Evan's Photo Proofs!

For anyone interested, our photographer has put Evan's 6 months photo session proofs up on her website for 10 days to view.

Click here to see.

From there, it'll show several albums to view... You'll want to chose "Lea {Family Session}". Click that, then it'll take you to a login screen. You'll need to enter "Lea2010". Once you do, all the pictures should pop up.

To view larger images, you can hover your mouse over the magnifying glass at the bottom of each picture.

Now, the hard part comes in. I love all these pictures and am gonna have a hard time narrowing it down to a few to order!

Enjoy!

Seinfeld Meets Raising Arizona

This morning I ran by Target to pick up some things for Evan. I saw winter coats there and knew I had to pick one up for Evan for the impending winter... So I went to the check-out, the clerk made some small talk as he rang up my things...I paid and went on my way.

I got home and noticed that I wasn't charged for Evan's coat. I whimsically updated my Facebook status that I felt guilty for this. Several of my friends and family members urged me to take it back and pay for it, and to "do the right thing" and set an example for Evan. Thing was...this Target was 45 minutes away...I had gone to the one near Linda's work.

My conscience and with everyone hounding me got the best of me, and I called the Target I was at and explained that I bought several items, but wasn't charged for Evan's coat. The people there told me that I could bring it back in and pay for it. I explained I lived 45 mins away and they told me that I could take it to any Target. I then realized that in my sleep-deprived absent-mindedness, I had forgotten Evan's cereal...therefore another trip out to the store was due. So I went to the Target that's closer to home for the forgotten cereal...with the "stolen" merchandise in hand.

Got to the Guest Services desk and explained what happened this morning to the clerk. She told me that I had to go back to the Overland Park Target since it had been in their inventory. I told the clerk that that store had said I could take it back to any Target. We went back and forth on this for a few minutes, then she called over a manager. The manager explained again that I had to go back to the Overland Park store with the "lost" merchandise since it was missing from their stock. I explained once again to the manager that I was told I could bring it back to any store to correct their error. She finally agreed to just ring me up and let me pay for this coat.

And not so much as even a "thank you" or "we appreciate what you did"...even though I had to waste an hour to and from (the closer Target to our house is still quite a drive away).

But I'm setting an example for Evan, right? By "doing the right thing"? I have to keep telling myself that. I really don't feel any better for wasting part of my afternoon with this, when I had so much stuff to get done at home. If it hadn't been for Evan's cereal that I forgot, then I probably would have just chalked it up as "hey, their error...I got a free coat out of the deal!" Oh well. I felt like I was stuck in a part-"Raising Arizona"-part-"Seinfeld" scene.

Scavenger Hunt & Sneak Peaks

Who knew getting photos taken would be so hectic and time consuming? Getting the finishing touches, the preparations, making sure all of us are presentable, wrestling a confused and rambunctious dog, dancing around and acting like a fool to coax our stone-faced baby to smile, etc.

Wednesday, our photographer, Kami, emailed me and asked me to send her pictures of the outfits we were gonna dress Evan in, so she could coordinate her props. I sent her pics of a few different outfits and asked for her suggestion. She said the sweater and the guitar t-shirt were great. She suggested as a finishing touch for the rock-star t-shirt was to buy some red Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers (or any canvas-style sneakers, but red ones would be perfect, that looked old school) and distressed jeans. Thinking our outfits were complete prior to this email, Linda & I made a mad dash around the KC-metro area to find red baby sneakers and distressed jeans. Linda & I live close to the Plaza...were lots of retail shops are located. I hit Baby Gap first, and found some cool jeans that were on sale! Spent $20...for jeans that were normally $45! Then came the quest for red sneakers. Baby Gap didn't have anything. I asked the clerk at Baby Gap if she had any idea were to get any. She suggested Gymboree and Hall's. I steered clear of Hall's as I didn't want to give Linda another heart attack. I went to Gymboree on the Plaza...nothing in his size. The girl at Gymboree said that was all they had... I asked if she knew anywhere else that had sneakers. She said Gymboree and Baby Gap were the only ones. Really? On the Plaza? Out of all the retail on the Plaza? I had no idea finding baby shoes was gonna be a scavenger hunt.

Linda called after I left Gymboree. I was on my way to Target to see if they had anything. She searched online and found that another Gymboree location might have some... She also said that Children's Place might have some also. She said she'd take care of if after she was off work. She normally leaves work around 5:00pm, and is home by 5:45 or 6:00. She didn't get home til close to 8:00.

After work, she headed out to Town Center Plaza (near her work)...found nothing. Although, she did find a really cool twill hat at Gymboree...perfect for the sweater outfit and family shots. She said she asked for recommendations...and someone said there was a Converse outlet at The Legends. She then trekked 30 minutes over there. Success! She found the sneakers (but since Evan was a spring/summer baby and we've hardly put shoes on him...she had no idea what size his chubby little feet are...and ended up buying size too small. I'm gonna exchange them later...). She then ran by Banana Republic and picked us up both clothes, and changing what we both were planning on wearing. Was very hectic.

Yesterday morning, we got everything going early. Got Little Man fed and dressed while we got our showers in and put together. Grabbed Truman and walked over to the Nelson-Atkins, the location of our photo session, and met Kami. Here's a few sneak peaks:

We worked so hard to get Evan to laugh and get a good gummy grin in...but all he would do was smirk. His smiles are fleeting...especially for a camera. I'm sure we looked like morons, dancing around behind Kami, making funny faces and funny noises to coax a smile from him. I worked up a sweat, but to no avail. But Kami did great and showed Linda and I few previews on her camera's review...and from what I saw, I was happy with her work!

After the family shots that included Truman, I walked him back to our condo. He's a bit socially retarded. Even though we brought cheese with us, he still was difficult to get to sit still, position and behave while we were taking pics. Truman isn't like other dogs. Kami warned me when setting up this appointment that there are squirrels on the lawn of the Nelson, and that from past sessions with her clients that included dogs...the squirrels can prove problematic. I told her that Truman has no interest in squirrels. He's a bulldog. Enough said. But Truman lacks social skills and obedience at times... So to make our session a bit easier and less stressful than dealing with a confused dog, I walked him back.

Towards the end of our session, Evan was getting grumpy, tired and pissed. We wrapped things up after about an hour or so of pics. He did great though, considering...and I can't wait to see the pics. We have to wait another two weeks though before Kami is done processing and editing.

Haute Couture

I'm eager for Evan's 6 month photography session this Thursday. In order for a more fun session, our photographer, Kami, suggested a few changes in outfits for Evan. I bought Evan a great outfit from Babies R Us weeks ago, for the more formal shots, the ones that will include Linda, me and Truman. She suggested an outfit change, and what is really popular amongst boys is the "rock star look". Something kinda fun for us to look back on. I thought this would be an easy task...find something edgy, hip and fun... Boy was I wrong. I've scoured stores and the internet in vain for weeks.

I finally asked for suggestions via facebook. I got lots of feedback...and one of my old coworkers suggested I go to Hall's where she works now as a manager. Hall's is a very high-end department store in Kansas City. She said in the kids section, they carry some Kingsley line of clothing, and gave me the website for them. They didn't have much merchandise on their site, but from what I learned it's for the "rock star parent"...apparently this line of clothing was what Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie dressed their daughter, Shiloh in for pictures that made the cover of People Magazine... This clothing line is also the choice of other celebrity parents like Gwen Stefani, Johnny Depp and Seal. I should have known it was gonna be expensive.

I headed over to Hall's at Crown Center, strapped Evan in the BabyBjorn, and found their selection. Picked out a really cool hoodie, jeans and onesie t-shirt... These clothes were so awesome...stuff I'd buy for myself, that is if I actually bought clothes anymore for myself! I should've looked at the price tag... When I checked out, the clerk asked me, "Are you ready for this total? $212.76, please." I felt myself get light-headed and my knees buckle. I can't remember the last time I spent over $100-$150 on myself in one setting...it's been years! But, not wanting to look like someone who lives on a budget and normally shops at Target, and asking the clerk to put the clothes back, I whipped out my credit card like a pro. I told myself it was for Evan...and it was for posterities sake. For him being immortalized in some awesome pictures that would look like a print ad for a Baby GQ, if there were ever such a thing.

Buyer's remorse set in. I figured I could do the cheapskate route...and keep the tags on, hidden inside the clothes, then return them after the session. When I got home, I debated on calling Linda at work. I wondered if she'd notice the $212.76 charge... However, my conscious got the best of me and I called Linda. I told her I found some great clothes at Hall's. I could hear her swallow hard over the phone when I uttered the name "Hall's". The first thing she asked, "How much did you spend"? "About $200," I replied, hoping she'd take it in stride. I then quickly told her about my hiding-the-tags-and-return scheme. She didn't like that idea. When she got home, she asked what would we do if he spit up on the clothes or had a blow out while wearing them? It does seem pretty absurd to pay $89.00 for a pair of baby jeans, $69.00 for a hoodie and $40.00 for a onesie that he'll outgrow within a matter of weeks. In comparison, the most expensive pair of jeans I currently own is a pair I bought at Banana Republic a few years ago that cost maybe $70 or $80...and I still wear them...so I've gotten my money out of them.

So today, I ventured out again. I had to go to Target for more diapers, formula and baby food, and ran by the clothing section... I looked high and low and finally found a cool 3 piece rocker-star themed outfit, not as cool as the Kingsley stuff, but okay, I guess...and for a much reasonable price - $15.00. Then just to make sure all my options had been explored, I went over to Oak Park Mall and looked through Baby Gap, Crazy 8, and JC Penney. Found nothing at Baby Gap or Crazy 8, they had been picked over pretty well from some huge sale. JC Penney was still having a huge 50% off sale, I think for Columbus Day. They still had lots of stuff in stock and I found another rock star outfit for only $10.00! Still not Kingsley...these are Carter's outfits, but I know he'll look good...

Linda said last night, "When and if we ever win the Powerball jackpot, then by all means, Evan can dress in couture outfits. Until then, lets stick with Target and Babies R Us stuff."

Tomorrow with my head hung low and my tail between my legs, I am going back to Hall's and returning the Kingsley things and getting my $212.76 back. Dammit.

Prunes = Yuck

I don't get grossed out too often...in fact, I think I've got a pretty strong stomach. This morning, though I proved myself wrong. Yesterday, Evan stayed with his Aunt Steph for part of the afternoon while my sister Becky, Linda and I did some yard work around my dad's house. Steph gave Evan prunes last night. I've run the gamut with introducing Evan to all the Gerber 1st foods, except the prunes. I did buy some, but hadn't tested him out on them yet...was kinda saving them for when he needed it. Steph told Linda that he seemed to like the prunes. When Linda told me what he ate with Steph last night, a bit of worry set in...

This morning, when I got him up, I changed his diaper and all was good. I thought, maybe, by chance, he somehow was immune to the age-old constipation remedy. However, not more than 45 minutes later, Evan & I were playing in his bedroom when I smelled something funky. I picked him up, and felt a wet squishy mess on his diaper. Major. Diaper. Malfunction. It had leaked through his diaper and onto his PJs. I stripped off his PJs, and opened his diaper. I think I actually threw up in my mouth a little bit. It took two diapers and countless amount of baby wipes to clean up that mess.

I text Linda afterwards and told her that for future reference...lets save the prunes for when he's really constipated. In all of Evan's 6 months in existence, I have never encountered a diaper that bad. And I've change too many diapers to count...this, by far, takes the cake.

Rough Start

I didn't go to bed last night until about 1:00am. When Linda went to bed, hours earlier, I was in the middle of a game I bought from the iTunes App Store, "Oregon Trail" for the iPhone. I had felt a bit nostalgic when I saw it in the App Store...and remembered playing this game at school when I was in the 4th grade...way back in 1986. Not to mention, I'm a sucker for classic 1980s arcade video games on my phone... I also have Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Frogger and Galaga...and am hoping someone makes a Donkey Kong, Q*Bert, and Pitfall! apps... Well, in part of the Oregon Trail game you encounter George Donner, of the ill-fated "Donner Party" that got stranded in the mountains during their journey on the Oregon Trail in 1846, and resorted to cannibalism to survive.

Me being the dork that I am, my interest was peeked to learn more about the Donner Party, and I read the Wikipedia article about them after I completed my game (successfully). That article then led to a movie article about this story. Guess there was a movie made about this story just last year, and I then found it on Netflix, available for instant viewing streamed to the iPad. So I started watching it, and only got about halfway through when I realized the time and figured I needed to go to bed and would finish the movie later.

I should've been smarter...I'm still a novice at this whole parenting thing, but should have known a late night for me means little sleep, if any, while caring for a 6 month old. Evan really has gotten us spoiled...he's a great sleeper, that is, until this past week when he has been waking up once or twice in the middle of the night. So for the past week, we've been running on broken sleep...usually in 4 hour increments. When I turned in last night, I hoped he would sleep through the night like he used to, so I could catch up on the sleep I had deprived myself from... I knew it the back of my mind, I had screwed myself.

And wouldn't you figure...he woke at 4:00am. Weird thing was he wasn't crying...he sounded like he was playing. Letting out his happy squeals and giggles. Don't know what was so funny and intriguing to him at 4:00am in a dark bedroom. I laid there in bed with the baby monitor on, listening, hoping that he would fall back to sleep on his own. But nope. He was having a grand ole time in there. I didn't want to turn the baby monitor down or off, so at 4:30, I went in to check on him. Picked him up, changed his diaper and rocked him for about 30 minutes, but he was still wide awake and wanting to play. I laid him back down and figured he'd drift off if I put on his mobile. This worked, only for a few minutes.

He started fussing, and Linda then got up and checked on him...gave him a bottle, then started to get ready for her day. When she got up, I turned down the baby monitor to no volume and fell back to sleep. At this point I had only had about three to 3½ hours of sleep...and I drifted back off to sleep.

A few hours later, about 7:45 this morning, I awake to Linda rushing into our bedroom, saying in a panicked tone, "Wake up! Come quick!!" I went from a deep, peaceful sleep to sheer panic within a matter of seconds. "What was it?", "Was he hurt?", "Was he breathing?" "Is he blue?", "Is he not responding?", my heart felt like it was gonna beat out of my chest, my fear of SIDS and Evan's preference of sleeping on his belly while face-planted has always scared the crap out of me...all these thoughts flooded my mind in those few seconds. But nope, he was okay...just was ready to get up, but was pissed because his cries had gone unheard because I had turned the volume on his baby monitor all the way down and failed to tell Linda this when she got up a few hours earlier. Linda had left, but only came back because she forgot her jacket and heard Evan screaming.

Ugh... But as I'm typing this out, Little Man is happily playing in his exersaucer, laughing and squealing...and I'm trying to down a whole pot of coffee. Caffeine is my best friend today. Nothing like starting your day like that! But it really gets the blood flowing. I don't recommend waking up like that though...makes a rough start to your day.

Halfway to a Year!

This is post is in conjunction of what I posted yesterday...but wanted to update then and now!

April 7, 2010 - Evan's birthday!

October 7, 2010 - Six Months old (already?)

Six Months!

Evan had his 6-month checkup with his pediatrician this morning. He was very pleased with Evan's development, both socially and physically. Evan has almost doubled his birth weight. He was born 9 lbs. 3 oz. and was 21 inches long when he burst into this crazy world on April 7th, 2010. Today he was 18 lbs. 3 oz. (just 3 ounces shy of doubling his birth weight), and he is 27 inches long. Both of these place him in the 75th percentile for weight and length. His huge noggin measures 18 inches around, three more inches in circumference than when he was born.

It's so amazing to reflect back on the past 6 months. Evan is now sitting up by himself, has cut his first tooth, is trying to figure out this whole crawling business, interacts and is curious about the world around him...laughs and squeals and is generally a happy baby. This morning our pediatrician said that he was gonna predict that once Evan is mobile, we are definitely gonna have our hands full and suggested we start baby-proofing our house now. He went on to say that from his observations and the way Evan interacted with him, he is going to be a very smart child. Not sure if he tells every parent that? I asked my dad and Linda that, and they both said he wouldn't just voluntarily offer that up if he didn't think so...

Hope he's right and takes after Linda, she's the brains behind the family. After all, Evan has got half my genes...and I wasn't that smart of a child. My dad and sister like to recant the story of me getting my knee stuck in a fence waiting in line for the "Fury of the Nile" ride at Worlds of Fun amusement park when I was eight, and required the assistance of my dad and another guy to pry my knee out... Or, running around my front yard with my eyes closed when I was about 5 years old to see what it would be like if I were blind...and ended up banging my head on the tailgate of my dad's truck...which I still have a scar on my forehead from where I had to get stitches... Or, the story of when I was in Cub Scouts, and they had someone teaching a lesson on gun safety to the den, and were taking questions from the Scouts...I raised my hand and my mom asked me what I wanted to ask, I replied, "If you shoot yourself in the eye, will it put your eye out?" I guess I really wanted to see if the movie "A Christmas Story" had any truth behind it...

Officially tomorrow Linda & I will be the parents of a half-a-year old son! Happy (half) birthday, Booger Butt!! I can't wait to get his 6 months pictures taken next week!

Cathing up

So I know I haven't written in FOREVER. I don't have an excuse, just really couldn't think of anything to write about.

As Brian wrote in the last post, we took our first family vacation and Evan did GREAT! I would like to clarify, however, that I did NOT wear heels while walking a complete lap around the National Mall (Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, Tidal Basin included). I wore my black loafers that are extremely comfortable for normal activities - like walking from my car in the parking lot to my desk. I purposely chose not to bring tennis shoes because I have yet to find a pair that I can walk miles and miles in that don't try to rub right through my achilles tendon. I've tried Nike, New Balance and some expensive pair from The Walking Company that my "foot profile" seemed to fit. My feet are apparently deformed and therefore no tennis shoes will ever be comfortable again. That's why I thought my Addidas flippy floppies would be fine. They are thick-soled and also very comfortable. Well, they wore holes into the TOP of my feet on our first day when we went from 7th and Penn. to the Capitol and then Union Station and then back through the Capitol, Longworth and over to Ford before hopping on the train back to Braddock Road and walking 1/2 a mile to our hotel.

Other random notes...
A lot of people have asked me and continue to ask me if, "it was hard going back to work after Evan was born." The simple answer is no. I can't baby talk and listen to "Red, Yellow and Blue" all day long. Not wired that way. But I will say that staying at work after going back is hard. I'm just not as focused anymore. I'm not willing to work until 7-8 pm unless there is a darn good reason. If I can't get it done within normal working hours, guess what? It's going to have to take a little bit longer than the ridiculously short timeframe initially given. I would like to see my son before he goes to bed. As it is right now, I usually get about 2 hours with him in the evening before bed time.

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The Kansas City Chiefs season-opener was the first Monday Night Football game KC has hosted since 2003 or 2006. It was the grand opening of the renovated stadium AND we were playing hated division rival, the San Diego Chargers. I didn't even think about buying tickets as an option. We did, however, host some friends for a watching party since Evan went to bed well before kick-off. I said I changed. I haven't become a completely different person. :)

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I am a morning person. I'm not happy and cheery about it, but I know if I am home with Evan on the weekends my prime time of opportunity for getting stuff done around the house are in those precious few hours immediately following his first bottle of the day. In the morning, I can put Evan in his exersaucer and usually have at least two hours of get-stuff-done time before he gets tired of his iguana that sings, "Red, Yellow and Bluuuueee."

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Evan cut his first tooth! A little white tooth top is poking through the front of his lower jaw! He's also sitting up pretty well. He hasn't pushed himself up into a sit-up position, but once sitting up, he can stay that way for a good long while.