Well, we made it through our first day.

It was pretty uneventful. Ethan slept in later than expected, which was nice. And he had a great morning.

After his first nap, we went for a walk, paid off the deductible for our car (which came in way under what we thought it would be) and went to the park to play on the swings.
Now, we have done the swings before, a few months ago. And he kind of liked it, but we really had to hold him to keep him upright, even in the baby swings that have a gaurd all the way around them. This time however, he held onto the chain himself, and LOVED me pushing him back and forth. Not hard, but enough for him to feel the motion. We are definately doing the swings again tomorrow.

After his second nap, he was fussy for the rest of the afternoon. I think his second top tooth, which has started pushing through, has been bothering him still.

But, we made it through, and he went to sleep without too much fuss.

I'll see what tomorrow brings.

Tonight is my first night alone with Ethan. Mia and her mother have gone to a scrapbooking conference in CT and I'm taking care of the boy until Sunday.

ALL BY MYSELF! YIKES!

I'll be sure to keep this updated on how I am doing.

Today went pretty well (for me). He got dropped off at a friends house right around his nap time. Well, of course that made him scream and cry. He finally cried himself to sleep for an hour, then woke up and played with their little boy for a while. Then, after hearing the phone ring (I called to say I was on my way) he started crying again.

When he saw me through the window, he really lost it. I could see that he nearly jumped out of the arms of our friend who was holding him. It took a while for him to calm down, I just held him and let him know that I wasn't going to leave.

Once we got home, he was as happy as ever. Smiling and playing and trying to walk. What a cute little boy we have.

Not as much to say tonight, so I'll just mention that Mia is going to a scrapbooking conference next weekend with her mom. She is in a couple of different "tracks" and will be making a 1-year scrapbook for Ethan. It should be fun for her, and the book will be nice to have for Ethan.

He is as cute as ever. We keep a big down blanket in the living room, and he has this game he likes to play with it. He will crawl over, look at you, and then face plant into the blanket (bunched up by the couch).
After rubbing his face around for a bit, he rolls over onto this back and cranes his neck around to look at you again. Of course, while he's doing this, he has one arm sticking straight out and sometimes up.
Then he rolls around some more to try and get into a position to crawl or start over with the face plant. I love watching him do that and will go lie on the blanket with him.
We're going to try to get pictures of that soon.

I have a lot of things to talk about tonight, but first I need to give a quick re-cap of Monica and Zack's visit. They came up on the train (after many delays) and missed seeing Ethan their first night. This was disappointing as everyone who comes to visit us wants to see Ethan right away. :)
The next day, they got to play with Ethan in the morning, and after his initial "Who are these people" reaction, he warmed up to them. Monica and Zack headed into the city to cruise around while I went to work.
On Friday, we all went into the city. This was, I think, Ethan's first trip into downtown Boston. We drove in (we were feeling brave) and parked near the Aquarium. Our first stop was catching the ferry over to the USS Constitution because you can walk around it for free. Of course the ferry was 12 dollars each, but they gave a nice tour of the harbor on the way, so it was worth it.

We toured the battleship from WWII and Old Ironsides both of which were very interesting. We'd like to go back for a longer tour of the ship, including the below deck section. We couldn't on this trip because another group was coming and Ethan was starting to fall asleep in his stoller.

After getting back across the harbor we had lunch at Quincy Market. What a great place to eat. If you have never been to Boston, Quincy Market is kind of like a food court. And by kind of, I mean it's two long (think, really long) hallways that aren't all that wide and little food counters on both sides. In the middle of them is a seating area that is always full (even the standing room is taken). You can get pretty much any kind of food you want. Seafood, Indian food, pub food, hamburgers, steaks, steak sandwiches, it's all there.
Then, parallel to the food court on both sides, are rows of little kiosks selling all kinds souveniers and Boston Red Sox gear.
Then, on the outside of the building, since it's right downtown, there are areas that street performers set up. There are jugglers, break dancers, singers, we saw some guys with bells attached to their legs clapping sticks (I think it's some kind of Folk Eurpoean thing).
And then, surrounding this all are more mainstream retail shops. GAP, Discovery Store, Godiva Chocolate (we get desserts there alot) and so on.
So, all in all, if you are coming to Boston, this is a great place to visit.

After all that excitement, we just hung out on Saturday and played a game called Lost Cities, that Monica and Zack picked up for us at a local game shop. It's a fun game and great because it's two players.
I drove them to the airport on Sunday morning and they were off to Colorado.

So, that's that.

Now, onto the good stuff. Ethan!

He's got another tooth, this time on the top. It's so cute to see this little tooth poking out of his gum. It hasn't come in very far yet, and we think the one next to it is trying to push down as well. Ethan has been kind of fussy and crying and hasn't been sleeping as well. I hope that whatever has gotten into him will pass soon.

Besides the tooth, he's also standing up alot more often. Mia and I decided to get him a birthday present early because of this. We got him one of those little toys that works as a ride-on and a walker. It's a little car with a phone on the front. We gave it to him yesterday and he has been having so much fun with it. At first he tried to lean too heavily on it and he couldn't stand up in time. He would "walk" behind it on his knees. Today, Mia said that he has been getting better about not leaning so hard on it and has been actually walking around behind it.

He's cute when he does. He gets this big grin on his face and has the best time moving around. We love to encourage him because it makes him so happy.
I'm going to try taking some video with our little camera and see if I can get some up onto my site.

I know that I still need to update my blog with some stories from Monica and Zack's visit. That is on the way. But not tonight.

Tonight, instead of watching TV (except Alias of course) or playing games I uploaded and updated the picturing section. You can now see Ethan in all his 9 month glory.

Well, I always feel a little guilty when I do this, so for the sake of disclosure, I've gone back and updated my blog for the last month. So, since about Sept. 16 is all new content, just waiting for you to read :)

One of the best things the Church has done is set up audio feeds of conference on the Internet. Especially now that we have a baby, I'm not sure how we would make it to conference otherwise.

Today, Ethan slept through an entire session. Two solid hours, which is highly, highly unusual for his naps. But, we weren't complaining or about to wake him up.

One thing that impressed me during the Conference sessions so far has been the emphasis on the Book of Mormon. I know that it is the keystone or our religion and that it is never far from the counsel we receive, but I feel the Saints have been energized by Presdient Hinkley's challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I decided to finish it from where I was (near the end of Alma). This was an inspired way to encourage more Church members to read the Book of Mormon instead of just telling us how important it is. I'm glad we have a prophet to lead us.

I might be setting myself up for a bit of teasing here, but as I mentioned a few months ago, I play computer games. Spefically I play Neverwinter Nights. (And I've got AJ playing with me.)

Well, part of my hobby is playing online in a world that someone else has created. It's been fun, and they have a section for Fan Fiction, which I have been using to kick my writing back into gear. My Mom took a piece around this summer that I did using this game/world as inspiration.

Some time ago, I started writing a short story about this world, and it's turned into a much longer piece. Right now it's all hand-written in a notebook right now, and needs some major editing, but I've been putting off writing the ending. I'm hoping this will give me a better timeline because when it's done, I'll send it off to anyone who's interested in reading it.

I really like writing and just wish I had the dedication to sit down every night and do more of it. But with Ethan, cleaning, and trying to spend time with Mia (Read: Watching TV together) I haven't been doing very well.

There's always tomorrow though right.

Our cute boy has decided that he has a new favorite bath time activity. He stands up by the facuet, and tries to turn on the water. Mostly he just smacks at the knob, but the whole time he is shouting at the top of his lungs because it's just so exciting.

For him anyway. I have to keep one hand on him to make sure he doesn't fall, and try to keep soaping him off with the other.

But, adding a bath to the bedtime routine has been wonderful. He loves being in the water, and he knows that when it's over he gets dressed and then gets a bottle. By the time his clothes are back on, he is usually whining to get the bottle.

After sucking down 4-6 oz. (on a good day) he starts rubbing his face, or just flopping back, while I try to read him Good Night Moon.

Then I put him down, he rolls onto his stomach, and is asleep before I leave the room.

I've been listening to Eldest, the sequel to Eragon, on tape. It's a good book, but my friend Tyler and I agree that the first one was better.

The second one has much more of a feel that this is a young writer. Not that the story isn't interesting, it's that he's getting himself lost in the description. Now, normally description is a fine thing to include, but the over-use of eosteric words to describe mundane things or events (like the rain in Carvahall) takes you away from some of the immersion.

On the other hand, I have found that these kinds of issues are magnified when listening to a book rather than reading it. I started listening to The DiVinci Code and in the second or third chapter after I'd heard about the "parkay floor" at The Louvre for the 500th time, I decided to turn it off.