Kids (especially Ethan) Say the Darndest Things

One of my favorite things these days is when Ethan talks to me. He talks all the time, but a lot of the time it's to whine or complain or demand. But, other times, he talks to me about anything and everything, and these conversations are almost always entertaining. Recently, we've been talking a lot about our upcoming trip to Florida. He's beyond excited and asks often if we're going "today." Hard to tell a kid that you're not leaving for another few days when he has little concept of time. Well, yesterday, I was saying that he'd been to Florida one other time, but it was when he was in my tummy. His first response was, "But could I see?" The conversation went on and on and soon took a turn for the worst. He asked how he fit when he came out my mouth. I had to explain that he didn't come out of my mouth but someplace else. Really, I was not thinking ahead to what would be his inevitable next question and probably should have started mentioning storks and Jesus and such, but, well, I didn't. I told him as close to the truth as I could, leading to questions about whether or not he fell in the toilet when he was born. Ugh. As soon as possible, I steered the conversation another way, hopefully before any permanent damage was done to his psyche.

I just love the curiosity of this age. He wants to know EVERYTHING! And, mostly, I don't find his WHY questions annoying, because when he's asking it, he is genuinely interested, and the answers I give lead to more and more funny questions. And I also love that he sees me as a complete genius who knows the answer to all of his questions. I mean, I know that won't last forever, right? For now, I'll enjoy it.

Eleanor is not saying much yet, but we do think she said, "Bye bye, Dadda" a couple weeks ago as Will was leaving for school. It was adorable. She hasn't repeated it yet, but she does wave and say bye bye many mornings. This morning, I took her to her first library story time class. She loved it, of course. There were a ton of other little kids, mostly a little older, walking around and doing the dances with the songs. She crawled around playing with some board books and just looking thrilled at all the other kids and adults. She's such a happy kid and not shy often. Complete opposite of Ethan - he used to try and escape when we took him to class. And he would NEVER do the motions to the songs, unless we were at home. He'd do it all at home but be completely still in class. Once Eleanor learns the moves to the different songs, I have no doubt she will be a complete performer. It's so funny to watch this very different personality grow.



One frustrating thing right now is that Eleanor shows very little interest in walking. She's 13 months tomorrow, and I was pretty sure she'd be a late walker, which is fine. But now that the weather is nicer (sometimes), and we're outside and at parks more, it's not easy. All the parks near us have wood chips, so I can't very well just put her down and have her crawl around in the wood chips, which is what she wants to do. I put her in a baby swing for a while, but when we both get tired of swinging, I just have to hold her. The good news is that we have had two picnics recently, and I didn't have her in a seat but she stayed still long enough to eat. For part of it, I held her, but I was afraid that with her being so mobile now, as opposed to in the fall when she just sat up but didn't crawl, picnics would be impossible. Hopefully, she'll be walking in the next month or so. Going to the park won't be easy still since climbing will be the next step, but at least she won't be getting holes in her pants crawling in our driveway or trying to eat rabbit poop in our yard (yeah...true story)...


I'm really behind here on pictures, so this is most of March so far. I got a new camera last week, too, so I had a few photo shoots with the baby, trying to get a good one year picture.

Guess who got into her box of tissue?

One of Eleanor's boyfriends (and her birthday buddy) came for a visit.

Ethan's old friend came for a visit from IN. The boys had a great time eating a special table I set up for them. We had the triplets and Derek's younger brother at the kitchen table, meaning there were five babies and three toddlers at the house!

The girls loved exploring.

Ethan made this adorable hat for St. Patrick's Day. We're not Irish (I don't think), but we sure did have fun this year. A leprechaun came to visit our house this year, and he turned our milk and potty water green! Ethan's still talking about it.

I'm giving this one to my parents to put in a frame on their piano. It brings tears to my eyes - I just love it. (Sure wish Eleanor was wearing pants!)

Ummm...corned beef and cabbage.

Still learning this camera - the color is terrible here.

And, finally, here is a letter we typed to the Easter bunny earlier today. I helped. I already got him one Mr. Potato Head. Now, I need to look for a few other things, I guess!