Lions & Tigers & Bears...oh my!

I got 2 free passes to the Brookfield Zoo, so one of my high school girlfriends and I took the kids yesterday. I knew Ethan wouldn't fully appreciate the whole experience, but it was free to get it and it was nice to get out and do something new. As always, he was just an extremely good boy, with only a little fussing at the end when it was time for a nap!

Oh yes, and about the naps...I'm wondering if we'll be on one nap a day sometime soon? Tuesday, Ethan decided he didn't want a morning nap! I won't push it, we'll see how he transitions, but lately his morning nap is only like 45 minutes anyway. Such a growing little boy!

Here's Ethan and Layla getting ready to enter the zoo!












Ethan wore his monkey outfit, how fitting to take a pic in the monkey house
Kelsey and Layla
Ethan enjoyed the dolphins, sea lion and seals swimming under the water the most. I got him up close to the glass and he'd point his finger out to the animals. I'm sure next year will be even more enjoyable for him! On our way out, we got to see a polar bear playing with a bucket!
We're off to Pittsburgh today to visit Dave's sister and family...I'll hopefully get some pics updated from our visit!!

Spike a la Banana

I thought this was hilarious...Ethan had banana yesterday for breakfast and he's very into pulling on his own hair...this is the spike created by banana gel...our future hairdresser.

Indian Chant..

This is how Ethan does the Indian chant with his mouth...video compliments of Daddy

Just hangin' out on the couch - and sportin' my GREAT smile for Mom

A toy every kid needs...

An empty diaper box. It makes for a good sled-like toy to be pulled around in and put toys in and take them out again! Cheap entertainment!! Now, Daddy says he's going to buy some rope to pull me around the whole house...maybe we can hook the box up to Sasha in the winter??!! Mush Sasha, mush!

My bunny, Blue, must ride with me!

This new box is so cool!

My Four Chompers

Just a few good pics showing all 4 chompers off:

Foods we've recently tried:
*kiwi - mmm - very inquisitive about the black seeds leftover on his hands
*toasted ravioli (Olive Garden) - good stuff
*canned sweet potatoes - yepper!
*honeydew melon - this kid hasn't eaten a fruit he DOESN'T like!
*mixed fruit and strawberry flavored cereal bars
*Nilla wafers - did I mention these before - yummy snack!
*Ritz crackers - mmm

We need more chompers to try out more foods!! :-)

Crawling soon?

Yes, that's right...Ethan has decided to join his mobile friends. I don't know what came over him, but Thursday evening is when he showed Mommy and Daddy that he is going to army crawl!! We (and everyone that watches him) always give him time on his tummy and show him how to get on all 4's to crawl and when I did that Thursday when I got home from work - he actually did it by himself!! He uses a combination of getting up on all 4's and then sways back and forth and lunges forward and then he army crawls. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he gets the full gist of crawling. Stay tuned for that one!

Sorry, no picture this weekend. Dave and I actually had our first complete 24+ hours away from Ethan this weekend. We went to Lake Carroll with some friends to their lakehouse and had a very nice time. Ethan stayed with the Rochford side while we were away and had a great time. While Dave and I enjoyed our friends, we were definitely ready to jump in the car to go home to see our little boy. I think Grandpa Rochford was a bit sad to see Ethan go when we showed up, but there are plenty more opportunities for Ethan to stay with all of his grandparents! :-)

Other random things:

Food we've tried recently- chicken nuggets, fish sticks (not too keen on yet), blueberry muffins (mmmm), mango, crenshaw melon (for those of you fruit lovers - we've never had this melon before, but I'd highly recommend - very good!!), cantaloupe (this is okay, think our melon was a bit strong tasting since it was on the riper side). Can't think of anything else I haven't mentioned in the past.

He is pretty much a pro at "So Big" and pointing to our noses - we're working on the mouth now.

He's also started to drool a bit more again...we're wondering if he's working on more teeth? His cycle has seemed to be about 3-5 weeks after the drool fest starts he has teeth to show for it, so we'll see how that goes.

That's all for now, will work to get pictures by next weekend.

Sleeping Angel

After a hard day of play with Grandma Hickman....a little sleeping angel...

Family Party

This past weekend we traveled to Wisconsin for a small party @ my Aunt's house. Ethan was able to show off his moves from swim class! I honestly can't believe how much he likes the water now compared to our first day at swim class. I don't think he so much as splashed his hands the first class and when we went this past weekend and at my Aunt's, the kid couldn't stop splashing and waving his hands underwater!!

Splash like crazy!!

Cute little wet boy with LONG eyelashes!!

Cute Pics

Ethan was fortunate enough to get a little extra Mommy and Daddy time this week. Lauren wasn't feeling well Wednesday, so I stayed home with Ethan and since Grandpa Rochford was out of town Thursday, Daddy stayed home with him. Just a few shots we took and sent to each other at work on our respective days off...there's nothing like getting a picture of Ethan when you're at work and just miss seeing his smiling face!!

Home with mommy...playing on the chair



















Daddy experimented with grilled cheese!!



















If you look closely you can see his new upper left tooth!

On another note, Dave and I have run into a daycare "crisis" this week. Lauren is due with her baby any day now and Ethan's last day was supposed to be today, and then he was going to be with Lauren's sister for 5 weeks while she was on maternity leave. We just found out Tuesday that she can no longer take him. So, Lauren has been gracious enough to take him a few days next week (as long as she doesn't go into labor) and then between our parents helping out and Dave and I taking vacation days, I think we'll be set until Lauren is ready to come back. It was really only 9 days that we were going to need Emily, so we'll figure it out - it was just a bit of a crisis to get it all worked out last minute. We are soooo unbelievably lucky to have Lauren and our parents to help us!!!

Another trick Ethan is learning in the last few days is "where is mommy's nose". A few weeks ago he decided he wanted to point and grab noses of people that held him, so I kept repeating nose when he'd do it. Now, a couple times when I've been feeding him, I ask him "where is mommy's nose" and he points his little index finger and touches my nose!! Smart little cookie! :)

Mr. Cuddle Bug

Lately I've really noticed Ethan has become more cuddly. You'll be carrying him and he'll just lay his head on your shoulder - it's the sweetest thing ever!! He is also very cuddly with "Blue" his bunny. Here are just a few cute pics I got of him this morning while playing and cuddling with Blue.

Come here you rascally rabbit!

I knew I'd catch you!

As much as I like to chew on your foot, I'd rather cuddleAnd this is just plain adorable!!
RANDOM UPDATES: The first piece of business on this update is that Ethan officially has 3 teeth! His third broke thru his gums on Friday (top left)...and the right side should be down within the next week definitely!!! I forgot to mention this before, but about two weeks ago Lauren called me at work to ask if Ethan had ever scooched across the floor on his back for me. I laughed because he had NEVER done that...apparently it's his new favorite way to get around - scooching on his back. Who needs to crawl when you can scooch?! Ethan's been waving a lot now and I think he gets the gist. We had Lauren, her sister and their families over this weekend for a dinner bbq and when we walked out to say bye, he waved his arm for a while. His new favorite word is "Da Da" - Dave adores it when he says it. In the last week or so we've been trying to teach Ethan "so big" and he seems to be catching on a bit. Both my Dad and my Mom actually started this while they watched him on separate occasions and so Dave and I have carried on. Today he actually put his arms up once when I asked "how big are you"?! The last thing that amazed me this weekend was that I had Ethan sitting on my lap and put his little walker toy in front of him so he could push it back and forth while on my lap. Before I knew it, he grabbed it right away and pulled himself up to a standing position!! This definitely caught me by surprise, since he's never really pulled himself up on anything before!

Can't think of many more updates other than the above...here are some pics from this afternoon while Ethan played with Da Da

Daddy, can you please move out of my way...I'm trying to push this race car around! I guess I'll just have to drive over your belly since that's where the race car needs to go right now!

Always a smile on his face!

Bye, Bye Merlin!

It's official...no more reptiles live in the Hickman household as of Friday evening! Can you believe that Dave posted an ad for Merlin on craig's list and got 13 people that were interested!? I must tell you that Dave put much time and effort into writing the ad and even thought of getting "interview" questions ready for the future adopter. As much as it is kind of funny how in depth he was in completing the process, it's definitely respectable that he wanted his pet to go to a good home. And, I think he got that. He already received a call today from the family that took the snake. She was apparently sitting on their dining room table at the time of the call??!!! Sounds like she'll have some free roam of the house. They've offered Dave visits and pictures whenever he wants.

In the minutes prior to her leaving...Dave had some lasts words with Merlin to explain that she was going to a better home. Ethan and I took a picture of Daddy with the snake so he could always remember her.