Ethan's 2nd Christmas (so far)

A couple of days before Christmas we realized there was a little Christmas train downstairs from my Mom and family, so Dave decided to get it out for Ethan (who's been very much into choo-choos lately). He was actually pretty good around it, as far as not taking it apart!

On Christmas Eve, we put milk and cookies out for Santa with Ethan. Luckily we've been given some goodies and I also went to a cookie exchange, so there was plenty for Santa to choose from. Honestly, next year we'll have to better at the whole cookie thing....I drank the milk and proceeded to put the glass in the dishwasher! :-)

Here are some pics from Christmas morning..Ethan in his cute reindeer pj's!

His favorite toy of Christmas day was his new lawn mower!

Christmas Day the Rochford grandparents came over to celebrate. Ethan got a nice wagon to use next summer!

The day after Christmas we celebrated with the Hickman side...Ethan loved his new Thomas suitcase - he worked on those zippers for at least 10 minutes (open...close..open...)



Who needs a sippy cup - I can handle a cup of water!!
And, there is one more side to celebrate with in the coming week, so more to come on that I'm sure!! Hopefully everyone had a GREAT Christmas!

Other random weekend pics

Just a few more cute photos from this weekend. And just in the few hours since I posted Ethan's new vocabulary words, he's added another.."Hippo" - he's got a hippopotamus toy in his tub and Daddy taught him to say hippo! :)

Yes, he is definitely Dave's son - he likes cars and tractors!! Ethan even makes noises sometimes while he drives the tractor - Daddy taught him that too

I love my little boy in overalls!! He is now fond of saying "hi" and "bye bye". I thought it was adorable when I gave him my cell phone and he would either put it on his shoulder and say hi or else put it up to my ear.

This is the best shot I could get of him putting the phone on his shoulder. He'd do it so quickly I could barely catch him with the camera.

Mr. Slick in shades..

New Sled...and plenty of snow!!

This weekend we decided to get out the new sled we bought Ethan a while back. We didn't take him out long, but he was a bit fussy on Saturday morning, so this was something new to try to entertain him. Unfortunately the camera lost battery so we didn't catch any smiles. But, trust me..he was giggling in the end.

Walking videos

I realized the other day that I've never really posted any videos of Ethan walking. I'd say he primarily walks around now. He'll still crawl sometimes, but more and more he's gravitating towards only walking. Here are a few from this weekend.

Increasing his vocabulary

I swear Ethan learns a new word every day lately! Some of his newest...

"No" - Honestly, he really seems to know the difference between "yeah" and "no" when you ask him questions! When he says no to us, I try to at least reinforce "no, thank you".

"Please" - When he whines for something, I usually tell him to say, "please, mama" and it sounds like he says "me mommy". Manners, manners, manners - this boy will have good manners. :)

"Uh-Oh" - what he says when something drops to the floor (like his fork at dinner). Funny that today he was holding a cracker and said "uh oh" before he dropped it - but as soon as he said the words, he then dropped the cracker. So, he was warning us that he was about to drop it! Cracks me up!

"Hot" - We taught him while Dave was at the stove

"Hug" - he gave us several hugs today on command and said the word. I love little cuddles!

He also has reportedly try to say Lola and Jaden at Lauren's house. :)

Other updates...he absolutely LOVES to have books read to him lately! He'll grab a book and shove it towards your direction, indicating - READ TO ME!! I usually ask him if he wants to sit on Mama's lap and he squeals and says "yeah". So cute!

He's warming up to the tree these days. He was a bit afraid of it at first, but now he'll go touch it and then squeal as if he just did something so exciting.

Travels to Wisconsin

This past weekend Ethan and I went up to Wisconsin to celebrate a belated Thanksgiving/30th birthday for my cousin on my Mom's side. He was a bit timid at first with all the unfamiliar faces, but he warmed up after a while and gave big grins to everyone. My cousin even tried to win him over with bits of brownie and M&M's...mmm!

Just a few pictures of Ethan with Grandma. He got a few belated birthday gifts from my aunt and cousin...among his favorites were the little doggy pull toy and thomas the train book. He loves his choo choos!!

Other updates...we've transitioned out of bottles during the day (as of Friday) and now it's just the morning and evening bottle. I will be so thankful once we can stop cleaning bottles. :) Ethan learned the word yellow at Lauren's house, so Dave and I now point out yellow things to reinforce what the color is. Ethan's bedtime story used to be Mom and Dad's pick for the night - he's now showing his independence and brings YOU the book HE wants to read - very cute! One of his favorites right now is "Go Dog, Go"...when he pulls it out he says "Ga-Go, Ga-Go". Of course he knows how to say doggy, but he definitely gets the point of what the title is!

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Dave and I bought him a toddler sled a few weeks back, so we need to get that baby in action one of these days. Pictures to follow once we try it out.

Thanksgiving Tour

It was a whirlwind tour to visit all the Grandparents during the week of Thanksgiving. Ethan was a trooper with traveling, despite the cold he had all week (and still has). We took him to the doctor for a second time this morning actually, because he's had a horrible cough that keeps him up for hours at a time at night (I was paranoid he had bronchitis - turns out that they allow kids to have colds for 2-3 weeks before they'll do anything!!!). But, usually he was his happy-go-lucky self during the daytime.

Ethan and I went to visit my Mom at work and stayed for dinner on Monday evening. Here he is, dancing with Uncle Adam and giving Grandma a big smile..

Giving Mom a big smile..We went to the Rochford side the night before Thanksgiving. Ethan is dressed very 'GQ' for the day with a spiffy sweater. Here he is, chatting with Uncle Patrick during dinner

Last, but definitely not least, was our visit to the Hickman side on Thanksgiving day. We were lucky enough to celebrate with the Great Grandparents as well. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the day, but that's probably because we were having so much fun! We thank everyone who hosted us this week and made us yummy food! We look forward to hosting Christmas at our place!!

We took the opportunity to decorate the house for Christmas since the day after Thanksgiving was warm. Dave did a GREAT job decorating outside and Ethan helped him put up the candy cand lighting around our inside post (he had trouble parting with the pretty lights)...I taught him to say "pretty". :)

And most importantly, on a daily basis Ethan is becoming more and more confident at trying to walk on his own. At this rate, I can bet he will be walking pretty well by Christmas!