Blowing Kisses

Ethan and John were so cute last night! Ethan makes a lip-smacking sound that sounds like a kiss. Last night, he was in the kitchen pulling cans off of shelves when he made the sound. John was down the hall and heard it, and made a kissing sound back. For the next several minutes, my two men (little and big) blew kisses at each other across the house. SO CUTE!

Laughing

This morning, as I was reading "Bob's Busy Wrench" for the umpteenth time, I started adding motions to "he twists it to the left, he twists it to the right..." Ethan thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. His hysterical laughter made me start laughing. Then he began imitating the motions I'd been making, and we both laughed until it hurt. This began the 'Day of Laughing'. Ethan thought everything was funny. And he has developed this little rough laugh that sounds like he's crazy. I loved hearing it whenever he found something funny. It was a great day.

Excited about walking

I'd forgotten to write about Ethan's new skill. I know that John already posted, but he still hasn't seen more than a step or two, so I am the one with the real info.

Ethan went from one step every-other day or so last week, to four on friday. I was holding some apple in my hand and Ethan wanted it, so he just walked over! As soon as I got excited, he realized what he'd done and gave me a big hug. I then used the apple as incentive to try again, and HE DID IT AGAIN! This time he just stood there, so excited he was shaking. He started to clap for himself once, but nearly knocked himself off balance, so he just grinned from ear to ear and let mom clap for him.

Now that he knows he can do it, he's been walking when he only has a few steps to go. Give him another week or so and he'll be running! YIKES!

Scrapbook

That last post was something I've been thinking about for a few days. I finally realized I needed to write it down before I forgot, or before I came up with too many things to narrow it down. I want to be able to put the list at the end of Ethan's scrapbook, with letters from his dad and I.

The scrapbook production is stalled at the moment while we rearrange a few rooms in our house. We are aiming to have the moving around finished by Thanksgiving, so work should begin again that weekend. Which reminds me that I haven't recieved ANY of the quotes/well-wishes/whatever I requested from Ethan's aunts and uncles! If you happen to talk to any of them, get on their case so that I can finish that page!

Can you tell that scrapbooking has rubbed off on me more than I expected? We'll see if it lasts.

10 things I love about Ethan

1. The way he crosses his ankles when he's sitting
2. His slobbery, open-mouthed kisses that go on forever
3. The way he answers questions with a screech or "mm-hmm"
4. His big smile and hug when you get him out of his crib
5. His messes are easier to clean up than his parent's messes
6. The way he crab-walks to protect his knees when crawling on a hard surface
7. That he loves his dad and mom sooooo much
8. His love of books
9. The way he sits and talks to himself when he thinks you're not listening
10.His excitement and pride when he walks like the big kids

FIRST STEP!!!

We've been saying for about 2 weeks that Ethan would do it any day, but the actual first step still suprised us. He was standing next to the coffee table looking at a toy in his hands. He held the toy out to me, a few feet away, then took a step towards me! He then stood there for a few seconds longer before deciding that crawling would be much easier. Our little guy is growing up so fast!

"Vacation"

John mentioned that I went to a scrapbooking conference last week. I love his daily reports on being a stay-at-home dad for a few days. They did so well, I should go away more often!

I left for CT Wed afternoon. This meant leaving Ethan with a sitter for a few hours. That was the worst part. Ethan is very attached right now and screamed so much it made me want to cry. But he apparently did OK after he took a nap.

Then I spent the next 3 days scrapbooking. Those of you that know me well enough, know that I'm not really crafty. I cross-stitch, but that's just following directions. I'm not creative. So needless to say, I wasn't so sure I would enjoy this conference.

I had a GREAT time. It was focused on albums, so we had one large one, one small one, and six mini classes. The mini classes taught different techniques, but we always finished with some sort of mini album (or got part way through). The small album was 'My Favorites' and each of the pseudo-celebrities that was teaching at the conference planned a page. They rotated so we each finished with 9 pages. This was a great way to see the different styles (and to get more free stuff). Did I mention that we got free stuff? In every class, we walked in to a stack of supplies that were ours to keep, and at each larger event, we received a tote bag full of supplies! Our tuition was cheaper than the cost of all stuff we left with! (If you are looking to stock up, I recommend a CKU conference.)

OH! The big album. This was the reason I went. I decided to work on Ethan's First Year. The album that mom and I chose was 'About a Boy/Story of a ' (She was doing my sister Hannah) taught by Kolette Hall. It was our second choice, but I am so glad we didn't make it into our first. Hers was the longest album and the biggest at 12x12. Kolette's layout are beautiful. I'm not a big fan of pastels or overly done pages, so her class was perfect. I did have to alter things a bit because her album focused on celebrating how the person became who they are. That doesn't really work for a baby. But I think I did a good job. It was also a wonderfully uplifting class to be in. Kolette's husband is a paraplegic and they have great stories and an amazingly positive outlook on life. (If you are ever looking for a motivational speaker, I highly recommend Jason Hall.) They have a very hard life, but it never stops them.

OK. I keep veering off track! Ethan's album. It's so cute! Well, the 7 pages I've done are so cute. Only 19 more to go! I'm doing 'The A-Zs of Ethan's 1st Year'. I finished Arrival, Johansen and Gibson Families, Uncles Aunts and Cousins, Outings, and Pals. These are 12x12 pages so our scanner isn't big enough, but I will try to take some pictures and post them.