Sleep is good

D: I am so close to being done with this quarter! I have one more assignment to turn in, then we can enjoy Christmas break.

The real reason I wanted to write this post is because Everett has been doing something odd lately. He's been going to bed at night without a fuss. In the 12 and a half months of his life this has never happened. Bedtime was a battle, and the nights he only screamed for 5 minutes we said to each other, "He must have been really tired!" Lately he'll cuddle up to us as we're reading and singing to him, and I've found myself often just sitting there...

A: Not wanting to move and end the cuteness?

D: Exactly. What's been even weirder about all of this is that his going to bed better at night has coincided with him being weaned. Alicia's down to nursing him only once per day. We don't dare try to completely stop knowing that we're going on a two and a half week vacation starting on Monday.

So, altogether he sleeps about 11-12 hours at night, and he takes at least two one hour naps during the day.

We recently had his 12 month doctor appointment and first dentist appointment for his eight teeth! Here are his stats:
21 pounds, 14 ounces    30th percentile
30 1/4 inches     62nd percentile
head circumference: 18 1/2 inches     66th percentile

The nurse was pretty sure the nurse who measured him last time, who was in training, messed up on his head measurement. She's pretty sure his head did not grow an inch in circumference in a month.

A: He's healthy!

I found a neurologist that's in the same building as Everett's pediatrician, so we can coordinate appointments. Makes life a lot easier. I had a nasty wave of migraines over Thanksgiving. The neurologist is increasing one of my preventative medications. He warned that one of the side effects I may experience is difficulty thinking of the right word. Aside from being a random side effect, I have enough issues thinking of the right word to express what I mean! Ugh. At least now I can blame it on the medicine.

We are very excited about Christmas. If we don't get to see you sometime this December, have a merry Christmas!

Into Drawer, Helping Mommy, Trombonist

Everett has discovered step stools. Be it me, Dallin's book bag, the printer, or his recent favorite - the trombone case, he uses them to climb up onto and into things or just to have a better reach. 

Today I moved the trombone case away from the desk so that this couldn't happen again. Though I'm sure he could find a way.

 

Everett pushing the broom forwards and backwards- what a helper

 (An improvement upon his usual attempts to eat from the swept-up pile, gross)

So he actually did okay at blowing into the mouth piece, before I started filming. Oh well, it is still pretty cute, even if only because I just love watching Dallin and Everett play together.

smiles, haven, stripping, tractor

 Because you can never have too many baby smiles. And look at all his teeth!

He stacked three jars and they stayed!

Okay, so I know I said last post that we've put limits on his cupboard interaction, but this morning he got in another cupboard too quickly for me to intervene. It appears to be a peaceful place for him to go and reflect.

Somehow Everett came out of his pants on his own. This is after taking off his socks.

While I was trying to quickly finish up this post, I was sitting next to the couch. Everett climbed up me and onto the couch! Next thing I know, the computer I am using has pulled up a new window and letters are being typed onto the screen without me doing anything. It took me a second to realize that he had our bluetooth keyboard. And I thought I had put such devices out of his reach!

Everett is one!, 1st Haircut, etc.

His current favorites: 

eating- especially apples, grapes, bananas, crackers, and cheese

 (He pulled the Triscuit box off the shelf and pulled out the bag and dumped out the crackers.)

Scribbling. 

He drew all over this box from the day it arrived until he was allowed to open it on his birthday. (I helped a tiny bit so if you see a heart or face, those were me, the rest was him) 

Speaking of scribbling, he likes pens. He carries them around with him. He is actually really good at only drawing on allotted surfaces. And he is quite good at holding the pen semi-properly.  

This picture also shows an example of how he likes to get into small spaces behind and between furniture.

 He likes to babble, explore, drum on surfaces, and laugh. He wants any electronic device he sees us using or that is in reach. He loves to play with toys and whatever else he decides is a toy. He likes to stack, pretend to eat, push buttons, push objects around the floor, play catch, take off his socks, hit things with sticks, open/close/turn/lift/slide/twist and otherwise manipulate objects often using other objects. 

He is close to being weaned, close to standing on his own, making progress towards walking.

I just love him and am so grateful to be his momma.

He got this adorable outfit from Great Grandma and Grandpa Marr and Aunt Julie.

 Everett and I joined the Joel and Staci Marr family for a trip to the mall and Spokane falls. Everett sat on Santa's lap at the mall. He reached out for me but didn't cry. So he wasn't quite traumatized.

He succumbed. 

 First Haircut!

Everett's hair was getting too long around the ears and in the back so we had Staci trim it up. Joel would attempt to hold his attention in the direction she needed him to face, and she somehow managed to only snip hair.  Thank you Staci!

He made this face for the camera! I don't remember him ever smiling on cue like this.

You know that cat that Everett wasn't a huge fan of. It likes us, and our car.

We have since put more limits on where Everett is allowed to roam and what he is allowed to get out of cupboards. But isn't he too cute! He looks like Winnie the Pooh.

Oh, and he's a model

Cake!

Videos of birthday tractor, dancing, cat, hand eye coordination

Everett got an early birthday present from Dallin's parents: a John Deere tractor that he can ride on and push and play with. It comes with four animals and sings songs and makes noises. I love it. Thank you parents Marr. Gramma wanted footage of him opening it, which we did take, but well you see Everett was in an emotional state at the time. We thought that the toy would brighten his mood; it just scared him. So I left that video out but here is a bit of the first time he played with it after getting used to it and calming down.

And one from later that evening.

This is from after Benjamin and Kira watched Everett for about an hour while Dallin and I went to a missionary meeting. E really loves playing with them. He even danced for them. He has two signature moves.

This is our neighborhood black cat. Everett is sometimes interested in, usually scared of said cat. Is our child afraid of everything? hmm I tell myself that this is normal, but I should probably expose him to more.

And a short video to show that he continues to develop better hand eye coordination.

Kira's birthday and baptism, pumpkins, Benjamin's game

A: Dallin says that I don't allow any picture of my child on the internet go without being put on the blog. While this is not entirely true, these pictures are from Uncle Jon's Picasa found here. Thank you Jon!

This is from Dallin's cousin Kira's baptism. It was so wonderful to have everyone together and to see Kira and the other precious children making such an important decision. I loved seeing the kids come up out of the water into the loving embrace of their fathers. It made me think of Heavenly Father's love for them as His children.

That would be quite the donation.

 

Benjamin and Kira love Everett, and I would venture the feeling is mutual.

At Kira's birthday party. (This picture is from Julie Marr's facebook.) I just love the family shot in the background. 

At Devon and Whitney's home from when we made caramel apples and watched them carve pumpkins.
Click HERE for a video of Everett playing with pumpkin guts. The video is from the Jon and Kristi family blog.

Everett was amazed that nobody stopped him from playing in the pumpkin guts.
He took his turn with the scooper.

I washed his socks the next day but they were still dyed orange.

These are from when we watched Benjamin play in the marching band (and the game too) for Homecoming. This was Everett's first time in his big puffy immobilizing jacket. But at least it was the right color. Go Tigers! 

You can just see how loved Everett is.

Helping Daddy Grade Papers

D: One of the cool things that has happened at Eastern Washington is that I have been a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Mahlon Dalley, one of the professors in the School Psychology program. Specifically, I've been helping him with his introductory course (Psych 100) and a class on conditioning and learning. My primary role for Psych 100 is to proctor and grade the exams. Two or three weeks ago Dr. Dalley asked if I'd be interested in teaching occasionally in that class, and I said that I'd love to. Two weeks ago I taught half a class on long-term memory and amnesia, and last week I taught a whole class on stress and its effects on the body. I'll be teaching again this week on some psychological disorder, but I haven't decided which yet. Did I mention this is a class of about 250 students? I loved both experiences, and the students have been super supportive and encouraging. One came up to me after the first class and said, "You know what you're talking about. Be more confident in what you're saying, because it's obvious you know a lot about this." I'm really liking this teaching thing, so maybe in a few years I'll come back to school to pursue a doctorate.

Friday night Alicia wasn't feeling great and Everett was rather grumpy. To keep him happy I put him on my lap while I graded papers, and he was the most content baby there ever was. He played with the pen and pen cap I gave him, had his first experience with headphones, and was just altogether adorable. I finally had to put him down when he kept trying to climb up onto the desk, and he was alright by then.

Midterms, a little closer to walking

D: Quick update. I survived midterms! I was utterly comatose this weekend, but I did it. I did extremely well on the two I have scores back for.

Monday I participated in placement testing at a local elementary school. It was my first time actually administering assessments. As I was getting my bike ready to leave (tires had gone flat), Everett watched me intently. It was too cute.

Alicia and I got called to be primary teachers! We are teaching the 12 year olds, so we still get to go to Relief Society and Elder's Quorum during third hour. Everett has been an angel both times we've taught so far, and the kids really like him. I keep Everett with me for Elder's Quorum, and there's a couple little boys about his age that he plays with in there. They are too funny to watch together. Both of the other boys have older siblings, so Everett is the only one unaccustomed to rough-housing. He's learning to hold his own, though. 

Here he is, walking around with the aid of the laundry basket, "helping" with the laundry, as usual.

Halloween, On the move!

A: Everett wore 4 different costumes this Halloween week. Not because I am crazy but rather because the opportunity presented itself. He was Woody for the Trunk or Treat. He wore his pirate pajamas for a few nights. Then Dallin mentioned at a family get together that we should have dressed him as a cow and Kristi remembered that she still has the cow costume she made for her kids!

And on Halloween night we went to dinner with some of Dallin's peers from EWU to celebrate midterms being over, so I had to dress him as the EWU football his Grandpa Marr got him. We only trick or treated to Aunt Julie's house though because it was almost bedtime for E. You can sort of see the football under the cow hat that he got from Great Grandpa Marr. The cow hat could even count as a costume. 

 

Movin'
Everett likes to roam throughout our home. And rather quickly at that. He is also easily entertained.

In this video he is wearing an 18 month pajama suit that fits him quite snuggly. But when he saw the pediatrician today his measurements came out in the 50th percentile for height and weight. How silly.  

When I caught up to him one morning, he had already gotten out the toilet paper from under the bathroom sink and stacked it! Of all the mischievous things a baby could do with toilet paper...

If I wanted to be overly festive I could even count these pjs as a Halloween outfit. He is a rocker (they are covered in electric guitars and say "I rock with dad"). Now I am just getting ridiculous.


Buying Time
And for my last random thought: I have noticed that a quarter can buy the following amounts of time:
5 minutes of running a washing machine at our complex
10 minutes of running a dryer at our complex
25 minutes of parking at EWU
38 minutes of parking near Benjamin's high school  

It is always good to have a quarter on hand for parking meters.