Recent Ethan Sayings and Doings

Ethan's constant running commentary of his thoughts just crack me up. He has become incredibly verbal in the last few weeks, and his expanding vocabulary astonishes us. Dan and I have heard him use many large words correctly and will ask each other, "Did you teach him that?" Usually we don't remember specifically teaching him particular words, but he is such a little sponge that he takes in and retains so much of what he hears. Some cute things that he's been saying and doing lately include:
- When eating his favorite foods he says, "It's tasty good!"
- I try to encourage positive behavior by telling Ethan "Good idea!" whenever he asks or decides to do something appropriate or constructive. He's taken to saying it emphatically as well: "Good i-DE-a!"
-Dan and I are big on nicknames, and they are constantly evolving. The nickname that has stuck is "pea" for sweetpea, but it recently has become "bitty pea" (don't ask me why, I really don't know!). Dan told Ethan the other day "Hi bitty pea", and without missing a beat he responded "Hi bitty Daddy!". Maybe you had to be there, but it made us laugh :)

-Ethan has been learning that people have first and last names and also that Mommy and Daddy have "other" names too. If you ask him what my name is, he'll say "Julie", but if you ask him what Dan's name is, he always says "Daddy Altizer"
-Ethan likes to remove his pillowcase when he's in his crib. A couple naptimes in a row we found him almost completely inside his pillowcase (like a sleeping bag) at the end of his naptime.
-I check my email frequently, and often Ethan plays in the office while I check things on the computer. Ethan has taken to asking us lately if he can "Go check email for a little bit". He doesn't have an email address yet, but probably won't be long! Dan and/or I must say the phrase "a little bit" often because Ethan has picked that up and tacks it on to lots of his comments "eat a little bit", "play with toys a little bit", etc.
-Ethan's imagination and imaginative play have really grown recently. He often pretends that things are something other than what they really are. He was eating holiday-theme shaped pretzels the other day, and all of a sudden he said "I made a dinosaur". Sure enough the remnant of one of his pretzels resembled a dinosaur, and he proceeded to create adventures for the dinosaur on his tray (the dinosaur walked around the tray, "slept" on top of his sippy cup, ate leaves off his tray). He also likes to pretend that toys are pieces of food (he brought me a frisbee and said "plate", a green ball and said "apple", and two round tinker toys with a square block in between and said "cheeseburger").