January Part Two - All Caught Up!!!!

This last part of the month, Ethan has started to show us that he is starting to become a true toddler. He is loving any type of exploration. Whether it is seeing how high up he can climb or how far or fast he can run, he is all about it! We had a barricade set up to block off all of the cords and things that go to the TV. As you can see, he has now figured out a way around it.
Along with his increasing independence and curiosity, comes a bit more discipline. Here is Mike explaining to Ethan why he cannot be climbing over things. I should also mention he has become quite the master of temper tantrums. He either plops on the ground and cries or flails his head backward and lays on the ground crying. Here he is trying out his best cry for dad.Once again, here is he running like a happy little guy (which he usually is).
That's all it takes is not getting his way and here's what we get :)
Although we do sometimes have to hear a bit of crying and watch some temper tantrums, most of the time Ethan is a pretty easygoing, happy toddler.

Here he is playing with one of his favorite toys right now, his kitchen. He loves to "stir, stir, stir" or pretend to eat and drink out of the cups, spoons, and plates. This is usually followed by "mmmm." As you can see, he also really likes to clear everything off of the kitchen (including the sink). Another favorite is to empty out his grocery cart, followed or sometimes preceded by "Oots."
Just yesterday, Ethan got a special visit from his girlfriend Emelia. The two of them, although they are still in love, also like to fight a little now. They both think that all toys should be theirs and don't hesitate to scream and rip the toy out of the other's hand. I had to include this first picture to show you all his fake smile :)
Here are the two lovebirds.

Toward the end of the play date they decided to play some peek-a-boo. It was pretty cute to see the two of them play together.
Finally, just this morning we took a quick trip down to Rockford to go out for brunch with Mike's family. We were there celebrating Mike's grandpa's 83rd birthday!

Ok, we are finally up to current time!! I am now going to be posting every weekend. Ethan is really starting to learn and grow much faster now, and I don't want to miss all of the little things.

Speaking of which, here are all of Ethan's words so far: boo (our cat), moo, dada, mama, no, hi (said like a whisper), this, uh oh, dang it, oops (said oots and is probably his favorite word), brr (shakes his head with it), stir stir stir and shake shake shake (both said like dididi), hot (also a whisper), yes, thanks, aachoo (whenever anyone sneezes or coughs - just learned on the 25th). I think that's all of them. If anyone can think of more, please post a comment!

January 2011 Part One

What a way to start off our new year! We had just come down to our basement to play with Ethan. It is pretty dark down there so Mike opened up the curtains and thought he saw a cat out in the yard. Instead, he realized it was a fox!! There were two or three of them out in our yard just playing around. It didn't take long before they spied us and ran back down into the greenbelt.January has been a huge month for Ethan's growing personality. On January 4th, Ethan also got his third tooth (the top right)!! I think now that he is one year old his teeth are just going to continue to pop through one after another.

We have a few favorite games right now. The first is playing I'm gonna get you! Ethan either runs after us yelling or gives us a side glance and runs away letting us know we are supposed to get him. Here are some pics of us playing the game.


Ethan's other favorite game is playing peek-a-boo. We crawl behind the couch or chair and when he gets close to coming around the corner we jump out. The best part of this game is his belly laugh after you scare him! Here he is after Mike jumped out from behind the chair.We also have a few other games we don't like to talk about. Like...playing in the entertainment center, throwing food or his sippy cup on the floor, feeding the kitties, or attempting to dig in the trash or toilet. We won't show you pictures of those games :)

Another activity Ethan has really gotten into is reading. Every night, Mike reads him a few stories before bed and it has really caught on. Although right now he gets mad if you try to read him anything other than those with things he can feel or flaps he can peel back, we are really happy that he loves books so much! Here he is sitting all by himself "reading." Right now his favorite books are "Little Feet Love," "Fuzzy, Fuzzy, Fuzzy," and "Nighttime Peek-A-Boo." He thinks it's super funny when he gets to the pages that feel like sandpaper. He crinkles up his little nose because he knows I hate how they feel!
This new development was taught to him by my mom during a Packer game. Here is his TOUCHDOWN!!
Finally, another thing he loves to do is shove things into his mouth and walk around. Right now he loves to walk around with his fake tomato, burger, or pickles in his mouth. One night I swear he walked around with these pickles in his mouth for 10 minutes!
News as far as our family goes: I just took a job on January 10th in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Meriter Hospital in Madison. It is something I have always been interested in and can't wait to make it a reality!

December Part Two - Merry Christmas!

This year we spent Christmas pretty much like we do every year. We woke up early on Christmas Eve, Ethan ate a quick breakfast and we headed over to my mom's house.
Everyone was up and waiting for us to arrive. Kileigh was ready to open some presents!Before opening presents, every year we eat sausage breakfast pizza and fruit and drink coffee, apple cider, or hot cocoa with peppermint and Hershey kisses. This year, Kileigh got to help make the pizza!

Ethan loved the hot cocoa, YUM!
After everyone finished eating, we moved on to opening presents! Much like Ethan's birthday, he really only cared about playing with the paper.

Can you tell what Ethan is into these days??
Anything with wheels!! He also loves music, things he can bang on and bath time stuff!

Look at the mess we made!
After we were finished up at my mom's house, we went over to our house. This year we hosted Christmas Eve at our house so we could put Ethan to bed whenever he was ready. Here he is playing with his kitchen (Christmas gift from grandma Peg and great grandpa this year). He loves stirring things and throwing random objects in the oven and microwave.
After everyone came over, we ate a big dinner then spent some time chatting. Finally, after we were done eating, the kids were ready for present opening. Here are all of the little cousins waiting patiently for their gifts!
After they were done opening presents, the girls spent a good amount of time looking for Santa and his reindeer!
Everyone left around 9pm and we headed off to church. Every year we go to a candlelight service with Mike's family. It's a really nice and relaxing way to celebrate Christmas. Although Ethan was pretty sleepy, he did enjoy the music everyone was singing.

The next morning, we stayed at home for a few hours and Ethan had a chance to open up the presents from us and Santa. He got some outdoor toys for next summer, fake food and dishes for his kitchen, clothes, and more! After finishing up our present opening, we went over to my dad's house for the Christmas celebration with them. Ethan was in a great mood! We started off the day there with present opening. Ethan was loving all of the toys with wheels!
He especially got a kick out of the talking and moving Chuck truck! Every time it would talk or move he would laugh. Thanks Pam for the great toy!
Although the present opening went about the same as it had before (only liking the paper), on the very last present of this year's Christmas season, he actually wanted to open the present on his own. Here he is being a big boy opening the present all by himself.
After we finished opening presents, we were on our way out to start making lunch when we noticed a big group of turkeys in my dad's back yard. Although it is hard to see, there were about ten turkeys just strolling around in his yard!
Thanks everyone for all of the great Christmas memories and fun!

Finally, to close out the year, we went out on the town with Kelly, Chad, Nick (Chad's brother) and his fiancee Heather. We went out for a nice dinner at The Speakeasy then out to the bar in Milton. At The Speakeasy we had some really good martinis!


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

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.

November Part 3 - Ethan's First Birthday

For Ethan's birthday, we took him to a local photographer to have his first birthday and Christmas pictures taken. We thought they turned out pretty nice!

By the time Ethan's birthday came around, he was walking instead of crawling, most of the time.

For Ethan's birthday, Mike and I bought him an electric train that runs on a track. So, before he went downstairs in the morning, Mike set it up for him to see. I have to say, he was pretty excited, although mostly because it does play music. He still is an absolute lover of music and dancing!

We even added some decals to the back of the train to make it officially Ethan's train! He liked riding it, but only for about two minutes at a time.
His birthday ended up being quite a large party. Between 20 and 30 family members and close friends came to celebrate Ethan turning one! We had a nice lunch followed by cake. Ethan got the first piece, of course. At first he was a little apprehensive, but after a few tastes, he shoveled the cake in!


Then looked at me like, "Mom, I want some more!"
I'm sure you can't tell by the following picture what came next...
BATH TIME!! As much as he loves baths, it's only right for him to get a bath on his birthday.
After a quick scrub down, the party was waiting downstairs for present opening. He was much more interested in the paper than the actual gifts, but we were very fortunate to get all of the toys and clothes we will need for a really long time! Thanks everyone who came!

After everyone left, we had some quiet time with the grandparents. Here is Ethan with his grandma.
Whew! What a great first birthday! I can't believe it has already been a year since our little man joined our little family. We can't imagine life without you Ethan, you mean the world to us and you have definitely filled parts of our hearts we didn't even know existed. Your smile, giggle, and growing personality make our day! We love you Little man/Peanut/E-man/Bud/Big guy!

Ethan's 1 year stats:
Height: 30.25 inches - 63rd percentile
Weight: 20 lb 8 oz - 16th percentile
Head: 49 cm - 98th percentile

So...we are still long and lean with a big head (and big brains to go with it) :)