Our Trip!

I just wanted to say that we are back home (to DC)! We had a great vacation and it was very wonderful to see everyone. Our time felt too short, but we enjoyed every minute.
We arrived home safely and without incident, which we were grateful for. We received many compliments about Everett's good behavior on the plane, which we were happy about. He makes the job easier than a lot of toddlers would because he still loves his bottle, and he has an amazingly sweet temperament (minus the biting!).

Joel immediately came home and wanted a bath and added one of his "bath bombs" that I got him as sort of a gag gift for Christmas (he loves baths and has used all of my bath salts people have given me through the years). When I went in a few minutes after he begun his bath to see how it smelled, he informed me that the bath bomb was "weird" and that it was too "spongy" and not dissolving quite right. I looked at it and noticed one crucial point: Joel had neglected to remove the plastic wrapping!

What a funny guy. We set him right and now he is still in there enjoying himself with a book. Maybe I'll make my claim on the bath later tonight.

Pictures are still to come--I have not been able to download them yet but I will get them together shortly.

Everett

Today while I was finishing up with the packing for our trip, Everett found his little slipper shoes that he is going to wear at the airport and kept trying to put them on his feet. He never actually got them on, but the whole thing made me laugh because he was doing it so matter-of-factly.

"Why of course I can put my own shoes on, Momma. What's so funny about that?"

And (and Joel will never believe me because he wasn't here to hear it) I swear Everett said his first real word today. He has been saying "Ma" for a variety of things, and "Na" when he wants something to eat, but today he was playing with his favorite stuffed kitty and when I asked him what it was, he held it out to me and said "tiddy".

Precious. He is slow to talk, but he'll get there. I am constantly amazed at how much he knows that he can't express.

Widgets, Presents, and Packing

So...it's Christmas soon! Did everyone know that? Well I did, but it came up way too quickly for me this year. I am not prepared to pack up and go to Utah yet (we fly out tomorrow). I have to get our Christmas cards mailed out (still), finish ribbon flowers for a throw pillow for my Grandparents, and I still have to buy a couple of gifts, which is a little difficult considering that I don't have a car during the day. Oh, and I have to pack as well. And clean the house. All with zero energy, major headaches, and morning sickness up the wahzoo. And a toddler. But it could be worse, and it is for a lot of people. I really do feel I have a lot to be grateful for this year even though I sound a little frantic.

Yes, I said it: morning sickness. I went to the doctor yesterday and found out I am thirteen weeks pregnant! Who knew?! I figured if I was, I was only a little ways along, but what a nice surprise. I'm 90% sure it's a boy, which probably means it will turn out to be a girl and I will be shocked and pleased. I say pleased because Joel has been wonderful and got me a sewing machine for Christmas, so I am thinking of all the things I want to do with it, all the little clothes I could make, etc. The thing is, clothes are so much more fun to make for girls than for boys. Usually for boys it is more cost effective to buy a t-shirt at Walmart than to try to make one, but with girls, you can whip up a cute little dress in practically no time at all. And hair bows! Talk about hair bows and accessories. Wow. Joel just rolls his eyes, but baby stuff is so much fun.

And I'll have to find a toddler bed for Everett. This means they will be 19 months apart, so Everett will have been in Nursery for a month, which was the goal, but I think he'll still be too little for a real bed. Craigslist out here has so many toddler beds for sale it's not even funny, and they are generally in very good condition. That is probably because out here people stick with one or two kids and don't have five then pass the bed down to cousins, then friends, then everyone but the neighbor's dog, then finally send it to DI.

But how cute. I'll have to find some very cute bedding as well. If Joel had his way, it would be Spiderman all the way, but maybe I can talk him into cars and trucks or something like that. Who knows, maybe I'll even do something super boring.

Well anyway, I have a million thoughts about all of this, but I'm sure no one wants to hear them all. Let me just direct your gaze to the upper right hand corner of this blog, where you will see a very neat widget. Ever since I saw it on my friend's blog, I have been waiting weeks to be far enough along so I can announce the pregnancy and use this, and I finally can! How exciting.

Walking Fun

Everett has been having a lot of fun learning to walk. Today he has been walking all over the place with this look on his face that tells me he's immensely pleased with himself. In fact, often when he is toddling around, he will be giggling because he is enjoying his new trick so much. Give it a couple more weeks and he will be a little walking terrorizer!

It is so funny how a toddler immediately looks like a little person when he's walking instead of like a baby as he does when he is crawling.

What a sweetheart.

Baby Kisses

Lately Everett has been very affectionate toward me and will give me his version of a cuddle kiss. These are the steps involved:

1. Grab Momma around the face and pull yourself close
2. Make a cute sighing "aaaahhhhhh" sound
3. Smoosh your face into hers, preferably mouth-to-cheek
4. Hold it for as long as Momma lets you or until you get bored.
5. Repeat. Liberally.

What a sweet boy. These are the moments I live for!

Missionary Journal

Lately I've been reading a little of Joel's missionary journal when I sit down to eat breakfast or lunch, and it has been such a great experience I wanted to recommend it to all of you. It is really nice to be able to hear about things that happened in such a personal way, and since I know a lot of the stories already, it is nice getting more detail.

So far, I've only encountered one problem, which is when Joel decided to be ambitious and practice his German by writing his entries in German (he served in Austria). As I get farther into his mission, those entries become much more frequent, but I still find quite a few English gems. It has been really fun and I have been able to see Joel in a little bit of a different way.

Portrait Innovations

We finally had our family pictures taken. All in all, they turned out very well and we were very pleased with the experience. Portrait Innovations is a great and inexpensive studio, and the best part is that you get your prints in 15 minutes. Interesting side note: Everett is wearing make-up in these pictures because he had the beginnings of the rash that exploded all over his body on Sunday.

Everett was very fussy and was crying during the whole process, but we took 91 pictures so we did get some really good ones out of it even if there are none with him being his usual happy self. Joel, on the other hand, looks exactly the same in every single picture, and I never like pictures of myself. It was easy to find some good ones of "the boys", though.

A Picture

If a picture says a thousand words, what about this one? Too bad the flash washed out almost all of the color in Everett's face, or this picture would be much more representative of the way things are. If you can't tell, he has a terrible, terrible rash all over his cheeks, forehead, neck, and torso. His entire face is very red and bumpy and he looks very uncomfortable. So yes, if a picture is supposed to say a thousand words, we need to take another one, because this one doesn't do the rash justice.
Poor little guy! I'm assuming this is from the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccination he got 10 days ago. They told us he may develop a rash, but wow. If it is something else, we will find out tomorrow because if it gets worse we're taking him to the doctor.

Maybe he's developed an allergy to my cooking? We'll have to find out and see. Tune in next time, folks, for an update from your friendly eastern bloggers.

I'm Dreaming of a Dry Commute...

In the DC Metro Area:

=

We had our first snowfall of the season on Wednesday. I woke up in the morning and thought, "oh, how beautiful, and peaceful, and serene. I just love the first snowfall". Later, Joel called around 9:45 am to tell me that he was still in the car (he left at 7:30) on his way to work. It took him almost three hours to go 20 miles to downtown DC (to put that into perspective, we could almost be to New York in that amount of time).

I'm just betting that during that time Joel wasn't thinking "oh, how beautiful, and peaceful, and serene"...

Multi-Tasking at its Finest

A few days ago I used my wonderful bread machine to make a loaf of bread, and today I used it again to make pizza dough (that's right, folks, it can do dough only!).

Everett was in the kitchen at my feet, wanting either some attention or to get into anything within his reach (it didn't matter which). After I got the bread together, I was faced with the task of trying to load a dishwasher with a child around who, no matter where he is in the apartment, will scurry as fast as he can to the kitchen if he so much as hears the dishwasher door open. You can see my problem. However, with the push of a button, I was able to completely eliminate this disaster-waiting-to-happen.

. . . Introducing the Breadman® ! The newest thing in toddler distraction, complete with:

• fascinating sounds sure to keep your child's interest
• a clear viewing window at the top so no sound goes unexplained
• sturdy, furniture-cruising toddler support for all his standing needs
• surprise starts and stops: a special sensor detects the moment your child loses interest, and a new sound kicks in
• And, for mom: freshly baked bread for all your eating needs. Go ahead. Eat a slice--you've earned it, considering all the work you accomplished while your toddler was engrossed by the bread-making process.

Oh my darlin' Clementines

Saturday night I went out and bought a five pound box of Clementine oranges (which I had never tasted before) for only a few dollars. I was so excited about this buy, but I knew Joel would want "real" oranges, so I bagged and bought a few of the Sunkist variety for him.

This morning, we only have a handful left of my now favorite oranges. I guess Joel actually did like them better--even though he maintains that they are not "real" oranges, he has yet to give me a solid reason (I think it's because they're smaller).

I just wanted to give a shout-out to this wonderful fruit. I really like oranges, but I really dislike the peel and all the stuff that remains on the wedges after you remove the peel. I spend more time cleaning off the orange than I do eating it, which gives Joel ample time to poke fun at me and jokingly tell me to "get over it".

HOWEVER, this problem is non-existant with Clementine oranges. The peel is thin and is removed extremely easily, and the fruit inside is perfectly sweet. No more meticulous removing-and-cleaning for me!

For those of you out there looking for the perfect way to combat all of the holiday sweets and treats, I would like to suggest you sit yourself down with a big box of Clementines. But don't be surprised if it doesn't last you as long as you thought...

Random Thoughts

Everett has all four molars coming in (a couple have already broken through) and has also had a cold lately. This occurrence manifests itself by snot, boogers, and every other derivative of the mucous membrane of the nose exiting in gushes. All day. Every day. This has resulted in five things happening:

1. I use the nasal aspirator as often as I can be sure that it won't irritate his nose.
2. Everett has gotten so used to the aspirator that he will actually lean forward and hold still as I perform the necessary sucking-and-removing procedures.
3. If I even come close to him with a napkin, kleenex, or even my own finger to remove any boogers, a litany of wails, shrieks, and thrashing ensues to the point that I have nearly dropped him several times.
4. I have wondered why Everett prefers the much more aggressive removal of snot to what I was sure was the kinder, gentler, more humane method. This has led to me being tempted to try the aspirator on myself to see what it feels like.
5. When I communicated this thought to Joel last night, he merely shook his head in resignation and said "Only you, Elise. Only you."

Well. Perhaps.

Shots

Today Everett had his twelve month check-up and the shots that go along with it. His head size is in the 75th percentile, which is good, and he is getting shorter compared to the national average for his age with each doctor's visit. This is no surprise to me because he is too short for all of his pants. His chubbiness is actually below average now, and as far as numbers go, that percentage is only slightly higher than his height.

Then the Physician's Assistant, who is very warm and sweet, began asking all sorts of questions about his development and abilities as they are supposed to do, and when she got to the part about him talking, I told her that he doesn't really say very many words but that he can understand a whole slew of them. He says "ma" for three things: Me, More, and Milk. As far as I understood, he is right on track because he babbles, points, and when he plays with objects, he will frequently hold them out to me and "talk" about them to me. A lot of the time it is as though he is questioning me, and it is only when I give an answer that he is satisfied.

When I told the Physician's Assistant that he only said that one sound (which actually counts as three words), she frowned and told me that he should be saying between 3-5 words at his age, and then told me that I needed to "work on his vocabulary at home".

?????

Yes, that's right. Does anyone know of any baby flashcards out there? Apparently Everett's verbal skills aren't varied enough--he hasn't yet figured out the nuances of subject-verb agreement.

You can see I'm a little perturbed, but I am not holding anything against her. She is just doing her job. But this whole situation begs the question: when did we all become so obsessed with our children being "by the book" and "normal"? What is normal, anyway?

To me, normal is a happy little boy who loves laughing and exploring, has a knack for figuring things out, loves dancing and "singing" to music, and gets along just fine with his own babbling language. He uses it just like you or I would speak, only the sounds are jumbled so that it isn't actually English. He understands and responds appropriately to more words than I even think he does, but a few of them are:
Bottle, Go to sleep, Papa, Kitty, Doggie, Ball, Window, Baby, Book, Sock, Mama, Milk, More, Graham Cracker, Cheese, and Diaper.

It is a little strange for me to think that we should somehow expect all babies to hit the same milestones at pretty much the same time. We all know of a baby who talked "late" and ended up being exceptionally eloquent or having an impressive vocaubulary (case in point: my own amazing brother Mack). I have never doubted my son's intelligence, and I never will: I know that he will always be as intelligent as he, Everett, needs to be, and in the way that is best suited for him.

I just have to wonder if there is wisdom in expecting so much, or if it is better to just let our babies be the sweet, wonderful, well-adjusted babies that they are and stop worrying so much about comparisons.

Sometimes boys will be boys, but babies will always be babies. And let's let them be.

Double Trouble

I have been charged with the care of the other Everett in our ward for three days--Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. He is three weeks older than my Everett, and the two of them get along famously. Even though they are both the oldest and only children, they are learning to share really well. If one of them has something the other is interested in (which happens often), the one with the toy will hold it out to the other child and let him take it. Nevermind that the first one will take it right back; it is all just a jovial exchange--back and forth, back and forth, and both of them are perfectly happy with that system.

The thing that has saved me is that they both nap at the same time. Whew! Even though he is much bigger than my Everett, Everett Sjolseth (the other Everett) doesn't really move around very well, so in a way it feels like he is much younger than my Everett. He is learning to crawl from watching my Everett, so his parents were excited about that. Yes, that's right, he's learning because of my boy. That's because my boy is the smartest, cutest, best baby in the world.

Hah--yes, I don't inflate my child's characteristics. No sir-ee.

As you can see, having two Everetts around gets confusing. If one of them is doing something he shouldn't, when I say "Everett, No", both of them look at me, and the innocent one will have a look on his face that is something like "what? I wasn't doing anything!". Kind of funny. But on the other hand, I can keep them both in line with limited verbage.

Here are some pictures from our walk to the pond and the swings today.

A Year of Everett

Here are pictures of our sweet baby. See how he's changed over the past year!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERETT

I forgot to mention on my post this morning that today Everett is ONE YEAR OLD. It is crazy how fast the time goes, and it is amazing to compare how he is now with how he was when he was born. His personality has shown more and more every day. It will be fun to see where he is next year.

Well, that's all. Just wanted to let you know about my boy's special day.

Smart Baby

Here are some cute pictures we took recently. Everett really likes Joel's BYU hat, and it is fun to see his expressions when we have him wear it.

Also, lately he has started pointing at objects that I talk about. Yesterday we were looking at a picture of a Mom, Dad, and Baby. Since he loves babies I said "Look! Where's the baby, Everett?", and he grinned and pointed right at him, and smiled at me with a proud look on his face. He is so funny.

It is really fun to see him learning and being able to communicate more. Just thought I'd pass this on, since my last few posts have been about him getting into trouble. He really is a very good boy, he is just insatiably curious.

What happens when you have a child named Everett Wayne Johnson:

I just thought I'd write about Everett's latest adventures (which usually translates into extra work for me :) ).

A few days ago, while I was giving Everett a bath, I had a lot of things to do so I was running back and forth between the bathroom and the kitchen. Everything was going really well and I was getting a lot done until I checked on him one last time before I was going to empty the water and send him to bed. ***Disclaimer: Graphic Content Ahead*** I quickly peered into the bathroom and noticed there was some...extra...stuff in there that wasn't there before. Yes, Everett pooped in his bathwater again. Only this time, his stool was very loose, so it was mixing in the water in unappetizing clumps all through the bathwater.

As if that wasn't daunting enough, I then looked at Everett and noticed that he also had it all over his hands and in his mouth! He was just about to eat some more when I yelled "No No No!". I didn't mean to scare him, but he immediately started bawling and was inconsolable for a few minutes.

Hah. So there I was, comforting my baby who had just eaten his own poop. What a day! Needless to say, I bleached all of his bathtoys and the tub.


The next day, Everett was eating dinner in his high chair and was kicking at the tray like he usually does. He has figured out that if he kicks hard enough, the tray will pop off, but he hadn't done that in a long time so I wasn't too worried about it. Even when he did do it, he would remain in his seat and watch the tray plummet to the floor. This time, however, he plummeted with the tray, and landed on his stomach. He bit his lip somehow and ended up with a bloody mouth, so I gave him a cold washcloth to suck on. I also put a bottle of milk upside down in the freezer so the nipple part would be frozen. That seemed to help a little as well, but he had a swollen lip for a day or so.

What a kid! And, silly me, I felt guilty the whole time for not standing next to his highchair and never leaving so I could watch him eat and make sure this kind of thing would never happen. Crazy, huh?

So, Everett had an eventful week. I can't wait until he's two...

Everett is an inquisitive child. He is an adventurous child. He is a child who is eager to discover things. These are good qualities. Right?

Yesterday I left Everett in the living room for two minutes while I was in the bedroom and bathroom. How much trouble can one little person get in in that amount of time? Apparently quite a bit, because we left a box with large styrofoam pieces inside of it by the front door (which isn't really in the living room). Everett seized the moment, and in my absence went directly for the styrofoam and began to (what else?) tear it apart, leaving tiny styrofoam balls all over the place. It was funny enough that I had to get a picture, but it doesn't quite do the mess justice.

Have you ever tried to sweep up those kinds of styrofoam balls? Don't even try. You won't get anywhere.

What a boy! It's a good thing I love him so much...

I've been tagged....

...by my dear friend Amanda Webb. Apparently now I need to write seven facts about myself, which is harder than it sounds. So, here we go:

1. I like doing things with my hands. I always have. If I go too long without baking something, making cards, or doing some other kind of craft, I start to get antsy and anxious. It is kind of my outlet, if you will. The only tricky part is making time for it while Everett is asleep along with everything else I need to do. Trying to do a craft with him all over everything gets more than tricky--it gets impossible.

2. I have not finished my college degree, and sometimes it is a point of embarassement for me. I really want to, and I have an independent study class I'm working on, but it will be kind of a long process to get everything done. Sometimes I feel very intimidated around people who have their degree (or multiple degrees) and are very proud of it. I guess I have this nervousness that people will disapprove of me, think less of me, or think I'm less capable because I have not finished, and I don't want to be judged in that way. It makes me wonder in what unfair ways I am judging other people, who may or may not be extra sensitive about those things. I keep telling myself "everyone has something", but most of the time I would rather that this particular thing isn't my something.

3. I love, love, love reading. It is very theraputic for me to lose myself in someone else's story or problems (whether real or not), and it is one of the ways I find the most relaxation. So, in my quest to become a more knowledgable person, I have made a goal to read a biography about each of our nation's presidents. I just checked one out from the Library about George Washington, so I am excited to start it. I am glad that Joel likes reading too--sometimes some of the best time we spend together is going to bed early, each with a good book, and reading the hours away side-by-side.

4. I love Fall! It is by far my favorite season. I love the crispness of the air and the way the changing leaves smell. I love the vibrant colors and the excitement of the approaching holidays. I love the simple traditions, like jumping into leaf piles, watching the first snowfall of the season, decorating (and eating pumpkins) and collecting colorful leaves. I also love wearing sweaters in the fall, which are probably my favorite kind of clothing. Fall and sweaters: things to live for!

5. I like to go out to eat. I like being able to order something off a menu I don't usually eat, and I like not having to worry about buying it, cooking it, and cleaning up the mess. I like fine desserts and classy presentations. I love going out to eat as part of a date with my wonderful husband, something we do only very occasionally. One of these days I will arrange for a babysitter and he and I will go have a leisurely meal and be able to just...talk. Preface the meal with a visit to a museum, and I'd be on the perfect date. Joel--are you listening?

6. I really dislike stupid, crude humour in movies. Why can't script writers learn to be creative with their writing rather than using the same old predictable crude jabs? I really wish there were more talented writers out there who care more about being clever and original than securing a rating or being inappropriate. I am especially tired of sexual innuendos and jokes that cheapen such a Divine thing. If only the world valued it enough to keep it sacred, but that isn't the world's way. It makes me mad because young teenagers and pre-teens who are curious but have no experience with sexual things only have these unrealistic portrayals as information and models. Sheesh.

7. This should have been first on my list, but I love being a mother. The most important thing to me is that my kids feel loved and appreciated, that they know their Heavenly Father loves them, and that I give them as many opportunities as possible to strengthen their testimonies and faith. I think many parents wish they could give their children a testimony, but since it doesn't work that way, I want to promote those testimony-building experiences as much as possible. I know I need to lead by example, so I will have to keep working on myself as well. I will do everything in my power to give my children the experiences they need to have.


Well, my list is done, and the rule is that I need to tag seven other people and list their names here, but I can only think of three more people I know who have blogs:

1. Jessica
2. Natalie
3. Krystal

These are the rules:

• write seven things about yourself
• make a link to your tagger in your blog entry somewhere
• tag seven other people
• let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.

P.S. If you don't have time to do this, it is perfectly fine. It is just something fun to do if you need a distraction.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Here are pictures (finally!) of our adorable little monkey. Yes, the costume is pretty much homemade (I re-made it), and yes, it is already dirty. I don't have a sewing machine, so I had to use fabric glue for the finishing touches. All in all it didn't turn out as badly as I feared!
















Do you wonder why we chose a monkey costume for Everett's first halloween? Take a good look at this last picture. What did he do as soon as I stopped trapping him on the couch for pictures? That's right--he headed straight for the library books where he became immediately intent on examining them (read: beating them up). Does learning by osmosis work?


I actually took Everett trick-or-treating this year. Every year, several young families in the ward meet at a house, eat pizza, and all go together, and since I was invited I thought I'd take advantage of my Joel-less evening and get some adult interaction (some days I feel my vocabulary is rapidly diminishing). We only went up to a few doors, but even so I felt a little awkward picking out candy "for Everett". Yeah. Like no one saw through that! Everyone seemed to think he was cute, but I did get a few smiling "so how much of this are you going to eat, little boy?" remarks. I learned quickly, though, and after the first couple of houses, I either got him to reach in the bowl and grab a piece, or if he refused I just snagged one and pretended he was being too shy to grab one himself. When we got home, Joel and I started feasting, and Everett soon realized that there was (gasp!) candy in the bag I gave him to hold. After that there was no turning back, so our little monster--I mean, monkey--had his fill and then wouldn't go to bed. Strange...we couldn't seem to figure out why...

Another quick note

Addendum to last post:

Everett has discovered that while he is not allowed to bite me, he can still bite anything else as an anger outlet.

Case in point: Yesterday, when he was particularly upset (again!), he was sitting on the floor and was not near anything bite-worthy. He looked around and around all in a couple seconds' time, and settled on his own hand.

Ouch! He looked pretty shocked, and judging from his widened eyes, realized how much it hurts.

Maybe we have more to work on than I thought....

Update on the biting

So I have been working with Everett for a while on not biting me when he's angry with me. Today I realized that I have been making some progress with him when I took away a photo album he was about to destroy. He glared at me and got ready to bite my foot, but I said "no biting!" in the warning voice I use and he stopped (!). Then he looked at me, looked at the couch, and promptly bit down on the couch. Twice. In anger!

What a funny little person. At least I know we're making some headway.

Teeth Tactics

When Everett was seven months old and already had eight teeth, I began to wonder if he would discover the many ways he could use them. He has mastered biting food, which is good. He has not bit any other babies, which is also good. He does not seem to be particularly enthused with his many teeth, which is, in most cases, also for my benefit.

Lately, however, Everett has realized he can use them for his benefit. He has quite a little temper, and I just know I am going to have a terrible terrible-two's baby. When he gets mad at me (reasonably frequently), I can almost literally see the anger exploding from somewhere inside that tiny body. I have recently discovered (and believe me, this was not my objective)that if I take something away from him that he wants, or if I tell him 'no', he will glare at me, scrunch up his face, and bite me. Yes, he will bite me. On purpose! Where did he learn this? I don't go around biting people, and neither, I trust, does Joel. He does not spend a lot of time with other babies, we do not know any babies who bite (besides him), nor do we frequently watch movies where the plots revolve around biting as a revenge medium.

From the very first time he bit me out of anger, I have sternly said "no biting", and put him in the corner by himself. I think the corner works well for him because he is such a momma's boy and has to be able to see me all the time. He crawls right out (which is fine--the objective is to remove him, not keep him removed), but I think it is enough. I was worried that this wouldn't work, but it seems to, because most of the time now he will look at me hesitantly before going for any piece of my skin that is near his face. If I am fast enough I can pull my hand away, but when I see particular determination in his face, sometimes I will let him bite me so I can reinforce that it is bad behavior. Is that crazy or what? Leave it to a mother to willfully allow her child to bite her "for his good".

I have to ask myself, though--where did he learn this? I have never--I repeat, never--given him what he wants when he bites, so he can't have learned that it works for that reason. I am left to think this little person has an explosive temper, and I bet I will spend a lot of the next years trying to help him learn to control it. He has begun to hit as well, so we'll have to start working on that one.

I really have little to complain about, since he is generally very well-behaved and has a sweet personality. He is my little buddy, and I would not change anything about him. I would, however, make myself infinitely smarter so that I will always have answers.

Infinite smarts: every mother's dream? You can chomp on that.

EARLY BIRTHDAY!

While we were out in Utah, my in-laws decided to hold an early birthday party for Everett since he won't be there on his real birthday (Nov. 14th). We had a lot of fun and he got a lot of fun toys that he has been playing with since.


And I know these descriptions are probably boring for everyone but me, but hey, a child only turns one once. However, this child has multiple parties for it :).

This first one is a sorting toy from my Mother-in-Law, with some neat gadgets and things on it. He (Everett, not Joel :) ) has been a little interested in it.



This one is a farm truck with a pig and sheep riding in it. If you push down the cow (which, incidentally, is the driver), it will do a farm-sounding song and drive itself. Everett hasn't figured out the logistics of that one yet, but he has decided that the animals make decent chew toys.


You can't really see it in this picture, but this is a police cruiser. If you push the button on the top, it drives, flashes its lights, and says "suspect in sight". Everett seems to think that is pretty cool. Must be all those boy genes, because when we got home and showed Joel, he had a similar reaction. Now we know what to get Joel for Christmas!


This one is from Joel's Grandparents (Everett is named after this Grandpa). They have him a snail on wheels with ABCD buttons and another button that sings the ABC song. Good thing it's short, otherwise I'd have to remove the batteries. Everett hasn't figured out the buttons yet, either, but has pushed it around somewhat.


A cute duck towel from my Mother-in-Law. Apparently Everett didn't think it was as neat as all the toys. But it was my favorite.


Now, because this is the first party Everett has had, I decided I ought to make something cool for dessert. I ended up making penguin cupcakes. They turned out pretty well, but unfortunately I neglected to capture my culinary brilliance on film. I am, however, decidedly lacking in electronic brilliance, so I couldn't figure out how to put the picture from the website on here. But, here is a link so you can have a chance to ooh and ah (or skip over it, whichever suits you):
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50175

Everett and I recently did something we have never done together before...we rode on two airplanes from Virginia to Utah. Joel is at a national training for Deloitte in Georgia, so my Dad was nice enough to fly me out with some of his frequent flier miles during the two weeks Joel will be gone so that I can have something to do.

I got to surprise my whole family, with the exception of my Dad. It was pretty funny. My Dad went into the house first, and I crept around to the front door, put Everett on the welcome mat, and rang the doorbell while I stepped out of sight. My brother Mack opened the door (which I didn't know until I came out of my hiding place), but all I heard was the door open and...nothing. For several seconds. Later I asked him why he paused for so long, and he said that at first he thought the baby was Everett, but then he wasn't sure and thought he might belong to one of the neighbors.

I guess that means I need to send pictures more often. Or maybe not, considering that none of the rest of my family had any trouble identifying him.



We're excited to be in Utah, and I'm excited that I don't have to board a plane with Everett for another week and a half. It's just too bad Joel isn't here to enjoy this vacation with us.

A cautionary tale....

Yesterday while I was giving Everett a bath...















I left for a second and as I was coming back in I heard a strange sound...













It was a dribble followed by a plop, ended by a resonant schlop.














EVERETT!!! You Pooped in your bathwater!!!

...What, did you think I was going to post a picture of that, too?


Everett had never before pooped in his bathwater, and I had come to expect that he never would. He didn't seem to mind too much and was even fully intent on picking everything up and investigating, but my mothering skills have been sharpened from having a boy and so I had removed everything post-haste.

The funniest part of the whole situation was that it was Joel's turn to bathe him, but since he said he'd rather sweep the floors, I gave in (even had our jobs been reversed, you can guess who would still be on clean-up duty).

I guess the old adage plays true: when you least expect it--expect it.

This is a neat little pond Everett and I go to almost every morning on our walk. It actually belongs to the golf course, but we go to the residential side where the trails run. It is really pretty and Everett loves to just sit and look at everything.






On our way home, we usually stop at the playground in our complex. Everett likes the swings a lot, and usually there are some other kids there he can watch as well. I have met a few of the other moms and it is always fun to talk with new people every day.


This is Everett's new (to us) winter coat! It has a nice soft fleece lining and looks like it will be really warm. I don't know how often we will get to use it, but it doesn't matter to me because we got it for absolutely free! Our stake out here does an annual "Gifts of the Heart" donation day, which ends up kind of like a DI. I snagged this and quite a few other articles of clothing for Everett.