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Two weeks ago Aaron and I were sitting having dinner, Ev was in his highchair. Aaron asked, "So, when does he know his name?" Hmmm...I dunno. I called out, "Everett!" and he looked at me. Coulda been a fluke. Aaron said "Ev!" and he looked at Aaron. We played this game for about a minute and then I would call out random names "telephone!" or "diaper!". No reaction. Then I would call his name again and sure enough, he would look right at me. Guess that's how you know he knows his name.
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Another trick he is mastering is sitting up. while I'm changing his diaper, he's trying to sit up. When he's awake in his crib, he's trying to sit up. When he's in his swing, he's trying to sit up. He must have abs of steel.
For about the last 2-3 weeks I've been sitting him down with the boppy pillow around him for support while he plays with his toys. 
The pillow is really only for when he gets tired and looses his balance so he doesn't fall backward and whack his head on the floor. Much of the time when he's bored with his toys he'll find the tag on the boppy pillow cover. To him, it is incredibly interesting. I'm sure he's reading the warning and washing instructions. 
From the kitchen, this is the view I get: 
Aunt Kelle comes out for her weekly "Everett Fix". She likes to take him on walks outside. When she was here last week, Ev was so sleepy he didn't make it very far on the walk before he fell asleep. She brought him back and I wrapped him up and had her give him a bottle to make him completely pass out. 
We have a good indicator of when Ev is fully asleep. You see, his binky acts kind of like a "turkey timer". When it pops out, he's done. 
I do have the cutest kid in the world, you know. It's my job as a mother to state out loud and believe such things. 
We rarely let him in bed with us because this is the result: Gross. 
When Ev woke up, we threw him in bed with us too. I just love my little family. My life is so sweet, I am a very happy girl.
For Christmas my mom got me a wheat grinder -woohoo! I'd been wanting the hand grinding kind. Why not the electric one, you ask? I figure, if I am in the position where I have to grow my own food and grind my own wheat I probably will not be able to afford the electric bill either. More time consuming, but at least I know it will work when I need it. Check out my fancy schmancy set up: 
The grinder isn't wide enough to affix to my counter, so my only other option was to stick it on the bar stool. I started with making bread. Through trial and error I found out that it is better to grind your wheat the right consistency the FIRST time. Re-grinding it to make it finer is a time consuming pain in the butt.
Another tip my mom was kind enough to share with me before I started, was that if the recipe calls for, say 3 cups of flour, use 2 cups of regular all purpose flour and 1 cup of ground wheat flour. Otherwise you'll end up with a wheat brick. Here is the recipe I used:
I even made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and added my ground wheat flour. You can't taste the difference and it adds some nutritional value. Of course, if you add up all the sugar and butter in the cookies, health is not exactly the goal but it sure helps a little to justify how many cookies you ate. "But honey, they're made with whole wheat!" 
This is the top of my head. See that fuzz sticking up everywhere?? My hair has started growing back! Finally! A couple of months ago my hair was falling out in massive amounts. My hair is very thin already, so this was an extreme worry for me. I was getting scared it wouldn't stop. Thank goodness it did. I'm gonna look funny for a while with fuzzy hair sticking up everywhere, but I it's better than looking funny because I'm bald.
We had a big family bash to honor his running total of 80 years old. Grandpa still goes on walks most every day, volunteers once a week at the thrift store as the merchandise "fix-it guy", is active with his church, goes out on trips and vacations, tends his fruit and nut trees, and is pretty good on the computer too. 
We love you, Grandpa! You earned every candle on that cake! 
And yes, he blew them out all in one breath - hope your dreams come true!
So a few days ago I had a conversation with our "White Trash Neighbor". We were talking about how horrible the economy is and that we are both having a hard time figuring out what to do to keep our homes. All was going well until this sentence fell out of her mouth,
On her list of things she'd like to do, she wanted to visit different museums. In January, she went with my brother to the Getty Center. This weekend, Kelle, my mom, Ev and I went to The Nixon Library. Everett got to meet The President and The King. 
He decided to christen the carpet runner in Nixon's childhood home. I tried to scrub it the best I could,but if you see some spots in front of the fireplace...that was my kid. My son has this strange fascination with shoes and feet. Aunt Kelle was happy to feed the fetish. (shoe salesman or podiatrist?)
There was this creepy sculpture of Nixon. It looked kind of like a bunch of gum wads stuck together. I'm sure someone worked very hard on it.
There was a nice gift shop. Kelle wanted to buy Ev a onsie that said, "I am not a criminal", but to no avail. I guess the library doesn't want to dwell on that moment. I'm so glad we got the opportunity to go.
She lives just a short walk from the beach, so we packed a bag, packed up the boy and headed to the tide pools. Everett was a good sport, but I think it was a bit overwhelming for him. Lots of new things to see, hear and feel. 
He was a lot more clingy than normal. It was almost like he was holding onto our arms for dear life. 
The water was freezing, but the sun was warm and the breeze was cool - it felt wonderful. After the beach we walked around Fashion Island. Kelle wanted to take him to the pet store. She loves to see his reaction to new things. The yapping puppies hurt his ears, so to avoid a total meltdown we opted to check out the mute bunnies. 
We found some furry friends at Z Gallerie (I LOVE that store!). 
As soon as we got in the car to head home Everett was passed out. What a great afternoon. We will definitely be back.
