Another quick note

Addendum to last post:

Everett has discovered that while he is not allowed to bite me, he can still bite anything else as an anger outlet.

Case in point: Yesterday, when he was particularly upset (again!), he was sitting on the floor and was not near anything bite-worthy. He looked around and around all in a couple seconds' time, and settled on his own hand.

Ouch! He looked pretty shocked, and judging from his widened eyes, realized how much it hurts.

Maybe we have more to work on than I thought....

Update on the biting

So I have been working with Everett for a while on not biting me when he's angry with me. Today I realized that I have been making some progress with him when I took away a photo album he was about to destroy. He glared at me and got ready to bite my foot, but I said "no biting!" in the warning voice I use and he stopped (!). Then he looked at me, looked at the couch, and promptly bit down on the couch. Twice. In anger!

What a funny little person. At least I know we're making some headway.

Teeth Tactics

When Everett was seven months old and already had eight teeth, I began to wonder if he would discover the many ways he could use them. He has mastered biting food, which is good. He has not bit any other babies, which is also good. He does not seem to be particularly enthused with his many teeth, which is, in most cases, also for my benefit.

Lately, however, Everett has realized he can use them for his benefit. He has quite a little temper, and I just know I am going to have a terrible terrible-two's baby. When he gets mad at me (reasonably frequently), I can almost literally see the anger exploding from somewhere inside that tiny body. I have recently discovered (and believe me, this was not my objective)that if I take something away from him that he wants, or if I tell him 'no', he will glare at me, scrunch up his face, and bite me. Yes, he will bite me. On purpose! Where did he learn this? I don't go around biting people, and neither, I trust, does Joel. He does not spend a lot of time with other babies, we do not know any babies who bite (besides him), nor do we frequently watch movies where the plots revolve around biting as a revenge medium.

From the very first time he bit me out of anger, I have sternly said "no biting", and put him in the corner by himself. I think the corner works well for him because he is such a momma's boy and has to be able to see me all the time. He crawls right out (which is fine--the objective is to remove him, not keep him removed), but I think it is enough. I was worried that this wouldn't work, but it seems to, because most of the time now he will look at me hesitantly before going for any piece of my skin that is near his face. If I am fast enough I can pull my hand away, but when I see particular determination in his face, sometimes I will let him bite me so I can reinforce that it is bad behavior. Is that crazy or what? Leave it to a mother to willfully allow her child to bite her "for his good".

I have to ask myself, though--where did he learn this? I have never--I repeat, never--given him what he wants when he bites, so he can't have learned that it works for that reason. I am left to think this little person has an explosive temper, and I bet I will spend a lot of the next years trying to help him learn to control it. He has begun to hit as well, so we'll have to start working on that one.

I really have little to complain about, since he is generally very well-behaved and has a sweet personality. He is my little buddy, and I would not change anything about him. I would, however, make myself infinitely smarter so that I will always have answers.

Infinite smarts: every mother's dream? You can chomp on that.

EARLY BIRTHDAY!

While we were out in Utah, my in-laws decided to hold an early birthday party for Everett since he won't be there on his real birthday (Nov. 14th). We had a lot of fun and he got a lot of fun toys that he has been playing with since.


And I know these descriptions are probably boring for everyone but me, but hey, a child only turns one once. However, this child has multiple parties for it :).

This first one is a sorting toy from my Mother-in-Law, with some neat gadgets and things on it. He (Everett, not Joel :) ) has been a little interested in it.



This one is a farm truck with a pig and sheep riding in it. If you push down the cow (which, incidentally, is the driver), it will do a farm-sounding song and drive itself. Everett hasn't figured out the logistics of that one yet, but he has decided that the animals make decent chew toys.


You can't really see it in this picture, but this is a police cruiser. If you push the button on the top, it drives, flashes its lights, and says "suspect in sight". Everett seems to think that is pretty cool. Must be all those boy genes, because when we got home and showed Joel, he had a similar reaction. Now we know what to get Joel for Christmas!


This one is from Joel's Grandparents (Everett is named after this Grandpa). They have him a snail on wheels with ABCD buttons and another button that sings the ABC song. Good thing it's short, otherwise I'd have to remove the batteries. Everett hasn't figured out the buttons yet, either, but has pushed it around somewhat.


A cute duck towel from my Mother-in-Law. Apparently Everett didn't think it was as neat as all the toys. But it was my favorite.


Now, because this is the first party Everett has had, I decided I ought to make something cool for dessert. I ended up making penguin cupcakes. They turned out pretty well, but unfortunately I neglected to capture my culinary brilliance on film. I am, however, decidedly lacking in electronic brilliance, so I couldn't figure out how to put the picture from the website on here. But, here is a link so you can have a chance to ooh and ah (or skip over it, whichever suits you):
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50175

Everett and I recently did something we have never done together before...we rode on two airplanes from Virginia to Utah. Joel is at a national training for Deloitte in Georgia, so my Dad was nice enough to fly me out with some of his frequent flier miles during the two weeks Joel will be gone so that I can have something to do.

I got to surprise my whole family, with the exception of my Dad. It was pretty funny. My Dad went into the house first, and I crept around to the front door, put Everett on the welcome mat, and rang the doorbell while I stepped out of sight. My brother Mack opened the door (which I didn't know until I came out of my hiding place), but all I heard was the door open and...nothing. For several seconds. Later I asked him why he paused for so long, and he said that at first he thought the baby was Everett, but then he wasn't sure and thought he might belong to one of the neighbors.

I guess that means I need to send pictures more often. Or maybe not, considering that none of the rest of my family had any trouble identifying him.



We're excited to be in Utah, and I'm excited that I don't have to board a plane with Everett for another week and a half. It's just too bad Joel isn't here to enjoy this vacation with us.

A cautionary tale....

Yesterday while I was giving Everett a bath...















I left for a second and as I was coming back in I heard a strange sound...













It was a dribble followed by a plop, ended by a resonant schlop.














EVERETT!!! You Pooped in your bathwater!!!

...What, did you think I was going to post a picture of that, too?


Everett had never before pooped in his bathwater, and I had come to expect that he never would. He didn't seem to mind too much and was even fully intent on picking everything up and investigating, but my mothering skills have been sharpened from having a boy and so I had removed everything post-haste.

The funniest part of the whole situation was that it was Joel's turn to bathe him, but since he said he'd rather sweep the floors, I gave in (even had our jobs been reversed, you can guess who would still be on clean-up duty).

I guess the old adage plays true: when you least expect it--expect it.

This is a neat little pond Everett and I go to almost every morning on our walk. It actually belongs to the golf course, but we go to the residential side where the trails run. It is really pretty and Everett loves to just sit and look at everything.






On our way home, we usually stop at the playground in our complex. Everett likes the swings a lot, and usually there are some other kids there he can watch as well. I have met a few of the other moms and it is always fun to talk with new people every day.


This is Everett's new (to us) winter coat! It has a nice soft fleece lining and looks like it will be really warm. I don't know how often we will get to use it, but it doesn't matter to me because we got it for absolutely free! Our stake out here does an annual "Gifts of the Heart" donation day, which ends up kind of like a DI. I snagged this and quite a few other articles of clothing for Everett.