My Vacation with Mommy!

Mommy and I have had a blast this Christmas vacation.  She has really enjoyed the opportunity to just be Mommy and not have to worry about that thing she calls work / the plant.  I think we will both have a hard time on Tuesday.  Here are some of the things we've been up to...

This is probably one of my favorite things that I got for Christmas.  It is a latch board from Grandpa Max and Grandma Candi.  I can open 5 out of 6 of the latches and can put 3 of them back.  So much for the 3+ age rating on this toy...take that Melissa & Doug! (Actually they are our favorite toy/puzzle makers by far in the Hrach house!)

The day after Christmas, we got out and about and went to the mall to check out the 50% off at Hallmark with Grandma and Grandpap.  Oh yeah, and most importantly, we had Chickfila!

Mommy and I have made three trips to the park over the last two weeks.  I love playing there. 

One afternoon, we went to the zoo.  The deer got soooo close to me.  I just kept saying "Hi Deer"...over and over. 

Pointing out one of the ducks to my Mom. I wanted to make sure she saw it.

Another trip to the park.

Mommy's note:  How is it that toddlers want to climb up the slides?  Instinctive?  These slides are far too slipery for Evan to climb up.

Today we went to the Corpus Christi Aquarium with Daddy.  Here I am checking out the dolphins.

And showing Mommy and Daddy the sea otter...just in case they didn't see it playing with the purple ball.

Snoozing on the way home.

Silly Time Before Bed (I'm 25 months!)

Here are some silly pictures of me before bed on my 25th month birthday the day after Christmas.  Grandma did a great job of capturing my personality!

This one cracks my Mommy and Daddy up.  They call it my 25 month old mug shot. 

Grandpap can always get in a good tickle.

Super silly upside down!

Christmas Morning Part 3

My Let's Rock Elmo guitar will play with my Let's Rock Elmo.  It is way cool.  I love it and always say "Oooooohhhhhhh Yeah!".

 We had so many presents that I decided to sit on a stack of the boxes to take a break.

My new fire truck from Grandma and Grandpap.  Lucky for Mom and Dad, there are no batteries required so it is quite the quiet fire truck.  My pronunciation of truck was "*uck" (every one's favorite explicit four letter word) for about a month.  Thanks to all of the trucks I've played with over the last two weeks on my vacation, I'm proud to say that I now pronounce it the right way!  Hooray! 

Ummm...this is the one thing the directions for the desk tell you not to do!

Let's Rock Elmo's drums!

After my nap and finally changing out of my pajamas, I did another round of present opening.  Here is one from Cole and Jayden.  This is my Elmo bus!

Christmas Morning Part 2

These two pictures are actually from Christmas Eve.  I opened presents for a week to try to spread them out.  Here I am opening a present from my Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle Gary.  They got me these cool block building things!

Santa left me Let's Rock Elmo and I love him.  Here I am dancing to him on Christmas morning.  I now love to let him play the drums and I sing into the microphone.  Too darn cute!

Christmas Morning Part 1

I had a great Christmas morning.  I spread out the morning, only opening a few presents at a time (and opening everyone else's presents too!). The present opening and playing lasted until nap time at 1 pm.  Then I took a 3 hour nap (maybe I was slightly overwhelmed!?!) and was ready for more presents.  Here I am first thing in the morning.  Mommy and I are checking out my new workbench from Santa and my turtle desk from Benjamin and Jacob. 

 Opening a book from Santa.

Playing with my mangnetic drawing thingie with Grandma.

Skyping with Cole and Jayden on Daddy's iPhone and showing them my Let's Rock Elmo Guitar that Santa left!

Pictures from iPhones

Here are some random pictures from Mommy's and Daddy's iPhones.  Mommy tried to rotate but not all of them loaded that way.

I'm checking out the scab on my knee from one of my many spills. 

My cool winter hat.  I actually love wearing it.

Usually when we go to the grocery store, Mommy and Daddy have to open up the Oreos so I can have one while we shop.  Mommy never thought she'd be that sort of Mommy but boy was she wrong!

Showing Mommy and Daddy the bird they might have missed at the zoo.

Chillin in the car.

 Pictures from the beginnig of Christmas vacation.  To kick it off, Mommy picked me up a bit early from Ms. Irene's last Tuesday and we went to the park to play.  I love to go down the slides.  Then we had to stop at Sonic for french fries.  Mommy is wondering if it is bad that everytime we pass Sonic, I say "french fries"?!?  The bruise on my forehead is from a really bad nap at Ms. Irene's.  I'm glad to report it is all better now.

2 Years Old!

I say this all the time, but it is truly hard to believe that Evan is growing up as fast as he is. Brian and I are truly blessed to have a happy, healthy two year old.   So, what is Evan like at 2 years old?

·         Sweet little boy who gives hugs to Momma and Dada every night before bed and Ms. Irene and Ms. Cheryl every day when he arrives at school.

·         He loves to laugh and has a great sense of humor for a 2 year old.  Grandpa Max is continually impressed with how easily Evan will laugh at himself.

·         His vocabulary is growing so fast, we can't keep up.  There are at least a few new words or phrases every day.  He is like a little mocking bird now and is just absorbing everything around him.   The other night while he was eating dinner, he kept saying "top tart".  It took Brian and I forever to realize that he was requesting a Pop Tart.  He was pretty patient with us.  Whenever he says a word, he wants you to repeat it to him.  I think this is for two reasons.  First to make sure you understand what he is saying and second so that he can hear pronounced right again.

·         He loves school at Ms. Irene's.  He's a whiz at naming most of the shapes (or "papes" as Evan calls them)...specifically "octgon" and "oooooval".  Move over triangles and squares...Evan might not always say you right...but he knows the hard ones!

·         He knows most of his colors.  Yellow, orange, black, white and purple are always right.  He mixes up green and blue quite a bit still and doesn't know red very well yet either.

·         He still loves to read books.  He'll actually let us read one book that is a real story - "Click Clack Moo".  It is a pretty funny book and he laughs every time.  He also loves books with flaps in them.

·         Puzzles are a huge part of Evan's life.  He has mastered most of the ones we have now and has moved on to ones that are of an actual picture or thing.  We're hoping Santa and Grandma Candi and Grandpa Max and provide him some new challenges as Christmas presents.

·         He LOVES to be outside.  He'd rather be outside than almost anywhere else.

·         He loves going to the zoo to see the "anmals".  His favorite animals at our little zoo right now are the "chomp-chomps" (aligators).  We visit them several times every time we go to the zoo.

·         His favorite toys right now are his new "poptop" (laptop) and instrument set he got for his birthday.

·         He still sucks his fingers, but quite a bit less than he did just 6 months ago.  Now it is usually when he is tired, sick or bored. 

·         He finally loves being dropped off at the nursery at church.  There are a ton of "anmals" in there to play with and Ms. Ruth Ann is the absolute BEST!

·         His favorite foods right now are cheesy rice, grapes, fruit snacks, chips, spaghetti and any form of chicken.  His recent food finds are popcorn, breakfast sausage and orange juice. Very typical toddler.  He has finally started to pick up vegetables and eat them. 

·         He loves to watch "Googles" (Wiggles) and Elmo.  Elmo is definitely a staple at our house. Between books, movies and toys, Elmo is everywhere.

·         He loves to play the Elmo ABC game on the iPad.  I mean LOVES it. He would play this game all the time if we let him.

·         He knows where most of his body parts are.  We checked last night and his "elmo" (elbow) is still his shoulder.  Maybe someday we'll break it to him that it is called an elbow and show him where it really is, but for now, it is just too darn cute.

·         For some reason recently, he decided to be picky about the towel that he is wrapped in after his bath.  He wants to pick which towel to use.  We never asked his opinion on this before, so it was too funny when he started telling us which one to use a few weeks ago.

·         He takes about a 1.5-2 hour nap everyday and still is sleeping 11-12 hours at night.  His bedtime is slowly slipping from 7 pm to 7:30 pm.  We're enjoying the extra time with him at night.  We're extremely lucky to have such a great sleeper.  I attribute some of the reason he is such a happy kid to his awesome sleeping habits.

·         He is wearing size 24 month clothes (still on the lower end of the growth charts, but still in the 20th percentiles).  He wears a size 6 1/2 wide shoes.  He still is wearing size 4 diapers.  He is actually sitting on his little potty for a few seconds every night before bath (no tinkle yet).  We'll be lucky to have him potty trained by 3. 

·         He brings to much joy to our lives and we are SO blessed that God has trusted us with such a sweet little man

My Second Birthday

I really enjoyed my second birthday in Port Aransas.  I kicked it off with some time outside in the rain with Uncle Max and Auntie Jo.  Then I came in and decided to try to roll around on this purple balloon.  Luckily it didn't break under me!

Birthday lunch was my favorite - chicken fingers and fries.

After my nap, we had a party.  Everyone got Mickey ears.  I tried really hard to do the blow-outs, but didn't quite get them.  It is ok...everyone else did them for me.

Playing with one of my new toys - my "poptop" (laptop).  I'm slightly expressive as you can see.  Here is my dance for the drums!

And here is my angelic dance for the piano music.  I've got everyone fooled!

Eating my cake.  I enjoyed it!

I love opening birthday presents!  What a great day!

Thomson Family Thanksgiving at the Beach

My Grandpa Max, Grandma Candi and Auntie Jo flew to Texas for Thanksgiving and my second birthday.  I was very lucky to spend both at the beach in Port Aransas.  I LOVE the water and sand.  I had an absolute blast at the beach and the house that we rented.  I went on quite a few walks with Grandpa Max and Auntie Jo to show them around the place.  I told workers that had a truck at one of the houses to "work".  Maybe I am a future Operations Leader like my mommy?!  I also fell into a sticker bush on my 2nd birthday.  Very sad moment, but I got over it very quickly.  Auntie Jo and Mommy felt the pain for quite a while after taking all those buggers outta my legs. 

It was absolutely the best vacation and trip.  Thanks Grandma Candi, Grandpa Max and Auntie Jo for joining us.

Grandma Candi and Mommy couldn't build the sand castles fast enough for me to knock down.

As golf carts went on and off the beach, I would wave bye-bye to them....until...

... I couldn't see them any more.  Then I would say "all gone!".

We threw balls up and down the beach for hours.

Near the end, I got quite daring in the waves.  Even though the water was cold, I couldn't get enough!