Tomorrow

We are off to the magical world of Utah. Christmas is coming early in 2007, we are going to celebrate it on Jan. 2nd. Actually, I suppose that it's coming late but that's not quite true either since Mia, Ethan and I had a very nice Christmas day here, with our neighbors and friends.

Well, whatever we are calling it, we are all excited to be heading out to visit with my entire family. We don't get to see them all that often because of the distances between where we all live. I'm sure the 6 days we have together will be fun (if cramped).

I might even try to blog while I'm out there.

Christmas!

Here are the first three videos from Christmas morning.



And, right after the discovery of Santa's healthy appetite, came the stockings.



And, once we got into the full swing of things, Ethan opened up one of his big presents.

I <3 LeGuin

K

Likes: Yesk, Glasskes

Dislikes: Single-handed handiness

True speech

I was telling Mia the other day about the cute way that Ethan pauses while he's talking.

Then, yesterday, it hit me. He pauses like that because he's constructing his own sentences. He's not just repeating things that he has heard us say to him.

Our boy is smart. S-M-R-T!

???pedia

I've been doing some work with Wikipedia for my job, as well as reading some things about it in other places like blogs and Wired.

Now, it's my turn to say how I feel about Wikipedia. It bugs me.

There are a couple of things about the site that are noble aspirations but that in practice are less than desirable. The foremost of those being the mob-mentality. While the wiki model might be useful for focused groups who can all knowledgably contribute to one topic and build on each others work, opening that same model up to anyone with a Web browser doesn't accomplish the same thing.
I'm not saying that all (and maybe not even most) of the information on Wikipedia is wrong. I'm just saying that the community that is ensuring the accuracy of the articles may not be well-enough informed to do so. Fundamentally, Wikipedia relies on a small group of people who do actually have an in-depth knowledge of the subject to ensure it's correct. But, they allow anyone to make the inital postings and make changes. So, even if a small group of experts is actively working to keep an article, or articles, correct they are competing againt the combined "wisdom" of the unwashed masses.

Secondly, Wikipedia is not really as open as they like to claim. With the rise of wiki-wars and commercialization, Wikipedia now has an extensive group of moderators that can (again, with little actual knowledge about a topic) halt discussion, delete pages, or lock articles from being edited. This removes the concept of "all the world's knowledge" by once again creating a layer of gatekeepers that decide what knowledge is permissable to be distributed.

I think the line that is most blurry in Wikipedia is the commercial line. Where does an article stop being informational and start being advertorial? And, along those same lines, when does information about a company, it's products, it's services, it's history, etc., stop being part of the collected human knowledge?
I can understand that a sales pitch from a company is not necessarily an important thing to preserve. But why not the rest of it? Why not even for a small company?
If the topic were non-commerical, how large an audience does Wikipedia require before it's considered worthy to be entombed in their annals? (Notice the gatekeeper language I'm using for effect).

Since I doubt that I'll ever be able to make a dent in Wikipedia, and since I can see it barrelling along crushing any knowledge that gets in its way, I'll close this little rant.
I use Wikipedia to introduce myself to topics. But, the Internet is full of resources that are more reliable and credible. I hope that all of you Internet researchers out there are taking the time to move beyond the wiki articles and find those sources.

Sometimes, I'm glad that I don't try to publicize my blog.

RSS

Apparently when I publish my blogs, Blogger is automatically creating an RSS feed for me. If anyone wants it, I'll post the link.

Happy Birthday (Again)

I wanted to post a couple of things that happened with Ethan this weekend. But, of course, right now I can't think of what they were.

So, I'll just make a post about Ethan's combined Birthday/Christmas weekend with his grandparents.

We went out to Albany this weekend (as should be obvious by the above statement) now that Ethan is a 2 year-old. We were worried that he wouldn't do well but he seemed to take it all in stride.

He enjoyed walking through the 'woods' behind Grandpa Gibson's house. And walking on the bridge over the stream. In fact, the boy kept trying to get into the stream and I had to keep pulling him back.
Mia and I enjoyed watching the Best Christmas Pagent Ever starring Cris, McKay, and Bryson (and some other people from the community).
After the play, Ethan enjoyed chasing Bryson around the house and opening his Train presents. He loves trains. You usually won't see Ethan without seeing a train in his hand (and his cup in the other hand).

The evening we went over to Grandma Miller's and Ethan got a sombrero to add to his hat collection. I picked up a car outlet. It's a little battery-generator thing that you can plug into your car and has two normal outlet sockets for pluging things in. Very handy. Mia got stuff too ;)
Then, we sat down and decorated little cake trains (did I mention that Ethan likes trains) that Linda had made. Ethan mostly just ate the candy that we gave him to decorate with... so did I.
They turned out looking very unique and very good. Mia and Linda did most of the hard work, but Tim created a car or two as well.

On Sunday we did some more hanging out with the families. Took some Christmas pictures with all the brothers and sisters (a feat to get everyone in the same place at once). And in the evening, took the back wheel off the car to see why the brakes were making a scratching sound everytime we braked.

We couldn't find anything wrong (or at least fatally wrong) with them on Sunday night so we drove back to Boston. On Monday, Mia took the car in and had to replace all four rotors and brakepads. The one consolation we have is that the mechanic told us the parts on the Grand Marquis are made to wear out quickly, so it's not that we neglected them.
I guess that's good news. Fortunately, I had a Christmas bonus that we used to pay for it. (Again... I guess that's good news)

But, aside from that, then entire weekend was fun. And Ethan loves seeing his grandparents. Mom and Dad, I'm sure that includes you too ;)

Date Night

Mia and I went and had a date night last weekend. We needed it.

I can't believe how easily we forget that going out on dates helps us unwind and re-connect with each other. We went into Boston (something we do more often these days as we are no longer afraid of driving downtown) and watched a movie.

We went to see Stranger Than Fiction. The movie was quite good, we liked it. The entire premise was interesting and I suppose a little strange. However the execution made watching it entertaining and we even felt that the ending was very well done.
I think that this is the first movie I've seen that worked well while touching on the inward-focus of a writer writing something. :)

Also, I found a universal AC adapter at Best Buy that I'm going to pick up and hopefully be back in action with the video camera.

The Wedding

We went out to New York the weekend of Thanksgiving for Linda's wedding. She is now married to Tim and we are very happy for both of them. They are also happy together and it shows.

The ceremony was very nice, simple but meaningful. They held it in the Inn that Tim manages. I can't believe how many people they were able to pack in :) The entire inn was filled with people coming to support Linda and Tim as they begin their marriage. I got to be introduced (and re-introduced) to a number of Linda's old friends and much of Tim's family. Mia had a great time reconnecting with people that she hadn't seen in years.

Ethan also enjoyed the ceremony. He did a much better job this time of taking the rings up to the bride and groom. In fact, he stayed up their with them after dropping off his cargo. He is really starting to remember people and wanted to be near his grandma. We think he's just the cutest little boy!

While we were out in Albany we also stopped by to visit David and got a little video of Ethan playing with his Grandpa.

P.S.

I know this will be the top post of the day but I'm writing it after my last post. I haven't forgotten to post the video of Ethan's birthday. Our camera ran out of battery and I can't find the charging cable right now.

I'm Published

It's way more exciting than it sounds but a bylined article that I wrote for TODAY magazine. The article was published under our CEOs name. Fortunately, in my industry not having my name in the byline doesn't limit my ability to add it to my portfolio.

I was talking with some friends of mine and they were concerned that I'd basically written myself out of the chance to take some credit for the article. They are more in the realm of academia so of course they would want their name all over anything they write. :)

And, just in case you are missing anything excited because I can't post the full article here, the title is:
Finding the Sweet Spot in Document Imaging -- Image Quality and Its Effect on Productivity

2 years

Two long, hard years. Wait, I mean two fun, exciting years!

Or, for those that have kids, you know that both are true. Ethan has been a great joy in our lives. He's happy, energetic, inquisitive, adventurous, smart, and a great sleeper. But he also wants all our attention, likes to push boundaries, sometimes doesn't understand why hitting, biting, spitting, (etc.) are bad, and still has a hard time if we leave him (like with a babysitter or in nursery).

In short, we have a perfectly normal two-year old child.

I should say that even with the hard times, we wouldn't give our son up for anything in the world. Not even a million anythings! Our lives have been enriched and our understanding has been greatly expanded by having him.

As his birthday has approached, I've been thinking about the time when we brought him home from the hospital. Mia and I were so nervous because he was this little (metaphorically) baby that depended on us for everything. He could barely even move on his own. We wondered if we were really able to give him the constant care that he would need and were a bit surprised that the hospital staff was willing to just send us home with a 3 day old baby. I guess they needed the room for someone else ;)

Somehow we survived the long nights, especially long during the 2-hours of sleep at a time phase. We survived the breastfeeding ('we' is used very loosely here). We survived the first baby-proofing phase when we were surprised by how many things could be dangerous to him. We are now entering the second baby-proofing phase in which we are surprised at how innovative he can be when he wants to get something. This phase is mostly characterized by throwing stuff into our bedroom, or on top of the refridgirator. We'll see how long until those don't work either.

We have some video from the birthday boy to post up later. But I just wanted to get down some of the thoughts that I've been having on my son's birthday.

Oh, speaking of which, he loves having Happy Birthday sung to him. And he is starting to sing along too! Then he tells us to sing it about Mommy :)

High Chair

This is a variation on the hiding in the cabinet game. Ethan was playing around with us one day in the kitchen, underneath his high chair. He's getting so talkative and it's so much fun.

Trucks

I'll have to post up some pictures this week of the trucks that Ethan and I saw on Saturday. Just wanted to make a quick post that I had so much fun with him this weekend. He's really a great little boy and I love him.

Made my day

I just wanted to make a quick post about how cute my son is.

I've been feeling sick the last few days, just haven't had any energy to do anything. But last night, before getting ready for bed, I asked Ethan if he wanted to eat some fruit. Of course he did, he loves fruit. So I got him a little fruit cup and we both sat down at the little red table that is his "big boy table".

But, he wasn't content to eat the fruit by myself and kept saying "Daddy fruit". I just responded that I wasn't going to have any. Then he got up, dragged one of the big kitchen chairs across the floor to the shelves, climbed up on the chair and tried to reach the basket with the fruit in it.

I helped him get one out and ate it with him at his table.

He really helped make a day that had been hard and exhausting for me much, much better. I am amazed at how much love Ethan has for us and shows to us. It's part of the reason that we love him so much.

Big Boy (Part 2)

When I got home from work today, Ethan kept telling me that he was a big boy. Then he told me that I was a big boy. Then he told me that mommy was a big boy.

Of course I had to correct that last part.

He's such a cute kid.

Animals

Here is Ethan leaning over the couch looking at one of the animal puzzles that we have. He loves to list off the animals that he knows and sometimes will do the sounds too. Mostly for ducks. He loves ducks.

Hide and Seek

Ethan decided one day that hiding behind the chair in his room, or around the corner from us wasn't good enough any more. He was going all the way.

To that end, he cleared out a few of the pans in the cabinet and made the perfect hiding place for himself. He did this over and over, though I only captured one encounter on film.

Big Boy

This has been a busy week. I have more videos to upload, but I'm feeling a bit sick tonight.
I don't really have any symptoms, just no energy.

But, before I go down, I wanted to post that Ethan just went to sleep in his big boy bed for the first time tonight. We took the crib out of his room, moved some furniture around, and just did it.

At first he wanted to come out into the hall to get into his crib. Then he explored the new layout of his room and just ran around for a bit. He's very cute because he's picked up "I right back" from when we have to leave him at our neighbor's house and tell him that "I'll be right back". If we say that we'll wait for him, he runs off somewhere and then comes back (usually with something in hand). Tonight he was just saying that then running over to the closed door.

After a while I picked him up and sang a song. That always makes him tired. So, then I put him in bed and told him that he needed to lay down and I would hold his hand. He did for a little bit, but then started to talk about things and get active. So I told him that I was going to leave and gave him a hug.

Leaving did not make him happy. I stayed out for about 10 minutes while he cried, and eventually he was saying "let's go, let's go" so I went back in and he was kneeling on his bed waiting for me.
I held his hand and he laid down with his baby. He stayed in bed for a while, then he wanted to come lie with me on the floor. So we did that for a while. Then he wanted to bring his blanket down to the floor and spread it out to lie on that. We did that for a while.
Then he started to play around his room again so I left.

I waited for 10 minutes, he wasn't crying as badly but still wanted me to come back in and was whimpering. So I went back in but kept telling him that he needed to lie down and I would hold his hand. When I told him that I was going to go he would lie back down and stretch out his arm towards me.
Finally, after much more pretend sleeping than the last times, he tried to climb out of his bed. So, I decided to make my break while he was still in bed. I got out the door while he was trying to get over the railing.
He cried for a minute, but quieted down pretty quickly. And we haven't heard a peep out of him since.

Yarr!

Ever since our Halloween party last week, when I dressed up as a pirate, Ethan has been trying to get me to put the pirate hat and eyepatch back on. Then he also yells out "Rarr" just like a pirate.

In fact, one day he was in the kitchen holding the eyepatch up to his eye and saying "Daddy Rarr, Daddy Rarr".

So, we figured that we should get some video of him doing his best impersonation of a pirate.

Weekend Work

Not my work... not entirely anyway.

Mia was working this weekend, which means that I was home with the boy. It rained on Friday and Saturday so we didn't get out much.

On Sunday we had late church so Ethan missed his nap (he did sleep a little in the car on the way home).

And in general I was tired after long days of playing with him (and Play-doh).

But, I have some video to get posted and I think you all are going to like it.

Likes: night air

Dislikes: walls

At the Park

The boy and I went to the park on Sunday. He loves to get outside, and we took his bike.

Since all the leaves are turning and falling off the trees, there were leaves piled up around the edges. He rode his bike into the leaves, then, with another little boy that was around, they both started falling down in the leaves. Then sitting in the piles and hitting the leaves to cover their legs and just stir them up in general.

I really wished that we had a yard that he could go out back and do that kind of playing in. But, at least he got to get out and enjoy the foliage.

Too bad I didn't have the video camera on me.

Smile

Mia's been talking about all the changes that Ethan has been going through lately. But, let me just tell you that he is really amazing. I can't believe how many things have started to change just in the last month or so. He talks, he runs, he climbs, he does everything that a real person would :)

This latest video is just a little clip that Mia took as she tried to get the boy to smile.

Crayons

One of the fun things that Ethan likes to do is color. He has a couple of coloring books, and even if he doesn't have a coloring book he's got some blank paper, and even if he doesn't have paper he's got the walls. :)

Actually, he doesn't write on the walls yet. He also knows how to say 'broken crayon' for the couple that he has broken in half. Maybe he'll grow up to be an artist!

Short and sweet

Not much to post tonight. I'm just checking in to say that we've got more video! And it will be coming shortly.

It's great posting video. Means I don't have to write nearly as much.

Bike

Ethan is so cute. He loves bikes. Loves. Loves. Loves.

Any time he sees a kid riding a bike, no matter how big, he wants to go over, and try to ride it himself. This is a little clip of a tricycle that he has played on before, but is now old enough to reach the ground and move himself (kind of).

I should also mention, this was taken by my friend with the video camera on his cell phone. Isn't technology amazing.

Give and take

Give with the right hand

Take away with the left

I don't even know what to say about getting both pieces of news at once.

I Jump

So, I didn't actually record this video. But I'm going to take the credit for having another video on my blog.

This is the toddler bed that we got for Ethan, but of course he's having a rough time right now when we leave him at night, so we are still putting him in the crib. But that's not to say he doesn't like his new bed.

Debating

The videos are now working.

I discovered that when I set the videos to private on YouTube.com they cannot be viewed even if I post them here.

So, for now, I have made them public. But that means they can also be found on the YouTube site. Unlikely, especially since I don't allow them to be rated, and I'm going pretty minimal with description and tagging.

The debate then is this:

1. Leave them public and realize that YouTube is ginormous and no one is going to find my videos. (And wouldn't really know what they were watching if they did)

2. Make them private and post a disclaimer in each post (for anyone joining mid-stream) that they need to sign up for YouTube, then let me know their user name, so I can add them to my list of friends.
This seems like quite a bit of work and definately delays the instant gratification of seeing the videos I've posted online.

3. I suppose there could be an option 3 now that Google owns YouTube.

EDIT: Actually, I don't need to wait on Option 3. I checked out Google Video and you can set a video not to be indexed, but still post it to a Web site. So, I'll have to check how it would look in my blog but I might just do that.

A Long Walk

Ethan and I took a walk today, only about a mile down to the local auto store so I could get some adhesive for my car mirror. On the way back we stopped by and got some homemade Sorbet down near the Waltham Commons. Ethan and I sat on a bench, he had a little taster spoon and I had a regular one. We just sat there eating sorbet, I had to help Ethan get some, but he kept reaching over with his spoon saying "scoop".

I know that I'll remember this afternoon. I hope when he's a little older, I'll still make time to do things like this with him.

Snack Time

Here's the second installment. Ethan didn't really doesn't eat much more cupcake than you see in the video. But he sure was cute eating it.

First video

Not only did I update my archives, update some blog links, and add titles to my posts... I decided to go all the way and get some video.

It was actually very easy, so I want to do more and I'll be sure to keep posting them here when I do.

So, I was reading through my own archives, while I was checking some pages to make sure they worked and stumbled across a post from last year.

I am happy to report that Ethan still loves to see me come home after work and still runs through the kitchen to give me a big huge when I get come in.

Then he drags me to the front door to take him to the park.

The archives are updated. It wasn't easier than I expected... until I got it done. I'm sure my dad knows what I'm talking about.

The trouble was that I have my FTP settings (so the server folder path) for Blogger defined in one part of the settings and I was trying to re-state the folder structure in the archive settings. Blogger didn't like that and wasn't creating archives.
So, the easy part was changing it to just a relative path from where my blog.html page resides.

Except that, I couldn't get the URL path upto my archive folder working. Blogger says it will append the archive file name to the path I provide, but it wasn't. So, I just had to copy all the archive pages the system created and paste them into my main folder. I was really hoping to keep these in a sub-folder, but that doesn't look like it's going to work. Oh well.

Anyway, you can now go back through all 3 glorious years of my postings.

BUSY! Life is busy, always. Doesn't matter when, something keeps us busy.

Mia and I were talking yesterday about how she's always looking forward to the weekends (cause I'm around to take care of Ethan) but then, once it arrives, she's just thinking about how the next week is coming up.

I am fortunate(?) to have a pretty consistent schedule 7 days a week. I wake up, get Ethan out of bed, change him and start feeding him breakfast.
Then I either go to work, or go to work taking care of Ethan.

After work-day work, I come home and take care of Ethan usually by going to the park, sitting on the porch, or playing with him in the living room.

On an Ethan-day work, we usually spend the morning lounging around the house. Sometimes I'll watch Xaiolin Showdown. Then we go to the park for about 2 hours before lunch.
Ethan takes a nap, usually 2 hours (or at least when we are lucky).

In the afternoon, it's more park time. We do something to get outside because he gets so stir-crazy when we keep him inside all afternoon.

Then, after work (work-work or Ethan-work) I make dinner for all of us. Then I give Ethan his bath. Bath time usually requires a lot of chasing Ethan around the house trying to get his clothes off. After bathtime he loves to go jump on his bed while we put on pajamas. Then, after I put him down and leave the room Ethan cries for a while. Actually he cries out for Daddy (and Mommy) but unfortunately we have to leave him to fall asleep.

UPDATE: Mia's rebuttal here :p

The Class

How I Met Your Mother

Heros

I think that Mia has posted this, but in case we haven't told anyone yet, Ethan is going through another development spurt.

It's kind of like a growth spurt except that he isn't getting any taller. He is, however, learning new words at a rate of about 100 a minute. I guess that's a little fast, but he is repeating everything we say and then using those words later. It's really incredible to see this language boom. I think that something in his little brain has clicked and he is really starting to connect what he says to ideas and objects.

He is even learning how to be polite. When he gives us something (or we give him something) he says his version of 'Thank you' and then immediately afterwards says 'welcome'
It's very cute (another word that he knows and says)

We are listening to Conference right now from home. It's great since Ethan is napping right now and we would miss it otherwise.

Also nice because it's raining and we get to just stay inside today.

Oh, and we are sooooooo excited to go to CO for Christmas :-p

I love my wife.

We went to Dorothy's wedding on Friday. Ethan was supposed to be in the ceremony as the ringbearer. The day seemed to be going well, Ethan was pretty happy and he took a good nap at our friend's house (Forbes).

But, as we got all ready for the ceremony Ethan started getting antsy, then cranky. He looked so adorable in his suit (which is soooooooo cute) but wouldn't hold the pillow, or walk, when it came time to carry the rings.
So, his little cousin Zach carried the pillow.

The ceremony was very beautiful. The Bishop from David's ward performed the actual wedding. Dorothy and John looked very happy and very much in love.

The reception was a lot of fun with all the little cousins (and Ethan) running around and playing with each other.

And of course, Ethan was exahusted at the end of the night.

I'm posting in under a week! Amazing.

So, this is more of a request than just a post. I'm going to be working on an article about how geography affects culture.

If you have any thoughts or expertise (Mom, I'm looking at you) send me an email and give me some examples.

I'll be sure to give a completed version to anyone that helps :)

Post!

We have some great pictures of Ethan that I'll bug Mia to get up on her blog. :P

Or maybe I'll take some time and do it myself. I've been pretty lazy about that for the last few months.
But, that's not what I want to talk about today.

Actually, the fact that I am posting at all is pretty amazing. I spent nearly the entire 8.5 hours that I was at work writing an article that we are going to get published in a trade journal in the workflow process and remittance payment industries. I pumped out 1000 words of the 1200 that we are alloted, though I saved the room for a customer quote that we are hoping to get tomorrow.

If this doesn't seem like a feat, which it didn't to one of my friends as I chatted with him after work, let me just tell you that it was. Mentally it was exhausting as I had to research some fairly technical topics (Check21 standards for example).
However, I did get through it all and hopefully got enough of our messages in to make the article worthwhile to us.

On the other hand, with my manager being away for the last 10 weeks, my other co-worker in marketing and I have been handling all our work and the administrative aspects of our department that she normally deals with. I have to say that I would rather rack my brains for 8 hours writing up 1000 words than chase people around for the same amount of time... or most likely longer.

Anyway, when we get published, I'll post a link (if the article is available online) and you can see how I spend my days.
Actually, you can see some of the fruits of my labors if you check out the newsletters for my company. I write the feature article every month.

Ok, that's about all I have the energy to muster tonight. I'm off to bed.

Just wanted to give an Ethan update for everyone out there. The update is that he's doing great. He gets bigger every day and is learning so much.

I'll share a few examples of his current behavior.

At night when we start getting ready for bed he loves to run around trying to escape from me while I take his clothes off for a bath.

Then we use the potty, and he nearly always "makes a pee" before getting into the water. He also likes to help throw away the toliet paper that I clean up his splashes with and he likes to flush the toliet.

In the bathtub Ethan likes to scoop up water in his cup and splash it around. I'm trying to teach him to splash towards the wall and not on the bathmat. We are still working on that.
He likes to play with his toys, especially the ones with suction cups that stick to the tub. He has fun pulling those off.
He doesn't like getting his hair wet, but that's mostly because the water runs down his face and gets into his eyes. He won't look up and let us do it either, so that part of bath time is a problem still.

Then, we clean up the toys, get out, and brush teeth. Ethan likes to get the toothbrush for himself and suck the toothpaste off. Sometimes he'll do a little brushing, but we usually have to help me make sure it happens. The molars he has now would never get cleaned if we didn't intervene.

After brushing teeth I pick Ethan up and ask him what time it is. Then we do a little pajama dance that gets him all excited. When I put him down in his crib he squirms around, and sometimes runs back and forth.
The diaper can be tramatic some nights but once that is on, he does fine with the rest of the pajamas. He really likes seeing what is printed on his pajamas too, espeically if it's a fire truck.

A bottle is still part of the bedtime routine (I tried to skip it tonight and he started to cry. I didn't feel like dealing with that today, so I went and got the one I already had made). We only give him 2 ounces and we need to start weaning him off that. Bottle happens after the lights are out and we are sitting in the reading chair.

Then, by the light of his blue nightlight, we read a book. Usually we read about trucks, sometimes Bob the Builder, or Blue's Clues. He doesn't have a preference on books so long as he can point at things and turn the pages. We say goodnight to the main character (or the trucks) at the end of the book and put it away.

Next I tell Ethan to fold his arms for a prayer. This is one of the few times that he does so consistently. I say a short prayer with him then carry him over to his crib.

He currently has a baby doll (dressed in blue, we refer to the baby as "him" or "baby") and a rubber duck. He grabs both, waits for me to put up the blanket and snuggles his legs up underneath himself.

I have been holding his hand for a minute after he gets into his crib, but with a thing for each hand, he doesn't need that so much these days. That makes me sad.
However, when I leave the room, he still cries for a minute. Then he just talks to himself for a while. Sometimes we can tell what it's about, but usually it's just gibberish to us. After doing this for a while, sometimes up to about 30 minutes, he finally falls asleep.

And then I hit the couch.

Since Monica doesn't have comments turned on...

The way that Mia and I found was best to get Ethan sleeping through the night was just to set up a bedtime routine. Having a consistent bathtime, storytime, and bedtime made a big difference in getting him to sleep through the night.

I'm writing this as I sit in front of an open window in our living room. Today has been so cool thanks to some passing rain. Which surprisingly hasn't made teh whole city humid, just pleasant.

Our house is actually cool and getting some fresh air into our house is quite refreshing too.

Ethan has been going through a good time lately. He's so active, talking so much, learning new words. In fact, he's recently learned the concept of "my" and now instead of asking for "cup" he asks for "my cup". It's not gotten too far beyond cup, there are some other words he attachs my to, but not everything yet.

Today, he was so happy just being home with us. Normally he wants to go outside, which we couldn't because of the rain, but Ethan didn't seem to mind today. Sunday's can sometimes be hard, the 13 hour days including 3 hours of church can be very exhausting.

Also, as I write this, Ethan is in his room talking to himself. He's been having a tough time going to sleep at night. Not trouble really, he just doesn't want to leave us. So he sits up talking for a while, then cries for a while, then falls asleep. We've thought about keeping him up later, but we don't want to set that precedent. He still needs lots of sleep, and we want to keep an early bedtime for his health and our sanity.

I must be the most proud father in the world. I was getting ready to give Ethan a bath on Friday and put him on the potty, like I've been doing the last few days. Except that this time he actually went! I clapped and cheered him on so that he would know that this was a good thing.

He was very proud of himself too. And then he reached back and flushed the toliet. Which is another thing that he likes to do.
((I know Mia already wrote about this tonight, but I got to be here for a first with him. I was so excited))

Also, his vocabulary has been growing so fast. He is really repeating alot of what we say now days. I guess we'll have to clean up our language 0_0

I received a call from Mia today while I was at work. She told me that some friends of ours from church had just lost their son. He was only a few months older than Ethan, he would have been two in October.
While getting ready to go out to the beach yesterday, he had run out into the parking lot and was hit by a truck.

I tried not to think about this during work but since the drive home I've had a hard time thinking about anything else. We live on such a precarious line between life and death. Especially thinking about such young children. I have a difficult time coming to grips with the loss of so much exuberance for life. Little boys, especially Ethan and this little boy too, have so much energy. They laugh about everything and want to explore the world. Having a son of my own, I feel a personal sense of loss because I know the parents. I can't imagine what they must be feeling.

Fortunately, with the gospel in our lives I do know that they have the comfort of looking forward to re-uniting with their son after this life. The missed chances to be with him now are not missed chances for eternity. I hope that this knowledge will give them enough comfort to help them through this tough time.

Ok, Ok, I know that it's been a loooooooong while since I posted. Really not much excuse for it, I've just been bad about loading up this site.

So, what's been happening to us in August? Well, Mia and I have been married for 6 years. So we are offically out of the "dangerzone" for marriages that fail in the first 5 or so years. We are going strong so I'm not worried at all about hitting 10 years and then it's all just smooth sailing :)

Ethan is also growing up every day. His current vocabulary consists of:
Fire Truck (for anything that moves)
Bike (Ok, he does differentiate this one)
See ya pee (and then he flushes the toliet)
buckle (for the buckles on his high chair and car seat that he then plays with, but wont' climb into either on his own)

And he's learned that jumping is fun. Off of everything. Espeically if someone is holding his hand.

Just thought I'd do a quick update here.

It's Hot! Yes, with a capital 'H' and an exclaimation point. That's how I feel about the weather.

And Humid. You can judge my level of dislike for the humidity using the same cues as above. It's not been too humid lately, but we've been getting lots of rainstorms (with thunder and lightening) that keep the air wet.

However, all this miserable weather has a good side. When we take Ethan out to a spray park, or just to a playground, he gets really, really tired afterwards. We can put him down for a good nap, or a good night's sleep at the end of the day.

And, it still beats the winters! (note the punctuation)

Dislikes: Yeast
Likes: Icepacks

This is my first blog post on my laptop.

What? Yup, that's right, I now have a laptop. Finally.

It's great, I can now do my editing for WFM (World Forge) while still getting to be with Mia in the living room. Normally we spend our evenings apart (mostly because the office is still being cleaned and there's just not a space for a second person to sit down right now) while Mia watches TV and I do my editing or other work on the computer.

We also set up a wireless network (and secured it) so I can do this post from the living room. Sweet.

Ethan must have grown while we were on ourtrip. He does so many more things now that he couldn't (or didn't) do before we left. I really think that he's understanding more of the world around him rather than just what's right in his hands. THat's pretty amazing to see that change.

Ok, I have a legitimate reason for not posting for two weeks this time. I was on vacation.

Now, I know that Blogger has a web-based interface, but did I mention that I was on vacation?
I'll submit the write up later. However, because it was so incredibly good, I'm posting the recipe for my dad's jell-o cake here. I might have to make some for myself (maybe I'll share with Mia)

Lots of people have asked about the recipe for the Jello cake with cream cheese frosting, so I've decided to send it out to everyone.

I like to make this with Strawberry flavors, but you can use any jello/fruit you like. I've made it with Orange Jello and a few table spoons of Orange Juice concentrate before and that was really good too. Anyway, use what ever flavor of jello and fresh fruit (or fruit juice) you want, but for this recipe I will use strawberry jello and frozen and fresh strawberries.

First make a plain old yellow cake mix. Nothing fancy, but as usual in cooking, the end product only turns out as good as the ingredients you use. Bake it in a 9x13 pan and let it cool and leave it in the pan. After it is cool, take a large fork, a wooden salad fork is good, and poke holes at a slant all the way through the cake all over the top about every inch or so.

Next, follow the directions on the standard size box of Jello to make the jello except instead of adding the second cup of cold water, you add only 1/2 cup cold water. Pour the liquid jello on the cake to have it seep down the holes you poked in the top. Be careful not to dump it on too fast or it will all run down the side of the cake. Cover it with Saran Wrap and put it in the refrigerator until cold and the jello is set.

When you are ready to make the frosting, leave an 8 ounce box of frozen strawberries (I think the square box is 8 ounces, if not, buy the small, square box) out to get to room temperature. I use frozen strawberries because when they thaw they are already "crushed," but if you want to use fresh, just smash 8 ounces of Strawberries yourself. Also, leave out an 8 ounce box of cream cheese to get to room temperature.

Now, in a mixer mix the cream cheese and strawberries until smooth, then add powdered sugar until you like the taste. Depending on how sour your fruit is you might use one whole box of powdered sugar. When that is done it shouldn't be too runny. The more fruit and sugar you add the runnier it will be, so be careful and don't start out with too much of either. (I know, because I have done this) Next take a regular size tub of thawed Cool Whip and gently fold that into the cream cheese mixture until thoroughly blended. It should be a rather thick frosting and able to pile up on your cake. Take the cake out of the fridge, remove the Saran Wrap, pile on the frosting as thick as you like. Top with fresh strawberry halves (if you want). Eat immediately, or keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

I am writing this from memory so I hope I haven't forgotten anything. If you try it and it doesn't seem to work or have any questions, let me know.

This is my last post tonight, I don't want to get burnt out.

But I did want to share with you a few of the sites that I'm reading just to give you a little glimpse into my world, in typical cryptic blog-link fashion.

Great reviews of new tech
An intellectual gaming site
From Google
Formerly from Microsoft
Not as funny as the comic
Not my space, but I'm nostalgic

And I'll just toss out that I check my Gmail through my RSS reader. How cool am I :p

I've decided to do a few posts tonight just cause I'm in the mood and So You Think You Can Dance is my alternative (besides playing games on the computer but I'm tired and don't want to start that up right now).

I want to talk a little bit about what I've been doing at work. For those of you that don't know I've jumped all over the Marketing space since I moved out to Boston.

Starting in public relations then moving onto direct mail production doing a brief stint as a resume editor and helping a college update their web site until I finally settled into a role that was going to include some search engine marketing at Snowbound.

And if you have ever done a search in Google or one of the other engines, like Yahoo! or MSN, and you see those little ads long the top, or along the side. Well, let me just tell you that they take a lot more work than you might think.
I've been taking over the program from an outside vendor that we were using, so I've had to familiarize myself with how the algorithms work (as much as an outsider can know), what keywords make the most sense for our business, and how to cram enough content into the ad copy to get people interested.

In fact, for the last 2 weeks I've been going through collecting information on every single keyword that we have in Google Adwords because this really hasn't been done since it was set up in 2003! Wow.
But, I've learned many things about how to market on this new thing call the Internet. And I tell you what, I think it's going to stick around for a while.

But, and the point that I intended to make with this post is that I've also had the opportunity to do more marketing writing. Which is what my entire goal was when I moved out here. Only took me 2.5 years to find a job where I could.
One of the first projects that I was given when I came onboard at Snowbound (over a year now) was control of the newsletter.
In fact, as I was going through the archives, we launched a new look and new content focus for the newsletter only 2 months after I arrived. It's amazing to think about that now.
The major difference from the old style to the new is that our newsletter feature is not based around the latest feature in our products anymore. We write a neutral, informative article that talks about some aspect of the imaging industry. We are then able to showcase one of our products that relates to the topic, but we don't hoc our wares in the feature.
If any of you have been around marketing, you may understand the uphill battle we have had in keeping our features neutral. The pressure and seduction of including yourself as the role-model for issues or answer to problems is great. However, a year into our experiment (and we have successfully avoided the temptation to revert) our executives been bringing back feedback from customers about how much they like our newsletter articles and that they pass them around to each other.
Wow! Pay off! Of course, that raises the bar for me because I write all of those articles. I have to say that the realization of our vision from last year is very satisfying.
And even more so when I read our competitor's newsletters and see they are still plodding away with the old "product news" based articles.

Coming up next month I'm also going to take over writing the press releases (at least for the rest of the summer) and content on our Web site. This is a good chance for me to put into practice the messages I've learned are important to us and further hone my writing skills.

So, I talked with my dad recently (read: more than a week ago) and he wanted to get an update on how the family out East is doing. So here it is.

We've been up and down. Mia got sick, so I came home early on Thursday to watch Ethan. But she also had to work this weekend, and that meant getting very little rest. The boy and I hung out Thursday through Sunday, for long streches of time.

Fortunately, my son loves to spend time with me. I'm not sure why but he doesn't ever seem to get tired of being around Dad. He has finally decided that when Mom is in the house he will go look for her and enjoy her company too, but mostly it's all about Dad still. Which is also good news since we hang out every weekend and in the evenings.

I, however, do get a little bit tired of the 13-hour marathons on the weekends. Even teaching primary to 4 year olds seems like a break. So on Saturady I was kind of burned out and we did more chilling than playing. Sunday was a good day though, and I got my groove back. Being in nursery helped because Ethan just wandered off to play with the other kids (or mostly alone) for about an hour and a half, they do a little lesson to begin.

Other than that episode we are gearing up for our trip to Cali and Colorado next week. I can't believe how quickly it seems to be coming up on us. We are really excited to see the family though and I hope they are all excited to see us too. It's been a while since we got out of the East. The furtherest we seem to make it these days is to Albany... which doesn't really count.
I am also looking forward to going to the beach. Mia took Ethan this week and she says that he loves to play in the water. I hope that is true when there are waves :)

Monica has started blogging again. But if you haven't had kids yet, you might not be ready to read her "story"

We have been getting so much rain this spring. I don't think I have seen this much rain in the entire three years we have lived here. Ok, that's exagerating, but we really have been flooded.

Some places, to the north and east of us, have literally been flooded.

The major downside for us is that we can't take Ethan outside when it's raining. We can still go to the library (or swimming, but I'm still waiting cause his nose is still stuffy and I don't want him to get sick again) but our options are much more limited.

Fortunately, he's taking the trapped indoors thing pretty well. He loves to run around the house saying "Where's it" though not quite that clearly. And he also says "I see it" (which is new) and "Wheeee" when going down his slide.

Our boy is growing up so fast, but he's just so cute to watch as he does.

9:30PM

1:00AM

4:30AM

7:00AM

For some reason last night seemed easier though. Either he's getting better or I'm learning to be more patient.

Oh, and I also fell asleep on the couch after the 1:00 and 4:30 incidents while waiting for Ethan to stop crying before I went back in to bed. I wasn't planning that, and even wanted to not do it the second time.

Last night was not Ethan's best night, nor was it mine. Mia was at work, and Ethan was having a bit of a cough-y night. He didn't wake up, which surprised me, but did make noise a couple of times that made me nervous.

So, after Mia got home, which was later than I wanted to be up, we went to bed. Then, an hour later Ethan did wake up. Screaming. And coughing.

I was pretty annoyed because I had hoped that if he was going to do his nightly wake up, it would be before I went to bed. Waking up to take care of him after going to be is very disorienting and difficult because of the groginess and desire to get back into bed.
I made him a bottle with some medicine and went in. He didn't want the bottle. He didn't want to calm down either. Finally, he quieted (no bottle) and I put him into his crib. Then shortly, very shortly, afterwards he started screaming again.

So, this time Mia went in to try and give him the bottle. But he didn't want her, only me. I stormed into the room, and Mia took some time to calm me down before handing Ethan over and leaving.
I took some deep breaths and sat in our rocking chair. I kept putting the bottle in his hands, or up near his mouth until he finally drank some. After which he fell back asleep and I was able to put him down for good.

I know that I'm not capturing my real emotional state in this post, but I was pretty aggrevated. I can't say enough how grateful I am to my wife for helping me last night. Really, without her I would not be able to be a good father (well, if I had to I would try but wouldn't be anywhere near as successful).
We work well as a team.

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

*sighs sleepily*

Congrats to Monica and Zack on the new baby girl. We are happy that both mom and baby are doing well.

It's a pretty exciting time when you hold your child for the first time. You realize that you are going to be connected with another life for a very long time, eternaly even.

And when they send you home from the hospital with the little tyke only 3 days old O_O

I'm sure they will make great parents.

We have been getting crazy amounts of rain this week. The northern part of the state has flooded, along with parts of New Hampshire.

Fortunately, our area hasn't been hit all that hard. We've been wet but no flooding and not even much build-up in the puddles. That's a relief for us.

But it means that we've been cramped up in the house and are likely to stay inside for another few days. Hopefully next week will be better weather.

I haven't told Mia this, but she'll find out now that it's on my blog.

She dreads Mondays because Monday means that she is responsible for Ethan again and then has to go to work afterwards. If they weren't in combination, I'm sure she wouldn't mind either.

However, my secret is that I don't mind Mondays at all. Not after a solid 2.5 days (and I mean solid, from the time I wake up until Ethan is in bed) starting Friday afternoon and ending Sunday night. Church does provide a break, but I teach primary... so not much of one.

So, Monday is kind of like my day off. Not really, I always have plenty of work to get the week started, but I do get to sit down for longer than 5 minutes.


P.S. I should also mention how amazing my wife is for taking care of Ethan for 5 days straight during the week. A - maz - ing!

Am I about due for a nice long catch up post? I think that I am.

So, I'm putting the house cleaning on hold and letting everyone know that I'm still alive. Yes, we are all still alive and kicking. And we are all on our way to getting healthy again.

Ethan has been sick this week. Having a sick child is not very fun. Mia can write more about that as she's been home with him during the days when he's been very tired, not eating well, loungy (more than normal) and cranky when he gets hungry but won't eat.

Me? I got up with him at 3:30am the first morning we knew that he was really sick. And he wouldn't go back to sleep without me holding him. So I tried to go out into the living room so I could crash on the couch.
But, since I haven't updated in a while, you might not know that we installed some blackout curtains in Ethan's room. So it's pretty pitch black in his room.
Now, back to the living room. I tried sitting on the couch, but apparently the dim, 3:30am streetlights flooding into the living room was enough light for Ethan to start looking around for toys or pretty much anything else that he could grab.
So, off the couch for me and back into his room and the little rocker in the corner.

I was tired the next morning.

So, the next night I had two great ideas. First, have Mia give him a bottle and put him back down hoping he wouldn't mind as much. That didn't work... But, I had also set up an air mattress (back in the living room what was I thinking???) and when Ethan woke up at 3:00am (and after Mia tried) we laid down on the airmattress together. Then he tried to start playing in the living room again. I dragged the air mattress into his room and we slept there.

Our boy is a squirmer! AJ, I don't know if you remember how Mo and I never liked sleeping with you when we went to people's houses cause you'd get all turned around and push us out of bed. Well, Ethan inherited that gene. He was all over the place and at one point his feet were in my face and his upper body was hanging off the matress.
And yet he slept just fine. Needless to say (again) I didn't sleep that night.

Well, enough was enough right? I was just going to put him back down if it happened again. The next morning he woke up at 5:00am. Great, now what do I do? Well, I ended up holding him again and not really getting back to sleep.
Fortunately, since then I've been able to go in (at 3:00am), give him a bottle and just let him cry himself down. This has only taken 10 or so minutes, so we think he's getting better. :)
In fact, he went to the doctor's today and got a mostly clean bill of health. His throat is a bit sore but doesn't look too bad. The doctor thinks it was just a virus that he caught.

Now, keep all that in mind while I tell you about my week at work. I am really glad that I get to write at work, but this week I had to write the following:
1 Email message to preview a tradeshow
2 Newsletter feature articles
1 Newsletter outine
1 Press Release (that got split into two later)
And of course the revisions to all of them. While I was also building pages for a new section of our site. And doing all my typical work. So at work I've been very busy as well. I pretty much have been getting my work done (or enough of it) 5 minutes before I come home.
I will say that one of the best things about my job is that I work hard to get everything done on my deadlines, but when it's time to come home I'm able to leave it behind. This makes a huge difference in how Mia is able to handle taking care of the boy every day and I love getting to spend time with him each night. Although, taking care of Ethan for 2 hours after work can be more exhausting than the 8-9 hours I spend away from him.

Now, you might think that's a full week. But I've also been trying to get a jump on editing a feature for World Forge Magazine. A feature that has solidified my gratitude to the many, many, many teachers I had in high school and college that ingrained in my head not to use the passive voice.
I know that slipping into passive is easy in something like a blog post where I'm just writing as I think. However, only 6 months in to my WFM editorship, I'm amazed at how many people abuse (yes, abuse. Cruely, cruely abuse) the passive voice.
And if you ever see me start a sentence with "It is" and you can't find a clear antecedent for that pronoun, you have my permission to ridicule me without mercy.
And... while this might sound nerdy, the team that I'm on for Avlis (my computer game) has been having a rough transition period with some new people that have joined us. Being a part of that community, and for reasons beyond me, having a reputation for saying things that make sense during times of heightened emotion, emotions that only seem to be escalating, I've been trying to help smooth things out there too.

On the other hand, this week has been a good one. My wife and I have, IMO, treated each other very well this week, even with the stress of not sleeping enough, dealing with a sick child, having no energy to clean the house, and basically all the things that would normally lead people to sniping at one another. I'm very happy about that. Having someone that you love, and who loves you, really makes anything bearable.

And of course, when I put this week into perspective against some other news that we've heard, well, this week wasn't so bad.



-As a side note, I've been listening to Flogging Molly while I type this post. They aren't a band for everyone, but if you like Scottish punk, you should check them out.

I am still alive. We are doing well. Ethan is sick but getting better.

Well, my end of the month scramble to get another issue of WFM has been successful. That means that I'm now a free man (for another week or so) and I'll actually have time to post an update here.

But not tonight. I'm going to bed.

However, before I go if you have a USB drive, you know one of those little ones that you carry around in your pocket or on your keychain, then you definately need to check out getting some portable apps.

I haven't posted very much this month... but I haven't done a hundred other things I've wanted to do either.

Ethan is going to be at 7:30 now, and while that's only an hour later than before it's still taking me some time to get adjusted and make time for what I want to do around my chores.

I'll get back into the swing of things soon, I hope

This is going to sound random, but I'm going to blog about my G-mail account.

The thing about unlimited storage is that people will find a way to try and use it. I just logged in and noticed that I'm using 53MB out of 2711MB available. :-0 That's alot of space used and alot of space to go.

To be fair, I do use that account for all my World Forge Magazine correspondence which includes alot of attachments.

But still, that's alot of stuff I'm not deleting... just cause I don't have to.

So, since it's there. If you haven't started mailing me at Zero00(at)gmail.com Please start. I'm trying to make a full switch as my Yahoo! account fills up with more and more spam (some of it is opt-in since I use that address when I register for sites)

I want to make a quick entry about my boy. He's very into imitation these days. If he sees me or Mia doing something he wants to do it too.

Today, after I got home from work we spent about 10 minutes folding our arms and saying little prayers. Ethan loved it. In fact, he got so excited that he would often start yelling while one of us was saying a prayer.

He also saw me giving kisses to my wife and ran over wanting to be picked up. Then he gave kisses to his mom too.

And, later, after Mia had gone to work, Ethan gave me a phone (he has some old ones with no batteries and a couple of play phones) while he played with his toy cell phone. He thought it was great when I pretended to talk to someone.

He's a great kid and we love him very, very much.

I'm another year older. Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive during this transition in my life. :p

I got called in for Jury Duty today but didn't get selected to sit on a jury.

The day was an interesting experience. There were quite a number of us, and my number didn't even get called to be potentially called to a jury.

So, I just sat and read "Sirens of Titan" by Vonnegut.

I guess I'm done for the next three years, so I'll just have to wait to see if I ever have to decide the fate of anyone in the legal system.

This might seem a bit trival to people like Dad, Monica or Zach who have done more in-depth computer work than I have, but I just got rid of a virus from our computer that slipped past our Firewall, Norton Anti-Virus, and Ad-Aware.

I was in Safe Mode going through DOS menus (with the help of a print out from a site with instructions on what to do) and then had to edit my registry to get rid of all the keys is created.

Man, it was alot of work, but totally worth it now..... and it doesn't look like I messed anything up even.

I have been meaning to make a post about Ethan and me going swimming. Mia has been taking him to swim lessons on Monday, and I take him for free swim on Fridays.

The boy loves being in the water. It's amazing how much fun he has just floating around, or having me propel him through the water. Since I also love being in the pool, I'm glad to stay as long as he wants.

One of Ethan's favorite water activities is splashing. With so much water at the pool, he loves to splash and see how big a spray he can get.

It's very, very fun. We'll have to see how he likes the ocean this summer when we head to California.

A lot of things change when you become a parent. But I wasn't expected my childhood memories to become so different.

Just one minute ago, Mia was reading an old Christmas letter that my parents just sent in a package to us. She read the part about AJ getting a new bike in Ridgecrest.

What I remember about that story is that my parents found a mostly functional bike a a garage sale. My dad fixed it up and painted it blue. They wanted this to be special for AJ so they pulled Monica and I aside, to ask us not to tell AJ that it wasn't a new bike.

Remembering that story just now, made me get all emotional thinking about how my mom and dad wanted to do something for nice for their son. It made me think of all the things that I want to do for Ethan. I love spending time with him, he's such a happy boy, and I can only imagine how much more love I'll have for him as he grows up.

P.S. Dad, if I got this story horribly wrong, please correct it in your weekly email :)

I'm going to send out emails on this, but we are coming to California and Colorado this summer. We will be in California from June 23 through Jun 28. And in Colorado from June 29 through July 5.

We hope to see as many of you as we can while we are out.

Man, I'm tired. Not because it's late, but because I am tired.

We have a good life right now. Mia is doing well. Ethan is doing well. I am doing well.

But, I'm tired.

I guess that's the way life is when you have a baby. I try to help Mia keep from getting over-exhausted, and she's going to help me. Working together, I know we'll make it through.

Um... I am still tired, but Mia just informed me that the chronology of the pictures I just posted is a bit wacky. Some are actually from last year, and they all seem to be out of order.

I'll try re-doing them tomorrow or Monday, so stay tuned :)

Just want everyone to know that I posted 80 pictures of Ethan to my site tonight.

I know they have been a long time in coming, but they are worth the wait.

And now I'm tired.
Good night.

Quick post about our cute boy. He's been switching to one nap, which he needs to do, but has been hard on him. So, Mia was reading that when doing this, sometimes the child should be put to bed earlier.

Earlier than 7pm we thought? However, we have been trying it out and Ethan has been going to be at 6:30pm (lights out) and still sleeping until 7am in the morning. Plus his mid-day naps are getting longer too.

We also just noticed that he is getting a new tooth (finally) and we think that might have something to do with needing sleep. Not that a tooth would require it, but that he's starting to grow again. We'll see if he springs up another inch or two in height.

Not sure what to talk about today, so I'll just point you back at my home page in case you missed the special Valentine's day poem I put up.

It's late and I'm tired but I wanted to get a quick post in. Ethan is the cutest boy ever. Lately, before his bath I have been putting his towels (that have little hoods) on his head like a cape. He then runs around naked, or with a diaper on, with his cape yelling at Mia and I. Good yelling, he's so happy before his bath.

The other funny thing about bath time is that he has been trying to drink the bath water out of the cup that I use to rinse him with. It's funny because he gets a pretty full cup, bites the lip of it, then tips the entire thing upwards and splashes himself in the face.

He's a cute boy.

The other thing that I wanted to say was how much we appreciate our parents (Mia's parents and mine). We have an organized, clean basement. We have a nice chest freezer. We have a dishwasher (that I ran twice tonight). Thank you so much, it's made our lives easier having your support. We love you all.

Maybe I should post more often when I'm this tired, my feelings seem to be less filtered.

Good night!

I'm going to make this a quick one, but I was talking with a friend from college, Mary, about what we are currently reading.

We both, which I thought was funny, amended that our reading lists were really books we had been listening to from Audible.

It's pretty interesting how technology is changing the way we do so many things. I might have to update my reading list to include a few of the books I've listened to recently.

I have needed to update my blog for a while now, so I'm going to quickly write about two things that have happened with Ethan. Both very cute.

Things that go bump
I have been playing alot of peek-a-boo with Ethan because he loves to come running after you when you are hiding around a corner, or some pull the blanket off you when hiding under on. He's also taken to do this himself, we have a quilt hangning in his bedroom that he will pull up a corner and hide behind, then pull it away while I shout "peek-a-boo". He loves it.
Well, while I have been doing this, Mia was having fun with Ethan by putting sweatshirts on his head (putting anything on his head is our sign for silly) and he would run around laughing his head off.
So, one day, near bath time, Ethan and I are next to his crib. He's facing his dresser which is about 8 feet away (maybe less). I reach up and grab his towel, then I drop it over his head. I'm expecting him to pull it off and we'll both get a good laugh.
Instead, as soon as it's on and he can't see a thing, he starts running (yes, running as fast as he can) and laughing, until he smacks right into his dresser. He got knocked backwards onto his butt and of course started to cry.
The situation was so ridiculous that I had to keep myself from laughing. But because I knew that it hurt him so much, I didn't want him to think I didn't take his pain seriously. I gave him a big hug and held him until he felt better.
He's a growing boy, and learning new things everyday... we haven't tested him on this lesson yet though.

Just like Dad
Ethan and I went to the park over the weekend. We had gotten another snowstorm recently, but the streets and sidewalks were clear, so we didn't think about that. I bundled Ethan up in his jacket and his cute hat. We could only find one glove so I just decided not to keep him out for too long.
When we got to the park (it's only a block away) I saw that the entire playground part was still covered in snow. I guess the city didn't plow it. :)
So, deciding that Ethan was going to be in the snow more often that I was, I put my gloves on him. It was quite funny because they came up over his jacket to about his elbows. He didn't really want to play on any of the equipment at the playground, so I put him on top of the icy crust of the snow to see if he would walk around. I should mention that we had just gotten his new shoes the day before, and he was still getting used to them. Well, he just stood there, looking at me, looking at the swings (his favorite) and looking at the chain link fence that ran along the street. Finally I went over and took one of his hands to help him along. As soon as I was holding his hand, he started walking all over. We made our way to the swings (but didn't ride them) and then onward to the fence so he could watch cars. He didn't break through the crust on top of the snow, which made it easier for him.

Then, after he looked like he was starting to get too cold, we walked back to the park entrance and I carried him home.

I just thought he was the cutest little boy in my gloves, and I felt so special when he wanted to hold my hand as we walked around the park.

What a great kid we have.

Not much to say today about the boy, but it's so nice outside I thought I'd talk about that for a minute.

We are having unseasonable highs today. It's 52 degrees and I noticed as I was coming home that we have grass growing on our front lawn. Now, this lawn was destroyed over the summer, and in late fall they scattered some grass seed and just left it.
So I know that we are seeing fresh growth.

I have also only had to shovel our driveway once so far. Though the day I shoveled was miserable and I don't want to have another day like that.
A little more snow would be good for the lush green that's all around us, but as a city dweller, I like have my street clear.

Mia mentioned that she has six posts up since I last wrote.

So, since I just put Ethan down again, I'll write about his Sunday naps. He doesn't take them.

Our church starts right when he would be going down for his first nap, which means we try to keep him up through church and give him a mid-day nap. This doesn't always work because by the time church is over he's too tired to sleep. Doesn't make any sense, we know.

Today, he was with me in Primary because we only had Sharing Time. he loved being around all the other kids, but was very good about not running around. Then when we got home (he had nodded off a bit in the car) we tried to put him right down and he just talked to himself and played until he finally started crying and I went in to get him. Then we fed him lunch, and watched Blue's Clues. He's back in his crib now and it sounds like he might actually go down.

Second post in one day, I'm on a roll.

Mia reminded me that I should write about Ethan's "helping." He just loves to be inovled in anything that we do. So when it's time to load or unload the dishwasher, sweep the kitchen, fold laundry, or put away his toys, he's right there trying to help us.

While he is very, very cute doing it... he can also be very much in the way. We usually get halfway through a chore before giving up and making a note to finish it when he's in bed. (Which doesn't always happen).
But, during the time that he is helping us, we try to be very encouraging and not shoo him away. I'm glad that he loves us and wants to be involved in what we are doing. We'll see how long it lasts. :)

So, another week has gone by, and since Mia has been posting so much to her blog, I decided that I needed to make another entry.

We had the holiday party for my work yesterday. We went to a very nice Italian restaurant in Boston called Maggiano's. They serve the food family style (if you want) so you can order just a couple dishes, and then everyone shares them.
This was perfect for such a large group.

I've said it before, but I'll just say it once more. Mia and I are both so very glad that I found this job. It's been very good for us and came just at the perfect time.