Here comes my baby.....here he comes now!

Here's our little crawling fool.

Field Trip

We had a playdate at the Desert Botanical Gardens today.

This picture was taken in the butterfly exhibit. Everett loved watching them fly around and was reaching for them as they flew by.

Everett & Gabe's lunchtime business meeting

Put Him in the Pit!

We have come up with a great way of handling cranky Everett -

the ball pit!

He mostly demonstrates his new sitting talent, but every once in a while, he does roll around in there with the balls.

Nothing is safe from Everett's mouth!

"C" is for Cookie & "M" is for Messy

I gave Everett his first "biter biscuit" yesterday. He was pretty apprehensive until it started its messy dissolve. It then became his favorite toy of all time. I had to hose him down afterward.

Hungry for Knowledge

Dances with Two Teeth

Early one morning a few days ago, I saw Everett's first tooth right under his gums. The next day, there were two teeth right under the gums. We have officially entered the "teething zone"! And in the midst of his whining, fussing, and grumbling, he has also learned to sit up all on his own. He loves this new trick and even sits up when I lay him down for a nap. Just sits there...because he can.

This little piggy jumped ship...

This is a regular occurrence in my house.....the boy grows like a weed and cannot be contained! He doesn't seem to mind....

At the Playground

We've been walking to the little playground by our house just about everyday. Everett likes the slide, but is not too fond of grass (which he gets from his mommy because I hated the feel of grass as a baby, too). Nothing but blue skies and sunshine!

Milestones.....

Everett has been transforming before our eyes. He now sits in the shopping cart (thanks to the comfy cover from Miss Jen). I took him to Toys-R-Us and his head nearly exploded with all the things there to reach and grab and touch. He loved just going to the store - I didn't need to even buy any toys! But I did pick up a piano. I figured I'd put those banging hands to good use. He loves to play me his Emo-rock songs.

He clapped his hands for the first time. I was practically screaming, I was so excited. He was really kicking and splashing this week at swimming class. Next week he goes under so we'll see how long the participation lasts....

I have discovered that Everett likes to play with everything I recycle. His empty yogurt cups are his favorite, but that empty Kleenex box kept him quite busy. He cries when I take them away.

He will turn 7 months old this week. I am still struggling with the fact that I even had a baby and now that baby is 7 months old! He is really trying to communicate these days. He has been doing a lot of new sounds and a lot of new high pitched screaming. But the best was yesterday as we pulled into our driveway after story time, he just started laughing while in his carseat in the back of the car all by himself. He cracked up. I have no idea why, but it was absolutely precious.

Everett Crockett

Everett has upgraded to restaurant high chairs.

Evidently Cheesecake Factory has the best tasting tables in town.

March Madness

Everett has been enjoying his visit with grandma and grandpa and it just got extended thanks to a blizzard in Cleveland. He has shown off his reaching and rolling skills and they've been introduced to the wonderful world of shrieking. Everett has been using his new favorite word "Hey" so much that grandma and grandpa are now saying it, too. There were twelve hot air balloons out in our backyard today and a high of 76 is forecasted. Grandma and grandpa may never leave!

Heavy Drinker

Everett drank water from a sippy cup today. Yes, these are the moments a new mom lives for. He did great with it. He grabbed it by the horns, so to speak, and guzzled. He pulled back and stared for a while because this was his first taste of straight water, and then put it back in his mouth and chewed on it. That's my boy!

He is so close to crawling, I can't stand it. I want so badly to help him coordinate his arms and legs, but I know he'll figure it out. He enjoys his pseudo-crawling (AKA rolling) and picks up speed when the remote or the camera have been left on the ground. It's amazing that even at this young age, he knows to shoot for the things he isn't allowed to touch.

Green beans were a success. The boy loves his veggies.

With every toy known to man to chose from,

he picked his dirty PJs to play with

Celebrating a half birthday....Stano-style

Keeping up with the Family

So I've discovered blogging.

I've decided this is so much easier to do than our old photo website, so I will keep this up to date with pictures and stories about our little guy. I cannot believe he's 6 and a half months old. Billy and I were just talking about all of his newborn quirks that are long gone. He is more and more of a little boy these days than a baby. When I opened the fridge while holding him, he actually grabbed the Parmesan cheese and threw it on the floor.

He is an incredible baby. I love this age right now. We play and play for hours. He has really taken to eating solids and still cannot get enough peas. We start swimming lessons this week.

The house is coming along. Billy has really taken a shine to home improvements. He professed his love for his new drill yesterday and prefers paint fumes to fresh oxygen. We have painted our living room/dining room a green apple color, the kitchen/family room a golden yellow, the guest bedroom a dark turquoise, Everett's bedroom baby blue, and our bedroom chocolate brown. The guest bathroom and Everett's bathroom will be a latte color and our bathroom will be a very light aqua. For not having much experience in painting, I must say we've done an awesome job. I credit myself with the fantastic color choices. I just read that red is out and green is in - I'm so ahead of my time.

My parents will be here this week and I'm sure they will be in awe of Everett. I know I am and I see him everyday. Even though everyone tells you and there are a million country songs written about it, it is still so unbelievable how fast they grow up.