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!