Everett Update

Somehow time gets away from me, and I have missed being diligent in updating with Everett's milestone moments or monthly updates. He is now almost 16 months old! Though in the moment, sometimes the days seem long, time is really flying by overall! --Everett is a busy one! I don't remember Noah being as into (and on top of!) everything as Everett is. He toddles all over the place and has quick hands! He is constantly trying to climb up on things, over things, down things, whatever he can do to stay busy! He has been consistently sleeping through the night for about a month now...finally, Yay! With sleeping through the night came completely weaning of breast feeding. He still takes a good nap during the day, about 3 hours. He has all but 4 of his teeth, and the top two have cut through the gums, so they are working their way down. He is starting to be a bit more of a picky eater, but he still will try almost everything at least. He is a screamer and it literally hurts your eardrums! He screams when he's trying to communicate and can't quite get his point across, he screams to get your attention, and he screams when he throws temper tantrums (something I don't remember Noah doing this early either!). He is a master temper tantrum thrower these last few weeks, throwing things, hitting things, throwing himself around, and sometimes banging his head on things. I have to admit that his screaming makes it really hard to stay patient, but we are trying our best to teach him to communicate or distract him and teach him, on his 1-year-old level, emotions and how to deal with them. --He is starting to say a more few words, and just the past few days he will try to repeat several words we say to him. Of course his talking/words aren't "correct" and for others you might not know what he is saying, but as mommy I can understand him. He now says: Mama, dada, Noah (Nooo in a cute little voice), dog (daw), more (mo), car (cah), cracker (sounds like he's saying "car" twice), for yucky he says "caca", milk (mi), down (dow), bath (ba..btw, still LOVES bath time!), and like I mentioned above he is trying to repeat several new words each day. He can sign more, please, and just today I taught him how to sign milk. I need to learn some new signs so that he can communicate that way while he is learning the skill of forming sounds. --He can tell you what a dinosaur says (rawr), a cow (mmmm), a dog (ruff ruff, but can't think how to type it the way he makes it sound, HaHa), and I feel like I am forgetting a few more. ---He can now follow directions very well, and it's so fun to see him able to understand us! He knows that there are certain processes that you have to go through before you can do some things, like going outside for example, if he wants to go outside he tries to put my shoes on me, and then tries to put his or whoever else's shoes on himself by the door, HaHa. --He loves to play with anything that plugs in, so we have to watch that one closely and keep him safe/not let him play with them. He also loves to help me do chores around the house (sweep, mop, wipe, put clothes in the dryer, etc.) or play with the things you use, which I've read is a very common thing for this age/stage. --He does have a little temper, but for the most part he is a really happy little boy! He has the funnest, sweetest, silliest little personality, and we are loving watching it come out more and more!I love him so much and could not have dreamed up a little boy as cute or fun! ---He and Noah get along so well together, and though they have their little moments they are pretty few and far in between the good. And to give Noah some well-deserved praise, he is the best big brother I have ever seen! He is so loving and always willing to help take care of Everett. He speaks so kindly to him, doesn't let anyone (including me) talk in a way that is seemingly unjustified and the slightest bit firm to him without jumping to his defense, he includes him when his friends are inside, he shares with him 99% of the time, and is very patient with him. Like I said, they do have their normal sibling moments, but Noah is truly great with him. I hope that their relationship will stay so loving as they both grow older! Love my little boys more than life itself! :) ---(Sorry if my paragraphs still aren't showing up with spaces in between! I need to try and figure that out, it's driving me crazy!)