Rock Climbing

I've been going rock climbing with a friend of mine for the last couple of months. It's been a lot of fun and nice to have an activity where I see some progress and accomplishment during my time of unemployment.

Recently, Ethan has been wanting to come with me. He likes to play around on the rocks on the ground but sometimes I can get him to climb up a little on the cliff too. Here's his latest adventure in climbing.

Birthday Party

Ethan had a birthday party yesterday. It's his first real one in four years. In the past, we've done a low-key approach, mostly just the family and maybe some neighbors. But never really did any decorations, or themes, or large groups of friends.

But, now that he's old enough and been going to parties for his friends so we decided to host one as well.  It went surprisingly well, everyone played nicely, no one had any meltdowns.  We had a superhero theme and made red felt capes for everyone with blue ribbons to tie them on.  We had an obstacle course, did some races, decorated some train cakes, and opened presents.

Ethan commented that he wanted to play with his friends presents all week. So I'd say the party was a success.

Here's a video of one of the superhero races the boys did.

Sleep-Over

I'm on my way to a sleep-over. It's with Ethan.

He's been asking me to sleep in his room for the last few nights, mostly because he doesn't want me to leave after the bedtime routine (a stall tactic). But, he's also been coming into our room early in the morning and lying down on the floor next to our bed.

So, I agreed to have a sleep over with him. He is on his air mattress (his typical bed when he's sleeping at someone's house) and I'm going to be on my air mattress.  Ethan said that when I came in, he wanted to hold my hand the whole night.

I'm really looking forward to this.

Deep Thoughts

Tonight, Edward was talking in his sleep, saying "Da Da Da Da" over and over. I went upstairs, thinking he was awake. Fortunately, all I had to do was stick a pacifer back in his mouth.

Then I went in to check on Ethan. He had moved his pillow to the foot of his bed. It was propped up against the footboard. He was sitting up leaning against it.  His legs were crossed, and he had a finger up by the side of his head.

I asked what he was doing.

"Thinking," he said.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"My halloween party," he said.

During the bedtime routine I had told him that he needed to get plenty of sleep to be ready for his party tomorrow. Apparently this was weighing heavily on his mind.

After collecting the ghosts from his room (he knew the specific places they were) I left him dusting the fan that acts as a side-table for his nightlight.

Yes, night's with Ethan are typically that random. Part of what makes them bearable... er I mean, so much fun.

Full On Tantrum

Ethan doesn't throw tantrums. He gets upset about things (and hits us sometimes, we're working on that) and will show his anger but doesn't take it to the point of being irrational.

Except for yesterday. Ethan hasn't been napping since we left Boston and it finally started catching up with him.

Now, I have to pause here and recognize some culpability because we have been keeping him up late sometimes as we meet new friends and go over to their houses or take him out to something new down here.

But back to the point, last night Ethan was miserable. He wouldn't stop crying about everything. I couldn't do anything without him screaming. He was hitting, screaming, crying, repeat. This was the worst that I've ever seen. Finally I wrestled him into pajamas and got him into bed.

At which point he promptly fell asleep.

Skinny

Have we mentioned that Ethan is skinny? Well he is.

In fact, the other day he wore a pair of Edwards (6 mo) shorts around all day. They fit around his waist a little snugly, and looked a bit short, but they fit and since he always wants to be dressed before we get breakfast, I wasn't looking too closely.

When we finally checked at the end of the day, Mia and I had a good laugh.

The Olympics!

We are watching the opening ceremony of the Bejing Olympics and it's making me realize that Ethan only has 12 years until he could be competing in the Olympics himself.

Time to start pushing him. Any suggestions on sport?

Maybe trampoline, or kayak, or shooting?

Missing Ethan

Ethan is out in Albany for the long weekend. While it's a nice relief for Mia and I, apparently it was a bit of a concern for Ethan.

When he and I were talking about it yesterday he got a very sad look on his face and asked me "Daddy, will you miss me?" And to Mia he said "Momma will you miss me when I'm gone?"

This was a bit of a surprise to us because normally he asks it the other way when I go to work. "Daddy, will you miss us when you go to work?" And I always tell him yes I will. And I mostly do ;)

But this time, we could both answer honestly that we will miss Ethan while he's gone. In fact, when I got home from work today I was a little sad that no one ran shouting to meet me at the door.

We have the cutest kids in the world (sorry, everyone else) and I wouldn't give them up for anything. Though I might loan them out for a weekend (and miss them).

Best. Purchase. Ever.

Mia just bought the best thing in the world from Ikea this week.

A clock.

Yep, a clock. A simple, digital clock with big red numbers. But, it's not really the clock that is so fantastic. It's the alarm.

While, I really just wanted an alarm, this one has the feature of allowing you to record your own voice as the alarm.

But, it gets better! Ethan had been coming into our room at about 6-6:30 every morning and it was just a little too early for me. So, when we got the clock, we told him that he had to stay in his room until 7:00AM when he heard his alarm.

AND IT WORKED! On the first day, he didn't come in until 7AM. Needless to say, it's the little things that make us happy these days.

Singing

Ethan loves to sing. And he learns the words to songs pretty quickly. And if he can't quite get the tune right, he makes up for it with volume.

We have a tape of primary songs that he sings in the car. He's getting to know pieces of most of the songs. It's cute to hear him join in when it's playing. He'll sing all the way to wherever we are going.

Then, when we are at home, Ethan will also start just singing at random. Today he was climbing on the couch singing the "Follow the Prophet" chorus (over and over) at the top of his lungs. Then, on occasion, he would mix in "I lived in Heaven" to the same tune as Follow the Prophet. It took me a few times before I realized what words he was actually using.
Of course, he didn't care. He was just happy to be singing and dancing.

I love that he likes singing so much. I hope he gets his mother's talent for singing too.

They Live!

Some of you have been wondering if the boys are still alive considering the recent lack of documentation. Well, I've finally got something for you.

First, are the recent uploads located on Flickr.

And here's a little video that I uploaded to YouTube. (It didn't work when I tried to upload it through my blog.) So, if you've been wondering what Edward is up to, here is his latest accomplishment.

Movie Quotes by Ethan

Ethan watches a couple of movies over and over. No surprise for a 3-year old. And because of that, he has some favorite movie quotes. Here are some samples:

Toy Story: To Infinity and Beyond.
Toy Story2: Not today Zerg. *motions to arm for laser and makes shooting sounds*
Incredibles: I'm Dash.
Cars: Ka-chuga, ka-chuga.
Blue's Clues: I skeedoo'ed into the picture.

And, then, just yesterday we got an unexpected one. He was holding the folded poles to his tent, one in each hand, he turned to me and said, "Say hello to my little friends."

WHAT!?! Where did he pick that one up? We certainly haven't been letting him watch Pachino movies. It must have been a reference in one of his other shows but it still caught me off-guard. Not to mention, carried much different connotation for me than he intended.

Only Smaller

Ethan and I went to the mall on Saturday for some Dad/Son time. He's been getting kind of pushed aside lately because of Edward. Not that we want to push him aside but we can't be as active as he wants when trying to get baby Edward to sleep.

We stopped by Circuit City first, so I could browse around and try to spend my gift card. Ethan immediately wanted to go over to the fake living room areas. With the nice couches and the big TVs. He climbed up on a leather couch (and since it had been snowing) I told him "no shoes on the couch." He made it easy by just taking his shoes off entirely. Then he was able to climb around, and move between the different set-ups. He would have stayed there all night, I think.

But, we had to move on. In the mall, Ethan loves to run along the wide corridors, ride the escalator, and go into toy stores. He also asked if we could get ice cream after he saw some people eating some. Which we did before leaving.

One of the insights that I had while walking around was that tweens are like miniature horses. They look just like the real thing, only smaller.

Imagination Running Wild

Ethan has a very active imagination. If you've ever known any 3-year olds, this might be familiar to you.

Today a couple of funny things have happened:

1. He was lying on the couch (something that I was doing this morning) and told me he wasn't taking a rest but was just thinking. When I asked what he was thinking about he said, "Forts and TV shows."

2. Ethan and I were building forts out of couch cushions this morning. It's one of Ethan's favorite things to do.

3. During nap time, Ethan was lying in bed and pulled the covers over his head so the Evil Emperor Zerg couldn't kill his head. Then he put his hands out to see if Zerg would kill his hands. Then he put his feet out to see if Zerg would kill his feet. He pulled his feet back in saying, "No, I need those to walk."

4. He was captivated while watching an episode of Vroom Riders. Is that out on DVD yet. ;)

What a fun, funny little boy.

First Snow

Here's a quick peek at my handywork over 2 rounds of snow shoveling. Ethan came out with me the first time and he loved it.

-y

Ethan likes to add the -y sound to just about everything that he says these days. These are all used a nouns.

Some of his favorites are:
Blankie
Cuppy
Chippy
Milky
Chairy
Bally

Some of my favorites are:
Worky
Underpanty
Penisy

Happy Birthday!

Well, Ethan is officially 3 years old. He's also officially a 3-year old.

The boy is precocious, inquisitive, active, loving, moody, friendly, and growing every day. He's only three years old but it seems like he already knows everything about this little world.

Today was a good birthday. Ethan was old enough to realize what a birthday means, and he's been very excited about opening his presents. So, this morning we opened all the presents from mom and dad, Grandma and Grandpa Jo, Grandma and Grandpa M, Grandma and Grandpa G. Yeah, that's a long list, just like there were a lot of presents. He loved opening and playing with all of them.

At church we told his teachers that it was his birthday, so they made sure to sing him a birthday song. Actually, they have been taking the nursery kids over to primary and they sang the birthday song to him there. He got to stand in front of the whole primary (he told me).

We held a small birthday party at our house after church. We invited Ethan's pre-school friends. One of them was sick so it was only 2 families. That was perfect for how crowded our house is getting. I had no idea how good of friends Ethan has become with his pre-school group but they all played together so well. They didn't take any of the normal time to get comfortable with each other. And they all ate dinner together at the same table, it was so cute.

After dinner, it started snowing. Ethan said that it was snowing because it was his birthday. He's so cute.

Unfortunately, after missing his nap because of church, and so much excitement during the day, bedtime was difficult. But, he's asleep now and tomorrow, he'll wake up as a 3-year old (still).

Artist

Alright, I've pretty much decided that I may not ever make a full post about my trip to Texas. That's not to say that I didn't have a blast going down there. I was very happy for the chance to bring Ethan down when the whole Hall side of the family was there to see Ethan. We've really been hoping for that kind of chance and I was thrilled it worked out.

When we got back from Texas, Ethan started drawing a lot of faces. He would fill whole pages with his face drawings. Since they are worth a 1,000 words (at least) I'm going to post one that we had especial fun with.
Ethan actually named most of the 'faces' that he drew and I prompted him with the rest.








Then, just the other day, we were drawing together again and he started to do some more faces. But this time they were a bit different. Here you can see his latest works. And, in case you couldn't tell, those are 'mad faces.'

Fractured Fairy Tales

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your... ladder.

Ethan has a current favorite show. It's called Super Why. He likes to run around the house telling us "I'm Super Why Ethan." He loves to be a super hero.

So, in one episode of the show, Rapunzel for some reason couldn't/wouldn't user her hair for the prince to climb up. So Super Why went into the story and changed it so say 'ladder' so that Rapunzel could climb down and be with the prince. Then, one of Super Why's friends spelled 'cut' to give her a haircut.

It's definitely geared towards younger kids but they do a good job of getting Ethan to interact so at least he's not just sitting there staring.

Shapes

Ethan has been able to draw circles for a while now. He loves to draw pictures of circles and tell us that they are people's faces. Usually Ethan, Mia, or me.

But today, I showed him how to draw rectangles. We would draw 1 line. Then 2 lines. (Parallel) and then 1 line. then 2 lines (parallel the other way) to make a full rectangle. I was very impressed at how quickly he picked it up. He's a smart kid. I need to take more time to teach him things like this.