HOA and October Activities

October is full of many activities every year.  Just in the past week we have attended several events.  Friday night was SpartOberfest at the local Catholic church.  We listened to awesome German music, ate mediocre food, and let the kids play in a jump castle for the first time (they were not impressed). Evan actually stood up and said, "out."  For him to speak it means he really does want out.  Alex just pouted and made a sad face. Neither boy bounced.

On Saturday my parents took them to their annual HOA party where they had a Halloween egg hunt with black & orange eggs filled with tiny toys.  The boys took their pumpkins and had a fun time.

Saturday evening we had our annual pictures scheduled with our good friend, Jessie.  She had her work cut out for her this year with two unwilling toddlers.  We will be lucky to see one good picture, but I have faith she can work miracles.

On Sunday morning we attended church and then went to Target for their Halloween activities, where they passed out toys, stickers, or candy at different booths.  The boys loved the stickers.  Alex self-applied his to his eye.  Evan ate his sticker.

Vince worked on motorizing the boys' toy car Sunday afternoon & evening.  He got it working via remote control!

Sunday afternoon we attended our HOA cookout and met several new neighbors, as well as some we had met at previous activities. I let the boys run loose several times and they loved walking up to strangers and shaking hands, or saying hi. 

It was a fun & busy weekend!

Evan's Preschool

Evan attends a special education preschool from 8am to 10:30am every day. He has Mrs. Melissa Revis as his teacher and Mrs. Lori Hogan as his assistant teacher.  He gets physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy at the school in between music, P.E. and classroom time.  He seems to really enjoy it.  Currently he is the only boy in a classroom of 7.

My Birthday

My birthday seemed to come & go very quickly this year. Vince and the boys got me beautiful diamond & white gold hoop earrings.  They are extremely sparkly. I love them (the earrings and the boys)!

My sister & her family, cousin Rachel & her family, and Billy & Eddie bought me a nice gift card to Firebirds.  My parents and Vince's parents gave me the gift of money (always a winner). My parents watched the boys so Vince & I could go out to eat with Jerry & Barbara to Firebirds.  The meal was excellent.  They had a special of surf and turf so we ordered that, with Vince eating the surf from my portion.

I picked out the carrot cake with warm salted caramel sauce as my dessert.  It was fantastic.  Vince ate some and he doesn't normally like carrot cake. Overall, it was a great birthday!

Pumpkins!

We quickly visited a pumpkin patch (or lot of pumpkins at a local church) in order to get our yearly picture with pumpkins.  The boys were all over the place and did not want to sit still for any pictures. These are the best I could get. My cousin, Rachel's sister in law designed the shirts for the boys. They look so cute in their ghost Mickey shirts!

Farmer's Day

Evan's school had Farmer's Day last week. We sent the school our large tractor cut out that we used at Evan's party last year.  I don't know if they used it since I didn't get any pictures of him with it, but I think he had fun.  I found Evan a new pair of John Deere overalls at the church consignment sale for $2.  What a steal! Alex wore a pair of overalls that belonged to Evan.  Both boys had to dress up even though only Evan goes to school. We played with straw hats and a John Deere cap.  Alex was less than thrilled to put on any hats.  Evan had fun time dressing up as a farmer.

Evan's SMOs (Ankle Braces)

Evan has started to show signs of some weak ankles lately. The weak ankles affect his knees, giving him a knocked-knee appearance.  His ankles have started rotating downward toward the ground, pushing his feet out wide. This pressure then travels up the legs and causes his knees to move inward towards each other. His physical therapist recommend SMOs (Supra-Malleolar Orthosis).  These are a special type of ankle brace that will keep his ankle in place, and therefore, correct his knees as well. They will also give him support for physical activities such as jumping and descending stairs.

I took before pictures of Evan's legs so we can mark his progress.

He did great during his first fitting today & walked around with no problems.

We should start to see results in 3 - 4 months.  

Alex's Learning Curve at 20 months old

Over the last week or so Alex has picked up on some key learnings.  He can identify the numbers 2, 8, and 9; the colors orange, blue, and green; and the letters E and O.  He repeats everything and says two-three word sentences (i.e. Bye, bye, mommy!).  He knows everyones' names and asks where they are all the time.  If you ask him where they are, he says "house" or "bye bye."  If you don't reply back when he tells you hi or bye, he just repeats it louder and louder until you answer.  It's amazing to see him grasping the English language so rapidly. He will answer questions with a no or a "uh huh" for yes. When I ask him to bring me something, he runs to find it and brings it to me right away.

He loves watching youtube videos on the iPad or scrolling through pictures on my iPhone. The fabulous things about Alex now speaking is that Evan is mimicking him a lot & speaking more as well.  Evan will respond to commands if his attention is not diverted to something else, but Alex is much more of a people pleaser and responds almost every time. They love on each other all the time and are usually right near the other one.  Evan has started showing some signs of jealousy, especially if Alex gets a drink and Evan does not. It's so cute that they pay attention to what the other one is doing whether playing or eating.

Both boys are growing taller by the minute!