Midnight Musings

Evan really does party naked. Or at least he would if we let him.

Now, with apologies to U2 for butchering their "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," we cut to the chase. Evan went to the doctor for his 9-month well-child check-up Friday. They measured height, weight, circumference of the head, listened to his heart and lungs, and various other checks to make sure he's not some freak of nature or other problems. For those of you who remember his appearance during the first couple of months, part of the findings are a bit of a surprise. Mr. Pot Belly is now slightly above the 75th percentile in both height and weight. In other words, it's looking like Little Man won't be so little forever. That's a good thing. I'd have to disown him if he doesn't at least break the 6' mark.

Another part of this check up included checking his iron levels, which required drawing blood. First, they pricked his heel and squeezed droplets of red into a tiny vial, which they rushed off to be tested for iron content. If it came back below 11 (11 what, I don't know) they had to draw blood from his arm for a bigger sample. If it came back at 11 or above, the test was over and Evan would be free to go. It came back 10.9.

The nurse struggled to find a vein and after a failed attempt and no vein clearly visible, the nurse asked us to head over to the hospital next door to get the lab people to draw the blood instead of risking turning Evan's little arm into meat-flavored Swiss cheese. The lab tech filled the vial quickly with only one, quick stick. What a difference having a job that requires you to draw blood all day makes compared to the more generalist nurse. Of course Evan cried while being stuck, but true to his nature, as soon as I picked him up, he was back to grinning at the nurses who held him down and impaled him to steal his life force. He just doesn't know how to hold a grudge. This is a photo of Evan just seconds after being skewered.


That weird face is not from discomfort, but is simply Evan's new ham face. That's right. Every time the red light for the anti-red eye feature on the camera comes on Evan ham's it up by opening his mouth wide and leaning back a bit. Here is another example from recent weeks.

I wonder if he picked this up from me.


We also spent an afternoon a couple of weeks ago playing outside on a blanket. Evan got to watch the chickens scratching under the pomegranate, physically attacked me and had a grand time posing for pictures. This was before the new ham face, so he doesn't look quite so angry here.


And finally, Evan had his first trip to the beach a couple of weeks ago. We went to Jekyll and St. Simon's Islands. It was too cold to swim, and rainy at times, but we had fun, and Evan seemed to really enjoy the change of scenery.


And Despite the appearances, Evan didn't really help write this blog. He just thinks he did.