Growin' Up Like My Dad!

Evan's favorite phrase lately is, "Growin' up like my dad!"  While stepping up on tiptoes and lifting his hand as high as he can.  If he's asked how old he is he'll answer "I Emen," (his name) then say that he's growing up like his dad.  I get a kick out of it every time, I just wish other people understood what he was saying!

Castle Point at Stevens University- we went up for lunch with Dad. 

Evan has been really cute lately, and a complete terror!  I am waiting for the day he outgrows these terrible twos!  He is constantly going, going, going, and then sleeping.  He's incredibly dramatic, from throwing himself on the floor because he can't pull his chair out at the table to screaming for joy that his pillow case is newly washed and he can have it back.  I thought girls were supposed to be the dramatic ones but when it comes to my kids the roles are reversed!

Evan and his baby

At times Evan seems all boy.  He runs and jumps off of everything, throws toys (and anything else he can get his hands on), and he loves rough and tumble play with Dad.  He does have the nurturing instinct too, and he loves taking care of his baby doll.  The doll used to be Mykee's but since we have two and this one is blue, it has become Evan's.  He wants to take it with us wherever we go.  It has become almost as important as his blanky!  He loves to pretend to feed it, bathe it, and talk to it.  He will hand me the doll and say, "You make Baby talk?"  Then I have to pretend the baby is talking to his "Daddy" and Evan plays along.  It's so sweet though, he looks so sincere and in love with his baby!

We had a dramatic adventure with Mykelle Wednesday night at McDonald's...  We had just gone in and I was ordering for us while Mykee and Evan ran over to the fortune teller machine (think the movie Big).  I heard a loud thump and looked over to see Adam holding Mykelle while she was screaming, I could see an employee mopping the floor and a "slippery when wet" caution sign on the floor.  I also thought I could see something on Mykee's forehead but then, it would be way to quick to have a bruise there already, right?  WRONG- she had a giant bump on her head that looked awful!  The manager came out and told us they'd pay for the hospital visit if we wanted to take her to the ER and the employees that saw Mykelle's head were suggesting we do just that.  Meanwhile, the lady mopping just kept mopping (grrr...).  I felt so bad for my poor baby but was pleasantly surprised by the manager's compassion and offer of help.

Mykee's bump, not so swollen any more!

Mykelle was so strong (as she reminds us multiple times a day, "I bumped my head at Old MacDonald's and only cried not very much because I'm such a STRONG girl!!")  I thought for sure she'd want to go home right after but she wanted to go to soccer class and then to a party afterward and did fine through it all!  If I had hit my head that hard I think I would have milked it for a week! (I know Dad, you are thinking of the bee-sting right now aren't you...?:)

Just added this photo 5/21- Mykelle woke up with swollen eyes and her face is turning purple by the nose and under the eyes!

Even worse the next day:

Yesterday morning the kids were eating their breakfast of oatmeal and toast when Evan dumped a spoonful of his oatmeal onto the floor.  I immediately snapped at him for making a mess and Mykee said, "Look Mom, a face!"  So I went from upset to laughing in a nanosecond and had to get a picture.  Evan thought it was really funny and went to dump another spoonful on the floor...

Perfect little oatmeal face!

Evan said another funny thing the other day-  I was changing his diaper in the early morning and he started saying, "Duck skin!  I have duck skin!"  I could not figure out what he was talking about until I saw that he had bumps all over from the cold and was trying to say Goose Bumps!

Rainy day craft project: Sack puppets!  The kids loved them and couldn't wait to show Daddy when he came home.  Look at the ears on the cow- when I told Mykelle the ears went on the top of the puppet she looked at me and laughed and said, "Silly Mommy, ears go on the sides of the head, not the top!" 

32 days until the kids and I leave for Utah with Taryl!  Aunt Taryl is coming out for a visit in 25 days, then helping us fly out on Jet Blue in the middle of the night- that should be fun!  Especially coming home to my parent's house at 2 am and trying to get the kids settled down in new beds after seeing Papa Mike and Grandma Roskeys.   I am really looking forward to being in Utah and getting excited to see all of our family and friends.  I'll miss Adam for the month he is staying here in NJ without us, but he'll come out for a good part of the time.  So excited to see my nieces and nephew!  And meet my niece Shaylee for the first time!  I can't believe she is almost a year old and I've missed all of it.  It's hard being away and not having the money to travel back whenever I want to!  I'll be there soon though, and I feel the pressure to make up a year of being away in two months...  It will be so much fun!



Yesterday is already a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. ~Dr. Charles W. Edwards, Jr.