Busy!

Two weeks without a post! Shame on me. We're busy these days!

Ethan is getting closer and closer to talking these days, which is really fun. Lots of "talking" on the phone, anyway! Brian and I never get tired of seeing that. :) He's also such a curious, studious little guy, too. Just recently he discovered my digital camera (that has been collecting dust since the iPhone came home) and figured out how to turn it on and off and take a few pictures. (He may have had a little help with that first one...:)
Besides playing with the camera, we are getting ready for a big trip - to New Mexico! The last time Ethan was on a plane was last July, and he was a great little well-behaved boy. But now he's so very mobile, and I do wonder if he'll be more of an, um, adventure this time. I have plans to bring lots of fun things for him to play with, but he may just want to explore the plane and kick the seat in front of him. We'll see. :)

To get ready for this trip and our yearly July trip to the beach, Brian and I bought a baby backpack to cart Ethan around. It's been so much fun to walk around our local parks with him attached, and some seriously good exercise for his parents - carrying around an extra 30-some pounds isn't easy after awhile!
I can't wait to share pictures of hikes in Santa Fe!

Mother's Day #2

Happy Mother's Day, Moms! I had a lovely day with the boys and my folks! I woke up to this: (I was encouraged to rest in bed while Brian got Ethan up and fed him...)

And then supervised Ethan "helping" Brian unload the dishwasher:
I even have a picture that shows the two men vacuuming, but it's pretty blurry! Ethan does love his vacuum cleaner....This one is much better:
My mom and dad were over this morning for a late breakfast. I am always a little nervous cooking for my mother, since she is the consummate chef! Gourmet magazines all over her house.... But I made my first quiche, and it didn't turn out too badly. (No one has reported any food poisoning, anyway...) Then, we all took early naps, which was wonderful! And after that, we took the Ethan-boy to Meadowbrook Park. This little boy is much braver than his parents, and thinks that he is much older than 18 1/2 months! He wants to slide down the big slides (which we let him do, adding to our gray hairs), climb up the big structures (narrowly avoiding the other crazy kids there), and run everywhere. He has learned to run well, which is just so darned cute - he's kind of bouncy, and really fast! Yesterday, since it was pretty nasty weather here, we went to the mall for a while, and there's a little play area for kids. The kids there are nuts, but Ethan held his own pretty well! Brian and I kept a very close eye on him at all times, and had a hard time watching for fear that other kids would run right into him, or fall on him, or whatever, but he was having such a great time we couldn't leave until we were way past dinner time! We'll have to do more of that - he fell asleep right away, and slept in until after 6 this morning. :)

Illinois Marathon - again!

Yeah! Today was the second annual Illinois Marathon, held right here in CU, and I was part of it! (The half marathon, that is, not the full.) So fun! Soooooo tiring.... I have to say that I was NOT in as good shape as I should have been to run this one (three episodes of strep being my biggest excuse), but I'm still glad I did it! I absolutely love running, even though I'm such a slow one...there is just nothing more simple and more satisfying than putting one foot in front of the other with 14,000 other people and another several thousand cheering you on, even though they have no idea who you are. :)

And again, Ethan and Brian were there to cheer me on! They met me in Meadowbrook Park, right around miles 8-10, which is just when I need to stop and get some hugs. I've run the Chicago Marathon, which is amazing (40,000 runners and triple that watching) but I have to say that it was incredibly cool to do this race in a place where my husband and baby are easy to find in the crowd! I pulled off to visit for awhile.


Now compare this boy with last year's marathon boy:
Quite the difference, huh? Wow...