School / Daycare Photos

There was a photographer at Ethan's daycare last week. She captured some of the fun times the kiddos have. There are some great shots Ethan. Check em out!

My favorite - Miss Lyndsay!

Ethan's First Steps!!

Tonight Ethan decided to go "NO HANDS" while standing at the kitchen cabinet. He then tried DANCING with "No Hands" at the cabinet. THEN... stood up again, got himself balanced and..... took his first steps! Enjoy the videos..

1 Whole Year...

We celebrated Ethan’s first birthday over the weekend. Holy Cow…. He’s one already! We had a fun party for him and his friends. Well, let’s be honest…. it was mostly a party for Adam and I to celebrate one whole year of us being parents. It was really fun to see Ethan play with his friends and dig into his giant birthday cupcake cake!

Happy Birthday, Ethan! We love you, Mom and Dad! "What is this? Let me stick my finger in the frosting and taste it first..."

" Ohh, I love this! I can't believe mom and dad gave this to me."
Audrey w/ cupcake face
Our neighbors: Jake, Kelly and little Lucy
Sara and baby George, Janeen and Avery sipping apple juice
"I'm partied out!"

"This toy is neat- when I push down, the train makes chu chu sounds"

"I'm such a big boy now that I like to feed myself"

(Although this is quite messy and VERY time consuming!)

It’s hard to believe that we’ve spent one whole year with Ethan. We’ve really enjoyed this past year with him and love being parents. Ethan is loads of fun and each day is more fun than the day before. Ethan now weighs 17 lbs and 5 oz. He has 6 teeth on top and 3 teeth on the bottom (and his molar teeth are coming in too).

Eating Habits
His favorite foods change daily: one day he LOVES chicken, the next day…not so much! His staples are apple sauce and yogurt. He eats lots of solid foods but still eats some baby food. He has formula while he’s at daycare and whole milk at home. His favorite trick while at the dinner table (in his high chair) is putting food on top of his head. If we acknowledge his trick, he’ll continue doing it – even though we say, “Ethan, that’s not what we do with our food - we put food in our mouths”. If we ignore his trick, he will stop. When he doesn’t like something, he will shake his head NO and/or he’ll throw it overboard onto the floor.

Ethan likes to feed himself lately. If he’s really hungry, he’ll let us put a couple of scoops into mouth and then he likes to take over. The amount of time he’s in his high chair doubles as this is a very time consuming process not to mention very very messy! He pretty much has to take a bath immediately after eating.

Sleeping Habits
Well, he USED to sleep through the night. We were very happy to have a baby who let us get our beauty rest. For about one month now, he’s been getting up 2 sometimes 3 times a night. Each time he gets up, he drinks a 4oz bottle of milk and goes back to bed. He has been teething and has had colds on/off, but… we’re hoping that he starts sleeping through the night again SOON. He’s always been a pretty good napper when he’s at home (1.5 – 2.5 hrs), but when he’s at daycare there’s a more distractions and he doesn’t seem to nap as well. (anywhere from 20 min - 1.5 hrs). He typically has 2 naps a day – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. If he misses a nap, you never know what you’re going to get!

On the Move..
Ethan is crawling all over the place. And.. he’s quick! He likes walking behind his walk n ride toy. When he bumps into something he says, “stuck” – well, it sounds something like stuck. He likes to pull himself up on everything and enjoys being on his feet.

One of his favorite places to be is in the bathroom and kitchen.. oh.. there’s so many cabinets to get into. He especially likes to climb INTO the dish washer! We’ve put a child proof lock on one door in the kitchen as it has most of cleaning supplies. Now, he tries to open that door, looks at us and says, “stuck”.

Ethan enjoys going up and down the stairs. Yes-- up and down and up and down – many many times! He’s pretty quick too! It took some time to teach him to go down the stairs backward and not head first – but he’s getting it. It’s much trickier on wood floors than carpeted floors.

Communication
Ethan doesn’t really have any words other than…. Doggie, stuck, ga, da, ma and hat. We’ve been teaching him sign language and it’s been a great way for him to communicate with us. The signs he uses most often are: doggie, milk, all done, more, hat, drink and eat/food.

Other
Ethan is the squirmiest worm we know… it takes both Adam and I to change him because he’s so squirmy on the changing table. As soon as we put him on the changing table, he immediately flips over (in less than 1 sec) and is trying to crawl off the table! Sometimes, we just change him on the floor – it’s safe!

When there's music on.. Ethan loves to dance. It's the cutest thing you ever did see. I think it's the way he dances that makes it so cute/funny... he puts his hands together clenching one fist into his other hand and just starts wiggling! (sometimes he wiggles really fast when he's really excited)

Funny quote:
Elisa: “Adam, I think Ethan has a poopy diaper, would you mind changing it?”
Adam: “Elisa, you’re much better at changing his diapers than I am!”

To our family and friends…Thank you so much for all your love and support this past year. Ethan is one loved kiddo and we are so happy to have you in our lives!

Fun in the Snow

This past weekend we went to the mountains with the Buettners. Nicole played with the kiddos while Adam, Elisa & Matt went skiing/riding for a few runs. Here's Nicole teaching Ethan how to clap his hands.

It was a beautiful day on the slopes (Adam, Matt, Elisa)

We took the kiddos sledding- they had lots of fun! (L-Ethan R-Saule)

Not sure who had more fun..... the kids or the adults!