Everett is 3

I know, after all the birthday party pictures, it seems like he's been three for a while now, but today is the official day.  Three years ago today, my tiny little baby was born in a brand new hospital in Indiana.  My little Hoosier, eh?  Poor kid.  ;)

Squish!

Then a year flew by, and my baby was one year old.

And another year...2 years old with a baby brother on the way.

And then the next year absolutely ZOOMED by!  And all of a sudden, we're done with the terrible two's and into the tantrum three's.

HOLY CRAMOLY.  Did you see that?  Did you just witness my baby turn into a toddler and then WHAM.  He's a little boy?!?!  Look at that thin face.
I was thinking I'd try to do an update like I just did for Callum's 9 month birthday, but then I realized I don't think I can sum up Ev in a bulleted list.  I'll try.
Everett:

• Loves riding his scoot bike everywhere, but especially "off-road."  He still hasn't figured out how to pedal his big bike, but we'll get there...he's getting a tricycle for christmas so he can practice (and Callum will love it too, I'm sure).
• Speaks very well and says some hilarious things.  If he hears a new word, he asks "what ____ mean??"
• Has become a picky eater.  He used to eat everything but he suddenly is picky and it depends on the day whether he'll like something.  He grazes and eats tiny amounts.  I'm not sure how he has the energy he does.
• Can operate any smart phone he gets his sticky little fingers on.
• Loves to dance and sing.  His most recent favorite is Jingle Bells because "Grandma have those!"
• Helps with babies all the time.  He plays with them, tells me if they drop something or steal a nuk, and notifies me when diaper changing time is too stinky.
• Adores Christmas lights/decorations and judges whether a house "did a good job."
• Likes Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon shows and begs to watch them every day.
• Loves books and always tries to weasel an extra two or three out of us every night (we do 3/night).
• Gets himself dressed every morning, and sometimes even picks out a cute outfit.
• Refuses to wear socks inside but then gets cold and requires "snuggles."
• 's favorite drinks are lemonade and chocolate milk and he gets them whenever we eat at a restaurant.
• Usually will not nap during the day now, but when he does, it's a good 2-3 hours long.
• Thinks his little brother is just fantastic and loves to wrestle, hug, kiss, and play with him.

Callum's 9 months old

Last Friday, my baby turned 9 months old.  Yep, still in complete disbelief and horror that he keeps growing.  And fast.  Let's examine some of the things this kiddo can do.
This week, he has started letting go of furniture and standing for several seconds.  At 9 months.  AHHHH!
While he still lacks any teeth, this boy can, and will, eat anything.  He loves food.  He eats more than his big brother.  Not even kidding you.  I have no idea where he puts it all because while he is tall, he's not that chubby.
He signs milk and is starting to wave pretty well.  When he doesn't feel like signing, pulling my shirt down also appears to be a viable choice to him.  Yeah...
He wrestles with his brother and likes it.  Except when he's extra tired.  But most of the time, they can roll all over the floor giggling like the monkeys they are.
He still loves going for walks in the stroller even though there's less and less room in there for the two boys.
He can go up the two stairs at grandma and grandpa's house to get into the kitchen.
He "pets" Olivia and imitates her meow.
He loves seeing his buddies arrive for daycare every day and speed crawls to greet them.
While he's not the biggest fan of reading books yet, he does think they're rather tasty.
Is very close to saying "daddy" and "mama"
Wakes up super happy every morning and wakes from his naps just lying in his crib, sucking on his nuk.
Crawls to wherever I am and pulls up on furniture if necessary to grab at me.
Check-up is on the 5th, so I'll update with stats there.

Angry Birds Party

Everett and I had a combined birthday party today.  What other theme would we choose for the two of us but ANGRY BIRDS?!?!  :)
Needless to say, I spent all morning working on the cake.  P.S.  Cake balls are of the devil.  At least coating them smoothly.  I don't know why I keep attempting to make them...

This was just a family party, so I didn't plan games and all that and it was nice to just sit back and enjoy the party with grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
Everett an iPhone and I got a new camera lens.  Yes, Everett got an iPhone.  Not me.  The three year old.  It doesn't have a plan, so it's essentially an iPod touch, but still.  She apparently has the hook up to get used and halfway broken iPhones.  That auntie of his is ridiculous.  In an awesome way.  She even preloaded it with his favorite games, pictures of family, songs, etc.  I was kind of expecting that she bought him one of those new kid tablets by VTech or Leapfrog, but no.  Actual iPhone.  LOL.
I got the camera lens I've been pining over for a year and a half.  It's awesome.  Now I need to figure out how to take awesome pictures with it!

Trying out the new lens 

Ready for a nap

And now we're tired.  So Brian is going to take Everett out on a run in the rain with Auntie C, Cally's napping, and I have my bum firmly planted on the couch.  Ahhh....

More of Everett

Just realized I had this post drafted from November.  Oops.  Here were some Everett-isms of the fall.

"Mama, you married wee-da (olivia the cat) for me?"  Me: "ummmm...no.  I did not marry the cat."  E: "Oh, daddy?  You married wee-da."  Brian: "No, son."
Not so funny, but kind of insightful: E: "Daddy fish (the betta that belonged to Brian) died.  Just like grandpa."  Everett is very aware of the passing of his great grandfather, and while he's not really preoccupied with it, he seems to understand it.
E: "What that?" (pointing to a picture of a howler monkey.)  Brian: "That's a howler monkey."  E: "Oh. He have teeth?"  B: "Yes."  E: "Why?"  B: "For eating things."  E: "Oh.  Like my hand?"

Everett

"No, I don't like the big bad wolf one (bubble guppies episode).  I hate it.  I very hate it."
"Mama!  My bike is a deer!"
"Look Cally!  You can have your socky (stocking)!"
"Callum is not my best buddy.  He is my brother."
"Here Daddy, you have these pickles.  Mama no like pickles.  Me no either."  (as he pulls pickles from mama's plate and puts them on daddy's.)

Brother giggles

Callum the crawler

Meal Plan

We ate out a lot this weekend...

Dinners for November 11-20

Friday, November 11 – Subway meatball sub

Saturday, November 12 – Pizza (after Everett’s party)

Sunday, November 13 – El Dorado (enough eating out, right???)

Monday, November 14 – Split pea soup in the crock pot

Tuesday, November 15 – Mac & Cheese in the crock pot

Wednesday, November 16 – Roasted chicken with potatoes and veggies

Thursday, November 17 – Chicken and gnocchi soup with leftover chicken

Friday, November 18 – Out for our anniversary (10 years together on the 16^th)

Saturday, November 19 - nachos

Photo Card

Charming Holly Wreath Christmas

Creating Christmas cards has never been this easy.

View the entire collection of cards.

Party Success!

Everett's party today was fantastic.  It went off without a hitch and he had an absolute blast.  He loved playing with all his friends, his cake, presents, etc.  Our friends showed up at 3 pm, and the last of them started heading out the door at 9 pm.  Some left at 5, when the party officially ended, but our closer friends stayed and ordered pizzas while children ran around giggling uncontrollably.  It was a great time and I'm so glad everything went well.  I'm utterly and totally exhausted now and about to head to bed, but first, the pictures.

Wonder Pets Cake

PB&J, animal crackers & chocolate teddy grahams, cheddar chicakdees & pretzel fish, frosted animal cookies, and CELERY! with peanut butter

My little wonder pet in his Ming Ming shirt

And his cape

The kids had to "save the animals" that were "lost" in the yard

Singing

He blew out those candles like a pro

Got an angry bird!

Nemo mittens from mama

Little brother wanted to check out the loot

Party Prep Day: The Cake

Tomorrow, Everett will be having his first "friend" birthday party and I am now in full-out mom freak-out mode.  We just started the first cake in the oven and are waiting on Brian to bring home some more eggs to make the rest.  Oh yes, this cake shall be awesome.  Because all though I may have an anxiety attack by tomorrow afternoon, his past two cakes have been cool and this one is not allowed to be an exception.
Recap:
1st birthday - Goodnight Moon (my first real attempt at decorating a cake) and smash cake

2nd birthday - Thomas (didn't start early enough and ran out of time.  I would have liked a coal car too.  Rough edges, visible powdered sugar.....blah.)

And these were just for family parties.  This time, there will be friends.  And their parents.  Yes, I know that this is really all about me and impressing MY friends, and I'm ok with that.  Because the side effect is that Everett gets a fun cake that he loves (he adored that Thomas cake).
So on the docket for this year is Wonder Pets.  The plan is a dark chocolate 8" round cake with chocolate frosting and fondant, topped with 6" round (only one layer I'm thinking) of funfetti cake, covered in fondant, all topped off with a flyboat.  I have a sour cream pound cake in a small loaf pan baking as we speak I type that I need to make into a flyboat and I will then put the plastic characters and flag on it (bought the dang flyboat toy just so I could do this cake.  Ok, and he'll love the toy too.).  I could have just put the whole plastic toy on top, but how uncool is that?

Besides the cake, I still need to get his outfit ready (I'm thinking an iron-transfer logo on a shirt plus a cape.), find a punchbowl, figure out the games (Brian's job), make a tin can phone (think I'll lay that one on him too), and make the last minute run for ice cream, milk, spoons, mini donuts (see those wheels?), celery, and beer for the parents, and not totally freak out.

Oh, and I have a daycare baby until 4:30.  And a consultant/fundraiser party thing tonight.  Yeahhhh.... Here we go!

Taking time to enjoy babyhood

After a busy day of taking care of kiddos (duh) and scrambling to get a bunch of recipes proofread for a cookbook fundraiser today, I took a moment to look at a picture of each boy.  (They've been in bed for over an hour now.)  I really examined each picture and absorbed the cuteness that is these boys.  Callum's gorgeous eyes and sweet, darling smile.  Everett's smiling eyes and mouth and mischievous glint.  I love them so much and I wish I would take the time to realize it every moment of the day instead of staring at pictures after they're asleep.  Goal for tomorrow: take a few minutes to snuggle and love on each boy.

Dinner

Blogging + Me = fail

Right.  So you know how I said I would blog more often this month.  Evidently, I lied.  Nothing has really been going on.  It's been daycare, cleaning, shopping, playing with babies.  The boys and I had a day off on Friday so we had a marathon shopping day in Duluth with three other moms and their 6 children.  Yeah, 4 moms and 8 kids in Duluth for, oh, 9.5 hours (not including driving)?  Nuts.  Got some good christmas stuff though and made a glorious target run.  Not glorious because the boys were good (because they weren't), but because it was Target.  How I miss Target.  AND, apparently Target is just about the ONLY store that you can buy sizes 12 months and 3T in the same design.  Matching sweaters for the holidays?  Check.  I failed on the matching pjs front, but at least Cally got some cute ones.  Everett refused every pair I showed him.
Anyway.  DST ended and that royally bites.  Now it's dark by dinner time, Everett's waking up about an hour and a half too early and it's 3:30 PM and I'm still drinking coffee.
Callum's reached new crawling speeds that will boggle your mind.  And he knows when he has something he shouldn't.  You say his name and he drops it (usually out of his mouth) and speed crawls away as fast as his crawl-hop-crawl maneuver will let him.  He also likes to pop a toy in his mouth and crawl around with it.  Everett calls him puppy when he does that.  These kids are pretty awesome.

National Blogging Month and Flu Shots

Some people will be blogging every day during the month of November.  I promise you that will not be happening here.  Not with Everett having TWO birthday parties (which I am completely unprepared for!), Thanksgiving, daycare babies, Christmas present making, etc......yeah.  Will not happen.  But I'll make a conscious effort to blog a bit more frequently than once/week or so.
The boys and I got our flu shots this morning.  I was overjoyed at the experience.  There is no sarcasm in that, I'm dead serious.  First, they asked if Everett should get the nasal spray or shot.  After discussing it with them, I determined that the only benefit of the spray is that he doesn't get poked and then there's the factor that it's a live virus... So I said, "poke him!"  Then I mentioned the downside of the shot being the thimerosal and the nurse (?, np?) said, "Oh, we have preservative free shots.  We give them to anyone under 3.  Do you want one too?"  Umm....heck yes!  I asked if there was any extra cost for the preservative-free version and she assured me there was not.
So then.  I was going to go first and Everett said, "NO!  I go first!"  Ok then.  So he climbed up on the chair, we picked an arm, I held his arm steady, and the nurse gave him the shot.  Didn't. even. flinch.  Not a peep.  Got his bandaid and stepped to the side for brother's turn.  We exposed Cally's giant thigh for the nurse, popped a nuk in his mouth and when he got the shot, his eyes got big and he whined a bit, but that was it.  Then Everett picked out stickers for each of them (Wonder Pets for him and Olivia for brother), and it was my turn.  I got poked and said, "Ouch!"  Yeah, I'm a wuss.  Good thing I went last.  Then we got donuts.  The end.