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!

Bedtime

Now that we have this whole bedtime/nap time routine down (for the time being) they are my favorite parts of the day, and not just because he goes to sleep and I get to unwind. I love that I can put him in his crib for a nap with his blankie and lovie and he doesn't cry or hardly fuss, he sucks his thumb and goes to sleep or plays by himself.

This is Ethan with "Blankie" anytime he gets ahold of this or his "Lovie" his thumb goes straight in the mouth

Then he's so happy when I come in to get him after his nap, he usually needs a few minutes in his crib after he wakes up but I go in and read to him, or hang his laundry or just snuggle whatever toy he gives to me. That's nap time, bedtime is a little different:

This is a nightly game of chase that we play, the clothes come off slowly but the excitement remains the same, by the time he's in the tub we are all wonderfully exhausted. As you can see he is getting very good at walking and very close to running.

Daddy's Boy

My son is positively, absolutely a Daddy's boy (and his Daddy loves it)! This is not a recent discovery, but I recently got to see some examples of his love for his Daddy. This past week Mike and I got to work together, that means, 4 out of 5 days we took Ethan to my mom's house together and then went to work. He cries when Mike leaves him!! I know, it makes me a little sick too. Does he cry when I leave, no way, but Mike leaves and there are tears.
It is very sweet to see the two of them together. When Ethan was first born, Mike had a hard time making the adjustment, it's not like he never loved him, he just didn't feel like they bonded, I think he just didn't know what to do with him. Now their best friends. Mike lets Ethan help him with important, handy projects and Ethan just sits and watches, if he has something to play with, Mike explains everything their doing to Ethan. If Mike comes home from a break at work, he'll take Ethan out to his van and let him play with some of the tools.

Make New Friends

Yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Colorado Springs, we have been getting quite a few of those this winter, thank goodness, Ethan loves to be outside. After an exhausting morning of playing hard with Grandma and Grandpa (pictures to come, hopefully) and a much needed nap, I took Ethan over to the park. My little boy is growing up so fast, there were times that he didn't even want to hold my hand! He would ask for help when he fell down and then let go and take off! This is a little scary, and not just because I want him to stay a baby for a little while longer, but because he doesn't understand the rules of a playground. Excuse me, let me rephrase, the safety rules of the playground. For example, when he wants to go on the swings, he walks up to the swing, but he doesn't understand that when someone's on the swing he can't walk up to it or he'll get a foot to the face. And the ladder that he's obsessed with, I've let him try and he can't climb it yet, I let him play with it when no one else is but he doesn't understand that when other kids are trying to climb he can't stand there. The list goes on, so although I am so excited he is embracing his Independence when he's playing, I am a natural worry wort (meet my mother) and stay very close to him.
Something very cute happened while we were playing. There was a little girl (almost 10 months) sitting on the side of the playground with her grandma, watching her mom and big sister play. Ethan walked right up to her, sat down and started playing next to her. At this age, kids don't really understand how to play together but it's sweet to see him playing next to her.

He's such a big boy!!