Everett: 2 1/2 years old

I try so hard to write down my favorite memories of you as they happen so that I will never forget. Here is my list from the last six months. This is such a fun stage. Every new stage just continues to be more and more fun. These go in order from when you turned two and ending when you are two and a half.

All better is one of your favorite books and when you give the animals kisses it is the sweetest. 

It drove me nuts when you wanted to wear socks in the over 100 degree weather. 

Asking you what color something is was the best way to know what you wanted for a while. You learned your colors faster than most words. So asking what color is it helped a lot.

When you say sit it sounds a lot like something else. 

I guess it has to happen to everyone but I was hoping it wouldn’t to you. You fell out of the cart at Lowe’s. Landed right on your back. Thankfully not your head. But only cried for a minute and seemed fine the rest of the day. I on the other hand was a bawling crying baby the whole drive home and so mad at myself.

Your favorite sport to watch with dad is golf. When the ball went into the sand trap you even said "oh no!"

Pretty much everything you do right now is just so dang cute. Minus the tantrums. They can go away.

You slid on the floor and hurt your leg. So I asked “did you hurt your leg?” Your response was the cutest. In your tiny little sad voice you said “hurt me leg.” 

You love oatmeal with a banana sliced in it for breakfast. 

You have learned a couple letters already. D for daddy is your favorite. 

You are great at and love counting to 10. 

For a little while after I’d say bye on the phone you would copy me and say bye bye. 

You love books more and more. It’s fun because you are starting to like the books with actual stories instead of just one and two word pages. 

You were helping me bake or cook something and kept saying “one, two, sugar!”

“Momma sit.” Asking me to sit and play next to you. 

Whenever you see me getting dressed you love to run over and slap my butt. 

We had a fun dance party in the kitchen one day. It was so sweet dancing with my little boy. 

Your big squeeze hugs are the best. And oh my gosh your kisses are the sweetest.

For a little while I’d ask what you want for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and your response was always cereal. 

Pretend snoring is so fun.

At church you saw a picture of Jesus being baptized and said “Jesus bath!”

While dad was getting your pj's on one night he asked for a double fist pump and while hitting his fists you started peeing all over him and the floor. It was hilarious.
Dad spelled out cookies so you wouldn't know what we were talking about and then you said cookie? It was the best.
For a long time you would cover your cough every time with your hand or arm and we don't quite know where you figured it out but it was adorable.
Loved the movie trolls for a few weeks. You still love it but cars is your favorite now.
A few times I asked if you wanted breakfast and your immediate response was I'm full! Same with lunch time.
"Everett what time is it?" "56."
Looking at yourself in the mirror and saying "bye bye, see you next time."
One of the greatest feelings in the world is watching you and dad play together outside. I just think to myself is this my real life. It can't be more perfect.
"Oh, there it is, Walmart!"
You love having the windows down in the car and sticking your hand out.
"Mommy, daddy, Everett, best friends." When we all went out for ice cream together.
When you get mad you blow snot out of your nose all over everything you can. It is pretty horrible.
You are a destructive little monster sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if this is normal little boy behavior to destroy and crash literally everything or if I've created a monster somehow.
You call minions bumble bees.
Nana and papa went to Norway and you would always say "nana, papa, Norway." Then I told you they went back home to Utah so you would say "nana, papa, Norway, Utah now."
You are a little bit of a stinker. When I had you tell me thank you for something. Instead you said thank you nana, then thank you daddy, then thank you Everett, and cars, and trees, houses, lights. It is hilarious where you come up with these things.
I can't remember what I did but after you said "good job mama."
You absolutely love nursery. Church day is your favorite day of the week.
You call some dinosaurs tigers.
We were naming the trains on your pj's and didn't know the last one. You right away said its James.
That is just one tiny example of how smart you are. You learn things that we didn't realize we even taught you or just didn't teach you. You just figure things out and learn them on your own. You can find anything and everything in the house. Often times you know where something is better than I do. I hope to never forget your sweet little voice. Especially your little "I wuv you." You play a little more rough than I would like with your friends and you have way more tantrums than I would prefer. But your little spirit is so sweet and tender. Every morning when you wake up and after nap time you will tuck your animals in bed and give them hugs and kisses. If I ever hurt myself you will come over and kiss it better for me. You love helping me with everything, the laundry, the dishes, especially cooking dinner, vacuuming, and sweeping. Whatever I am doing you want to help or at least tag along. We tried potty training but it just didn't work out but will try again really soon. I just love you so much and still call you my baby boy. Even though you are such a little boy now. I still hold you tight like a baby and give you thousands of kisses and I love yous every day. I can't wait for you to become a big brother. You are going to be the best big brother!

October

October was a busy month. Grandma came to visit which is always so much fun. Everett couldn't get enough of nana. They played none stop. First thing every morning he wanted nothing to do with me and would run straight to her room and wouldn't leave her side all day long. Stephen and I were able to go on a mini vacation for a couple nights and had the best time. Everett has been so much fun lately. He says the cutest things. I have been caving lately and letting him watch movies. I can rest or get so much done while he watches his hour show. No wonder some moms let their kids watch tv all day. I will usually let him watch little baby bum or trolls. Except that lately his new obsession is the movie cars and little baby bum. It really is so adorable how happy he gets when his favorite show is on.

Baby Peirce: First Trimester

August 2: Today we found out we are going to be blessed with another baby. What an exciting and shocking day it has been. I couldn't sleep at all last night because I just had this feeling that I was pregnant. We have a box of about 50 test strips because when you try for 11 months with negative after negative you resort to buying in bulk because it is so cheap. Stephen and I had given up trying until I could go to the doctor and figure out what was up because its not that I just wasn't getting pregnant. I wasn't having many periods either. I decided two days ago that what the heck I would just take a few more tests just to see. If I squinted a lot I could barely imagine a second red line showing up on the test but I knew I was just trying to convince myself of it. So I took those cheap little tests for two days and then thought I need the real thing.

So this morning I went to the store and bought the nicest test they make. After seeing so many negative tests you try your hardest to not get excited or hopeful. Then I looked at the test and it said pregnant! I was in shock for a good long while. Very similar to my experience after finding out we were pregnant with Everett. 

I immediately pulled out Everett's big brother shirt that I had bought a year earlier. Luckily I bought it like two sizes too big so it still fit him. Poor Stephen had just finished 3 weeks of night shifts and was dead tired asleep on the couch. I gave Everett the test and told him to go give it to dad and show him his new shirt. Stephen was as shocked and surprised as I was. A couple days later and we still aren't sure if we believe it but as that day went on Stephen and I had already started talking plans for our sweet new baby and celebrated by eating out as a family. I have a doctor's appointment in two weeks that I scheduled a month ago to talk about options in helping us get pregnant. Instead we may be getting our first look at baby!

August 14: Today was our first ultrasound and doctors appointment. I absolutely love my doctor. Her name is Dr. Fisher and at first seemed a bit intimidating until she started talking to us. She is incredible and I feel so blessed to have found such a great doctor. She suggested an ultrasound to get an accurate due date. Baby measured at 6 weeks 2 days old meaning my due date is April 7th! If this baby is anything like Everett though we will expect due date to be sometime at the end of March. It was so incredible seeing its little heartbeat. The ultrasound tech told me that if I had been in there a few days earlier it probably would have been too soon to see a heartbeat. My next appointment is in four weeks.

September 11: Today was a very special day. Stephen and I were both able to listen to babies little heartbeat for the first time. It was such an amazing thing. The little heartbeat was going so fast. 175 bpm. I have been feeling oh so sick the last four weeks, especially at night all night. As long as I have food in me I feel a little better. Which means I have done nothing but eat non stop. And I had forgotten just how exhausting it is to make a human. Especially while taking care of a two year old. It has been so fun though. I wouldn't change any of it. 

October 10: I am writing about this doctors appointment about two weeks late but this was my last appointment in my first trimester! It was a short visit and babies heart was still sounding good at 160 bpm. We scheduled the gender ultrasound!

Halloween

I always have these intentions to go all out for Holidays and make them super special and meaningful. Like pinterest style my whole life. But it rarely happens. Still we had a great Halloween this year. We had a Halloween party at our gym which was so much fun! Everett loved it. We went to one pumpkin patch which was a little bit disappointing compared to the huge one we went to in Atlanta but it was fun in its own small town feel kind of way. The pumpkins there were pretty awesome looking. The pumpkins we actually ended up carving were $2 at Aldi. That is a win for me. We couldn't pass up trick or treating at publix. It is our favorite grocery store and last year in Atlanta they had treats and games for the kids on Halloween. So we checked it out here because a publix just opened up in town a few months ago. It was so fun for Everett. We went to our ward trunk or treat and then to a Halloween party the next town over was having at the police station. Police officers were handing out candy from their cars, they had bouncy houses and games, free hot dogs, chips, and drinks, and caramel apples. It will definitely be our Halloween tradition while living here. We even made it home in time to pass out some candy to trick or treaters.

Potty Training

Potty training has been quite the little adventure. Everett did so well the week we decided to put away the diapers. He had hardly any accidents and would poop and pee in the toilet. I very quickly realized that he was potty trained because I was trained to take him every so often. When left up to Everett he would never tell me if he needs to go. So after about a week the frustrations started kicking in. And Everett decided he wasn't so happy about the potty anymore. After day four of him pooping his pants and me needing to give him a bath to clean it all up we had both about had it. The final straw was when he was hiding behind the Christmas tree crying because he needed to poop but didn't want to go because he didn't want to have to in the potty. He had a pull up on so I finally convinced him to just go in his pull up and he held on to me crying the whole time he went. It about broke my heart.
So we are putting a hold on potty training for now. Even though all of the advice out there is to not give up. We still talk about it all the time and after our trip to Utah we will casually get back into it. But until he decides he wants to let me know when he needs to go I don't want to battle him. He needs to be potty trained by the time he starts preschool next fall. So we have plenty of time. I am trying to keep the potty a positive thing and the only way to do that is to put a pause on the whole thing.
He sure does look adorable in his big boy underwear though!

Outer Banks

Spending two nights away just the two of us was fantastic! After wondering where to stay for a couple nights that was decently close we decided on the outer banks. We had only one thing in mind when planning the trip. That was to relax! It ended up raining the entire trip until about the last 30 minutes before heading back home. We didn't mind though. We still had plenty of walks on the beach and ate seafood for every meal. It was a short and sweet trip for us and maybe the last one we take before baby comes. We had such a great time!