Standing
Evan has gone through a tremendous growth spurt the last couple of weeks, not only physically but also developmentally. He shows more affection than ever before. He gives his mother sloppy wet kisses, hugs and great big yelps and hiccups whenever she is present. He lifts his arms to her to be picked up and cuddles in her arms. Few of these things he does for me, but I'm not at all jealous.
Not even a little.
Nope.
Not jealous at all.
Not me.
Nuhuh.

Yep.

I guess I'm the fun one. I'm the person that makes him gut laugh and we play and we wrestle and roll around and we generally have a great time together. The pinnacle of our grab-assin is when I put him on my shoulders and we dance around. He pulls my hair like reins on a horse and literally squeels with delight. I love that stuff. Lately, we've been playing a mild version of peek a boo. Mild because all I have to do is look at him quickly and he cracks up. To really get him I say boo, but really it is not necessary, the kids cackling till he's red already.

He's suddenly developed turbo boost and 10 arms. The boy is everywhere all at once and we're constantly fishing objects out of his mouth, objects the good lord only knows where he dug up. I would not be suprised if I dug Amelia Earhart out of there someday. He pulls himself up on everything and hasn't quite got the concept of gravity down because he just lets go and turns and as we're flying across the room to grab him he does the woobly jib jib woogy woogy 6-7-8 plop, but he doesn't cry much and he only has a couple bumps for the wear.

MmmmaaMmmmaa
Monday, February 23 at approximately 8:30 in the evening Mr. Evan uttered what we consider his first word... Mama.

YEEEEEOOOOWWWW!!!

All day he was making the MMMMM sound, and it's so cute when he does that because he does it with CONVICTION. His little lips roll into his gummy mouth so all you see is nose and chin and hear the MMMM-MMMMM-MMMM rolling from his throat. So as I was changing him, gettin him ready for his bath, he started MMMM-MMM-MMMMMM and I said, "Say MaMa," very distinctly maybe 3 times. He suddenly mimicked me and did the same. I didn't believe it at first so I did it again and he mimicked me again. I called Andrea in and he proceeded to do it a few more times until he got bored with our faces crowding him out and he let out his excited banshee yell.

And about this banshee yell of his. This is something else he developed over the last week. He now yells at the top of his lungs with a great gleeful smile and wide eyes and clinched fists and even though he is louder than an atom bomb, he's soooooo cute.

Yeah, tell that to the people around us trying to eat Thai food.

Finally, he's losing his "babyness". He's beginning to take on little boy traits and its exciting and very sad all at the same time. I got very sad once his hair thickened because I know I'll never see or kiss that little bald scalp again. I know its been said a million times, paretnhood is a series of heartbreaks and happiness, but nothing prepares you for the emotions.

The times they are a changin'
Last Tuesday we went to Thai Palace for my BIRTHDAY (I turned almost 30). I declined the offer from my mom to have her babysit because, after all, Evan is a perfect angel in public... he loves to sit in his high chair and look at people and eat baby food and it's all very peaceful and fun. At least it used to be.
We put him in his high chair and jerry gave me my B-day presents. One was from Evan -- eyeglass cleaner. The perfect gift from my boy who loves to put fingerprints on my lenses. The second one, from Jerry, was a sparkly garnet on a necklace, and before I had time to do the requisite looking into his eyes, saying thank you, and perhaps even sharing a short little kiss, Evan lets out this blood curdling scream. It was a happy scream, but it was a scream nonetheless, and it was followed by many more screams. I rushed through my pad ke mow and Jerry through his sweet and sour chicken and we quickly exited the restaurant. I might add that I didn't get my coconut ice cream.

This morning we went to breakfast at Tower Cafe and throughout the meal he stared at the lady at the next table. Of course, she was pretty. Whenever she looked at him, he smiled his gummy grin. He was actually hanging out of his high chair, leaning to one side in order to get a better look at her. We kept trying to distract him so the poor lady could eat in peace, but it was difficult. We were finally able to distract him with mashed bananas.

He's very social and happy. No signs of shyness.

He ate cat food
seven months
Jerry came in to talk to me while I was studying in the bedroom, and Evan was playing briefly by himself, and when Jerry went back into the living room, Evan was holding two fistfulls of Kit 'N Kaboodle, complete with cat water on his pants, and a light dusting of orange powder around his mouth. After cleaning him off, Jerry brought him to me and my boy had tuna breath! A baby should never, ever have tuna breath.
Later he tore a few pages out of the phone book. It was hard to take it away from him, he was so happy.
Right now he's pulling books out of my shelf. Let the fun times begin!

open mouthed kisses
almost 7 months (one day away!)
I've just received some very sloppy, open-mouthed kisses on my cheek. No, not from Jerry this time, from Evan, and he held it there for a good 10 seconds. He loves me.

A few moments ago he crawled over to our closet where we have a large mirror leaning against the back wall. He crawled over the dirty clothes (ew) to the top of the heap to smile at his reflection in the mirror. Then he began the 10-minute ordeal of patting the mirror and making his bird-like noises (back of the throat gurgling noise -- sounds a little girly).

He has also been pulling himself up to a standing position! How is this happening so quickly? I ran into the next room just long enough to change the laundry, and when I came back into the living room, he was holding himself in a standing position, grabbing a box of files with both hands. I wasn't quite sure how he got there. Later he crawled over to the same cardboard box full of files, pulled himself from a crawling position onto his knees, then made loud grunting noises while he pulled himself from his knees to a standing position. I was standing behind him. He then twisted his upper body, held one arm out to me, and fell into me. Does this mean he wants to walk? Cuz I don't think I'm ready.

Evan likes kitty cats
6 1/2 months
Evan seems enamored by Kramer, our six and-a-half year old cranky cat, and stares at him with wide eyes and a look of amazement. Usually he tries to grab Kramer's ears or face and I rescue them both, or Evan goes after his food dish (where he has swirled his hands in the water a few times), or he pinches a handful of fur. So far Kramer's response has been to stay as far away as possible. Today, Evan was lying on his back on the bed and I was near him, and Kramer walked over to him and then stepped over Evan's body to get to me, and while the cat was standing on Evan's legs, Evan started cackling and laughing. He thought it was hilarious that this big, furry creature was standing on him. Later he pinched some big handfuls of fur and the cat took off running.