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.