We have a 16 month old now?! Amazing.
It's been another incredible month full of learning and growing.
The biggest change for me has been all the hugging and kissing and cuddling . . . on us and on other babies (willing or un). I guess that's what happens when a baby gets hugged and kissed all day every day by 4+ people. He's such a sweet lovie. {:
He's also becoming more inquisitive, determined, and dexterous. He insists on helping you buckle his car seat and booster chair buckles. I realized recently that he'd gotten the hang of putting his cars down his ramps. Before, he needed help. When he puts the cars down, he says, "weeeee!"
. . . just like he does on the slide. And speaking of slide, we picked up this awesome baby play structure that was posted on craigslist. Of course, when we got there, I recognized the seller from high school (only vaugely, but it made me feel even better about the transaction).
He likes the play structure, but he's yet to learn how to used the ladder part. So far, he climbs up the slide to go down it.
He's learned to turn on all his toys that make noises. Of course, they're designed so if you pull the button all the way over it's on LOUD. So this morning at 6:00, he was playing with a very LOUD train. Woo woo!!
He's such a silly guy. He's gotten used to baths after dinner, so of course he translated that into baths after every meal. Whenever he eats a meal in his booster seat, and he's finished, he'll say, "duh, ba," meaning "done, bath." And so many times I have to say "no" because it's breakfast or afternoon snack. But sometimes I give in. Especially if it was a messy breakfast or afternoon snack. {:
He knows a lot of parts of his body. He even knows "belly" (although he sometimes touches his chest for "belly," good enough). But he doesn't quite get "bottom." If you say, "where's your bottom?" he'll do this weird pelvic thrust thing and make this grunting noise. It's really funny. We think it has something to do with how we tell him to sit on his bottom in the bath. Not sure how it's related, though.
He's peed on the potty!! It's not a big victory, because he's done it accidentally every time. But we got him a potty seat for over the big potty (he even picked it out! There were two "melmo" potty seats, and he studied both for a few minutes before picking the green one with the muppets in picture frames over the muppets swimming with snorkel gear). He was just saying "poop" a lot and seeming to know when it was happening, so we wanted to let the seat be an option if he wanted it. So far it's just a novelty.
The last post I listed all his words. Some of his new words since last month are: banana, down, melmo (Elmo), deer, bot (robot), nose, go, boat, juice, bus, bath, eat, kirk (gurk), (grrr . . . I'm sure there are more).
His "banana" is so cute! It involves his tongue, kind of like his "fish face." Imagine saying banana while sticking your tongue out and moving it around.
He also says "papa" and "baba" for mostly his grandfathers. My dad is usually "baba," and Brian's dad is usually "papa." But he sort of interchanges them. And sometimes grandmas are "papa" or "baba" too. I guess he's still working on that.
He can not only stomp his feet and clap his hands, but he's started "twirling." These are all things from Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance book.
We've been trying to establish a weekly routine now that we're settled in our house. So far we have Wednesday dinners at Phil and Gion's, which has been delicious! We were going to do Sunday dinners with my parents, but Brian decided he wants to cook on the weekends, so we might do a day during the week. Sounds great to me!
Phil and Gion have been taking Everett once a week for breakfast and playtime after that. He loves it!
I've moved from doing Kidz Club at Kennedy on Thursdays to Tuesdays. I did this mostly so Everett and I could attend playdates with a group of my good friends and their kids. It's been really fun for us!
Things we did this "month"?
Well, we had our house warming party, and it was amazing! So many people came. I was overwhelmed, really. I knew I had invited all these people, but I'd never imagined having 30 people in my living room. It was a trip. But really great.
We were so lucky to have Aunt Sue up during the party. She was out seeing Grandpa Chuck, and was nice enough to join us for the party!
Dixie and Jason also visited the next week. Sorry, I don't have any pictures, but it was really nice to see them.
Earlier this month (September 4th?), Brian and I went out for drinks with another couple, and we left Everett home! This is the first time we'd done anything like this. My mom came over after Everett went down and just stayed here reading until we came home. It was fun! And Everett slept the whole time.
Brian's uncle Kirk (yes, we both have Uncle Kirks, weird I know) has come to visit from Thailand! Gion, Everett, and I went to the SLO airport to meet him. Everett got to see planes big and small take off and land. It was very exciting. Everett was shy around Kirk at first. But he soon warmed up and now he LOVES his Great Uncle Kirk! He calls him "gurk," and almost immediately started asking for "gurk" when I would tell him he was going to see Grandma Gion. Silly boy.
On the 5th we went to Everett's friend Eli's first birthday. Eli's mom is my friend Denise. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of Everett and Eli together (maybe somebody did). It was a HUGE fun party, and lots of good friends were there.
This is a long blog already, so I won't write much about the most significant thing that's happened recently (most significant thing of the year, most likely). My grandfather Charles Butterfield passed away on Tuesday at 11:00 p.m.. It wasn't a complete surprise, but it's put me in a bit of a daze this week. I intend to write about him and the passing soon. He was a wonderful man who led an amazing life. He will be fondly remembered by all who knew him.
