Happy Birthday Ethan!

On December 15th, our little Ethan turned 1 years old! We can't believe how quickly time flies!  It seems like only yesterday we were first celebrating Christmas with our newborn baby boy, and now he has turned 1!  Check him out in his formal wear for his birthday party with Brandon's side of the family.  I brought him home 8 balloons and he was so excited to have them!  Also notice the little Santa quietly watching just on the edge of the picture.  Silly.

This kid had no idea it was his birthday, he was just excited to have some balloons to play with!  Ethan loves balloons so much that when he sees them at a store, in a display or whatever, he won't stop pointing at them and gets upset when he can't have them.

 

Ethan was so interested in the candle and you can see him sucking in his bottom lip which he does from time to time, when he's checking out something new.  He was definitely excited for this birthday moment!  I do have to hold his hands down to keep him from grabbing the cake and candle.  Thanks Sheila for taking this cute picture! 

 The look of a content chocolate covered baby with sugar overload.

This was taken around Thanksgiving when his Grandma Helen and Grandpa Tim came up to visit.  This kid definitely loves his Grandma! 

 Now that Ethan is 1, it's time to do some updates.  Here's a list of what he's into and doing these days:

1)  Elmo and Sesame Street.  He loves Elmo and gets excited to see him on TV!  Needless to say he got lots of Elmo/Sesame Street related toys, DVD's, and books for both his birthday and Christmas.  Notice we are using our smaller T.V. because our other one broke. Again. Actually we just replaced the bulb, again, and it's working just fine.  So now Ethan can watch his Sesame Street on the big screen! 

2)  Oranges.  He kept pointing to one in his book, so I got him some when I went grocery shopping, and he just loves them! You can see he is pointing to the one in his book while eating an orange! Sweet Christmas PJs!

 3)  Talking.  Yep he's talking.  Here's a list of words he has said:

Mom, Dad, Ball, Book, Dog, Cat, Door, Pump (as in Pumpkin), Hat, Football, Bub (as in Bubble), Pop, Cool, Duck, Shoe, Milk, Car, Look, Cook (as in Cookie and also when pointing to "Cookie Monster), No, One, Two, and loads of other things we don't understand.  When he says "look" sometimes he yells it like this "LOOOOK!" and points, it's pretty cute.

4)  Points at stuff and wants you to see it and tell him what it is.  He carefully watches your mouth when you tell him what the thing is called, like he's studying how to say it.  It's pretty interesting and he never gets tired of learning new things

5)  Swimming in the bathtub, kicking while on his belly and blowing bubbles.

6)  Trying to climb up the oven to see the stove top, very scary! He grabs on the oven door handle and puts his toes onto the top of the oven drawer and pulls himself up for a look. He is very interested in cooking and the goings on of the stove top. 

7)  When Brandon gets home, he likes to run away from him, because he loves to be chased.  He usually heads to our bedroom closet!  Saying "I'm gonna get you!" results in squeals of delight from Ethan as he scurries away as fast as he can.

8)  He's also started to disappear when he's pooping.  Looking for that much needed privacy to do his business.

9)  He likes to wrestle and rough house with Brandon.

10)  Kicks balls around the house, dribbling them like a soccer player and even tries to do it with the big exercise ball.

11)  Loves playing in the curtains, will hide behind them as you ask,  "Where's Ethan?" Then proudly poke his head out and smile and giggle.

12)  When Brandon says "Do the King Kong."  He pounds on his chest.  When he says "Show me  your muscles."  He makes his hands into fists and squeezes and goes "Uhhhhmm!" Like he's flexing.

Here's Ethan's One Year Stats we got from the doctors this week:

Height:  31 1/4 inches tall
Weight:  29 Pounds
Clothing Size: 24 months (can barely squeeze into an 18 month outfit).


It's just amazing how quickly Ethan is learning things, and it's so fun watching him experiencing his surroundings and new things each day.  We are so blessed to have him as a part of our lives and our family.  He is such a happy boy and he makes us laugh every day.  Happy Birthday Ethan!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving spending time with family and sharing all that delicious food!  We were lucky this year to spend some time with both sides of our family.  This year we spent Thanksgiving Day with my family, and then Brandon's parents were able to come up on Friday, and we got to have another Thanksgiving dinner that night with them!  

Ethan was loving getting to spend time with his extended family and spent quite some time seeking out that special attention from both his grandmas.  While they were busy cooking or cleaning up, you could find Ethan clinging to their legs, begging to be picked up, giving them his irresistible smile, and of course it worked like a charm!

Ethan getting cuddled by his Grandma LeBras, this kid loves his grandma!

Ethan and his Daddy getting ready to go up on the sidewalk.  Ethan is walking pretty good, but not so good with his shoes on!

This funny face Ethan is making is due to him seeing his aunt Nathalie who was calling his name, he loves to giggle at her!

This kid was checking out this tree in my parent's yard, he is such a little sweetie, we are grateful for him this year!

It's official! Ethan's walking and a trip to the Zoo!

 

Ethan's first trip to the Zoo!  I had a couple days off of work for Fall Break in October, and it was predicted to be a beautiful day, so we decided to join a few other friends and go to the Hogle Zoo!  It's been awhile since I'd been there, so it was a pretty neat experience for both Ethan and me!  I think when he's a bit older, he may appreciate the animals a little more though. 

Ethan was actually more interested in the fence around the elephant enclosure than the actual elephants themselves.  Go figure. 

Here we are at our ward's trunk or treat.  This little turtle to the left is Ethan's little buddy Ian and his mom Susan.  Ian is just a few weeks older than Ethan. 

Ethan and his Great Grandma Gilbert.  He gets to spend one day a week with her when I go to work.  He just loves her!  As you can see, Ethan once again had a sucker that he would not part with. 

Ethan's newest favorite thing to do, get into all the cupboards and empty them out!  Makes for a hazardous cooking environment!  Gotta always watch where you step!

You can see that mischievious smile of his when he knows he's doing something we don't like!

Here's our little walker!  He's taken little steps here and there since October, but it was the beginning of November when he really started to venture out on his own.  He gets better and better everyday, and can pretty much walk all over the place.  He still can't get up to his feet on his own, unless he can grab onto something like a wall or couch, but he'll get it soon. 

We had snow storm come in a few weeks ago and Ethan was fascinated by the white flakes outside our window.

More walking practice!

This kid loves tight spaces!  We got a new washer and dryer and Brandon had to fix the venting stuff and Ethan kept trying to get back there with him.  One minute he's with me and the next he's in the laundry room.   He's constantly on the move and getting into everything! 

We'll we can hardly believe he's gonna be one year old in a few weeks!

8 Teeth and Counting......

"What you talkin' bout Willis?" Check out those lips!  This was the face Ethan kept making when I tried to get a look at his new teeth.  I would say "Let me see your teeth!" and try to pry his lips apart, and he would just pucker up his lips and not let me see inside.

You can only see his two bottom ones here, but this kid has 8 teeth!  His bottom middle came in first, so those are well established since August, but a couple weeks ago we noticed his top two teeth starting to emerge and then the other two top ones on the sides quickly made themselves known, much to Ethan's discomfort.  We thought we'd be done with new teeth for a little while, but nope, earlier this week while Ethan and I were playing with a little flashlight I noticed he had two teeth coming in on the bottom on either side of the middle ones!  So now he's got 8 teeth! 

 

 

We recently bought this stroller on KSL classifieds.  It's one of those all-in-one jobs, it can be a jogger, stroller, and attach to our bikes!  Here's Ethan all cozy for a morning walk.  We've really enjoyed being  able to take him with us for bike rides too!  I wish we would've got one earlier in the summer so we could've enjoyed using it more before the cold sets in!

Here's Brandon and Ethan while we were down in St. George last weekend.  We were taking a quick break to let Ethan out to stretch his legs!  He does pretty good in the stroller, but an hour ride is about his limit.  The weather was absolutely perfect in St. George last week, just in the low 80's high 70's and lots of clear skies!  If only we could get the mild weather to last a bit longer!

At the playground on the slide! Can you see his little bit of hair sticking up?  Ethan loves going down the big twisty slide by our place. 

Same outfit, but down in St. George at a playground there.  Ethan loves to explore these places.  He can get around pretty good on his own, but I have to stay close to keep this adventurous boy from falling off these things!

Again with the tough guy face!

Yesterday at Brandon's work, they had families come to trick-or-treat around the office.  So we took Ethan's cart, green pumpkin (it has an 8 pound weight in it to slow it down) and his Dragon costume and headed over!  He got a sucker from the receptionist and would not let it go! He pushed that cart one handed!

Brandon did unwrap the sucker and let Ethan have his first taste of candy!  It was a very messy and sticky situation!  We had a good time!  

Sleepy time pictures and other updates!

Ethan playing at the little play ground by our place.  He loves to go there and practice climbing the stairs!  He also enjoys going down the slides! 

I forgot to add a few bits of information in my last post, like Ethan's 9 months statistics!  A couple of weeks ago, we took Ethan in for his 9 month appointment and here are the results:

Height: 30 inches

Weight: 27.3 pounds 

(I think he actually strained a muscle in my shoulder last week! I woke up in the middle of the night and it was just killing, and it lasted for a few days! The problem is while you are carrying him, he's not content just to be held, he likes to lunge for things and when you're walking up the stairs, carrying him in one arm, then groceries and his diaper bag in the other, it isn't an easy feat! I used to wonder how "Mom's" did it!)

Here's a list of things that he's into and can do now:

1)   Crawl with bum off the floor, he's finally able to go up from the army crawl.

2)   Pull himself up holding onto pretty much anything, the wall, the couch, my pant leg.

3)   Stand by himself for several seconds without holding onto anything.

4)   Cruise around the house walking as long as he can hold on to something.  I think he'll be taking some real steps on his own any day now.

5)  Takes two naps a day for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours each.  Then is sleeping much better through the night, but with his teeth coming in, he does get a little sad from time to time and wants his Mommy and Daddy.  He goes to bed around 8-9pm and usually sleeps till 4-5am and then has a little bottle, then goes back to sleep till about 7:30am. We're getting more sleep then we have in 9 months!

6)   Clothing Size: 18-24 months!

7)   Teeth: 2 bottoms came in July, 2 top ones are working their way down as I type.  They look big compared to his bottom ones.

8)   First words?? Well not really, he babbles a lot making all kinds of sounds and we think he knows that Brandon is "Dadda," and will say it to him, but we're not totally convinced.  He's fluent in duck and walkie-talkie static sounds.

9)  Clap hands and is starting to wave bye-bye.  He can also do the sign for "milk" and requests me to sing one of his favorite french songs that has hand signs, so he'll do the hand sign that's in the song and gets really happy when I sing it to him. 

I think that's it, it's amazing how much this kid is learning and how fast he is growing! 

I let him take his new ghost spinning light toy to bed with him.  He can push the button on his own and thinks it's pretty cool.  

This is him with the lights still on, so you can see what it looks like.

This kid doesn't just stay laying down when you put him in bed.  It's a battle that I choose not to fight anymore.  Usually I lay him down and no matter how tired he is, he'll immediately get up and start jumping on his bed.  So I just give him a kiss, and walk out of the room.  Within a few minutes he lays down in whatever position he wants, usually on his tummy with his bum in the air, and totally uncovered.  I try to sneak back in and cover him up, but that kid is a light sleeper and he catches me doing that and wakes up and the jumping starts all over again.  So I either have to wait awhile, till he's really out, or just accept that his baby fat will keep him warm!

Summer is really over, but let's take a look back!

This kid sure loves the water! This is a picture of him in my brother's kiddie pool when we went to my niece's birthday party in July.  I took him swimming a lot over the summer.  We did a couple "Mom and Tots" swim lessons with my little sister Nathalie and my friend Betsy as our teachers!  Ethan did great as the youngest swim student there.    

Ethan loves books!  Here he is reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."  One of his favorites, and he definitely has his favorites!  If he doesn't like the book, he's quick to push it aside and find the ones he likes.  I read probably 10-15 books to him every day!  It's one of the few times he'll sit still!  He giggles at the pictures he likes and points at things he finds interesting.  He's our little book worm!

We took a Sunday afternoon drive over to Gardner Village and Ethan got to meet some real life ducks!  He's been making this duck sound for weeks now and we thought he could try to converse with these guys.  

He was fascinated by the ducks and we watched them for a while and fed them some of Ethan's treats.

Check out the hat!  This was back in the day when Ethan let us put hats on his head, and he left them on.   Those days are gone now, maybe one day he'll decide he likes them again.  

What a cheeser!  This was at Brandon's family reunion up in Idaho.  He was hamming it up for Brandon and his camera!  

I call this Ethan's "The Rock" pose.  You know the former WWF wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  He has this raised eyebrow, intimidating look he likes to use, plus with Ethan's power fist, this is sure to scare any of Ethan's opponents as he sits in the arms of his loving Grandma.   

Ethan gets his first dip in the pretty chilly reservoir up by the place we have Brandon's family reunion.  He wasn't a big fan of being in this floaty, he was happy to sit on the shore and try to eat the rocks he picked up. 

Daddy and Ethan hanging out at the reunion.  Ethan found a toy to chew on.  This kid has 3 teeth now!   

Here's Ethan with his cousin Justin army crawling it up the hallway of our condo.  At this time Ethan could only really army crawl, and his cousin was ordering him around like one of his cadets in boot camp!  They were having a ton of fun together!

Pushing his cart!  Notice the hand weights in the cart to help slow him down!  He can walk pretty good holding on to this and it's pretty funny watching him go.  

Summer went pretty quickly like it usually does, I loved getting to spend time with Ethan all day.  Now I'm back to work, part-time, which has been great, though I do miss the full-time pay check! 

Today we had our first taste of winter with snow actually falling in big, fat flakes.  It only lasted an hour or so, but managed to coat the mountains in white.  It seems we didn't really have much of a Spring and went straight from Winter to Summer, and now here we are skipping Fall, which is my favorite time of year!  I get so excited seeing the fall colors light up the mountains first, then creep into the valley, then bright orange pumpkins at the store ready to take home to carve for Halloween, and of course October is my birth month, so I think that has something to do with it too!

So so long Summer, hello winter!

Another Trip to St. George to kick off the Summer!

 Right after school ended for me on June8th, we headed down to St. George to visit Brandon's parents before it got too hot down there.  We left at 10:30 pm, much later than expected, on the night of the 9th, and drove straight on down arriving around 3am.  Crazy!  I will never do that again!  We were planning on leaving earlier, but then some old friends of Brandon's happened to be in town and wanted to do a BBQ get-together and we didn't want to miss not being able to visit with them, since we don't see them very often.  Then it took longer than expected to load up the car with all of our gear, and Ethan's!  We should have just left in the morning, but Brandon was ready to get going, so off we went.  Ethan slept the whole way, which was nice.

Here's Ethan being held by his Grandpa Tim.  What a cutie! Love the hat!

We visited Grafton.  It's an old ghost town near Zion's National Park.  It used to be a Mormon settlement but because of flooding and some Indian raids, was abandoned.  There isn't much there now, this old church/school house, and a few farm houses, and a cemetery.  It was pretty neat, I've always wanted to visit a ghost town! 

Another cute shot of Ethan and Grandpa Tim!

Grandma Helen and Ethan hanging out in Grafton.  We all had to take turns holding him, so that our arms could get a rest every once in a while!

On the porch of one of the homes.  It was a picture perfect day!

Ethan and Mommy!  I love my boy! 

"I want to touch that cool looking camera!"  Ethan is a curious one, and wants to touch everything!

Just look at that face!  I told Brandon that Ethan didn't like being tossed in the air, and Brandon's like, "No, he likes it!" Well I snapped this picture at just the right moment as proof!  He actually is okay with it now, I just think he needed to warm up to it first!  But I tell you what, that face is priceless!

Taking a break from all the action, these two buddies love to hang out!  Ethan also loves to grab a hold of Brandon's hair!

Then back to the action!  Although Brandon says now that Ethan is over 23 pounds, this is getting harder to do!

It was a fun little trip!  Getting to spend some time with Brandon's parents and having some new adventures to add to our family memories!