Summer fun photos and update

The summer is just flying by and I haven't had a chance to share any photos in awhile. So, here's some random shots of the kids:

Austin is now home with me three days a week and we've been spending our days at the park, at the wading pool and in the sandbox out back. Anything to keep busy and enjoy the nice weather. Once fall and winter hits we'll have to find indoor activities so I figure we might as well be outside and be active while we can.

His language and understanding skills are also improving very quickly and I'm amazed at how well he can speak. He is often telling me stories in five or six word sentences now and will recall events or activities from days ago. And although all of his words aren't always clear, even non-family members are able to understand most of what he says now. Although sometimes, I'll admit, even I have days where understanding him is like playing charades but where one person doesn't know we're playing!

Alex is really interactive now -- smiling at us all the time. As you can see from the pictures, she's enjoying playing in the jolly jumper now, as well as other standing up toys. She's not a fan of lying down to play and will rarely lie on her playmat or in her crib watching her mobile. (Although I did manage to get a picture of her (above) watching the mobile -- but I think that lasted all of two minutes. She's very unlike Austin in that respect, who loved watching it and, in fact, is still fascinated by it when I turn it on.)

A day at the zoo

Because it was a beautiful sunny day on the August holiday Monday, we packed the kids up and took them to the zoo. I bought a membership last month, but chances are, I'll mostly use it alone with the kids so this was a good opportunity for Ryan to go too. It was packed, but we had a lot of fun. And Austin once again loved seeing the elephants, monkeys, tigers and giraffes. I think next time we go, I'm going to have to tell him that those animals are sleeping just so we can see another part of the zoo!

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Nana's wedding

This past weekend was Ryan's mom's wedding (actually Handfasting, which is the term used for Pagan weddings). It was really beautiful and a really good time, although a little stressful being there with two kids. Thankfully, we had a lot of helpers in the form of family members and both kids almost managed to out-party us.

Austin danced the night away -- apparently learning the moves to YMCA, the chicken dance and Time Warp -- until he finally crashed at about 11:30 p.m. Alex, was passed around from family member to family member and was in and out of sleep all evening until about midnight when she finally crashed in someone's arms.

Austin, Ryan and I were all part of the wedding party. So, Austin, like all of the men, wore a kilt. It was adorable -- who knew you could rent kilts for two year olds! Here are some pictures from the wedding:

Austin in his kilt (before the wedding when everything was still tucked in and pulled up)

Austin posing with the statue after the ceremony

Daddy dancing with Alex

Mommy dancing with Alex

Tearing up the dance floor way past bedtime

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Rolling over and other news

It's official -- Alex is on the move.

Last week she rolled over from her front to her back for the first time and then she promptly refused to do it again. In fact, she screamed every time I put her on her tummy. But yesterday and today, she appeared to be enjoying tummy time, lifting her head up high and looking around at the world.

And then she rolled over and smiled and me. So I guess we've reached that milestone where I can no longer put her down anywhere -- unless it's on the floor -- for fear that she'll decide to roll right off.

In other news, Austin is spending more time at home with me and Alex now that he only goes to the sitter's house two days a week. So far it has been going well and we're having fun together. We've spent hours at the park and at the wading pool in hopes that keeping him extra busy in the mornings and early afternoons will tire him out enough to take a nap. So far, it's working -- but we'll see how it goes.

We also spent a day at the zoo last week, which Austin loved. Almost a week later, he's still talking about the elephants, lions, giraffes, monkeys and rhinos we saw. In fact he loved it so much that he walks around the house pretending to be an elephant. I forgot to bring the camera that day, but they'll be plenty of time for zoo pictures because I bought us a one-year membership, so we'll be visiting the animals a lot.

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2nd annual Canada Day camping adventure

This past weekend was our annual four-day, three-night camping trip to Arrowhead Provincial Park. And this year, our group grew to 22 people -- 13 adults and nine children between the ages of 2.5 months and 8. And believe it or not, Alex was not the youngest camper in the group -- Isla is eight days younger than her. In total there were two newborns, one nine-month old, four two-year-olds, a five-year-old, an eight-year-old and a whole lot of us parents.

We packed our car to the max on Saturday morning and headed north in the rain. But, thankfully, when we got there, the rain let up and, although the sun didn't come out, it stayed away while we set up our tents and got ourselves organized.

We spent the afternoon hanging around camp, cooked up some dinner and got all the kids except the babies to go to sleep in the tents by about 9 p.m. or so and then pulled our chairs around the fire for a few hours. But less than two hours later, the rains returned with a monsoon-like vengence.

In fact, a park ranger the next day told me that they hadn't seen rain like that in a long, long time. It thundered, it lightninged and it rained. It rained so hard that the sun/rain shelter we were huddling under started to leak. And that's when we noticed that our tent was sitting in a lake.

Ryan went to assess the damage and found that we were flooding -- when you stepped on the floor it rippled underneath and water seeped up. Austin was (thankfully) still sleeping and in fact, slept through the entire storm. He was sleeping in a playpen (which we had brought for Alex but Austin wouldn't fall asleep in the bed so we had moved him earlier in the evening) so at least he was well off the ground. But I decided that Alex wasn't staying in a flooded tent.

One of the families we were camping with happen to live in Huntsville -- just 15 minutes away -- and offered up their house to us. Ryan decided to stay behind with Austin, as he was still sleeping and still dry.

By 12:30 a.m., Alex and I were heading out of camp, along with 12 others who decided to bail for the night because the tents of three other families were leaking. Once in warm, dry beds, we all slept pretty well, and by 9:30 a.m., we headed back to camp.

The rest of the weekend was far less eventful. One of the first orders of business was to move our tent out of 'Lake Evans' and dry out all the clothes that got wet. (Fortunately only one of our bags soaked through; unfortunately it had almost all of Austin's clothes in it.)

On Monday -- the coldest day of the weekend -- Ryan and I took the kids for a hike to the waterfall. Ryan strapped Austin to his back and I strapped Alex to my front and we made the four kilometre hike from our site to the falls and back. It was a nice walk, but we were pretty tired when we got back. And even though we did all the walking, we managed to tire both kids out.
That afternoon, Ryan and Austin joined a few of the kids at the beach. They had a good time and Austin loves playing in the sand and running into the water, although even he admitted that the water was cold.
Alex spent most of the weekend being passed around or 'worn' in the snugli or the sling and Austin spent most of the weekend running around with the other kids. He had a blast playing with so many kids and although keeping the peace among four two-year-olds had its moments, in all, it worked out well.

In terms of sleeping, in the end, Austin didn't want to sleep on the twin air mattress we bought him and only wanted to sleep in Alex's playpen. So, he did, and thankfully the family that lives in Huntsville was able to lend us their old playpen so that Alex had a proper bed as well. Although on the last night, it was pretty cold and Alex ended up sleeping in bed with us so that we could keep her warm. Austin managed to stay under the covers, so he was ok.

Camping with two young kids was a lot of fun, but a lot of work and I can't say that the weekend was exactly restful. The only rest we got was after 9 p.m. when sitting around the fire. But regardless of how unrestful it was, it was still a really good time.

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Austin Evans: Soccer monster

We signed Austin up for a tot's soccer program this summer and this past Monday was the first session. It's a fun little program that runs all summer long and is designed solely for two and three year olds. And, a parent must participate during each session, so Austin won't be the only one learning to play this summer.

Uniforms and soccer balls were handed out to all the kids on Monday and a little time was left at the end to kick the ball around and learn some moves.


Austin's favourite move? Throwing himself in the net with the ball. I guess he still has a few things to learn about soccer.

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Getting some sleep and other news

If my kids could sleep like this every night, I would no longer suffer from sleep deprivation. On Friday night, Alex gave me a six-hour stretch before waking to be fed and then she went back to sleep for almost another five hours, waking up just before 8 a.m.! And even Austin decided to sleep in on Saturday morning, so everyone was pretty well-rested.

Saturday and Sunday nights were also good nights, with Alex sleeping a six-hour stretch one night and a five-hour stretch the other. So hopefully this means we're on our way to better nights.

Alex has her two-month appointment this week so I'll know then how big she's getting, but based solely on the fact that some of her 0-3 clothes are starting to get a little small, I'd say she's gained another few pounds and probably another inch. She's much more alert now, smiling freely at me, Ryan or Austin whenever she's in the mood and playing with some of her dangling toys. Here's a short video of her playing with the toys on her chair.



In other news, we finally finished our backyard -- or as much as will likely be finished this year. Ryan laid sod on Victoria Day weekend and I've remembered to water it almost every day so it's growing really well. It's so nice to have a place to go and play with Austin -- now all we need is a sandbox!

The end of this month will be when Austin switches to part-time at the sitter's. He'll be going on Wednesdays and Thursdays, giving him a chance to play with his friends twice a week and me a chance to get things done around the house (or out of the house) with only one kid in tow.

Finally, here's a video of Austin hamming it up on his circa-1985 Casio. He loves pressing the demo button and 'playing along'.



And a few more pics:

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First smiles

If we make funny faces long enough at her, Alex started giving us big, gummy smiles this week. Last night, I managed to catch a few on camera.

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Update and new pictures

Things are going well in the Evans family household. Alex is now five weeks old and is growing like a weed. At her one month checkup earlier this week, she weighed in at 10 lbs, 6 oz (that's almost three pounds more than her birth weight).

She's starting to sleep better at night, although there are still good nights and bad nights. On a good night, she's slept for almost five hours before waking to be fed and then sleeps until about 5 or 6 before wanting to be fed again. On a bad night, she's up three or four times to eat -- or sometimes just because she wakes up. The poor girl caught her brother's cold, and although she's getting over it now, I think being congested sometimes wakes her.

Austin seems to love being a big brother and make sure she's involved in everything he does. When I get him dressed in the mornings; he wants her to lie on the bed beside him and when she's lying on her playmat; he'll often get down on the floor with her.

Austin sharing his crayons with Alex

Austin and Alex playing on the baby playmat

During the week, Austin still goes to the sitter's house all day, which gives me time to get things done around the house -- or more specifically, sleep when Alex sleeps. He's going to remain at the sitter's full time until the end of June and then we have to decide whether he's going to stay at home full time with me or spend a couple of days a week at the sitter's and the rest of the time with me.

He learns so much while he's there, and quite frankly, the idea that that learning task will fall on me for the next year is a little daunting. Just this week, he showed us that he can count to 10. And a few weeks ago, he started correctly identifying several colours (blue, red, black, yellow, green and purple). He knows the names of many animals, can carry the tune of several songs (his favourites being ba ba black sheep and Old McDonald) and can do simple puzzles unaided. In other words, he's a pretty smart little guy.

And he loves to be a helper around the house. If I'm emptying the dishwasher; he hands me each dish to put away. And if I'm doing laundry, he helps sort and put the clothes in the washer. And lately, Ryan has been trying to finish redoing our backyard and some days, Austin has been his little helper. Although, I think he enjoys playing in the mud more than anything else!

That's about all our news for now. Here are a couple of more photos, just because I thought they were cute:

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Quick update

I had to take Alex to the doctor yesterday for a two-week check-up. Our doctor had wanted to make sure that she was doing alright and not showing any signs of a GBS infection. (I'm GBS (group strep B) positive and the standard treatment for women to reduce the risk of the baby getting the infection is to receive intravenous penicillin during labour and delivery. But because Alex was born so quickly, I didn't get the drugs so she's been monitored more closely ever since.)

Anyway, she's doing fine and the doctor says there is no longer a need for concern. But the interesting news is how much she's grown in two weeks. Our little miss now weighs 9 lbs 7 ozs (two pounds more than at birth) and has grown a inch in length. No wonder she's already starting to outgrow some of her pjs!

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Two weeks old already

It's amazing how quickly time passes with a newborn in the house, especially since, in reality, I spend most of my days doing nothing much at all.

Alex is doing well, growing well, sleeping (sort of) well. She's great at sleeping in someone's arms or in her car seat and will happily stay asleep for three or four hours if we let her. But put her in her bed, and the most sleep we'll get out of her is two to two and a half hours before she wakes up and wants to eat again. Makes for long nights, but it's par for the course at this age. And during the day, she'll often only stay in her bed for 30 to 60 minutes before waking up; only to fall back asleep in my arms.

Luckily, Austin is a pretty heavy sleeper and has never once woken up when she wakes up in the middle of the night.

Austin is adapting very well to having a sister in the house and shows great concern for her. If she starts crying, he'll immediately tell me to go get her. And if she's in her swing, he'll happily push it -- although we have to teach him to push gently because she's only little. And every night at bedtime, he makes sure he gives her a kiss before heading to bed.

Here are a few new pictures of Alex and Austin over the last two weeks:

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Welcome Alexandra Margaret!

The newest addition to the Evans family arrived at 4:27 a.m. on April 10. Alexandra Margaret weighed in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. and is 21 inches long.

She came into this world in a hurry. Mom woke up in labour at 1:30 a.m. and woke dad up at 3 a.m. By 3:30 a.m., we realized that we needed to go to the hospital, so we called our friends who were on emergency-middle-of-the-night-Austin-duty to come over. They arrived just before 4 a.m. and we rushed off to the hospital, walking into the labour and delivery assessment room at 4:20 a.m. Seven minutes later, she was born!

Aside from realizing that Alexandra came 'this close' to being born in the car on the side of the 401, everything is fine. Both mom and baby are home and doing well.

Austin met his new little sister for the first time at the hospital and has been doing very well with her at home. He gets very concerned everytime he hears her crying and when she's sleeping in someone's arms he will give 'baba A-e' kisses on the head.

Here's a few pictures taken at the hospital:

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