Gotta Love This Boy

After Ethan recovered from our week of craziness, he's been the cutest kid!

Yesterday, I was cleaning in the kitchen and asked him to pick up some of his toys in the living room. He balked (of course), but then disappeared. When I looked in, he was just finishing the last of the three things I'd asked him to do! I mauled him with hugs and kisses and then we finished cleaning up the other toys together. Later, I was doing laundry and he wanted so badly to help. I pulled things out of the washer and he put them into the dryer. Then he threw an entire load into the washing machine one item at a time. Once that was done, he ran over and helped dad mix up the scrambled eggs he was making for dinner. Ethan used to be a little helpful, but lately has been more obstructive. (I'd even been thinking about instituting the rule that if he wants to be with me when I'm busy he needs to be helping.) This day of help was great.

This morning, I was woken up by Ethan, who promptly asked where the baby was. He couldn't see my stomach buried in the blankets and wanted to be sure he didn't jump on it. While I was finishing breakfast, Ethan asked to sit on my lap. Thinking this was the start of a clingy, miserable day, I grudgingly obliged. Nope. He wanted to check on the baby. He pulled up my shirt to poke at my basketball sized belly and ask if the baby was hurting me today. (It's still low enough that it's stretches and flips can be rather painful. Hopefully it will pop up soon and I won't grimace each time it moves.) We talked about seeing the baby tomorrow at the dr's (Yep, ultrasound is tomorrow!) We talked about how it would grow really big and then come out. We talked about mom going to the hospital to take it out after Ethan's birthday. We talked about it living with us and even about Ethan and the baby sharing a room. The boy is very enthusiastic about all of it. He is starting to understand a little, now that my belly is hard to miss. And just in case you were wondering what he wants, he says different things when asked directly, but he always calls the baby a "she".