Wookey in training

Make sure you pause the music for this one!

He really enjoys wrestling the gorillas.

Where Oh Where Could That Credit Card Be?

My dear sweet little boy, my toddler, is learning and growing at a very rapid rate. Tonight we found that some things he learns cause us to have to be more careful. Here's the story:

Ethan enjoys playing with Mike's wallet, opening it, taking things out, flinging it around, etc. He has recently discovered that he can put objects into other objects, blocks into the box, the animals into the ark, and so on. Well, you can probably tell where this story is headed. When Mike grabbed his wallet today he noticed it was open on his nightstand but didn't think too much of it. When he was getting ready to pay is when panic set in, no credit card. No problem, it's probably at home on the floor somewhere like usual when Ethan plays with it. Thankfully I was there and had my card. We got home and scoured the upstairs, no card, then I remembered, Ethan puts stuff into other things, it could be anywhere by now, but most likely it is in the house. We did find the card, it was in the top drawer of Mike's nightstand. Hopefully there was a lesson learned, to be more careful with wallets and keys, anything that might cause an issue if turned up missing.

This Week in Pictures

Playing in the backyard. My grandma made this sweater before she died, I received it as a gift at my baby shower, it is very special.
All the pictures are now action shots, the boy doesn't stand still
Working hard?
We packed a picnic lunch and walked down to a new park.
Playing in the sand pit, he has a shovel but is using his hand instead
Helping daddy clean the cars, wearing his Where's Waldo hat

Naughty or Nice...

This picture is too funny not to post. Ethan has developed a smile lately that is so mischievous! It just looks like he's up to some trouble.

Don't worry, he's just as sweet as can be. The other day we were able to go to a friends house and have a play date. He wasn't that interested in Izzy, but her Mommy was a different story!! He kept going up to her and giving her kisses on her cheek. No pictures unfortunately.

Best Dressed

We got this shirt from some friends of ours for Ethan's birthday and I laugh everytime I put him in it so I thought you might enjoy it too. (Ignore the booger that I didn't realize was there)
Daddy was in the shower, I didn't think anyone would want to see anymore of him than this so I was very careful

14 Month Old + Fork = Lots of Smiles and a Big Mess

Ethan's eating habits change daily. Some days he'll eat anything you put in front of him, other days he'll be very picky and only eat what Grandpa or Daddy feeds him. Some days he'll let you feed him, other days he wants finger foods. This past week he decided he wanted to have a go at using the fork, by himself. What kind of mom would I be if I didn't at least let him try, plus I knew he wasn't going to eat anymore from me. It was very messy but a lot of fun and I got some great smiling pictures, if you look closely some of them are great shots of his top 2 teeth.

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!!!
With Grandpa (Sir)
He thought this was great, I was a nervous wreck, I could just imagine him taking a step back (shudder)

When I got to work this is what I found on my desk, I have a good husband.
and son

Old Toys Means New Friends

Mike and I have a box of old stuffed animals, they are ones we couldn't get rid of when we moved but knew we had no place for. We put them in a box and they have been living in our garage. This past week I thought it would be fun to dig out the box and let Ethan pick out any that he liked for his toy box or room. What a great idea! He loved jumping around in the toys and playing with Mike's old stuffed football, and we got to share some memories. Oh before seeing these pictures I should tell you it was spaghetti night so Ethan is a bit of a mess.This is the face you make after Daddy beans you in the head with the footballAnd this is the face Daddy makes
Uh-oh, what's he going to do?

Oh yeah he's doing it
Bet that didn't feel so good (yes he did it again)
Most of the toys have gone back in the box but we left out the gorillas that we found in there. Ethan lugs them from room to room and wrestles them.

Temper Trantrum

For Ethan, temper tantrums are not a normal everyday occurance, thank goodness, so when one comes about that is unusually strong, Mommy likes to grab the camera and take pictures, poor guy.

This one happened the other day after we had gotten home from Grandma's. I needed to change so that we could play and the second we got upstairs, he LOST it!! Oh he did not want to be upstairs. So, I changed and we went back downstairs, the tears didn't stop, even while he was playing with his ball he kept crying.
This is Ethan being mad at me for taking pictures during his fitOh don't worry it only lasted a few minutes and blankie was there to make it all better
Just wanted to share that although he is very close, he is not perfect. That makes us love him even more.

Books

Ethan has developed a fascination with books lately. His Grandma bought him a "Learning Library" for Christmas. It's a collection of board books, each on a different subject "Animals", "Things to Wear", "Around the House", etc in a box with a handle. Each page has a picture and the word that describes the picture. We read these books over and over and over (did I say Thanks Mom?). He'll bring over the whole box, usually spilling the contents, or each book at a time. He has plenty of other books but he seems to enjoy the one word per page the most. It's really helping him develop his speech, the other day we were reading "Things to Wear" and at the end I said "hat" and perfectly he repeated "hat" of course I got very excited and there was lots of clapping. Most of the time he only repeats the sounds, his favorites are "p" and "t." Oh and don't worry about my mom, she gets to read similar books, in the Spot series, every day to him and it's only annoying when he wants to read the same one over and over again.
Reading is something that I am happy to do with Ethan, I want him to love to read. I remember when we were kids, my sister and I used to walk the dog to the library, one of us would wait outside while the other got her books and then switch. I also remember having reading lists at the library and getting prizes for the different number of books you read, prizes and reading what could be better? Mike was never a reader when he was younger, I broke him out of that. Now, believe it or not, he reads for enjoyment!

Delightful Days Off

For a few weeks, Mike and i have the same days off, Sunday and Monday. These past two days, Ethan has decided to wake up at 6:15 on the nose, he doesn't even do that during the week! But he has been sleeping through the night, so I guess we would have to choose, sleep through the night and wake up early or get up throughout the night? Tough decision.

This is Ethan helping his daddy fix a drawer:
He's very handy
Anytime Mike (or my dad for that matter) eats, Ethan knows that he's going to get some so he just stands there like a little bird and waits and grunts when he gets impatient. Here they are eating Ramon noodles.

You may look at this picture and say "Poor Milo" but trust me, Milo gets his fair share of compensation for putting up with this. Plus, every time Ethan got off of him, he didn't move.
He loves to be naked, see Auntie in the background cracking up, he was just running around free as could be
One of the most fun parts of Sunday nights is attempting to change Ethan into his jammies. He goes crazy playing on the bed!


Then this morning (since we were up so early anyways) we went swimming. We were planning to close our YMCA account, it was something that Walter Drake paid for and we just don't go enough to justify paying that much a month. I wanted to go to the pool at least one more time.

I love days off!

Readjusting

This time last year, I was trying to wrap my mind around leaving my two month old to go back to work. This year I'm doing the dame thing except he's 14 months old, shouldn't it be getting easier?
Sorry for the significant decrease in blogging lately, we are all trying to adjust to our new schedule. It feels like coming back from vacation, a really long, wonderful vacation and its hard to snap back into reality. This past week, Tuesday to Saturday, was my second official week but the first that I worked the actual hours that I will be putting in from now on.
So far we have not gotten into a routine. We all wake up or are woken up between 6:15 and 7:15, get ready (sometimes Ethan gets to wear his jammies to Grandma's) and try to get out the door by 7:30. Most Wednesdays Mike heads over to Pikes Perk, a local coffee shop, to meet with a good friend of his. Other than that, we bring Ethan to my mom's, take a few minutes to adjust to him being there and say goodbye, and off to work we go. This Saturday, Mike drove separately, I had a baby shower to go to and he wanted to get home a little earlier than usual. We work together until 11 or noon then Mike goes out on service calls and I stay and work on office stuff. I leave work between 1:30 and 2 depending on if I took a lunch and head back to my mom's. If all went as planned throughout the day, Ethan is napping when I get there, which gives me some time to collect myself and hang out with my mom. After that we go do our errands or head home to play for the rest of the afternoon.
Three out of the five days, Mike runs home from work, which takes him about an hour. If that's the case, we usually wait to have dinner until after Ethan is in bed.

Grandma bought Ethan a shovel the day before I took this picture, they played out back digging in the mulch and dirt. After we got home, I took him to the park where someone had left a couple of shovels and a pail in the sandbox so he and another boy played in the sandbox, he even got a shovel full of sand dumped on his head. I knew when all he wanted to do was go back and play in the sandbox that I better buy him a shovel for at home. The night we bought he walked around the house with his shovel and the strainer having little adventures.
This is in the morning, he was actually in a great mood, but this is the face I kept getting when I would take his picture.
Now he just wants to play!