Names

Maykeek, kaykeek, and kyesip. Those are Ethan's most often made-up names. Along with soboat, baycot and today he told me "when I was a little baby I used to have a dog named precious am".

Edit ** and then last night he "found a lizard in the basement". He pretended to carry it around all night and named him Junction Junction.

Christmas time is here :)

Bowling!

not a fan

Last night I had the tv on while I was getting Ethan ready for bed, which is a rarity in our house. It was one of those signing in front of judges shows, and I was telling Ethan that they were getting ready to sing, and we'd have to wait and see them sing, then decide if they were good or bad. The first group of girls that he watched were singing a pop song, and he got up and danced saying "mom, they're good". Next up was a guy singing country. He listened to the first line and said very decisively, "mom, he's bad. He's bad, mom" so we turned it off. I guess we don't have a fan of country music in our house.

snow!

We had a blast playing in the snow this afternoon. It was disappointing that the snow caused the cancelation of our Christmas party with Ethan's friends, but it sure is pretty and fun to romp around in.

ears

I can't believe I've never posted a picture of Ethan holding his ears. He doesn't suck his thumb, or any other typical comfort thing, he holds his ears. I have dozens of pictures of him holding his ears. I'm posting a couple here because I know that one day he won't hold his ears anymore, and I'll forget that he used to do it all the time :) He even sometimes asks us to hold his ears for him if his hands are busy. I do it for him gladly! But he gets frustrated because I guess I don't do it quite right. 

we love Christmas!

We are definitely getting into the christmas spirit around here. I'm working on a felt nativity set to play with and explain the christmas story with. Ethan already likes to play with the animals and put baby Jesus in either Mary or Joseph's arms :)

We have been taking a lot of trips around the neighborhood to look at the lights. It is so exciting for Ethan that it makes it really exciting for us. We found one house that has lights set to music, and little carousels and merry-go-rounds with figures in them that are actually going around, it's pretty amazing. Ethan was in awe. But one of our neighbors down the street has a few blow-up Christmas figures in their yard... and one of them is a Thomas train. One is also an Elmo, and when we went by last night Elmo was kind of knocked over and laying on his side. When we prayed last night Ethan thanked God for the Thomas train light, and then he said "and for the Elmo decoration, but it was knocked over and that was so disappointing." Not to be dramatic or anything!

We also made snowflakes to put in our front windows. He was pretty proud...

blame shifting already

I just put Ethan in his room for his nap. He started yelling for me a few minutes later, so I went in and fixed a few of his complaints. As I was tucking him in again I smelled something, so I asked "Ethan, did you go poo poo?" He answered me, "yeah, but it's ok mom. It was your fault."

I have no idea what he meant by that but it totally caught my funny bone and I've been laughing out loud ever since.

And I posted this funny exchange on Facebook, but thought I'd put it here also so I can document. Yesterday morning as I was cleaning and trying to get his clothes on him, I yelled downstairs to Ethan, "Ethan, do you have undies on?". He yells back, "Um, no. Wait, let me check. Oh, I do!". That one had me laughing for the rest of the day.

It's still sticky

There are some things that Ethan cannot let go of. This morning as we were driving along our conversation went something along these lines:
E: mom. This is sticky.
Me: I look back and see that he is touching the buckle to his car seat. "Oh is the buckle sticky?"
E: yeah. It's really sticky.
Me: well, when we get there I'll get a napkin and wipe it up.
E: mom, can you feel it? It's sticky.
Me: I know it is, but I can't reach back there while I'm driving. Can you wait until we get there for me to clean it up?
E: mom, can you touch it? It's sticky.
Me: no, I can't touch it. I can't reach.
E: it's sticky.
Me: I know it is and as soon as we get there ill wipe it up.
E: ok... It's still sticky.

the TREE

We are thoroughly getting into the christmas spirit in our house! Ethan loves having the tree up. Little stinker won't even look at the camera unless I say, "Make a silly face". 

Museum trip pt 2

Children's museum trip

We had a blast at the children's museum today!

He makes me laugh

A few weeks ago while Steve was out of town, Ethan and I were being lazy one morning, snuggling and watching Mickey before getting up and in with our day. Out if the blue he says to me, "mom, I want hot coffee". I guess I didn't move fast enough; he looked at me for a while and then said "I'll wait right here".

So after I got up and made breakfast and coffee I gave him some. He downed it and asked for more. This child will drink anything. Eating us a totally different story :)

And a couple of funny conversations from last night. Ethan has a bad cold and was up sick most of the night. I guess at one point Steve went in to his room and Ethan said to him "dad, I threw up". Steve didn't see anything in the dark so he asked "where?" Ethan waved his arms around the room and whined "EVERYWHERE!"

After that I decided to sleep in his room with him. At one point I really had thought that he fell back asleep. He had been quiet for probably 20 minutes and his breathing started to even out. Then I hear, "what does throw up start with, Mommy?" "A T", I answered. He got super excited and said "a T just like T-T-Thomas!"

He was awake from 1-a little after 4 coughing like crazy. I really hope he gets a good nap and has a better night tonight. We sure had some interesting conversations during that time. He also repeatedly asked me what pigs ate. He was never quite satisfied with my answers. Stinker :)

Happy Halloween!

I had planned on Ethan having a new costume this year. But when it came down to putting his costume on, he really wanted to wear his giraffe costume again. So, for the 3rd year in a row, Ethan wore the same costume. It barely fits, but that didn't stop him from wearing it for most of the day. 

Here is 2010 giraffe Ethan. And 2011 giraffe Ethan.

And introducing 2012 giraffe Ethan. Or, more accurately, "Mr. Giraffe from the island of Sodor from Thomas". Everything comes back to Thomas...

We went around to a few of our neighbors, and when he was done we went home. So I hadn't anticipated how scary Ethan would find sitting at home passing out candy. A very tall kid (maybe in jr high?) came by dressed as a gorilla and Ethan retreated to the couch, his sippy and my phone, and sat there for the rest of the night. I would have just stopped passing out candy, but I definitely wanted to get rid of the candy that we had.

And another funny story from this morning. Since I was wearing orange and black, I got Ethan's orange and black shirt out and told him that we could match today. He said (in his most whiney voice) "Mom, I don't want to be matching you!" and told me he wanted to wear a different shirt. I guess it's not cool anymore to match your mom. Sad day :)

Camping

Several weeks ago we took Ethan camping for the first time. He LOVED it... Up until the sleeping part. We ended up coming home before midnight but made some great memories :)

painting

Ethan loves projects!

Cracks me up

After putting Ethan to bed tonight he screamed his head off for several minutes. The all of the sudden it got super quiet so I turned the monitor on since I figured he was done screaming and had decided to go to sleep. I hear him sweetly singing his Sunday school verse for the month, Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Oh, all I can do is laugh. Thank you son for the reminder that we are all sinners in need of Gods grace :)

This picture is of Ethan "helping" mom putty the walls of his new big boy room. I bought some Thomas decals for the room for whenever we get around to setting it up as a bedroom. When he heard what the decorations were for he couldn't wait to start in on the project. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut until I was ready to start the project too :) Also, he's showing off his "I'm not going to smile for the camera no matter what you say" face!

2.5

Lately when you ask Ethan how old he is, he's started saying "two and a half". He's getting so big, truly losing any baby left in him. He had a quick check-up at the doctor yesterday and he weighed in at 32.5lbs! That means he's up 4lbs since March. I measured him at home and he was around 38.5" tall. It's tricky to get him to stand still for long, so that measurement might not be the most accurate :)

Some of his favorites at 2.5 are Thomas and anything train related. He's even started setting up scenes from the tv show and acting out things that happen on the show, complete with the dialog. He loves to sing "holy, holy, holy" and also "as the deer". His favorite bible story (this week anyway) is of Moses and the plagues, his favorite plague is the "owies all over them", and he is very quick to point out that Pharaoh did not listen to God. He can also now say all 12 of his Bible verses from Sunday school.

If you can pull him away from his train set for a minute, he loves spending time outdoors, especially if daddy is willing to take him out in the back yard (our back yard is pretty rugged and overgrown). Mommy more likes to go on walks on trails, which is fine also with Ethan. He still loves to go down to the lake and throw rocks and sticks in, although it will soon be too cold to spend much time out there. He absolutely loves daddy time, and sometimes un-invites me places, or asks me to go to Bible study (I go to a mentor group once a month on Monday nights) so that he can be left alone with dad.

grandpa's birthday!

Of course, mostly the pics I got were of the grandkids, tho :)

Saige's wonderful candle placement skills~

And now for a series of Ethan intentionally not smiling!

One year later

Last year's pumpkins:

This year's pumpkins:

My pumpkin is getting so big :)


Here are a few other shots we got that day