We're all trying to get healthy

Well, Ethan is doing better now - but Momma is sick! I have had a pretty bad case of strep throat. High fevers, aches, of course a terrible sore throat - blech! 

Since I am just laying in bed... (James is out and about with Ethan right now) I decided to post a update and video. Ethan has been sooo much fun to watch lately. He is learning so much. His vocabulary is increasing and you can tell that he is really trying to say a lot of new things. Right now we know when he says, mama, dada, uh oh, Mooo (cow), Papa, SSSSSS (the "s" sound), he says something that sounds like "giggle giggle giggle" and now he says it for "tickle tickle tickle." He can say "hi" and "bye bye." It even sounded like he has said "George" (for his curious george stuffed animal) - but we could be hearing things. ;o) He also just babbles a lot, which I think is really cute. He is always pointing to things. 

I have definitely noticed that he is an observer when we get around a lot of people. I think he is going to be like his Mommy and Daddy. He isn't especially fond of lots of new people or too much chaos. We went to Jungle Java with his cousins and he kind of just sat there looking around. He is also starting to get into the stage where he gets upset in the nursery at church. It is heartbreaking! We have gotten called up on a couple of occasions...and I have a feeling this is going to start happening regularly now. ;o) 

He is crawling all over the house now. He does circles through our kitchen, dining, living room, and foyer over and over again. He especially gets excited to crawl through our hallway upstairs. He likes to open and close doors and play with all of the door stops. 

I have mentioned before that he loves to be outside - well, he really does. He would stay out there forever, if he could. He loves his little coupe car (Uncle Lar and Aunt Jeanette let us have it). He hasn't figured out how to go forwards in it, but he can go backwards. He will sit in here forever, and he is VERY serious about this. Once per day I go sit in the garage while he does this: 

(I added the music to the video - I was experimenting) :) 

My Baby is ONE!

Well, my baby turned one today! I have to say that it wasn't quite the Birthday Celebration that I had hoped for. He has been sick for the last four days - and it is a pretty bad sickness, at that. The poor little guy has been miserable. We have been able to catch him for SOME fun when the medicine takes effect. However, we had scheduled his birthday party for yesterday and he wasn't much for celebrating. He had no appetite, so we didn't even try to give him his cake. Actually, speaking of the cake - that is another story...

I had a friend of ours make monkey cupcakes for Ethan's Birthday and a small cake for Ethan. The cake and cupcakes were in the box on a table in our kitchen. The night before his birthday Dakota, our dog, got her little nose INTO the box and got into Ethan's cake. I am sure one day I will laugh about all of this - but I was pretty mad at the time. James ended up going to VG's to get Ethan a new cake. We took one of the monkey faces from a cupcake and put it on his cake. 

Here are the original cupcakes and cake. I thought they were super cute!

Here is the invite that we sent out for Ethan's Birthday. My talented husband, James, made them on photoshop. :) We printed them out as a 5x7 photo invite.

Here are some pictures from Ethan's Birthday party. Like I said - he was pretty miserable - so he didn't show too much excitement at the time. However, as soon as everyone left his tylenol started working again. Then, he played with all of his toys until 9:00 (which is much later than his normal bedtime). 

Rece trying to be on the guys. :) 

Brody, Rece, Dakota, and Daddy - all trying to help Ethan open his presents. 

A new monkey to hug!

A sock monkey jack in the box!

A BIG truck from Daddy!

Here are all of his opened presents. He has been having fun playing with all of them today. 

Now, these pictures were taken on his actual birthday, today. 

Here is a video of Ethan showing how old he is. 

Since no one was able to see Ethan get into his birthday cake - here you go! We ended up just doing this tonight with the three of us. He really got into the cake! I don't think he minded being messy one bit. We had quite the mess to clean up afterwards. 

Here is a short video....

Here he looks like he wants to give me a hug! :)

He pretty much demolished it. Daddy thought it was the best first birthday cake eating he had ever seen (not that he ate that much). 

A few other updates from us. Ethan has had a great month! He is learning more and more everyday. He pretty much claps at everything now-a-days. His claps are actually pretty loud. When you tell him "Good Job" he will usually clap for himself. He is also learning to share. When he plays with his cars, we are always asking for one. So, now he constantly hands his cards over to us. Of course, then he will take them back right away. 

He LOVES to be outside. In fact, now when we come inside he cries. When he is outdoors he is starting to ask for his swing. He will point to it and gets so excited to swing. This is another hard thing to get him out of. Usually after he swings he likes to sit in the grass for a bit. I have never seen a baby like to sit in the grass so much. He also LOVES his cars (the ones that he can sit in). I think he would sit there all day if we let him. Just today he was in his little coupe and figured out how to go backwards. So, he was doing backwards circles in our garage for quite a while. He will put his feet up and let Daddy push him, too. He squeals with joy! 

He gets into moods where he likes to hug and kiss. It seems like he mostly does this with Momma and Grandma. Sometimes I am not sure if he is trying to kiss or bite!? Speaking of Grandma, he gets soooo excited when he sees her...more excited than anyone else. :) 

Well, that is it for now. Since Ethan is asleep I better clean things up around here. All in all, his birthday was good! We are hoping and praying he feels better soon. I think I will be going back to the doctors tomorrow!

Thanks, everyone for coming to our party and for the fun gifts!

Ethan Crawling??

I think that I can finally say that Ethan "can" crawl! I am not sure if he is ready to use this as his primary mode of transportation, all of the time - but it comes in handy when he REALLY wants to get something. He has a couple of secrets - he usually does this when no one is watching. In fact the first time I witnessed him crawling, I was in the kitchen and he was in the family room by himself. Luckily I peaked in and noticed him crawling half way across the room, to his barn. 

Since then he has gotten back up on those knees quite a bit - but not for long. Today though, before I started video taping, he was in his bedroom and I was putting away laundry. He noticed his fan all the way across the room. He very efficiently crawled to get it! 

Then, I went downstairs to get the camera. I tried to get him to do it again. :) Be patient with the video - he does, eventually, make it all the way back to the fan. :) He does prefer just to roll to his final destination. 

I am proud of the little guy. We have been working on this crawling stuff for a long time! ;)I am glad that he didn't completely skip this stage. YEAH ETHAN! 

Enjoying some outdoor fun!

This was actually taken today. Ethan and I went to visit my friend Colleen and her little girl Gabrielle. Ethan enjoyed the sand box for a little bit - too bad it was so cold outside this morning, though!

Here is Ethan and Daddy on the 4th of July. This was Ethan's first boat ride at Aunt Traci's. He was all smiles at first, but I don't think he enjoyed wearing the life jacket. 

Here is Ethan in his new whale pool. He enjoyed splashing!

Ohhh...Ethan had so much fun at the beach at Island Lake! We went with Uncle Larry, Aunt Jeanette, and his cousins Rece and Brody. Too bad I don't have a picture of all three of the boys. 

Ethan's First Haircut

After many questions about when we were going to cut Ethan's hair - I decided to try to cut it myself, today. I figured he would be scared if I took him someplace to get it cut. So, I turned on Elmo, layed a towel on our family room floor, got James' Conair clippers, said a little prayer, and started trimming away. A lot of hair came off my little guy! It didn't turn out perfect, but I think it looks good - considering I have never cut a babies hair before. ;o) He was quite interested in the clippers and kept turning his head to try to see what I was doing. Since I was able to do this, I let him sit on the couch and finish watching Elmo with a snack. I thought he looked pretty darn cute sitting their watching his favorite friend and eating his snack so neatly.