K, for some reason it wont let me insert these pictures in between each paragraph, only all at the top of the page... so I'll leave these two up here, and for LOTS more pictures, please visit my Facebook page! Oh, and due to the length of this blog, I did not review it to check for any typos, so any that are there, I apologize. (no comments on them, Uncle Chris!) ;)
SO, Ethan is ten months now! I feel terrible that I haven’t blogged in so long! But I’ve been keeping pretty good track of the milestones he’s been making!
I never mentioned when he started recognizing his own name, and I think it was way back at about 5 or 6 months old.
He also has been giving kisses for quite a while now! A few months! Not on command every time, but will open his mouth & lean forward, when I say “give mommy kiss!” I love this!
His first word was Mama!!! Right around Thanksgiving time! And now, as of the past week or so, he’s saying papa, TO Papa!!! He had kinda been saying it for a while, but never when papa was around, then just recently, with Papa right there, he said it clear as day, Papa!!! Oh and sometimes it sounds like he says “woah” and sometimes “ow” and its just fun to think that that’s actually what he’s TRYing to say, hehe. Also, as he’s discovering his voice more and more, sometimes he’ll yell real loud, kinda like to get my attention, and then when I look, he giggles, kinda like “hehe, it worked!” So then once I yelled back, and then he did it back, and there we were, going “ah!” back & forth to each other! Our own little form of conversation! Hehe.
He has always loved to be upside down! Hehe, I’ll hang him upside down & he jus giggles so much! Sometimes I’ll even jus hold his feet in the air, with his head on the floor like a head stand. He cracks up!
He’s also been recognizing familiar shows & songs lately. Like, I’ll go to nurse him, and one of the shows we’ll watch everyday will come on (like Dora, or Handy Manny, etc.), when the intro theme song comes on, his head will whip right over towards the TV, cuz he recognizes it! That’s neat to see.
He’s still eating mostly fruits & vegetables (with rice cereal mixed in), but has also tried some table foods, his favorites including oyster crackers, stuffing, and his All-time favorite, pancakes! He does have these little 100% Gerber foods that we like to use, even the meats, and he Loves the meats! I think that’s great! AND I’m thinking he likes veggies better than he does fruit! (total opposite from his sister… she’s a fruit maniac!) But he says Mmmm way more often while eating veggies than he does fruit, awesome! Oh, and speaking of foods, one night while all the family was in town for the holidays, they all went out to dinner one night while I was at work. So I didn’t actually witness this story, but was told ALL about it, and there’s also a video of it somewhere, compliments of Emily! They gave Ethan a lemon to suck on (we did this for Diella a few times as a baby as well). And the little sour faces that he was making are Hilarious! Funny thing is, his lil eyes would squint & his little nose would scrunch up, and his tongue would come in & out… but then he’d just take another bite again! Haha! So he must have liked SOMEthing about it!!! Oh, and I’ve also just recently started to slowly introduce him to milk, real milk. I’m nursing less, and he Will NOT take formula. And he LOVES the milk! Which is great! I’m just going about it slowly. Oh and he finally loves water too! It took him a while to get used to it, but now, he’ll chug it!
Once in Walmart, I got one of those carts with the kid seats in it, you can buckle em in, ya know? Ethan has ALWAYS been (I’ve said this a million times since he’s been born) a very “handsy” boy, always needin to touch things & hold things, etc. Well this day, he sat in the cart, just looking around so calmly & casually, with his arms straight down at his sides, the ENTIRE trip through the store! I dunno why, but I thought that was the craziest thing! I guess jus cuz he’s usually so busy with his hands, that for me to see them not constantly grabbing at stuff just struck me so funny! And CUTE!
His feet are So ticklish! I love that! He’s recently starting to babble a lot, yay!!! And when he gets into things that he shouldn’t, and we’re trying to teach him “no no”, when we say “no no”, he laughs. Sigh* Great.
For months now, he has been waving! Hm, let me see, I think it started back in like October! When he first did it, I was like “was that Really him waving? It sure looked like it!” but it seemed too early for him to be doing that. But sure enough he was! And has been eve since!
Ethan loves to crawl under things… like the endtables, the kitchen chairs, etc. I think is so cute, cuz its like he’s goin to hide in his little cave! He does it all the time, I think its adorable!
He recently loves to stand & stare out the big picture window in the living room. I love that. I think Caeden used to do the same thing? And I even remember as a teenager, after school sometimes, I’d jus stare out that window. There’s just something about it.
When Diella was a baby, people, wherever we went, would stop us to check her out & comment on how beautiful she was. Well, now its similar with Ethan, but ALL the comments are on his BLUE blue eyes! They are the most amazing color! And EVERYone comments on how gorgeous they are! There’s just no denying it!
Most of the time when Ethan’s sleepy, he’ll hold one of his ears. Its cute. I remember seeing Colton do that a lot! Aww! … well lately, sometimes if I’m holding him and he’s sleep, he’ll go for MY ear, or even sometimes my Nose!!! He’s jus gotta grab onto something and move those lil finers of his. There’s Mr. Handsy again.
Ok, I STILL somehow haven’t taken any pictures of this, but I will! … this cracks me up, Ethan’s Favorite thing to play with is the lazy Susan in the kitchen! Haha! (the little thin in the corner that spins, its got shelves, usually for spices, etc. ya know?) … he’s over there All the Time, jus pullin stuff out, checkin in out, enjoyin himself! I think it’s the cutest thing! I think he’s gonna be a chef!... cuz he Also loves to play with all the small play kitchen things, in the play kitchen in Diella’s room. All the little pretend food, and the tiny plates & spoons n’ stuff. Yea, chef, I’m callin it.
A lot of times when Ethan’s in the high chair, and if you’re talking to him, or jus smiling & playing with him, he’ll smile tilt his head to the side. I think its just a little cute thing he’s doin, jus to play, and make you laugh. Its so cute! My mom says Chris & I used to do that, aw!!
Ok, so since the long space between blogs, we’ve missed the entire progression from sitting up, to crawling, to cruising, and standing, and taking steps and all of this. So here we go. He had been sitting up on his own, and getting from seated to on his hands and knees to start. Then he would rock on the hands & knees and go back to being seated. This was fun to watch, as he learns step by step, all the movements! Then when he was about 8 months, he started crawling! Around this time, he would also take steps as you held onto his hands! Not too long later, one day I noticed him trying to follow his sister, who was upstairs, he had made it up the first stair! I think maybe once I saw him up three stairs, but I brought him back down, and don’t see him near the stairs too often, so… we’ll keep a closer eye on him by the steps from now on! It seemed almost right when he started to pull himself to standing, while holding onto things, he immediately started cruising around everywhere! And hasn’t stopped since! He crawls & cruises So fast! We gotta keep a Real close watch all the time now! By this point, he’s gotten good at falling to his butt when he’s hanging onto things, instead of falling sideways, to the floor. So that’s good! Then around Christmas time, my mom would stand him up, holding onto the back of his Tow Mater truck that he got. He Loved that! And then would start walking as he pushed! You could tell he loved being able to do this!!! And he would jus take off! He’d go as far as he could, until the truck hit something & he had to stop. Even one day I watched him crawl over to it, grab on & pull himself to standing, then work his way to the back of the truck where the handle is, and off he went! That was CUTE! And now, as of about a week or two, Ethan has been standing on his own for short periods of time, and they’re getting longer & longer each day! He doesn’t yet go from sitting to standing on his own, but if he pulls himself up to standing, like against the couch or whatever, then he’ll stand there, not holding on too! Cool!!! And so we’ve been working with him, and if ya hold him to standing, and then let go, he’ll stand there. And so we would be about an arm’s length away for this, and at first he would smile & come toward us, falling into our arms. And after we repeated this lots of times, then he finally would take 1, 2 and 3 steps toward us first, then fall into our arms! So he’s not quite walking yet, but he has officially taken his first steps! Many times over! Once or twice, while standing, he would take one tiny step and then still stand! Holding his balance & not falling, COOL!!! So this is where we’re at now… he’s 10 months old, standing & taking steps, but still has some work to do on getting to stand up on his own, and taking more steps without falling. Good job Ethan!!
Ok, and a few extra things I just thought of before I finish here. I have been working on 2 different signs with him for quite a while now, ‘all done’ and ‘eat’. He still hasn’t done either of them, but I think Diella was 11 months before she did her first one, so I’ll give him some more time, hehe. I’m also just starting to try to teach him nodding head Yes and shaking head No. I saw in Diella’s baby book that she did this around 10 or 11 months, so now I’m tryin to get Ethan to do the same. (ya forget What happens When, from kid to kid)
At around 8 months old, Ethan got his first tooth! And he STILL only has the one!!! He’s definitely cutting his second one, so it’ll be soon now… but Chanson has like SIX already!!!
He and Diella both LOVE taking baths together! They crack each other up! Oh and his sister also loves when they chase each other around! She’ll say, “c’mon Ethan, crawl with me!”
And my Ethan is still quite the little Mama’s boy. He’s quite clingy and doesn’t really like it when mommy walks away. But he still does really good for other people too, he doesn’t go to ONLY momma. He’s good!
