December Part One

Now that Ethan has turned one, I swear his personality grows each and every day. He is really starting to test out Mike and I and tries to figure out what he can get away with. He, of course, has figured out that I am the sucker for his whining and crying and Mike is the fun one. The morning after his birthday, we snapped this picture of him playing, we thought it looked like a cheesy posed picture :)Here is a perfect example of him and his testing. He has known for forever not to go into the entertainment center. So, now when he walks over to the cabinet (saying no no no as he gets closer) he turns and gives us one of these looks to see if he will get yelled at...
As a late birthday present, we decided to buy Ethan a bookshelf for the basement. He is starting to really love the peek-a-boo books and those with animals he can feel. Every day he empties out the entire bookshelf then sits among the books and "reads" them.
Can you guess what Ethan's favorite food is these days??
NOODLES!!!

In mid-December Mike's family decided to spend the family Christmas at the water park in the Clock Tower in Rockford. The kids had a great time splashing around in the water and going down the slides. Although Ethan was too little for the slides, there were a bunch of stairs for him to climb and little mini fountains for him to play in. He loved all of the exploring!



As he got more adventurous, he climbed up a set of stairs and across this bridge. What I didn't realize was that there was a bucket that would fill up with water and when it was full, it would dump over. Well, Ethan went running across the bridge and before I could react, the big bucket of water landed right on his head. Mike somehow caught the action shot! (Notice me running to catch him - a little too late!)
The week before Christmas, Mike, his mom, Kelly and Lainey all went to Breakfast with Santa in Milton. Although Ethan didn't mind sitting with Santa last year, this year was a bit scarier.