Playing Around

Ethan's 8-month mark snuck up on us! Everyone says it, but you don't really understand it until you're a parent, but time really does fly!

Grandma Bernard got him this cute outfit for Christmas, so I decided to take his 8 month birthday picture after church one Sunday! It's a 9 month size, so you can tell that he's a BIG boy!

Overall, Ethan is just a smiley kid! He has started being able to entertain himself and I will hear him just giggling in the backseat while we're driving as he plays with a toy, or even just his sock!

He loves getting into baskets and boxes of things. The funny part is, that even with this basket (and others) of toys, he would still rather play with our "toys"!

He loves to pull himself up to a standing position...in fact, it's hard to keep him on the ground these days. As you can see, I finally had to just move the coffee table out of the living room, which makes Ethan happy because it just gives him more space to crawl, stand and play!
I think he really has a hard time understanding why he falls. It is very frustrating for him!

The 8 month mark was a big one for Ethan. He just seemed to take off! He started holding his own bottle full-time. Tristan was so patient at teaching him and helping him practice. I know I should miss doing it for him more, but I really appreciate having my hands free more often. He still eats several bottles a day and 3 solid-food meals a day. I have been enjoying making a lot of his baby food and he pretty much eats everything! He also really loves getting chunks of fruit in his mesh feeder and gumming it.

He also started flirting with the idea of crawling around 8 months...I was beginning to think that he would never learn how since he didn't really show an interest until then, but now I can't keep up with him! He loves being mobile and being able to get around to the places that he wants to!

He's still building up his endurance, so sometimes he slacks a little, but I guess we can look past that for now!
Look at that grin...you can just tell the wheels are turning while he formulates his plan of action!

Right around the same time he started clapping--he's thinks it's the greatest thing ever. He also thinks it's hilarious when I clap my hands and wants to do it for me...the things that entertain babies!

Our big boy is already 9 months old...it's so hard to believe!

He has started to recognize that Tristan isn't always here and shows excitement when he sees him again. About a month ago he started laughing when Tristan would walk in the door after his work-week. Lately it's been a little different since the extended daylight hours bring Tristan home a little bit later. Usually Tristan won't get to see him until the next morning, which I think confuses Ethan a little bit. I can't say I blame the kid...he goes to bed after a week of nothing but me and wakes up to Tristan. Needless to say, after his initial confusion, he's happy to see his dad. He loves playing with Tristan and gets plenty of playtime while Tristan's home!

We're not really sure we're going to be able to keep up with him, but we'll do our best! He sure is a lot of fun!

The Latest Milestone: Crawling!

Right around 9 months old, Ethan REALLY began to crawl. For a couple of weeks before that he had been doing "the inch worm". That's my term for his mode of transportation, at least! He would lay flat on his tummy and use his feet and forearms to push and pull himself forward. Then he would bring his knees up under himself and start the whole process all over again! It was so funny to watch him, just like a little caterpillar! But now, oh boy! He is full on crawling. One night after his bath he was on a mission--crawling all over his room to get at everything!

It's so funny to listen to him when he knows exactly where he's going...I'll leave the room and hear him just giggling and laughing and when I peek back into the room I'll find that he's following me and very excited about the fact that he can!

He loves to play with the door stops in our apartment. I had to take all the white caps off of the ends because he can get them off and I worry about him putting them in his mouth. The other night before bed he all the way across the room to get to this one and play with it. I'm not sure why I bother with buying toys...he seems to make toys out of anything these days!!

Mother's Day

So since I am so behind on my blogging, I am going to start with the most recent events and work my way back...you know, putting off the hard stuff until later! On Sunday, I celebrated my first Mother's Day. I was kind of disappointed that Tristan was working but was able to spend the morning at church and the afternoon and evening with my dear friend, Elizabeth. Since we were both husband-less for the day it was a perfect date! It was also nice to spend time together since she is preparing to move to Texas in the next week. We let the kids play together and made dinner. It's so fun to watch Ethan now that he is crawling around and able to play with other kids. He is fascinated with anything the older kids are doing and wants to get into anything and everything within reach! The girls seemed to enjoy having Ethan around also. I hope he doesn't get spoiled by being surrounded by girls and expect his whole life to be like that! I asked Elizabeth to take a picture to commemorate my first celebration of Mother's Day:

How wonderful it was to finally understand the joy of being a mother on Mother's Day...Now I understand why moms never ask for a whole lot as far as gifts go on this special day: our children are the best gifts we could ask for.

6 months old!

Time sure flies! I again find myself doing a poor job of keeping this updated, so here's a little catch up in the next few posts!! Ethan reached the 6 month mark!!! I just can't believe it. He is such a big boy and a joy to have in our family.

He has gotten a lot more active and exciteable! He cracks me up on a daily basis.

O.k., so sorry these are sideways, but I was having technical difficulties and couldn't figure out how to flip them!!! Anyway, but his 6 month birthday he was rolling like crazy! As soon as we would get him onto his tummy he would roll right over!!! I think he enjoys being able to get out of the dreaded "tummy time" on his own!!

Before we know it he will be a year old! Being a parent is such a joy!

What We've Been Up To...

Things have been pretty normal around here lately, which is a very welcome way for things to be in our opinions!!! I am still doing private tutoring for 3 hours in the morning during the week and Ethan is coming with me on the weeks when Tristan is working. When Tristan is off work, he and Ethan get to enjoy some daddy-son time while I'm working. I love seeing how Ethan's face lights up when his dad is playing with him! He truly loves his dad and I'm glad they get some time to be together while I'm working.

We have been having a lot of fun getting to know Ethan and watching him learn new skills. Here are some of the highlights from the last few months:

Ethan is currently mastering the art of sitting up on his own. We've had a few tipping incidents, but he usually manages to stay upright, but leaning sometimes. I often refer to him as the "Leaning Tower of Ethan"...We were practicing one night after his bath.

Here's something fun we've learned about Ethan: he love to examine things very intensely. He just holds things in his hands and stares at it and feels it. It's fun to watch him get so absorbed in the details.

We found a great deal on Craig's List on this ExerSaucer and it keeps him rather busy. Often I'll find him playing with the tiny white tag on the hanging arm--even with all of those toys surrounding him! He's so silly. He also notices tiny details on everything...strings on sweatshirts and sweatpants, zipper pulls and tags on pretty much anything.

I am still serving as the Young Women's President, so I have Mutual every Tuesday night. Tristan works at the Temple on those nights, so he comes with me to church on Tuesday nights and makes lots of new friends.

He finally moved into his "big boy" highchair. It's really nice to have him in a convenient chair, however, he gets distracted by the straps that hold him in and sometimes it prevents him from eating...so sometimes we have to unstrap him...like I said, all about the details.

He has been trying more solid foods and as you can see he is an avid little eater! So far he has tried rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, whole grain cereal, homemade sweet potatoes, homemade acorn and butternut squash, carrots, apples, bananas and prune juice. We are getting ready to venture into the land of green things, so let's hope he enjoys them as much as everything else so far!!
He's learning how to hold his bottle, although, I think he's perfectly satisfied with us doing it for him while he lounges and fills his belly!!!

The most recent thing we have discovered about Ethan is that he is very determined to get his hands on WHAT he wants WHEN he wants it! You can see here that he was determined to get that last little bit out of his bottle...and he succeeded...

...almost!!!
We love our little guy! He makes us laugh each day and we are loving getting to know him better.

Christmas!!

We were super excited to spend our first Christmas as a family. We had kind of a late night on Christmas Eve...we drove around to look at Christmas lights and then came home and had to bake some Monster Cookies for Santa. Thankfully, Ethan is still a little young to get up extra early because he is so excited for Christmas, so we got to sleep in a little.

Elephant p.j.s from Aunt Kelly, Uncle Justin and Anderson!

He loved opening presents, especially the books he received from both grandparents! He was actually more impressed with the gift wrap and liked crinkling it and trying to taste it.

Just relaxin' and watching a Christmas flick!!

He did enjoy the items that were in those packages once the unwrapping fun was over. His Grandma Bernard sent this elephant toy for him and once we introduced him to it he was not without it for the rest of the day! It's still one of his favorite toys right now! Even while watching a Christmas movie with his dad and me, he didn't let go of it!

Well, minus the drool it could have been a cute pic in front of our little Christmas forest! As you can see, he was still learning to hold up his big head, but he was getting so much better!!! We loved having Ethan as a part of our family this Christmas and look forward to many more fun memories!