Tidbit

Everett showed me today that even though (for some reason) he doesn't talk yet, he can definitely communicate extremely well.

This morning I was using the computer for a couple of minutes, and Everett apparently decided that what he really wanted was a snack. All of a sudden, I had a yelling toddler next to me who was grabbing my arm and demanding my attention. The moment I looked at him he let go of me, pointed to the kitchen, and beckoned me to follow him.

When we got in the kitchen he made the sign for milk (his favorite food) and hurried on over to the refrigerator where he tried to pry the door open with his little stubby fingers.

Of course after all this I couldn't refuse, so I put some in his sippy cup and he enjoyed it (as well as the milk beard that followed) for the next little while.

In a way all of this has made my life much easier because he uses this charade-style of communication to ask for many, many things. No more guessing for me! He also will point at the food he wants (his latest craze is a peanut butter sandwich).

IT'S A....

So, I am absolutely ecstatic! Just think of all the girly things I get to make and shop for! This is going to be so great. Of course, Joel and I are pretty much starting from scratch on girl names (seeing as we had three viable boy name options), but it will be fun to find one together. Any suggestions?

The Ultrasound Technician said "well, I'm pretty sure it's a girl", and I thought to myself that that definitely was not good enough for me to go on for the rest of my pregnancy. Can you imagine announcing that it is a girl and then having a little boy be born and be completely unprepared? Not to mention all the girl stuff you have to try to take back/exchange. What a mess.

So I said to her, "well, really? I thought for sure it was a boy" in the hopes that she would look again. That is exactly what she did and she ended up positive about the sex of our baby-to-be.

I would talk more, but I need to whip out the ol' baby name book and get cracking. The way Joel and I have been agreeing on names lately, it will take us the entire pregnancy to find one we both like!

I am starting to get very antsy! On Monday at 12:35 I will have an ultrasound to tell me what we're having. Joel couldn't make it, but it doesn't really matter in the end. Apparently they don't have the equipment set up to record the sonogram on a video or dvd, which is odd, but before I got too disappointed about it I remembered how infrequently we have actually watched Everett's.

I have been so sure it is a boy, but lately I've been wondering if I am wrong because now I keep thinking it could be a girl. Crazy hormones!

These are the names that I like (Joel has yet to come to my side of things, but I'm sure I can always play the "I carried this child for nine months and went through ___ hours of labor" card):

BOY: Henry Alvin Johnson (lots of significance--family names in that one, and Henry just grows on you).

Also, William Warren Johnson (family name for the middle name again) is a good one.

Joel really likes Peter James Johnson, but he first thought of it because of Peter James and John from the New Testament. It's a cute name and has a nice ring, but I don't necessarily want the original first presidency to be the reason we pick it.

GIRL: Cassandra Elizabeth Johnson [pronounced Cass-ahn-dra] (No family names, but I'm working on it. Somehow I think Elizabeth is, though. This is just my latest pick, so it may very well change, especially the middle name to something more significant).

I also like Kathryn, Margaret, Nicole, Evelyn, and Lauren. Evelyn is out until further down the road because with two kids it would sound too matchy-matchy (Everett and Evelyn would be good for twins, though).

PLUS, I bought a great new purse today. The men out there just do not understand the happiness a new accessory brings!

The Discovery Channel: Live!

The other day I was talking to my mother on the phone when I looked out our balcony doors and saw, of all things, a hawk on the ground below us pinning down a squirrel it had just captured.

I don't think I've ever seen a hawk up so close, so I wanted to take a picture but when I opened the door it flew away. I did get a quick shot before it carried the squirrel away, but it did not turn out very well, or I would include it here.

After looking at some stock pictures of hawks on the internet, I determined that this particular bird was probably a red tailed hawk. I am no expert, however, so I could be very wrong. It looks the same to me, so right now this is what I am going with:

A Call For Independence

I've decided as of late that Everett would have made a fantastic Revolutionary Soldier. No, this is not because of his solid build; it is due to his fierce sense of and need for independence (not to mention the protesting growls he gives me when I don't let him exert any).

On Saturday I was having a lovely tuna fish sandwich, and I was excited about this particular sandwich because it was hitting the exact hunger spot I had hoped (pregnancy food aversions are a pain). Everett seemed to think it looked good, and was begging me for some bites, which I happily gave him. This wasn't enough, though. He just had to hold the sandwich for himself, no ifs ands or buts about it. Obviously I wasn't going to let this happen, because my sandwich would turn into a soggy pile of unrecognizable goo if he handled it, and you can see how appetizing that would be.

In the end, I won, but not without Everett throwing giant tantrum. He threw himself on the floor, sobbing his angry cries. I finished my sandwich and let him have it out, but for the first time in his life, he was very MAD at me!

When Joel came to pick him up, Everett was still angry and so he refused to look at me. I kept trying to make faces to keep his attention, but all I got was quick glances before he would whip his face to the opposite direction. Eventually I became silly enough to make him smile, but before the smile grew he would turn his head again.

What a funny boy. He is getting more and more independent every day.

Bathtime fun

Lately Everett has not liked his baths, and I could not figure out why for the life of me until last night when Joel decided to give Everett the bath. They had so much fun splashing and throwing things in the water that I wondered why I don't make Joel do it every time! Apparently, I'm not fun enough for Everett--saying "come on, bud, why don't you play with this" just doesn't quite do it I guess.



Then I told Joel it was probably time to wash him and get him out, so he slathered Everett with soap and shampoo and proceeded to the rinsing part.



Wait---did I say "rinsing"? Remember that Mega Tsunami that happened a couple of years ago down around India and Indonesia?

Well, imagine something similar to that happening in a space no larger than 3 feet by 5 feet. Instead of laying Everett down in the water ("taking a bath" to Everett means standing calf-deep in water) and gently sloshing water over his hair, Joel decided to take both hands, employ the use of every muscle he posessed, and direct massive waves of water toward Everett's small, upright frame.

But, it worked. At least it did if you count a successful rinse-off as watching your toddler look like a drowning monkey.

When I questioned Joel about his methods after the bath, he simply said "I was making it more fun".

Well, I suppose. But if this is what I have to do in order to make Everett enjoy his bath, I might have to reconsider.

Quick Note

So I was sitting here in the living room watching Joel and Everett play on the floor when Joel decided to read a book of nursery rhymes to Everett.

Everett is leaning on Joel and pointing at the pictures in the book. Occasionally he will look up at Joel adoringly, and quite often he will try to turn the page when the rhyme is getting too long for him.

Ahhh, my boys. It is so fun to see them like this. It's amazing to think that in a few months we'll have another little person join this family.

Random Thoughts

1. I am into the second trimester now of this pregnancy, and I am still so stinking tired! Isn't this supposed to be getting better? I tried "taking away" my naps last week, but by the time I got to about 6 pm, boy, you did not want to mess with me. Two hours later and I was walking around in various states of dillusional, muttering things like "where is it? I know it's got to be here somewhere. Joel, why are you hiding this from me?". Problem was, I had no idea what I was even looking for.

Yes. So naps are back in play, at least for the next litte while.

2. Everett is very sweet (not that I've ever said that before). He loves looking out the window doors to our balcony and seeing what is out there. We have curtains and he'll go between the curtain and the window, sit down, and just talk at whatever is out there.

3. A few days ago, since we've been having such good weather, I took Everett to the playground and let him wander around and try to climb on things for the first time. At first he didn't really know what to do but after a few minutes he was loving every minute. He picked up a couple of the bark chips that were on the ground for cushioning and carried them around with him the whole time. When it was time to go home and I tried to take them away, he threw a FIT. So I let him take one home with him (so he sat in the stroller, clutching his little bark chip the whole way home). Funny little guy.

4. I recently read a statistic that they (whoever "they" are) polled people in 23 countries, including the US, and found that live-in boyfriends do far, far more housework than husbands. It didn't really surprise me once I thought about it, but I thought it was a funny statistic nonetheless.

Too much Testosterone in the House

So tonight I was fought over by two males, and won over by one. I don't know that two guys have ever fought over me before, so this was a first for me (and it was kind of fun, but that's beside the point).

We were all wrestling (one of Everett's favorite games), and Joel pinned me down and kissed me. Well, Everett did NOT like that one bit, and immediately tried to pull Joel's head off of mine. Of course this egged Joel on for more, so I was stuck for a while as Everett tried to move Joel again, and then pull my head out or grab my face. Finally he settled on smacking the back of Joel's head and bellowing out his angry growls.

The whole scenario was pretty funny. As soon as my face was uncovered, Everett would dive right in and smother me with his baby kisses. Afterwards he would look at Joel with a triumphant (and posessive) expression on his face.

Well, at least I know Everett still likes me even though his time-outs are becoming needfully more frequent as he is entering the toddler stage.

Beautiful Winter(?) Day

I am writing this post especially for those of you in Utah suffering from, oh, what was it I read? 20-degree weather? I would sympathize, but I'm having far too much fun sitting here in my Short Sleeves.

See map below for the reason why:

That's right! We've hit 70 Degrees today (yesterday was in the 60s and we've been having similar weather for a while now)! I'd stay and talk more about it, but Everett and I are going to go play on the playground in this nice, sunny, balmy weather...

Have fun with your version of winter. I'll take this kind any day.

P.S. Later---I realized when I looked at the blog again that this map changes to reflect the very current temperature. Just believe me when I say that it had us at 70 degrees!

Food Aversions

Everett has figured out a new trick when he doesn't want to eat something: He sticks out his tongue and lets the food fall out. We tried last night to get him to eat some black bean vegetable soup, but he would not have it. He wouldn't even eat the bread I made, which he usually loves.

We finally got desperate enough to try to spoon (read: force) feed him, but this is when he employed his new trick. It was like a reflex: as soon as the food entered his mouth, out went his tongue and everything we just tried to accomplish. He was nice about it, but just very persistent (kind of how he is about everything). The whole thing was so funny-looking I decided to take a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure. Betcha feel pretty lucky now, don't you?

P.S. Notice how dirty his shirt is? This is the result of Everett dumping food out all over himself.

Everett's First Bubblebath

Yesterday Everett had his first bubblebath (courtesty of Joel's Christmas present bubbles), and today he decided for sure that he is not a fan. When he first had the bath, he would try to pick up the bubbles and play with them and then discard them, which is easier said than done with bubbles. However, he did figure out very quickly that if he splashed, the bubbles would "disappear". You can imagine what proceeded to happen for the remainder of his bathtime.

So, here he is, excited at first...

Skeptical a little later...

And finally, ready for a normal bath again.
The next day we gave him a much-needed haircut (his hair looks kind of cute and messy in the above pictures, but in reality it was far past the point of "out of control"). We use the longest attachment on the clippers, but it still turns out a little short for my liking. Sigh. I guess either I'd better learn to like it or learn to use scissors (as though Everett would sit still long enough for a scissors cut).

Also, I pulled out some cute little long-johns that have been too big for him until now. Sweet!

From this picture, you can deduce for yourself whether Everett enjoyed both his haircut and his long johns:

"I think I look rather dashing, if I do say so myself. If only Olivia Brown could see me now!"

"Quickening"

For those of you who don't know what "quickening" is, here is a helpful definition from dictionary.com:

quickening (n).
The initial signs of fetal life felt by the mother as a result of the movements by the fetus.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical DictionaryCopyright © 2002, 2001

Over the past week, I have been feeling this baby move with increasing frequency and intensity, and all of a sudden today I have felt like I'm the host of a professional boxing tournament.

JAB, jabjab, Jab, Uppercut, POW!

Which brings me to definition number two:

quickening (n).
the act of accelerating; increasing the speed [syn: acceleration]
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.


What has made the difference over the last 24 hours? See above. Apparently I've got a little speed demon on my hands.

(must have been the raisin bran I (we) had for breakfast).