mom! what about me?

alllright, so i guess i need to put some recent pictures of ethan on here. :) he'd better get used to sharing the spotlight-- his place in the spotlight only gets smaller from here! :)

ethan has been doing some pretty funny things lately. he loves phones, but he's not allowed to play with our house phone or our cell phones. he doesn't give up trying, though!! anytime he sees a phone, hears it ring, or knows you have one, he puts his whole arm up to his head like he's on the phone... and sometimes (as in this case), he does both hands. (it's cute, ethan, but you still can't have the phone!)



he has also learned the concept "hot", initially from us blowing on his food and telling him it's hot... now you just say the word "hot" and he blows (it's more like "fffffffffff").. and once he knows something is hot (stove, candle, a car on a summer day), he blows without you having to say the word. :) he also likes to imitate fans... and he does this by making the same "ffffffffff" sound, and he waves his hands about quite wildly... so the spastic hand waving has also carried over to his "hot" sound since they're the same sound.... in these pictures, he found the candle i had burning last night. in the 2nd picture, you can see him blowing and waving his hands with excitement.... (i'm such a sucker for babies in overalls!)




now that ethan is walking, we have allowed him more freedom in our house (like we had much of a choice--haha). he learned the boundary of staying in the living room to play, and now he is allowed to come into the kitchen with me or walk down the hallway to our room if we're going there... so as you can imagine, he is LOVING this new freedom, and he especially loves being in the kitchen... whether i'm in there or not! (we are working on him coming back to the living room once i'm no longer in the kitchen... so pray for my patience and consistency there!) anyway, i was making dinner for jeff & kristie last night, and ethan would have been right under foot except for the fact that he found new toys to play with... groceries that had not yet been put away! horray for parmesean cheese and canned veggies! ethan was thoroughly entertained by these and other foods for a good 30 minutes. it was a great break for me-- i may just have to put a bag of cans on the floor whenever i need to get some kitchen work done. ha. :)




as much as ethan is into EVERYTHING right now, we are enjoying him so much. it's so exciting to see his mind work and figure things out... and to just see evidence of God growing his little brain on a daily basis. his vocabulary is starting to explode-- he saw his toothbrush in the bathroom last night, and he pointed to his teeth and tried to say "teeth"- it was more like "tttt". the other day, i asked if he was hungry, and he immediately did the sign for "eat" and tried to say it. i was pretty amazed that he associated hungry with "eat"-- well, he does have a pregnant mommy in the house. :) haha. he is pretty much doing everything he's supposed to, but it is just such a blessing to watch my own child grow. i have worked with and been around so many kids-- some developing on schedule, some far behind the norm... and just to see how he is learning so much from everyday conversations and interactions with me (though i do tend to get into speech therapy mode pretty automatically!!) and brian and others... it's pretty fun. :) so just humor me over the next several months as i blog about words he says that every other 13-18 month old can also say.... just let me enjoy it. :) i'll leave you with one final picture for tonite. this was taken last night at jeff & kristie's as ethan was, yep, exploring... the stairs! i left that adventure for daddy to supervise!!