Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

From The Mellemas

the nursery

Ethan's nursery turned out great! Here is a before video...


And here are some after pics. The paint is really more blue than the pics look, they're pretty pale for some reason (at least on my computer they look much lighter and purple-er).

Obviously we haven't put the room back together, and I've got some things that I want to purchase for his room but have been holding off until we painted. So just a few more things to do and it'll be a little boy's room! So if anyone knows where to get cute room darkening curtains, I'd love to hear. :)

bye bye

While daddy is upstairs prepping the walls to paint, Ethan is waving bye bye at everything he sees :)

bye-bye

Ethan waved bye-bye to daddy today for the first time. He did the thing where he waves (opens and closes his hand) to himself and stared at his hand amazed at what he was doing :) It was pretty funny.

We took a fun trip to the hardware store yesterday to pick up a gallon of paint for his room! Stay tuned for pictures to come very soon...

stinker

9 month pic

9 months

Our little man is developing quite the personality. I think that he's really starting to get a sense of humor and it's hilarious. He has an infectious laugh, and he's starting to laugh when others around him are laughing. It's so fun to see what he thinks is funny.
This past month he finally figured out what his legs can do, but still can't really stand up for long without his knees buckling. He is also starting to figure out how to use a baby walker and scootches forward in small spurts. He's still only scooting backward, no forward crawling yet, but I think he wants to so it's only a matter of figuring out how to do it. His top two teeth have not made an appearance yet, so still 2 teeth total.

He loves to eat, and yet has lost almost 2 pounds in the past 2 months since he last saw the doctor. I'm trying not to be too worried, he's still at a good weight but it's made me realize that he needs every bit of what goes into his mouth - he's hungry for a reason! He also fully knows that mama and dada eat much cooler things than he gets, so while his baby food is ok, if he can get his hands on what we're eating or drinking it's much better.
Here are the latest stats:
21 lbs 13 oz (70%ile)
29.5" (86%ile)
head circumference 18.5" (90%ile)

And here's a picture of some rockin' bed-head :) Don't you wish you looked this cool when you wake up in the morning!

big development

Ethan stood up this weekend! I know it's something that a lot of kids do quite a while before he did it, but he finally is getting the hang of using his legs :) It's a pretty big accomplishment for him to support his own weight with a little bit of balancing help, and he totally knew he was doing something cool when he did it! I think he surprised himself even more than he did me.

And... how cute are those leg rolls :)

Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful week of Thanksgiving, seeing tons of family. Ethan got to meet 2 of his cousins for the first time!






We also got to see several of Steve's aunts, uncles and cousins!








And since our whole family was together over thanksgiving, we celebrated Christmas together and opened presents. Ethan was super excited about all of the wrapping paper, can you tell? :)