Version 1.0 & 2.0

{Like Father, Like Son}

These two crack me up. I don't know why they were both looking to the side either. I think Garrett started it and Ethan wanted to mimic him. I love the relationship that they have!

And just because I think these two are cute together, here's a few more:

Hi!

We're still here! We've just taken a small break from blogging to do some computer maintenance and house maintenance but we are getting caught up now and will be posting more soon!

Mom gave me a pen!

{I have a PEN !}

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but this is my son's birthday present. For his birthday in...oh....5 months? I badly needed something to distract him. We were having one of "those" days and after the recent bouts of crayon throwing and discovering just how easily flat paint comes off the wall when you attempt to scrub washable crayon off of it I wasn't about to pull out anything for him to draw with that could leave real marks. Lately I haven't been able to find any pens in the house. Really. I've even thought about just going to the store to buy some but I know we have to have some around here somewhere! Ethan keeps turning up with a pen all the time! I don't know where/how he finds them and how he can manage to do so with us in the room watching him either. Men, watch you pockets. He's a sneaky little pen thief. We haven't had any pen disasters (yet) but one day I know all its going to take is a moment of distraction and he'll write with one. He is always so excited when he finds a pen (which tips us off) and always so upset when we take it away. It was fun to witness how excited he was by the Aquadoodle pen that came with this mat. After first writing on the mat, he then tried to write on himself, on his clothes, and then he ran off with the water pen and tried writing on everything in the house. Yep. One of these days he's going to get a moment or two alone with a real pen and it's not going to be pretty....well, err... Ethan may find it pretty. ;-)

I definitely have to give the Aquadoodle a thumbs up. The inventor was most definitely a parent (and a genius). Now I just have to sneak this wonderful invention back into its box and hiding place in the closet. He won't remember, right?? Shhh.....

Oh, and in my defense, Garrett worked 92 hours last week and then over the weekend had a kidney stone and has been back to working late. Just trying to save a bit of my sanity. ;-)  [Anyone else ever give a present a trial run? Come on Moms, fess up! I won't tell. :-) ]

Shower Singing

{Look at Me!}

Today I noticed Ethan take notice of his reflection in the bathtub. Lately I've noticed him talking/yelling and making faces at his reflection on the dishwasher, entertainment center glass, and anything else shiny. Here he is yelling for fun... or maybe it's a toddler form of shower singing? He also danced and moved around which is what made me notice that he was doing it all on purpose for the sake of watching his reflection. What a ham!

Sneak Peak

This year I am trying to be on top of planning Ethan's birthday party. Last year I had a plan but had trouble finding the scrapbook paper that I needed to go along with my theme (and really without it the theme fell flat) and it came down to the wire so I made a last minute change of plans. This year I am rounding up the ideas I collected last year and am going to plan ahead so that the holidays don't keep me from having the time to carry out the theme the way I wanted. :-) I figure with a mid-January birthday planning ahead may be the only way to go!

Theme: Look Who's turning Two! (Owls and woodland creatures) I'm excited. I hope he enjoys his party more this year! (ie. No cupcake throwing) [Ethan's 1st Birthday Party]

Don't make me eat that!

Ethan hiding from his banana.

He has started hiding from his food when he doesn't want to eat it.

Oh, wait, you have a CAMERA? Well, in that case...

Sometimes you really want to laugh even when you know you can't let yourself do that!

19 Months

At 19 months you:


- Still wear some size 18 month clothes (Overalls, PJ's, T-shirts), and are wearing size 24 month clothes (Onesies, and shorts)
- Wear size 4 shoes and 4 diapers.

My biggest news for this month is that you are finally expanding the variety of table food you will eat!

Froggy lunchbox

 You still don't eat a lot of variety (unless its pureed) but I feel like you are varying it up enough now that I can cut out the purees and you'll still get the nutrients you need. :-)

Lunch on the go! Chicken, sliced mango, grapes, and plum!

 Also, the quantity of table food that you will eat is increasing to where I feel like you actually had a meal. I'm sure variety will follow!

  
Also exciting is your new found love of baths!




And last but not least, you are no longer afraid of the vacuum cleaner! In fact, you are fascinated by it now! [still impossible for me to vacuum though. ;-) ] I can't believe that just last month you were playing chicken with the vacuum. Hiding behind the couch when it was out or sneaking up to the closet and peeking in on it.






You love sticks and anything that looks like a stick or could be treated as a stick. This includes, swords, hangers, pens, etc.

Playing at Playgroup

It has been very hot this month with temperatures usually over 100 degrees so most of our playtime has been indoors. 

Playing with a friend at playgroup

Playgroup photo.

You love your "Monsters". They actually aren't yours, they are your Dad's Godzilla action figures but you are fascinated by them and ask to see them. We get the biggest smile from you when we hand you one!

You love being tickled and recently you have started tickling my feet to make me laugh. :-)



You love to play the music on your laugh and learn puppy. When it plays "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" I'll dance along with it and you get excited and want to be picked up so that we can dance together. Your puppy plays other songs as well and we like to "crazy dance" together along to the songs. You love this!



 You have discovered bubble wrap and you love it! It was your idea to take it over to the tile so that you could pop the bubbles easier. You danced and danced on that piece of bubble wrap!




You like to put your hands over your face and hide when I try to feed you something you don't like. You also will put your arm over your face and hide when a stranger tries to talk to you.



However if a stranger ignores you you will flirt and do your cheesecake grin so big that you end up squinting.



You love to pull out the broom and drag it around. Same goes for the swiffer and the tool that we use to knock your toys and the cats' toys out from under the stove and fridge.

Someone is still sleepy.

You recently started playing with Ghost Bear #2.

Ghost Bear and Ghost "Spare"

Original Ghost Bear is still your #1 and you have a definite preference for him, but previously you wouldn't even touch Ghost Bear #2.

Now you like to play with BOTH of them. 

You have a little blue stool that you love. You love sitting on it and you like to carry it from room to room just to sit. When you sit on it you straddle it as you walk over it and then once it is behind you, you'll sit down on. One of your favorite rooms to drag your stool to is mommy and daddy's bathroom. You love to sit in front of the mirror.




You have been after the cats all month. Chasing them with/without a cat toy, shrieking with glee as you find Beau on top of the couch and you try to "pet" him. You aren't very gentle though!

If Dada starts to fall asleep while y'all are playing on the floor you will run up to him and then pick up his head. You like knowing that you are our center of attention!

You still love hide and seek. Any chance you get you will run ahead of me and dart into one of the rooms to hide.

You get in the pantry at every opportunity and like to play with whatever you can get your hands on. Vinegar, olive oil, baking supplies, peanut butter jars, etc.





You like to spin in circles with Mama. You will throw back your head and give out the purest happiest laughter!

My precious boy, how I cherish the past year and a half we have spent together! I love being there for your "every day" moments. You have a sparkling personality and are such a joy!

Happy Feet

{Dragon Feet}

Make me happy! Opening my son's closet and seeing the feet to his dragon costume from last Halloween makes me happy. Happy that I have a family. Happy that I have a little boy who will be all about everything "boy" like dinosaurs, monsters, creepy crawlys, etc as the years pass. My life so rich and full of blessings because of this child!

Silly Bath

Ethan has recently developed a love of baths.

He could play for hours.

Of course the longest bath he's supposed to have is 20 minutes because of his Eczema. But hey, at least he's not restricted to once or twice a week anymore. ;-)

And while he still isn't a huge fan of having his hair washed, not even that can ruin his fun!

Love those eyelashes!


He has also developed love for his rainboots which are still way too big. He likes to carry them from room to room and put toys in them. 

He insisted on putting them in the bath before we started and he played with them for a while. Next he wanted to put them on.

Babies are sweet, but oh boy do I love toddlers! This phase is so much fun!

Croup!

Nothing is more pitiful than hearing that barking cough. :-(  The kiddo caught a cold early last week and by late in the week he developed croup.
 

He would cough until he couldn't breathe and then he'd get upset and cry and then he would have even more trouble and we would get caught in an unhappy cycle of crying/coughing and huddling over the humidifier. After 40 minutes of crying, some throwing up, and a few episodes of  Wonder Pets he started to enjoy the humidifier and get interested in it. (And yes, he did eventually knock it over and spill the entire contents in the carpet)

We had an after-hours visit to the doctor last Friday for steroids. By monday evening he was better and now he's running around good as new. I had forgotten what it was like to exist on very little sleep. I also didn't know that I could watch 5 hours of wonderpets in a row. [That's 13 episodes or 26 mini-stories with the theme song played about 3 times per story.] Now I'm busy trying to get caught up on blogging/photo editing/cleaning/life.  Glad to have my happy boy back! :-)

Sprinklers, and Strangers, and Cameras....Oh my!

Funny little story about our last trip to the sprinkler park...

{Photo: Ethan post-sprinkler park showing off his sunscreen hair}

Ethan isn't too fond of the sprinkler park. He doesn't like getting water on his head or face and inadvertently he always gets a little bit too wet when he goes there. Each trip we make he gets a little braver and a little better about it but most of the time he walks around the edge of the splash zone and splashes in the puddles.

When we arrived at the sprinkler park, I had to walk by the adjacent playground. He started bouncing up and down on my hip as we walked by. I could tell he was excited. As I started to walk past the playground though he started to shake his head "no" at me. The further away we got the more he started to shake his head "no". Then he saw we were approaching the sprinkler park and he started vehemently shaking his head no and digging his knees into my hip like "don't even think about putting me down!".

Once we joined his friends at the sprinkler park he was okay with it and started walking around the perimeter splashing in the water. Then he saw the man. The man with the Canon DSLR camera. He was entranced. The man was trying to take pictures of his little boy playing in the water but it was a little hard to do with my son standing between him and his camera, and his son. That's right, my little ham went and stood between them and started making his "cheesecake" face at the camera.
 

{Photo: Cheesecake grin.}

I don't know where he learned that. I love taking candid photos of Ethan and don't tell him to smile at the camera. This is something he has picked up on his own. I apologized to the man and took Ethan to another part of the splash park. Didn't seem to matter though, Ethan wouldn't leave the man alone and kept seeking him out and trying to join in on his family's activities or be in their pictures. He even went up to the man and sat in his lap when he pulled out lunch for his child. Ah!!! Silly kid. (and embarrassed mom!)

Maybe if I had brought my camera to the splash park my child would have stayed with me and left the man with the camera alone. Haha, here's to wishful thinking!