Ethan The Builder

Over the last couple of weeks, we have started to see a few new sides of Ethan. Most of which include even more fun and games, but there is one side that we aren't enjoying quite as much. At times, Ethan becomes quite the little dictator. When he has his mind made up, he's pretty good at letting us know. He yells "No!", hits either us or the furniture, throws temper tantrums, and screams. Luckily, this doesn't happen all that often. Although I'm sure it's a sign of the terrible twos that are getting closer and closer.

Fortunately, along with this naughty attitude he his developing, he is also becoming more and more aware of what hugs and kisses really mean. He has made it pretty much a routine to give hugs and kisses each time he either arrives or leaves a family member's or his babysitter's house. He also loves giving Mike and I kisses right away in the morning (we usually each get 3 or 4) and anytime he is feeling lovey. Funny thing is, if Mike and I are both around, he makes the number of kisses even between us. Sometimes, as we are watching our daily Ellen and he is sitting in my lap, he will just look up at me and ask for a kiss. I could get used to this!

Last week, I didn't see Ethan for a couple of days because I was working and Mike had lots of time alone with him. The first morning I spent with Ethan alone, he kept walking up to me with his hands over his ears and saying "boo." It took me a bit to figure it out, but soon realized he was mocking the game Mike and Ethan had been playing over the last couple of days. He got the general concept of peek-a-boo, but had mistaken his ears for his eyes. (You might also notice his nice scrape over his nose, he took a bit of a tumble on the driveway).

This is just a pic of one night playing I'm gonna get you. As you can see, he gets pretty excited (and drooly)!

Just to prove how much Ethan loves going to bed, here he is waiting for us at the gate to go upstairs and go to bed.

As I said in the last post, Ethan is really starting to love building towers. When he first started building, sometimes we would end up with some pretty creative towers.

He works really hard at making the towers nice and sturdy. It takes lots of concentration!
Sometimes, he doesn't make just one tower, but a few smaller towers. (Notice the nice fake smile) :)

As the weeks have passed, he has gotten better and better at building the tallest tower possible (all by himself)
And is pretty proud when he succeeds!
He is especially proud when there are new people to watch him perform his tower building skills. The night he built this really tall one, his grandma was around. He loves when grandma comes to visit (usually once a week or so for dinner). He likes sitting with her, cuddling, giving kisses, and playing with the Santa game on her cell phone.

In addition to his tower building skills, he has also perfected his cat wrangling skills. He has figured out that he can't just grab them by their tails and expect them to stay around. He needs to act fast and pin them down. It's pretty funny to watch. He sneaks up pretty slowly, puts one hand on the shoulder and the other on the butt and lays down on them. He is then free to pet, cuddle and kiss as he pleases. Surprisingly, both cats actually tolerate it pretty well (Yes, even Lexi).

Another big event we had this week was on Saturday all of the Mercy Hospital babies got together for a reunion. We hadn't made an effort to make this happen since the babies were about 4 months old so it was really fun to see how big everyone was! As you can see, the house was full of kids! They had lots of fun playing and watching each other play. The little ones that were Ethan's age mostly watched while the two year olds had lots of fun playing with the older boys.

Finally, on Sunday, we went to church and helped host the coffee hour held between services. The kids had lots of fun playing in the playroom! They were even sharing (as Lainey told me) :)

Over the last couple of days, we have also started a new game. When we are looking for something (sometimes I know what we are looking for, sometimes I don't) we walk around with our hands out saying hmmm.. we then search all over (under the couch, behind the curtains, in toys, under blankets, etc.) and when the object isn't there, we say "Nope!" If we find it, we yell "Yeah!!!" and clap our hands. He loves it! I just wish I always knew what we were looking for.


New words over the last two weeks: nope (says nahhh), see ya, up (says uppy uppy), thanks, juice