1st day of day care!

Evan (and mom and dad) survived the first day of day care!  He was a little fussy, but that's to be expected.  He only went for four hours today, but tomorrow will be a full day.  We'll see how that goes.

Evan and Ms. Esrene

(That's Oaklee in the bottom right corner.  She's eight days younger than Evan.)

Evan and Ms. Paulette

Home, home on the range.

When we bought our home a little over a year ago, we never expected to encounter so much wildlife in our backyard. 

There have been a lot of wild turkeys in the yard lately.  Just a couple weeks ago they were, literally, running across the road.  Sounds like the beginning of a really lame joke, but it's true.

This little doe came to visit us on Father's Day.

Evan wanted to help daddy mow the lawn, but the mower is too loud and bumpy for this little guy.

Instead, Evan and I walked around exploring and discussing all the trees in the yard.  He was very intrigued.

Day care debacle!

Well, we thought we had day care all figured out.  Evan was set to begin on September 6.  We visited the day care in June, completed our paperwork in July, and got a confirmation phone call in August.  Then on Thursday, 7 business days before we were supposed to begin, we received a phone call from the day care saying they made a huge mistake and double booked Evan's spot.  They explained that the other child who was double booked with us has an older brother in day care, which means she has priority over us.  Basically, they bumped us out.  After many discussions with the director of the day care, we found out the real story.  The other family was in the process of adopting a child.  The adoption was supposed to be complete in November, which was perfect because the day care had an opening in November.  Unexpectedly, though, the adoption was expedited and the child is here now and needs day care in September.  Even though we followed all their steps to a "T", we are left out in the cold without child care.  I even spoke with the deacon of the church who is apparently head over their private school and day care.  He apologized for their mistake and asked for forgiveness, but kept saying we actually did not have any claim to the September spot in the first place.  He said for it really to be our spot, we would have had to take a tour, meet the teachers, fill out the paperwork, receive the handbook, and get a confirmation call.  There's a lot of hoops to jump through before you can actually claim a spot.  The thing is, we had done all of those things.  He seemed taken aback when I explained this little technicality, but stuck to his story that we never had any claim to our spot in their day care, and got pretty nasty with me on the phone.  Not the behavior I would expect from a deacon of a church.  He did "promise" that we would have the next open spot, no matter what, although he refused to put that in writing.  He said his word is good and we can trust him, but he doesn't put things in writing because "things change" and he doesn't want to get stuck going along with something because it's in writing.  He'll have to forgive me, but I have absolutely no trust in this man's "word" whatsoever.

So, we spent Thursday afternoon on the war path, hunting down a new day care.  We have settled on another day care in town that, because of a kid moving away and two kids having birthday's and moving up to the next classroom, will only have four babies in the classroom come Monday.  Evan will begin day care this Tuesday, making him the fifth baby.  Our state requires a 4:1 ratio, so with five babies, there will be two teachers in the room.  Plus, even though this day care is more expensive, they price match other day care's in town.  And, they give a $5 discount if you set up auto-payment.  That means we're actually going to pay $5 less per week than with the other place.  We spent some time visiting our new day care yesterday afternoon and got a chance to meet one of the teacher's and play with the other kids.  Evan seemed pretty comfortable and we're happy with our new day care.  I guess it all worked out in the end.  We'll post pictures on Tuesday of Evan's first day at "school"!!

Trying to make a break for it!

Evan found a comfy spot on the couch and is ready for football to start.

Reading one of his favorite books.

Evan and friends.

Evan loves playing with all of his toys, but there are a couple stuffed animals that have become his best friends.  The teddy bear's name is Brody (he came named, we didn't pick that) and he is a "pacimal."  That's a pacifier/stuffed animal.  Brody has a pacifier attachment sewn to his head to help keep the pacifier in Evan's mouth while snuggling.  Evan doesn't really care about this feature, though.  He's just as happy to eat Brody's nose, ears, arms and legs.  Basically, whatever he can most easily get into his mouth at any given time.

This is "Blue Bunny."  He is probably Evan's favorite right now.  Blue Bunny (Yes, we made that one up ourselves.  Very creative, huh?) is super soft and super snuggly, and has a jingle bell in his bum for added fun.  Nothing says "I love you" like a head lock!

But really, who needs toys when you have two perfectly good feet to play with?

Evan's impressions

I already posted this picture of Evan's Rodney Dangerfield impression, but Chris thought I should re-post for comparison.  When Evan was first born, he did a pretty good Elvis impression.  Can't wait to see what he comes up with next!

Evan had a great week spending time with daddy, yia yia and grandpa while mommy was at work.  Besides playing with Evan, yia yia helped us out by doing laundry,cooking dinner and keeping the house tidy  Her hard work allowed Chris and I to spend a lot of extra time with Evan. Thanks so much, yia yia!  

We're trying to prepare Evan for day care by getting him into a daily routine.  So far, we've learned that mom and dad need to go to bed earlier just to keep up with the little guy!  I think we're making progress, but Evan still rules the roost and we're trying to take cues from him on when he needs to eat and nap.  It's a tough process (especially since he seems to be going through a growth spurt), but I think we're well on our way to establishing a schedule.

Having fun with yia yia.

So happy!

Evan's Rodney Dangerfield impression.

He has more toys than he knows what to do with, but he would rather play with...

...a burp cloth...

...his socks...

...and his feet.

We can hardly keep his socks on now that he's discovered his toes.

Just like mom.

Evan has decided he likes to sleep on his left side, just like me.  It's kind of funny how he lies in bed (or in his swing if he's napping) kicking and grabbing his feet, but as soon as we roll him on his side he closes his eyes and falls right asleep.  He actually rolls himself over a lot of the time, which is how we discovered his new sleeping preference.

3 months old!