Pumpkin Carving

Everett wasn't too keen on the actual carving of the pumpkin tonight.  He did enjoy lighting the candle and seeing its "spooky" face.  Mama was stuck doing all of the emptying of the guts because the men in my life said it was "too yucky"!

Everett enjoyed playing with the seeds, too.  At one point, he started throwing them back in the pumpkin!

Check Out Our Fort!

Everett and I built this fort this morning.  He brought all of the couch pillows inside to make it extra "comfy".  We did puzzles, read books, and played dinosaurs all inside the fort today.  It is still standing right now even though he is in bed.  We'll see if it is still a hit tomorrow!

Shiver Me Timbers!

Everyone was scrambling for the "snuggle blanket" this week as we experienced winter temperatures.  The house got down to 65 degrees - awfully chilly during those diaper changes!

Autumnfest

We went to Anthem Autumnfest today.  Our first stop was at the bounce rides.  Everett has never been too big of a fan of them, but he took one look at this Lightning McQueen slide and had to get on it immediately.  This is him sliding down backwards.  We lost count on how many times he got off and ran back on.  He was all sweaty! 

While on the Spiderman bounce house, he saw the train go by and we then had to get our tickets and ride in the red caboose.  But once again, Everett got really scared in the tunnel.  He said the tunnel was "angry".  We think this is because all the kids on the train started screaming and yelling once they got in the tunnel and Everett knows people yell when they are angry.  It is funny because when he plays with his trains, he tells me that his little toy tunnel is "too scary" and he gives his trains a kiss before they go in.  

He had a blast today and we finished the fun off with lunch at Old McDonalds (which is what Everett calls Mickey D's).  He's passed out right now!

In the red caboose, "Toot toot!"

Picking the Perfect Pumpkin

After our train ride, we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out Everett's pumpkin.  He wanted a little pumpkin (mostly so he could actually carry it) and I'm pretty sure he touched every single pumpkin out there!  

This pose just patronizes me!  

Smile Sunshine!

Roadtrip to L.A.!

We decided to take a last minute getaway trip to L.A.  this weekend.  It's amazing what a natural born traveler Everett is.  He fell madly in love with our hotel (especially the elevators and escalator).  He opened his eyes in the morning and his first words were "ride the elevator". We had a great weekend full of playing, eating at our favorite places, and visiting friends.  As we drove home, we reflected on the fact that this was our last trip with just Everett.  Next time we take a trip....there will be 4 of us!

Roadtrip to L.A.!

Boating in Malibu

After a yummy dinner at Gladstone's (Dadda's in a crab leg coma)

Everett got to stay up past his bedtime to go to the Santa Monica pier and ride the ferris wheel.  He was pretty terrified.

King of the mountain at the playground

Sunday Morning at the Beach

Building sandcastles with Momma ("just like Curious George did")

Everett's "go-to" move when he's really concentrating

This Baby is Coming!

Less than 7 weeks to go now until our threesome becomes a foursome!  

Papa & Grandma Visit!

Papa and Grandma flew out for a bit this week to visit.  Everett loved playing with them.  Every morning, he woke up and said, "Go play Papa and Granma."  We went out to eat a  couple times, enjoyed the beautiful October weather, and watched a lot of "Dinosaur Train" (his favorite this week).  Papa and Grandma were both in some tight spaces - Grandma had to join Everett in the Thomas tent and Papa chose to go down a "deadly for adults" slide at the park.  I think they might need some time to recover after this week!

Everett's Sweet New Ride

Everett got a package this week from Uncle Jamie.  It was a new Thomas bike!  He was excited for Dadda to put it together and ride it although you can't really tell from these goofy faces.

Heaven.

So we fought back hard and won.  This is Everett's new crib and crib tent.  It is awesome.  I really regret buying our original crib.  I wish someone had warned me that it would not work with a crib tent.  The new crib was a quarter of the cost of the original and Everett loves it and the tent.  He doesn't cry at all when he is "contained".  I actually think he likes having the impulse taken away.  He sleeps so much better now that he isn't fighting off the urge to escape. There's just no way he could handle the whole "big boy bed" concept right now.  Which is fine by me because I wanted him in his crib until 3 anyway.  But now that we have experienced this whole mess, I do think keeping him in the crib until about 8 or 9 will work better for me : )

"This happened."

So the transition did not go well.  At all.  Basically, Everett did not spend a single second in his bed.  He broke a drawer in his dresser, emptied his sock drawer and laundry basket, pulled every single book off his shelf (around 100 books), and scaled the gate we put up in his doorway to keep him in his room.  It was a long afternoon because of no nap and all the frenzy, so when he had a minute later that day, he actually fell asleep in the middle of the family room floor. Mom and Dad had to regroup before we attempted bedtime.  

At bedtime, we both stayed in there and literally put him back in his bed every time he tried to get out.  This lasted more than 3 hours.  Finally I told Billy to go get the crib side we took off and put it back on.  Everett needed to sleep and being in his whole crib again was the only way (I hoped).

It worked and he slept.  Only to arise at 5am the next day and come bounding in our room ready to go.  We then woke up, went out, and bought a new crib and ordered a crib tent for it. Everett may have won this round, but we wanted a rematch.