Hard at Play

Every time someone asks me about Ethan's milestones, I search the blog.  It's only been four years, but memory completely fails me when I'm on the spot to report on when he started sitting up or crawling.  Luckily, I don't have to have that information on hand.  Whenever he did anything new, I wrote about it.  My posts were my digital baby book.

Poor little Everett will not have the same type of bloggy documentation.  There are so many reasons, not just that he is the second child.  We're equally amazed when he does new things, and delight in all of his developmental milestones.  I'm just doing a really terrible job of keeping up with my digital baby book.  It's much easier to throw a pic up on Facebook than it is to find the time to write a whole post.

For example, here are some amazing pictures from when he was about six months old.  He looks pretty much the same now, just a little older.  *Almost* wanted to pass these off as recent, but that would defeat the whole purpose of the blog being an accurate documentary.  Also, friends who have access to my aforementioned Facebook account would call me out, since they all saw these pictures pretty much as soon as Ryan shot them.

A few of the many faces of Everett

It's high time to play catch up.  You know - just in case I ever need to know the dates of all of his firsts.  Or prove that I love him just as much as Ethan.  So, without further ado or excuses, I give you my "All About Everett" blog entry:

Weight:  24 lbs. at 12 months

Height:  30.5 in. at 12 months

Food:  Weaned himself at 11 months, completely switched to table food at 12 months.  Kissed his bottles goodbye, switched to sippy cups, and never looked back.

Sleep:  Phenomenal sleeper.  He doesn't really sleep much at daycare, but he's great on the weekends and at night.  On weekends, he'll wake up at around 7:30, eat breakfast, play for a little bit, and then take a two hour nap at around 9am.  He may or may not take a short afternoon nap as well.  He is usually in bed between 6:00 - 7:00, falls asleep without even a smidgen of protest, and is out cold all through the night.

Motor:  Rolled over at 4.5 months, sat up at 8 months, and crawled at 8.5 months - on my dad's birthday!  To keep the trend going, Everett started walking on his first birthday!  Not as his main mode of transportation, but took multiple steps in a row, several times throughout the day.  I'm gonna go ahead and call that walking.  He'll push anything that will move around the house for as long as you'll let him.  This applies to *actual* push toys, his musical table, dining room chairs... if it can be pushed, he's on it.

Social:  Loves his brother, his daycare teachers, his aunties (official and otherwise), his parents, the stranger in the grocery store that smiles at him... he's a lovey boy.  He bee's-knees-adores Ethan, though.  Everything that Ethan does elicits a hearty belly laugh from Everett.  This has resulted in my boys discovering and perfecting pratfall slapstick comedy.  It's not nurture, it's nature.  I'm convinced.

Speech:  I thought his first word was Mama ("I'm sure you do!" says Ryan from the peanut gallery), but now that I'm typing this I'm remembering that it was "bye."  He can say mama, dada, uh oh, this, bye, and so many other things that we just can't interpret yet.  He has a habit of saying, "Mamamamama!!!" when he wants something.

Other:  Cut his first tooth a few days before his six month birthiversary.  Has a mouth full of 'em now.  At last count, there were at least twelve visible teeth, with a few more coming through.  It's possible there are more, but I'm not willing to stick my fingers in his mouth to investigate.  They call them chompers for a reason!

Play:  Is officially playing with toys, rather than just putting them in his mouth.  Videographic proof of Everett hard at play is found below:



In a nutshell, this kid is awesome.  We totally lucked out.

How to Lose a Baby in Ten Days

This little bed head baby has been very busy turning into a brand new boy! Blink for longer than a second and the Ethan you saw when you closed your eyes will be totally different when you open them.

We've been absolutely astounded by all of his changes since our last post. His fifth tooth broke through his gums, and he's putting it to good use eating more finger foods and fewer purées.

Within the span of ten days, he has:
~ Learned how to sit up from lying down
~ Mastered super speedy crawling skills
~ Started to pull up to a standing position

To keep up with him, we've had to:
~ Install baby gates
~ Lower his crib mattress
~ Get serious about baby proofing

We're keeping our eyes open and soaking up as much baby as we can... before you know it, we'll have a toddler on our hands!

Owie Teefies!

Wow - it's been so long since we've posted! A lot of things have happened in the last few weeks. Ethan's first tooth broke through, and he wasn't too happy about it. Our good little sleeper refused to take any of his naps, and cried all day when his tooth first came in. He got over that quickly, though, and was back to his sweet self in no time.

He also recently had his six-month doctor's appointment. His current stats: 19.5 lbs. and 27.5 in., which is in the 90th percentile for both. Perhaps it's because we think he's a genius, but we were convinced that Ethan recognized where he was and remembered previous doctor's appointments. As soon as it was time for his shots, we placed him down on the table. He immediately started crying, perhaps in anticipation of what was to come. The doc said that most babies eventually do figure out the correlation, but not usually this early. It both made us proud and broke our hearts - it's not fun to see him so upset!

Ethan is trying his best to sit up, but he hasn't mastered that skill yet. He can tripod sit, supporting himself with his hands, and he can also sit if we're propped up behind him. His mass is working against him - Ryan likens it to trying to balance a watermelon on the end of a pencil. He'll get it eventually, he just has to keep practicing! He is rolling and scooting all over the place, can transfer toys from one hand to the other, and babbles up a storm. It's so much fun watching him discover new things!

A big new discovery today was food! We started Ethan on rice cereal, with much more success than we anticipated. He wasn't a huge fan, but he definitely didn't hate it. As with all of the new milestones, Sarah enjoyed it about ten times as much as Ethan - notice the giant, goofy grin on her face, in contrast to Ethan's confused grimace.





























We'll keep working on developing his taste for food... if his obsession with milk is any indication, he'll be eating like a champ in no time!