Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Winter Blahs

We are really starting to hate winter over here, but rather than let it get me too down, I've kind of just decided to pretend like it's spring. Here are some pictures/videos to prove it.


Spring cleaning...
...without pants even, because who needs pants in warmer weather?

Baseball!

Little league, here we come!

Yellow, springlike cupcakes.

Okay, this has nothing to do with spring, but it's cute. Will and Ethan are watching Spiderman cartoons.

Another non-springy picture, but, again, cute.

Ethan was trying out his new potty chair.

Not bad for a 1 1/2 year old, I'd say.

Poor Ethan doesn't have a chance at not being a comic nerd.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! LOVE YOU.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

These are the Moments

Ethan does about a million tiny things daily that, to me and Will, are so cute and precious that we'd love to bottle them up to enjoy at a later date. We could have a wine cellar of sorts, but it would be an Ethan cellar, with bottles and bottles of utter cuteness. And when we're old and gray, we could pick out a different vintage every once and a while, relive these moments, and toast to our happiness. But since we can't do that, reading about these adorable tidbits in my cyberjournal will have to suffice. Most of these little idiosycrocies are difficult to describe adequately, but I'll do my best.



Ethan - here are the little things we love:



-You now use Mama and Dadda often and greet us by name in the morning. The other morning, Daddy went in first and I came shortly after. When you saw me you said Mama with a big smile then looked at Daddy and said Dadda like you were so lucky to have us both there at once.

-You LOVE to read and point out the same things over and over in your many books. One of your favorite items to point out is a moon. You even point to the plastic disc in the ceiling of the car and call out, "mooooon."

-You turn a lot of one syllable words into two syllable words. Among them cuuu-lock for clock puuuu-llow for plow.

-Because I sometimes put ice in your water, you now yell out "eyece" (not quite two syllables but close) everytime I give you your water cup.

-If either me or Daddy tries to lay down while we're playing with you, you go behind us and literally lift our heads up off the ground as if to say, "No sleeping on the job, mom and dad."

-When you want to read a book, you grab it and then back into our laps like a car backing into a parking space. Often, we fight the urge to go, "Beep, Beep, Beep."

-At random times, you will furiously roll your hand in circles until we start singing Wheels on the Bus.

-When we sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star you now say "uppa" right before we get to the part that goes "up above."

-At breakfast, lunch, and dinner, whenever I tell you to get your bib, you do a lap around the house laughing and make me chase you to put it on.

-If we say thank you, you return it with the sign for thank you (palm against mouth then pulled away) and say, "Ga Ga."

-You eat your fruits and veggies first always. We love that. You also refer to all vegetables these days as an avoca, your word for avocado.

-Your word for pacifier is Tata. Don't think the pun is lost on us here. :)

-When people you don't see often (or strangers) talk to you, you either give them the puffed out lip stink face or you run into our legs and hug us.

-You give really wet, open mouthed kisses.

-In the morning, while I clean up the counter and get breakfast ready, you bring your stool to the counter and eat Kix or Cheerios while you watch me.

-Recently, you put your whole face in the water during bath. You are in no way afraid of water and we pour it over your face with little warning. You just laugh.

-You are slightly obsessed with looking at pictures. You take them off the shelf and point to everyone while naming them. Your recent obsession is with Aunt Moe (Malia), which sounds like Ammo, and you run around the house with her picture.

-You've started doing your own grocery shopping at Trader Joe's with your own cart. You know exactly what to do, and it's cute beyond words. Today, you started putting your items on the counter before the patron before us was finished. You were just too excited.

-If I ask you to come help me cook, you run and grab your stool, put it next to the counter where I prepare the food, and say, "I cook, I cook" with a large emphasis on the C in cook.

-While this is you being naughty, we can't help but giggle when you kick us (lightly) and say, "kiiiick" and then run to the couch where I put you in time out. I guess time out is not working quite yet.

Ethan, we love all of these little, and big, moments with you. Thank you for making us smile all day long.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Monday, February 9, 2009

Out of Retirement

I've been getting some requests for a new blog post, so here I am. I've been out of the blogging scene lately because I've been going through a training period to be an online professor for Ashford University. There was a three week interview period that ends today. Any spare time on the computer has been spent on this work.

It's been fun doing this training, but I also realized that I don't love being busy and I certainly made the right decision to stay home. I will enjoy teaching again, no doubt, and I will get used to needing to manage my time to be able to do well, but I know I do not like being busy. I like having options for what I do with my time while Ethan naps, but these past couple of weeks my only option has been to work on the computer. I'll get used to it, I'm sure, but it made me realize, once again, how lucky I am.

Other than the training, Ethan and I have simply been trying to survive the awful winter. I've definitely hit a point where I'm just longing for spring. The past few days have been a fabulous reprieve, but I know they won't last. I'll take it, though, and am looking forward to a trip to the zoo tomorrow. It's suppossed to go above 60 degrees!

We had a fantastic weekend being able to get out of the house for longer than 20 minutes at a time. Saturday morning, we went for a run, all three of us, and then were outside later. I actually drank my coffee out on the back patio with nothing but a fleece jacket and pants on. It was fabulous. Sunday we had a birthday party at the gymnastics gym, which was a blast. Will finally got to see him run around in there. And they had a giant blow up obstacle course jumpy thing. We got video of the two of us taking Ethan through. It's hilarious. I think Will had more fun than Ethan.

Ethan continues to make Will and I laugh with his goofy antics. He's talking more and more and is starting to get better at communicating what he wants. I encourage him often to use his words. He also uses the signs he knows, like the sign for more, all done, please and thank you. His thank you sign is my favorite. He says "GaGa" as he pulls his hand out from his mouth (almost like blowing a kiss). I'm not sure he knows what it means because he usually says it to me after I have said thank you to him. I'll take it. He's also taken to carrying around a picture of my sisters and I, saying "Ammo," which means Aunt Moe, what we call my sister Malia. He's a bit obsessed lately. Ammo is the new Pop Pop, I guess. Oh, and he also pretends to sleep now. If we tell him to come lay down with us, he plops down by us and goes, "Ahhhsoooo" like he's snoring. So cute.


Ethan loves to try on all of stuff. Looks a little gansta, doesn't he?
Pointing to an animal in his fantastic Ikea Atlas. It's his favorite book, by far. He has learned many new words from it.

Ethan now says Puma (papu), sloth (ssssloch!), llama (yaya), pipe (pipe), oil (oye), spaceship (shayshay) and many other random words.
Trying on mama's shoes. See video below.
Last Monday I got ambitious and made over two pounds of homemade linguine noodles. They were good, but we were eating them for 3+ days!

And here's my double batch of gravy, too.

Who needs warm weather to go outside?