Creative fun

Ethan has continued to amaze us as he develops. His ability to create games out of nothing and mimic our actions is truly remarkable. With these fun activities however, comes the not so fun stuff. Ethan has developed quite a temper when he doesn't get his way. All Michael and I can do is ignore his display of frustration and anger and hope he learns that such outbursts will get him nowhere. He sure has one big personality!! In addition, we are still trying to get him to talk more, but he is not showing much interest. We are trying to sign and talk to him instead, but it is hard for us to remember all the signs and it takes a lot of patience!! Each day bring more amazment and challenges for sure. Walking is improving for Ethan, but he thinks he can run and often finds himself face-planted on the floor. He doesn't like when that happens, but he is still plugging away.

Turning One

Ethan had a simple birthday. He opened a few gifts, ate cake and then the next day took his first steps. What a week for his birthday! We were more excited than he was!! Sweet, simple, messy, and priceless. Ethan was covered in cake, but he sure loved the frosting. Enjoy the pics! We simply can't believe a year has come and gone. Ethan has grown and changed so much.

Busy Boy

Ethan is growing up more each day. He is really starting to look like a young boy instead of our baby. It is great fun to watch him make toys out of nothing, crawl all over the place and babble, squeal, and raise a ruckus. Never a dull moment for us! Ethan now has five teeth - 4 on the top and one on the bottom. He looks kind of silly, but oh well. He favorite thing to eat is cheese. I think he could live on the stuff. Other than that, he is just doing normal baby stuff right now. I cut his bangs a few weeks ago - what an experience. Hopefully we will have pictures up of that soon. Life is busy for us and to think it is only going to get busier!!

Getting Braver

Ethan is getting a lot braver as he begins to figure out the mechanics of crawling. This morning he became bored with the toys we offered him on the floor in our bedroom while we were getting ready for work. Normally he would just pitch a fit and expect us to give him something more fun to play with, but this morning he up and decided to just army crawl away from the toys and into our hallway. Once there he was confused by the new floor texture, but it didn't take him long to deal with that change and sit up on his butt to explore the hallway, shadows, and the air exchange vent. Once he figured out the air vent made a great "string" instrument, he went to town making music by strumming the vent guard. He then proceeded to use his pacifer as a drum stick on it as well. It was great fun to watch him discover a whole new world outside of the confines of our bedroom this morning. The world seems to be at his fingertips now. What will be his next adventure???

Rolling Rolling Rolling...

Ethan finally rolled over from his back to his belly on July 31st. He now can't stop rolling all over the place. Right now it is his mode of transportation and he is already getting himself into mischief. It will be loads of fun when he puts all his coordination together and starts crawling. We are enjoying watching our son grow up (but it is all going much too quickly). I just want to bottle him up where he is right now and save all these precious moments.
Ethan is also beginning to use sign language. He first word/sign was milk on Sunday, August 9th. I am so excited that he is learning from Michael and I. Can't wait until he learns another word.

Food Rocks!

Ethan is finally starting to love food. It took a while for him to figure out what to do with it, but now he can't seem to get enough. Even though he has proven to be a messy eater (no matter what I try) he continues to chow down on the good stuff. Sometimes instead of eating the food he prefers to pull it out of his mouth in an effort to investigate what I put in his mouth. He then paints a self portrait on himself or the highchair. I'm glad I have patience, because if I didn't I wouldn't find any humor in his mess!

We are happy to say Ethan pulled through his surgery well earlier this month. He is healing wonderfully. Ethan is back to enjoying all that life has to offer him right now.

Parade and Fireworks

Ethan enjoyed his first 4th of July celebration, well mostly. The parade went well until the modern day fire trucks came roaring down the street with sirens blarring. He made it through the guns and old fashion trucks, but not the modern ones. After that he did great until he got tired and had to go take a nap in his stroller. He seemed to like watching all the activity streaming by on the street. That evening we went to see fireworks too. He only cried during the first few but then he got comfortable on my chest and watched the remainder of the 15 minute show. He cried a little at the end too when things got excessively loud again. We have a few pictures from this weekend in our July photos. We also upload a ton more to June. Enjoy our little Ethan!

Growing Tall

Ethan’s checkup went well last week. He got his 3 shots and even though he cried hard, it was pretty easy to calm him afterwards. He grew 2 inches since his 4 month appointment!! We were excited about that because it puts him back on the growth curve. His weight was 16 pounds 2 ounces (also perfect) and we have been cleared to start real food (though I have been trying the rice cereal for sometime). We are to feed him with a spoon twice a day now. This will be exhausting until he figures out what a spoon is and how to use it. He still hasn’t figured it out since we started cereal on Memorial Day evening. But I suppose in time we will all get used to it.