Pool Fun in the Backyard

Dave and I bought Ethan a cheap little pool to have in the backyard on those hot summer days. We finally were able to use it last week during the warm weather. He wasn't quite sure what to do at first besides stand there, but we gave him a few cars and a plastic cup and he was more confident. He really enjoyed dumping water on Mommy and hearing her shriek.

Daddy fixed the "Air Dadishers"

Yes, when Mother Nature decided to put on the heat in the Midwest, it was perfect timing with when our air conditioner decided it was tired of running. (really, it was faulty wiring) So, for about 5 days we were off and on with A/C. Finally, after popping 4 fuses, we decided it was time to call in the big dogs to help. But, before that, Ethan was constantly repeating that "Daddy fixed the air conditioner"....or so it sounds in his words, "Daddy fix the air dadishers". A pretty impressive sentence in my book for a 20 month old kid!! Ethan liked the tools, so Daddy let him help work on the vent.

Daddy, I think if you just let me in here to help I can fix it myself

Let me just inspect this a minute..

Father's Day

For Father's Day we decided to head over to Blackberry Farm in Aurora because they were having an antique tractor show and as I think I've mentioned, Ethan is absolutely obsessed with tractors!! Good thing there are a lot in our neighborhood because they're still building houses. So, here are some pics of around the Farm. (Note: we tried to get him on a pony ride, but once he sat on the pony, he wasn't too thrilled about it)

Mommy messed up a bit and we were 45 minutes early before they opened. Luckily Ethan was a good boy and we walked around outside and watched the horse and wagon get prepared to give rides.

First stop, the carousel!

The tractors..

Our own personal train ride

Finally, a horse and wagon ride before lunch

1st Haircut

I decided that Ethan was ready for his first haircut, so we went the morning of Uncle Breck's graduation party so he could look spiffy as ever. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the whole thing didn't take much more than 10 minutes and they had a cool kids slide there to entertain him before the "big cut". He got to sit in a jeep and watch Thomas the Train. The only time he got a bit nervous was when the cape was first put on him. Handsome little boy now!!

The finished product, although we couldn't get him to look up long enough to get a good shot. Finally, a decent shot while gettin ready to go down the slide one last time.

Last Swim Class

Yay...i have a way of uploading pictures, so here goes with all the catch-up material:

Here is Ethan in his last swim class of the session. I honestly can't believe how comfortable he is in the water and all that he's learned from the session. I was going to sign him up again, but decided that it would be better if Dave and I got out to the local pool to keep up on his skills...now, to just find the time.

Pictures by weekend...

Dave (with the help of his Dad) has been busily working on our computers at home to get them up and running again. We still haven't recovered the data off the drive, but I should be able to upload new pictures that I've taken in the past few weeks by this weekend once all programs are set.

Lots to update:
Ethan's 1st haircut
Helping Daddy fix the A/C (yes, we lost A/C during the week long span of 90+ degrees
Father's Day @ Blackberry Farm

I'm sure there's more, seeing the pictures will trigger my memory.

Anyway...look back for updates by the end of the weekend! Hope everyone has a safe 4th of July!

He Passed!

Yay..Dave just found out he passed his FE test, one more to go!!

Did you miss updates??

Well, let me tell you that you'd think we would've learned when our first computer crashed, but...we didn't. Our second computer, which is the one I used to do all my picture uploads etc. to decided to die on Friday evening. So, we've now possibly lost more pictures!! Luckily I have the last few months still on the camera. But, until we get the necessary programs on the laptop or something miraculous happens with the other computer, you might not have pics for a little bit. Such a bummer, because I have pics of our last swim class and other odds and ends to share.

For now, my updates:
*Ethan is now counting up to 10 on his own. Lately, he's been starting with 3, but he gets all the way to 10 without any help. This is thanks to Lauren for working with him...we were counting up to 4, but he whipped out all the rest the other day for me and I stood there shocked!
*We're also working on ABCs with him...usually after he counts, he says, "I want ABC" and then we sing the ABCs...he knows a handful of letters when I pause to let him say them.
*Lately he likes to help with household chores. Putting clothes from the washing machine to the dryer, pushing the on/off button on the vacuum. Soon enough I'll give him his own chores. :)
*He now calls our neighbor "Tractor man", he has a riding mower and has to watch him whenever he's out mowing. We took a walk in the wagon last night and he kept saying, "I want tractor man".
*He now likes to have a glass of water at bedtime. The other night I heard him pounding on his crib and saying, "I want water"...so, we now try to remember to just put a sippy cup of water on his bed. Good little boy that he is, will drink it and put it back on the ledge. When we come in at night, we always make sure he's not sleeping on it or anything. But, he always puts it back!

All for now, thought I'd at least give a little tidbit for an update. Pictures to (hopefully) come soon...

Memorial Weekend

Well, the last two weekends we haven't really been able to relax in the Hickman household. We decided to paint our living room and do a bunch of landscaping outside, so we were busy bees. Now that it's complete, the outcome is well worth it. Hopefully the rest of the summer, we can just sit back and enjoy the nice weather.

Mr. Gardener doing his part to help us (last weekend).

Ethan's new bike that Grandma Hickman bought for him

For Memorial Day weekend, we did get out a bit when we took Ethan to the local Aurora zoo and park. As you'll see, I was playing like a kid also. :)

Our finished landscaping:

We're having a retaining wall put in on the side of the garage, so this will be a bit spiffier once that is done.

Some recent Ethanisms:

*He thinks it's funny when he farts (or as we call them, "tooties") and after he does it, he laughs and says, 'I want more tooties'. He then proceeds to try to do it again!

*He got the syrup out of the fridge the other day and put it on the kitchen table and said, "pancakes" to me.

*The cutest 2 words he says lately are 'goofy' (although it sounds like 'foofy') and 'sushi'. Both sound absolutely adorable when he says them.

*I taught him to say 'Daddy's big muscles' and show his arms. He holds his arms out and says 'Daddy's big muscles, big' and gets real tense at the end with a grunt - hilarious!

*The last two mornings I've gotten him out of bed, the first thing he says to me is "Daddy downstairs coffee" - so he now relates the morning to daddy making coffee - pretty perceptive!

*Ethan likes to give Sasha her morning treat now. He says, "Sasha, sit...good girl" and then gives her the treat. Good little helper!

*His latest two things he does to be a naughty boy (I know, hard to imagine this cutie can be naughty sometimes) is throwing his silverware on the floor and putting his feet on the dinner table. Although he knows when he does the silverware thing what he did wrong, because when I scold him, he says "fork, table...be nice". Which is paraphrasing what I've just told him, that we be nice to the fork and put it on the table when we're done with it. Some day it will sink in!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day Weekend proved to be as busy as the past few weekends for us. Friday evening we treated Lauren and her husband to dinner as a special thank you for always taking such good care of Ethan for us. We tried to take them to one of those all you can eat meat buffet restaurants (special treat for the boys of course) and the one in Downers Grove unfortunately had closed. So, we drove back to Naperville and enjoyed Catch 35. Saturday we did the usual swim class in the morning and then Dave and I had a date night. We had Lauren's sister watch Ethan while we went to Cirque Dreams at the Aurora Paramount Theatre. Dave and I really enjoyed the time together and the performance - it's amazing what those acrobats and performers can do!! Highly recommend!!

For Mother's Day, we met Dave's parents downtown Naperville for breakfast at Egg Harbor (yummy!!!) and walked around the Riverwalk a bit. Actually, we stayed in the same 100 yards of the riverwalk the whole time, as Ethan liked the bridge where he could see the ducks swimming and the fountain squirting water and the park benches that he could crawl up and down on a few hundred times....repeat sequence over and over and OVER! :) In the afternoon we had planned to take Ethan to the local zoo in Aurora, but I voted to just hang out closer to the house and go to the zoo on a bit warmer day. Either way, it was great having the family time. Dave also cooked me a very yummy dinner on Sunday evening - a new recipe he whipped up in his head and it was marvelous!!

Ethan is absolutely loving his stuffed animals in the morning now. Pictures below show 4 total that we had to take out of the bed with us. How I manage to unzip his pj's and change his diaper while he holds them all is a magical mommy skill that I have acquired. He usually wants to hold them while he eats breakfast, but I bribe him to let them just sit on the table so they don't get milk from cereal or sticky oatmeal spilled on them. (Don't mind my appearance in the picture, as these are first morning pictures)

Before breakfast photo opportunity

Looking out off the bridge

Ethan's latest cute things he's doing:

*He is trying to jump, he'll crouch down real low and pop up - real cute

*He likes to turn his night light on by himself now. The funniest thing though, my morning routine was to shut it off with my foot on the way out of his room because my hands were full...well, when I asked him to turn it on, he walked over, held on to the wall and lifted his foot up to turn it on. SERIOUSLY, kids are so atuned to certain things!!

*He is an absolute outdoors boy! He doesn't like coming in these days!! Today when we came in, he wanted to keep his coat on!! He also loves walks! Yesterday we took a walk for almost an hour from the time we left the house until we got back. He pushed his lawn mower the entire way around the pond and back. Of course, we had to stop to watch the tractors/semi trucks loading dirt.

I can't believe that he's already 19 months - 5 more months until he's 2?!

Dave's 32nd Birthday!

This weekend was the first weekend Ethan and I had Dave to ourselves the entire weekend and we really enjoyed it! Coincidentally, Dave was able to get his test out of the way last weekend, so he could fully enjoy his birthday festivities on Saturday.

Dave got some 'honey do' items done this weekend, which I was much appreciative of. Hung a picture, put together Ethan's wagon and new cozy coupe car, fixed a few squeaky doors, helped me fix the yellow grass from Sasha peeing all winter, hardware store shopping for a few household projects we have planned....I know, it sounds like I threw Dave into more 'work', but he definitely enjoys the household help more than his studying, so he didn't complain. :)

For Dave's birthday on Saturday, he came with Ethan and I to swim class in the morning. Ethan was happy to show off his wall walking, swimming and back floating. :) Saturday evening we did sushi with Dave's parents and they were nice enough to stay with Ethan while we went out to bowling with some friends that evening. Sunday, we spent as much time outside as we could. We took two walks around the park area in our subdivision and now Ethan likes to get out and help push his stroller/wagon himself. So, we just walk at Ethan's pace. The cutest thing he likes to do now is put his hands in his pockets while he walks. I have no idea who taught him this, but it's the cutest thing ever!

Ethan 'helping' Mommy make Daddy's chocolate, cherry cake - mmm, chocolate beaters!

Helping Daddy put together his car

Ahh, this is the life...Dad just pulls me and I lay back and enjoy the ride!

Helping Dad with the stud finder to hang a picture

Walking all proper with his hands in his pockets.

Pulling the wagon like a big boy

Dinner on Saturday night..mmm, sushi!!