Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas morning

I caught Ethan on video when he came down on Christmas morning. I love that he whispers "ohh. big truck" when he sees his car for the first time.



We had a lovely Christmas, filled with family, presents, amazing food, and creating memories. We are having a restful week so far, as well. Steve has had several days off, so when we weren't sick with the flu he's gotten some great house projects accomplished as well. Our garage door quit on us, so he installed a new one. Amazingly wonderfully quiet!! I am amazed at how loud the old one was now that the new one is up. Plus, we now have a pincode entry - luxurious :) And then he has replaced several of our bathroom ceiling fans which are now also wonderfully more quiet than the previous ones were.

Friday, December 23, 2011

fun with water

And now he's not really sure why mama doesn't let him do this whenever he wants to!

I also have to jot down this super sweet story that took place today at the library. Ethan is normally very timid about other kids potentially playing with toys that he wants to play with, like any other almost two year old, if he wants it, it's his. Well today at the library he was playing with one of those bead toys like this one when another boy around age 4 started watching. Ethan looked over at him and when I started to think I'd have to explain to Ethan that he can share, he looked at me and said "kids play beads too"! I translated for the boy, "yes, he can come and play with the beads too, if he wants to". So the little boy came and sat down with Ethan and played with the beads, and Ethan was really excited about it. Major break through :) The other boy was able to make the beads go a lot faster than Ethan, so Ethan was thoroughly impressed, and oohh-ed and laughed and said lots of "whoa"s which was fun for the other boy to be looked up to.

Then, I was blown away when Ethan ran around to our stack of books that we were going to check out, and grabbed an Elmo book and said "Ethan share Elmo book" and handed the book to the other boy. Oh my goodness, Ethan sometimes breaks down into tears when someone looks at his Elmo books, so when he handed this little boy an Elmo book and then went back to playing beads while the other boy read through the book (and I was so glad that the other boy took the time to page through a simple book that was way below his age-level) I was so proud of Ethan's growth in learning to share. When the other boy handed Ethan back the book, Ethan said thank you and put it back on our stack of books, and they went back to playing with the beads together. They then went on to play with a couple of other toys, a puzzle, and a magnet toy, then we had to go. It might just be a one time thing, I'm sure we have much more progress to be made in the sharing area, but two of his favorite things were shared joyfully today with a stranger at the library, and it made me one proud mama!!

pics and video

Yummy oreos



We just set up the finishing touches on the Christmas tree for tomorrow morning! We're going to open presents on Christmas Eve morning this year, since Steve will be in church early Christmas morning. Ethan is going to be so excited when he gets to ride in his very own car!

We all had the flu this past week, so Ethan spent plenty of time entertaining himself with mama's phone. It's scary how well he can use that thing.

Laundry is much more fun this way!

Painting ornaments

Monday, December 5, 2011

videos

So I'm finally getting around to uploading some of the videos off my phone, yay! Ethan has become quite the chatterbox lately. He copies everything we say, and narrates everything we do. I caught a little of his chattering on video before his cousin Saige arrived the other day. He was watching out the window for her, wanting to share his cookie monster doll with her, although you wouldn't know that he was excited to share with her once she did arrive :)



Another cute video of us chatting.




And I have been trying to get videos of all the cute things that Ethan's been doing or saying, he's just too on the go for me to catch everything. He loves this game, though I don't know how I feel about the game where the funny line is to yell "NOOOO SLEEPING!" haha.



And his all-time favorite Bible story right now is David and Goliath. He actually has a couple of his storybook Bible pages memorized and will say the words right along with us! He even acts out the story and gets super excited about falling down. I caught a little of him doing it today, although it doesn't even catch a glimpse of how excited he usually gets when he falls down :)



Sunday, December 4, 2011

Pictures from the last month or so... in no particular order


Entertaining himself with my phone at the dock

Wen to the greenville airport, took a nap on the floor, found out our flight was canceled so we went back to my parents house and tried again the next morning at 3:45am :(

Ethan LOVED heading down to the water while we were at my parents house for Thanksgiving

Aunt Laura and Saige came over with a gingerbread house! The kids actually really liked doing it! It didn't hurt that Ethan LOVES candy :)

At the Mpls airport looking at all the planes on Thanksgiving day. Getting ready to head to B's house!

Quality time with Uncle Joe and Elmo

More gingerbread house

Down at the water with daddy

Friday, November 18, 2011

singing

Along with Ethan's developing vocabulary has come a new love for singing! He now sings along with several songs, and I sometimes catch him singing ones on his own. He loves to sing several sesame street songs, Jesus Loves Me, Deep and Wide, Itsy Bitsy Sipder, Wheels on the Bus, and Our God is so BIG, to name a few. He sways as he sings them and definitely drags out the words that he actually can say :) I'm trying hard to capture it on video.

Also, today he asked his first full question "where'd it go?" after a garbage truck rounded a corner out of our sight. He usually just holds up his hands and says "go?" I answered him by saying "don't worry" and explained that it'd be back on its way out of the neighborhood and he repeated "don't worry" probably more than 20 times as he heard it traveling around our subdivision. He seriously cracked me up with that one.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

prayers

Ethan's vocabulary is continuing to grow and amaze me. Yesterday he said the word "everywhere" and it was so clear it freaked me out a bit. And his sentences are becoming more and more clear as well. His longest one so far was this prayer - "Jesus Ethan boo-boo all better, amen". So sweet, as he was closing his eyes super tight and holding his little hand over his boo boo.

I'm definitely lagging in taking pictures lately, because he throws a fit every time he sees the camera and I don't let him play with it. This is getting very old, so I have usually just let special moments go because I don't want to have the same issue again. We started to set up our Christmas tree the other night and I tried to catch a few memories but Ethan ended up in tears instead. Very frustrating, so you'll just have to trust that our tree is now up and decorated :)


Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Happy Halloween

Can you believe that last year's costume is the same costume as Ethan wore this year?! So grown up now.

Visit with saige

Pics and video from a recent afternoon with our favorite little girl :)






When daddy's away

When Steve has to spend Saturday nights at church while on worship team, Ethan and I usually head put on the town. One of our favorite places to spend the evening is at Barnes and Noble. Eman loves the train table and brand new Lego table!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Chore chart

We implemented a simple chore chart. We'll see if it helps motivate him to accomplish basic evening tasks with little whining. Stickers are a great toddler motivator at any rate :)

Some funny stories

While leaving the library today Ethan spotted a little baby and in order to focus him back on getting ready to go I told him that it was time to say bye bye to the baby. He ran a few feet towards the baby and yelled "bye baby! Love you!"

Elmo and cookie monster have become regular diners at our table. Along with making sure that Elmo and cookie have been fed, they get put down for naps on our couch - complete with pillows and blankets. Lots of pillows and blankets!

Some of my new favorite words of his are "ok" "oh dear" and "too". One afternoon we were eating a snack and he said "Ethan eating" and I said "yep, Ethan is eating to which he responded "mama too" :) how fun.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Pics

Mommy's kitchen helper. Always involved in dinner making.

Thinks it's fun to pretend he's sleeping and get tucked in with his monkeys.

Poor itchy boy. He stayed like this for about 15 min while Steve scratched his back.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Bible verses


Ethan has a book of Bible verses and he picked up on this one with very little prompting from me :)

He must like O words because he's also started saying "oh no" a lot yesterday and today. I caught him running around throwing his toys (which he's not supposed to do) yelling obey! obey! Wish I had caught that on video!

New phone!

Blogging now from my new iPhone! Didn't get the new 4s but spent much less and am super excited about all that I can now do with it. Will probably be posting much more photos and video now that I can do it all with my phone. So fun.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

had to share a video too


Just had to share a glimpse of how difficult it is for me to get a decent pic of Ethan :) He doesn't sit still for long.

beautiful fall days






Now this post reminds me of this post.

This fall weather has reminded me a lot of our first few weeks in this house. It's now been a year since we've been in our house!!

Monday, October 3, 2011

some random pictures



2nd haircut of his life, what a good-looking kiddo :)



Thursday, September 29, 2011

vocabulary

Ethan's vocabulary has taken a huge leap this week! His most used word of the week is "NO". Practically every question I ask him he answers with a shake of his head and a serious "no", even if the answer really is yes. Since he'd seemed to have conquered the n sound, I have now gotten him to say noodle, neck/necklace (na na), banana (also nana), and a few others probably. He also also started saying "up", whereas before he'd say "ba" for up. He loves to shout "Hi Hi Hi" but it comes out I, I, I :) And the sentences have started in full force. He loves to point out different things and tell me whose they are, like "mama chair" "dada book", etc. And the funniest sentence of the week was definitely when he ran around behind me and said "check, check?" lifted my shirt up and said "no poo poo". He refers to himself as Edee or Esee and usually sticks his finger up his nose when he points to himself, haha. And I am finally "mama". He has gotten the m sound down too, and stopped calling me baba. While he was getting it down, he would refer to me as all sorts of in betweens like bama, maba, and my personal favorite mamba. I love hearing my boy call me mama!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

18 months!

Ethan turned 1.5 this month, and had his 18 month check-up. He weighed in at 27.2 lbs (67th %ile) and measured 34" (90th %ile) and his head circumference is 19.5" (90th %ile).

He amazes me lately at what he remembers and has the verbal ability to tell me. When we went on a walk a few weeks ago we passed by a dog on a leash bound to a bike rack outside of a building. He was fascinated by the dog for a while and then we said bye to the dog and went about our way. When we passed by the same building a few weeks later, he stopped right where the dog had been and said dog! Then we had to talk about the dog for a while until he said bye to the dog that wasn't even there and continued on. Cracked me up!

Then today at the library for story time, while we were leaving he remembered that we had visited a fountain nearby and asked to see the "wa wa" again. I told him no, that it was too cold to walk to the water fountain, so he pondered that for a bit and then said "bye bye wa wa" and went to the car.

He also remembers that Steve has taken him for a bike ride down to the lake to throw rocks into the water after dinner. Sometimes as we're finishing up dinner he'll throw up hands up in the air and say "wa wa! row (throw) ra (rock)!" to suggest going again.

He loves to play that he's calling people on my cell phone and knows that talking on the phone involves saying hello, jibber jabbering a lot as you're walking around the house, then laughing a lot and saying bye bye.

Books are still a favorite, as well as sesame street, any type of ball imaginable, and his lawn mower and baby doll stroller. He's getting so fast and loves to run, and his vocabulary increases daily. If I ask him to say something, he will give it his best shot :) If I can get him to sit still for a second or two, I am going to attempt to catch a decent 18 month bear pic!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

trip to the farm






We had a blast this past weekend! Ethan and I made a trip to New York to visit my mom's side of the family. Ethan had a wonderful time running around my grandpa's farm. He especially loved the tractors, trucks, cars, etc :) He learned very quickly where the cookies were made, and didn't hesitate asking for tastes! He did so well traveling and meeting so many new people. I got to meet 3 new baby boys that were all born since I had been there last over 2 years ago.

abc's

I've been asking Ethan "can you say A?" "can you say B?" and he always wants to skip the a and b and just yells "cookie!" because of this video. He's crazy about cookie monster :)



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

part 2

more pics from the south

he had to blow up the floaties just like mama

snacktime on the boat

then he promptly fell asleep

and stayed that way for about an hour :)


Monday, August 29, 2011

fun in the sun






The boys are both sleeping soundly and I'm about to head out to pick up our bags at the airport. The good news is that we arrived about 4 hrs earlier than we would have arrived by getting on an earlier flight home - what a huge blessing! Our bags didn't make the connection but that is a small price to pay for an early bedtime for my tired guys. We had a great trip to visit my family, and my brother Joe was even able to get off work to be there too. I might just have to register Ethan for swimming classes soon because he absolutely loved the water. No fear hopping off the side to mama as you can see in the last pic. He was blowing bubbles in the water and splashing away. He wouldn't leave the poolside on Sunday afternoon, and I was starting to worry that he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast so around 3pm grandma brought some lunch to the pool and he ate without having to get out :) What a great trip!