Our independent one

Evan is slowly leaving his babyhood behind and becoming a boy. I'm not sure if it's the transition to staying home with Jerry full-time, or the passage of time, but Evan is blossoming.

He's more independent than ever before. Just a month ago, he wanted me to carry him everywhere. And while it was sweet and I loved being close to him, the kid's heavy. Now he wants to walk everywhere. Of course, that means he gets distracted by every rock, blade of grass, empty Coke can, and pile of dirt along the way, but it still is better. And he wants to help with everything... he likes to hold his cup out (with both hands), while we pour him milk or juice.

Also, a month ago, he would almost always choose me if he needed to be comforted. Now he goes to Jerry and says, "dada," and curls up to him. You'd think I'd be jealous, but I'm happy. They're so cute together. Plus, he still loves me.

Our apartment complex has a big park in it. We can walk out our front door, go down a path, cross a little faux bridge with a man-made creek underneath, then make our way to the park. Evan loves to ride his trike with Jerry during the day. He loves to stop and throw rocks in the creek. Jerry usually has to stop him just before Evan's created a dam. And he loves the park... he's good at climbing.

I've started singing the alphabet song to him while he's in the bath. For some reason, that's the only time I think of it. He stops what he's doing and claps. The other night he tried to sing along. It sounded something like this: "bee bee bee bee bee bee bee..." Tonight I started to sing it, and he violently shook his head "nooooo." I guess I was singing off key.

When he says no, he really makes it clear. He shakes his head for about 5 minutes and says, "noooooooooooooooo," while rolling his eyes far up in his head. I've never actually seen him say Yes before.

Today I sat down to read him a book, and he opened it to the last page, pointed at the book, then at his toe, and said, "ta ta ta..." I looked at what he was referring to, and that page was describing a boy who could wiggle his toe. Later, he pointed at an apple and said "apple," with perfect pronunciation!