Pumpkin Carving

The big man showing his skills at using a spoon

Daddy...whatever you're doing there looks interesting. I like the feel of the pumpkin on my foot!

Ethan is very intently listening to Daddy's words of wisdom on pumpkin carving.

Here's Ethan inquisitively (and cautiously) touching all that weird stringy stuff that comes from inside the pumpkin (Mommy and Daddy baked the pumpkin seeds - yummy!)

The finished product - we had to show Ethan what it looked like with all the lights out. Dave wanted to put the pumpkin on his head and walk up to Ethan. Since it was close to bedtime, I talked him out of it, so there were no bad dreams!! :) Pictures of the office will come maybe next weekend. We were busy up until almost bedtime on Sunday just getting things back in order and I haven't had time to take the pics.

Update

Well, not sure if I'll be able to get pictures updated this weekend, because our library/office has been completely redone and Dave is still in the process of setting the computers back up. So, figured I'd give a short update until I can get pictures posted.

Where to start....I guess with the library/office area. Dave and I decided to get a desk/shelving system installed this week so we could have a more formal work area (and study area for Dave to start studying for his engineering exam). They worked on it for 3 days this past week and are almost finished. They should've finished Friday, but due to some incorrect measurements, they had to redo a few items. Now, Dave is busy making his own modifications to make all the wires as hidden as possible and putting in lighting under the cabinets to shine down on the desk area - he is definitely my handy husband! Pics to come...it really turned out great and the wood color compliments the decor nicely!

Ethan updates...
*This silly little boy giggles when he toots...oh my, he already is amused by his gas!
*He eats most meals with a fork and loves it! (he uses a spoon also, but not as frequently) I have a video, which I can load once our computers are up and running. He really is doing well with it. We just keep giving him practice! Although, he still has to learn, not everything can be "forked"....he tried to get a ritz cracker on his fork the other day!
*He is now completely comfortable with crawling up the stairs all the way up!!! Before it was just a couple and then the trick got old!
*More and more he's pulling himself up on things and then testing his balance by letting go. He can hold himself up for at least 30 seconds most of the time. He was even bobbing up and down dancing today!
*Speaking of dancing...when I ask him if he wants me to put music on, he starts bobbing. One of the cds has "Old MacDonald" on it and he also says "e-i-o" when I talk about his music.
*In the last day he's been making a noise/trying to say a word that I'm NOT joking...sounds like "Jamie" (it sounds more like "Ji-me")...okay, my son better not refer to me as Jamie! :)

That's all I can think of for now...again, hope to get some videos/pics up sometime this week, once our computers are back online.

New Favorite Toy

Ethan got a nice new Mega Blocks Dump truck from a friend of mine from work and her family. It's been his favorite toy since he saw it! Anything and everything (including Dave's shoes tonight) goes into the back of the dump truck. Ethan also realized that he can use his dump truck as a walker today, so Mommy and Daddy alternated making sure the dump truck didn't scoot too fast in front of him (to avoid a face plant!). But, we went many times back and forth from room to room!

We've been catching Ethan pulling himself up onto things and at times, letting go to hold his balance. Sometimes he'll look at you and smile as if to say, "see what I can do"...

Other random things:

Ethan is becoming a more picky eater every day!! Hoping it's a phase. He avoids meats at all costs now and most veggies (he won't even let us hand feed him like he did before). But, today at lunch, he decided he wanted what I was eating, because of course it tastes better than the green beans, turkey deli meat and noodles with butter on his tray! So, he ended up eating cucumber and he liked to lick salsa off my fingers. This kid would rather eat spicy salsa than noodles?! We even tried sweet potato french fries tonight, thinking he'd be inquisitive about the new item and no such luck! We've resorted to buying sweet potato puffs and carrot wagon wheel puffy cracker things to at least try to get some vegetables down him?!

He definitely LOVES eating with silverware these days. I let him feed himself yogurt the past two mornings - thanks to the inventor of bibs!! It was a very messy experience, but who's perfect on their first try at any skill, right? :)

Giving Mommy some very deserving kisses out of the blue today!

Dump truck driving video..

Pumpkin Weekend

This weekend we enjoyed a lot of time as a family. Saturday we went to My Gym in the morning and played and then we went to visit college friends in the evening for dinner. It was very nice to visit with our friends and they have two boys, which was great for Ethan. We thought he'd take a nap while we drove to their place, but no such luck. Considering he was going on only 1 nap and had been up since 11a.m., he did GREAT and enjoyed playing with all the toys with Braedon and Keegan! Just a few shots of Keegan and Ethan.

Just a shot of Ethan and Dave playing upstairs!

Today, we went to the local nursery down the road to get a pumpkin. We figured Ethan wouldn't really be able to enjoy the full thrill of going to a pumpkin patch and all the extra activities. But, we wanted to at least get a pumpkin this year (we're waiting to carve it until next weekend).

Last weekend

A few pictures from last Sunday that I never posted. Ethan playing with his new Mega Blocks from his birthday..

Ethan Meter

For those of you that give Dave ALL the credit...give Mommy a little credit too! :) My friend Rachel did this with all three kids and I thought it was cute (and I was a little curious too)!!

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

1 Year Stats

Ethan was a big boy at his appointment today...even smiled at the doctor!

He weighed 23 lbs even (50%), Lengh 30.5 inches (75%), Head Circum. 46.5 (50%). All in all, a pretty average little man! I was a bit excited that his height jumped up to the 75%!!

He was only required to get 2 shots, but we went ahead and decided to do the flu shot this year to see how that goes. So, he had a 3rd shot and will have to go back in a month for the second phase of the flu shot. Poor little boy did NOT like that part!

A few other random things..
*We're teaching him how to "give 5". He does pretty good with doing it on command.
*I noticed today on our way to the doctor that he now tries to add the "o" at the end of the "e-i-e-i-o" for Old MacDonald.
*He knows where ears are (at least mine - he likes to point and touch)
*I started letting him use his fork at meals (he got a nice little set for his bday) - he seems to like poking things with the fork and then putting it in his mouth. But, this kid can't be fooled..if you try to put something on the fork that he wouldn't normally eat - it ISN'T getting into his mouth!!

That's all for now...

1 Year Pictures

Wow, faster than we've ever gotten the electronic proofs before..a few of the best shots..enjoy!

1st Birthday to Remember!

Ethan's birthday got off to a great start from the beginning, when our plan to keep him up a bit later on Friday (so he'd sleep in a bit later Saturday) worked! The party started at 3 and we were trying for one long nap after lunch, so he'd wake up happy for the guests.

He woke up around 6:45a.m. and Dave and I greeted him to several Happy Birthday wishes and kisses! He had a birthday morning banana muffin and we played around the house for a bit. Instead of going to My Gym in the morning, we decided to take him to a local park to swing. We hung out at the park for a half an hour or so and then headed to Costco to pick up his birthday cake and a few munchies for the party. When we got home, we had some lunch and played a bit and he was down by 12:15 and slept until 2:45!! I was glad he woke up before the whole party gang was there, so he could wake up a bit and not be bombarded with people in the house. :) He was just in a great mood all day and warmed up to everyone and everything went great for the whole party. Special thanks to the grandparents for helping pick up food, bring tables/chairs, take pictures, and many, many more tasks!!

Before I get to the pictures of the party...a few random things to mention about Ethan these days:

*He got his 6th tooth last week (top left lateral incisor they call it).
*This kid likes pickles!!! Specifically bread and butter flavor, but when I was eating one, he kept pointing, so I gave some to him and he loves them!!

*He's now starting to attempt to crawl up the stairs on his own

*He'll have his official 1 year appointment this Wednesday, so we'll see his stats. And, poor little boy will have to get shots this time...

Our playground adventure:
Good practice for my car driving later

Down the slide with Mom

Call me silly, but I hid all of Ethan's presents and decorations until he was napping. I wanted the day to be special and for him to wake up and notice "there's something different here". :) So, here's all the setup while he was catching some Z's.

All the Uncles were there to celebrate (thank you Uncle Adam for coming home from U of I to celebrate with us). Uncle Breck wasn't in a pic...sorry! Here are Uncle Patrick and Uncle Adam with the birthday boy.

Sporting his birthday hat (which didn't last long). Note the mountain of gifts...everyone was too generous!

A gift from Mommy and Daddy

Ethan with his BIG cake

His own personalized cake

He was very curious about his cake at first, but once Mommy showed him how "that stuff" on his finger tasted, he was all about the cake!
Finally, a nice family shot!

365 Days Ago...

365 days ago, I woke up to my same routine...got ready for work and came in to the same comments..."you're STILL here?!"...as if I wasn't antsy enough to have my baby! It was the 3rd day past my due date and I was VERY anxious to meet my son/daughter. But, there's no rushing these things. I went along with my work day knowing that in a matter of days either way, I would be a Mom! Later in the day while at work, I noticed I didn't feel the baby moving as much, so I called the doctor's office and they instructed me to do the 'kick count'. So, I left work early only to drink a pop and sit on the couch (laying on my left side) and counted the number of times I felt the baby move. After an hour, everything seemed to be within the range of movement, so I waited....

Dave got home shortly after I did, worried that maybe something was wrong and so we decided to do our regular nightly 1-2 mile walk with Sasha, figuring we'd walk this baby out of me. We ran into our neighbor that night, also walking his dogs and chatted a bit and then watched a little tv before going to bed.

Around 12:30 a.m. on October 11th, I woke up to what I thought were gas pains (TMI -too much information, I know), which went on for about 30 minutes before I finally woke Dave up to tell him, "I think it's time".....

That was my life 365 days ago from today - the start of a WHOLE new world for Dave and I, and I couldn't imagine it any differently! Tomorrow our little boy will be 1 at 10:48a.m. and I just don't know where the time has gone. All the struggles and heartbreak that Dave and I went through to get to this point in our lives are distant memories, when I think of all the joy that Ethan has brought to our lives in the last year. The little boy that we peek in at every night before we go to bed and just sit there and gaze at has captured our hearts FOREVER!!!

Tomorrow we'll celebrate his birthday with a little party and of course some cake and presents. I hope he enjoys the day as much as we do! :) We took him for his 1 year pics at JCP today and they honestly turned out GREAT...I can't wait to post the pics in a week or so when they're available online.

Old MacDonald

View the video and the title will make sense...Ethan's newest trick is saying "e-i-e-i" after we sing the song. Still no "o" but he gets the point. :-)

Here are a few pics of Ethan helping Daddy unpack his workout bag. A devious little grin he has!

On Saturday we went to my Dad's picnic for his karate school and had a nice time. Just a few pics from the event.

Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Hickman's house for a very yummy home cooked breakfast and a little Bears game action.

This has to be one of my favorite little pics!!

Next Saturday marks Ethan's 1 year birthday! Such a great little milestone, but I can't believe it went by soooo fast!