Ethan's Page

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Random Chat #1

Ethan has been quite the busy boy the last few days.

Thursday was the 1st OSU game of the season. Ethan was all ready for it in his Buckeye colors. He walked up to the store with us just before the game to pick up gameday chips & dip. He watched a little of the game but by the end of the 1st quarter he was bored with it like the rest of us.

Friday we went for a bike ride through the area & ended at the park. I must say it was not a good day to go biking. The wind was horrible & I ended up pedaling against the wind for 1.5 miles. My poor legs gave out on me. I felt like I was pedaling through thick mud!! So just 1/4 mile away from the end of the bike trail I gave up & turned around so I could have the wind at my back. That only lasted for half a mile then the damn wind switched direction & I ended up having to pedal into the wind yet again. So by the time we got to the park Mommy legs felt like jell-o & were numb. I ended up collasping on the park bench b/c I couldn't walk LOL!! Of course Ethan immediately wanted me to go push him on the swings. I had to ask him to just give me 5 mins & told him to go slide on the slides for a few. Surprisingly he did. He had a blast playing at the park but he kept asking me for the "baby". He was looking for his little friend Killian. We usually go to that particular park to meet up with Killian & his parents. I think Ethan would have had more fun if he had his little friend to chase around.

Saturday Ethan went shopping for Fall clothes. I've been holding of on going shopping for warmer clothes because then it's just admitting that Summer is over & Fall is almost here. Sadly though it was only in the mid 60's & after it being in the 80's & 90's all week that felt cold. Ethan only has 2 pairs of pants that fit him so we had to break down & get him some pants, sleepers, & long sleeved shirts. It's starting to get cooler in the evening & shorts just won't cut it much longer. After clothes shopping he went with us to Toys R Us to get a canopy for his wagon. Then it was off to Papa Paul's to go "Poosh" in the river. Ethan had a blast throwing his rocks in the water. It's his favorite thing to do when he goes over there. He hung out with Papa & Gramma for a while then we headed home to change his clothes, feed the cats, & grab a quick bite to eat. Then it was off to cousin Petey's for a little gathering. Ethan had a blast playing with a little girl there. He was chasing her all around & tickling her. She wore him out. I wish I had taken some pictures of it I had the camera with me but I was a bit busy having to get him out of things when his attention would get diverted from his fun with her to another kind of fun. He slept good last night that's for sure.

Tomorrow Ethan is going to the Fulton County Fair. He is going to have such a good time there. It was a great time last year. I will have pictures to post of the fair when we get home. I have pictures to post from the last few days that will be at the end of this post.

Ethan is doing pretty well with his potty training. He is still only about 80%. He lets us know when he has to potty & he is only have 1 or 2 accidents a day. Yesterday he told Matt that he had to potty & he was very urgent about it. Matt didn't get him to the potty on time & Ethan ended up pooping his pants. Then he got very upset about that. I give Ethan credit b/c he did let us know we just weren't fast enough. He is still wearing diapers at nap time & bedtime. He isn't to the point yet where he has control when he sleeps. He's done very well so far with learning to potty so we are proud of him.

That's all I have on the Ethan front for now. Don't forget to check out the pictures of him.

Hanging outside

Basketball With Dad

Ready for the game

Climbing the slide

Going down the slide

Doing my favorite thing, running

I'm gonna get you!

I really love to swing

Swinging

On the big boy swings

C'mon! Watch me!

There I go!

Climbing

Driving the Fire Truck

Watching George with Papa Paul

Getting ready to "Poosh"

Going to throw rocks

Grammy Nett givng me rocks

Tasting the rocks before I throw them

Picking my rocks out

Throwing my monster rock

GARBAGE!!

Collecting the Garbage

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Potty Training Continues

Ethan is doing so well with potty training. It's been 8 days since we started and by day 4 he wasn't having any accidents. He was even telling us that he had to potty. So he went Monday & Tuesday all day without having a single accident. He did have a couple accidents yesterday one was just b/c I couldn't get him to sit on the potty long enough in the morning to finish peeing & the other accident happened while we were having lunch with daddy. Ethan stood up & told us "potty" and pointed to himself so I walked quickly from the cafeteria to the bathroom but unfortunately it took us too long but Ethan was making the attempt & that's what counts. Today I took him to Target & bought him big boy underwear. He was very excited over that. Every morning he asks me for his "unerwear" he insists that he get to wear his underwear. For the most part he is completely day trained, about 90%. He just needs to feel comfortable pooping on the potty. He waits until nap time when I put him in a diaper (he is not sleep trained just yet) to do his business. I keep telling him if he poops on the potty not only will mommy and daddy be so proud but we will give him 4 cookies. He only gets 1 cookie for peeing on the potty. He'll get there, I hope sooner rather than later. Since he is only wearing diapers when he is sleeping I have decided it's time to do away with the changing table, so I will be converting it to a dresser today. This means we are going to move his frogs into his room. He loves his frogs he likes to help feed them. They will look good in his room. We are yet to get his room painted hopefully we will be able to get that done soon.

Yesterday Ethan learned he has got to hang onto Moose. I took him to have lunch with daddy & since we were running late I gave him a piggy back into the hospital & up to daddy's dept. As we were walking out Ethan screamed "Moose". I told him "You didn't bring Moose where do you see Moose?" I look to where he is pointing & there sitting on the information desk is Moose. Someone found him in the parking lot & was going to throw him away but saw how tattered he was & thought he probably belonged to a kid so they turned him in at the desk. The person sitting at the desk thought Moose looked familiar so she set him out hoping his owner would see him and his owner did. I didn't even know that Ethan had brought Moose with him. I went out the back door before Ethan did & opened the car up for him to get in & realized that I had left my IPod & Phone in the house so I told Ethan to go get in the car as I ran back in quickly for my things. When I came back out he was sitting in his seat so I buckled him in & off we went. He must have set Moose on the seat beside him so I didn't see him. Then when I got him out of the car I had my back turned so he could climb aboard so I wouldn't have seen him grab him. I learned my lesson too, always check & see that he has Moose with him. Boy would that have been a mess when I got home & tried to put him to bed. Ethan won't go down to sleep w/o his best friend. I would have had a screaming toddler on my hands to try to calm down. Whew I am so glad that Moose was found!!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Let the Potty Training begin!!

Ready.....Set........Potty!! Yes that's right Ethan is yet again taking another stab at potty training. This time I am not letting him make the call he will be potty trained. LOL. I So today was Day 1 of his potty training. I had him in regular undies & every 30 min he was put on the potty. Since I am doing every 30 mins I have his potty in the living room for now. Otherwise I will be spending all my time running up & down the stairs & well let's face it that can get exhausting. When I get to the point where he is going every hour then I will move his potty to the bathroom. I am trying to get him to learn that he has to take a couple mins out of his busy schedule of playing to use the potty. If he pees on the potty he gets a special cookie (Nilla Wafer's). In a few days (if he starts to have dry undies every 30 mins) I will bump up the time to 40 mins. I am hoping to have this child potty trained during the day by the end of the week.

Yesterday Ethan & I went over to a friends house to give her a gift for her new little baby that is on the way (due in 7 wks). Ethan had a blast playing with her 19 month old little guy. I'll take him over again after she's had the baby. She said she will be on maternity leave in a couple weeks so I am welcome to bring Ethan over again so the boys can play. I have a couple pictures that I took with my phone that I will have at the end of this post of the boys playing. With them being so close in age Ethan has a nice little playmate.

Here are the pictures of Ethan & Isaac playing

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Birthdays & Fairs & Vacation OH MY!!!

What a busy few weeks this has been for Ethan. Saturday July 24th was his cousin's Macey & Kaitlin's birthdays. He went out for dinner with us to celebrate with Macey for her birthday. Then the next Sat. was his daddy's b-day. Ethan went shopping with me earlier in the week to purchase Matt's birthday gift then on Matt's birthday we took him out for a birthday brunch then later on we met with everyone for a birthday dinner for Matt where we gave him his gift. Everyone chipped in to get him an IPod Touch. THEN the next day we took Ethan to the Lucas County Fair. He had a blast!! He got to see horses, cows, sheep, goats, & he went on a little pony ride. He left the fair with a few prizes b/c MomMom & Dada kept winning at the games. His wagon was so full at one point that he barely had room to sit!! He loves his prizes though. Later that night he went with us to the final Music Under the Stars concert. He had a great time mooching cookies from his Grammy Judy. Ethan really enjoys listening to the music. He was clapping along with the songs & asking the band to sing when they would finish a piece. Tues we took him to Port Clinton for a little mini vacation to Matt's uncle's condo. We took him for a bike ride, played a little tennis while Ethan sort of shagged balls for us, went swimming, & enjoyed the view of the lake from the porch. It was the first time he has ever slept away from home. He did OK it took some time for us to get him down but he was quiet for the night by 9:45. We took his pack & play so that he would have his own bed to sleep in. Ethan has never co-spept & he has always had his own room, so he is used to having his own space. It worked out well in the end for him. Yesterday we took him to the Wild African Safari. He had so much fun watching the monkey's swing in the trees & he enjoyed the pig races as well. He was not to fond of the drive through safari. He became quite intimidated by the animals sticking their heads in the windows. He decided that he wanted to just sit in his car seat & watch through the closed window. We had so much fun feeding the animals. Some of the Buffolo were big ole piggies. Matt had one that refused to get it's head out of the window so Matt showed it a carrot then threw the carrot out the window. In the mean time I was dealing with another Buffolo that thought I had more food so it was attacking me with it's tongue. Matt started smacking it on the nose telling it "No More" to get it out of the window. The long Horned Steer were not as bad they took their share & moved onto the next car. Ethan really started to get into it towards the end & started feeding the deer. When we got to the giraffes I lifted him through the moon roof so his arm could reach. He got freaked out by their long tongues & yelled no at them then started throwing carrots out the roof at the giraffe. I had a blast feeding the giraffe it was actually pretty cool. After we left the safari we went back to the condo went for a swim then we all showered & got our things packed up to go home. 1 night there was plenty this time for Ethan. We hope to do a weekend sometime in Sept. That should be a good time. So I have tons of pictures to post at the end of this entry. Matt is still on vacation through tomorrow then it is back to work for him. It's been a great week. We are looking forward to the Fulton County Fair that starts Sept. 3.

Here are the pictures from the Fair

From Lucas/Fulton County Fairs

These are the pictures from our vacation

From African Safari/Vacation Pics 2010

Friday, July 23, 2010

So much to do ...... So little time

Ethan was so busy today. First he went and had lunch with his Dada. He loves to have lunch with his Dada, then he went with me to gas up the car, then we made a stop to visit Grammy Judy just for a few minutes at work. Then we ran home so MomMom could hunt for her IPod by getting rid of all the receipts in the kitchen. Then we headed over to Uncle Brian's to swim. Ethan had a ball swimming. Dada had his life vest so MomMom made do with the swimmers. He did great. He refused to let me hold him & he kept himself upright. He was peddling himself all over the pool just kicking his legs. He also loved jumping off the steps of the ladder. He didn't want me to catch him either. He wouldn't jump unless I backed up a few steps. He is like a little fish. Just a month ago he could barely keep himself upright & now he's actually swimming. I'm so impressed with my little man. Once he was done swimming he had dinner with Granpa Frank, Macey & her friend, Dada & MomMom, & Uncle Brian. He had so much fun running around playing. Whew he had an exhausting day!

Tomorrow is Macey & Kaitlin's b-days. Macey is going to be 15 & Kaitlin is going to be 8. Happy Birthday to both of them. Ethan is going out with us all for a b-day lunch for Macey & will hopefully get in some more swimming. Sunday we are taking him to Music Under the Stars. He really had a great time last week there so we decided to take him again this week.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Future Musician?

We took Ethan to the zoo last night for Music Under the Stars. It's a free evening of music on a Sunday night. Ethan had a blast!! He loved sitting listening to the band play. A few times he was up jumping around to some of the songs. After the intermission he was sitting & conducting the band. He was adorable. When the band would stop playing so the announcer could introduce the next piece Ethan got all upset & started telling the band to sing. Could he be the next Motzart? Or maybe he will be a future Phantom or Mark Cohen. Either way Ethan loves music, he gets that from his MomMom. I was always listening to Phantom of the Opera while I was pregnant with him. I remember when we went to NY just before he was born we went to see Rent one more time. He had been quiet all through dinner & was quiet while we waited in line to enter the theater. But as soon as the show started he was dancing around in my belly. Sometimes it felt like he was in time to the music.

Saturday we took him to Uncle Brian's to visit & swim. Ethan impressed us all when he swam (with his life vest on) across the pool. He was kicking his legs like a mad man!! He also was having a blast jumping off the ladder into the pool. The kid has no fear. He thinks it's hilarious when he will log roll in the water. The life vest causes him to do that occasionally when he loses his balance keeping himself upright. He just laughs & kicks his legs. By the end of this summer he is going to be swimming like a pro!!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Obsessed!!

I have never heard of a child being obsessed with as many things as Ethan is! Right now his main obsession seems to be garbage. Yes folks that's right I said garbage. He walks around all day telling me garbage. He likes to throw things in the garbage. Too bad not everything he throws in the garbage is really garbage. He throws his shoes in the garbage, once he threw my phone in the garbage (good thing I saw him & was able to rescue it), toys, books, you name it. He likes to scream "Garbage" as we drive down the street pointing at the garbage cans. He seems to think that garbage is something special. Maybe he will be a garbage man when he grows up.

He second obsession is bikes. Everywhere we go he has to point out people riding their bikes, motercycles, or bikes parked in front of a building. We took him to the park one day & a family rode their bikes in. He is so obsessed with bikes that he did not want to leave their bikes alone. We had to keep chasing him away from the bikes. He loves to ride his tricycle around. He got 2 for his b-day so we keep one in the basement & another outside. He doesn't pedal yet he scoots it around with his feet. He goes around telling us "BiRi" He also likes to look at our bikes & tell us who's bike is who's.

Finally his third obsession is shoes. When we go out he is constantly pointing out to us that people are wearing shoes. One day we were over at his Grammy Marcia's & Aunt Kate put on Matt's shoes so Ethan got upset demanding to her "Dada Shoes". He wanted her to take his dada's shoes off. It was quite funny. He will be running around the house in nothing more than a diaper but he insists that we put his shoes on.

Ethan has other obsessions too, he love Curious George, fish, & bubbles. Well at least those are normal childhood obsessions. Who would have thought that a child could be obsessed with things like garbage or shoes. Bike riding is fairly normal too. He just really loves his bike rides. I just don't get the obsession with garbage. It came out of no where. Garbage is so disgusting I really hope this is a temporary obsession. LOL!! Oh well his cuteness makes up for his weird obsessions. It's a good thing he's cute.

Did anyone catch NICU on Discovery Health last night? I thought it was pretty good. The first episode was about 2 different babies one born @ 36 wks the other born @35 wks. Each baby had it's own struggle. The 2nd episode was about 2 babies one was born to a diabetic mother, the other was born to a morbidly obese mother. Here is a link to one of the babies stories. Baby Ariah went home after 11 days in the NICU. Baby Trey went home after 13 days. I do not have a video on Trey unfortunately. If you can tune in next week it's in Thursday nights at 10 on Discovery Health.

Baby Ariah