Christmas 2009

We had great Christmas! We enjoyed our time with family and experienced and appreciated the true joy of the Christmas season. We hope you did, as well.

James and I decided to get a Christmas present for both of us this year - so we bought a new DSLR Canon Rebel Camera! We love it! It came just in time for Christmas so we were able to play with it a little bit. We have a lot of learning to do - but we enjoyed taking pictures with our new toy.

I love this picture - this is one of my favorite ornaments...

We started off our celebration at our Christmas Eve Candlelight service. I enjoy this every year. We all enjoyed the carols and candlelight with my Mom, Dad, Rick, Jill, and baby Leah. Ethan even got to hold up a candle - it was a little glow stick candle! :)

We came straight home to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family at our house. We had a great time! Ethan got little Sesame Street figurines from Grandma and Papa that he LOVES! He also got lots of other things like the LIttle People School Bus, a musical recorder (he hasn't figured out how to blow in it yet - so he puts his mouth up to it and makes his own noises), a bean bag, books, a couple DVD's, and lots more! He was spoiled this Christmas! He loved every minute of it, though.

Here is our family picture...

My wonderful Mom sharing the story of Jesus with Rece (all of the grandkids were supposed to listen) :)

Ethan was excited to see his favorite sesame street friends. : )

Checking out the new bus.

Ethan sitting in his cousins, Brody's, new chair.

Ethan in his new bean bag.

All tired out - watching Elmo before bed.

The next morning Ethan woke up, and came downstairs to find a new train table, a Fire Truck Car, books, and a elmo back pack with a plush Elmo, Cookie, and Big Bird inside. He loved everything! I took pictures and deleted them by mistake! So, I only have a few pictures from Christmas morning.

We played all morning, took naps, and then headed to Jackson to celebrate Christmas with the Royer's. We had a great time there, as well!

Rachel was tickling Ethan's face with the horses tail. :) Ethan thought this was funny.

Then Ethan decided to try to ride on the horse.

Here cousin Joel is doing the tickling.

During our devotion time the kids decided they wanted to cuddle with me (I didn't mind one bit) :)

Ethan loved his new Elmo outfit. :)

James' Mom passed down some sentimental items as part of the Christmas gifts. She included a handwritten letter with each item. Ethan received an old truck that was given to his Grandpa Royer from his father when he was little guy. This was pretty cool. After the letter was read aloud, Ethan clapped, and then checked out the new truck for a little bit.

I had to include this sweet face of Rachel (Ethan's cousin). She is too cute!

Christmas is over - but we are now looking forward to 2010! Before then, we have a few days off to enjoy as a family. Yipee!! :)

What a fun age!

So, I have to say that being a Mom has gotten better and better over the past 17 months. Ethan is so much fun! I think this age is the best. EVERYTHING is exciting to Ethan....whether it is the ornaments on the Christmas Tree, the Christmas lights he sees outside, or even the two white chocolate chips that Dada put in his bowl of craisins. We hear the word, "Wow," constantly. It is so enthusiastic and cute. If only we all had the enthusiasm of a 17 month old. :) 

Here are a few highlights of Ethan's cuteness. 

Today James and I were getting ready to eat dinner. We pray before we eat, so James and I both bowed our heads to pray. As we were praying Ethan was silent. At the end of our prayer we both looked up to find Ethan with his head totally down, eyes closed, and hands folded! Then he looked up and repeated "AMEN." Way too cute for words. 

He is doing a great job at listening to Mama and Dada. He will help pick up toys and put his books right back where he got them from. We ask him to put things away and you can tell he doesn't REALLY want to - but he sighs and takes it from our hands to put the toy/book/cars where they belong. 

He loves to go to church. He always sits with us during the music. For some reason this is his cuddle time. He isn't a huge cuddler most of the time - but during this part of church he will lay his head on our shoulder as he enjoys the worship. At the end of each song his head pops up as he claps and says "yaaayyyy" - then his head goes right back down. Sometimes he sits up and dances or bops his head to go along with the music. After the music is over we ask him if he wants to go to upstairs (in the nursery) and play with the toys and he dramatically shakes his head yes. Then, today, he leaned over and whispered bye bye Dada as he gave him a kiss. Again, too cute for words! :) 

He jabbers a ton, but he is also saying a ton of words. He tries to repeat whatever we ask him to. Mostly he says the first part of the words. He can now say a lot of the sesame street characters names - Cookie, Oscar, and Ernie are very clear. When we ask him what the count does he does the count's laugh. He loves, loves, loves anything that has to do with sesame street. He can point out all the characters if you ask him. He also says almost all of the animal sounds. His newest is the lizard - he sticks his tongue in and out. He also just started doing the sssssss for a snake. He likes to take his hands and smack them together as he says "chomp chomp chomp" for an alligator. 

He is also entering that stage where he knows what he wants...and he isn't very happy if he doesn't get what he wants. We have begun to witness a few little tantrums if he isn't getting his way. We just try to ignore those little fits and distract him with other things. ;o) 

We recently brought his golf set into the basement. He goes downstairs and swings those golf club all over the place. However, Dada has also showed him how to try to hit the golf clubs. He tries and then claps for himself. If Dada hits the ball, he claps as well. 

We love our little guy!

Almost 17 months!

We went and took some pictures in downtown Brighton and these were some of my favorites. 

They took pictures at school. I didn't order any b/c I didn't think they turned out well. He wasn't feeling good this day and kept wanting to touch his ears. So, in all of his photos his hand was either on his ear or on it's way to his ear. ;o) This is the best they got. 

We have this box under our tree and he loves to play with it. He puts cars inside and says "bye bye car." 

He loves to wear Dada's hat. 

Being a goofball! He is proud that he can now get in and out of his chair himself. Big boy!

Trying to walk outside in the first snowfall of the year. It is kind of hard to walk when you are so bundled up! He had fun, though! 

We have to tell him daily, "no touch," when it comes to the Christmas Tree. He loves it, though. He claps and gets excited when we turn it on. 

He is especially tempted to touch the "ball" ornaments. 

Conversations with my 1 year old

Here is a conversation that Ethan and I had over snack time yesterday. I think he is pretty darn cute! :) Enjoy! 

So much has changed over the last month!

Now that our little guy is walking, a whole new world has opened up to him....and we have all been having so much fun! He is now standing proud as the tallest kid in his class. He is in the 95th percentile for height! He has thinned out a bit, as now he is at about the 75th percentile for weight. I think he must be all torso, because all of his 18 month pants are still too long, but his 24 month tops show his belly. :) 

He is not only walking...actually today he started RUNNING! He loves to be chased by James - so he will try to run away... 

SInce he is walking, it has been a lot more fun to go outside. He loves to just walk up and down the driveway and sidewalk. He waves and says hi to all of the cars. He also really enjoys drawing with his sidewalk chalk and watching bubbles. In fact, he tries to say "bubbles" and "color." (We have been so lucky to have three gorgeous fall weekends). 

 He also loves to go to Grandma and Papa's - because they have lots of fun push toys that he can push on their driveway. He got to go walk around their little lake for the first time yesterday. We enjoyed our walk with Grandma, Papa, Uncle Lar, Rece, and Brody. It has never taken soooo long to walk around that lake! Walking with three kiddos slowed us down a bit. ;o) Rece enjoys picking up all of the sticks and asking, "but whhhhy?" and Brody runs, jumps, and kicks the leaves. He also tries to kiss and hug Ethan! 

Ethan is quite the character. His little personality makes us laugh everyday. However, he tends to hide his "true colors" around people - he gets a little shy and quiet. However, he is quite the opposite at home. 

Now, when we are at home, he is usually following us around the house - trying to find things to get into. He enjoys getting into the dishwasher, kitchen drawers, the laundry room, etc. He also likes to find Dakota laying in her bed and he tries to hug and love her. However, Dakota usually runs away and then we find Ethan left laying in Dakota's bed. 

Ethan LOVES elmo. He loves to watch Elmo and he knows all of the sesame street characters. He is always asking to watch Elmo - which I feel like is a bad habit. However, I honestly don't mind turning it on for him for a little bit so that I can try to get dinner on the table. He usually watches 15 minutes per night. He is getting pretty good about just saying, "bye bye elmo" when we turn it off. ;o) 

He is trying to say more and more these days. Most people wouldn't understand what he was saying, but we do. Today he kept pointing to our little Christmas Tree and trying to say it. He cracks us up when he jabbers and even uses some hand motions. You can tell when he is asking a question, because his little hands go out, as if to say "why, Momma?" He has totally mastered his sign language for, "more, please, thank you, and all done." These have come in handy. He also knows what he wants. We can ask him a question and he will say yes or no. His yes is extremely exaggerated as he shakes his head up and down. ;o) 

He does pretty well at daycare, but his teachers do say that he doesn't like other kids in his "space." We have also noticed this. He will try to push them away if they are too close to him, or trying to take his toys. We are trying to work on this with our little guy. ;o) We are also starting to think about our discipline strategies. ;o) 

I realized that I never posted pictures of Ethan at Halloween. He was a little pirate. He had fun! They had a halloween parade at school - that was sooo cute! He also went trick or treating to a few houses and then enjoyed handing out candy at our home..

15 months and 10 days...and ETHAN IS WALKING!

Okay, I think this is funny! Ethan hasn't been walking by himself, until just two days ago, when he took a couple of steps. We were so excited. Today, I happened to look at him in the family room and all of the sudden he stood up and walked..not just a couple of steps....but into the kitchen, hallway, back to the family room.... I ran and grabbed the camera and video taped him. He has been walking all evening, since. 

I knew this kid knew how to walk, he was just holding out on us. He keeps falling, but gets right back up and keeps going. He does not want our help.......he wants to do it all himself. I can already see our homework battles as he gets older....."No, Mom, I can do it myself. I don't want any help!." ;o) 

 We are so proud. :) 

Enjoy the videos. Keep in mind this is literally, the FIRST time he really walked by himself! :) 

Here are a couple of recent pictures....

Today he was playing with bowls and spoons in the kitchen. He discovered it was like a drum. 

Here is is trying to help Dada hang up the new curtains.

Almost 15 months

Ethan will be 15 months next week! I haven't posted an update in a while - so I thought while James is upstairs putting him to bed I would take a minute to post some new pictures. :) 

Ethan is SO much fun - he is also now keeping us REALLY busy! He is a busy little beaver, and no longer is content with just playing in one room. He is all over the house and into everything. He now likes doing many other things, rather then just playing with his toys. Some of his current interests are opening and closing doors, getting into Dakota's cage, playing with water (washing his hands in the sink), and crawling up the stairs millions of times per day.

He is a smart little guy - although he rarely shows off his skills in front of other people. He saves all of his talent for mommy and daddy. He can point to his nose, head, hair, ears, eyes, chin, elbows, knees, tongue, and teeth. However you need his complete attention and no distracting toys around. He can also Moo, Quack, Baa, and make a monkey sound. 

He will occasionally use his sign language to tell us "more, all done, please, or thankyou." He only does it after I remind him - hopefully he will start doing it on his own. However he might just start using words...when he does sign "more" he also says it. 

He says "car car" constantly. He is a total boy and loves his cars, tractors, airplanes, buses, and trucks. You can also tell that he is his Daddy's little boy because he LOVES JEEPS! He knows what a JEEP looks like. At church there is always a yellow JEEP parked in the same spot when we get there and he gets so excited to see it. When we go for our walks around the neighboorhood he can also spot the JEEPS. Of course when he sees Daddy's jeep - he gets super excited. 

He also loves any sort of ball. However, he gets extra excited when Daddy gets out his "real" football or basketball. He even knows what closet they are in and points to the closet as soon as Daddy gets home, saying, "ball ball." Although we don't let him watch TV very often, he does enjoy seeing some football on tv. :) 

Elmo is the best! He says "elmo" constantly but it sounds more like Mama. He prefers all of his elmo books and he hugs and kisses his "tickle me elmo." We have showed him a couple of elmo songs on Youtube and he gets so excited to see them! He just can't get enough of his friend Elmo! 

We have now made our basement totally "ethan friendly." We were having a bunch of kids over on the weekend so we thought we would get a carpet remnant and some padding for the basement and have a place for the toys. We also got a tent with some tunnels for the kids to play in. Now Ethan's favorite spot in the house is the basement. He stands at the basement door and tries to turn the doorknob and he isn't a very happy camper when we come back up from being down stairs. He has a blast down there! He especially loves that he can ride his Little Coupe car down there. 

Did I mention that Dakota also likes the tents...and tunnels?

We were having just a little bit of trouble with Ethan biting. We had gotten two reports from daycare that he bit another child while he was there! I was really concerned about this and we have tried to make sure he knows that "teeth are not for biting." He was also biting me on several occasions. Luckily it seems as though he has gotten the hint (for now). I am hoping he is now down with this stage - but we will see. Today I went to pick him up at daycare and found out that someone bit him today! I was not too upset about this - because I am hoping that this will make him realize that biting hurts! ;o) 

We have had so much fun over the last month. We are loving the fall weather and enjoying Ethan's personality more and more every day. 

Here are some pictures from some family time that we had at Three Cedars Farm in South Lyon. Ethan loved it! He loves pumpkins and really enjoyed seeing the tractors, going on a hayride, and playing in the choo choo train. :) We had a great time! 

We are still thrilled with Ethan's learning center. He has learned so many new things since he started there and met so many new friends. He was even blowing one of the little girls a kiss when we left today. :) He is also napping 2-3 hours everyday on his cot - so this makes me a happy Mama! :) 

We couldn't ask for anything more in life! We have the best little boy and he brings a smile to our faces every single day!