Ethan

Ethan's walking! Ok, so this isn't new news but we haven't posted it yet so it's sort of new. He's been walking regularly for a little over a month now. He just stood up and walked across the room, gave my mom a hug, turned around, and came back. He hasn't stopped since. 

Ethan is obsessed with the dishwasher. He's big on seeing how much noise he can make by tossing dishes out or how loud I'll screech when he's chewing on the utensils. Yummy.

The other day he was "helping" me unload the dishwasher and the second I was done he was climbing in. He used all his strength and chucked the bottom drawer across the kitchen. He was so happy with himself and pretty dang cute. 

          

First Steps

Ethan is well on his way to becoming the fourth bipedal member of our family. Recently he has begun standing on his own without holding onto anything. Then last week, a few days before his 11-month birthday, he began taking one little step, which was always followed by immediately collapsing to the floor.

In any case, he is very excited and proud of himself for his new skill. The first time he stood on his own, we all started clapping and congratulating him. Since then, about every time he does it -- even if we aren't paying him any attention -- he begins beaming with a huge smile and making little exclamatory noises.

He thinks that he is pretty hot stuff.

My BFF

Rian and I were sitting on the couch yesterday talking, when I said something that made us both smile. I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't anything terribly special. The funny thing was how he responded.

"Daddy, you're my BFF!"

And then, only a second later, "That means you're my friend!"

I was shocked to hear this acronym come out of my 5-year-old's mouth. It's one of those acronyms that I missed out on because most of those Internet words hadn't evolved yet when I was a 14-year-old girl. I was so surprised to hear him say those three letters, I responded with three letters of my own:

"WTF?!"

Okay, so I didn't really say that, but I might as well have because that's what I was thinking.

(If you're lost, here are some definitions: BFF, WTF.)

Christmas Pictures

Here we are, two days before Christmas, and I feel like the big day should still be a month away. I finally got around to taking some Christmas pictures over the weekend. Rian has always been pretty photogenetic [sic - he gets it from me ;)] and cooperative when it's time to take pictures. Ethan, on the other hand, is a different story.

When it came time to take pictures, Ethan wasn't really in a mood to sit still. I hope you can't tell from the pictures, but he was only still for about half of a second for every 10, and when he was still, there was no telling where he would be looking. Babies just aren't good at posing for pictures, but of course the baby is usually what everyone wants to see.

I love this kid.

So we did what we could, and Lacey deserves a lot of credit for distracting Ethan just long enough for me to get a decent shot.

Merry Christmas.

Memory

One of Rian's favorite games is Memory. He usually plays with Lacey, because I don't really like that game, but today we decided to play - just him and me.

Now, something you should keep in mind is that I am a fairly competitive person. I let Rian win at some games, but not so much that he thinks his dad can be beaten consistently by a 5 year-old. The thing that I try to teach him whenever we're playing games is that you can have fun whether you're winning or losing, and how to win and lose with grace.

So one reason I don't let him win very often is to teach him how to lose, but the other reason is because he just doesn't need much help most of the time. He has an uncanny ability to roll sixes in Trouble, and in Candyland, somehow I always end up getting the card that pulls me all the way back to the beginning, while he gets the cards that pull him closer to the end (you just don't know what it's like to be frustrated until you've been pulled back to the Gingerbread Tree multiple times in a single game of Candyland).

A few years ago when he was learning how to play Memory, we would help him by leaving cards flipped over or helping him find matches, but these days he plays by the same rules that I do, and these rules are strictly enforced. We played two games today, the first of which I won by a single pair. He definitely held his own in the game, and may have even won if I hadn't run the table with four cards remaining. The second game, however, had a very different outcome.

As we play, we stack our cards up in a pile and then compare the stacks at the end. In this picture, Rian is comparing his stack to mine to determine the outcome. Needless to say, he won by a landslide.

And, while I'm at it, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving and from around the house.

Ruby on the phone

Lily

Ethan as a foot rest

Boo Boo!

Yawn...

I am so ready for Ethan to be sleeping through the night. Heck, I'll take anything over 4 hours. I'm tired.  I love this kid to death but he doesn't sleep. We're up at least once a night but most of the time it's twice. I'm exhausted. I was hoping that I would get lucky with Ethan and have a decent sleeper but no such luck. BLAH! Ahh, but on the bright side, he is SUCH a love and so snuggly when he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Rian's race was awesome! I was so proud of him. He was pretty excited about the whole thing and wants to run another "marathon".  

I ran my half-marathon the day after Rian's race. It was really fun. It took me longer than I had hoped but I did it! I can't wait to do it again. I seriously have to lose this baby weight though. I'm pretty sure it's the extra (gulp) pounds I haven't lost since having Ethan that slowed me down. Errgh! Anyway, I'm glad I did it. 

I love this time of year. Rian, Ethan and I went to the park yesterday after we picked Rian up from school. We played in the leaves and came home to make apple cider. After drinking half a mug of apple cider, Rian pushed it away announcing that he didn't like it. He told me it was an "only for adults drink." 

       

   

Happy Fall!

Oh my gosh, October has turned out to be such a crazy month! I can't believe it's almost over. Rian is literally counting down the days until Halloween and letting me know each morning. He's so excited about it. I love having kids! 

We all went to the pumpkin patch with Rian's school. It was really fun. We'll post pictures soon. 

My best bud from California and her husband came to visit. We haven't seen each other in about two years. It was so much fun! I miss her like crazy. Thanks, Jennie!! 

Rian had his last soccer game and most of Eric's family was able to come see it and hang out with us. (Thanks guys!) We found out that Eric's sister is pregnant. We're so excited for you Amy! I loved watching Rian's soccer games and cheering for him but it'll be nice to have our Saturday mornings back. I'm looking forward to making french toast, watching cartoons and staying in our pajamas all morning. 

Tomorrow Rian runs in his kid's marathon. A teacher at his school has been keeping track of each mile they run. She has been commenting on how enthusiastic Rian is about running and how he just keeps running laps even after the other kids are done. So anyway, she gave me Rian's running log this morning and he has run over 34 miles in two months. I was like dang, he's pretty good. I'm so proud of him!!

Sunday is my race. I'm feeling so nervous but crazy excited too. It'll be fun. Eek! My stomach is doing flip-flops as I'm thinking about it. 

Ethan started clapping! It's the cutest thing. Oh my gosh, I love it. Another thing he started doing is pulling himself up on things. First it was the living room table. I left the room for like two seconds and came back to find him standing at the table, a huge grin on his face. That was it. He's pulling himself up to stand at anything. It's so exciting and yet I can't help but feel a little sad that my baby is getting more and more independent. And I was just thinking how I couldn't wait for him to start doing this kind of thing. Sigh.