Christmas 2010

It's been hard to find the time to blog lately--for a very good reason! Brian's been home, I don't like to sit around and blog when he's home, and--besides--things have been busy busy busy! 

I need to write about Christmas now, however, so Everett's 8 Month Blog doesn't end up being the longest blog in the history of blogging.

So let's talk about Christmas! 

It was baby's first Christmas, so it was obviously much more exciting than any Christmas in our recent past. 

The holiday came at a good time for Everett developmentally because he's sitting on his own, totally animated and interactive, but not really crawling. He can scoot like a champ, and get to anything he wants, but just not very fast. No risk of pulling down the Christmas tree. 

We were all very excited that Everett's Auntie Katie would be meeting him for the first time!! 

She made it from Chicago (through Phoenix) without too many problems, and Gion and Phil picked her up in San Jose on Tuesday the 21st and drove her back down.

We weren't worried about how Everett would take to Katie, he's liked everyone he's met. But he LOVED Katie. Looks like Daddy but a lady with long hair like Mommy, perfect!! 

The Cisneroses have a tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve, which made it easy to know how to organize our holiday. Christmas Eve with the Cisneroses and Christmas morning/afternoon with my parents. 

After a Greek-inspired Christmas Eve meal of spanakopita, chicken souvlaki, dolmas, hummus, and tzatziki (yum!), we settled down in the living room to open our presents! 

It was a really great haul for everyone but of course, Everett was the clear frontrunner. Lots of toys, books, shirts, ornaments, but his big present at the Cisneros house was his "Santa Present" from his grandparents: an all terrain Radio Flyer wagon!! 

Lucky kid.

The next day was Christmas with the Asdels. We went over for a lovely bunch with my parents George and Kathie and guests from Southern California, my cousin Jason, his mother Dixie, and her mother Gertrude. My parents usually go down south for the holidays, but this year they stayed in Atascadero in order to celebrate Everett's first Christmas. We were very happy about that.

Once again, Everett made out like a bandit. Brian and I didn't feel bad at all not getting him any gifts. His grandparents, cousin, and aunts made up for that!

Olin piggy in honor of my dad's brother Olin (LOVE this photo!)

Later that evening, the Asdel clan were guests at the Cisneros house for a delicious Christmas dinner of Sri Lankan-style Chicken and curried lentils (yum again!).

We had a fun time visiting as a group. We're so lucky to have families that get along well with each other. 

Beyond the holidays, we've been enjoying other activities during Brian's vacation. Disc golf, poker, a visit from Laurel, much more visits with Sam than usual, the Hunter kids gave Everett presents--and we hung out with their parents. We acknowledged (briefly) that we had celebrated our marriage exactly a year ago. I got together with our friend Rachel for some post-Christmas holiday-supply shopping. We visited the Cisneros great-grands (I'll write more about that visit later). We were visited by our friends Darby and Katherine on their way back to the bay area, and we're planning to have breakfast with Kamryn tomorrow. But mostly we've been relaxing and playing with our wonderful baby. 

A few developmental notes about the boy: how can I resist? 

As I said before, he's been sitting really well, getting better and better with his balance. He's gone from a crawling position to a sitting position once or twice on his own, so we know he's capable. He's just not all that motivated to bring himself up to sit.

He's been making some funny faces and noises lately, just exploring the possibilities of his mouth. He's been making the face like he would to blow a raspberry, but just puffing up his cheeks and sometimes making a "buuh" or "muuh" noise. He's also been doing this clicking-rattling-squeeking thing with his tongue/mouth (fart sound?). It's hard to describe and no one else can replicate it. 

He as seven teeth. All four on the top (the two front ones are just poking through) and three on bottom.

He's been waving. Not consistently, but every once in a while, he'll wave at someone, and it seems very deliberate.

He has such a good disposition. We know we're very lucky.

It's been a fun season!

It was hard to say good-bye to Katie. Living in Chicago, we don't get to see her very often. And Everett took a real shine to her. But we're already planning a visit, and hopefully he can see his favorite (if only) aunt soon! 

Change Days

One would think that babies develop gradually day to day, and they probably do. But our experience, living with an infant, is that there are days you just stop and say, "he's different today!" It can be as simple as noticing he has more hair, or he might just look older, but usually it's something developmental that he wasn't doing before.

In our house, we can these events "Change Days." Yes, we're very clever. (;

It's funny to me that big changes seem to have happened right around this "birthday." On the 15th of the month, I blog about the last 30 days, and right around then, big things have happened. They've either just started, and I haven't acknowledged the change, or they happen right after the 15th.

Last month, he started blowing raspberries on cue, then blowing raspberries on our arms, then making the "ahh" noise when we tap on his mouth. And I tell you, that's when it hit me that I'm raising a genius baby!

This month, he's been taking longer naps, sleeping better at night, and (we think) understanding the mirror concept. How do I know that? Well, we have a big mirror in the landing, and if I hold him there, he'll look at me in the mirror, then turn and look at the real me, the look back and forth. Brian says he's noticed him doing similar things in his mirror toy.

It also sort of seemed that one day (a few days back) he could just sit better. We propped him up, and he stayed there, whereas a day before, if we'd have done that, he would have fallen over.

All these things are probably connected. He's sleeping more because he's moving more and sitting and using more energy. He's understanding more about his world which makes him want to explore more things.

It's just amazing to all of us that this little being has been here with us for only seven months, and he's learned so much!

Seven Month Blog

Everett is 7-months-old today! Yay!

It's been a really fun month full of changes and new skills. It has also been a much more pleasant month. Last month we were dealing with intense teething and sleep deprivation. Everett had lots of mellow days where he must have been so uncomfortable that he didn't want to smile or laugh much, and he had stopped the babbling he had started at the end of October.

But the babbling has returned with a vengeance (da, ma, gee, ba, hee, la etc.), and he's also been sticking out his tongue, blowing raspberries on cue, in the air, and on other people! He'll also make an "ahh" sound when you tap your hand over his mouth. Can you tell I think he's a genius!?!

The way he can mimic people BLOWS MY MIND! All the aforementioned things he learned by imitating, but I'll notice him opening his mouth a little when I yawn, and that simple action impresses me so much. Geez, babies are smart!

He's been doing this new thing where he'll purposefully squint his eyes when he knows a picture is coming or a light is about to tun on. I noticed it for the first time in this picture with Juliette on Thanksgiving. So cute. This morning I turned the light on over the stove, and he kept looking at it and squinting. I said, "if it's too bright, don't look at it." Silly baby. 

Gross motor skills-wise, he's pretty much mastered sitting. Whoop! whoop! Even when he falls now, he usually falls sideways so he can catch himself--although there's still the occasional free-fall backward, and hopefully there's always someone there to catch him. 

He started getting really good sitting on the bed and slightly propped up, but now he's full-on free-sitting on the floor! 

We went over to our friends Chris and Janna's house after Janna and I went on a walk with the kids. And Everett played so well with her girls (Ines and Rosa). He sat up the entire time and didn't get pushed over. I was very impressed!

Crawling is not quite as successful yet--thank goodness! He has crawled convincingly, so I marked it in the baby book (!), but he's completely content scooting and rolling to get where he wants to go. 

I think we're lucky that Everett's not one to get frustrated by the things he can't do. He's completely content doing what he can do at that moment (at least for now!). There's plenty of mischief to get into even if you can only scoot to it. 

Oh yeah, but he did that! What's that buddy!?!

I know I showed you in my last blog, but in case you didn't read that one, I FINALLY got a picture of all (?) Everett's teeth. The fifth is questionable, but I think I can see it: bottom left beside the front teeth. 

Even though Everett has teeth, he's not a big eater. He was doing okay last month with a couple finger foods, but after the avocado incident, we held back for a while. Then Janna let me have the rest of her rice cereal from Rosa, and one night I mixed some rice cereal with breast milk, brought out the spoon, and . . . you would have thought we were trying to poison him. 

The video is on facebook, and it's hilarious, if not a little sad. Since then, every food we've fed him: bananas, beans, sweet potatoes, he's regurgitated. So we'll wait a week or two, then try again. I'm not in a hurry to feed him, BUT on the off-chance it helps him sleep better at night, I'm willing to start him on the solids. 

Speaking of sleep, it's been getting better. It's not perfect, but there's been a marked improvement from last month.

We went in for his 6-month doctor-visit (several blogs earlier), and Doctor Patterson and I had a conversation about sleep that resulted in a new game-plan that's been helpful. If it's not helped his sleep, it's at least given me hope that things will change and that we are doing something constructive toward a more restful future.

Basically, he needs to eat more during the day, but you can't just make a baby eat another meal during the day (as Dr. Sears seemed to suggest). He eats his fill as he wants it. So the goal is to slowly get him to eat less at night, resulting in him eating more during the day.

What I've been trying to do is, if it's been less than three hours since his last feeding (less than two at first), I kick Brian out of bed and make him comfort Everett back to sleep. I had avoided doing this before because Brian works and I want him rested. But Doctor Patterson convinced me that we will both be happier and more rested when Everett's sleeping through the night.

If he wakes at around 2:00 or 3:00, I'll usually get up and feed him because he really is hungry. But I'll try to get him to fall asleep after nursing on one side, not eating a whole meal.

This seems to be resulting in him wanting to eat again at about 5:00 or 5:30, but that's great! If he slept from 9:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., I would he HAPPY! And we could wake up for the day right then!

This plan also involves me taking Everett upstairs to nurse in the office during the day. He needs to be away from other people and distraction so he can eat more. This is kind of hard for me because I too like to be a part of the action! But I've been getting some good reading done. And it's all done in the name of better nighttime sleep!

So we're working on it, and it seems to be helping. 

One very positive sleep development is going down for naps by himself!! I like to feed him after he naps. That way he doesn't sleep/eat where he starts nursing, and an hour later, he's had a meal AND a nap, and I've been sitting on the couch for most of the day! Because he would rather nurse from me than let me put him down for a nap, I was relying on Gion or Phil to put him to sleep, and that didn't seem fair. But now, anyone can put him in his crib when he's tired, and he'll usually fall asleep. 

The last few days he's been having much longer naps than usual. I wonder if that means he's growing or if we're just entering a new schedule. 

He hasn't been growing as fast. The doctor says it's because he's more active, and I've heard that breast fed babies don't grow as consistently because it takes a while for the milk supply to adjust every time he grows.

Whatever it is (probably a combo), I'm happy we're not burning through clothes as fast. Although he's in this awkward phase between 9 and 12 month clothes (which happens to be an awkward style transition), so it's hard to find new clothes that fit him well.

We've been working on some signs. When he's about to nurse, I'll say, "do you want MILK?" and do the sign for milk, which looks like you're milking a cow (lovely). Then, when he's over being in his high chair or exersaucer, I'll do the sign for "all done." Right now he just smiles and laughs at me, but I think he's catching on that the signs have meaning (especially the "milk" one).

Like I said, it's been a wonderful month. Quite a bit better than last month. But there are always little difficulties. He's started "crying wolf." When he was younger, he mostly cried when he needed something (sleep, food), and I was aware how lucky we were to have a baby that wasn't "a mystery." But lately he's been crying like he's hurt when he's just a little annoyed. Which is, well, annoying! He gets especially aggravated when you want him to put his arms in his sleeves. POOR BABY!! {:

So a couple of events his month:

Everett got to meet family friend Frank Oliver, first in mid-November, then in early December. He was taking a road trip up the coast, and we got to see him on the way there and back.

One day he was here, we went to Morro Bay. It was a beautiful day.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving. This year, my parents ate with us at the Cisneros house. Cousin Juliette came up from San Diego (see above picture). The meal was delicious (of course!), and it was a really nice time. 

A couple days after Thanksgiving, Garrett, Jessi, and Weston come over for a visit. They were in town for the holiday. We always love to get the boys together. Weston's about two weeks older than Everett and about two weeks more advanced developmentally, so we get to see what Everett will be doing soon!

We also enjoy spending time with Garrett and Jessi as friends and always wish we lived closer.

Brian made two wooden teethers for Everett. They're beautiful, and Brian's excited to get the time and the weather to make more!

Brian got us new phones and a new phone plan for my birthday (early birthday). That doesn't sound like something that would change our lives much, but our new phones take pictures and video (our old ones were so archaic!), and I can send them unlimited. I've been sending Brian photos and video of Everett throughout the day. It makes Brian's days go by more pleasantly and keeps him involved in what's going on at home!

We're having a great time (if you can't tell!). 

Until next post! 

Birthday Day

Well, I thought I'd blog about my birthday today, so I don't have to add that day's activities to Everett's 7 month blog . . . uh . . . tomorrow!

Sunday was my 28th birthday. Woah. I never mind getting older because as long as I can remember (or at least since my teens) I've had a completely irrational desire to grow up. Marriage, children, house, career, those are the things I dream about (not the freedom of youth), and I've accomplished quite a few of my goals, "so I've got that going for me . . . which is nice."

Gion had told us a little while back that their family tradition was to go get their tree on December 18th, which was her father's birthday. I then mentioned that we "could get a tree on my birthday!" Which seemed like a great idea at the time. Then the presents started piling up behind the living room chair, and I wondered if maybe we should have gone to the Christmas tree farm the week before. But we'll see when it starts to dry out (Gion abolishes all trace of Christmas on December 26th or 27th, so it doesn't need to last too long).

So Sunday was my day to sleep in (Brian usually gets Saturdays). While I slept, Brian made blueberry waffles and came and got me when they were ready.

After all the mandatory baby tasks (napping, nursing, changing, packing), we headed to the Christmas tree farm.

To my knowledge, this was a first for me. When I was younger, we had a potted Xmas tree, and in high school we had fake trees. So I had never picked out a tree or cut one down (still didn't--left that to Brian). It was very exciting!

On the way home we picked up In-N-Out. If you're curious (and how could you not be!?!), I got a grilled cheese with onions, fries, and since it was my birthday, a chocolate shake!

When we got home, we arranged the tree to show off its good side. Then we decorated! Which I do have some experience with, and it's always super fun!

I was going to joke and say Everett helped, but Everett did not help. He grabbed at the branches, though, which was cute and made his hands smell like conifer!

After the tree trimming, we relaxed, did some laundry, put away some laundry. I wrapped some gifts (which I enjoy immensely). I could TOTALLY be a professional gift wrapper, if such a thing paid (well).

Everett's 5 teeth! This is the first time I've been able to get them on camera! 

Then when Phil got home from work, we headed to my parents' house for a birthday dinner.

We had soup and salad and acorn scones. And my parents even opened wine! Everett tried out his booster seat, but was not too enthusiastic about that, so we put him in his bouncer and he bounced through the rest of dinner.

My mom resurrected a Butterfield tradition, and made me a pineapple upside down cake, yum! But she made some special modifications for me. It was organic! And, knowing I hate maraschino cherries, she used dried cranberries instead.

Both sets of parents gave me some awesome gifts, which for reasons of tack, time, and space, I'll keep to myself.

It was a lovely birthday. Just the right amount of celebration. But every day I get to spend with Brian and Everett is a perfect day for me. Awwww.

That may have seemed like the perfect ending to the blog, and it kind of was, but I really want to thank Rachel and John Hunter for a lovely sushi dinner at Kai Lana on Saturday night. We left the kiddos with their respective grandparents and had a double date and a delicious meal. It's so nice to be close enough to them now to do that! Oh, and Rachel made me the coolest bag. You're jealous.

Baby Accessories

A friend (who is in her second trimester with a baby girl!), recently stated on Facebook that she was starting her registry and asked for suggestions (which is one of the best uses of Facebook, in my opinion).

I wrote her a short comment and decided to write a longer message with links to some of the things we got/bought/were handed down. And it was a LONG message, with another long message attached to it. Who knew I could write so much about baby stuff (uh, everyone?)

I decided that I could copy and paste the message for other mothers who ask in the future, then realized I could blog it!

As I wrote to her, I believe that if parents don't end up getting everything on their registry, they should strongly consider asking friends for things, checking Craigslist, and looking at consignment stores before heading to Target or Babies R Us (save those wonderful gift cards for things you can't find anywhere else). Companies are getting loaded preying on new parents. When we were preparing for Everett, Brian kept saying, "I need to start selling baby stuff! These prices are outrageous!" Or something to that effect.

Before you head to Target, stop yourself and think, "have I asked friends (on Facebook)? Have I checked Craigslist? Might they have it at a consignment store?" Reduce, reuse!

I also believe that all babies are different (as all pregnancies are different), and all families are different. Something one baby needs another baby may not. Some babies spit up all the time, necessitating millions of burp cloths. Some babies rarely spit up (I won't say never. They all must from time to time, right?). Some families would rather pass on a high chair to save space, other families like to put the baby in the high chair while they cook and eat and play cribbage.

With that said, I'd advise against getting too many of one item. Just have a few burp clothes on hand and get more if you need them. Or if you get a lot of one thing, don't open the packages! For example, we got a lot of Soothie pacifiers at the shower, and Everett didn't really like Soothies. Target will take them back even if you don't have the receipt.

I also gave her the advice of looking at other people's registries for ideas. Who do you know who's pregnant, totally on-the-ball, and about to have her shower? Also people who recently had a baby. The registries will still be up. Might sound kind of stalker-ish, but I imagine that other parents are happy to share their registry info with you. It's an easy way to help other soon-to-be parents.

Also, when you're looking at pictures of your friend's babies, look at what's in the pictures. You'll see swings, Boppys, baby gyms, excersaucers, highchairs, baths, cribs, changing tables, blankets, pacifiers, etc. If the baby uses it a lot, he'll probably get his picture taken with it.

Ok, on to the list!

But (hold on!) I'm not writing a comprehensive list. Lots of sites have lists, "layette" lists that have everything you can think of. These are just the things we found especially useful, many we bought ourselves after realizing we needed them (or used our gift cards!!). I'm also including my thoughts on the items, why they're good or not-so-good.



Let's do this thing. 

The Arms Reach mini co-sleeper. A great way to keep baby close to you while you sleep. We got the mini to save space, and I thought, "why would one need the original size for a baby!?!" Then he grew out of the mini at 3 months, and it would have been nice to have the co-sleeper around for some of the 5/6 month teething episodes. But, if I had it to do over, I still would have bought the mini, since the original would not have fit in our apartment.

This is our swing. Kind of cheap and cheesy, but gets the job done and is suuuuper small. I think some of the nicer ones swing in different directions (and have mobiles and make sounds and such), but we had friends with nicer ones come over and comment how much they liked ours because it was so small. It fits in the bathroom for when you need to take a bath or shower and baby is sleeping or sleepy, and it's really easy to move around. 

When your baby's too old for the swing, the next life-saving device is the exersaucer.  Both of ours are loaned/given. We got the first from our neighbor, and it's a ridiculously fun contraption, but it's HUGE! It is a pain to move from the kitchen to the living room, and I certainly couldn't carry it up the stairs and put it in the bathroom. I guess it's not even really an exersaucer; it's a bouncer. We now keep it in the entry way and usually only use it on the porch.

When we realized this bouncer was too big to cart around, Rachel offered her children's exersaucer, and it's our staple now. It's light, easy to move around, and even fits in the bathroom.

Not so much a lifesaver, but a little entertainment for your baby, is the baby gym. When they get old enough to look at things but not really play with things yet, these are great. We couldn't handle the idea of paying $60 to $80 for what basically amounts to a piece of fabric with tent poles over it, so we went to our local consignment store Mollywogs, and picked one up for $27. Some of the toys were missing or replaced with toys from different items, but Everett didn't care. And we had received some toys at the shower with rings on them that fit on it perfectly.

Gotta have a Boppy. A nursing pillow is a must if you're nursing, but the Boppy is also great for the baby to rest in. I know that's not the intended use of it, and it says: "never allow the baby to sleep on the Bobby!!" on the tag. But when they're newborns, they sleep all the time. I would be right next to him on the couch, and the Bobby would make sure he didn't go anywhere.

Aden and Anais muslin swaddling blankets are super nice, especially as they get bigger and other blankets won't contain them. They're also good if the weather's warm because they're very breathable. We received these as a gift and had no idea what they were. We hope the friends who bought them for us understand how much we grew to adore these.

When he was little, I really appreciated PJs with zippers instead of snaps (but I wouldn't bother registering for clothes. People love giving you clothes at your shower. Or handing them down to you).

We registered for a few different types of pacifiers to figure out what he liked. Everett wasn't a big fan of the Soothie. We usually buy him the NUK brand, but he's good with anything with a bulge at the tip so it stays in his mouth. The Soothies just pop out!

We have a shinny new Britax that we just installed. The Graco-type seats are good to start with because you can take them in and out of the car, and if baby's sleeping, you don't want to wake him to go into the store or back in the house (at least we didn't).

We love our BOB (which I found on craigslist), but our Chicco umbrella stroller is really nice for shopping (when you don't wan't to be the A-hole who brings the BOB into the store).

All terain strollers are really the only way to go in Atascadero. For where we go, there's really no point in owning a regular stroller. The BOB is good for walks in the neighborhood, and the Chicco's good for smooth store floors. But I must admit that I get a little embarrassed to be at the park with my BOB. It feels like such a status symbol, and I've always hated being trendy. I feel like screaming out, "I got mine for half-price on Craigslist!!" 

Speaking of shopping, you could register for one of those shopping chart covers (I'm pretty easy-going, but I still wouldn't put him straight into the shopping cart). I asked Rachel (my usual first step), and she had one that her mother had made her.

Another little knick-knack we enjoy is the mirror you put on the seat of the car so you can see the baby in the rear-view mirror (make sure the sun's not in his face). I was unamused that the only brand they had at Target was Eddie Bauer, and said "Eddie Bauer" across the front of it. Fortunately we got a silly elephant one at the shower. 


I also couldn't function without a nightlight so I can see him at night. In keeping with our nursery theme, I found one in the kids section of Target that was a rocket. I think there are often overlapping themes in baby nurseries and "big kid" room themes. 

I was advised not to register for a high chair and just get a booster seat (this is obviously all some families need), but he couldn't sit up in the booster when he was smaller, and we use the high chair* all the time now. Everett loves to be part of what's going on, and the chair brings him up to our level when we're cooking and eating.

We also broke down and bought a wipe warmer. We would have used it earlier, but when we started making our own wipes, that's when it became a necessity.


California baby products are really nice but kind of expensive, so they're great to get as gifts!


And momma related gifts: 

If you know you're going to need a pump I HIGHLY recommend picking one up before the baby's born. I won't go into it, but there's a lot of milk in the first few weeks, and newborns don't eat that much. Since I stay home, I got the Medela Swing.



I waited a very long time to have Rachel make me a nursing cover (I was slow finding fabric I liked). And by the time we started using it, Everett was a little confused by the idea. It's still really great to have when I'm out and about, but it would have been nice to teach him to deal with it earlier

Not really registry related, but I'd have a few nursing tank tops on hand.

And if your feet swell, and your shoes are getting tight, don't try to stick it out until after the baby's born. Your feet will swell MORE the week after the babe's out. Just get some slip-ons that have some give (possibly a size larger).


If I think of anything else, I'll just add it on! 


*we just moved Everett into his booster seat for meal times (early February). We're still using the cloth-covered highchair when he hangs out with us in the kitchen, cleanly. But I was getting tired of washing the highchair cover and straps so often (or putting him in it when his clothes were clean and didn't know there was old yam in there--ew!). The booster is so easy to wipe off, and he actually sits much straighter in it!