"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.

BIG (unexpected) CHANGES

Well, the day is here.   We transitioned Everett's crib to a toddler bed this morning.  I was hoping to not do this for at least 6 more months, but evidently Everett didn't get that memo.  

I was alone with Everett for a week while Billy was in San Francisco and it was in this time that he decided to resurrect his crib escape.  Repeatedly.  The crib tent I was hoping to use won't fit our crib, so we are forced to transition.  

So far, Everett loves jumping in and out of his bed.  We were playing downstairs and he stopped and ran to the stairs and said, "Go on new bed again".  The true test will be at 12:30....nap time.

Watercolors

One of my favorite activities with Everett is painting.  I realized that we have been doing it since he was 10 months old.  We've upgraded to paintbrushes and sponges and watercolors, too. These are Everett's favorite because he loves to dip his brush in the water.  I am going to have to rent out a storage unit with all the artwork he's made!

Just a Sec, Mom......

....I got to get this text.  

Today's Fun

I went to IKEA today and, of course, came home with some prizes for Everett.  It has recently come to our attention that Everett has inherited Dadda's obsessive compulsiveness.  He is a religious liner-upper.  The first photo shows this with his new plates.  The last 2 photos are the "rings" I found for him.  Everett loves doing the rings at gymnastics.  He loves hanging on anything period.  He told me, "This is good."

Some Artsy Photos

I told Everett yesterday that we could do chalk outside this morning.  Don't you know, as soon as he opened his eyes this morning, he was asking to go do that.  How do they remember everything???  I call these shots of Everett my "artsy photos" because they are so random.

Such a serious artist

This is how you keep a toddler busy while you are making breakfast

Upside down Everett

Waiting for me to go upstairs with him for bath time (and at 36 inches tall, I'm not sure he'd fit on that step all stretched out!)

Play Till We Drop

I haven't been doing so hot these days, so Everett wants to spend more time with Curious George than me.  But I really tried to get out and expand his mind today.  We went to Imagination Avenue, the mall's indoor play area, came home and played, and had a picnic lunch. I then passed out as soon as I put him in his crib.  How long until Nov. 24th???  

While we were doing Play-Doh today, Everett kept repeating the directions I was saying to him in my exact same tone.  He is such a mimic!  He has been saying the funniest things lately.  One of our favorites is, "This happened".  He says this when something happens (ie. a train falls on the floor or he drops something).  He says it so matter-of-factly.  I also enjoy his new word "something".  He will come across the tiniest piece of paper on the floor and run it over to me, saying "I found something".  Or look under the bed and say, "Something's under there".  His "something" sounds like "humfing" so I guess you need to hear it to appreciate it.  He only needs to hear something once and it is in his vocabulary.  We have learned this the hard way.  I guess I should have known when he copied the sound "agoo" at 2 months old.  The boy likes to talk.

Everett did so amazing waiting his turn and weaving around the smaller kids at the mall.

Riding a train

He ACTUALLY posed for me!  He wanted to look at himself on the digital camera, so he allowed this photo.