I love General Conference! I feel like it is a holiday. I saw an article comparing it to a series of TED talks. There was such a variety of topics discussed, all about how to live better lives and live in the world today. They talked about everything from addiction, selfishness, pornography, and technology, to communication, forgiveness, integrity, and service. You can read or watch the talks here.
Everett wanted us to pay attention to him instead of Conference. He was very good throughout the whole thing though, playing just fine by himself.
Playing with Great Grandma and Grandpa Marr
Writing an important note. He did this probably 20 times. He's so proud of himself.
Ev has had a runny nose for the last forever. The first couple weeks he also had some coughing and other such funness and was quite cranky. But recently, despite his constant drip, he has been a happy camper. He even took on a whole beach towel as his handkerchief.
Ev and I went to Manito Park yesterday with Kira and Grandma Marr. We stopped by the rose garden which was beautiful without even being in bloom yet. And then we went to a playground. E liked to run down the path, slide down the slides, and draw with sticks in the sand.
Everett loves to go outside. He will bring us his shoes and/or jacket and point to the sliding glass door and say a gibberish request to go out. It has been nice enough the last few weeks that he has played in "our yard" almost every day. Yesterday I was all set to head to the park with him, when it started hailing. It was a confused first day of spring.
For the first week he stayed around the porch.
Then one day I led him to the stretch of trees.
And then we went on a walk all along one edge of our apartment complex, about the length of a football field, and he has never looked back. Now, almost every time I open the door, he runs off down the strip of lawn, laughing.
And for when he's indoors, he got himself a walking stick so he can pretend he's outside.
It turns out, Everett is actually a turtle. Look ma, no hands!
Wearing
a tractor shirt, on a tractor, drinking milk = one proud
momma. He loves all dairy products, even sour cream from
the tub.
(I keep forgetting he can reach the kitchen counter now :) )
This last video is from about a month ago but I haven't put it up yet so here you go.
We loved having Aerin here last week. We went out on a few "adventures" to play laser tag, drop Dallin off and see his school, "play" at the park (it was a comparatively warm day, but not for a Californian; and Everett decided he was terrified of slides and baby swings, etc that day), and eat Sushi, home-style American, and super delicious Chinese food (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Marr). We had cousins over a couple of times and went to Aunt Julie's home for a quick pop in and for a family get-together.
Aerin got lots of Everett time in.
Maybe more than she wanted.
I guess I could have stopped him but she said she wouldn't mind.
I take the stroller over to do laundry when I need to bring Everett and full laundry baskets with me. One day, I left the stroller out as I started to hang up clothes.
Everett wanted to get up in it and just chill for a while. Then he wanted down to help me hang clothes.
The second video shows Everett as he channels the spirit of his Gramma Tracy (Love you Mom2) as he helps me sweep.
He likes to be helpful by doing things for himself.
And by doing odd jobs I hadn't thought to do.
Being able to walk has given Everett more freedom. Yesterday Dallin and Everett got home from the store and Dallin opened the side door. Everett bee-lined for it and took a little stroll in the backyard.
Dallin was sick for a few days. Everett wanted his soda and would just carry it around with him. It made his mincing more extreme.
We loved having Dallin's dad in town a couple of weeks ago. We got to have a late birthday party for him. We got to actually go out to eat (thank you Dad2). It was an excuse to have frequent family get-togethers large and small. I got to meet Dallin's Uncle Jason.
He got to see Everett in his beginning-to-walk stage. I learned from his example about being patient, enjoying the moment, and finding joy in the little successes. (I really wanted Everett to start walking earlier even though I knew he was still perfectly in the normal range. I should have been more excited about how well and how long he could stand and not just feel like taking steps was the only achievement worth celebrating. I'm trying to be better. (It helps that Everett is walking so well now)).
Everett wakes up a little earlier than vacation sleeping in time but his grampa didn't seem to mind if he got woken up by his grandson.
Everett seriously loves his great grandma Marr.
Everett's new favorite snack: people's noses. After watching the Axel video of him pointing at his nose, we asked Everett to do the same. Sometimes he does, sometimes he grabs at one of our noses, and sometimes he just goes in for a taste. This activity extended to beyond us asking about his nose, and now he just does it if you have your face close to his and he has the hankering for a quick nose nosh.
We got to see Dallin's cousin Benjamin play in the pep band at his high school's basketball game.
Dallin and I took turns following Everett as he climbed up the bleacher steps.
Playing with toys
He put his blocks in the laundry basket and then the bag on his head. He was very proud of both.
Everett's new favorite toy is the vacuum extension wand set. He has found several uses for it. It is a puzzle to fit the pieces inside of each other. It is a clarinet, sword, boomwhacker, telescope, pencil container, etc.
He loves to try to assemble things. Like his toy car ramp. He is really good at it too.
He recently decided that it is more fun to have the cars go off the cliff than down the ramp.
Skills! This is harder than he makes it look.
Everett frequently finds new containers for objects. He eventually got his activity center box so full of items that I decided it was easier to unscrew the eight screws than to take each item out through the small spaces in the sides of the box (especially since it was at a slower rate than he could put them in). Here are his spoils:
I'm really surprised he hadn't tried this before.
He uses lots of items as phones. My favorite is a domino. Dallin's is this small computer mouse.
As you can see, Everett is definitely watching what I do. Other recent copycats:
He tried putting a q-tip in his ear (which is problematic on multiple levels that we are working on addressing).
He always wants a turn with the broom when I am done sweeping.
He took the lint screen out of the dryer and scraped at it with his hand.
In church last week he started scratching Dallin's back after seeing me do so.
Everett has done super awesome at walkingthe last couple of days. We didn't film it but we sure enjoyed watching him. He's funny. He just gets in a mood of wanting to walk and so he'll keep standing up and go for quite a ways, fall down, and get up again. My dad, Daniel, and his three oldest got to see him walk over Skype. During that Skype call, Elise was making faces back and forth with me and it was adorable. I am grateful for video chat that allows me to see my family when they are far away. I should do it more often.
Oh and a couple of his molars are breaking through his gums.
I started a part-time job on the 10th! It is just three hours Mondays and two on Tuesdays, so nothing crazy. Dallin has a graduate service appointment for his first year of school meaning he works for the school as a T.A. and they cover tuition. But we still needed to have a bit of income besides the small stipend we get from that. I work for Connected Living teaching assisted and independent living residents how to use computers and the internet.
We worked it out so that my friend and I switch off with child care. I watch her baby girl while she is at school on the mornings that I have work. Then she gets home at a perfect time that she takes the kids while I go to work.
(You can skip this paragraph.) So far the job is easier and different than I had expected, but enjoyable. Each week there is a different topic we present and then we see what the residents are interested in working on and help them with it. This last week we presented about how even though they are not in a position to travel much anymore, they can still learn about and see other places around the world using various internet resources. And since it is winter, we focused on Hawaii. Then I worked with different ladies to: use Word, do a project using the Bernina embroidery machine software, listen to music, and print a poem. I wasn't familiar with the embroidery design software but I figured it out so thus far there hasn't been anything difficult thrown at me. It was a lot of fun talking with the ladies. I told one lady that I had a baby and she was just like, "A real live baby?!"
Yep, I have a real live not-so-much-of-a-baby-anymore baby. I feel so grateful for him everyday.
Everett started walking! And Grampa Marr was in town to see it! For the last couple of weeks, Everett has been taking a few steps here and there each day. I didn't think it really counted as walking because the most steps he had taken was like five at a time. But the beginning of this video makes it really look like he could just keep going.
He does a lot of this:
He does a lot of standing at random times in the middle of playing:
