My boys

I’m sitting here writing this post as we are eating breakfast… Ethan just “cheers”ed me with his yogurt. As always, he’s quite the character.

Christmas and New Year’s were so much fun! Ethan was one very spoiled boy. From a remote control fire truck to a basketball hoop, there will be no excuse for boredom around our house. Today is January 7th and Ethan opened up his last Christmas present a couple of days ago. Each present he opened, he would sit and play with, so it took a pretty long time to open them all.

My mom, step-dad and Jarrod’s dad were in town for Christmas and Jarrod’s brother and family were in town for New Year’s. We went with his brother’s family to Disneyland for Ethan and his cousins first trip. It was a really fun day, but I’ll have to say… we won’t go there the week before New Year’s again, it was really crowded. Ethan’s favorite ride was probably “It’s a Small World”. In addition to a few others we also took him on “The Pirates of the Caribbean” but it was a bit scary for him with the dips.

I took the week off between Christmas and New Year’s so it was really fun to hang out with Ethan (and Jarrod of course) for a week. I was concerned about Ethan’s first day back at school, I thought he might get upset to go back, but it was the complete opposite. He ran right in, and was happy as a clam!

He is learning so much. His vocabulary is blossoming each and every day.

He also now knows his colors (has for about a month) and can sometimes count to 10. Sometimes he gets a bit of track. This morning it was, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8. He will get there

It’s hard to believe that the little man will be 2 in a couple of weeks! We are throwing him a Yo Gabba Gabba party at the park. He saw me ordering Yo Gabba Gabba things online for the party, and got pretty excited! When I tell him it will be his birthday party in a couple weeks he says “Yo Gabba Gabba birthday”. He’s going to have so much fun!

It seems as though little mister has been on a growth spurt in the last couple of weeks. His teacher’s all swear that he he looked taller when he went back after winter break. I need to measure him. He was wearing a size 6 shoe, and I think he’s just outgrown them. We will be shopping for new shoes this weekend.

Cute Ethan stories…

I made us both strawberry shortcake, each with 4 strawberries. Of course, Ethan finished his strawberries before I did. I had half a strawberry left, when Ethan asked for more. He doesn’t do well with sugar, so I said no more strawberries. Before I knew it, he had the strawberry from my plate in his hand, said thank you, and stuck it in his mouth. It was so funny that I couldn’t get mad.

Ethan loves music, probably a lot of the reason he loves Yo Gabba Gabba. He does the “Brobee” dance to any music he hears. With his arms out like he’s an airplane. When we’ve got music on in the car, he will finish the lyrics of the songs. I’m realizing it might be time to listen to kid music in the car, because he’s going to pick up on some not so great lyrics pretty soon.

Speaking of finishing the lyrics, he repeats everything. I said damn it the other day and a few minutes later he said something damn it! Oops…

He has been remembering our friends and families names more than he used to. After our family left to go back home from the holidays he kept asking “where did granny go, Chuck go, grandpa Bob go etc.” Last night we had dinner with our friends Erin and Mike. After they went home he kept talking about them and asking where they went.

Well this is likely my last post before Ethan turns 2! Next post will be about the birthday party. We are excited that Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bill will be here to celebrate.

Until then…

Nov. 7

Ethan has been a little parrot. He repeats everything that we say, and says ats dat, ats dat, (what’s that) to learn the names of everything and everyone. My new favorite phrase from him (Jarrod taught him last night) is, “bye people”.

I gave him raisins for the first time and he LOVES them!

I weighed and measured him at 22 months and he is 34 1/2 inches tall and 27 lbs.

November 29, 2011

There seems to be a pattern, with the holidays, comes no posts from me! We just returned home from a few days in Fresno to visit our family for Thanksgiving. We had a really fun time!

We left at 10 PM on the way there, so Ethan slept the whole way. On the way home we left around 1 PM, so we didn’t get so lucky. He slept for a little more than half of the 5 hour trip and while he was awake he was shockingly good.

December 17

Yesterday was Ethan’s “Winter Celebration” at school. His class sang “Jingle Bells”, “We wish you a Merry Christmas” and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer”. It was very cute and the kids were so good for being 2-3 years old.

We figured that they would be singing “Jingle Bells” because for the past few weeks, he’s been singing the song non-stop. At first he would fill in a word here and there, and I thought, how does he know that?

Developments - In addition to saying “ats dat” (what’s that), he now says “name”. He is speaking 4 word sentances, and his vocabulary is increasing exponentially every day. For the past couple of weeks he has been a pro at going up and down the stairs with no hands. He literally will run up and down them with no help. He very much wants to do everything by himself. I used to always carry him to the car, now we leave the house and he says “walk”. When we get to the car he has to climb in by himself too.

His sleep habits always seem to change. One week we put him in his bed no problem, no crying etc. at 7:45. The next week, it’s a huge fit and fight and he doesn’t go down until after 9:00. Not sure why it varies? We are currently in a tough sleep stage at the moment. Hopefully next week will be back to the easy stage.

His favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba, if he could, he would probably watch it all day.

His favorite activities are playing with play doh and playing soccer (aka, kicking the ball around).

A recommendation for those of you with little ones is For Small Hands. They sell small tools and learning toys that are pretty affordable too. Most of Ethan’s Christmas presents will be from that catalogue.

In addition to books, matching games etc., we got him a little “bolt block” and wooden spool and threading set. The bolt block is a wooden block, with wooden bolts and wooden screwdriver. The wooden spool and threading set will be more challenging for his age but his teacher said that he likes working with the one at school.

Christmas is in about a week and we’ve got family coming to town so it should be really fun!!! Happy Holidays

Well, I’m a few days late on Ethan’s monthly update. That would be because things have been busy around here!

A week and a half ago we flew up to Sacramento, dropped Ethan off with grandma and grandpa and drove up to Napa to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. We had a really fun time! Napa wasn’t everything I thought it would be, but it was still a nice trip and we will be back. How can you go wrong with wine tasting right?!

We stayed at Vino Bello, which was OK, but I probably wouldn’t stay at again. They tote themselves as a 4 star, but I would describe the resort as an upgraded Holiday Inn.

We hired Napa Bee Driven. They are a company that drives your car around for you rather than renting a limo or going in a shuttle. I would highly recommend them! Our driver was great and very knowledgeable. Their rates are much more reasonable than renting a limo.

The first night we were there we splurged and went to dinner at La Toque, it was very good, but probably only somewhere we would go once. On our wine tour we went to Mumm’s, Del Dotto and Rubicon.

So enough about us… What has Ethan been up to? Well, he did great on our flights to and from Sacramento, it was his fifth flight.

And, he has really been wanting to use the potty. We bought a seat to go onto the toilet and he (in so many words) tells me he wants to go potty. I put him on the toilet and he will literally sit there for 20 minutes, probably longer if I let him. The last time he sat there, he grabbed toilet paper and tried to wipe in the front and back (sorry if that’s too much information). The things they pick up!

Today in the bath he told me “pee pee” while he held his bottom. He wanted to sit on the potty. He’s cried wolf to me too many times for me to know that he really didn’t need to go potty. He just wanted to sit there to try. Poor guy, I hope he’s able to figure it out soon!

He has a book called “Potty”. I caught him reading it today and it was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. As he turned the pages he was reading (from memory and pictures). “Bye Bye Diaper” and “Hooray” which were pages in the book. I’ll have to try and get it on video.

We took Ethan to the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago. That was quite the experience. Ethan was so overwhelmed with all the activity there that we had several meltdowns. He would go from really excited to really distraught in the blink of an eye. Overall he had a good time though. When we download the pictures from our camera, I’ll post some.

He went on a carousel and on a horse.  On the horse he looked pretty confident and really excited…. until the horse started to move. It was so sad. His little lip went down and then he started balling. Needless to say he was removed from the horse as soon as possible.

Yesterday was Halloween and his school had a carnival and parade. He was a dinosaur, and got to go to school in his costume. There were definitely some tears about putting it on, but he did it and he looked adorable. When we got to school and he saw all his friends in costume he was pretty excited. He kept on saying Halloween and Trick or Treat. His day at school was pretty fun filled so we decided not to take him trick or treating. I felt bad but he’s still so little and by the time we got home and finished dinner it was already 7:30. Plus, I had to make a grocery store run on the way home so you can imagine how excited he was about that .

Ethan has been putting lots of words together. 2 and sometimes 3 words for the most part. My favorite phrase of all is “open it”. He sounds so cute saying it. He also says “I love you”. Not voluntarily, but he will repeat it if you say it.

We bought Ethan play doh this weekend and he LOVES it!!! If you have a 21 month old and don’t already have it, it’s a must have item. It will keep them occupied for 45 minutes (that’s a really long time in our house). We also bought him a table and chairs that are his size. We are hoping to set up more of a Montessori environment in our home within the next couple of weeks. We have way too many toys around here and a lot of them aren’t “Montessori approved”.

One more update. Ethan is missing 4 teeth, plus his molars. I think they will soon be making an appearance because he has been drooling like crazy and seems to be in pain. Please wish us luck!

Saturday we grabbed coffee on 2nd, took Ethan to the park and then Ethan and I went to brunch with one of my best friends, and on a long walk, while Jarrod golfed.

Today we went to the Santa Ana Zoo and had a really fun time! Ethan got to ride on the train and he found his new favorite animal, the bald eagle. The Santa Ana Zoo is a pretty small zoo but if you’re with a toddler it’s perfect. There are lots of Monkeys and farm animals that you can feed.

Here’s the latest dish on Ethan.

When we’re in the car listening to music Ethan will get really upset when a song he likes ends. When it ends he starts balling, literally. If you didn’t know better you would think he hurt himself. It took a few times of this happening for us to figure out what was going on.

I also got a phone call from his teacher on Friday that he has been aggressive at school. If he gets angry or frustrated he will hit. If a toy makes him frustrated, he will throw it. If a another child is playing with a toy he wants, he will throw something at them or push them out of the way.

His teacher gave me some suggestions for handling his behavior so that our discipline is consistent with what they are doing at school. Hopefully it’s a phase that will soon end.

I know I just made him sound like a little monster, but he’s really not. He’s got a lot of sweetness in him too. This morning he woke me up by climbing on the bed and over me and giving me a big wet smooch on the lips, then smiling really big. He cracks me up!

This week is pumpkin patch time! Last year we went to the Irvine Railroad but this year we’re keeping it simple and checking out Pa’s Pumpkin Patch in Long Beach. I bought an unlimited rides pass so Ethan should have a really fun time.

On another note, we are going to Napa for our 4 year wedding anniversary and I’ve been sitting at the computer tonight getting so excited looking at all the wineries, restaurants and really just the beauty of Napa itself planning our itinerary. Our trip can’t come soon enough!

Well, off to bed. I’ll try and post some new pics next time, they are way overdo on my blog.

The last couple of weeks have been mostly good, with a couple of hiccups along the way. Since it’s fresh in my mind, let’s start with today and the ride home from school. It pretty much sums up a typical day in our house.

We pass by Trader Joes every day, and every day Ethan points and gets really upset because he LOVES going there and we don’t stop. Well, today he was in luck because I had to make a trip. As we pulled into the parking lot he got the biggest grin on his face and started saying “grocery store, grocery store YAY”. It was really flippen cute.

We started out in the produce section where he screamed “nana” “nana”, so I opened one up and he started munching away. When he was done with the banana, we went down the section with crackers. He screamed out “crackers” so I picked out a box of the whole grain crackers and let him have one.

Next aisle was cereal, again he pointed and got all excited. This time I didn’t want to buy cereal so he got a little worked up because I wouldn’t give him any. I distracted him with some tomatoes that were already in my cart. He ate about 10 of them! It was the only way I could keep him quiet.

In the parking lot he wanted another banana, and I didn’t want him to have another one, so he got really upset. Tried hitting me and had a tantrum in the parking lot.

Fast forward to when we got home. I was making dinner and Jarrod was giving Ethan a bath. Jarrod screamed out to me, “Ethan pooped in the bath again”. Yes again. Not really what I was looking forward to hearing right before I needed to drain the ravioli. Instead, we drained the bath and picked up all the pieces, cleaned the bath and Jarrod had to give him another one :/…

Ethan’s hopefully going to be a dinosaur for Halloween. The reason I say hopefully is because he’s afraid to put his costume on. We made him put it on tonight and he cried until we took it off… I’m hoping if we put it on a couple more times he will get comfortable with it? I really hope so… He loves dinosaurs so much I didn’t think this would be a problem.

Ethan is practicing a lot of words and putting two words together. He found my pajama pants a couple of days ago and came out of the room with them saying “mama’s pants”. Tonight he said “mama’s shoe”. He’s also putting two and two together. Watching football last night he was saying “throw ball”.

I had a work event last week so Jarrod had to take Ethan to the doctor because it looked like he was getting pink eye. I got a voicemail from Jarrod saying “oh my gosh, you will never believe what happened”.

Ethan had a poopy diaper and Jarrod had forgotten a diaper and wipes. He went up to the counter and asked how long the wait would be. They said 45 minutes so he told them he was going to go home to change his diaper. When he came back to Ethan, Ethan was saying “yucky, yucky”. Ethan had stuck his hands down his diaper and had poop all over his hands…

This isn’t the first time he has stuck his hands down his pants. It’s kind of his new discovery… Not fun. His other new discover is his nose.

Turned out Ethan had the beginning stages of an ear infection so he’s been on antibiotics and eye drops. To give him the antibiotics was a nightmare for the first couple of days. I asked a friend at work (with two teenagers) if she had any suggestions for getting him to take the meds. She said when her kids were little they just sucked on the dropper and that they loved the taste.

What a concept. I never thought about him feeding it to himself, nor did I realize that he could suck on it and it would come out. It worked!!! He actually liked the meds when he could feed it to himself.

Ethan has still been struggling to go sleep. Some nights (including tonight) are worse than others. He got so worked up when I put him down that Jarrod got him out of bed and tried snuggling with him on the couch.

At 9:15 he was showing no signs of going to sleep so Jarrod put him back. He got really upset again and then closed his bedroom door. He closes his bedroom door almost every time we put him down now. It took him about 10 minutes to settle down after closing the door. It’s so hard to hear him upset, but he needs his sleep and I’m not really sure how to get him down any other way at this age.

That’s all for now.

So there are definitely some new developments in the past few weeks…

Jarrod and I are going to start having to talk in code because half the time Ethan understands what we’re talking about. A couple of examples: I told Jarrod last night that I was going to cut up some strawberries for dessert. Ethan ran into the kitchen, stood by the fridge, jumped up and down saying “strawberries, strawberries”.

After dinner that same night I asked Jarrod if he’d give Ethan a bath… well after Ethan heard that, he got really excited once again, ran to the bathroom and hung on the door saying, “bath, bath”.

Ethan loves “choo choo trains” and cars. He has one “Cars” shirt and one Thomas the Train shirt. When we try to take them off, to put on PJs or put him into the bath, he has a meltdown. He wore his Thomas the Train shirt today, and he’s sleeping in it it now because he wouldn’t let me take it off. I’m hoping that it comes off without a fight tomorrow morning, but most likely not.

The past month, Ethan has started up with his separation anxiety again. It’s so sad to drop him off at school because he has a huge meltdown and holds onto me tight. I’m hoping it gets better soon… He’s also been having a really hard time going to sleep. It’s a huge tantrum every time we put him down.

Ethan pooped in the bathtub for the first time this week, and also on the kitchen floor. That was fun…

Well I could go on and on, so that’s all for now.
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1.He waves his hands at imaginary flies. It’s that time of year again when the flies are everywhere! The past few days I’ve been swatting fly’s with my arms. Ethan doesn’t realize what I’m doing, so he will just randomly wave his arms around in the funniest motion thinking it’s something normal that people do.

2. A couple of days ago we were reading a book that showed a cow eating corn, Ethan ran into the kitchen and started saying “corn” “corn”. We didn’t have any and I felt bad, he started crying because he REALLY wanted some.

3.  He says 95% of the sounds of the alphabet and he recognizes some letters.

4. It’s football season and Ethan loves it. He holds a football during the games and he slept with one the other night. When I came in to wake him up in the morning, he woke up, picked up the football and threw it to me. He calls the football apball.

5. We finally took his crib apart and made it a big boy bed. He’s doing great in it and hasn’t been getting out once he’s in.

I took Ethan to get some shots today, he’s a little bit behind on them because I’ve been doing an alternative vaccination method. He weighs 25 lbs and is 32″ tall. He was a little trooper and got a lollypop for his efforts.

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He’s in a new classroom, with a bit of a new routine so it was a little bit of adjustment for him once again. Wednesday, and Thursday were tough for him when I dropped him off, but Friday went really well. His school had an ice-cream social on Friday so we picked up up early to join him at that. It was pretty cute.

So what’s new with Ethan… I’m sure there is a new word or two, but I can’t think of what they may be right now….

I’ve got a crock-pot concoction going right now. Chicken thighs with white beans and potatoes. I’m not a very good impromptu chef, so we will find out in about 45 minutes if it’s edible or not. I sure hope it is because I’m starving right now!

The last 2 days he’s been excited to go to school. Yesterday he stood at the front door with his backpack aka lunch box blowing kisses to dad saying “I’m ready to go”. When we got there, he walked over to a friend and didn’t give me a second look. When I came to pick him up, he was throwing a football and started crying when I picked him up, he didn’t want to leave. The best thing I could ask for!!

Today, a couple of tears when we left the house because he didn’t want to leave dad, but when we got to school, off he went on the playground. He didn’t even give me time to zip his sweater.

Ethan looked a bit silly today because he’s all of a sudden very particular about what he puts on and what he wants. Last night he took some crocs out of his drawer, and wanted Jarrod to put them on him. They were inseparable after that. I tried taking them off when he went to bed and he started throwing a tantrum. So he slept in the crocs.

This morning Jarrod tried taking them off to change him, another tantrum… So, he wore the crocs to school (which are too large for him) and that we bought for the beach/pool.

Ethan also has 3 favorite shirts; one with a football, Thomas the train and a car. He loves them! If he spots them, he will grab them and insist that I help him put them on.

I can ask Ethan to get a book for me to read with him. He runs to his room and brings one back. I then tell him to put it back before grabbing another one, and he will.

Ethan’s working on 3 new teeth. Before we know it, he’ll have a full set.

As we speak, he’s in his crib singing. 19 months is a great stage, he’s so much fun!

That’s all for now!

First boat ride - 18 months

Well, it’s been a few weeks since my last post, mostly because it has been crazy busy in our house! 2 weddings, family in town etc.

Ethan is adjusting well to his new Montessori school. It’s been almost a month already, which is hard to believe. Summer school ends the end of next week, and the new school year starts on September 7th. A couple days after the new school year, the school is hosting an ice cream social. We’re looking forward to that, to meet with the teachers, families and kids that will be in Ethan’s class. There will be 12 kids in his class and 2 teachers.

Each week there’s a new development. Ethan has mastered drinking out of a regular cup, though we still give him a sippy cup at home if he’s walking around with it. Binky’s are done with!! Which has been great, and Ethan’s biggest accomplishment to date is escaping his crib!

We put Ethan down for a nap about a week and a half ago, and the next thing you know he came strolling into the kitchen… We were so confused and  blamed Granny (who was staying with us for the week) for taking him out of the crib. Well turned out it wasn’t her, and after many escapes to follow, we realized this was here to stay. Jarrod will be installing his toddler bed this weekend which will be a bit safer for him when he does get out of the bed.

Each week in Ethan’s summer school program there is an emphasis on a new sport. So far Ethan has learned soccer and basketball. He surprised us with some pretty impressive soccer moves out of the blue the weekend before last. I didn’t realize how much an 18 month old could pick up when it came to the coordination of kicking a ball. He seriously looked like a little pro. He kept kicking the ball into the wall as if it was his goal.

When I picked Ethan up from school today his teacher told me that he is finally learning how to pick up after himself and put away the toys he is playing with. Hallelujah!!! I could not be more excited and will be reinforcing this at home. Prior to today she said he made a little trail of destruction everywhere he went which is exactly what we were dealing with at home.

Ethan’s language is really expanding too. Too many words to list but here are a few new ones:

lunch box

backpack

graham cracker

airplane

cookie (cookie monster)

all the Sesame characters, Abby, Elmo, Bert & Ernie

Well, that’s all for now, hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

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