Friday Morning at Home

Ethan and I have been having fun this morning! He did get up an hour earlier this morning which wasn't too cool, but we've gotten lots accomplished as a result! We were both dressed and fed by 8. I had taken a shower and put laundry in before Steve even left for work. That was nice because then we just got to play. I was talking with Katie this morning about how we don't have a nice recent picture of our boys so I was kind of on a mission this morning and I think this one came out pretty good. He's really not a poser. I had to sit on the ottoman with my finger on the button for a good amount of time before he would even look at me!

He was being silly and climbing all over the chair trying to reach his books in this one.

Grandma Peg...this one is for you! I finally have one of him with the afghan you knit him!

Ethan really loves his books. Lots of times when we're in his room he's playing with his books or picking one out for us to read to him. It's very nice to have reading time and cuddle up in the rocking chair. Not too much cuddling going on these days...he's much too busy exploring.

Our little man is getting too big for his favorite sink! I think this morning might have been the last time so of course I had to photograph him in there. He still loves that baby in the mirror.

Ethan is napping right now which was sorely needed. He's got a bit of a cold so that combined with his early rise made him a bit unreasonable by 9:30. When he gets up we're off to have lunch with Linda and then to the mall for shoes. He completely outgrew his shoes this week! They were getting harder to put on and he kept tripping so Stride Rite here we come.

Sunday after the snow

We had another grand round of snow on Friday. The good thing was that Steve got to leave work early and we had even more than planned family time this weekend. We had fun being snowed in and watching the plow guy do our work for us. We ended up with around 10 inches!

Saturday afternoon, Ethan and I went to visit Karlyn and Tommy. The boys had a nice time playing together but are clearly still in the process of learning to share and granting others the personal space they deserve. Tommy enjoyed sitting on Ethan and they both wanted to play with the same toys at the same time which most of the time ended up ok.

Today, Ethan and I met Katie and Caleb at this amazing place called Imajine That! It's a whole floor of a renovated old mill that is fantasy kid land. We went in the bouncy house (not a favorite of Sir Ethan), went shopping at the "grocery store" (Ethan was mostly interested in walking around with an orange...his fruit of choice these days), colored (made little marks in between trying to eat the crayons) and used the chalkboard (again, when the chalk wasn't in his mouth). There was a tree fort looking thing we climbed into (I carried Ethan most of the way) and went down the slide. Ethan played with lots of balloons and showed me what a good dad he will make some day by spending a bunch of his time pushing around a baby carriage.

When we got home, we all went out for a hike in the snow. Steve put E in the backpack and off we went into the woods. We didn't make it very far before we realized that the snow was covering a sheet of ice from previous storms. Ok, I realized it after my feet came out from under me and I went down hard on my butt. Luckily the boys stayed upright and we decided to sled in our yard instead. Ethan had fun in his sled today which was nice and Steve made him a little snowman.

Our First Blog Entry!

Today seems like a good day to start a blog. We've had a great familiy President's Day so far and I've been putting off starting a blog long enough! I'm crazy with our camera...pictures, video, I can't get enough. My favorite subject is of course Ethan, and I'm always sending email with attachments to a large audience. This way people can just check when they have time and I'll do my best to keep up with it!

This weekend started with a visit to the Potter Family! Diane (my good friend from work) and her husband Chris welcomed Katie Elizabeth on January 30th and she's a teeny-tiny little beauty! Ethan wasn't too interested in her, but he did try to touch her a bunch when we shot the picture of the 4 of us.





Saturday night we dressed Ethan up in his new work duds that came in the mail from Pop-Pop Schoenholtz. He wasn't quite ready to play carpenter, but this morning he was wild about the hammer. I see many father son projects in our future. After bed time, Steve and I went out to a wonderful dinner while Grandma Jan watched Ethan for us.



Today we had every intention of taking Ethan to the Boston Aquarium but apparently so did every other parent in the greater Boston area. We arrived to find a ridiculous line for admission so we walked around Quincy Market and then had lunch at The Hard Rock Cafe. Ethan had a blast rocking out to the great tunes and checking out the memoribilia. There was a wall of symbols that was just too cool and a lime green harley davidson that caught his eye as well. We did try the Aquarium again but it was just too busy today so we settled for watching the harbor seals in the outdoor tank. Ethan was very excited about walking on all of the different platforms...the wooded dock, the metal gangplank and the brick walkway. He was very much taking his sweet time.




We wrapped up the day at the Stone Zoo and Ethan enjoyed learning about and seeing lots of different animals. We'll have to go back when it's warmer to fully enjoy that place.

Tomorrow we're planning a rainy day around the house. I'll be sure to write again soon!