Sunday, November 30, 2008

Baby Blue Eyes


(photo by mommy)

Well I think we know what color Evan's eyes are gonna be!

The reason up so early (5am,) is that Evan's been having a hard time sleeping. He has a second tooth just beginning to cut his gums, so I think it's been keeping him awake. He lays there crying and rubbing his eyes, so I know he's tired, he just can't quite stay asleep.

He's been doing real well with his first 'solid' food, rice cereal, and drinking out of his sippy cup. He took to both as though he's been doing it for years. His crawling is getting a bit better, he gets that little butt up in the air and scoots along on his knees and elbows. It depends what's on the other side of the play blanket and how bad he wants it. He can't take his eyes of the remote control for the TV. All of those colorful buttons! Still no real words yet. He's been saying "Bob" real clearly for some reason. I've been trying to get him to say "Da Da," but no luck yet. Still working on that one.
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First Thanksgiving


Evan enjoyed his first Thanksgiving with some mushy rice cereal.
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Bedtime for Baby



It was a long day and night, but we finally got him to sleep around 11:30PM. I took a nap in our bedroom while he slept in his crib just after dinner, but his nap was short lived. He woke up crying in less than an hour and the usual fixes didn't work. He didn't want to be turned over, didn't want his binky, so I just held him. He was transfixed by an empty Gatorade bottle we had on the nightstand. What he really wanted to do was go downstairs and play! So I took him downstairs, with the Gatorade bottle and rolled out his blanket on the carpet and let him play until his mommy came home from the stores.

Other recent developments/milestones:

Evan has a tooth coming in, we saw it this morning just breaking his gum. We think he may be feeling a little discomfort, because he's had some trouble staying asleep. We can't complain though, because he hardly does. He's a really good baby and smiles and laughs a lot. This Thanksgiving, I'll certainly have so much to be thankful for.

Genevieve talked to the prediatrician this morning, Evan is ready to move on to solid (pureed) foods. He's been breastfeeding now for just under 6 months.

Evan began drinking water today from sippy cups for the first time.

Favorite toys include:

Dunkin' Donuts Latte Cups

His wipies package (Plastic, makes a krinking noise.)
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Some New Black & Whites From Today





Just messin around with the camera this morning while waiting for mommy to get ready to go Christmas shopping. We were in Target most of the afternoon checking out all the cool new kiddie toys, there's some great stuff for the little ones. We let him check out all the toys to see which ones he like so we can put in our request to Santa. Evan has been so good this year that I think Santa will be very generous on Christmas Morning. This is the first year in, well, forever that the majority of my Christmas shopping will be done before Thanksgiving.
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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Playing Guitar for evan

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d59/genevievil/?action=view¤t=87ed512a.pbr

What a Difference 6 Months Makes!





Like I said, we had to retire Evan's crib this weekend. We wanted to get a shot of him in the crib before we took it out of the room to do a size comparison. The photo on the top is when Evan was just 8 days old, in the photo on the bottom, Evan is 5 1/2 months old. Probably the most telling item in the photo on the bottom, is that we put the same onsie on Evan as in the photo on the top, and it's half way up his back. It looks like one of those under armour shirts that football players wear under their shoulder pads.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Evan Outgrowing


Evan has quickly outgrown his crib and bouncy seat. Sadly, we're going to have to wrap them up this weekend and put them into storage until the next little one comes along. We've already put the new, fancy, tollder size crib in it's place, a crib we bought over a year ago when Genevieve was just a month pregnant and Evan wasn't even named yet. He'll be 6 months old just after Thanksgiving and he seems to be growing at an ever faster pace.

I've had a great deal of time to spend with Evan lately. Nothing beats waking up and seeing him laying next to me, smiling so wide that his eyes are like little slits. Me and him are already connected. He waits to see what I'm going to do from the minute I wake up. He records my every move. Even when I'm exhausted and barely able to open my eyes, he smiles and waits for me to greet him.

His personality has been emerging more and more every day. He's been making some new faces lately, which I will have to videotape, because they are beyond description. Most impressive lately has been his attempts at crawling. I swear, it's going to be any day now that Evan is going to zooming around the Lambert house on his hands and knees. Even today, he seemed to be able to lift himself onto his knees and elbows a little higher than yesterday. I can say that beyond a doubt, I am so proud of him. I'm in New York now, but in a few hours I'll be home and see his smiling face again. I can't wait.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

First Snow! (Video Clip)

Evan saw snow for the first time today at about 3PM. We had a snow squall come through pretty fast and got him dressed up and outside in time to see it before it passed. Cool moment.

Army Aspirations


We got a knock at the door this afternoon. I went downstairs to find a young Army soldier dressed in camo fatigues at our front door. "I'm looking for Elvis Burke" he said ernestly. I tried not to laugh when I said, "Umm, I'm not sure if Elvis is what you're looking for, he's our dog."

I have to wonder what was going through his mind as he was walking up the path to the house, looking at the name on his clipboard, "Elvis Burke." I wonder what kind of person he was picturing in his mind, surely he didn't think I was Elvis Burke when I opened the door. Now, while I'm sure Elvis would make a good soldier, with his natural pack leading abilities, I don't think Elvis would do so well in basic training unless he was rewarded with a cookie every few minutes. Elvis also has the stealthy ability to vanish into the bushes at night when you let him out to pee. When you go out to look for him and call his name, he becomes still and silent, like Rambo, making you think he's disappeared. So I think he'd be good at psycological warfare. Elvis also protects the house daily from mailman attacks, standing on the back of the couch, peering out the window like a sentinel, just waiting for the mailman to make a move towards the front door. The moment the mailman slips that mail through the slot, Elvis attacks the offending envelops with the tenacity of a dog 5 times his size, leaving bitemarks as warning to the daily intruder. I think Elvis would be good company for the soldiers if he was deployed to Iraq, however, Elvis' many daytime naps would probably not work with the Army's schedule.

I wondered for a moment had Elvis somehow contacted the Army by himself. He seems like a happy dog, are we not feeding his sense of adventure enough? Or did Elvis need to fulfill a sense of duty? (Probably more like a sense of doodie.) Undaunted by the obvious error, the soldier asked if I thought anyone else in the house would be interested. I don't think Evan would be quite ready yet. I sorta felt bad for the guy, at least he went a way with a good story.

Just a funny story I thought I'd share.
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Major Uploading on Flickr

Spent most of early Tuesday morning uploading the 2 months worth of digital photos that have been piling up on the hard drive on to my Flickr site. I've also uploaded quite a few video clips. Yesterday, I did a little touch up work on some of the Yankee Stadium Tour photos that didn't come out so well because of the sun being directly overhead. Here's some of the retouched photos:










Monday, November 17, 2008

Black and Whites


I was messing around with the black and white setting on my camera this morning, shooting in low light. I like how it looks grainy like black and white film.

Evan's inching ever closer to crawling. Tonight, after he woke up after his nap, he started crawling on one leg. He's not quite there yet, but he's definitely mobile!

These were some shots Genevieve took out of the plane window on the way home Nov. 13th. I gussied the pics up a bit in Photoshop to make them Ansel Adams-like. I think we were somewhere over Florida.




Saturday, November 15, 2008

Anniversary Present

We arrived safely in Philadelphia last night, to the rude awakening that is November in the Northeast; dark, cold, and rainy. No more sunshine and white sand beaches for us, it's back to the sobering reality of late fall back at home. The rain was so heavy in Philly yesterday, that we were delayed 3 hours leaving Ft. Myers. Evan was stellar through the whole ordeal. He was so calm waiting in the airport, and through the entire flight. He had a couple of fussy moments towards the end of the flight, but other than that, he was a dream to travel with. I haven't spent this many days with him consecutively since the week he was born, and I really had a good opportunity to bond with him. My parents also got to get to know him and spend time with him which was nice.

He's getting closer to crawling with every passing day. Down in Florida, we set up a blanket on the floor for him with all of his toys. He scootches, mostly backwards, on his elbows and belly, and has been starting to get his knees up underneath him, which is a clear sign of him trying to crawl. As long as there's an object in front of him that he wants to reach, he'll try to move his body towards it. (His favorite toys lately have been these paper Dunkin' Donuts coffee cups.)


FLASHBACK: October 1st was our 2nd, or "Cotton" Wedding Anniversary. Genevieve came with a great idea for a gift for me. She had this photo she took of Evan printed on a pillow case. She figured since I'm away so much, at least with Evan on a pillow, I could snuggle with the baby while I was away. Also makes a great Halloween outfit.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Last Day in Naples


Evan and his Nan

Evan and Poppy

The Burke Boys (we didn't plan the white t-shirt thing, i promise you.)
Evan with cousins Emily, Chandler, & Taylor

Evan & his Uncle Bill

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Sanibel Island














Evan with his Nan & Poppy on Sanibel



Our visible horizon line on Earth passes the Sun in orbit, creating the illusion of sunset.

Big Day Planned For Evan

Today is one of our last days down here in Naples, Florida. We're planning on heading up to Sanibel Island to do some shell collecting, catch sunset, and head to the British Open in Bonita Springs for dinner to celebrate me Mum's birthday.

Evan and his ride.

The new "Burke" company logo, although I'm working on some more fancy, elaborate logos.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car was nice enough to put Genevieve's initials on the back of the car, I guess that's incase we couldn't find it in the parking lot at Publix.

Monday, November 10, 2008

On the Beach Tonight for Sunset


We took Evan with us to catch the sunset again on the beach in Naples.







Evan was more pensive than usual. Perhaps there was a lot on his mind today. He didn't seem to be in the mood for pictures.

Evan throws us off with yet another thoughtful pose...

Evan contemplates the meaning of life, existence, the universe, and when his next feeding is.

So the sun sets on another day in Naples, in a few days, we'll be back at home, whining about the cold.