2 years old

a 2 year bear pic

how fun it is to compare to these pics

Ethan be two!

Ethan's reply when you ask him how old he is today is "Ethan be two!" That's right, Ethan turns two today. He is quickly turning into a little boy, that's for sure. His language is developing rapidly, and he's now saying "me" and "you" correctly much of the time, as well as using him, her, our, my, although I love to hear him ask for help by saying "mama help you?" because I know that these little grammar slips are going to be disappearing all too quickly.

When people ask me what his personality is like I'd always had a hard time describing. I want to say that he's social, but it's not quite the right word because he actually takes quite a bit of time warming up in social settings and does best with one or two friends on play dates. The closer word I'd use now is relational and interpersonal. He is very interested in people, wants to know who they are and likes to know the relationships (that's the baby's mommy, etc) and in big groups loves to just watch what people are doing, and what kids are playing with more than actually playing with his own toys. He loves to talk to people and talk about what's going on around him.

His favorite thing in the world right now is the computer. Many days the first thing out of his mouth is "watch computer please?" and it's really the only thing that I've seen him have the patience to sit down and study and learn how to use. I guess he comes by it honestly since Steve and I both have computer-related bachelors and masters. Go figure.

I'm hoping that he'll want to spend less time in front of the technology in our house as the weather warms up, because a close second to the computer is being outside, and being adventurous! This guy loves to explore, throw rocks and sticks and snowballs, draw with chalk on the driveway, and go sailing down the street in his toy car.

We certainly love our little buddy and are having so much fun watching him grow! Happy birthday, Ethan!

8th anniversary

Steve and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary yesterday. We had a fun, casual dinner out accompanied by our little man and enjoyed his fascination and interest in everything that was going on around him. I also took the little guy to his 15 month appointment yesterday, so more stats to come. He's growing up right before our eyes!

teeth coming like crazy!

Ethan's gotten 4 teeth in the past couple of weeks, and two more are just about to pop through. That will make 6 teeth in a month's time! Double what he had a few weeks ago, crazy.

Oh yeah, and it's my 30th birthday today :) Great day, lot of love from family and friends, much to celebrate, and lots of people to do so with.

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.

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 :)

Ethan's new cousin!

We're so excited to welcome Xavier to the family!

Check out Laura's pic of all the cousins together, so fun.

Ethan started a game over Christmas break

Christmas visit to South Carolina

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

From The Mellemas

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? :)

latest development!

Ethan had a big milestone today!

a new thing every day

A new baby was added to our family yesterday!! Saige Mae Thomasma (Steve's sister and brother in law's first) weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 1oz. I got to see her briefly yesterday evening right before bed. Ethan came with, but he slept the entire trip :) I absolutely cannot wait to see her again and hold and cuddle with her.

And Ethan made a new discovery over the weekend:
He has feet! And he loves to grab them. On Sunday he was trying to put them in his mouth, and he kept tickling himself and giggling. It was pretty adorable.

We keep getting updated on the house that we put an offer on, and we're still waiting and hoping. It's not a done deal, but it's getting closer. We're positive about it.

Steve's 30th

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Steve turned 30 on July 25th!


We spent the morning at church, the afternoon with family, and then went out just the two of us to dinner in the evening. Even with all the activity, we both got a nap in and managed to go to bed early. A sign of exciting lives, for sure :)