Umbrella

Talking like Crazy!

Ethan is talking GREAT quite suddenly lately! He's even saying 3 syllable words like cereal and piano! And has attempted saying Alethea! He says is "thee thee uh." But he's even starting to put words together, like "night night mama" or one time he said "bite, more, please" Yay!

I don't think I've ever actually blogged this… Ethan has a word for anything that he doesn't know what its called. I know Diella did that too, but I don't remember what hers was. His is "ai-ya." Mm hmm.

He's also singing a lot too! He sings the Hallelujah song (from Shrek) quite well!!! and my mom began to sang the alphabet for him, and he sang right along! Not perfectly of course, but if you pause at ANY point in the song, he knows what letter is next!!! Then last night at her house, we asked him to sing it for us, and even though not every letter is clear, he got through the whole song! We both sat there with huge eyes & mouths hanging open as he kept singing, and knew it all!!!

He's also trying to learn his colors. He will only call things blue or yellow, though, ha! My mom says sometimes he's gotten a few colors right the first time she "quizzes" him, but then the second time, he gets em all wrong, sigh*
Also, I don't remember how we suddenly found this out, but Ethan can all of a sudden count to Ten, all by himself!

I love when I hear him use words that I didn't even know he knew! Like one day he went to pick something up and he says through a grunt, "Heavy!" And another time when we were all headed upstairs, and he said, "hurry!" HAHA! Oh, and also when he wants one of us to do something after he has, he'll say "turn," which means 'your turn' like take your turn… how cute!

Surprisingly enough, he's pretty good an pronouncing the typically harder sounds. Well, he cannot do the K sound, but he's great at the R sound! Even in the middle of a word, like truck… well, of course he can pronounce the R in truck, but not the K at the end, hehehe…. he can also do the L in the middle of words, like in Blue. He's TRYing to master the F sound, like in frog. He's doin awesome!

Tee Ball!!!

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got a tee ball set from Uncle Matt & Aunt Mia for Christmas!! Ethan was shown how to do it once, and was instantly a pro! And check out that follow through, hehe

Baby Sister!!!

Ethan loves his little sister! He wanted to hold her right away!!! He already says her name pretty well, but he usually calls her Baby, hehe.

Fun with Daddy!

These pictures are from the other night when daddy was giving the kids rides on his back. The more rowdy they got, the more the kids fell off… so he decided to make a harness… he rigged up two belts so that the kids could hang on… its was a blast to watch!

The two "big kids" have been sharing a room for about a month now, to get ready to put a new baby in its own room. They transitioned without any problems! Its really nice!

Ethan is suddenly saying So many words…. perfectly! He has been trying much harder pronouncing things instead of just using the first letter & how ever many syllables, hehe. Today, Diella was trying to help him with a few words… like her name, he's always said Ella. Well today he started saying Dee-Ella!!! And she even got him to say Mom-mee, and Dad-dee, instead of mama & dada! Cool! He also identified & called Cecily by her name yesterday, without prompting… he said Cec! How cute!

Then tonight, I even was trying to get him to say some colors. I think it was maybe 6 months ago or so, that we started helping Diella pronounce the L in the middle of words… like class, or play, or blanket, etc. Well tonight, Ethan, said Blue, perfectly! Even with the L in it! He also said yellow… perfectly!!!

Other words he tries & comes close to… that are so cute… are kitchen & chicken. He's also finally saying milk… he used to just call all drinks wa-wa. But now milk, water, and juice all have their own names, hehe. He also says high five when he puts up his hand for one, and also says high chair. And also will hold out his hand and for you to take it, to go with him… and he'll either say "hand" or he'll say "mon" (as is c'mon). Its SO cute! He even, once in a while, has finally started to put two words together!!! Like one days he said "play. C'mon" It was awesome! And last night he said "nite nite mama" !!! …. oh AND… my fave word he says… lotion… its hilarious & adorable how he says it… its like "thlo-thon" … you gotta hear it! I'm loving all this talking!

And he also understands everything even more now, and doesn't just reply with "Yea" like he used to always. Now he'll give you a real answer, which is nice for communication!

Ethan is also starting to be quite the singer & dancer! Sometimes I'll sing a familiar song, and then stop before the last word or phrase, so that Diella can finish it for me… well Ethan's been doing it too now! We didn't even know he COULD until one day he just did! He even changes notes…. Almost where they belong! There are quite a few different songs that he'll help us sing! Its so awesome!

So Ethan has a few stuffed animals that I've always kept at the foot of his crib, that he could not care less about. When he goes through his ABC books, he always shows me the picture of the owl & he says Hoo. So my mom reminded me, "hey, don't you have a stuffed animal owl? So I got that out of the attic, and guess what… he LOVES it!!! His other few favorite animals are cow, and porcupine! How funny! Those are the ones he shows me the pictures of & says the names of most often. Funny kid! … well and horse, and penguin now too… he has lotsa faves.

His sense of humor is also rapidly developing & starting to show more & more! Like he has this "funny walk" we call it… where he spreads his legs out far, then bends over a little, and then walks (in the video). Or he'll put his head way back, his chest forward, and then run toward you & fall into you, and just laugh. And my favorite… we all remember Diella's "angry eyes" she used to do… and then the funny arm circle thing she added to it…. well Ethan does the eyes now! Puts his head down, eyebrows down a bit, looks out the top of his eyes at you… then I crack up… but he keeps the look still! Its hilarious!

Its kind of the same that he does with smiling. He smiles on command now, like instantly. "Ethan… smile!" and he slaps it right on! All cheesy!!! And most of the time we're laughing while he's doin this… then he doesn't wipe it off! The big cheesy smile is still there, as we are still laughing! Such a funny kid!!! I remember shortly before I had him, the girls at LCA threw me a shower, and Debbie Nuber spoke over him, a sense of humor. Well, she was Right! He's sure got one!!!

He's getting to be… I don't want to say less laid back, cuz he still IS laid back… but he's getting this really hyper side to him… in the evening mostly. The other night, for who knows what reason (no one was over or anything, and I didn't pump them full of sugar or anything), but he was just bouncing off the walls! It was crazy! He gets a little hyper each night now. Its ok though, he always calms back down for bed.

Jake & I have been noticing how he's reeeeeally coming out of baby stage, into toddler stage, ALOT more lately! He's such a big boy now! Just understanding EVERYthing, and responding appropriately to EVERYthing, and obeying, and Always saying please, and all these things! He even now refuses to go down the stairs backwards, on his belly. He's got to go forward, like a big boy, its so funny!

Oh and we're still slowly trying the potty. He'll sit there, but has still never gone. He HAS told us that he's pooped though! Which we've been working on! Even twice he told us right BEFORE he pooped!!! Didn't get him to go on the potty for it, but he could feel it coming! Thats the first step! Woo!

Ethan has impressed me, as I've noticed a few times as we are driving home… right as we get into our neighborhood, he says, "Home." I think its cool that not only does he of course recognize our house, but even our closely surroundings too. Very cool.

And the Funniest thing!… the other day, Ethan didn't just FALL asleep in his high chair, he PUT himself to sleep there! I watched him kind of inch down & gently lay his head down to the side, as if to get himself comfortable. The only thing left on his tray was a fig newton. So I go over, and trying not to fully wake him up, I begin to wipe his face and hands clean from lunch. His head popped up, eyes wide open, he quickly grabbed the fig newton, and then slowly lowered his head back down. I giggled a little, and continued to wipe him up. Then when i went to take the fig newton from his hand… his head quickly popped up again, and he SQUEEZED the fig newton, and was instantly crying, he did NOT want me to take it away! Haha!…. but I could tell, he also didn't REALLY want to eat it either… So I persisted with taking it away, finished wiping him up, as he cried some more. But then by the time I lifted him out of his chair & held onto him, his head went Right down onto my shoulder, the eyes were closed, and he was happy to be put right down for nap. That was a great, hilarious moment for me!

Quick Blog

This video was yesterday. The kids doing "smurbs" on my belly. And also hugging the belly, too, hehe.

Then there's a pic of the kids hugging! Willingly!!! ... and the other picture- Ethan walked over to me & I saw him like this! Completely on his own, he opened my bottom drawer, got a pair of my underwear and a sports bra, and put them around his neck. He just came over, as though to show me what he did, and smiled, knowing he's funny! Ha!

I somehow forgot to mention in yesterday's blog that Ethan is getting good as repeating his ABC's! We will say one letter at a time, and he will repeat it... and there are only a few he cant say correctly, but he's doing really well! Soon we'll hold up the letter, so he can associate what he's saying with that letter. Its really fun to hear him say them, and he seems to enjoy doing it!

Just in the past day, he has also said 3 new words! Barn! stop, only without the S.... and also phone... he says like pome. Its so cute!

Boots!

I decided MONTHS ago that Ethan & Diella were dressing up for Halloween as Dora and Boots. I knew Ethan of course wouldn't mind what he went as, but I really think he liked his costume a lot more than we expected! Plus, he's recently learned who Dora is, and says her name and everything when they watch her on tv. I was excited to make their costumes, but never thought they would turn out this good! He was the most adorable Boots ever!!!

Here are lots of new words Ethan is saying… toe, boo boo, ok (otay), dinosaur (id-do), hello, Dora!, play, airplane is ah-mane, bird, nice, done, pumpkin is puh-pin. I've heard him to E-I-O during Old MacDonald!!! He says truck, but he still cant do the K sound. I think the TR sound would be harder than the K sound, but he has "Tra" down perfectly! Just needs that 'ck' on the end! Diella and I have always done cheers with our cups or spoons or food, and now Ethan joins us, "Chee!" He also says 'oh my!' ... Oh and he also says his name! He can say E, and he can say "thin" … but he'll never put them together… usually we'll say the E, and he'll finish, with 'than' hehe, but at least he knows he's saying his name!

Every little girl we see, Ethan calls her Aria. Aw! And every old man we see, Ethan will point and shout Papo! (thats what we call Papa O.) its so cute! Also, when we're right about to pull into our driveway, and Ethan can see our house, every time, he says "home." I love that!

Ok, Ethan is SO a boy…. he cracks up anytime anyone toots or burps. We ARE teaching him to say excuse me, but we cant help but to giggle when he laughs at other peoples' bodily noises!

I gave Ethan another hair cut a few days ago. Its technically like his third one already! Its only really noticeable to those who see him really often, but I did cut quite a bit this time! Jake and I keep trying to decide if we wanna let it grow out at all, but he just looks so handsome with his hair all clean cut & short!

Ethan does this new thing where he'll take one or both of his arms, and slowly make big circles. I think its a dancing thing, but other time he'll do it at random. Its SO adorable! And he does it with a silly look on his face too, so you know its in attempt to be funny, I love it!

so his big sis often jumps off of things, like the couch or the stairs, etc. Well, he's been wanting to jump so bad lately! Diella finally taught him how to jump on the bed, holding onto one side. He's now a pro! Well, he also has finally gotten the hang of jumping with two feet, on the floor! I remember Diella being only like 15 months when she accomplished this, but Ethan is thrilled that he's finally got it! You can just see, when they're playing, how badly he wants to jump onto and off of things like she does, and how much he wants to keep up with her!

A long time ago, Diella would do these flops onto the bed. Like from a standing position, flop to the bed either forward or backward, without bending the knees, and without catching herself with her hands! I remember me & Ahna & Caeden all doing this with her before. Well yesterday I was in my room, on my computer, and I look back… and without us teaching or prompting him, he begins to do this same thing! (usually he does things once he sees his sister do it first), but just out of nowhere, he's flopping backwards to the bed! It was great to watch, and of course he kept going, as long as I would laugh & cheer!