Eda Go Running!

#3! That would be the third annual Illinois Marathon. No, I did not run the marathon. While I still love running, I doubt very much that I will be spending that many hours on the road anymore. The half today was the perfect distance, and I took 12 minutes off of last year's time - yeah! Not my best time ever, but considering that I did a 5K as part of the "iChallenge" last night, I'm happy with it. And it felt really good!

Brian and Ethan spent the morning looking for me. :) I was able to catch up with them twice during the run, and could stop and get hugs and kisses before plodding along again. It is really funny to remember last year, and how Ethan was very content to be in the stroller when I met up with them, while this year, he was raring to go with me. "Eda go running! Eda go running!" He was very impatient to join me. (Maybe next year.)

Flashback:
Year 1:
Year 2:
Year 3!

(I have no idea what is happening to my hair in this picture. I'm going to chalk it up to no shower, I had just run 8 miles, and a very windy day!)

Easter Egg Hunt

Consider this our belated Easter post. I'm doing a lot of things belatedly these days!

Since last year's U of I playgroup, Ethan and I have been hanging out every month or so with some friends from that group - two little girls a few months older than Ethan. Zoey and Nara are lovely little girls, and it's really nice to hang out with their parents, since we are all sort of going through the same things with our kids - potty training, temper tantrums, and other things that are way more fun and cute. :)

Anyway, Zoey's mom got the idea of having our own, exclusive Easter egg hunt with some additional friends of hers with similarly-aged kids, since we didn't want our babies getting trampled by the older kids at the park egg hunt. I'm really glad we did this - the hostess of this party had this gorgeous backyard where she just scattered a billion eggs (stuffed with stickers, rings, and other toddler-friendly items) and let the kids go at it.
It was so funny - the group of kiddos was split pretty evenly between those who got it and in 5 minutes had a huge basket of eggs, and those (like Ethan) who really didn't understand what the point of the whole thing was. He humored us, and picked up an egg when we told him to, but he could have just explored the back yard on his own and been perfectly happy.
Please take note of the picture below. (Not the fact that Ethan has reverted to putting odd things in his mouth, like the bunny finger puppet he found in an Easter egg.:) No, I mean look at that outfit he's wearing. I think he's pretty sharply dressed, don't you?
Brian and I went to this event in jeans with holes, but Ethan needed a new outfit, of course. Anyway, he turned 2 1/2 exactly on the day we did this Easter egg hunt. What size shirt is he wearing? Not 3, not 4...yes, he is wearing a size 5 on top these days. !!! He is growing up so fast! And so BIG! No one believes how old he is. And while I'm really proud of having such a big, tall, healthy boy, that assumption that he is older than he is can work against him. He hasn't thrown many tantrums in public, thank goodness, but we have gotten some looks in grocery stores when he's beginning to melt down, and I want to explain to people that he's only 2 - he's supposed to do this! He has been the tallest kid in his class for awhile, which is why I'm doubly glad he's not too aggressive. There are some very cute new kids in that class, and they look like babies, while he looks like a little boy! (Sniff!)

Spring! Sort of.

I was thinking that it might be time to work in another post to this blog, given that it's been almost a MONTH since my last one! Yikes...

So, just to recap the last three weeks:
1. Ethan is getting cuter by the day
I could have taken a million pictures of Ethan and my Dad that day. There is a little park in between our two houses. It's a great little park, and Ethan usually loves it and hates to go home, but when we got there, Ethan didn't want to stay and play at the park with Papa. He wanted to walk back to Papa's house with him and play with the iPad. (Sigh.)

In related cute Ethan news, we had his first Parent Teacher Conference last night. As a teacher, I was soooo excited when they let us know they'd be doing this. A 2 1/2 year old gets a conference? How cool! And it was a real conference, too - she had assessments she had done in November and compared them to what she saw in him now, and we could see all the ways in which he is growing and changing. It was all fantastic news, with a few minor things that irked me (and I am sure the same will be true of future conferences, so I should just take a deep breath and get over it!). Like when his teacher referred to him as a "follower". Now, first of all, I think that term gets a bad rep. Not everyone can be a leader! It only makes sense that there must be a much larger proportion of followers in the world compared to leaders, or very little would get done and there would be even more fighting in the world than there is now. (Just my opinion.) But his teacher (who I really do like a lot, don't get me wrong) was mentioning that in the same breath as his love and interest in other children, that he always wants to be with other kids, and I think that's absolutely great. So there. (You'll have to imagine me sticking my tongue out now. I'm highly mature.) The comments of hers that I am going to spend much more time focusing on were her descriptions of him as a sweet, caring, empathetic boy. Whenever someone gets hurt or is sad, Ethan is right there to give them a hug. I'm kind of tearing up just thinking about that now, actually. What a sweetheart.

2. Spring teased us with gorgeous sunshine and warm temps, and then went away
I actually wore shorts to go running on the day this particular picture was taken, and came back to Ethan and Brian "cleaning" out the car. (Meaning Brian was cleaning it out and Ethan was turning on every button he could find while climbing back and forth between the front and back seats.) No shorts since. It got cooooold again. And stormy. And still cold. And more storms to come. Grump grump grump. Ethan and I are home tomorrow for Good Friday, and I'm going to do my best to keep him entertained indoors with the risk of strong thunderstorms coming our way. Luckily for me, he is not afraid (yet) of noisy storms. Earlier this week, I got him up out of bed because a big one was hitting town, and we hung out away from windows together. "Ethan, do you hear that thunder?" BA BOOM! "Yeah! Mo funder?" BA BOOM! (House shakes a little) Ethan smiles. "Funder!!!"

3. Easter is here!
Sorry, I know that last picture is a little blurry - it's definitely a motion shot in which Ethan is yanking off the ears. We are actually going to do something for Easter this year. I really thought Ethan was too little in past years, but now I think we're going to dye some eggs, stick some stickers on them, and call it a holiday. We are also invited to a friend of a friend's house for an exclusive toddler-friendly Easter egg hunt. I am really looking forward to seeing the little boy with other kids, scrambling for eggs. :)