Aww and Yay!

Aww!  So much love between Daddy and sons.

In only three and a half more days, we get to look at this cute helmet-less head all day everyday!  I can't believe how blonde he has gotten!  And that there is only 2 weeks until he is a year old!

Introducing...

Everetta and Paxine!

Thought we'd try out some Dallas hair before we leave the state.

Two and a Half Year Old Funnies

Oh, to be two and a half.  Everett has definitely reached the age where some funny stuff comes out of his mouth regularly.  Here are a few.

Me: "Everett, I'm going to give you five seconds to start brushing your teeth or I'm going to do it for you.  One...Two..."
Everett:  "Zero!  Zero, Mom!"
That took the moment from stressful to giggles - thanks little buddy.

I explained how plants need water to grow.
Everett: something like..."Rain come down on my head, make my hair wet, grow big and tall!"

And while we're talking about being tall...
Me: "Everett, someday you're going to be tall like Daddy!"
Everett: "Gonna be tall like Daddy.  Bonk my head, make me cry."

And while we're talking about bonking heads and crying...
Every time Ev gets a boo-boo, "need kiss!" quickly follows.  Isn't it great that a kiss holds such power for these little ones?  So at a rest area once he fell on the playground and cut his lip.  His mouth is bleeding, he is crying, people are looking, and he's screaming, "KISS ON MOUF!  KISS ON MOUF!!!" as he is pulling (hard!) my face toward his and I'm pulling my face away trying to somehow get out of magical kiss duties.  I tried my best to make a non-bloody cheek, close to the mouth kiss work.  He healed ok, so it must have been fine.  Phew!

There are only a few words he pronounces funny now, and I just love them.  The first is "hepitopter" for helicopter and "scoop over" for scoot over. 

Some funny daily phrases:
"Gotta say scue eee (excuse me) chair/Pax/whatever object is in his way" as he moves it.  It's just funny that he ALWAYS says "gotta say" instead of just saying excuse me.
"That be sound good?" as he is convincing me what we are going to do or eat next.

If I think of any more good ones, I'll update the post.  That be sound good?

Smoothie For Two

This was probably the cutest lunch ever. 

It was followed by some intense puddle jumping.  Hey, it doesn't rain very often here, so you've really got to enjoy it.  ;)  Everett had an absolute blast.  The boy loves jumping, water, and getting dirty.  What could be better than all three at once?

"Happy Mudder's Day"

Oh wowsers.  Mother's Day has jumped up exponentially on the this-is-special scale now that Everett can understand it and speak in sentences. 

A few weeks ago (before Mother's Day, just incidental), he told me, "You're a superhero, Mom!"  Agreed, little buddy. 

And now (a week after Mother's Day) he will randomly come up to me hunched forward and getting his face in front of mine say, "Haaaappy Muuudder's Day, Mom!" while presenting me with something he drew or a toy or just for the heck of it.  He says it in the funniest way - a way that indicates he knows it is something special and that it will make me really happy.  I love it. 

Here is what they surprised me with (along with a spa package, yea!).  It was so thoughtful of Eric to get the boys doing this, it gave Everett immense pride, and Paxton finally got to play with finger paints.  Win-win-win!

I love my family, and I love being these boys' Mom!  It was a great Mother's Day.

Everett's Tender Heart

One of the qualities I adore in Everett is his sweet, sweet love toward babies.  He is so interested in them right now, and will choose patting a baby on the head over playing on a playground.  In the first picture, he was saying "Hey Baby Boo" sweetly.  That cracked me up because that's something I say to Paxton sometimes.  The second picture is a random display of affection toward his brother, not encouraged or staged by me.  And the last picture is his instinctual reaction to a sculpture of a baby.  What I think is so amazing (I know, I'm his mother) is that this little being contains SO much energy and excitement, and at the same time can slow down and be so gentle and sweet.  Love you Ev.

It's Working!

Here is the progress of Paxton and his cranial band.  Pretty remarkable so far!  Its inconveniences are completely made up for by its amazing power to shape.  I am SOLD!  Completely happy with our decision.

This was the best pre-band shot of the back of Paxton's head that I could find. 
You can see that it's mostly flat with maybe an indentation at the base.  The back of the head to the forehead slopes down.  Above is the mold of his pre-banded head used to compare his progress at each subsequent visit.  That little bump at the base of his head mold is actually a lymph node.  Yea, it was THAT flat.

Day 6: The place where the back used to look indented now has a nice rounding.  He remains high up top with a slope to the forehead. This amazing and beautiful bump in the back in just 6 days was thrilling!!!

Day 17.  The bump on the back is becoming less distinct and more continuous with the back of his head.  He is getting a nice rounding outward at the base, which is what future helmets (sporting and such) hook onto (thus important!).  He's getting more of a forehead rather than the steep slope from back to front.  You can't tell from the angle of this picture, but there is a slight imbalance between left and right that is leveling out as well.

Day 31. Despite having marked improvement, I feel discouraged a little by this picture.  When you take the hair out of the equation (via stocking cap), it looks worse to me.  But despite my feelings, our therapist says he is getting good growth up top and in the back - meaning he is getting rounder in the back and less sloped to the forehead.  At this visit, she adjusted the band to allow for more growth at his forehead.  When I was briefly studying how to draw faces many many years ago, I learned that the height of the forehead is equal to the distance from eyebrow to mouth.  On Pax right now, it's about half that.  It will be interesting to see how his face changes as this adjusts.
Next time I'll try to get a picture of his profile with the profile of the mold of his head at the beginning!  That should be cool!

Day 45: Ok, this picture is not that great.  Making a kid look one direction and stay still just isn't the easiest task ever.  Hah!  The most dramatic difference to me here from Day 31 to now 45 is the increased forehead height and decreased slope from the back of the head to front.  It seems like the back came out a little more too.

Hehe!  Hello there cutie who looked at the camera!  This doesn't demonstrate anything except his adorable face in the stocking cap.

Week 13 (so approximately day 91): It's hard to tell with one side shot as the top view and front view say a lot as well.  Paxton has made some significant progress over the last few weeks.  He was growing slow for awhile there, but had a nice growth spurt recently.  The back is really coming out nicely, and his forehead is also coming up, which helps relieve the sloping and make the back not appear so tall.  It's looking beautiful.  And good news!  We have our graduation date.  His last day in the band will be May 31st!  Yippee!  On that day they will do another 3D image and photos to show the change.  I can't wait!


It's my goal to keep updating this post until we're done.  Please bear with me as it reappears each time I update it.  :)