All About Evan

It's hard to believe that in almost one month my baby will be two. Evan's second birthday will not be the typical two year old birthday since he is not the typical two year old. He will not be able to feast on cake, snacks and yummy picnic food or run around the yard playing and ripping open presents. Even though I wish he was at the stage where he could do these things, I am extremely grateful he is with us today and very impressed with the progress he has made in the short time he has been on this Earth.

My little man is doing a lot more these days. Some of Evan's favorite things to do (as of right now) are throwing all of his toys onto the floor one by one, nibbling on cheese puffs, snuggling with his monkey or doggie, kicking his feet like a wild man, laughing at Bruli and drinking out of his sippy cup. Like I have said many times, he is a happy little guy and is very content with whatever is going on. He is a mellow little boy yet has his giggling, silly episodes often which make me laugh.

Holding his bottle with NO HANDLES.. Finally

We are working very hard on sitting and propping. Evan can sit on his own for a moment or two but neglects to use his hands and arms to prop to prevent him from falling over. Once he masters propping he will be sitting like a champ. We also practice standing by using his stander and do many weight bearing exercises. Until we got the stander Evan never stretched out his legs even with all of the range of motion exercises we did. After using the stander he stretches out his body and locks his knees more often. Recently he has been putting a little bit of weight onto his feet while locking his knees. And what a wonderful feeling of achievement that is.

Though Evan has been struggling with gross motor milestones (sitting, propping, walking) he has been advancing rapidly with his cognitive and communication abilities. He has been 'picking up' things very quickly since the start of this year. Without visual prompts and when asked Evan will clap, lift his chin up,  kick, splash, bounce, jump, say 'yes' (but shakes his head no), give high five and turn the page of a book. He is starting to really reach and somewhat point for what he wants and will 'find' specific items when asked (pacifier, monkey, doggie, sippy cup).

Silly boy sitting nicely

We recently purchased an iPad for Evan to use as a communication device. There are so many applications to choose from to improve his vocabulary of common objects, communicate by choosing between items he wants, learning sign language and much more. He seems to like it so far and loves to 'swipe' between the different flash cards of animals and draw with his fingers in an art program. We are waiting on Birth to 3 to get the communication application which I'm sure will help him a great deal. It is strange to think my almost 2 year old has an iPad but I will do anything to help this little guy to learn to communicate better.

In most of the pictures you see it may be difficult to know exactly how big (or I should say how little) Evan is. As of right now he weighs 16 lbs 11oz. He has been in the 16 pound range since January. I am anxiously awaiting for him to hit the 17 lbs mark but it is a slow struggle for him. To get an idea of Evan's size, the average 6 month old weighs the same as him. Evan fits into a 6 month old onesie perfectly (if not its still a little big), his head fits into a 2T, he needs 12 month length for his legs and arms yet 6-9 months for his waist, and almost fits into size 2 shoes (for average 3-4 month old). So dressing him is interesting.

Playing with Evan's new iPad

Just seeing how quickly he has been advancing in the past 4 months, I am optimistic for the future. The 'saying' has been that the 'typical' preemie usually catches up by 2 years old and yet again my Evan was not the 'typical preemie' (not to say there even is a typical preemie). When Evan was born, I was told by a very educated woman that it would probably take at least 3 years for Evan to catch up. I am optimistic that this will happen and can't believe it is only a year away. What a warrior we have in our lives.