Books, books, we love books

Tuesday, library day, it did not disappoint. We came home loaded down with new books, and a movie, "How to Train Your Dragon." Ethan has been asking since about 6:30 (during our awesome movie) to read his new books. So, finally, story time comes around. He and Daddy read 7 books! I think its a record for before bedtime reading in our house.
But, again, after lights out we hear the distinct rustling of pages and plastic covers, and the muffling of someone messing with the baby monitor. I go into his room to find out what he's doing. He tells me "I'm trying to read the words." he was trying to use the nightlight on his baby monitor to see the words on his library books. So, Michael found him a flashlight. If the boy needs to read his books to help him fall asleep, who am I to say no (you know, as long as it doesn't get out of control, reading till midnight)? I have to read before bed too. He's so stinking cute.

Night Owl

Ethan's bedtime routine is:
1. Shower (or bath but since our trip to NY he prefers the shower)
2. Jammies on
3. Stories with Dad
4. Teeth brushed, water drank
5. Songs with Mom
6. Sleep (hopefully)

Here's a few extra details; we go to the library, usually, once a week and get new books for bed time, we usually get 8-10 short ones, so they read 4 or 5 every night and then switch stacks. Dad likes to have the books stacked in 2 piles, so he can grab a pile and start reading. We used to let E pick which books he wanted to read, and in which order, but we found we were reading the same book over and over and over, and never read some of the others.

Last night, when the boys sat down to read, Michael noticed that the books were out of order (yes, he noticed that). No big deal, Ethan likes to pull out the books and read them during the day or I pull them down when I'm cleaning.

After songs, I said good night and left the room and got in the shower (I was exhausted and grumpy). Michael came in a few minutes later. He said he came upstairs and heard "Rusty robot, rusty robot, rusty robot" (to the tune of the Veggie Tales theme song) and a swoosh, swoosh sound, coming from Ethan's room. He opened the door and sure enough Ethan had all his library books spread across the bed and was flipping the pages (swoosh, swoosh) while singing a robot song. He looked up and said "I'm reading just like you, Dad."

The Happenings Around the House

I have been missing my camera-computer plug thing-a-ma-jig for the past few days and I found it today! The happenings of lately in the Lockhart household have been, mostly, good.

Ethan found a page of stickers and decided to decorate his room for Kwanzaa (this is exactly what he told me). I know he learned that Kwanzaa exists from a show on the Disney Channel, but how he knows how they decorate is beyond me. Luckily, for us both, the stickers don't stick too well to the wall, so he can enjoy his decorating with easy clean up.

We celebrated Valentine's Day (remember the heart means love and beating). I got Ethan a small Valentine gift, a batman tin with a Star Wars lollipop and some new finger paints. As soon as Ethan saw it he got excited and shouted "a liquor!"...this comes from the fact that any time we go to the liquor store he gets a lollipop (which is not that often) but he now associates liquor and lollipop to be the same thing.

Baby and I had a checkup on V-Day, which went well. The heartbeat was really loud and he said, thankfully, that my weight looks good. (I have enjoyed eating since getting pregnant) He also gave us the ok to make travel plans. We are hoping to make a trip to Florida for Michael's "dirty thirty" in March. He just suggested we find an airline that will let you cancel or change your itinerary without too much of a penalty, just in case.
During my appointments, my mom comes over to watch Ethan (he freaks out at any doctor office but Michael really enjoys going to the appointments). She brought him a Valentine present too. His favorite is definitely the Transformers book that she brought, we read it over and over and over (and its only like 5 pages). Then we all get assigned a character to be (and you must call each other by the correct names).

After the doctor we broke out the new finger paints, and what better way to use them then to have Daddy turn you into the Flash?

We took the afternoon and went swimming. Ethan is becoming very good at this sport. The YMCA has a floatie called Puddle Jumpers, its awesome. It keeps him above the water but still allows him to practice swimming, unlike the life vests that force kids onto their backs. So we've been practicing with the Puddle Jumpers for past few weeks and he can really paddle himself around!
After swimming we noticed E was getting a little drippy, which is usually a sure sign he's coming down with something. Boy were we right. the next two nights were spent barely sleeping with a small ball of fire between us, waking up all the time and just crying.
Thankfully, during the day he feels a lot better (the weather has been awesome). And last night we all slept through the night!
Another great event that happened was that Ethan felt the baby move for the first time. Baby has been moving a lot lately (except when my sister's around) it's big enough that you can see it from the outside. The other night it was kicking a lot so I put Ethan's hand on my belly. When he felt it he pulled his hand back, smiled at me, then said "that was weird, you make me laugh." Then covered my belly (the baby) with his Zazzy, yeah he's the sweetest.

A Monday

Can I just tell you, yesterday was an awesome day.
I had to come to the realization that, as a parent, not every day makes you fall asleep thinking "I wish it could be today again when I wake up so we can do it all over again." Those days are there, but they are also mixed with those ones that you can't wait for bedtime, or just pass without much notice.
So, what made yesterday so note worthy? Nothing dramatic happened, we didn't go anywhere special. It was a Monday. (Monday's are good in the Lockhart household, its our day off together.) For starters, yesterday morning was spent doing things, lots and lots of things. Do you know how many activities you can do with a three year old when they are not constantly asking to watch tv or have another snack?
To begin with, you can pretend to be superheroes and fight. You can line up toys and sort out which ones are taller and shorter. You can dump out all the toys from the toy box and climb in
Then play random games with said toys. You can eat a yummy french toast breakfast as a family, not worrying if the syrup drips on your jammies. You can strip off the syrupy jammies, break out the finger paints and become the "naked artist"

And that's just to name a few of the things we did yesterday. As you can tell, the morning started out wonderful. Then, while Ethan napped my wonderful husband started working on the closet renovations for our nursery, which is turning out really well.
In the afternoon, we ran our errands for the weekend. As we were driving to the grocery store, Michael kept messing with Ethan and I. Finally, I got tired of it and said "Quit messing with me!" Ethan says, very assertively "Yeah, stop messing with my woman." With a look that was sure to stop him in his tracks. (This is a line Ethan learned directly from his father.) To finish our wonderful day together, we rented Despicable Me and giggled at the little yellow minions before bed.

Sweetness or Pregnancy Hormones

The other night we were driving home from my mom's house, where she had graciously fed Ethan dinner while Michael and I were at a work meeting. From the distance we saw a house that appeared to still have its Christmas lights up and turned on. This is a big deal for a 3 year old that notices EVERYTHING, then we start with the questions; "why do they still have their Christmas lights up?" "Why did we take ours down?"
As we got closer to the house we saw they had turned the lights from Christmas decorations to Valentines Day decorations. "What's Valentines Day?" Hmm, how to explain. "At Valentines Day they decorate everything with hearts. Do you know what hearts mean?" "Yeah, beating and love." Right there, I lost it. It was the sweetest answer and so matter of fact.

Sarcasm, nature or nurture part 2

Tonight it is negative some crazy amount of degrees outside and we braved it to the library and the grocery store, so we rewarded ourselves with some delicious roast beef sandwiches, mac and cheese and dinner in while watching The Lion King. Whether Ethan wasn't hungry, or wasn't as appreciative of our delicious dinner, I'm not sure, but he wasn't eating, anything. Michael looked at him, looked at his plate, and said "you know if you don't touch your food, you don't get any dessert." (Big deal since we picked out a new dessert at the grocery store). Ethan looked at his dad, laid his hand gently on his sandwich and said "I'm touching my food Daddy." Yeah, holding in a laugh was really hard.