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.

Sniffle, Sniffle, Cough, Cough

Ethan has been sick for the past week. He just has a cold, and yet my heart absolutely breaks every time he cries, sniffles, coughs, or looks up at me with confusion and pain behind his eyes. My nights are sleepless, spent either nursing him, rocking him, or worrying about him. I wonder with every intervention I try whether or not I'm effectively treating his discomfort. I second guess my decision to break the "let him cry it out" rule when I run to scoop up my wailing baby, yet end up justifying it by telling myself that all bets are off when he's sick. My entire world is upside down, with everything that I have been used to (a champion sleeper, eater, and all-around happy baby) replaced with a weaker, crankier, insomniac version of my child. All I want is to be able to fix him, to banish his symptoms with a wave of my magic mom wand.

Did I mention he just has a common cold?

What is it about motherhood that turns women into mush? I've always been sensitive, but every single emotion I've ever felt has intensified in my eight short months as a mom. I can't hear about children that have met with tragic ends, mothers who have been separated from their little ones, or babies that are actually horribly ill without getting teary. At the same time, I also feel like motherhood has strengthened me, that I am now capable of things that I never thought possible. I am the strongest ball of mush you've ever seen.

One of the most effective ways to make Ethan feel better has been to give him a bath. He loves splashing around in the water, and it turns him almost instantly from crabby into charming. See for yourself:

Oh, how I love my sweet, sweet little boy!

Where Does the Time Go?

The days have flown by, and our baby boy is already ten weeks old! He's changed so much over the past two and a half months, and we delight in seeing what each day brings. Our favorite development is Ethan's smile - he lights up and it shows all over his whole face, which is so cute! We weren't fast enough to catch the big smiles on these shots, but you can see a glimpse of our happy, happy boy!


He's holding his head up more and more, and is getting super strong. He'll "stand up" and bear his own weight if he has someone balancing him. We recently had to start buckling him into his bouncy chair, as he'll kick and wiggle his way right out of the seat. He's no longer a limp sack of potatoes - our strapping boy is all muscle and solid as a rock. Ethan is very considerate and sleeps for about 10 or 11 hours straight at night, which we know is unusual for his age. We are lucky, lucky, lucky to have such a good baby!

In the last few weeks we've found Ethan at the opposite end of his crib when he wakes in the morning. We're amazed by how he can squirm his way around when he's swaddled and doesn't have use of his appendages. He's also a budding Houdini, and has managed to escape from his Miracle Blanket on more than one occasion. For those of you who haven't seen the Miracle Blanket before, it's essentially a little baby straight jacket, and is as impenetrable as Fort Knox - unless you're 15 pounds of sheer muscle. No blanket can match the brute strength of our little brusier!

Animals and Babies...

There's a show biz saying that you should never work with animals or babies. Boy, oh boy, did we find out why! While it was not as serious as a Hollywood production, our first attempt at a photo shoot with Ethan was met with only mild success. He was not a big fan of the strobes and was cranky almost the entire time. We did manage to get a few good images, and will make a second attempt tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have a happier baby then! It was our fault, not his... we started a bit later than we anticipated, and Ethan was super sleepy. Bad move, Mommy and Daddy. Here's what we have so far, and we'll post the others as soon as we are able to successfully capture them!


The experience must have worn him out, because he slept for EIGHT STRAIGHT HOURS after the shoot! Perhaps we'll make that part of his bedroom routine every night...