Midnight Musings

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Evan the Scientist

In case you haven't noticed, Evan's not a baby anymore. Frankly, he hasn't been a baby in a long while. In August he started pre-K and his teacher has commented more than once that she doesn't think she's really teaching him anything, not because he's bad, but because he seems to already know everything they teach in pre-K. True, he went into the school year already able to read simple words by sounding them out if he didn't recognize them, but I'm sure it's more that he picks things up so quickly that it seems like he already knew it. In reality, it's more like he learned it instantly and the kid suffers no insecurities when it comes to his intelligence. If he knows it, he knows he knows it.

The above picture is from the banks of the Altamaha River in Appling County. We took a hike on the River Trail in the Moody Natural Area yesterday. The kid's a pretty good hiking companion. A bit slow, short legs and all, and you'll never see any major wildlife with is endless stream of chatter, but he'll walk for miles without complaining. If you're in our part of the world and haven't done Tavia's Trail and the River Trail in the Mood Natural Area, you're missing out.

Speaking of hiking companions, this was Aidan's first hike. Evan's going to become a big brother in late March and he's probably the person in the family most excited about that prospect. I don't know how many conversations he's had with the girl so far. He even makes Kim talk in a squeaky voice so he can pretend the baby is talking back.

Getting back to the kid's education level, his current plans for the future involve attending Stanford University where he plans on majoring in paleontology. Upon graduation, he expects to own his own museum with a nice restaurant inside. Other than genes, most of this can't be blamed on me. Stanford comes from a T-shirt his Uncle Sammy and Aunt Coo-Coo brought him from a trip out West a while back and a comment from me that Stanford is a good school. He's latched on and been telling people for two months now that he's going to Stanford. The paleontology is all him. He's obsessed with dinosaurs, even watches shows aimed at adults and grasps the basic concepts presented. I'm pretty sure he even learned the words paleontology and paleontologist on his own. The museum and restaurant thing are also all him. We took him to the Fernbank (above) because of his love of museums. The trip to Fernbank didn't create the love.

Of course I may not have pushed him to love science, but I'm definitely not going to discourage it either. When time comes to actually start thinking about a real career path, I may steer him away from the true academic paths and more into the applications of math and science for the practical considerations of not being forever poor, but the more the kid likes science now, the better off he'll be later.

posted by Jacob # 5:54 AM 1 Comments

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Angry Birds to the Rescue

Evan loves Angry Birds. In fact, he loves the game so much that I think some days he uses my smartphone more than I do. When Kim asked him what he wanted the theme for his birthday party to be earlier this year, his answer was "Angry Birds party!" Kim wasn't so sure to start with. She kind of wanted just a normal kids party, but I loved the idea and gradually Kim grew to like it as well. Here's the resulting cake.

And here's a closeup of the detail. Kim made all of the decorations from scratch. She colored and shaped gum paste to make the birds and pigs. She colored and cut fondant for the surface of the cake and the background board behind the pigs. The structures the pigs are sitting on are made from creme wafers dipped in chocolate. The girl has talent.

Evan had a couple of friends from his pre-school and our friends' little girl to play with at the party and this is the way they spent most of the first half of the party.

My mom has a video of Evan using a slingshot to shoot the birds at the pigs and structures before we cut the cake. I'll add it to the post if I can get her to give me the file. Until then a still photo will have to suffice.

Evan got a ton of presents as you'd expect, but the big gift this year was a new bicycle. Evan's been watching me doing a lot of bike riding this year as I prepare for a triathlon, so he was a little excited about getting one for himself.

After the party, Evan ran his first annual birthday triathlon. He's been hearing me talk about my triathlon and watching me train this year so he wanted to do one of his own. Because he's heard me ask Kim or my dad for my time so much while I practiced my swimming this spring, Evan needed me to time his triathlon.

The swim leg was really more of a wade leg because the pond is so shallow, but that's good because the kid doesn't really know how to swim yet.

I had to help him a little bit on the bike leg. It's too hard for him to pedal through the grass and gravel, but he did the section across the carport on his own.

The running leg is more his specialty. He practices that continuously every day. We've been watching some bike racing on TV lately and he'd noticed the team cars that follow the cyclists in support of the riders in the stage races. He told me I was his team car and I had to hand him pretend water and food that he'd drink and eat while running. We did the triathlon three times until I told him we had to stop because it was time for a nap. The kid's a natural athlete.

posted by Jacob # 6:02 AM 1 Comments

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Summer's Over

Of course I should modify the statement in this post's title by saying that summer is only officially over. The forecast for today had the temperature peaking at 90, which is hardly autumnal weather, but a string of days in the 70s suggests that the worst part of the year here is sputtering out, so that's a good thing.

We visited the beach several times this summer. Evan loves the beach and he makes the shore more fun for me as well. I'm more of a mountains and rivers guy, but it's hard not to enjoy something that Evan enjoys so much.

His mom took him to Farm City Day and turned the kid into a country bumpkin.

A couple of weekends ago we went with Kim's parents to The Rock Ranch, just outside of Barnesville, GA. This is a farm that has been converted into a sort of farm theme park with jump castles, a narrow gauge train, huge slides, an entire village of really impressive play houses for the kids and more. It was a lot more fun than I expected.

Evan got to feed the goats at the Ranch.

I'm surprised the kid made as long as he did this day. He probably burned off several thousand calories.

That small dot just left of center in the sky is a watermelon. The red dot in the center in the plastic bucket they use for wadding in the air canon. The ammunition changed from watermelons to pumpkins the week after we visited.

This is apparently more fun than it looks. The corn house may have been Evan's favorite thing at the park.

It looks in this picture like Evan knew how to drive. Notice the alert gaze scanning the path where he is headed, the wheels turned in the right direction. I promise you that this was followed within 20 seconds by a full speed collision into the hay bales or the other vehicles. It's a good thing that he has another 12 years before he can even get a learner's license.

I ordered a batch of chicks to replenish the flock recently. The chicks are actually slightly more than half guinea keets. The guineas are the smaller ones with the striped heads. The more alert guineas make good guard dogs for the more oblivious chickens. They're also really loud, but our pens are far enough away from the house that we'll be fine. Evan's a huge fan of them at the moment. He'll go out on the porch where we're keeping the brooder and just watch them eat for surprisingly long times.

posted by Jacob # 7:34 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Little Man Starts School

Evan is enrolled in a three-year-old academy this year. The classes start a week before the regular school year, probably to allow kids to get used to this before everyone else gets busy. He'll be in school until lunch each day when he'll go back to Jody, who's been keeping him since the fall after he was born. Here's Evan's interview about his first day at school.

Before the interview, Daddy was playing around with the camcorder on his new cell phone. Evan sang "Bah Bah Black Sheep" for us. His version is "Blah Blah Black Sheep, have you any wools."

Although we had to work through a batch of the sillies before we could actually get the song on tape.

posted by Kim # 9:49 AM 2 Comments

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Catching Up

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've uploaded anything to the Little Man Evan blog, but it's not because nothing's happened. In fact, we've had a pretty eventful spring and summer. Below is a bunch of photos to help you catch up on Evan's summer so far.

I spent a week working as a volunteer on the Appalachian Trail back in June. Apparently, while I was gone, Kim broke a few child labor laws.

Evan was paid in tiger makeup. Kim did his face and he got to decorate hers and Mimi's.

I came back with temporary tattoos. Evan was very proud of his. His worried about it coming off every time he took a bath and checked my arm daily to make sure mine was still on.

The kid likes camping, but he HATES gnats. We camped with Mimi and Granddaddy at Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park near Cordele so I could run a 5K race there as a warmup for the Peachtree Road Race 10K race I ran on July 4 in Atlanta. It's a great state park, but camping in late June in south Georgia comes with some disadvantages.

After the race we stopped at the train depot in the park to watch the SAM Shortline train drop off passengers. During the train's stop Evan got to talk to the conductors...

And managed to charm his way onto the train.

Earlier that day Evan got to cross the finish line at the Loop the Lake 5K. He didn't run the entire race, but honestly, as much as that kid likes to run, he probably could have.

I'm not as cute, but I had a personal record in the 5K at this race. Three and a half minutes off my time from back in March.

The next weekend we were in Atlanta for the Fourth of July and the Peachtree Road Race. Evan spent some time in the pool. He even convinced Yia Yia and Papou to get in the pool with him.

On the Monday after the holiday, we went to Bodies: The Exhibition at Atlantic Station, which Evan loved. He was fascinated by the bodies. After that, we took him to the children's museum next to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke.

We played a little in the sand box, which had some sort of weird sand that could be molded into shaped.

We played a little in the electricity generating exhibits.

And went fishing for plastic fish. The kid had a blast.

posted by Jacob # 9:33 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Little Man's First Snow

We drove up to visit my sister Courtney in Augusta Friday and were greeted by the first flurries of what would end up being about four inches of snow as we passed into the outskirts of the city. Evan was asleep when the snow began and because he'd taken too long to fall asleep in the car, he was grumpy when he woke up. All it took to raise his spirits was to point out of my sister's window and yell, "Evan, look! It's snowing!" I'm not sure the smile left his face until he realized that most of the snow had disappeared by the time he woke up from his nap on Saturday.

See that snow ball in his hand? I made the mistake of teaching him how to make one Friday evening and he made them (and threw them with deadly accuracy) until we ran out of snow. Like the hat? It's my sister's.

When we went to the park Saturday morning, another family was already there and offered to let Evan use their little plastic sled thing.

He loved it. Then he pelted their kids with snowballs.

This snowball didn't come from Evan. I think I was actually throwing it, but it's a great face.
Attack the camera person!

We actually built a couple of snowmen. We built the first one early Friday evening and it was taller than Evan, but collapsed in the Saturday morning sun. We tried a second one Friday night that was on pace to actually be taller than me, but the weight of the middle snowball (it took three of us to lift it and only barely then) caused the bottom ball to collapse after only a few seconds. This snowman was not ours. Courtney went out taking photos Saturday and found this one, the bottom ball split, but the snowman still recognizable.

Not a bad family portrait, eh? Of course, Evan promptly shoved Kim over into the snow after this shot. Then he pelted her with a snowball from point blank range.

The snow may have stopped falling during the night, but it's always fun to shake a tree to recreate the blizzard. I think Evan is like his daddy and was meant to be born in a colder clime. we both love the snow and don't mind cold weather. The kid never once complained of the cold and when we came in from hours of snow play Friday night, his legs were beet red from his pants getting wet and cold. Not a peep of complaint. In fact, he was upset we couldn't stay outside even longer. Maybe he already knows that in his part of the world, this is a very rare experience.

All photos were taken by my sister. We, the stupid parents, forgot to bring either of our cameras even though we knew it was probably going to snow.

posted by Jacob # 7:28 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Christmas Photos

This was Evan's third Christmas, and just like last year, he made it much more fun than it would have been otherwise.

Kim got the idea from a gift she received last year to make these snowmen out of tube socks, buttons, peppercorns, dyed toothpicks, ribbons, sticks, and beans. If you're wondering where the beans are, they're inside. That's what lets these things stand upright on their own. Evan got to help make them this year. Mimi may have helped a little too.

My Aunt Kay (Evan's KayKay) gave him a really neat toy workshop that even came with a battery powered screwdriver. The set also came with a toy car that you had to put together piece by piece using the toy tools. Evan helped me build it when we got home that day.

I think we may have taken it back apart as well.

Here's a better shot of the workbench and the picture frame Evan and I built.

Of course, with a two-year-old things aren't always perfect. Here's a picture of "The Lip".

Kim and Evan built a gingerbread house, although the icing that came with the kit didn't seem to do much good and it promptly collapsed under its own weight after they finished. Evan had fun building it anyway.

This is Evan and his horse Kellen. We're not exactly sure where the name came from. Evan made it up a couple of months ago for his pretend horse. The horse got a physical entity when Yiayia and Papou (Kim's parents) came down a couple of days before Christmas.

Evan's eye-hand coordination seems unusually fine for a kid his age. He's actually able point at what he wants to shoot, press the shutter button, and has even started framing his shots so well that all of what he wants in the picture is well inside the borders of the image. He takes better photos than some adults I know, although he has a tendency to touch the lens still. Now if we could just transfer this skill to catching a ball.

Another shot of the master photographer in action.

This was the first time Evan was old enough to ask Santa for something and for the past two months his request was specifically for a "train set." Santa brought this little wooden set. Obviously Evan was pleased.

He'd play with the train set, open another present, and then come back to play with the train set. That's his Aunt Kimberly (my Kim's sister-in-law) and his Grandma (Kim's grandmother) in the background.

That is until he opened his gift from Grandma. Her train set was battery powered and remote controlled. Santa just got out train-setted this year. It happens.

The cool thing this year is that my mom's dad, Pa-Pa, decided he felt good enough to make the ride down to spend Christmas day with us. He's not been feeling well for a couple of years now and this was a pleasant surprise. I don't think I've seen him as happy as he was Christmas day in a very long time. It was pretty cool that Evan got to spend Christmas this year with two of his great-grandparents.

The Christmas Treasure Hunt is a tradition in my family and Evan was finally old enough to provide his own locomotion this year. He was able to keep up with us as we ran from clue to clue around my parents' house and yard. Unfortunately, at this stop, the present for Evan was a little kid-safe mp3 player. Once he got this, he was kind of done. He'd walk slowly, head cocked in the direction of the speaker, occasionally stopping to serenade us with poorly enunciated versions of the music playing from the little red cylinder attached to his belt loop.

posted by Jacob # 9:39 AM 0 Comments