I hope to get an opportunity soon to post about the wonderful Strawberry Day that Evan and I had on Sunday. Here you can see him enjoying his strawberry shortcake at the festival.
You can find more photos from the day in this photo set.
I just read this post up on Boston Mamas in which an author describes her son’s play habits. They tend not to use toys. It is very refreshing to hear this, as Evan will go days without opening his toy box.
I’m sure he uses toys at daycare, but at the end of the day, when I’m making dinner and he has the freedom to do whatever he likes, he’s either helping out in the kitchen or running around being active. He very rarely sits quietly with his trains or blocks. He doesn’t have dolls or stuffed animals. Wally the Green Monster only joins us when we are reading his book: “Wally explores Red Sox Nation.”
Evan does love to read stories with us. And often he can be found at his art table with construction paper and markers. He adores being outside, more than anything; and since snails have appeared in our yard, he loves searching for them.
I love my little active boy. He keeps me on the run, visiting fun places on the weekend and seeing our friends. It will be interesting to see how our next one turns out…….
Over the last few days, I’ve noticed that Evan has started to sing his protests. Whenever I tell him that he can’t do something (more often than I would like to admit) he bursts into song. “I not need hold yours hand,” he croons in the parking lot. “I need feed ferret,” he intones as I instruct him that Dora the ferret has plenty of food.
It’s quite hilarious… and often I laugh and smile. I don’t give in, but I encourage this form of expression, as a singer myself.
These guys were trying to stay cool in the shade.
Evan and Sonja were all over the wooden tractor at the Smolak Farms playground. After romping around for a little while, we went to get donuts and ice cream. Evan was especially impressed with the Guinea Fowl that were running around.
Uncle Ken sent Evan a tractor for Christmas, and the weather has only recently been nice enough to try it out (it was a pretty rainy spring.) Evan just loves the tractor and rode it all around Grandma and Grandpa’s lawn. As you can see, he’s doing some heavy-duty lifting with the shovel.
I just found out that I passed my second Biostatistics qualification exam! This means that I can officially move onto the next stage in my quest for a PhD….. the research stage!
We went to visit Colleen in Germany during my spring break. Here’s a story from when Jon, Evan and I took a trip down to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Castle.
It had been pretty cold in Germany ever since we arrived. We already been to Frankfurt, Heidelberg and some other sights near Colleen’s house. Most days were windy and chilly, with a little rain mixed in. On the evening we arrived in Fussen, I looked out over the pond to the mountains and just hoped and prayed for nice weather the next day.
I knew we were going to be outdoors the entire day, exploring the castles of Fussen, an endeavor which included hiking up a steep hill. Trying to be the responsible parent, I put long underwear on Evan so that he wouldn’t be cold.
This day turned out to be the nicest, warmest and sunniest day among all that we spent in Germany. The temperature climbed, and while I could take off my sweater a
nd Evan’s fleece, the poor little guy was stuck wearing ultra-warm pants under his jeans.
This didn’t spoil his mood. He enjoyed running around outside the castle and inside the courtyard. He rode in his backpack carrier while we toured the inside of the castle. He must have had some kinks to work out, because he did some crazy yoga moves in the courtyard of the smaller castle, including this pretty good downward-facing dog pose.
The trip was a lot of fun…. and as soon as we got back up north to Colleen’s house, the weather turned nasty again.
