. We generally went to a small pool that was gated in and only was about a foot deep with fountains and a spray area. This year I felt Evan was ready for the bigger pool, but at this pool I have to go into the water….the ninety degree weather has helped with this.

The big pool has a zero depth area and then goes to your usual 6-8 feet deep. There is a small frog slide, a medium water slide and then a huge water slide that you would see at a normal water park. There is also a waterfall area where it is about 3-3 1/2 feet deep and I stand in the water and Evan jumps off the edge. Background done….

First let me say that Evan’s swimming has improved immensely. He puts his goggles on and can actually swim under water for about a foot or so…no fear. This particular day, Evan got up under the waterfall and was ready to jump in. Just then I see his eyes wander to the huge water slide, he looks back at me, and then back at the slide. Next thing I know he is running to the huge slide and climbing the three flights of stairs. So I have to jump out of the pool and also run across the deck….hoping to not see any of my students since they often frequent this pool as well. He has gotten a good lead on me and as I am running I ask another life guard, “someone will stop him at the top, right?” they say yes, but I am still concerned he is going to get up to the top and jump right into this huge water slide. So I am now running up the three flights of stairs, teenagers are parting for me to run by and I finally get up to the top and Evan is talking to the lifeguard, he of course is saying Evan cannot go on because he is not tall enough. Poor guy.

We tell him over and over that he is a big boy and then we have to tell him he is not big enough….crazy. This was a day I wished I had a child with just a little shyness :) .

Evan and the Alpaca

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts, Friends

When we were in NY last week – we went to one of my friend’s house who raise Alpaca. We were fortunate enough to get a history of the Alpacas, pet some, and see a lot of the amazing things they do with the Alpaca fur. Thanks to Mager Mountain Alpacas and my childhood neighbor Tiff for the tour!

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Summer Camp – First day at “school”

Posted by: amy | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts

Evan started summer camp this summer – three days a week for two hours each day. The theme this session is “100 Acre Woods” – so each day they focus on a different aspect of Winnie the Pooh. Evan had a hard time adjusting the first few days, he did not want us to leave him. We did not get a call though, so he must have forgotten he was sad as soon as we left him. He now is comfortable and sometimes does not even say goodbye to us when we leave. It is interesting to try to get details about the day from him…we get bits and pieces and try to figure out the day. I now know how all parents feel when they ask their child how his/her day was at school. It is adorable to pick him up and see that huge smile come across his face :) .

Evan’s First Movie: Toy Story 3

Posted by: Jen | No Comments »

Categorized: Firsts, Friends

Evan watching previews

Last weekend, Evan, Denise, and Susan took Evan to his first movie: Toy Story 3. Evan absolutely loved the first two Toy Story movies and was really excited to the see this in the theatre. He enjoyed the movie, popcorn, and candy. He sat through the entire movie and commented many time about “it is so dark”.

Evan has enjoyed the movie Wall-E (another Disney/Pixar film) several hundred times and it was extremely cute. When the movie started and they showed Cinderella’s castle (representing a Disney movie) he yelled “Wall-E” – as in he thought he was going to see Wall-E. As cool as that would have been – he enjoyed his first movie and looks forward to seeing more.