It's been a little while since my last blog update on Evan, and what better date to post than on Valentine's Day! Seth and Evan both had a fun Valentine's Day - fun at home, cute cards and gifts, and a fun party for Seth at Tiger School. Evan got to watch Seth make homemade Valentines this weekend, and I'm sure Evan will be right in the mix doing this next Valentine's Day!

The big excitement of the week is that little Evan is learning how to walk at just about 13 months old! He has been taking a step or two since he was about one year old, but the past week or so he has really taken off! First, they told us at daycare that he would take three or four steps between objects or people (when he would forget that he was supposed to be holding on), but we couldn't get him to do it for us at home. Now all of a sudden he's gotten more daring, and he is taking more like 6-10 steps, and he does it at home! He is so cute - he's still such a little guy, and he looks so cute on his shaky little legs. He gets so excited for himself, and when we cheer for him, he gets this big grin on his face:

I'll do a little recap of his milestones since the last update so you can see what led up to this big event:

At 10.5 months:

• Seth taught Evan how to clap! It was so cute - Evan was in his exersaucer, and Seth showed him how to clap his little hands together - very sweet!
• Evan is sleeping more reliably through the night - 9, 10, or 11 hours.
• He has really been learning his baby signs - he's an expert at signing "more" now.
• He is eating a lot - he is one hungry baby! It's very exciting - he is not a picky eater, so we are trying to make sure we offer a variety of foods to keep him interested.

At 11 months:

• Evan has had a lot of practice pulling up to standing, and he figured out how to pull up in his crib and playpen! This necessitated a quick lowering of his crib mattress. It's cute to see his little head sticking up over the playpen and crib.
• Evan is no longer sleeping reliably through the night - we can't quite get a good groove with that!
• Evan is standing for a couple seconds at a time, mostly when he forgets he should be holding on.
• When he's standing up and holding on to something, he likes to reach out one little arm, as if he's sizing up the distance to the next object to think about if he can make it.
• He can bend down to pick something up while he's standing and not lose his balance.
• He puts items both in and out of boxes.
• He loves to throw things on the ground - the beginning of the "I drop it and you pick it up game."
• He is getting two more teeth - bottom left lateral incisor and top right lateral incisor - for a total of seven teeth.
• He is not biting when he is nursing anymore (thank goodness!), but he is slowly becoming more interested in food than nursing.
• When he notices he has thrown something and it goes under the couch or the bookcase, he will bend down to look for it.
• He likes to hand things to us, but he doesn't actually let go of them - just wants to show us, I guess!
• Poor Evan had his first real fever, vomiting, cold illness - he was so sad for a few days, and we were so glad when he was feeling better.

12 months:

• Evan has finally given up the army crawl and started crawling on all fours. This has increased his mobility greatly!
• He also can finally get himself from a crawling position to a sitting position, and sit up pretty much whenever he wants without falling over.
• He has starting to take a step or two and is thinking about this whole "walking thing."
• He loves the water - the bath, swimming lessons - he is definitely a water baby and loves to kick, kick, kick!
• He is starting to resist diapering and dressing and is so SQUIRMY when we are changing him!
• He is getting tooth #8 - right bottom lateral incisor. Now he has the four middle teeth on both the top and bottom. Next we'll be on to molars!
• Was just about 20 pounds and 29 inches at his one year check-up. We had to switch him to Seth's carseat, and we got Seth a new one. Changes!
• He is finally getting the hang of drinking whole milk from a sippy cup. He is still nursing, but he was also ready for cow's milk. He's finally figured out how to drink from his sippy cup (converted bottle) and that it can provide nourishment, and now he will drain his milk!
• He is an active little man, always on the go! He doesn't like to snuggle as much as he did, and it is rare that he will fall asleep on us anymore, though occasionally he might let me rock him to sleep.
• He loves to be chased, and anticipates when Jason will chase him around or I will crawl after him. He starts giggling before we can even get started!
• Evan and Seth are the best of buddies - they will often get each other laughing - a preview of what is to come, I'm sure!
• He really likes to play the drop it game, especially with his milk cup - we'll say in our joking voice "Don't you drop that..." and he'll pretend to drop his cup and start laughing hysterically!
• When we put him to sleep in his crib, he likes to stand up and wave to us, and sometimes to touch our hand. Now, sometimes we will go to touch his hand, and he will pull it away and laugh before we can touch it!

Right around 13 months:

• Evan has learned how to dance! He likes to bop up and down on his little legs and pump his arms back and forth. Can't get much cuter - family dance party!
• He has started pointing at things he wants or at people!
• Walking!
• Evan is a little baby of extremes - it seems he is either super happy, or extremely forlorn. If he finishes a cup of milk, he cries like there is no more milk left in the whole world. I am sure it is just part of being such a busy baby trying to figure it all out!
• Evan eats pretty much anything - fish, peanut butter, broccoli, scrambled eggs.
• He drinks a lot of cow's milk, and still nurses in the morning and at night, or more if I am at home that day. I am not going over to nurse him at daycare as much anymore.
• Evan is still taking two naps a day, and goes to bed for the night around 7:00pm. He sleeps 9 or 10 hours, but unfortunately this means he is up for the day at 4:30 or 5:00am. Jason and I take turns getting up with him, but it is sure early. We are thinking that he might switch soon to one nap a day and hopefully this might make his morning wake-up time a little later!
• Evan is a busy little baby signer - he can do more, wave, eat (a vocal eating sound), where is (shrug of the hands), wave for night night/tired, all done, so big. (However, as he learns new signs, he seems to stop doing the first ones he's learned!) We are still working on the sign for help.
• He also is a busy little talker - words include mama, dada, eth (Seth), ish (fish), this, ma ma ma (more), that. He is working on bye bye and repeating other words.
• He is learning receptive vocabulary and can wave when asked and give a kiss when asked.

Our little once-a-newborn boy is still a baby, but definitely learning lots of new and exciting skills. He is so full of energy and excitement, and is so sweet and loving. Seth is having a blast with him, and we are just waiting for him to take off walking across the whole living room!