Christmas 2011

Well, it was a fun and eventful Christmas.

We said goodbye to Katie from Stanley and Ramona's house yesterday, and that felt like the end of our Christmas plans. Now it's just the end of Brian's break and project time!

It was so nice to have Katie and Kirk in town this year. I know we will rarely be lucky enough to have either one of them here, let alone both together!

Everett was 7 months old last Christmas and 19 months this Christmas. Although he was much more aware this year, I wouldn't say he "got it." He liked opening presents and playing with his presents, but he didn't realize there were presents inside the wrapped boxes under the tree.

I expect next year will be the first truly aware Christmas. So we have almost a year to decide what our family traditions will be and what to do with the Santa Claus thing.

Our schedule this year was much like last year, Christmas Eve with the Cisneroses, Christmas Day brunch with my parents, Christmas dinner back with the Cisneroses. But this year we got to spend Christmas Morning at our OWN HOUSE! It was exciting! Unfortunately we woke to a frozen pipe, and no water put a damper on our morning. The first time our pipes froze was Christmas morning!! How rude! (P.S. we taught Everett how to say that, a la Stephanie Tanner).

We may have started a tradition of having Christmas Eve Eve dinner at our house. It was great. Both sets of parents plus Katie and Kirk came over and we had chili and played games. Nice excuse to have a really clean house before Christmas, then have leftovers for the next few days (need to make sure we always make something that leaves leftovers).

Going back in time a little. We got a visit from Gretchen and Mark Thobe earlier in the month. That belongs in the Christmas blog, because it was sort of a holiday visit. It's always nice to see them, and it was fun to see all the sibs (Kirk, Gretchen, and Gion) together.

I wanted to mention a few things we did when Katie was here.

Feeding the animals at Avila Valley Barn:

Playing and lunch at The Custom House in Avila:

Wine Tasting at Calcareous Winery:

And finally visiting "Baba" Stanley and "Gama" Ramona:

It's been an amazing couple weeks. Thanks so much to Gion and Phil for hosting so many evenings and treating us to so many meals.

Now to rest and recoup for a few days before Brian goes back to work.

19 Month Blog

Happy 19 month b-day baby boy!

Unfortunately, this has been a month mostly marked by illness, but we've had some good times too!

First, early in the month, he started getting hives! I called the doctor, but they didn't seem too concerned. We got some children's benadryl, but never used it because he never seemed too bothered by them.

Then a couple weeks ago, he got a bad cold that came with congestion, boogers, cough, and probably a sore throat. He was a zombie baby for a few days (meaning he was zone-y, not that he was eating brains).

The cold made us miss a few holiday events such as the walk around the lake and Winter Wonderland--both things we were planning to do with the Hunters }:  We did go to the tree lighting in Sunken Gardens with Phil and Gion, and Everett got to see Santa in a Fire Engine!!

Then we went to Sushi, and he ate a ton! He's been eating so much lately. But he's not gaining that much weight, so I guess he's burning it off.

He didn't learn many new words when he was sick (or he didn't say the words he was learning), but as soon as he was feeling better, BOOM, chatterbox!

He seriously learns one, two, or more words a day! I feel bad not writing them all down with the date, but I know I'd miss some, get behind, and feel like a failure. So I'm just not going to attempt it at all. Go me!

Here are some words that he's learned: meat, rice, shoot (as in "shoot that water"), magnet, soup (sounds like suit-p), diaper (sounds like die-poo), sock, nut, cup, floss, rat, mine (uh oh!), shower, work, school bus, dump truck, button (just says butt), soap, waffle, pizza . . . .

Some Christmas related words: snow man, bow, bell (or is he saying ball?), snow globe, Santa says, "ho ho ho" or "ha ha ho."

Thanksgiving

His tractor sound has actually morphed into the word: tra-ca-ter

He finally says paci. It's such a common object in his world, but for the longest time, he didn't have a name for it. Just this week, he started calling it "pass" and then "paci."

He makes these sounds like gobble gobble or cah-ble cah-ble. It seemed that he was relating it to turkey near Thanksgiving, but then apples have this sound, and then other random objects get these sounds. I kind of think cah-ble is his current word for random objects. We'll see.

Our friend Tyler was visiting, and for some reason Brian said "big big butts," and Everett repeated him! When we stopped laughing, we taught him to say "big big bum." He'll say this and grab is bottom. Pretty funny.

He counts "1, 2, go!" Three's eluding him so far.

He says "night night" and goes to his room. This is just a play thing. He doesn't actually sleep. He'll just lay his head on the bed and sometimes play snore.

I don't know if I should admit this, but besides Elmo, Everett can also name Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Super Grover, and Baby Bear. We don't watch that much, I promise! (:

We bought a new (to us) car recently (!!), and Everett calls it "new car." How do I spell that to make it more of a closed "O" sound like in "juice" or "caboose"? He used to call the Subaru "daddy's car," but I've very quickly taught him that it's "mommy's car," and the KIA is "daddy's car." But tonight, he called the Subaru "white car." WHA?!?! Wow.

He's called Gion's car "blue car" before. I don't know why that surprised me so much.

In preparation for Katie coming home for Christmas, we've re-taught him to say "Katie."

And we think he may be starting to say "Grandma"!!

This is so language heavy, I promise he's doing other things!

He's digging in the dirt with sticks.

He's stacking blocks to amazing heights.

Tonight he was playing with a silver tea set at his grandparents', and he was pouring it and MAKING BELIEVE that he was drinking out of the cup. Blew me away.

He's just the sweetest, silliest, smartest toddler I know! We love him!

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12/16 -- I just wanted to add, since this blog is mostly for my own personal use, to aid my memory. We've been having some sleeping issues lately. Overall, him being in his big bed has helped all our sleep. He seems to sleep sounder and comes into our bed less than when he was in the crib. And now, when he needs us, one of us can go sleep with him in his bed instead of both of us loosing sleep with him in our bed, kicking and wiggling.

But, the thing that's trying my patience lately is his late bedtimes! He wakes up early, maybe 6:00 or 6:30. He plays until his nap at around 1:00. After the nap I'll do something to specifically burn off energy, like play outside, go shopping, or play at grandma and grandpa's, and he still wants to go to bed at 9:00 or 9:30!! I tell ya, I love that I get to stay home with my baby all day, but if I don't get an hour or two of "adult time" before getting ready for bed myself, I feel like I'm going to go crazy.

Guess we'll just have to try harder to get that energy used up. I've been trying, but I've by no means "tried everything."

Baby Sadie is Here!!

I was just trying to post a status update on Facebook, but it kept getting longer and longer, so I thought I would write a little blog post (little, ha!).

Last night was so amazing!

My best friend Rachel had a baby girl (!!), and I was as close to "being there" as any of us were comfortable with. {:

We knew Rachel and her husband John had checked into the hospital around 8:00 on Wednesday night.

I was anxious all day yesterday wondering when she would give birth and when I should go to the hospital. Rachel and I were texting in the morning about HGTV and other silliness, but the texts trailed off, and I didn't want to bug her if she was laboring. Rachel and John were very good about keeping us all in-the-loop with "the baby update system," but it's so hard to know when they say, "contractions are 4 minutes apart," how much longer it will be till baby!

So it got to be afternoon, and it sounded like things were slow. Brian got home and we ate a quick dinner. From texting John, we all decided it would be nice for us to visit, just to change things up, but that we wouldn't be meeting the babe.

Everett got on his dinosaur jammies, and we drove to SLO.

We got the the hospital. Brian and Everett stayed in the lobby because I think Brian was afraid Rachel would be in active labor, and he was scared. {:

But I got to the room and things we really mellow. Rachel and John were just watching Swamp People and waiting for Jeopardy to come on. We chatted a bit, then I had Brian and Everett come up, because it was just so relaxed. We were just hanging out with our friends!

The new nurse came in and introduced herself. Rachel told her she was having quite a bit of pain.

And that was time for us the head out!

We said good-bye, and I told her we'd come in the morning, fully expecting baby to be born in the middle of the night sometime.

We got in the car and headed toward Morro Bay, since the grade was completely stopped northbound when we were driving south.

We were barely past Cal Poly when we got a text saying Rachel was about the push and that we could stick around if we wanted to. WHAT?!?

Ok, we could stay in SLO a couple hours. It took me a couple hours to push and cuddle with baby, so we thought we'd stay in town but that it would still be a while, so we decided to go shopping.

I wanted to go to New Frontiers to get a few things for Rachel (rehydrating drinks), and Brian wanted to go to BevMo.

Brian went to BevMo, and I sat in the car with Everett (asleep in his carseat). Then we went to New Frontiers, and Brian stayed in the car with Everett.

While I was in the aisle looking at coconut juices, I got a picture text of Rachel with a baby?!!!!? Then a text of just a baby!!!

What?!? In the time it took us to do half a shopping trip, Rachel pushed out a baby?!?

I was crying in the coconut juice aisle! Then crying at check-out.

I got back to the car and shakily pulled up the picture text for Brian to see. He was shocked!

We drove back to the hospital, all the way getting texts from other family on "the baby update system," sending their love and congratulations.

We got to the hospital and waited in the car for a while. Then E woke, and luckily it was time to go see the new addition!!

Brian and Everett stayed in the lobby, and I got to go upstairs to see baby! . . . and her mama and daddy.

John was giddy (tired but giddy). And Rachel was in total baby-bliss-land.

I didn't stay long. Just long enough to meet beautiful Sadie Josephine, congratulate the happy parents, and take a few pictures!

I can't wait to go back today!

I think her siblings are meeting her about now. So exciting!!

18 MONTH BLOG!!!!!

Woah woah wow! My baby's a-year-and-a-half?!?

photo by Dana Holt

Do I have to start calling him a-year-and-a-half now and not 18 months, 19 months, 20 months, etc.?

being a kid with his friend Rosa

It's been a BIG month too.

At the beginning of the month, he seemed like he was having a lull in development. He wasn't learning that many new words. His behaviors were all pretty steady.

a month ago at Colony Days Parade

Then there was an explosion!

Hand, foot, toes, teeth, why, PLEASE!!

Please is so cool! It sounds like "pees."

Speaking of cool, he started saying cool. He was saying "coo" all the time, and we didn't know at first what he was saying, then we realized he was saying "cool"and "oh cool." Haha. I guess he hears that a lot. {:

He also started saying "oh no." But it's really dramatic, and for strange things. "oooh noooo!"

More new words he's saying: plane "peen," goose, bear, guitar "car car," wet, toot (for a fart), chomp chomp (for alligator), chair.

he can blow bubbles! . . . sometimes

As long as he's able to form a sound, you can teach him a word. Sometimes I feel like I'm depriving him of words I just haven't exposed him to yet.

his current "cheese" face. awesome. |: 

He's finally making a pig sound. He would never say "oink." He was waiting till he could snort like a real pig, I guess. It's really good.

He jumps on furniture and says "dump" for jump, and "up down up down."

going through the tunnel at gymnastics

He's started putting a lot more words together like, "more beans please," "daddy go," and "chair down."

on the way to Darby and Katherine's wedding.
Brian was busy cleaning up baby barf.

He calls his friend Andy "Din Din."

Din Din's mom Rachel

Our friend Peter Stewart came to visit one evening, and Everett really got attached to him. He liked calling him "Pete!" Peter gave him a batman costume, and now whenever he sees it, he says, "Pete!"

looking at the album Aunt Sue made us.
He knows Kirk "Goop" and Beth "Ba"

He loves to cheers with us at dinner. Brian and I will have wine, and he will click his sippy cup to our glasses and say, "din din."

When he hugs you, he'll say "squeeeeze" or is it "gueeeeze"? It's the Frank Oliver thing to do.

Photo by Dana Holt

He's great at coloring with crayons, but especially with chalk. A real natural!

before I painted his rug and table legs 

We've gotten in a good habit of vitamin and teeth brushing in the bath. Everett will even ask to brush his teeth by making the teeth-brushing sound, kind of like "ch-ch ch-ch." But he still mostly chews on the brush. We're working on that.

He had a great time at Halloween!

He really took to his bird costume. I had fun making it, and it made me happy that he liked to flap his "wings," and say, "caw caw!"

yup, he has Brian's cheeks.

We went to Zoo Boo on Saturday and the Santa Margarita Carnival on Halloween, both times with the Hunter Family. Very fun.

with Julie and "Din Din"

But the most exciting things to happen this month:


He's been napping, and sleeping in the early morning, in his big boy bed!!

AND . . .

He's weaned!!!

Just in the last few weeks, we've gone from one nursing before bed to none at all!

I was ok with him continuing nursing at night, but he was getting more and more attached to me--only wanting me for comfort at night, wanting to sleep with me all the time--that we thought weaning entirely would help, and it has! Brian's getting more and more able to comfort him at night (again), and he hasn't been coming into our bed at all, although Brian and I have been taking turns sleeping with him in his big bed in the early morning when he wakes.

But it's progress!

This month I keep thinking, "it's always something with a baby. Get over one thing, and you're on to something else!" Love it!

Photo by Dana Holt

17 Month Blog

Well, he's 17-months-old today!

at Colony Days Parade 10/15

It's been another great month!

He's just getting more mature, more aware, more fun!

With age and ability comes more opportunity and learning. We're going to story times, beach days, and gymnastics.

playing with Frank in Morro Bay

with Grandpa Phil in Cambria

with Grandpa Phil in Cambria

with a ground squirrel in Cambria

with Grandpa Phil in Avila

Yes! Gymnastics! We stopped doing Kidz Club at the gym, mostly because we only have one car, which makes getting to Kidz Club hard, and using my free gym membership tricky. So we've stopped, for now (until we can swing that second car).

But not doing Kidz Club has freed Tuesdays up for gymnastics. It's an activity that's not mandatory, that grandparents can also attend, and that grandparents can take the baby to instead of me sometimes!

trampoline

We went to the Guppies class at Pacific Coast Gymnastics this last Tuesday at 9:30, and it was SO FUN!! It's mostly free play on the trampolines, obstacle course, and mats. But there are some group activities like running in a circle, animal impressions, and parachute. We're going to keep going at least once a week!

New stuff he can do?

This month he started climbing up his play structure ladder. In the last few days he's started sliding down the side "weeeee," but for most of the month, he's avoided sliding.

waiting for bubbles

He still says "no" all the time (not understanding the connotation completely), but he's started nodding up and down at least, even if he can't say, "yes."

New words: bubble, hi, more (mo), cheese, eyes (h-eyes) peekaboo (boo boo), police car ( I think)

He's started calling himself "baby E!" It was our suggestion, but it's super cute. "mama, dada, and Baby E!!!" {:

this was my chair when I was little. Perfect for watching Melmo!

Russell Brand hair! 

He says "wawa" for Yo Gabba Gabba and "ha" for mouth.

He says "ding" when a timer goes off (or anything else that goes "ding!"). It sounds more like "din!"

He also says "burrrrrr" for things that are cold (the freezer). He's been doing this for more than a month, possibly, but he's started doing it more lately.

He's started putting more words together like "wanna get down," which sounds like "wannagetdown"--all mushed together. But his "bye dada" is pretty flawless.

We'll sit him on the potty seat and he pees and claps.

He surprised me recently when we were playing with his toy computer. He pushed a button that made a water sound and he said "wawa." He pushed the "beep beep" button, and said "car."

He's continually surprising me!

My mom brought over a postcard for the Open Studio tour my parents are holding soon. The postcard has a drawing my dad did of himself with some alligators (not too naturalistic). Everett immediately recognized his "baba," and has been pointing to the fridge (where I put it) saying, "baba" and making "alligator noises"--growling, really.

being kissy with friend Ines

If he could say "again!!" that's what he would say,
being pulled around the boniheed's yard on a boogie board

after being kissy with Rosa. Future heartbreaker! 

sleeping at grandpa's memorial service

This last photo is from my Grandpa Chuck's memorial service. I've been putting off writing about the weekend because I don't have all the photos. Soon!