Ethan's First Artwork

I have been going to a wonderful moms group at our church once a week since September, and Ethan has stayed in their childcare a few times. A fun surprise when I picked him up the other day is that the women taking care of the kids had done an art project with them. This is Ethan's first work of art! :) I think that it is adorable, and it's currently hanging on our fridge. Below is his shiny little handprint:

Dancing Lessons

Few of you may realize that Dan and I have been taking dancing lessons. Here's a video with a demonstration of our skills or lack thereof (Sorry Lori, I swiped the idea from you, but it totally cracked me up!)

Halloween- Handing out Treats

For Halloween we decided that Ethan was too young for trick-or-treating, so we dressed him in costume to help hand out candy to the kids in our neighborhood. He was a bit intimidated at first by the kids in costume coming to our door, but he soon warmed up to the idea and stood at the storm door watching the kids walk by. I bought 4 bags of candy (about 100 pieces), we gave one piece to each trick-or-treater, and we were out within 45 minutes! I would have run out to buy more, but we needed to finish packing for our trip to North Carolina, so we opted to turn the porch light out instead. Here are some pictures of Ethan in costume:

Ethan was a little scared at first and trying to close the front door:

One-Year Photo Session

Belated! Ethan turned one at the end of August, but between him getting two severe colds and an ear infection, traveling to Oklahoma City, and his eye surgery, we just didn't get around to doing his one-year pictures until this weekend. We took him to Portrait Innovations (where we had been for his 6 and 9-month photos), and he was not nearly as cooperative as he had been before! Being mobile and inquisitive adds new challenges to getting good pictures, and the fact that he is teething and didn't nap or eat well before the photos didn't help matters. But through the crabbing and fussiness, I was amazed that our photographer was able to snap some wonderful pictures of him and we even got a decent family photo as well. Some of the pics are posted below:

Chivalry and Lions

This afternoon Ethan and I got together with Nicole and Kara for a playdate. It was so cute to see Ethan and Kara interacting. Ethan was being chivalrous here, pushing Kara around on her car :) It was funny because Ethan was looking at Nicole taking pictures, and Kara was looking at me, so neither of us really got a pic of both of them looking in the same direction!
Our Bible study group also had a gathering last night, and the kiddies were encouraged to put on their costumes to show everyone. Ethan was less excited to wear his costume this time than he was when I first tried it on him (see blog entry from Sept. 9th). Fortunately the lion pictured below did not stay upset for long...
Happier lion

Continued Interest in the Wheelchair

Ethan has been playing with the wheelchair that Uncle Mike gave him a lot recently. He likes pushing various items around in it. The other day he had placed a sock, a zebra from his Little People Noah's Ark, a megablock, and a book in the wheelchair and was carefully pushing the chair around so as not to dump those items. He has also become more adept at getting in and out of the chair himself:

Brushing Teeth, Crazy Hairdo, and Superfun Shower Sprayers

Ethan has always enjoyed bathtime, and he especially likes brushing his teeth by himself, totally cracks up when we use the "hand sprayer" to rinse him off, and his hair has grown long enough again to create a fun mohawk when he's getting shampooed.

Ethan with his toothbrush (he lets me brush his teeth, but he likes being a big boy and holding the toothbrush himself. He usually just chews on it though...)

Crazy hairdo (he's already due for another haircut!)

Ethan thinks that the shower sprayer is just hilarious

My Favorite "Toy"

Recently Ethan's favorite "toy" has been his doggie. He has always loved Waggles and been very interested in him, but lately his absolute favorite things to do are petting, sitting with, and sometimes tackling Waggles. Fortunately, despite how hyper and disobedient Waggles can be, he does amazingly well with and is very tolerant of Ethan. Ethan loves to give him hugs around his neck and to hold his tail. Here are a couple of pics of Ethan with his buddy Wags.


Today Ethan and Wags were checking out the view of the backyard. They looked so cute standing at the window together that (of course), I had to take a couple of pictures...

Bad Experience with Mandarin Oranges

Well, not exactly with mandarin oranges themselves, but with the can they were packaged in. So I decided that I would like a snack of mandarin oranges before I went to bed tonight. Sounds harmless enough, right? I was talking with my mom on the cell phone as I was pulling on the tab of the pull-top lid of the mandarin orange can. The lid was kind of stuck, so I used more pressure to pull at the lid. Next thing I knew my hand slipped, my middle finger was sliced deeply and bleeding and mandarin oranges, orange syrup, blood, and my cell phone were all over the kitchen. When I cut my finger, my gut reaction was to pull my hand away ASAP, and doing that caused the whole mostly open can of mandarin oranges to be flung up in the air. So my PJs, arms, cabinets (top and bottom), floor, countertop, flour and sugar containers, knife holder, kitchen utensil holder, picture frame, coffeemaker, etc. were covered in oranges and syrup. What a mess! I had to wake Dan up (he went to bed early trying to get re-adjusted to Indiana time after being in Europe for 9 days) to help with the clean up. Stopping the bleeding and cleaning up the sticky mess took awhile. After all of the trauma, I still wanted mandarin oranges, so I carefully used our electric can opener on another can. It will be quite some time before I eat anything else from a can with a pull-top lid...

Learning About Wheelchairs

Ethan's Uncle Mike gets around using an electric wheelchair. Ethan has always been curious about the chair, likes to touch the tires, and attempts to grab the joystick. When Mike was little, my parents got him a cabbage patch kid (Elton) and a little wheelchair designed to be used with a doll. Mike gave the doll and the wheelchair to Ethan while we were visiting *Thanks Mike!*, and he has had a good time exploring and learning about the wheelchair. Ethan likes to push the wheelchair around, and unfortunately at this point he is not very good at keeping Elton in it. Elton usually gets accidentally dumped out of the chair. Anyhow, here are some pics of Ethan checking out the wheelchair and one of him trying to sit in it himself.

Where's Ethan's Belly? and Lovin' My Doggie

Ethan had a bit of a diaper blowout (necessitating a full clothing change) while we were visiting my parents which explains why he is only diaper-clad in these photos! I finally got a picture of him showing us where his belly is and also one with him sitting with Waggles. Ethan absolutely loves his doggie, and he follows him everywhere trying to pet him. Whenever Waggles lays down, Ethan sits down in front of his chest and scoots right up against him.

Some Random Things That Ethan's Been Doing...

Dan had to go on an overseas business trip for 9 days which unfortunately included being gone over Ethan's eye surgery date. Thankfully my mom was able to go with me to the surgery center, and Ethan and I stayed with my parents for 3 days while Dan was gone. While we were there, Ethan showed Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Mike how he could brush his hair all by himself (again with the bristles facing out instead of toward his hair)!:
Grandma G. and Grandma Q. have been playing pat-a-cake with Ethan. He recently figured out how to do the "rolling" motion with his arms (not captured on film as of yet). It's really cute because he is still getting the hang of it, so sometimes he bumps his arms together as he tries to rotate them around each other.

Ethan likes for me to play his baby Bach CD while I am changing his diaper, and I recently showed him how to press the Play/Pause button on the CD player. He gets so excited and proud that he can push the button all by himself (the CD player is on his dresser, but I hold him up, and he reaches over and presses the button himself!)

Eye Surgery Day- Finally!

Ethan's surgery to open the partially obstructed tear duct of his left eye was done yesterday morning. We made the appointment 2 1/2 months ago (this practice of pediatric ophthalmologists is so busy that is the earliest they could get us scheduled!) Poor Ethan's left eye has been goopy and the lids irritated since he was just a couple of weeks old. Most mornings he has woken up with his eye sealed shut, and I have had to clean his eye out up to 15 times a day. He gets really upset when you try to wipe the goop out of his lashes (I can't blame him!) The procedure to place a stent in his tear duct was done under general anesthesia at about 9am. Ethan had a rough time with his initial recovery from the anesthesia (he was crying hysterically for about 15 minutes), but he calmed down once we had him dressed and were heading out to the car. He was pretty groggy and cranky until the evening, but overall he was a little trooper! Unfortunately the tears have not begun draining properly yet, and he rubbed his eye vigorously tonight which somewhat dislodged the stent. The stent is a narrow plastic tube, and you can now see it against the white of his eye. The doctor said that it is not unusual for kids to accidentally pull at the stent, but ideally it will be left in for 4 months. It looks to me already as though it would be irritating Ethan's eye, but the Dr. won't remove it unless it is so far dislodged that it is touching the iris of his eye. I'll just have to keep checking it to see if it gets pulled out to that point. Hopefully this procedure will be a success and we won't have to have it repeated! Thanks for your prayers for Ethan's surgery!- It's scary to have him taken away from me and put under anesthesia, but this is the second time that he's been put under, and he has done well both times with no complications.

Some Cute Things Ethan's Been Doing Lately

It amazes me how fast Ethan is learning, and to see his sense of humor develop is so much fun!
Some things he's been doing lately:

• Running around with his eyes closed and laughing hysterically when he bumps into things
• Learning the names of all of the animals in his Noah's ark and retrieving them when asked. He also brought me Noah the other day and said "No No" (definitely meaning "Noah", not the opposite of Yes!). If you ask him to put the animals in the ark, he'll follow the instruction.
  
• He loves off-limits items like remote controls and cell phones. If you walk into the room and he has a remote control, he'll run with it in his hand with his arm outstretched to give it to you (as though his intention all along was just to bring it to you, not to play with it himself ;)
• If you tell him "No", he'll generally stop doing what he's doing and stay where he is. However, if you tell him a firm "No", he will do an abrupt 180 and start running away from whatever he was making mischief with. It is so cute and funny to see his quick reaction in turning around and speeding away from whatever got him in trouble!
  
• He now also knows the body parts: belly, ears, head, fingers, nose, and mouth. His favorite is still toes though.
  
• His absolute favorite food is Gerber puffs-He'd eat a whole can if you'd let him
• While we were in Oklahoma City, I brushed his hair and set the hairbrush down on the floor for a moment. He grabbed it and started brushing his own hair (with the brush flipped over so that the bristles were pointing out instead of down into his hair). It was adorable, and he was so proud of himself for "brushing" his own hair!