Wednesday, March 30, 2011

stories

I need to document some of these stories before I forget them. Ethan's level of comprehension is really surprising me lately. He now signs "more", "milk", "water", "eat", "all done", and "please". I had done "please" a few times with him and he watched me but didn't do it himself. Then a few days had gone by and I hadn't shown him so when I asked him to say "please" I didn't expect him to do so, but he did! I was so excited I jumped up and gave him a kiss and we ran to show daddy. Then just yesterday I was feeding him lunch. I was slicing a clementine and he was watching me, then looked at me and signed "please" without prompting! What a sweet boy!

One day a few weeks ago Ethan was goofing off and laying his head on the ground. I kept saying "sleepy baby" when he would put his head on the ground and we both thought the game was pretty funny and silly for a bit, then he went on to other interesting things. Several hours later when Steve was done with work I wanted to see if Ethan would remember it and show daddy. I said, "Ethan, are you a sleepy baby?" and he laughed and put his head on the ground. How funny, I was really surprised that he'd remember our game from earlier that day.

We have several books that have animals, plus animal toys around the house. We'll point to each animal and say "monkey, ooo, ooo" for example and he does his best to repeat the sounds that the animals make. Lately he's been the one picking out the animals and making their sounds all by himself. At the doctor's office they had some monkey stickers on the walls and he'd point and say "ooo, ooo" until I looked and saw that there were indeed monkeys and he was right. And lately he'll flip through magazines and coupons laying around the house and find a dog and say his doggie sound. It ends up being a mix between buh and vuh sound, but he's trying to mimic our woof sound. Also our friends have a dog, and although he's pretty skittish around the dog he's fascinated by it and points and says his sound and seems really proud of himself to be pointing it out to everyone that there's a dog in the room. So fun to see him really get it.

bumps and bruises

Ethan's newfound mobility has been the source of a lot of grief for him lately. Just on the day of his birthday party, he fell and hit his face on a step, right in the corner of his eye. He also fell from a standing position and hit his head directly on the tile floor, and must have bit down really hard on something in his mouth because it created a lot of blood. Poor guy! He must slip and have a melt-down about 5 times each day, so hopefully he'll gain more balance quickly!

Anyway, my mom and brother Jay came up for the weekend and we got to throw Ethan a birthday party. Here are some pics from the day.













Sunday, March 20, 2011

shower post!




I am so excited that our shower is coming along quite nicely!! The base and the sides are in place, and they are so nice. We just need to make sure the pipes are clear of junk before we put the shower heads on (the water softener broke and our faucets keep getting clogged with junk now).

The final thing to do is to clean off the old shower door and put it back on. Speaking of which, does anyone have a good idea for cleaning off hard water deposits that are really bad? I mean really bad... we have tried lime away, soft scrub, lemon juice, vinegar, toothpaste, pinesol, anything I'm missing?? And by "tried" I mean we have scrubbed for minutes straight, and also soaked spots overnight and they look the same. Where do you buy industrial strength cleaners? Hopefully we'll find something, but I'm starting to think that we might end up buying a new glass door. Either way, it is nearing the end!

Monday, March 14, 2011

12 month stats

Ethan had his 12 month doctor's visit today. He is a growing boy, but for now it's mainly up and not out! He's turning into a long and lean little man :) He weighed in at 22lbs 14oz (51%ile), 31.2" long (88%ile) and 18.9" head circumference (89%ile). He did so great with his shots, he sat there so calmly for the first two, and only cried a little after the third one. He's such a busy guy lately, now that he's crawling he just can't seem to sit still even for a diaper change :) He's learning how to pull up to his feet and not just his knees. He loves to walk just as long as he has something to hold onto. And he gets so excited when daddy's around to play with!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Saturday, March 12, 2011

first birthday






Actual party will be in a few weeks, but the E man turns one today. Wow, what a year it's been. We took him out for a quick dessert this afternoon and he was enamored with his candle. Steve blew it out the first time, and then he kept pointing at it and blowing so we lit it again and he blew it out on his own! And I actually caught it on camera. The candle was quite the highlight for him :)

Monday, March 7, 2011

he just decided to do it


Tonight as I was getting Ethan ready for bed, he just decided to go for it:

So just 5 days before his first birthday, but we can officially say that he was crawling before he turned one :) He might not crawl for long but he did it. Way to go little man! I have a longer video that I'll have to put up later. He's pretty good at it already, go figure.

Some hi-lights from the past few days:










Saturday, March 5, 2011

big milestones

Ethan has decided that, even though he doesn't like to do it, he can crawl. He actually does more of an inchworm, using both elbows at the same time. Yesterday he crawled from the dining room, into a nearby room to get at two figurines that he really likes to look at and touch. He whined the whole way, but he made it there, probably around 10 feet total! And it took him quite a while to do it, too :) And then today, he figured out how to get from his tummy, back up onto his hands and knees and get back into a sitting position. He did it 2 or 3 times today. He's all set to go now! And now I just need to make sure I make him do it a few times a day to get good practice, and to get faster and faster. Also today, he finally started to side step a little and get from one end of the coffee table to the other. So fun!

Friday, March 4, 2011

taking a break from the pictures

Actually, not really. The big news here is that I got a new laptop!! The new MacBooks just hit the market and Steve and I thought that it was a good time to upgrade our lives and get a MacBook Pro. I am in love, it's so nice. I just need to figure out how to get my pictures from my camera onto it now that I don't have a nice card reader like the last laptop had. Once I find the cord I am good to go and update with all of the pictures and video that I've been taking in the mean time :)

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

#5!

Tooth #5 has been cut, and #6 is right behind it! Ethan cut these two teeth much faster than the first 4, so I was surprised to see it peeking through this morning. He's looking so much more like a little boy and less like a baby.