everett's eight month update

posted by mommy

1. food - ev has finally taken to eating "real" food and is up to three meals a day. his current favorites include butternut squash, banana, peas, and spinach. meals include grains, tofu, or yogurt mixed with a variety of fruits and veggies, including blueberries, carrots, peas, green beans, squash, sweet potato, apple, and pear. he also loves eating chunks of some of these as well as banana and avocado. additionally, he really enjoys snacks of yogurt melts and puffs. he likes to grab at them and pick them up, but he hasn't quite taken to the concept of bringing the food to his mouth, yet. even with all this food, ev absolutely prefers to nurse and we do so about 7 times a day/night.
2. growth - he only recently began cruising, so he still has retained his chunk-a-munk rolls!
3. development - ev's crawling!!! yep, now he won't stay in one place anymore. although not yet on his hands and knees, he pulls his stout little body around everywhere army-style, and far prefers being downstairs where he can move more quickly on our hardwood and tile floors. sometimes, though, if it takes too long to get to whatever he is eyeing, he gives up and rolls onto his back to play with his feet. definitely not as persistent or motivated as his older bro. ev has also started talking a lot more but not yet doing true consonants. lastly he finally cut both top middle teeth...a very long, hard, and sleepless 4+ week process (momma's a tired lady!). thank goodness for hyland's teething tablets (we so should have bought stock just for him!).
4. sleeping - now that his two top teeth finally fully cut (like just in the last couple days) we are settling back into a semi-dependable routine. he still wakes 2-3 times per night, but doesn't have to nurse each time (thanks to a great daddy he loves!), but has had one night where he only woke once. he takes two naps each day, the first at around 10 for 1.5-2 hours, and the second around 2:30 for 1.5 hours. the funniest part of ev sleeping is listening to him fall asleep...moaning all the way!
5. overall demeanor - as he gets older, ev definitely mellows more and more and has become quite funny and jolly. he laughs a lot, especially at his silly goose of a brother, and fusses a whole lot less. he still has his moments, especially when he's done eating (when he's done, he's soooo done...like "get me out of this chair NOW" done!). i think now that he is more interactive and mobile, it has helped relieve some of his fussiness. he still really wants to be in the middle of everything (not one who likes to be left alone too long), but hopefully that will continue to get better as his mobility develops and his independence grows.
6. favorite things - besides crawling wherever he can and playing with his brother, one of ev's new favorite things is making lots of funny sounds with his tongue and lips...and spitting everywhere in the process! he also loves "talking" to o and sitting up in the basket of carts at the store. he also still chews on everything (even with teeth that finally cut, he is almost vicious when chomping down!). his latest favorite chew toy is my silicone teething bracelet that came in our goodie bag at the cloth diaper change event. he also really likes anything that rattles and he can shake. now that he is becoming more mobile he is also discovering the myriad of toys in other areas of the house that he never knew existed...much to his brother's chagrin!

teaching everett

posted by owen

one of the cool things about being the older brother is that i get to teach everett things.

full speed ahead

posted by mommy and daddy

well we finally got our act together and got everett's crawling action on film. he's been doing it consistently for about a week now and we finally got him to do it while we took a video. just like his brother, it was a cell phone that made him move.

golfing anyone?

posted by owen

i'm starting to like playing with my golf clubs and now i like to wear daddy's golfing hat. i have some work to do on my game, but it's coming along. mommy and daddy bought me a toddler set that includes a driver, iron and putter...plastic of course. daddy's is gonna take me to the driving range soon and let me do some putting on the greens. since daddy has not worked on the yard yet, the brown spots make for some nice areas to hit the ball.

trying on daddy's golfing hat with my new clubs

are you ready for some golf?

the toddler sensation lines up his shot

the takeaway and backswing

the swing...and a miss

another swing...and another miss

what an amazing shot!

my intimidating look. i got game.

daddy and his boys

posted by owen and everett

we don't get many pictures of us with daddy since he is usually the one behind the camera. so recently we decided to take a picnic to the park and have mommy take some pictures of us. we had so much fun playing around with daddy, and mommy did a great job with the camera.

happy eight month birthday everett!

posted by everett

i turned eight months old today so mommy and daddy didn't expect the birthday sign to stay in one piece. i didn't disappoint.

everett's baptism

posted by mommy and daddy

gampa, grammie, and greats all came to denver to celebrate everett's baptism. gampa baptized owen, so there was no doubt that we wanted him to baptize everett as well. it was a quick weekend trip but packed full of fun times.

owen got to sleep on a blow up bed in the same room with gampa and grammie. what a treat for him (and some noisy sleep for them!). and we all enjoyed having good friends over on sunday for a celebration barbecue.

greats loved playing together with owen

owen decided that he wanted to sit in a chair like greats

pastor bruce beginning the baptism ceremony

gampa baptizing everett

what a blessing to have both our sons baptized by their gampa

everett taking an interest in the bible

gampa always has the magic touch

everett and grammie before going to church

a few pics before gampa and grammie hit the road. would have
taken them outside but guess what...it started to snow!

smiles, smiles and more smiles

greats with her newest great grandson

it was a blessing to have greats come, too

what a wonderful time