Greek Festival

Vince & I took Evan to his first Greek festival last Sunday.  I met my book club on Sunday afternoon in downtown Greenville while Vince & Evan took a stroll down to the falls.  After my book club meeting (we discussed Snowflower & the Secret Fan), we went to the Greek Festival.  They have entertainment, shopping, and good food.  Evan is too little to ride any rides, but we showed them to him.  I bought some olive oil & we had some great food.

Happy Baby

I know I keep going on about it, but Evan really is the happiest baby I've ever been around. He wakes up happy and only cries when he's wet or getting a little bit tired & even then it's only for a minute or two.  He is really smiling more & more every day. Vince can get him to smile all the time.  He usually smiles at me when he's on the changing table & just got a new diaper on.

I went back to work on Monday.  It went by fairly quickly & I had a good day at work.  Barbara & Jerry did great with Evan.  He is going to thrive with so much love around him all the time.  We are so blessed to have such a good happy baby!

Last Week Home

This is my last week home with Evan before I have to go back to work.  I can't believe my 11 weeks is almost up.  The time has really flown by.  I keep hoping to win the lottery in the next few days, but I don't think it's going to happen.  Evan has slept from about 9pm to 6am for the last several nights in a row.  That is such a great trend & I hope he keeps it up for when I'm back at work. This week he has been busy trying to grab toys.  He still isn't quite grabbing them on purpose yet, but when he gets one, he doesn't like to let it go. They are now going toward his mouth when he grabs them, but his aim is a little bit off. 

He is eating 2 to 4 ounces with each feeding.  Today I tried him on a slow feed nipple on a regular bottle instead of his special nipples.  He did great with it!  So we are graduating to the regular bottles starting tomorrow. He has been using a nipple designed for cleft palate since he was born & did not tolerate the other nipples without choking. These special nipples are called "Y" nipples and are hard to put together so it will be nice to not have to put them together any more.

We practice tummy time every day.  He can no longer use the boppy as he likes to crawl up over it in about half a minute. So we have to do it on the floor now. He has some strong legs & they are ready to take him somewhere. He smiles every now & then now too.  Not as often as I would like him to, but he does smile.  I'm waiting for him to really start laughing along with his smiles.

I've had several cake orders the last couple of weeks and I have several more for this coming weekend.  Between the cakes and the baby, I have a full day. And here are some cute pictures for the week.

Mother's Day Weekend

I was so thrilled to experience my first Mother's Day with my family here in town.  Billy, Mom, & Dad arrived Friday evening.  Dad picked up Kim in Atlanta on Saturday and brought her back here.  It was the first time Mom had all three of us together with her on Mother's Day in a long time. Evan is smiling more & more every day and gave everyone smiles this weekend.  He slept at least 7 or 8 hours both Friday and Saturday night.  It was so nice.  Although, I keep waking up throughout the night when I hear him making noises in his sleep. I do fall asleep more easily when I don't get up with him, so it's nice when he stays asleep.

Evan is learning to look at toys and grab them on purpose.  We're trying to get him to do it with more of a focus instead of when it happens to hit his hand. He grabbed a few toys this weekend.

 

Billy bought him a matching hat & blanket.  He is sporting the hat in this picture.

 Evan has some funny little grins.

 Papa liked making faces with Evan.

 We dedicated Evan at church on Sunday morning.  He woke up just a few minutes before church started so he was awake during the whole service.  I changed him right after the dedication hoping he would last through the service. He made it about 35 minutes and then started crying due to a wet diaper.  He almost made it through the service without fussing!  They have a nice changing room at the far end of the children's wing of the church.  I also fed him while we were in there and he went right to sleep in the car on the way to lunch.  We had a great lunch at the Rose Cottage where we snapped lots of pictures of us all dressed up.  I was hoping to get some pictures in the garden, but it rained all day.

 Grandmama & Papa got lots of smiles out of Evan this weekend.  Papa managed to capture them on the camera.

I have only one more week home with my little baby.  It's going to be hard to go back to work full time without being part of his daily schedule. I keep buying lottery tickets in hopes of winning big so I can stay home more with him. It's nice since I know his schedule & when he likes to eat, sleep, or play.  I hope he keeps up a good schedule so that he continues to sleep well at night.

Cookout with Friends

 Logan, Jocelyn, and Evan (in order of birth & weight)

 Danielle with Logan, Jessie with Jocelyn, and Me with Evan

On Sunday afternoon, Vince, Evan & I enjoyed a cookout with friends in Greenville.  Both Danielle and Jessie were pregnant at the same time I was so we wanted our babies to get together. Thad & Danielle hosted us & held a great cookout. Our friend Garrett & his daughter, Addison joined our families for dinner as well.

2 Months Old

Evan is already 2 months old.  We just brought him home from the hospital not too long ago.  He was so tiny & all the newborn clothes were really big on him.  He has just outgrown most of the newborn sizes this week.  He has grown to 23" long and weighs 8 lbs 11 oz.  He has really started smiling this week and laughing along with making the coo sounds.  He is really studying faces and toys. He especially laughs at Vince and the dog on his bouncy seat.

I had 240 cupcakes and a small cake to do for a wedding this weekend.  So Jerry & Barbara came over Friday to help watch Evan while I started baking. He had lots of good attention on Friday.  I think he only went through 20 diapers.  He can wet a diaper faster than any other baby I know. He loves to clasp his hands together and kick his feet all the time. He looks so excited in this picture when I gave him his 2 month cupcake.  He almost kicked it several times.

He is holding his head up better & better.  I am still practicing tummy time with him every day & we try to read him a book every day. He is a very happy 2 month old!

Focus

Just this week, Evan has really started focusing more on his toys and faces of people.  He really watches his toys in the cradle, above his swing, and the dog on his bouncy chair.  He is even talking to them by cooing at them.  He smiles at the toys and at people more & more every day.  Yesterday he really smiled a lot.  When he gets very excited, he kicks his arms and legs and does a funny heavy breathing. He changes so much every day!

He focuses now on each page when you read him a book.

 His grandparents get to see him often.

 He has his daddy's feet.

 He loves his bouncy chair.

 He got to meet his Aunt Peggy.

 He likes to hang out at his grandparents' house.

Evan has already had a busy week & it's only Wednesday! The next goal I would like for him to achieve is to reach for and grab toys on purpose.  So let the toy dangling begin!

He has had a few nights where he slept 9 hours, then 7 hours.  But last night he only slept 5 hours.  I was hoping he would go the other way.  Hopefully as he gains more weight, he'll start sleeping longer on a consistent basis.  He's drinking about 3.5 ounces most feedings.  He even tries to help hold his bottle. He is such a good baby.