The Things He Says

I swear that Ethan's speech has improved ten-fold in the last week or two. Incredible the things he's talking about. And asking so many questions--"Where are the cars going?" "Where is Daddy?" "What is the doggy doing?"

But some things he's saying lately really stick out. Here's a collection:

• In the car with Daddy on the way to get ice cream Ethan exclaims: "No poopies in the ice cream store! Now sing Farmer in the Dell!"
• On where my Mother's Day flowers came from: "The flower store. Daddy said. Ethan get them."
• Getting ready to leave in the morning: "Bye Daddy! I'm going to get breakfast!" "Where?" "School!"
• After I bring over a try of french fries: "Is that ketchup!?!"
• Pointing at a drive-thru: "This car is paying!"

Helping with the guacamole

Yesterday morning Ethan was wearing a Super Grover t-shirt. I don't know why it came up, probably something with Sprout and how they show birthdays, but we were talking about birthdays. And I offhandedly asked Ethan if today was Grover's birthday. He said it was. So when I dropped him off at daycare and he was not wanting me to leave, I suggested that he tell Jen about Grover's birthday. I didn't anything of it. Last night in the tub, he was singing Happy Birthday over and over again, substituting different names of people. It seemed a bit random to us, but Ethan often sings random songs. This morning when I dropped him off, somehow it came up and it turns out that all day yesterday he was talking about how it was Grover's birthday. So the teacher ran with it, and they sang Happy Birthday all day. Sure explains a lot! He's a funny guy :)

Another story: I had commented in the last post about Ethan's crazy memory. Here's a good example: Maybe two weekends ago Ethan and I were outside and he wanted some strawberries. When I came out with them, he said he wanted to have a picnic. Ok, in I go for a blanket to spread on the grass. As soon as I walk out the door with it he yells "NO! Cow blanket." Cow blanket? We have a cow blanket? Hmmmm... Think, think think. Only thing I can think of is the old "Lions and Tigers and Bears- oh my!" blanket. Only animal blanket we have (besides baby blankets). I have no idea where it is either--we haven't used it since last FALL. Maybe 7 months ago? I go in and start searching the house. The whole time Ethan keeps repeating "Cow blanket! Cow blanket!" I finally find it. The animal blanket. Low and behold, it was the blanket he had so intently in his mind. It doesn't have cows on it, but it does have a whole bunch of different jungle animals on it. I have no idea how he remembered it existed...but he did. And now it's back to being the "Lions, Tigers, and Bears" blanket and all is right with the world.

One last thing: I love when Ethan reads to us. He's been doing that a lot lately. He was starting to stall out in the video (by the time I got the camera)...but it's pretty typical of Ethan's storytelling.

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's day, and it was fantastic enough to get it's own blog post. I actually have to start with Saturday when Ethan was chatting on and on in the car on the way to Little Gym (as he often does in the car). He says to me "I your cutie pie Mommy....Mommy my cutie pie too." Awww!!

Mother's Day--The plan was that I was going to be able to sleep in. I was excited for the prospect, but last Mother's day I was gifted the same luxury and it was a bust. I seem to remember that I couldn't sleep. But this year, it all went according to plan. Ethan slept straight through the night and came over with us in the morning around 5:30 (as he normally does). When he woke up at 6, Charlie took him downstairs to get his "chocolate milk" and they cuddled in on the couch. Turns out, they both fell back asleep too. So I continued to sleep, in quiet, until I heard Ethan around 9 (about 5 minutes after they had woken up). 

Shortly there after, the boys headed out to the grocery store and I had just enough time to do a few quick garden tasks (a few things that I have been itching to do and can't do with a little person around) and shower at my own pace. When I went downstairs, Ethan was standing proudly holding some flowers (I apparently didn't hear him yell "Mommy, flowers!" when he came in the door). Ethan picked out these flowers for me because he told Charlie that "Mommy likes purple." Ethan had carried the flowers to the car from the flower shop, and into the house from the car. Charlie said he carried them like a "man on a mission." He was taking "Mommy's special day" very seriously. Cute back-story: While they were at the grocery store, Charlie told Ethan they were getting stuff to make a special breakfast for Mommy. While they were in the baking isle, Ethan went up to the box of blueberry pancakes and said "Mommy would like these." He's always so thoughtful--and I do really enjoy blueberry pancakes.

Charlie made me special berry baked oatmeal (Yum!!) while Ethan spent a good 20 minutes just reading books to me. "This one is a tow truck." "This one is white." "Pig over there." He read me dozens of books. 

After everyone was done and cleaned up, we headed out to the Make-A-Wish Truck Convoy. I couldn't think of anything better to do for Mother's Day than to watch Ethan have a good time. The weather was beautiful (bordering a bit on the too warm side actually) and sunny. Ethan got to ride a school bus for the first time. He was so overwhelmed by all the trucks, and he was all business. Seeing all the trucks was serious work! We walked around and checked out some of the trucks (there were 336 total--a little boy's dream), and watched the convoy leave. He sat up on our shoulders and described the trucks as they went by. Sometimes he'd say "Goodbye fire truck!" and wave emphatically. 

After all the trucks had left, we sat in the grass and ate french fries before riding the bus back to the parking lot. Ethan was delightful. He was so good the whole time we were there, despite not napping. I still can't help but thinking how amazing it is that he ate all those fries with ketchup on them and didn't get a drop of ketchup on himself or his daddy (whose lap he was sitting in)...but that's my Ethan. 

It was now around 3pm and he fell asleep right away in the car, and took a good nap when we got home. Ethan was smiling in his sleep--knowing Ethan, he was dreaming about trucks. In the meantime, I had time to eat a bit and read. 

When Ethan woke up, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner and he played with his cousins. My favorite moment was when he went to see three month old baby Seth. Seth was sad and crying and Ethan instinctively started gently patting him on the back. He always knows just what to do and acts with such compassion. Then to home and to bed.

Good day. Thanks to my boys for making it so special :)

Mr. Chatterbox

Having a toddler who is rapidly approaching two and is very verbal is a crazy thing. Sometimes I think we're practicing for the teenage years...We also just got off what seemed like a very long week and a half battling Rosiola. Of course, Rosiola is one of those illnesses that you don't know that you have until it's almost over. And of course, Ethan's weak tummy is evident every time he gets any kind of illness. We peaked fevers of 104.7 with medication. Crazy! Also got his third chest x-ray of his lifetime. If there's one thing we do know, it's that he has good looking lungs!

But that aside, Ethan impresses us on an almost daily basis. His memory amazes us. He remembers everything. Seriously, everything. The littlest or oddest  details. I can't even begin...and the things that come out of his mouth crazy too. 

Last week he turns to me and says "I have two Grandmas. *thinking pause* And two Grandpas." He was pretty proud that he'd figured that out. Heck, I was proud. He repeated it a few times last week. It broke down a bit though when he said "I have two Grandmas. And two Grandpas. And two Keiths." No buddy, one Uncle Keith. ;)

He's working really hard to describe things. He'll say "There are three grey birds."  "I want the green one." His quick descriptions like that are correct maybe half of the time. Sometimes the color is wrong. Sometimes the number is wrong. But he sure does try! A truck can't just be a truck. It has to be a "tanker truck" or a "flatbed truck." He wears his "blue shoes" or his "brown shoes."  (When we went to replace his blue shoes last week, he saw the same pair on the shelf and we just had to get a new pair of blue shoes...no other shoes would do). He'll tell you "I saw an airplane" or "I hear an airplane. Far away." When we park in a parking spot he'll say "We're next to blue pickup and red car. Right there!" Last week I asked him to do something and he said "Chocolate milk first." My favorite thing he says is still "Carry you" when he wants carried. I also think it's really cute that he starts sentences with "I wonder." "I wonder the race car is." The other day it rained and the first thing he told me when I got to daycare to pick him up was "No outside today!" (like he was telling on them for not taking him outside!)

He likes to make up words too. He sometimes calls his Nuk "Nukie." He got a stuffed frog/dinosaur thing from our photo session the other night and he randomly named it "Frogga." He loves that thing now.

I've been working really hard to teach Ethan that he's not allowed in the road. Now he says "Mommies (or Daddies) in the road. NO babies in the road!" The other day there was a dog on our road and he said "No doggies on the road!"

Last night Ethan had spaghetti for dinner. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but we have had the only toddler in the world that doesn't like noodles. Recently he's just picked at them, but in the last week he's been really digging noodles.  I had initially cut his noodles, but he made it very clear that he had to have big noodles (just like Daddy had to open a new bag of tortilla chips last week because he needed a "big chip").He had spaghetti, and then he switched to the noodles without sauce. My favorite part was when his imagination took over. He held up one of his noodles and it had a bit of an S-curve to it. He says to me "A SEAHORSE!" Right on buddy--sure does look like a seahorse! He was pulling the noodles around on his place mat making shapes and he said "A sun!" I showed him how to put a noodle under his nose to make a mustache like Grandpa. Oh, good times! 

And as always, he's such a good friend. I've been told that he is the kid who is friends with everyone at daycare, and who everyone wants to play with. He is, as always, also really good with the younger kids. The one younger girl didn't want to come in from the playground and Ethan went and took her hand and brought her in. I'm also told that he likes when they are out on the playground with the Young Preschool group because "There are a lot more girls in that class." Apparently he likes to run after them. I'm not surprised. The same thing happens at Little Gym. Watch out ladies! He's also really good with the younger kids at Little Gym. He likes to try and make them laugh and smile. :)

Philadelphia Weekend

We just recently got back for a weekend trip to Philadelphia. We always try to get away this time of year for our anniversary. There are two rules for the trip: we have to stay somewhere nice (a bit of a step out of reality) and we have to go somewhere that has a lot of fun stuff to do! This year was no exception.

Things this year fell together rather nicely. Ethan (with help of his grandparents) had got us tickets for Adventure Aquarium. On top of it, we had reward points built up from our extended hotel stay last year to pay for the hotel. Sweet :) I was really looking forward to seeing how this animal based tripped would go. I've said it before, if there's one thing Ethan knows it's animals and trucks!

Saturday morning we got up and went to "the egg store" as per usual. We also went to Little Gym. It worked out perfectly because we were able to travel over nap time! Hurray! We had beautiful, sunny 70 degree weather. Going to the zoo in that type of weather is always awesome- the people are happy, and the animals are happy and active. Win-win. Ethan loved the zoo! We started at the big cats exhibit. He was a little intimidated the first time that a jaguar walked right next to him at the glass window, but even got over that rather quickly. He really enjoyed watching the jaguars and the tigers especially. As a kid who really knows his animals, he was most excited to see the hippos. "Hippos, Zebras, Giraffes!" He was quite excited to see the penguins and flamingos too. Sometimes he got so excited that I'm not sure his feet were hitting the ground when he ran. He had such a good time that we actually went back and did another loop of the zoo, hitting all the highlights a second time. 

Then we checked into the hotel. We stayed at The Inn a Penn, a beautiful four star hotel. You know, the kind where you're tipping people every time you turn around. Real nice place. We ate dinner at an Italian place that had been recommended to us. Best part is that it was attached right to the hotel. I had thought ahead this time, and brought stickers with us, so we were able to finish a nice dinner in a good eating establishment. The food wasn't amazing, but it was good, and different, and we enjoyed our time out. It is had to go too wrong with homemade noodles. Ethan's favorite part was the "bubble water" (sparkling water) that we had with dinner. I also loved that our kid with a noodle aversion ate a good deal of spaghetti noodles off his daddy's plate. After dinner we got cleaned up for bed. To our surprise, Ethan went to bed easily and slept through the night in his pack and play. Awesome. 

Sunday morning we had an awesome continental breakfast at the hotel. We were a big shy about the idea of another hotel continental breakfast. I think we've had enough of those to last a lifetime, but this breakfast was truly awesome. Cook to order omelets and real oatmeal with any topping you could think of. Lots of other things too, but those were my favorites. Yummo. 

We headed across the Ben Franklin bridge to Adventure Aquarium. We got there right as they opened, so we did a good bit of the aquarium without any crowds. The aquarium still seemed so nice and new, and the exhibits were very well done. The highlight for me was the hammerhead sharks- Adventure Aquarium is one of two aquariums in the country to have hammerheads. Cool, right?!  I also really liked the shark tunnel. Ethan enjoyed the kids play area a lot. He was very excited to see the seals, penguins, and hippos. He really like the sharks too! At one point he was so pleased to point out that he was wearing sharks on his shirt too!! Just like the zoo, we had to do a second lap of the aquarium to re-do some of the highlights!

We headed home Sunday afternoon. Ethan napped in the car on the way home--a blessing, although Mommy and Daddy sure could have used a nap when we got home too :)

Bottom line- we had a fantastic trip! What a great weekend :)