Just a little more about Evan

Did you know he'll be two in a month?

Oh my!

Evan is pretty much hit the terrible two phase head-on. He was basically a brat all weekend.

But, we still love him. Why? Well, can you just look at that face and tell me he isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen in your whole life!

I love this little guy.

Evan has been doing some of the funniest things lately. I devoted a whole post to it earlier and I apologize that there weren't any pictures, but this is my third post for today, so these pictures will just have to tide you over.

One more funny thing that Evan's been up to is whenever he asks for more recently, he only says it in Spanish: mas. I do not know where he learned how to say this, Grandpa thinks it is from TV. As my own little two year old couch potato, this kid watches more TV and movies than I'd ever care to in a given day, Grandpa's probably right.

Well, we're as busy as ever and the next few weeks, or possibly months even are going to be absolutely insane. I haven't even taken 50 pictures this month! I cannot believe how busy we've been. Having fun and trying to enjoy life at the same time nonetheless.

New Beds

These pictures are in the exact opposite order I wanted them in. But too late, I'm not going to change it now!

I bought myself some new bedding this weekend. I've always had white or blue. I'm branching out here with the teal and cream. We are liking it so far!

What do you think?

Evan got a new bed too! We got him the same one as Ryan. I posted earlier that he was transitioning to the toddler bed. I really had just taken the front side off of his crib. Now that we've purchased our second Cars bed, he's been a little easier at bedtime, and he even took two weekend naps in it! Amazing.

I decided to rearrange the boys room when we took out the crib. I put the beds together thinking that maybe it would help Evan at bedtime since he'd be closer to his big brother. I was right and it has worked pretty well.

Evan's baby

Evan has had another phase, stuffies. He loves to cuddle and wrap his stuffies in blankies. He sometimes calls them his babies. He was playing with this cute puppy that the Easter Bunny brought him last year. He decided the puppy also needed a baba, so he let him take a drink too! This was one moment of cute in a weekend of crying and fussing. Wonder if he has an ear-ache or something.
Love you E!

Evan-isms

Evan has been doing some of the cutest little things lately. He is learning how to speak in longer sentences. He's putting together the cutest phrases.

During Christmas time he was saying, "Santa Clause is coming to town". It sounded a lot like "San-a coming now".

He also learned to say "Shake your booty". Sounds a lot like "shaka bootee".

He is becoming a real couch potato with all of the cold weather and yucky air. He'd watch movies all day long if I let him. He's constantly asking for "Dragon Movie On". The kids got this movie that came with Ryan's castle, some Imaginext thing with a dragon, we've seen it about a hundred times. Or, "Watcha Beast" (Beauty and the Beast).

Tonya says he's always the first one to say "thank you" and that it's then very contagious.

He'll tell everyone to dance, "buddy dance".

Today in the car we were stopped at a red light and he said, everybody go! "Buddy Go!"

Two words he says really funny are pepperoni and ketchup. I'll do my best on the pronunciation. Pepperoni is kind of like, "puppy-ony". And ketchup is like "ket-rup" or something.

He's had a love-affair with his jacket lately. He wants to wear it as soon as he wakes up in the morning. He has hated his pants and shoes lately too. Remember the one-shoe phase? So lately it's just the coat. He'll tolerate a shirt as long as I put that coat on him right away but he wants to wear his coat all day long. He'd wear it 24/7 if I'd let him, but he is still willing to take it off for bath time.

He fights me every single morning on the pants. I make him wear those though.

Shoes, well, we're lucky if we can keep them on his feet. He's usually the only kid in nursery that doesn't wear them and I've given up putting them on him in the morning until we're at our destination because they'll come off as soon as I get them on his feet. So I just leave them in the car and put them on when we arrive at wherever we're going.

He’s been mildly interested in using the toilet. I know he sees the rest of us using it all of the time, and he especially notices that his big brother does. He has taken off his diaper on a number of occasions. He doesn’t ever like to wear his pants, as I mentioned before. Every time he does use the toilet, he puts the lid up and straddles the seat sitting backward. Then he does a little tiny trickle and says, “good job”. I did pull out the “potty gum” today and he earned two pieces. I’m not putting away the diapers for now and I’m not expecting too much, but I’m excited to think that pretty soon we won’t have to buy those darn things any more.

Whenever Evan is trying to get my attention he does the funnies thing. He’ll repeat himself several times which I think is pretty normal, but when he can tell I’m really not paying attention he gets closer and closer to my face. I really need to have Colin take a picture of him doing this because it is just absolutely hilarious!

Evan loves lotion and chap stick. He tries to steal my chap stick all of the time. He says it sort of like “chick”. He pulls the lid off then rubs it all over his mouth and chin. He likes to rub the hand sanitizer and lotion into his tiny palms.

A Close-Call

So last weekend, on Martin Luther King Jr. day, we were all home and planning on heading over to the Auto Show, when our plans changed... Ryan and Evan were playing in my bedroom and there were some Lego's that had fallen behind the TV. Ryan was trying to get them out and decided to give the TV a big shove. It fell right on top of Evan.



I was in the next room, heard the crash, and then the screaming and ran in to see what had happened. I yelled for Colin's help and pulled the TV off of him. He was crying so hard and my very first thought was that his ribs were broken. Once we got him calmed down a little we realized that he was really favoring his leg.



So we decided to watch him for a couple of hours. I had a doctor appointment in Provo so I went to that and called Colin on my way home. He said Evan was still favoring his leg. I decided to make an appointment to see his pediatrician. After about 30 minutes I realized that they probably didn't have an x-ray machine there so I cancelled and took him over to the insta-care facility.



They were quite concerned about Evan and checked him out pretty well. The doctor decided to x-ray his spine and leg. The x-rays were pretty difficult because he didn't want to hold still and then got really freaked out by the x-ray machine coming closer and closer to him. I tried my best to hold him still without getting my own hands and arms in the way of the picture. The x-rays turned out really good and they were negative for any fractures. The doctor was still concerned about his skull because he had a big huge bruise on his ear and on his head behind that ear. So, she asked me to take him up to Primary Children's Hospital and called them to let them know that I was coming.



I was really nervous but at the same time I felt confident that if his leg wasn't broken that he was okay. Primary's is such a neat place. They really know how to take care of kids. The equipment, the staff, even the decorations are all just really nice for little kids and babies. The attending doctor there was very good as were all of the nurses and the resident.



They examined him pretty thoroughly and decided to take another x-ray of his knee. They thought that his femur may have been injured above the knee. Such a different experience inside of their radiology room. It took no time at all! The x-rays were again negative so they sent us home. Whew!



The co-pays were expensive but it gave me the peace of mind that I (and Colin, and Tonya) needed. We're glad he was okay, that nothing was broken, and that there were no other injuries. He's been limping a little all week and has taken quite a bit of Tylenol but today he hasn't had any at all! I think he'll heal pretty easily.

The Dreaded Toddler Bed

I'm not sure how the transition to toddler bed has gone for the rest of my mommy friends out there, but for us, it's been hard. Both times. When I was expecting Evan, Santa brought Ryan his "Cars Bed". I had no idea what I was in for. Finally one day in frustration, I got out my screw-driver and reversed the lock on his bedroom door so that I could lock him in there at nap-time. It worked. He went back to bed and don't worry, I always went back in to check on him.

So Evan started climbing out of his crib a few months ago and that crib has seen better days, it's not exactly super-safe. So, I took down the drop-side and have "converted" it in to a toddler bed for him. At least when he climbs out he's not dropping down four feet. He won't stay in his bed. He's been out of his bed as many as eight times in one night. While Colin was away at school last week, I really had my hands full with the bedtime routine. I finally figured out that if I turned the lights off in the rest of the house and locked my bedroom door, he'd give up and go back to bed. It worked pretty well. The first night he cried for about 10 minutes before he crawled into bed with Ryan. The second night it only lasted about 4 minutes. On the third night he actually got into his OWN bed for the night.

I don't usually have to give Evan a nap since he's at the sitter during the week. On Sundays (since we have late church now) he goes down pretty easily. Saturdays are the hardest. I think he fights nap time because Colin and I are home and he just wants to play. Suffice it to say that I almost got my screw driver out again, but in the end I didn't have to.

Best of 2009

Here's the Best of 2009 from the Lil' Dean Fam!


January: Dinosaur Museum

to Washington D.C. for Ocean's blessing

February:

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

March:

Moving into a house!

Evan turning One!

April:

Easter

Grandparents Ed & Veva Clegg celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary!

May:

Mother's day

Ryan finishing his first year of Preschool

Colin turning 29

Colin teaching me how to shoot a hand gun

June:

Goldman BBQ

Raining, Raining and more rain

When the sun came out we tried out the new Water Park

Cowabunga Bay

July:

Clegg Family Reunion at Cherry Hill

Swimming Lessons for Ryan

4th of July

August:

Visit from Nana

Ryan starting his second year of Preschool

Riding the Zipline at Utah Olympic Park

Ryan turning 4

7 Peaks Water Park

September

Camping with Grandma & Grandpa

October:

Colin & Jen taking a get-away to Vegas!

Halloween

November:

Thanksgiving with Great Grandma & Grandpa

Ryan's first bowling experience

December:

Evan's first hair cut!

Christmas!

Christmas Letter

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are planning many exciting events for New Years Day! We’ve had a great 2009 with lots of new adventures.

Colin: Colin is now more than half way finished with his Master of Business Administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University. In one short week he flies to Pittsburgh for a week of intense academics. We’ll miss him for sure! He’s still working full-time at Goldman Sachs in Salt Lake City and was recently promoted to Team Leader! He works a lot of long hours and in his downtime at home enjoys playing video games on the Xbox and is super excited to jump on the PS3 he just received for Christmas. He's the Cub Master in our ward and is still learning the ropes of the scouting program.


Jen: I’m still teaching fifth grade at Sprucewood Elementary in Sandy. It’s my seventh year and is proving to be a little challenging. I’m enjoying the work though and have a wonderful team and I really enjoy working with them. I miss my boys during the day but look forward to possibly staying home with them next year. I'm currently serving in the junior nursery in our ward. We have a lot of little kiddos but they are all so cute. I still keep up my blog as regularly as my schedule allows. I love digital photography and it’s been made so much more enjoyable with the Nikon SLR camera I received on my birthday this summer.


Ryan (4 years old): Ryan is so much fun to have around our home. He’s really smart and surprises us frequently with his newest nuggets of knowledge. He is in his second year of preschool and is learning how to read, write, and count. He loves cars, cartoons, and playing with his buddies. He's pretty good about sharing with his little brother and teaching him new things. It seems like he’s always on the go.


Evan (22 months old): Evan is really a funny little guy. He likes to entertain us with his own sense of humor. He’s in to everything. He follows his brother and me wherever we go and tries to see how many messes he can make and toys he can break. He’s learning to speak very well; he can pretty much say anything he wants to. Sometimes we have to figure out what he’s trying to communicate but overall he’s quite talkative. Evan loves playing with balls, stuffed animals and he adores bath time!


We are looking forward to Colin graduating in one year from this month, and I look forward to being a stay-at-home mother. Ryan is excited to be going to Kindergarten in the fall. Evan’s going to be turning two in March; I just can’t believe it!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May God be with you and yours this Holiday Season and in to 2010!

Love,
Jen, Colin, Ryan and Evan Dean

Evan's First Hair cut

Well Evan is 22 months old and has never once had his hair cut in any way, shape, or form. And, well, his hair was quite without any form. It was very long and was getting quite tangled and snarly every time he did anything. Gels and combs were of no help. So, we broke down and took him in for a haircut. I just love the way it turned out. He looks quite cute and very grown up. He was really good and held still for the most part. He didn't squirm when they brought out the razor to trim up his ears either. He loved the attention and was excited to have a balloon and a sucker when he was through. Here he is before.

Sitting in the airplane chair, it has a buckle!

Going in for the first snip. She saved a lock for me :)

This is him during the cut.

It's all coming off.

The stylist was trying to help me get him to smile by saying; "Show Mommy your teeth." So he grabs his teeth and starts saying, "teeth". Ha ha! He does know how to say "Cheese" when he's getting his picture taken.

Look, some style to that hair!

She thought he had pretty cute curl. Yeah, not really. At least not compared to Ryan or me.

Here he is all done, all cute, and enjoying his treats.

And running away from Mommy and the camera!

Christmas Afternoon

In the afternoon we went over to the Grandparents and did some Christmas gift exchanging with them. It was a lot of fun and a lot of craziness too. The kids had a great time and Evan had really figured out how to open gifts by then. Ryan got a Batman convertible car/airplane and has hardly put the thing down since. He would open a gift then go back to playing with the airplane. Evan got a fun Fire truck and he's had a lot of fun moving the levers around and making the ladder swivel. I'm super excited about my new spice rack, luggage, and dress boots!
Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts. We love them all, and we love all of you!
Ryan and Grandpa before opening gifts.

Evan with some new skater shoes!

Emry was excited about all of the ribbons and bows. Now that she's CRAWLING! she was glad to finally be able to really get in there and play with her crazy cousin boys.

Ry Ry

Jess and Emry. I was so glad that she liked the toy I got for her.

Cole, Justin and Dad being Paparazzi with it.

Mom opening an awesome Teflon pan!

And look, a shot of me!

What a wonderful Christmas it has been.