My Cup Runneth Over

Since we've been home, I've thought of many topics to blog about:

• our landscaping (or lack thereof) woes and my secret desire to steal other people's perennials,
• Ethan's new dance and his great love of being nude,
• the painful (and I mean literally, not emotionally) reality of weaning,
• my feelings about not returning to school in the fall,
• the whirlwind that has been a very busy summer,
• and the benefits of my poor housekeeping skills.

Stay tuned for more on some of the above.

Today, boring as it may be, what I really would like to write about is how we've done a lot of nothing lately and really like it. We've enjoyed a fairly light couple of weeks with few obligations. Ethan, seemingly still recovering from his poor night sleep in Colorado, has been taking super long naps lately (this morning being a sad exception, unfortunately), and Will and I have taken quite a few naps ourselves. We've also done a lot of walking to town; playing at the park; playing and working in the backyard; and reading, for ourselves and to Ethan.

Side Story:
Some of you may remember my post a while back about the possibility of Ethan hating books after his library meltdown. Well, I'm here to tell you that my worries were for naught. Ethan LOVES books now. In fact, it can be downright frustrating since he has his favorites and wants you to read them to you over and over. It's annoying when I want to read Mommy's Best Kisses but Ethan wants to read a lame book called Time for School Mouse. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that his love of reading will continue. With Will and I as parents, I can't see how it won't but you never know.

There have been many days in the past week or so when I've paused in whatever I was doing and thought, Wow. I'm happy. Not that it's a big surprise and not that I was not happy before. It is just that our summer slowed down enough to really think about it. Even when we were having fun during a busy time of summer, we were too caught up in all the activities to really notice, I think. So, in the midst of some downtime, I thought I should be sure to document that, indeed, we are really enjoying ourselves this summer! And we're enjoying ourselves despite the fact that the house is a mess (Ethan destroys anything I pick up the minute he walks by), any summer projects are out the window, and school (for Will - sad) is quickly approaching.

Without a doubt, Ethan is a big contributor to our happiness right now. Back at home in his own crib, he's sleeping well again, and I'm enjoying a little more freedom now that he is officially weaned. Now, Will can put Ethan to bed and get him up in the morning without my help. Also, because Ethan's walking now, he's into everything, which is definitely not helping with the clutter/mess in the house but is still pretty hilarious. We typically close all doors upstairs so he can roam around the childproofed kitchen and living room. Even with such a small area in which to roam, he still gets into a good amount of mischief. The other day, Will opened the door to the office to find me on the computer. Here is our conversation from that day:

Will: Oh, you were in here?
Me: Well, yes, where were you?
Will: In the bedroom.
Me: Okay, then where is Ethan?
Will: He's in his room. He turned on his radio and is dancing.

Classic. He also really likes to tear paper apart, open and close anything, get in his baby pool with this regular clothes on, imitate laughter, transfer his clothing - one item at a time - to his other dresser, and dance to his barnyard fridge magnets. He has us laughing all the time, it seems, and it makes me very glad I'll be around this year for more fun.

Here is our goofy boy in some recent pictures:

He will open and close the door over and over. The problem comes when he closes the door all the way and can't get it open again.
When we actually want Ethan to go swimming, like when he's actually in his bathing suit, we have to bribe him to stay in by putting his car in the pool.
Here's Ethan's new bike helmet. :)
It's way too big right now, even with pads, but he did last 20 minutes on a bike ride the other day before he decided he was done.
We took this the other day when it got quiet (usually not a good sign) and we came to his room to find him reading on his floor.