It's easy with a baby to watch in amazement as they learn new things. The things they are learning are huge developmental milestones and are relatively easy to observe. As Ethan gets older, we are learning that his development is equally amazing but far more subtle. What is not subtle, and I can't believe I haven't mentioned it before now, is that he stopped sucking his finger! Completely. It's amazing. It's been over 2 weeks. He got a small cut and we recommended he stop to help it heal and that was it! With no fanfare, bribery or reminders, he just stopped. We are so proud of him and he is proud of himself too which is the best part.
There are a lot of things that he's been able to do independently for a while, but doesn't like to do without our help. More and more he is getting dressed all by himself without us even asking him. In the last few weeks this has even included socks and shoes (huge!). We've been having fewer battles at dinner and fewer breakdowns as well. He's getting really good at communicating with us. He loves to yell at Jacob for getting near things that he shouldn't. We are working on him a bit though because it's the same level of "NO JACOB!" whether he's about to put a lego piece in his mouth or grab a remote control. There are degrees of panic after all. Speaking of Lego's, we all know that he's a complete maniac about them, but he's getting incredibly good at putting the kits together.
He's learning words like "considerate" and "responsibility" at school and he really knows what they mean and strives to live up to them. It's been awesome to watch. We are so, so, so proud of this little kid. We had a very big boy day around here which is what promted all of this writing (I'm not even drinking!). He's been getting better and better at writing his name. He always puts at least the N and sometimes the AN on a separate line regardless of the space available. Today, he wanted to make a picture for his friend Tommy who was sick at school this week. When he was done he wanted to write his name on the back and I suggested he also try to write Tommy's name. He has always been very hesitant to start something new and writing has always been a challenge but he jumped right in this morning! He did the TO by himself and then realized that the M was just another "down" after the "up-down-up" of the N he knows so well and then I drew a Y for him to copy and voila!
I think I'm done ranting a bit about Ethan now. I just feel like a lot of my stories have centered around Jacob lately and wanted to give a shout out to my big boy.
So...today was a perfect fall day and we were so excited to get outside and play in the leaves!
This kid is the definition of "all boy".
OK...so maybe Jacob wasn't as excited about the leaf pile as Ethan and I.
Within a week of purchase, my pumpkin got mushy and started caving in. Ethan painted this pumpkin at school and gave it to me since my pumpkin was rotting.
And then he proceeded to destroy my pumpkin.
You can see the tear on Jacobs face in this picture. He was having a great time coloring with us, but just couldn't keep those big yummy looking crayons out of his mouth. I was trying to get him to put it down without taking it from him, but Ethan had a more direct approach and it was accompanied by a very loud "NO, NO, NO JACOB!". He would cry every time.
We did find a happy place and had a good time coloring together. This was another time that Ethan impressed me. He took this Halloween activity book and tried to do every activity in it on his own! There was a word search that he knew he couldn't do so instead he did a connect the dots of sorts from A-Z. When we couldn't find an "x", he drew one and moved on...no tears, no giving up, just moving on. So awesome!
Jacob has a favorite food and that food is bananas. He LOVES bananas. It's kind of crazy. When Steve grabbed one after work tonight Jacob went straight over too him and was clearly begging for him to share.
And now I'm all blogged out! Steve is out with friends from work playing poker so I was able to catch up on not only the blog but GLEE too! Since I'm back at work, I don't have those precious nap times to work out and catch up on my shows. It's somewhat devastating.
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