Hello?

Cheese Phone.  Hello?  Are you there cow?  Moo?

Things Everett has used as a "telephone":

1.  landline
2.  cellphone
Here's where it gets crazy -
3.  TV remote
4.  blocks
5.  plush soccer ball
6.  Elmo
7.  a tissue
8.  cups
9.  a straw
10.  cheese stick (as seen above)
11.  frittata 

I wonder who you can channel through a piece of frittata.

Meditative Meals

Fish are very conducive to meditation, don't you think? 

I can only assume when he signs "eat" and then "fish" he wants me to feed the fish, not that he wants to actually eat it.  Though it IS on the table. 

Let's Go Guys!

This morning Everett surprised us with yet more things we didn't realize he knew.  I know this will happen frequently, but for now it's still simply amazing to us.

So what did he do?  He brought his shoes to his dad and signed "go".  This is a new association AND a new sign; hence our amazement.  :)  What a guy!

This sign language business has turned out to be pretty cool!

Everett's New Pet

Everett loves everything fish lately - seeing them, reading a book that has them, eating them, saying the word, doing the sign, etc. So we thought it was imperative we get him a pet fish. He went crazy in the pet store. I have a little sample of his excitement in the video below. He just went from tank to tank scream talking. It transitions into another video from when we got home. Yes, he did stick his fingers in the top. You can understand why the video is kind of shaky.

Oh, and his name is Ish.

Everett's Words

Sometimes I struggle with whether or not to post things like this.  I don't want to appear braggadocios, but ultimately the purpose is for us to have something to look back on and remember in 10, 20, 30, etc years.  And the grandparents like to read this stuff too.  :)  I find it fun to look at my baby book and see what I was doing at different ages, so perhaps it will be fun for Everett as well.

Everett's language skills have exponentially increased with the start of him walking regularly (oh yea, now he's a pro walker as of a few days ago!) -- coincidence?  I doubt it.  There must be some link between the coordination of walking and the brain connections to make language work.  Watching language and walking develop has been so incredible for us. 


Everett's words at 14.5 months
1. His favorite word, said daily, is fish.  Said "ish" and accompanied by the sign language version (him waving his right arm in the air).  Today he woke up saying "eat" and "fish" in sign language, which meant either he wanted last night's dinner for breakfast or he wanted breakfast and to read his cat book which features a fish on the cover.  He looooves to point out when he sees a fish.  I usually end up looking around and sure enough, there's a fish.
2.  all done - this comes out in a very enthusiastic almost scream "ah dah" with arms that shoot up by his ears in "so big" fashion (sign language).  He uses this to tell us when he's done with his meal, which isn't always accurate.  Once I thought it was really cute when he screamed with arms up "ah dah! ah dah! ah dah!" three times.  hahaha!
3.  mama
4.  dada
5.  again - "geh"  He usually says this after we have just read a book, and he would like to hear it again.  And again.  And again.  Or if we're doing something silly which requires a repeat performance.  :)
6.  kitty cat - "ki ca" sometimes accompanied by sign language.  He likes to scream when he sees our cat, Franky, in the morning.  Sometimes the screaming involves words: "KI CA!! KI CA!!!" The cat promptly runs away.
7.  no - a nasal "nonononono".  It's never just one.  :)  Sometimes accompanied by his hands criss-crossing in front of his body as his Aunt Lauren taught him. 
8.  duck - "du"
9.  yes - "ess"  usually said in an "of course" tone of voice when asked a question.
10.  down - "dow" usually to get help getting off the couch (which he doesn't need but sometimes requests anyway)
11.  what is that? - "tizzat?" said frequently while pointing at something.  Curious guy.  

And some words he has said recently which I can't really count in his vocabulary yet as he has only said them once or twice - mouth "mouf" (while pointing to a toy's mouth unprompted - so proud), dog "dah", nose.

Though he doesn't say ear, he can point to them.  We are working on body parts lately.

Sign language words, but not verbal yet - more, eat, butterfly, milk, thank you, please, baby, banana, car, shoes

Proud Mama Moment

Every day lately I get at least one specific intrinsic reward for my job as mom. Today's proud moment came after Everett asked for a piece of my orange. Instead of eating it he squeezed its juices all over the floor and cabinet. I handed him a washcloth and nicely said "wipe it up please," which he did! And did well! He wiped the floor, the cabinet, and then more parts of the floor for the fun of it. haha! What a great little helper. :)

I think one aspect of this situation I'm most proud of is me giving him the credit to be able to do that. I'm finding he is able to understand and do so much more lately, and it's fun to give him the space to participate. But it's still something I have to think about.

One Year Old Sense of Humor

Our little Everett has developed quite a sense of humor lately. He has always enjoyed a good laugh, but more often now he's the one trying to get us to laugh (which doesn't take much). A few examples...

A few days ago I was reading him his Reptile book which involves counting the crocodiles at the end. He grabs my thumb so as to control my hand and bobs my pointer finger up and down pointing to the crocodiles as I count. THEN - he takes his other hand and covers one up while we count again. Tricky, tricky!

No explanation needed for this next one. This evening...

And lastly, today when it was time to get ready to leave the house, I said "ok Everett let's go get your socks and shoes on." So he walked me over (because he still requires holding on to one finger) to his dad's huge shoes and stepped in. I don't know if he realizes it, but he's pretty funny. :)

Simon Says...

Everett is so hilarious lately!  I love seeing him imitate us.  Here are a few good ones. 

This first one is from when Eric was talking to me on his cell phone.  Everett grabbed the TV remote hoping we could have a conversation as well.  :)  Today he was playing with our landline (don't worry, I unplugged it so that he would not call 911 and babble in their ear).  I showed him how you talk on the phone by saying "hello! etc, etc" to nobody.  I then found him with the phone to his ear saying "errow?" (think how Scooby Doo would say hello).  It was so hilarious!  I tried to get him to do it again on camera, but it was a one time performance. 

One of his favorite things to do is bang on the keyboard and "use" the mouse.  You can see the mouse is removed in this picture.  It takes abuse, so we must periodically save it.

This morning he got the cat food out of the pantry, brought it to the cat bowl, and tipped it like he is pouring it in the bowl.  I didn't even realize he had seen us do this very often.  Pretty cute.  :)

What will this kid do next?  The learning seems to be taking off exponentially these days!

Brothers!

Well, in June it's going to be me and a house full of boys!  Everett is getting a little brother!  When I think of all the wonderful brothers I know it warms my heart to envision these two going through life together.  What fun it will be for all of us!  And I am guaranteed to stay skinny at least while my life revolves around chasing them.  Haha!

I recently read this article -- it was so funny.  It said the main difference between boys and girls are braids and tights, which accounts for having to wake up an hour earlier to get girls ready for school.  hah!  :)

Baseball Fan

Last night, Eric put Everett to bed.  It was the usual routine - stories and prayers, then:

Eric: "Good night baby, I love you." 
To which Everett replied "Go Dodger!" 

We're not sure which one he meant or how he heard about them, but it was pretty cute.  :)

Everett Ensures Dad's Dental Hygiene

An Almost Walker and Fish Lover

Well, something very exciting happened on December 22nd. Everett and I went to Gymboree for some playtime. While distracted by a lady blowing bubbles and maracas in both hands, he took a significant amount of steps (toward those bubbles). He replicated this a few times, then again at home, and again when Daddy got home. The next day he did it a few times, the day after that once, and since then not so much. Hah! So though I can't say I have a walker, I do have a boy that knows how to walk.

While his brain works on that he's been doing some other pretty cool stuff too. Two stories involving a fish.

This morning after finishing his breakfast he gave the sign for "fish" more than once, which is his right arm waving back and forth. I thought maybe he was mixing up his signs and asked him if he was all done. He very enthusiastically signed "all done". At this point I'm still confused why he signed fish and am trying to figure out if it could be another sign I'm not thinking of. I get him out of the chair and he leads me (walking while holding on to one of my fingers) to the living room where his really awesome new CAT book is, which has a fish on the cover. Hah! He signs fish and says "shh". So we read that a bit. When we got to a page on the inside that also has a fish, he signed fish, said "shh" and flipped to the cover. It's so fun to see his brain make new connections. I thought this was especially neat because we had not been to the living room yet that day. This morning he also signed "thank you" for the first time (with prompting). That's one I've been working on for awhile. We were very proud to see that.

Now a story from when my parents and sister were visiting last week. This happened while I was outside, so it is most unfortunate that I did not witness it. What I did witness was my mom crying with laughter when I walked inside. You see, Everett was standing by the above mentioned CAT book when he ripped a big stinky fart. At that moment, he saw the fish on the cover and signed it, which looked like he was waving away his stinky fart. :)

Everett will be 14 months tomorrow, and my dad will be the "18 year old Swedish boy" he's been for years. Lately Everett loves putting things into and out of other things...like his toys into the trash or the hamper, and the letter "I" through the "O" in his bath alphabet. He is really starting to put stuff together and is starting to say more words gradually. I assume the expert walking will come soon as well. He is working on his first 4 molars, which will make 12 teeth when they're in. Two have cut through, and we're waiting on the other two. So far, cutting molars is not as bad as I had expected, though it's not nearly over yet. And my dad can proudly say he has all his teeth, is an expert walker, and only puts trash in the trash can. Happy birthday Dad!

Meanwhile, I am giddy waiting for our good friends Johanna and Soroush to have their baby boy any day now. And am so excited to find out on Tuesday if we are having a house of boys or a balanced gender household. That is presuming we stop at two. :)