10 Months Old!

Pretty proud of himself!

Getting into Grandpa Marv's newspapers & the baby wipes

Uncle Matt the baseball star!

Loving the beach!

Evan is 10 months old today! It's hard to believe that in 2 months he will be a year old!

It seems like he is doing something new and exciting every day. Last week I took him to the beach and wasn't sure how he would like it. He has been in the sand and loves the bathtub, but the beach was crowded and the lake water was a little cool. Well, he loved it. As soon as I put him in the sand he was crawling towards the water. He sat for a minute checking it out, then was digging in the wet sand and crawling around in the water. I brought along a bag full of water toys, but he was more interested in the other kids and their toys. I brought him out into the deeper water and put him on his belly. He seemed to enjoy it and kept trying to drink the lake water. When it was time to go, I put a dry diaper on him and set him on the towel so that I could get our things together. I turned around and he was halfway across the sand climbing into a random baby bear tube. Oops! I had to try and brush the wet sand off of him and carry him to the car with the diaper bag, toy bag, wet towels, and snack cooler. Uff da...lots of work for mom! We may try to go again this weekend and this time we'll bring Aaron along to carry everything!

My parents came up last Thursday so that I could go into work for awhile and Aaron's parents came on Friday. Aaron's dad put in a new front step for us (thanks Grandpa), and Evan enjoyed having the grandparents attention all at once! On Saturday I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend Carrie and then headed up north to Haugen, WI to watch my brother play ball. My parents, Hannah, and Evan had gone up earlier that day. We went to the game that night (it rained and was a very wet game), and then stayed at a hotel and went to the championship game on Sunday. Evan spent the afternoon crawling around on the grass and making friends with random strangers. He is quite the outgoing little guy! Matt's team won the game and are state champs for the second year in a row. It was fun to watch and hopefully Evan will inherit his uncle Matt's pitching arm! We also swam in the hotel pool and then swam at my aunt Kim's house on Sunday. He loves the water and it is fun to see him splash around!

Evan has mastered standing up and is now pulling himself up holding on to everything. His new thing is to climb up onto the ottoman (with help from mom and dad), and then climb on the big chair. He is feeding himself lots of different foods, clapping when he drinks out of his sippy cup or does something cool, waves, and even said "mama" for the first time on Wed! He said it 3 times and has said it since then, but I'm not sure that he associates it with me. He seems to just say it as he is cruising around...but I'll take it! We're also sure that he has said "uh oh" and "hi", but it could just be babbling.

He has also discovered the toilet paper. The other day he was tearing it into little pieces and feeding it to the dog...agh! I'm sure this is just the start of many things the two of them will get into!

I worked a couple of days this week and had a hard time leaving Evan. He was at daycare one day and with Aaron for part of the other days. When I dropped him off at daycare he clapped and seemed to have a great time with the newly discovered toys and his buddy Lars! I guess it won't be a hard transition for him!

I go back to work full-time on Monday, but am feeling more ready now. I feel so blessed to have a job where I am done in the afternoon and have summers off. It has been a great summer and we have had lots of fun!