Saturday at Kimball Farm

Last night was the Kazak Summer Outing at Kimball Farm. We were there last year too and this place is just awesome. Beautiful gardens, driving range, mini-golf, bumper boats, animals, and homemade ice cream. Ethan was very excited to go to the "parley". We're not sure what's up with his r's and t's. Any word that ends with an r is plural (bears, balls, waters...), but his l's are very clear. We're hoping he doesn't end up with a Boston accent but all of his teachers have one so we're going to have to keep an eye on that!

There were pony rides for the kids and Ethan loved watching the horsey's. When we asked if he wanted to ride he gave his "no, no, no" whine so we didn't push it.

Ethan ate a great dinner of bbq chicken, hot dog, bun (of course!), but his favorite part was the corn on the cob! Steve started sharing his with him...

but it wasn't long before he told dad to get his own corn and took over. He chewed on that thing for a long time.

The only thing better than corn on the cob is watermelon...

After dinner, the grown ups went to play volleyball. Thank goodness it was a double court, because I could not get Ethan out of the sand. There were quite a few kids there and he just loves kids. He was running around throwing his ball (and a little sand here and there) falling and laughing for a long time.

I simply cannot get this child to look at me when I have the camera in my hand. I'm sorry that you can't see his mostly toothless smile, but here are some action shots.

Even the attempt at the family photo this kid wants down...there was sand to be played in after all. At the end of the night I had to give him an impromptu bath in the ladies room to get the sand out of his diaper. I just couldn't put him to bed that sandy!

I love this picture...just a couple of guys, out enjoying the night.

We discovered a fun new place for us today. At the beginning of the summer we joined The Trustees of the Reservations in anticipation of lots of hiking and exploring. Today we finally started at Ward Reservation which is only about 6 miles from our house. There are 13 miles of hiking trails with beautiful views. I didn't have the camera with me but we'll definitely be back and there will be more fun places to report on over the next few months!

Videos

Instead of learning how to propel himself in his new car, Ethan has figured out that if he picks up his feet we can push him! Here's Grandma Suzanne taking him for quite a ride.

We were really testing Ethan's speech the other day. We figured that Ethan Schoenholtz from Wilmington, Massachusetts needs a head start on learning all those big words!

18 Months and sick as a dog

We had Ethan's 18 month appointment on Friday. Before I get to that, we had breakfast with Kaite/Caleb, Bridget/Katie, and Pam/Ty at Panera Bread of course! We all had a snack and then headed into the mall. It is always interesting to let multiple toddlers loose and see what happens. These guys split 2 and 2. Caleb couldn't wait to get out of his seat and he tore off with Ethan right behind him laughing all the way. We were watching how he walks really fast but isn't quite running yet. That's a little too risky. Falling is still something the little man prefers to avoid. The kids had fun banging on a table (no we don't know the woman in the chair but she enjoyed watching the munchkins play), and trying to break into a store under construction.











As I said, we had Ethan's 18 month appointment that afternoon. Little man measured in at just over 26 pounds and just over 31 inches. He's right in the middle for weight but still on the short side. His Dr said he wasn't going to be the tallest kid in his class...not that we were expecting that anyways! We had a good visit. Ethan was great through the exam and even laughed when she was checking his belly. She was as impressed as we are with his vocabulary. He has so many words and is such a parrot these days. Today he was working on sentences...a lot of nonesense that ended with a recognizable word. The visit ended as it usually does with a shot. This time for Hepatitis A. Unfortunately it has made our munchkin really, really sick. He was spiking 101-103 fevers for over 24 hours and his throat is so sore that he couldn't swallow anything. The Dr that we went to see on Saturday said he has coxsackie virus and there's nothing we can do about it. He won't sleep unless we're holding him so we've all had sleepless nights. Our fingers are crossed for tonight!

As I said, Ethan can't swallow anything and that means he's drooling a ton! He soaked several shirts and PJs yesterday.



We have been trying everything to get him to eat and drink. This is him in his chair in the living room for a change of scenery. Dinner was Gerber stars, cheezits and cheese. We did manage to get him to drink lots of juice and water so that was good.

Green kitchen and other projects

We have paint on the walls! We can't believe what a difference a little color makes. The kitchen is so much more cozy. After the trim is painted, the curtains will go up and it will be done! Unless we decide to change the lighting...which is very likely.








This is the shed that the boys finished last weekend. It has been nice to have more space in the garage especially with the gigantic snow blower that we bought from Uncle Eddie in PA!





Saturday morning bright and early the boys were out sealing the driveway. We were all up anyways. That's been the trend...all up before 7 thanks to a lovable toddler.

4th of July Weekend

Ethan is in heaven this week...Grandma and Pop-Pop are here! We have had a very busy weekend which started with the boys installing a tile backsplash in our kitchen before Grandma even arrived!



Suzanne flew in on Friday and we've been having a blast with the little man. He is really looking for lots and lots of attention all the time. His second seat has been on the floor since we need all the chairs for the big people. He likes to sit in it on the floor and this is one more way of testing his limits...why sit in the seat properly when the side of the chair is so much fun to balance on?





Little man LOVES sprinklers! We had him out in his new suit today but we used a different sprinkler than he was requesting in this picture.





Tonight he kept striking a pose in his high chair. Grandma and I both had our cameras out and he was ON!

Friday at Breakheart

The Friday in question was almost 2 weeks ago now, but here I am for the first time with some time to update. We met Katie and Caleb for a walk and lunch at Breakheart Reservation. Ethan was so exicted he fell asleep holding his ball. He was ready to play! He took off for the water as soon as we got to the pond. Even the mention of food couldn't keep him away! The boys have come a long way since we first started walking here over a year ago.

And they're off!!

Ethan wasn't interested in getting dressed to go home. Check out his stride as he heads back to the water...what a stud.

Lot's has happened since these pictures! We had a great visit with Don, Kimmie and Giorgia, we saw lots of family on the Cape this past weekend and now Pop-Pop Schoenholtz is here! I'm too tired right now, but there's more to come...