The Longest Post Ever

We've been really busy, so just hang with us for lots of photos and lots of adventures.


Another Saturday, another soccer game. Check out my jumping jacks.




My big smile during game. I love playing soccer. During this particular game, I scored 5 goals. Mommy and Daddy even took me out of the game for a while so the other kids could have a chance to score (or even kick the ball), but while I was out the other team scored 2 goals. I went back in a few minutes later.


We had to miss the next week's soccer game because we had a lot of travelling to do. Mom needed to take her pediatric board exam but unfortunately got assigned to take them in Philadelphia. We packed up the car and the four of us drove down to Philly. Our friend Naomi was gratious enough to let us crash at her condo during our stay. As Mom took her all day exam, Reid, Dad, and I ventured out to the new Please Touch Museum. I had been there several times when we used to live in Philly, but since we'd moved, they too had moved into a new location.


Having tea with the Mad Hatter and March Hare


Lots of silly mirrors. We had yummy dinners at old favorites Monk's and Marathon Grill, then after Mom's test we started the all night drive to Kentucky for a week vacation. We did great jobs in the car. Reid sleeps for long stretches during the night so they didn't have to stop to feed him too often, and I slept all through the drive too!


We arrived in Louisville to warm weather. I remember that Nana and Papa's house has a tire swing and that was one of our first stops.




I recently have been very into playing all sorts of card games - Uno, Go Fish, War, and Old Maid. Sometimes I cheat, but I'm a pretty good player. Here I am bossing Nana, Papa, Daddy, and cousin Emily around.


Sometimes Reid gets fussy, but Papa knew just how to settle him down.


We spent one morning at the Louisville Science Museum. Look, I'm in a giant bubble!




Across the street from the museum is the Louisville Slugger Museum. As I would say, "That is one giant ever bat!" Can you even see me, Mommy, and Reid in front of it?


Me and dad


We stayed at Grandmother's house during our stay in Louisville. Mom got me a Where's Waldo book for the drive down to Kentucky and Grandmother helped me find him, with a magnifying glass. I bossed her around a lot and made her play lots of card games.


The Bolton Boys - Bubba, Me, Daddy, and Reid (Reid is probably about 2.5months old in this picture)


We got to visit some old friends while in Louisville too. This is Jane. Her dad and my dad have known each other since they were kids. I hadn't seen Jane since my baptism when I was two months old and she was 6 months old. They just moved back to Kentucky from Alabama, so we got a chance to go over to their house and play with them. Jane has a sister named Mary Thomas whom I'd never met before.


Jane and I got along well and did lots of silly racing around the house.


Jane was demonstrating how a butterly flaps its wings when I exclaimed, "I can do a real butterfly." So here I am - see my attenae and my legs are wiggling back and forth like wings. Apparently this is one of my yoga moves (as I still do yoga on Fridays) but it was not one Mom or Dad had seen, so they were laughing so hard they were crying.


We drove to Lexington one morning to go visit Nancy, Nick, Drew, and Memaw. Reid was all smiles for Nancy.


He looks like he's just begging for hugs. I think he is 12 weeks old in this picture.


Cousin Nick had never met me, but we had a good time coloring.


The Evans family - Mom, Reid, Me, Memaw, and Nick


More Evans Family with Mom, Reid, Me, Memaw, and Aunt Nancy


We managed to arrange for Reid's baptism while we were down in Kentucky as well. It was held at St Louis Bertrand. This is the church where Mommy and Daddy were married almost exactly five years ago from Reid's baptism. I was baptised there as well. They asked Father Ralph to come perform the ceremony, and even though he has move on to a new parish, he was able to do it.

Here's Reid in his dress - or christening gown. This dress has been worn by Mommy, Uncle Taylor, me, and Reid for our baptisms. It also came with a bonnet that Mommy had wrapped in her bouquet for their wedding.

Reid didn't much like his baptism. He cried most of the time.

I didn't really like the baptism either. See me sitting (pouting) on the floor? The baptism was during my nap time.

We were glad so many of our friends and family could be there. David Schulte is Reid's godfather and Ashley Fitz is his godmother. She couldn't be there, so Gigi stood in her place.

Our family plus Father Ralph and David

Then we all headed back to Nana and Papa's for a little celebration. Reid pooped on his cute post-baptism outfit, so this was the only thing left in the diaper bag.

Trying to get a cute family photo but neither of the little boys were in the mood.

Reid still didn't want his picture taken

Our baptism celebration moved outside and I got to show Jane the tire swing.

We could race really fast outside too!

This is a picture of Daddy with two of his high school friends, David and Tommy, and all the kids they've had in the last few years. L-R Me, Daddy, Reid, Mary Thomas, Tommy, Jane, Taylor, David, and Ben.

Reid got a cake for his baptism. It was yummy. After the party, we packed up our stuff in Louisville and drove down to Madisonville to hang out at Mimi and Papaw's for a couple of days.

I remembered my tricycle that I had there and wanted to ride right away.

Mommy's high school friend Jayme moved next door to Mimi and Papaw's house, so I rode my bike over to her house to have a playdate with her little boy Duncan.

Mimi held Reid some.

I bossed Uncle Taylor around and made him play blocks with me.

Papaw took me out on his tractor (aka the lawn mower)

Mimi and I made cupcakes. After all that fun, it was time to head back to Boston.

We had to get back for a soccer game, but by the time we got back it had turned really cold.

The last soccer game of the season. Here we are doing a lap around the field, trying to chase coach Jeremy. See how much faster I am than all the rest of the kids.

In game action. This game I was a little whiney because it was so cold. Then after a few plays, this kid in purple shoved me down on purpose and I started crying. I sat out most of the rest of the game and didn't score any goals.

But, it was a great soccer season and a much well deserved trophy.

Several months ago I declared I wanted to be a red ant for Halloween. Why, know one knows, but that's what I wanted. Mom hunted down an old McCall's pattern for an ant costume and Mimi set up her sewing shop, and look what she came up with. I loved it so much!

Most people thought I was a lobster or a ladybug, but I'm very clearly an ant. I could hardly wait for dark so we could go out trick or treating.

Reid was a spider. He came trick or treating too but didn't get any candy.

Trick or treat! I went to lots and lots of houses on the block. We had a good turn out at our house too and I enjoyed giving out candy.

November 1st rolled around and it was time for Mommy to get back to work and time for Reid to join me at Kaya's house. Don't worry Mom - we're taking great care of him.

Reid is growing up so quickly and is now three months old. He smiles a lot on purpose and gives you cute little giggles that sounds like squeaks. He make all sorts of oooh and aah sounds and likes to have little "conversations" with you. He loves to look at his hands and eat them. He loves his little giraffe blanket and loves to hold it and put it in his mouth. He follows his toys around and smiles at them. He's trying to reach out for them too.

Reid and his giraffe.

He loves to play on his mat and wiggle, wiggle. He'll be rolling over before you know it.

I like to help him play.

But then he makes a frowny face and cries. Sometimes I help too much.

But I love him. There's nothing like having a brother.

Fall Fun

I'm now officially 3 and 3/4 years old and Reid is 2 months old. How time flies. It's amazing how quickly I'm growing up. I've been into playing "art surprise" which means art supplies, which means playing with markers, glue, and anything I can create. This is the first picture I ever drew of my family. Yes, mom is smaller than me and only has one arm, but Mom and Dad thought it was pretty special. Month two of our new family of four...

We needed to announce to the world that Reid was here, so we tried to do a photo shoot with Reid to make a birth announcement for him. The pictures were taken at 5 weeks of age. It's hard to pose a non-smiling, floppy baby but this was the winner.

Some other outtakes...

My second soccer season has started up. This time I'm on the orange team, also known as the Pumpkins. All the practice I did during the off season really paid off, that and I'm one of the oldest, biggest kids on the team. I am super eager to play, following directions nicely, and a force on offense.

The first game I scored 3 goals. No one else on the team scored.

The second game of the season, I scored 3 goals. No one else scored. You can see a video of my goals in the post below.

Third game of the season I scored 2 goals. Fourth game of the season I scored 3 goals. Still, no one else has scored. Notice a theme? Some might say ball hog, but really, I'm one of the only kids that knows what he's doing. Take this girl - everytime she was near the ball, she picked it up. Look at my coach's expression, hehe.

In addition to soccer on Saturdays, I'm also doing swimming lessons on Tuesday. I really love swimming. Right now, I swim with 3 bubbles (floaties) and a noodle. That's me in the water with the blue noodle. We work on our paddling freestyle and on our backs, we have learned how to get out of the pool by ourselves, and we even get to go on a slide sometimes into the water. I smile from ear to ear during the whole class. Mommy has to sit outside the window to watch me.

I love my little brother so much. I want to kiss him and hug him all the time. I help Mommy and Daddy as much as I can. These are of me and Reid at 6 weeks.

For the past 2 years, we've gone apple picking at the same place and during the same weekend each year (the last in September). This year was no exception. The only exception was the weather. Previously, we've been decked out in full fall gear with sweaters and pants. This year it was 89 degrees. Not so much fall weather.

I didn't want to take pictures. I wanted to pick apples.

Reid wanted to sleep.

I didn't pick the ones up off the ground like last year, but I still wanted to pick every apple in sight.

This apple was as big as my head. We picked $30 worth of apples! Mom has been busy making us apple dumplings, baked apples, and turkey-apple meatballs. Yum yum.

The day we went apple picking, I stayed up late the night before and had just had a soccer game before this outing, so I was not much in the mood for pictures.

Reid had been nice and asleep and definitely was not in the mood for pictures.

Poor guy, but we must have our annual picture in the pumpkins!

By the time Reid was 7 weeks old, the weather had finally cooled down into fall weather. Time once more for pictures.

Everytime I see woods, I ask if I can go hiking in that forest someday. Daddy likes to hike, so we've gone hiking together several times. This is out near our house on a nature preserve. Check out my walking stick.

In addition to hiking, I'm still into playing cars, but I also love doing puzzles and board games. I like CandyLand, Hi Ho Cherry-O, Memory, and most recently, Uno. I like to draw and can write my name by myself. The letters aren't in a nice left to right pattern, but they're all there somewhere on the page. I talk non-stop, ask good questions, can count to thirty (but never remember to say 12 and 13), and can recognize all my big letters and some of my little letters. I love to "read" my books myself and my favorites are Pinkalicious, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Dinosaurs Love Underpants, Are You My Mother, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, among many others.

I also got my first pet. He is a red beta fish. His name is Clifford the Big Red Fish. I forgot to take his picture. I help feed him. He lives in a bookshelf in Reid's room - where I'm still sleeping.

Reid is doing a lot of cool stuff too. He's really started noticing some of his toys and loves to get his wiggles out on his playmat. He will just smile at all the toys and gets really excited if he accidentally hits one.

About five weeks of age, he started smiling on purpose. Mommy was just taking a picture of the two of us when Reid fell over smiling. What a ham!

He smiles with his whole face! You usually have to capture them with the phone because he won't smile for the camera yet. Look as his smiles change from age 5 weeks to 8 weeks!

He's also started making some little Oooh and Aaah sounds. I love when Reid talks. He's eating every 3 hours and sleeping 6-7 at night for Mommy and Daddy.

Here Reid is on his two month birthday. Can you find him in all the monkeys? At his doctor visit, the little chunker is up to 13lbs 9oz! He's already in 3-6 month clothes. He got his first set of shots and he was not a happy camper.

Reid's starting to find his fists. Wonder if he'll suck his thumb?

Daddy has been on a nightfloat rotation for the past week, so we only get to snuggle with him during the day before he goes to sleep. Hope you're enjoying some nice fall fun like we are!