The Muller-Zelazny Family

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General

Just like Grandad.

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Evan Loves apples. We know that from his first trip to PSU where he ate an entire apple one night in the hotel room. So we continue to eat apples together and lately he has been reminding me so much of Grandad or my dad. I give him his apple and he hands it back to me and asks for the stem to be taken off – although he does not know the word stem so he usually just motions and grunts. It reminds me of my dad because when he came out to visit and help out when Evan was first born he ate an apple ever day with his lunch and the first step was always to remove the stem. I do not usually care – but maybe it is a Muller thing but skipped a generation! ๐Ÿ™‚

General

Evan Likes Fish

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Evan is at the age now where everything is really cool and interesting to him. He loves looking for worms on rainy days, and now dead worms on dry days (on the driveway). He recently had shown new interest in fish. Our friends Phil and Ginny have a pond where they have fish in it as well as a large fish tank in their house that Evan loves to look at.

Yesterday we took him to the pet store to look at fish and he absolutely loved it. We then came home and before bedtime I read him the book “Curious George Goes to the Aquarium” where he was completely fascinated with the story and pictures of the whales, octopus, and penguins.

Perhaps when he gets a little older I will buy him his own fish for his room. (At this point I would be concerned he would either drink the water, dump it out, or take the fish out) ๐Ÿ˜‰

General

Race?

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Every morning I drive Evan to his babysitter’s house and on the way we always pass lots of cars, trucks, and trains. Evan enjoys riding in the Volvo (he calls it “the Volvo”) and we always “race” the train and cars on our way to the babysitters. We actually never really race, but anytime you have multiple cars going the same way (or a train) Evan thinks it is a race and gets excited.

On Friday I got a call from the babysitter asking me if we race in the car because that afternoon, the babysitter was driving around with Evan in the back and everyone had their windows down. At a stop light Evan said hello to the older man in the car next to him and the man said hello back. Evan then asks him if he wants to race and the older man politely said no thank you – and Evan then said “ok, bye”.

While all this was going on, the babysitter was sitting in the front seat in shock…because Evan was talking to the person next to them and asking them if they wanted to race. We all got a huge kick out of it and are curious what else Evan might say to people next to him over this summer!

General

Ok, Get Out

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The last few nights Evan has been getting back into a good bedtime routine (travel is hard on him). Each night one of us take him into his room to go to bed, he will get into bed, then tells us to “get in”. He curls up in a ball, snuggles in, and then just when I start to think “ahh this is cute” he tells me “ok, get out” and then falls asleep. It is pretty darn cute ๐Ÿ˜‰

Trips

Evan’s First Penn State Game

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Evan at his first PSU game We took Evan to the Penn State Blue and White game last weekend so he could experience a Penn State game while Joe Paterno was still coaching. I went to my first Penn State game at age 3 and never thought of going anywhere else to college after experiencing Penn State. I cannot say the same about Evan, but I know he had a good time. He got to meet some of our friends from Penn State (Amy, Casey, and our friend Emily’s son Colin.)

Evan on the slide Before the Penn State game, we flew into Buffalo so we could spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Z. Evan enjoyed playing outside on the ATV, in the sandbox, in the fort that his great-grandfather (Papa) built for him, and walking around in gravel while experiencing hills (all our terrain here in Chicago is very flat). Inside – he enjoyed playing with Play Doh for the first time, sitting at the little table and chairs, and running around the house.

All and all it was a great trip and we look forward to more fun visits. Check out the photos section for some pictures from the trip!

General

Evan’s Vocabulary

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Every day Evan says something that completely surprises me. I have to attribute Evan’s vocabulary to Denise (his babysitter) and Curious George. The other day Evan and I went outside to play in the backyard. He looked at me said “come on!” and when I asked him where were were going, he said “look for creatures”. I got such a kick out of the fact he used “creatures” and not bugs, worms, animals, etc.

Firsts News

Old Habits Are Apparently Hard to Break

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ER VistLast night was going to be the first Thursday that I did not see any ER action since it’s first episode 15 years ago. Apparently there was one last (hopefully) Thursday night ER drama that had to unfold. It was 630pm – I just got Evan out of the bathtub and into his pajamas while Amy was getting ready for ballet. Evan was playing in his room while I was cleaning up the bathroom.

Amy was in the living room. The next thing we heard was a loud bang and then Evan crying. (Evan is not usually one to cry so you know if he is something is bad.) I was the first on to get into his room. He was standing up by his changing table and I did an initial scan to make sure he had all his teeth and was not bleeding. No blood so I was happy. Amy rushed in and said “oh my god look at his head!!” and I looked and look and did not know what she was talking about. She then told me to look at his forehead where there was a growing by the second lump over his eye that was getting more black and blue as it grew.

Amy and I decided as soon as it kept getting bigger and bigger (like someone put a bouncy ball under his skin) that we needed to call 911. Amy got on the phone and got him some ice (which he screamed more about using that than the actual injury) and I tried to keep it on his head. The fire company and ambulance arrived within a few minutes and as soon as Evan saw the 5 men come in the house he stopped crying and wanted to give them all high fives and see the fire truck. Of course Amy and I are the ones crying now.

The guys checked him out, tried to give him ice for his head, but Evan was more interested in wanting to show them his room “Come on man, come on man” as he was going to his room with me to get his shoes. The guys then let him go sit in the ambulance where they decided it was best to go to the ER to get it checked out.

We waited a few hours to get checked out and the entire time Evan was thankfully himself – greeting everyone, running around, and all around happy (and very tired). We came home, put him to bed and then checked on him every 2-3 hours to make sure he was responsive. He is now in the livingroom with Amy watching TV and is doing great.

On a side note – last night I decided to try out my magnesium stick, flint, and fire making skills before this all happened in the backyard in our fire pit. After many unsuccessful tries I just used some matches and started a little fire to burn some of the hundreds of twigs in our backyard. Before I went inside – I grabbed the hose, put it out, and then gave Evan his bath. When the fire department was getting ready to leave they asked me if I left my grill on because it was still smoking and then jokingly said “because we would not want to have to come out here again”. I said yes because I was not sure if there was a time/day that you could have a fire going and so I went in the backyard hoping they would not see it was a fire pit. I grabbed the hose, filled the pit with water this time, and as it was going out – one of them walked back, but thankfully did not say anything (probably because my son was in the ambulance.

What a night!

General

Oh Evan…

Posted by: jzelazny | 2 Comments

Evan Oh Evan…sometimes Evan just does not want to do what I want to do…and he finds a corner to try and get into so I cannot “get him”. Yesterday morning Evan just did not want to get into the car and so he ran into our bedroom, went around the bed, and tried to squeeze into a tiny space. Crazily enough, his position did not stop me from getting his jacket on and getting him in the car. This is happening more and more as he continues to test us to see how far he can go with things. While it is not bad yet – I hope it does not get too much worse. He is a good, laid back kid and when I see this I just have to laugh at him and not take him too seriously. I do not want him to start using this behavior to get things, as we have all seen where that leads.

General

Evan’s Car Bed in Action

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Evan's sweet ride After trying to get Evan to pose on his bed for a few days now (without success) – I decided to just take a picture of his sweet bed so everyone can see it. It is a twin size and he loves it. He often sleeps the wrong way – but he does not seem to care. He also enjoys sleeping completely under the comforter (the “tent”) and loves to get in an out of the bed during the day (and some nights). I really wish I could have had one of these as a kid! *For all those people who make their beds everyday and will look at this and say “she should have made the bed before taking the picture” – I did ๐Ÿ™‚ .

Favorites General News

Evan and the Easter Bunny

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Amy and I dropped Evan off on Saturday evening with our babysitter Denise so that we could go out to a friend’s house for a party. We left Evan there for the night and when we picked him up in the morning – he gave both Amy and I a picture of him and the Easter Bunny as well as a big photo of the occasion to hang up. (Thanks Denise – that was extremely thoughtful!)

At Christmas – Evan was scared to death of Santa and cried hysterically when we took him to see him. This time though – apparently he was super excited, gave him a high five, and was talking to him non-stop. Let’s hope this means this year’s picture with Santa will be more pleasant.