Better Late Than Never

I feel extremely guilty that I've let so much time go by without 1. saying happy birthday to Evan on a blog that's supposed to be dedicated to him 2. being timely in letting everyone know how the birthday party went and 3.thanking everyone for their thoughtfulness and love on such a special day. I want to give a special thanks to Amanda and Scott for capturing such great photos of the party and being so quick to upload them to my gallery for all to see. They are AMAZING! So...Better Late Than Never...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EVAN! WE HAVE MADE IT TO THE TODDLER YEARS...barely. BUT THE TODDLER YEARS ARE LOOKING PRETTY GOOD SO FAR AND AND THE REAL FUN HAS JUST BEGUN. THANK YOU TO MY BROTHERS, JONATHAN AND TIM, FOR FLYING DOWN AND SHARING THIS TIME WITH YOUR NEPHEW. AND THANK YOU TO THE REST OF OUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS FOR THE WONDERFUL CARDS AND GIFTS. WE APPRECIATE YOU ALL VERY MUCH!

It's amazing how positive I feel now that Evan is a year old. I was just telling Robert yesterday that Evan has morphed into this incredibly funny and loving boy ever since July 11th. He's giving big hugs around our legs, tight hugs around our necks and telling his own little jokes and laughing hysterically. It's absolutely incredible to watch an infant grow into a young boy with real personality of his own. It's as if he knew he was turning a year old and decided he wanted to be a "bigger" boy. Which brings me to a funny, yet disturbing story...depending on the reader.

I don't know if Evan is trying to tell us that he's ready to potty train (yeah, right), or that he wants to wear "big boy" pants, or that he just really likes to hang it all out there, but the last few times we put him down to sleep with just a diaper and t-shirt we have come back downstairs to find a very naked baby and a diaper on the floor. The first time this happened it was all cute and ha ha and we put his diaper back on still giggling about it.

The second time it happened we laughed again until I realized there was no pee pee in the diaper because it was all soaked into the sheet. Ugh. This incident happened over night so I just imagined him wallowing there in his pee soaked bed for hours...probably having the time of his life. So, I had to change the sheets and wash his blanket so his bed would be ready for nap time that same afternoon.

Finally, third time's a charm, right? Not unless you have a stomach of steel...So, Robert goes downstairs to get Evan from his nap (let me remind you that this is the same day as the pee incident) and suddenly I hear through the baby monitor, "Oh my god, Amanda, I need you down here right now!" As most mothers do, I was thinking something absolutely terrible had happened and I raced downstairs to find my son dangling in Robert's arms CAKED in his own feces!!!! It was smeared all over his face, through his hair and worst of all, in his mouth. We all know the expression "happy as a pig in shit" and Evan was most definitely a pig. He was all smiles until he was submerged in bath water and scrubbed to death. As Robert bathed mud man I just stared at his crib and wondered how long he was down there making mud pies! The sheets were smeared from one end to the other. There was not one railing that he didn't touch and lather up. He even left perfect hand prints on the wall. I had to hand wash all of his stuffed animals and put them in the spin cycle of the washer...luckily they all survived. I had never loved Clorox so much in my life. I doused that crib to make sure there was not one remnant left. Evan is no longer allowed to go to bed without pants...

And we thought he liked playing in the toilet because of the water.