But Daddy, I Want to Drive It

This is a sequence of photos that I took on Monday. Ethan and Michael were playing with all of their cars when Ethan began obsessing about the steering wheel in this tractor. We could tell he was really trying to communicate something but could not understand. Finally he got his point across. He is trying to tell Daddy that he wants to get in the tractor and drive, literally sit in the little seat and turn the steering wheel. He was asking Daddy to help him get in. Poor Michael, laughing the entire time had to try to tell Ethan that there was no way for him to help him get in the tractor.

See, right here Daddy:

Maybe if I just sit on it:

Fine, I'll just play with the bus

Father's Day 2009

What a wonderful day for Father's Day/the first day of summer. The weather here was gorgeous! A little hot but not unbearable. In the afternoon we headed over to Spring Spree, a festival held downtown at the beginning of summer. It's mostly booths set up to sell things or advertise but there's also a few shows, some live music and a kids area. Right when we walked into the area there was a show with Native American dancing, Ethan loved the drums

It was a hoop dance, very impressive

After watching for a little while we started heading towards some of the other stages. There were people rolling down the hill in adult sized hamster balls, none of our group made an attempt but it was very entertaining. Ethan went straight towards the music, stopping every so often to dance

After walking past the stage he spotted the lake at Memorial Park and didn't stop till he got there.
After some snow cones and some more walking we decided it was time to go, not without making a stop at the firetruck.
Later that afternoon we had everyone over to our house for Father's Day dinner. I always get nervous being the host but it was a great success, and a good opportunity to debut our new patio.

One of the two men of the day

Playing outside once the sun was behind the trees

My mama

Wrestling with Daddy

Tickle torture!

Boo

Getting chased by grandma

Taking some time out with Grandma

He really enjoys sitting in chairs like a big boy

Tree hugger?

Group shot (minus my hubby)

Group shot after being dismissed from group shot

Hope all the daddy's and daddy's to be had a great father's day!

Collision!!!

One thing that must be learned when running around and rough housing outside is to watch all the players and keep yourself out of their path. Ethan and Milo had a minor collision in the backyard a few days ago, resulting in a small fat lip for Ethan. Don't worry, the swelling was gone by the next day and the bruise a couple of days following.

18 Months Old

This is a big month for us, Ethan is officially on the downhill slope to 2! He celebrated his half birthday on the 10th. This past Monday we had his 18 month well baby check up. It followed the trend of the past two appointments, as in, was fine until someone other than mom or dad tried to touch him. Then we went into baby meltdown mode. The doc says he looks great (always good to hear). Couldn't get an accurate weight (due to meltdown mentioned above) but they guesstimated 22 lbs 15 oz, height 33in (almost 3 feet tall!). He got three shots, each one as terrible as the one before. And then a sticker to make it all better.

Yesterday I noticed that one of the injection sites was slightly more pink than the day before and warm to the touch, today even more so. It wasn't tender at all but as a mom I am supposed to freak out about any abnormality so I called the dr's office. As soon as I mentioned warm to the touch they told me I had to bring him in. So, $25 later (copay) we find out what we pretty much already knew, it's nothing to be concerned about. The good thing about this visit, we found out he actually weighs 24 lbs 9 oz, a pretty big difference for an 18 month old.

Taking a walk with Daddy

Mid run

He thinks the fertilizer spike is fascinating

After wrestling the basketball away from daddy

Noticing that Mommy has the camera

Coming after the camera

Tickling Mommy to get the camera, Mommy's don't give up without a fight

Sometimes You Just Need a Good Laugh

Couldn't resist sharing this one

Looking for Summer Help?

Are you looking for someone to help out with landscaping this summer, or just an odd job or two? I have a wonderful candidate. He is a morning person, and an afternoon person and an evening person. Good with tools, 'hammer' is in his daily vocabulary. Takes mowing the lawn, and the carpet and the driveway very seriously.

I wish you could see the concentration in his face in these pictures

Great at beheading flowers

And just an all around fun guy to be with

Doesn't charge much, just a few snacks (fruit works best) and some time watching Elmo or Pooh. Anyone looking to hire please call mommy for a copy of his resume. And have a great week!

Another Week Gone By

I know that I have not been great about posting, we have been busy, busy, busy, but not much new. We have been working hard on our patio and Mike is putting on the finishing touches as I type. We are hoping to debut it on Father's Day in a few weeks!

One of Mike's shoes after working outside all day, Ethan stuck it in the drawer

We have started adjusting Ethan's nap schedule. He only has a few days before he is a year and a half and is starting to not need two naps. Starting is the key word there, the adjustments are ongoing at this point and take a lot of balance. We were finding that our 2 nap schedule (9am and 1pm) wasn't working. At least one of the naps would be too short or he wouldn't sleep through the night, but, with only one nap, he can't quite make it to bedtime without breaking down. This past week what seems to work is putting him down around 10:30am, hoping he sleeps at least an hour and a half, then putting him down between 3 and 3:30pm. The afternoon nap can't be over an hour or past 4:30pm or he wakes up overnight. We know that nap times will be a constant adjustment until he's ready to do away with nap #2.
Other than that, there's not much going on here. He's talking up a storm and trying out all kinds of new sounds, some understandable, most gibberish. He likes to climb, mostly people. We try to be outside a lot throughout the day. He really enjoys 'driving' our cars while we work in the yard. He is becoming slightly addicted to tv, although we limit his watching, he knows that Grandma can turn on Elmo whenever he wants or that Mommy can put in his Thomas video, oh and he is definitely learning what works toward his favor to get these outcomes. At least to counteract the tv addict, he also LOVES books! He is always getting into his books and just plays with them. We have one night time book that's a compilation of Disney stories, at the end are 2 pages of stickers. He's learning how to peel off the stickers and then stick them on a blank page. Plus he knows some of the character's names so that increases the appeal of the book. Yesterday we went to Target to look at their book section and we couldn't peel him away without tears.

Oh I wouldn't do that if I were you

The tickle monster!

Waiting for Daddy

Cars on my shirt!!!

Daddy playing on the playground while Ethan's swinging

Climbing the big rockl

Daddy's tired

Pictures by Samantha Kelly

As a mother's day gift to my mom, we hired a good friend of mine to take family photos. We don't have many, always forget to take them and haven't had a professional shot since we were kids. We went yesterday morning to the Garden of the Gods (and some surrounding areas) to get the pics done. There are so many beautiful pictures, it was hard to choose which ones to leave out. Thank you again Sam!