Opps! 6 months later

I haven’t blogged in 6 months.  Ethan has now been 3 for almost 8 months, and we all know that age 3, and age 3 and a half can be very different!  He has been talking much clearer and more intelligently than any 3 year old I know, but the past few months I’ve been noticing how even more complex his comments and questions are!  He’s really starting to think for himself! (so often he just says what he hears his big sister says).  It’s just incredible to see how his mind is so inquisitive, and he’s such an interesting individual!

So I’ll have to start back when I first started making note of the funny things he’s done over the past 6 months.  His questions always crack me up.  They are always so very random!  One was, “Mom, can I buy a whale?” then followed by, “can I have one when I’m 3?” (which, of course, he already was 3 when he asked).

One time daddy called Ethan a turd.  Ethan replied, “no YOU’re a turd!” and after they went back and forth a few times, Ethan finally said, “ok I’m a turd.”

I remember this being a long time ago, but I once asked Ethan if he had gone potty yet.  He said yes, so I asked, “when?”  His reply was, “um, in two years.”

When we were talking about possible names for Silas before he was born, Ethan’s suggestion if we were to have a boy, was Roman.  And if it was to be a girl, he said either Sally or Maria.

Once I said, “that was absurd.”  I think we were in the car and I was driving.  Ethan chimed in, “that was absurd.” And then he also added, “that was ridiculous.” As though he understood the context of my comment! Neat!

One of his favorite and most frequent sayings has been, “are you sure about that?” but I must make a point to always try to remember the inflection he uses when he says it!  Cuz THAT is the best part!  He is SO animated with his facial expressions, and he is beyond enthusiastic when he speaks.  So entertaining!

One day Ethan was singing, “Oh, I just cant wait to be king” from The Lion King.  So I asked him, “Ethan, you’re going to be KING!?” and he replied, “no, I’m just WAITING to be king.”

One thing that he says is hilarious.  Even though it’s really just a line from a movie that he’s reciting, again, it’s the cuteness of his voice, and his enthusiasm!  It’s from Robots.  He exclaims, “not until you gimmie back my foot, you mugger!”

Ethan has been very attentive to which direction we’re going when we’re in the car.  Most times when I make a certain turn, he’ll guess where we’re going.  “are we going to Ahna’s house?” or Grammie’s too, he knows that direction.  Also on our way to church too.  Oh, and if I tell him we’re going to such and such a place, and if we go a  route other than usual, he often says, “this isn’t the way to ____!”  I think it’s a boy thing.

A few times, quite a while ago, when I would check on Ethan while he was going potty, I would find him in the funniest position on the potty!  I think because he still cant stand to pee, because he cant reach it, he would seriously have both hands and both feet on the toilet seat, so that he could aim into the toilet! HAHHAA!!!

No joke, Ethan once said to me, out of nowhere… “you know what part of my body I like? …. My weiner.”  HAHAH!  Ooooh my!

It must have been a Saturday or something, cuz I just remember that it was lunch time, and Jake was home.  I came downstairs, gasped, and said, “Jake!  You made the kids lunches for me!  Thank you!”  and then Ethan loudly added, “Genius!!!”

One day he asked me, “what are those gray animals at the zoo?”   I said, “elephants?”  He said no.  I said, “rhinos?”  He said no.  “Hippos?” No.  Then he said, “I think they’re on Lion King.”  And I STILL couldn’t think of what he meant.  Then he said, “they’re right past the tiger.” (he was referencing to their actual location at the zoo), and I said, “Oh!  The warthogs!”  cool!!!  He knew to give me the Lion King clue, AND their specific spot at the zoo to help me figure it out!  Awesome.

Ahna was over this one night, and she was on the phone with Aria.  When she got off the phone, Ethan said, “you KNOW her???”

Ok, so I was very pregnant with Silas, and it was the weekend that Jake went on the canoe trip with Chi Alpha.  He decided to take Ethan along!  They had a great time!  I was so happy Ethan was able to do that with his daddy!  They stayed in a tent, they fished, they went on the canoe, they ate by the fire, and all kinds of fun camping stuff!  Well before they left for the trip, everything was just about all packed up, and Jake was loading the car.  I was upstairs with the two girls, and when I came down, I saw that the front door was still open from Jake loading the car.  So I looked around a bit, and didn’t see Ethan.  I asked Jake where he was, and he didn’t know.  So then my pace got faster as I looked around the house, calling Ethan’s name, with no reply.  Then Jake joined me in the search,  and I bolted outside, shuffling up and down our side of the block, calling out his name, becoming more & more panicked.  Jake was on the front porch, after he continued to search the house with no luck, and we gave each other this horrified look as we both shrugged our shoulders.  There was shear terror in my voice as I continued to call his name, and I swore I faintly heard him reply.  But as I kept running & looking, and listening, I had no clue from where the voice came, or if it was even his voice that I heard!  I was at the end of the block, and as I came back toward the house, I saw Jake wrapped up so tightly in Jake’s arms as he took him inside.  I followed them in, closed the door behind me, sat down and bawled for a few minutes, both because of the emotion of the situation, but also because I was in quite a bit of physical pain from running around like that.  It turns out, Ethan was in the car, “ready to go.”  He was so excited to leave, he just went ahead and boarded the car, anxious for the trip.  We, of course, had a talk with him about going out the front door without a grown up, and all of that (and it wasn’t the first time we’ve told the kids this).  I think the 4 of us (not Sayda so much) will probably never forget this.

Getting silly during lunchtime, Ethan said, “mom, you’re a pierogi.”  Then Diella chimed in, and this continued a while.  Diella said, “you’re a pierogi, Silas can be a hotdog, Ethan, daddy, and Sayda are French fries, and Blue can be…. “ and Ethan interrupted loudly & excitedly, “a cucumber!!!”

As I mentioned before, Ethan’s questions are random, hilarious, and also interesting because I wonder WHAT is goin on inside his silly head!  There was one time when the questions were just pouring out, and if I remember correctly, these three came consecutively, one barely after I finished answering the previous one.  “Are cows supposed to be cows?” “Do whales have diapers?” “Why am I called Ethan?”

Also, the random things he sometimes says (rather than inquires about), are equally hilarious.  Like once, out of nowhere he said, “kitties are kinda like dogs…. But they’re not…. They’re just kitties.”

Halloween time is nearing, and when we first discussed costumes, I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween.  He said, “I want you to paint me a cow mustache.” This kid cracks me up every single day!

We occasionally do a sticker or a small surprise when the kids obey really well.  One day I was complimenting how well they obeyed, and Diella asked what prize they get for obeying.  I playfully described the treasures in heaven concept, and Diella said, “that’s too long, I want it now.” And Ethan replied (in reference to getting these things from heaven), “are we going today or tomorrow?”

Jake took Ethan to Edinboro one night to join him for his small group.  Jake came home to tell me the story of how the guys were all in the middle of a deep conversation when Jake looked up, and in what felt like slow motion headed toward Ethan as his little hand was on the fire alarm, and sure enough, he pulled it.  As the entire facility was evacuating, Jake was holding Ethan, just mortified, and Ethan wasn’t afraid, but he sure did know he didn’t something wrong.  Jake described how so many of the college students were annoyed, and some of them even swearing because they had to evacuate.  Jake was holding Ethan, saying, “my son pulled it.  I am SO sorry!”  and how most people looked as his face, sorta melted, smiled, and could no longer be too upset about it.  He also said that the campus police were nearby, and when Jake apologized to them as well, they smiled, and looked down at Ethan, and just shook a finger at him, and that was it.  I wasn’t there, but Jake made it sound like quite a night!

There is a crack in one of our walls in the living room.  Ethan must have never noticed it before, because the other day he ran up to me and said, “Sayda threw something, and it broke the house!  It’s gonna fall over!”

About a week or two ago, it was time to put the kids to bed.  Sayda goes to bed first.  Jake and I were both sitting on the couch, not arguing, but just both trying to get out of being the one to put Sayda down.  Back and forth, “you put her down,” “no, you put her down.”  Then Ethan chimed in and said, “ok I’LL put her down.” …. I truly found it so profound for him to say that.  He was ending a dispute between mommy and daddy, and also taking it upon himself to do something that both of us were saying we didn’t want to do!  It also made me realize that he was hearing us say we didn’t want to put her down, and made me think that maybe instead we should be fighting over who GETS to put the kids to bed! … wow.

The morning of my birthday, quite a few pretty neat things happened within the first hour of me waking up.  I remember I opened my eyes right on my birthday minute, which I thought was neat!  And then when Ethan crawled into my bed, he starting singing the song that was actually already my head at that moment!  And then as we laid there, for some reason something came to my mind, and I thought I’d take advantage of that moment that he and I were there alone to chat.  I asked him if he wanted to invite Jesus into his heart and try to live like Him.  Without confusion or hesitation, he said, “Yes.”  So then I took him through the prayer, as he asked Jesus into his heart… on my birthday!  It was so great!

A while ago, I just looked at Ethan one day and said to him, “Ethan, you are reeeeeeaally cute.”  He looked up at me, he grinned, and he replied, “you too.”

There are instances where I love when kids call something by it’s wrong name.  Like Ethan called quesadillas – cheesa dee-uhs.  He also referred to the movie, “Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs,” as “Spaghetti and the Giant Meatballs.”  Ha!

Aw, one night I was putting the cream on Ethan’s legs for his seborrhea, and he was whimpering a bit, and said, “it feels thorny.”

Ethan likes to have his red, Lightening McQueen night light on at night.  Once in the middle of the night, after feeding Silas, I turned it off and returned to bed.  Later that night, Ethan came into my room, concerned, and said, “I cant hear anything in my room.”  I know he meant he couldn’t SEE anything, but it was so cute.  I don’t turn it off anymore, hehe.