Evan's New Tricks

He's only still and quiet when he's sleeping.

Since E's surgery, we have been looming over him, coaxing him to speak in full sentences. His response? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Until...

two days ago!

Now E says mama, dada, and uh-oh. Mama and Dada were mastered before the surgery, but uh-oh is brand new. He doesn't use it in context, mind you, but he says it. He has also done way more babbling and nonsensical syllable chatter in the past week or so. We are hoping this means that his improved hearing will result in improved speech. We'll know about the hearing on Friday when we go for a repeat hearing test and ENT appt. Keep your fingers crossed, will ya?

Evan's other new tricks are not so impressive. To date, he seriously digs:

1. Biting my toes. I have no clue. He seeks them out and bites as if his life depends on it. I have tried yelling no, telling him it hurts mommy, fake crying, and anything else you can think of. He thinks it is ridiculously funny. Me? Not so much. And, the 24 hour stream of Shark Week has NOTHING to do with this- he was toe chewing before Shark Week 2011.

2. Standing on things with wheels (his lawnmower, his mickey plane, his dump truck). This one is KILLING me. I have visions of my own preschool bloodbath when I stood on a truck that rolled out from under me and my head connected with a cinderblock wall. On Valentine's Day. I was wearing a red dress with a white peter pan-ish collar. It was ugly. I still have the scars (literally and figuratively). Again, no amount of no, please don't, that isn't safe, yadda yadda yadda seems to phase him. He is a daredevil.

3. Prepare yourself for this one...E has begun to stick his fingers down his throat and vomit. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? He did it twice tonight. It was so gross. After the first few attempts he realized (I think) that he had our full attention. So, after vomit #2 I told David to just clean it up while ignoring E (I couldn't even attempt to clean it...) and then ignore him if he did it again. He attempted a few more times but when he thought we weren't looking he stopped. Again. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Amidst the daredevilish, death defying balancing acts on wheeled objects, toe snacks and vomit escapades, he has been so stinkin' cute lately that I can barely stand it! He has learned where his nose and ears are and can show you yours (in case you need a refresher in anatomy). He dances to any type of music and has zero rhythm (just like his mom and aunt Beth), and has really started to interact with Newman. They play for good stretches of time with E throwing a ball to him. It's priceless.

And, for the 1 person who reads this blog (hi mom) here's your Evan fix for the day. It 'came a flood' as we say in the south, and during the ridiculous rain, E and I decided to dance on the porch. We came in when it thundered, don't judge.

He's adorable. I can't even talk about it.