Recent Videos

I was hoping to have more video's in this post, but blogger is being difficult. I'm not even sure these will work, but the first is of Ethan trying to help us clean up the pine needles when we took the tree out a few weeks ago. It was hard to get all of the toys out of the way but we've gone through and cleaned out a bunch since then.

Ethan was doing pretty well drinking out of a cup by himself a few weeks ago but in this video he gets silly and almost chokes on his water. He also likes to bring the water to his lips and blow bubbles or take a sip then dribble it out over his lips. Lots o' fun. We've got a little work to do here, but the big boy might be sippy cup free soon!

Ethan's 2nd Birthday

It's hard to believe that our little man is 2 years old! I suppose I can count on each of his birthday's making me sentimental, but this one was very emotional for me. As he gets older and more independent, I have to hold myself back from trying to cuddle him as often as possible. Cuddles are for reading before nap and bedtime and that's about it. He does want in on the action whenever Steve and I are hugging though. He comes running over saying "hug, hug" and gets very excited when we pick him up for a family hug. Ok, back to his birthday...

This was the morning of his actual birthday January8. I took this to compare to the same picture taking on the morning of his first birthday...

It's hard to believe it's the same boy! He looks about a foot taller and his hair turned so blond this year. It's getting close to time for a toddler bed, but we're keeping him in his crib as long as possible! We aren't relishing the thought of him being able to come get us whenever he wants.

Ethan made cupcakes with his friends at school. His teacher Diane said that he sat at the table long after the other kids were done savoring every crumb of his treat. He was covered in is as you can see! This picture is funny too because he's trying to take off his own jacket. That's a skill he's still working on. He gets it part way then gets frustrated and cries our "I need help!".

We had a Bertucci's pizza party for his birthday dinner

Grandma Suzanne and Pop-Pop bought Ethan this great kitchen! Ethan loves it and woke up the next morning saying "play kitchen! play kitchen!". That is a request (more like demand) that we hear on a regular basis these days.

Our neighbor's Alice and bob dropped of a birthday present of 5 matchbox cars for Ethan to add to his growing collection from them. I think Bob gives him a car every time he sees him. They go great with his garage and we like to line them up and race them down.

On Saturday we had 2 birthday parties to get ready for! Ethan was all too happy to help by licking the beater from the frosting.

For his kids party we set up a grown up table and a kids table at an attempt to eat lunch in harmony.

Ethan was excited to have his table in the kitchen. It's still there and he still wants to eat at it all the time. That would be fine if there was a way to strap him in. He won't stay still to eat!

This is a typical pose for the little man. He was a little uncertain of having his friends and their parents over at first and it took him a little while to warm up.

Once the party got rolling, the kids did a great job eating at their table! Caleb and Ethan didn't make it long enough for Katie and I to get to eat so we ended up with the boys on our laps for lunch. We're very skilled at eating with one hand.

The kids all played very well together! Tommy was glued to the train table but Caleb and Ethan shot some hoops.

Tommy couldn't drag himself away for any pictures, but Caleb and Katie were game. The boys were holding hands. Katie and Ethan managed to keep their hands off each other most of the day!

I feel the need to go back to earlier pictures of the kids since I wasn't blogging at that point. This is one of my favorites of Ethan and Caleb at 3.5 and 4.5 months.

This is one of Katie and Ethan at his 1st birthday last year.

Back to this year...

One of Ethan's best birthday presents was that Tommy's dad Peter came! He absolutely adored Peter the whole time.

Grandma Jan came up early to see E and his friends. It is pretty entertaining to watch them play together!

And Auntie Jamie was there of course...

I broke the rubber scraper when I was making the cake for the second party! I guess I don't know my own strength.

The second party was ladies night plus Steve and Ethan. My mom's sisters Linda and Barbie came over and my cousin Bekah came too. We did manage to get a little nap out of the little man so he was ready to go!

Ethan wasn't too sure of Taz. We haven't seen that crazy character before and Ethan is not a big fan of loud or sudden noises. We'll have to break him out again in a few months...

Ethan was very excited to get some fruit for his new kitchen.

But he really loved his new tricycle! Thanks GS and P-P! He still hasn't figure out how to push the pedals quite right but he does rock back and forth pretty well so it's only a matter of time.

Funny story about the tricycle...one of Ethan's other favorite "toys" is our remote control. Well it went missing last weekend and Steve and I couldn't find it anywhere. Finally Steve says "Ethan, what did you do with the remote?" not actually expecting an answer, but he got one. Ethan responded with "in the bicycle.". Steve and I looked at each other in disbelief but sure enough, the remote was in the compartment in the back of his tricycle! It was a big deal to us to see him connect what we were asking him with an action he took hours earlier. Kids are just amazing!

We had Ethan's 2 year appointment last week too and he's doing just fine. He was 30 lbs and 33.5 inches. He's into the 30+ percentile in height and 70+ for weight! He is a solid little man! He got 2 shots and had blood drawn and was a very brave boy for both. Getting a lollipop for his bravery didn't hurt either. When we left the Dr's office he was very proud of the band aids on his finger but not even 10 minutes into our ride home he was freaking out about them! I had to pull over to take them off. Once he gets an idea in his head it's almost impossible to call him off.

I think this is my longest post ever! Happy Birthday Mr. Bethan!!!

Around Town in Atlanta

The Atlanta Historical Society was hosting a Jim Henson exhibit while we were visiting so we took Ethan to check it out. They were playing episodes of The Muppet Show in the theater so I guess that was kind of Ethan's first movie. I could have sat in there all day but he's a little too young so we moved on to the exhibit. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in there but they had Kermit and Ernie and Bert to name a few (and Ethan's favorite!) muppets. It was a really cool exhibit with scripts and sketches and clips playing.

At the end they had an activity room for the kids. Ethan got to create his own muppet with AB.



He was very serious for most of the time we were there.



AB bought him an Elmo in the gift shop and he would not put it down! Here he is trying to color a picture for GS but having trouble with Elmo in his hand. It's quite a quandary.



They had puppets for the kids to play with and Ethan picked Ernie out of all of them. He and Beth put on a little show for us.





Then Ernie was giving out kisses.



Upstairs from the Jim Henson exhibit was the Atlanta Olympic Games exhibit which was really cool. They had the medals and batons and torches and all sorts of other Olympic trinkets and facts. Ethan and Beth got to race a little around the track.





On Sunday we took Ethan to the Atlanta Aquarium which is the worlds largest. It was pretty darn impressive with lots of things to see. This is "Deepo". The owner of Home Depot pretty much built the place from what we heard so this is their answer to Nemo. Ethan couldn't tell the difference which is probably the whole point.



The moving walkway takes you right through the ginormous tank (Hmmm, I've never had to spell that before! It's one of my favorite words these days.)





I don't know the official word for this amazing room but it was incredible to get to view the tank from here.



I think that's a whale shark. It was the biggest in the tank.











These little boys were so well behaved! They waited patiently for Ethan to have his turn looking into the tank and then moved in as soon as he moved out.



Here is Suzanne's picture from the other side...



There was a slide that looked like a whale for the kids to go down and Ethan was very interested. I thought for sure that once he saw how dark it was in the tunnel he would back down but he loved it! I'm not sure if Steve loved it but we were all cracking up.



The last thing we did while we were there was go to a 3D movie in the 4D theater (they sprinkle water on you and blow real bubbles during key scene's for the 4D experience). We all got glasses including Ethan and while they were too big and I had to hold them on, they worked for him! It was funny to watch him reach out at things that appeared to swim out from the screen. It was an animated movie and he was really into it until they ran into the shark. He climbed right off my lap and onto Steve's! I guess he figured that if he really gets into trouble with a shark that Daddy's his better bet.

On Monday we boarded a plane back to Boston. Ethan was up until almost 10 Sunday night and we woke him up at 6:30 to head to the airport so he wasn't in the greatest of moods. Which is what made it so great when he fell fast asleep during take off! He slept throught he entire flight and only woke up when we got to the gate. We were very happy parents.

Thank you so much to all of our family for making our Christmas so special! We love you all and Ethan is a lucky, lucky little man to have you.

Atlanta for Christmas

We were all so happy to finally make it to Auntie Beth and Uncle Jared's house! It had been a long day but Ethan wasn't too tired to open a few presents and AB, UJ, GS and PP were all too happy to provide him with a few! This year was the year of Thomas for sure. Ethan got 6 more figurines, 3 DVDs, a book and a belt that looks like a tool belt but actually holds the figurines. I don't have any pictures of him in the belt for some reason but it's pretty darn cute!

Ethan is teething up a storm these days. He is getting the 2 top teeth on either side of the 2 he already has and a bottom molar on the left to match the one he already has on the right. I think he's about to break through with his other canine too so it's been a very drooly/biting time for him.



At each of our Christmas events, Ethan was happy to play Santa and bring all of us our presents. He was also happy to stick around and help us open them and then sometimes try to keep them for himself.



Here he is wearing my pink beaded necklace. He wouldn't give it back!



Ethan got a new bath towel and wash mitts. This one is a frog which is Pop-Pop's favorite so he got a pretend bath.



And then it was UJ's turn.



The weather wasn't sunny but it was warm to us New Englander's! Ethan got to go for walks every day (they were mostly just to get him to nap without a huge production) and UJ took him for a ride on the tractor.



Friday night we got to go see the Atlanta Thrashers play the North Carolina Hurricanes. Beth had gotten tickets from one of her clients and we were in the club seats and that was really cool. Before the game "The Thrasher" was up there so I snapped this picture of him. I had been telling Steve to go and get a picture with him but he was too cool for that.



Of course I was "caught" taking the picture and "Thrash" called me over to get my picture taken with him! He has his own security team that follows him around like the secret service and that's who took the picture. Steve was still too cool to be associated with me.



Our seats were 4 rows from the ice! We had front row seats for the penalty box which was cool.



Steve and I were fascinated by the flaming Thrashers in the ceiling. They blew fire whenever the Thrashes scored or were being introduced. I even got a little video.