Below are some picts of Evan from about 2 months ago. Current ones are on the way.

Poop happy!

23 months
Evan pooped in the toilet tonight!
Yes, it's true. He had a little accident on the floor, so I told Evan "someday you can do this in the big potty." Then as I was filling up his bath, he was looking at the big toilet with great curiosity and interest, so I picked him up and sat him down, and, yes, he produced something.
HAHAHAHA!
We are deliriously happy. I wasn't expecting interest in the toilet to start for another 6 months. He’s gifted. :) Of course, my bragging means he will be out of diapers no sooner than age 4.

Sleep training
We started working on teaching Evan to sleep alone about 3 nights ago. Jerry sits next to his toddler bed while Evan has a tantrum, basically, until he falls asleep. The first night, this took 2 hours; the second night, 1 hour; and tonight, only 15 minutes. I always suspected we would have to use this method to get him to sleep alone, but we didn't want to do it when he was a baby and didn’t understand. But now he understands, and we think he's ready. Hopefully our good luck will continue. It’s nice to have our bed back, even though he’s pretty sweet to cuddle with.

Tantrums
They are horrendous. He might have 10-15 tantrums per day. He never has tantrums at daycare, only for us. His pediatrician recommended we use distraction instead of saying “no” as often, and choose our battles wisely. We went to the zoo on Father’s Day, and he had three major tantrums: one when Jerry made him stop chasing the peacock, one when we wouldn’t let him climb into the elephant’s cage, and one when we made him sit in his stroller. Oh, and the monster one was on the way home in the car. He can scream for 15 minutes straight. When he's not having one, he is laid back, very affectionate, sweet and happy. I guess it's the redhead in him.

2-year checkup
He had his 2-year checkup, even though he’s not quite 2 yet. He’s a bit on the short side: he’s in the 35th percentile for height, and 40th percentile for weight. This is interesting since he was such chunky newborn. He still looks husky, though. He also just got over his first ear infection (we had to hide his medicine in smoothies—he is very crafty when it comes to avoiding anything icky), but he’s now healthy.

The rest of life still feels pretty hectic. We are not 100% settled here yet. We love it here, but feel busy and frazzled a lot.

Evan and Lexi sittin in a tree...

Evan has his first girlfriend, and she's a two-year-old blonde bombshell. Ok, maybe bombshell is a strong word, but she's got big blue eyes and looks mischievous. They go to daycare together. Although there are about 6 kids in his room, Evan and Lexi often play alone, riding their trikes side by side. There is an outside play structure that has holes in it, and they like to peek through the holes at each other and then laugh hysterically. When they go back inside, they both find it funny to knock all the blocks off the shelves.

Next week Evan moves to the 2 year-old room (even though he's still a month away from his Bday), and Lexi will move with him. Although he cries bitterly whenever I drop him off there, he blows goodbye kisses to his teachers when he leaves and seems genuinely fond of them.

Because of his daycare, he can imitate an elephant (using his arm as the nose), and beat his chest like a gorilla. He brought home some finger-painted artwork, and colored in the letter X (learning letter recognition, I guess). A few days ago, Jerry and I caught him playing with his refrigerator alphabet letters, saying “A, E, O”… I was amazed because he pointed at A and said A, pointed at O and said O, but then pointed at L and G and said A. But still, he has the idea.

The tantrums have simmered down a bit. I think the fact that he was recovering from the flu and getting his molars a few weeks ago intensified them. He still has them if I give him juice when he wanted juice but then changed his mind and no longer wants juice. If we can’t read his mind, he will have a tantrum.

We absolutely love our new neighborhood. This is the first time we've had neighbors who have introduced themselves to us and been friendly. We even received a welcome basket! A welcome basket!! A few families right across the street have toddlers (most are around age 1 or are a little older than Evan), and almost all the families are our age. I want to put together a play date but am hiding behind my wall of shyness for now.

I’m working on a personal project, which I shall reveal later, and both Jerry and I are working on fixing up the house. I had no idea it would take this long. I thought it would be all painted by now, but we only have 1 ½ rooms done (it doesn’t help that we need to try 6 wall colors before deciding on one). We’re busy, but having so much fun.