Ethan has a girlfriend!

We had the Krangle Family and a few of Steve's friends from work over on Saturday night for a bbq. Ethan and Katie were SO excited to see each other!

First they headed over to the window to look for Bob. Ethan is obsessed with our neighbor and likes to watch for him from his stool by the window. He had to show Katie, but Bob didn't cooperate and this didn't last very long.

After taking turns riding the horsey, it was time for dancing. This was really, really fun to watch!






See for yourself!



They had to be in the same place at the same time and sometimes playing with the same toy all night. At one point, we had left the gate between the living room and front hall open. All 7 adults were in the kitchen and the kids were in the living room...or so we thought. Ethan looks at Bridget and I and points to the hallway and says "Katie!". We then realize she's not in the living room and found her half way up the stairs! That was Ethan's Lassie moment...or Cindy Brady moment (I think it was Cindy who went through the tattle tale phase...). Depends on how you want to look at it! Luckily she was fine and we kept a close eye on the gates the rest of the night.

Smolak Farms

Saturday morning we went to Smolak Farms in North Andover. They were having their annual peach festival so we decided to check it out. It was a beautiful place with a great playground, lots of animals to see and feed and tons of pick your own produce.

The boys headed straight for the pond to try and feed the geese.

Apparently the geese weren't interested.

Ethan was very excited to help pick tomatoes.

By the time we made it to the peach orchard, Ethan had pretty much had as much fun as he was willing to have before nap time. He is just too heavy to carry so we had to leave at this point. Luckily they had a farm stand and we just bought peaches instead of picking our own. We missed out on the hay and wagon rides, but I have a feeling we'll be back!

Family Fun Night

Friday night was Family Fun Night as day care celebrated its 10 year anniversary. Steve was out with friends from work so the little man and I went and had a date night. It was pretty much just me following him around making sure he didn't get clobbered by the big kids running around.

We had fun on the see-saw together.

This series of 3 pics cracks me up. The boy who never crawled will get on his hands and knees now, but he turns himself around before he exits the tunnel so that he can put his feet on the ground. He's very serious about it as you can see. Actually, there was a musician there who wasn't Peter Sheridan (the usual sing along guy) and he was kind of freaking Ethan out. It was a bit loud.





This is Ethan playing it cool while playing on the big kid part of the play ground. This is a big deal for him. He's not usually allowed on this structure.

This is Shelley. One of Ethan's awesome teachers. We are going to miss her so much when Ethan starts in Todder 4 after Labor Day! It might not look like it in this picture, but Ethan loves his teachers.

Sunday on Weir Hill

Another weekend, another trip to the Dr's office. This time it's Pink Eye. A couple of other kids in his class had it so it was only a matter of time. It really was only bad for him at one point and that was yesterday after nap. He's been pretty good about the drops so he's much better today. Luckily it didn't mess with his personality and he was his entertaining self all weekend! We're not sure if it was being in day care all 5 days last week, the pink eye or a growth spurt, but Mr Man slept until 9:00 yesterday!!! I honestly don't think the 3 of us have slept through the night to that hour since he's been alive. It was awesome! Of course that totally screwed up the rest of our day, but man do we wish we had more mornings like that.

Today we got up and hit the road because there was no rain in the forecast for the first time in a while. After a stop at Breuggers (Ethan loves to say "bagel" but doesn't like to eat them that much) we went to Weir Hill in North Andover. This place is less than a mile from Merrimack and I had no idea it existed. It's 4 or so miles of hiking through the woods and along a huge lake.


You can kind of tell in this picture that his eye's aren't quite right.





After a while, Ethan was a little tired of being in the back pack (Steve was a little tired of carrying him in the back pack as you can see) so we started the great hat swap. We all had each others hats on and that was pretty darn funny. Once that wore off, we started high-fiving the trees.



Before we left, we had to let the munchkin run around. He is too funny when it comes to rocks. He makes a noise like he's straining to pick them up and then says "heavy".



After talking about the car for most of our hike, Ethan was ready to head back out on the trail. There was a little tantrum when this mean mommy made him come down and head towards the car. Luckily another couple came along with a dog and that was a perfect distraction.







Tuesday night I went to an orientation for Ethan's new classroom. He will be moving from Transitional Toddlers to Toddler 4 after Labor Day. It was really weird to be in a new room with new teachers but I'm sure all will be fine. Most of his friends will be in the same room so that's good. That includes Katie Krangle. The Krangle Family came over Tues night for pizza after orientation. Ethan has been looking for Katie ever since. They sold their house in Wilmington and are renting while they figure out where to go. We hope they stay close!!

Ethan is really picking up the pace but still a very cautious walker. He very rarely falls but is just now starting to run. This isn't a very good example, but I love the serious look on his face when he throws the ball. This kid is all business. Actually, our yard is a pretty steep hill and he kept throwing the balls into the woods for Steve to retrieve.

One of our favorite things he is saying right now is "I got it" or "I have it" when he wants something. He also loves to shake containers with liquid...he was abnormally attached to a Garelick milk bottle yesterday. Whenever he burps he looks at us and says "belly". When you ask him how something is he often says "good". He still can't respond to options...we'll ask him if he wants water or milk and he'll say "yeah". Not very helpful...very freaking cute.

Sunset at Millway

We were on the Cape for the first time in a long time this weekend. We went down to Millway Saturday and Sunday to end the day and had gorgeous weather both nights. We could not keep Ethan out of the water! He was laughing and running in and out and picking up shells the whole time. He was also trying to make friends with every other man, woman and child there. On Sunday, he'd fallen asleep in the car on the way there so he was a bit out of sorts in the beginning. He would not let me take off his shirt or put his bathing suit on so he's a bit overdressed for swimming at the beach but I wasn't about to argue with him.











He's been "swimming" a lot lately. He does this in his bath too. He kicks his feet and says "kick, kick, kick". We don't know where he picked that up from. I doubt he remembers the class we took at the Y last year! Tonight he was trying to put his whole head underwater in the bath.



Stacey came to Millway with us on Sunday and brought her fancy camera gear. She got some great shots of Mr. Bethan that I have on snapfish if anyone is interested.

It was a great girlfriend filled weekend for me. Friday started it off with our trip to Katie's house. We were long overdue to catch up on everything going on with each other. Saturday night I had dinner with Courtney, Renee, and Jenn. Court heads back to NC next weekend so that might be the only time I see her this year (seriously!?) and I hadn't seen Jenn in over a year either. I can't get over how fast life is flying! After dinner we headed to Baxter's and met up with Kim, Kelly and Amy. It was really so great to see so many of my wonderful friends in one weekend!

August Already

Ethan and I kicked off the month of August with a trip to Quincy to visit my friend from college Heather and her son Ian. The boys are just over a month apart so they had a great time together. It was really great to see Heather for the first time in over a year. She and her husband (another Merrimack grad) recently bought their house and it's 3 houses up from the beach! We took the boys over for a little bit while we were there and of course Ethan headed straight for the water. It was pretty hot that day.

This picture looks like Ethan is trying to kick Ian down the stairs, but they played really nicely the whole time we were there.



As usual, Ethan refused to let me put on his sandals or water shoes. The sand was so hot I couldn't let him go barefoot so I had to just leave his socks on. I can't imagine that felt very good.







Look at these matching belly's! Ethan loved playing with the different settings on the hose.



My 2 sons...Ethan actually helped Steve create the tallest tower in 421A Andover St history. It did collapse under its own weight before every single block could be added but I'm sure big daddy will go for it another time.





Friday night we had dinner at Linda and Paul's house. Ethan was trying to get the camera from me and I got the only straight on picture I've taken of him in a long time! Later he was playing piano with Linda. He was really into that.

Pics from Today

I'll catch up on last weekend but we're trying to get out the door right now! These are too cute so I had to quickly share. Ethan and I went over to Katie and Caleb's house and Matthew was over too. The boys had a blast!