Back in action!

Sorry for the absence! With work, a baby and all three of us battling colds recently, there hasn't been much time for blogging.

But I did do a little digging and found out why my photo uploader wasn't working - I had hit my 1G limit! My very nice camera has a downside - very large file sizes for photos. So I worked on shrinking down the existing photos and also purged a few too. Don't worry, there's still plenty of Evan on here, just maybe not quite as much.

And here's a few more! Even though he's one week away from being 6 months, here are his 5 month photos!!

5 months

** I apologize for the lack of pictures (I know that's why everyone comes on here!), but the blogger site is not cooperating! I've been trying for a few days with no luck. I promise the next set of block pictures will be up whenever it gets working again.**


Our sweet little boy isn't so little anymore! He's almost a whole half-year old!!

Not only did this last month include his first Christmas, Evan also had some major milestones. He of course has started eating solids and is now up to three meals a day (fruit in the morning, rice or oatmeal cereal at lunch and a vegetable at dinner). He has liked everything we've given him, except avocado and zucchini. We plan to try them again this week to see if we can get his palate on board with those flavors.

He also is rolling all over the place! This weekend he rolled from the middle of our living room to the wall within seconds. I know this because it occured as I quickly ran into the next room to get a cup of coffee. Thankfully flopping around on the wood floors didn't seem to phase him!

Thanks to the solids he's sleeping a lot better. We're not through the night quite yet, but he usually goes at least 8 hours and has done up to 10 1/2.

He starting to be even more vocal. He has found the "high-pitched" part of his vocal range. That's a fun noise!

He does really well playing. He grabs things well, transfers toys between hands, love to be read books (and hold them). He loves to bounce and jump. He can also roll to get toys that he wants. We haven't seen any scooting or crawling yet, but he looks like he's trying to figure out how to do it.

He continues to grow and grow, especially now that he's eating solids. He starting wearing 6-9 month clothes already, mostly for the length, but a little bit for the tummy area too. :)

Tickle Monster

We're not really sure if Evan is ticklish anywhere. Sometimes he laughs when we tickle his feet (like his Dad) and sometimes it's more in his stomach.

Today, Chris was tickling his tummy and got him really going. Of course, with everything, it was short-lived and Evan was over it. But I still managed to capture some of his super-cute giggles on camera!

The making of a Christmas card

We always send out picture Christmas cards. I was especially excited this year now that we've got someone else to include! Our usual pictures of the big fish we caught throughout the year will now be replaced by our sweet little man.

Thanks to a cute idea from Pinterest, we got Evan all dressed up in his Christmas Day outfit a few weeks early and wrapped up a box. We set him in his Bumbo chair and positioned him so it looked like he was in/right behind the present and put him next to the tree.

I was actually surprised by what happened next. I thought Evan was too young yet to get the whole "unwrapping" thing, but I should have known better. The kid loves to grab things and put them in his mouth, so why should paper and a bow be any different!

I snapped away as we laughed at his antics. Here is pretty much how it went down...

Here's the first one, so sweet and innocent....

...immediately followed by, "what's this?"

Can't decide what is more interesting - the bow, paper or ribbon

Eating it! (I love this one though. He is so determined!)

Again with the bow in the mouth.

 

Actually looking!

And smiling!! (This was the one that made the card.)

Just having a good old time, while Mom and Dad are desperately trying to pose him. Lesson learned!

 

We of course wanted to include a family photo as well. While Chris and I know that we're not the most important people anymore/the people our family and friends are interested in seeing pictures of, we still wanted one. The day after our present photo shoot, Evan was in a great mood and we were all put together since friends were coming over. We decided to try out the self-timer and had my doubts, but thanks to the bright flashing light that counted down the time until it went off, Evan was actually looking at the camera every time!

 

Merry Christmas, Merry Merry Christmas!

Evan had a VERY good first Christmas. Thank you to everyone who spoiled him with gifts and love!

We spent Christmas Eve with Chris' family and Christmas Day with mine, also stopping at Chris' aunt and uncles where Evan got to meet a lot of his extended family. Needless to say both nights he was very tired after all that partying - but he slept amazingly well thanks to that!

As I said, he was very blessed with lots of gifts and love. He got two gifts from Santa and one from Mom and Dad, plus a few goodies in his stocking. We opened those on Christmas Eve morning.

He is actually pretty good at ripping the paper! Loves to grab things and has a really good grip!

Also love to put everything in his mouth!

That's a BIG present for such a little boy!

Santa brought him a sports set - complete with a basketball hoop, spinning football and baseball.

 

Checking out his blocks set from Mom and Dad. This is by far his favorite thing right now. But he hates to have any of the blocks in the bucket, or the cover on top. He will dump them out and take off the cover himself. What a silly guy!

 

At Grandma and Grandpa Steinhoffs, Evan was of course spoiled with toys and clothes, but one of the coolest gifts he got was a lifetime fishing license! It's pretty much a given that he's going to be doing a lot of fishing in his life, so this is a wonderful and very useful gift. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

 

Christmas Eve outfit

Digging into my first present - a motorcycle from Uncle Steve that I can walk behind and ride on. Super cool!

 

Cuddled up with Santa...I mean, Uncle Steve!

 

 

Christmas Day meant spending time at Grandma and Grandpa Sell's house with Evan's crazy cousins :) Those three are going to be trouble in a year or so! He again got a ton of wonderful gifts. Evan loves, loves, loves books, so we often read one or two before bed, but Mom and Dad were getting a little sick of reading the same ones over and over, so we asked Auntie Kari and Uncle Josh, as well as Grandma and Grandpa for some new ones...and boy did we get them!

 



Here's all my new books! After this picture was taken, we read a bunch and he was so, so happy!!

 

Christmas Day outfit

 

Evan and his cousins!

Ripping into his present from Auntie and Uncle

 

This present is as big as me!

 

Grandma and Grandpa have stockings for all the kids. Evan's contained money for college, an ornament and some sweet potatoes, since he isn't quite ready for the usual Christmas treats :)

 

Thanks again for all of the gifts everyone! What a great first Christmas for our little man!!

Baby's first Christmas party

We used to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Day, but now that all of the cousins are getting older and many of us have children ourselves, we've moved the celebration to a weekend prior to the holiday. It's nice to still get together, especially this year since it is the first Christmas without my grandpa, so I'm glad we made the change. More people can get together this way!

One of the things we have always done with this side of the family is a gift exchange. Until we were 18, us cousins picked names and exchanged presents. Now that there is only one of my cousins left under that age, the cousin's kids are taking part!

So Evan received his first official Christmas present from my cousin's little boy. Coincidentally, Evan had his name too! A few of my always generous aunts also gave him a present since it was his first Christmas.

He is so good at grabbing things (something I learn every day having longer hair) that he can actually get ahold of the wrapping paper and rip. He of course has no idea that he's doing what he is supposed to, but it works!

Checking out his new stuffed snowman before unwrapping his "laptop" from my cousin's little boy

My grandma had an ornament for each of the great-grandchildren with their name on it and had them each put there's on the tree. Dad gave Evan the assist with his :)

Back the other way!

We knew this day wasn't too far off, but it seems crazy that it's actually happened! Evan rolled from his back to his stomach!!

He's been rolling onto his side for awhile and staying perched there, as if he wants to go over, but couldn't figure out how to get over his arm. So we knew it was just a matter of time before he got the extra "oompf" he needed to get all the way over.

Today we put him in his crib for a nap and he was fussing a bit, so we went to check on him and there he was, on his stomach!

When he got up from his nap, we put him on the floor and enticed him with a toy to do it again. I didn't get the first one he did for us on camera, but I did find my phone for the second one!

p.s. purely out of coincidence he is wearing the same sweatshirt he wore the day he rolled from his tummy to back! Must be a lucky shirt!!