Summer Updates

So since vacationing, it's been busy over here! Work, another trip for Brian, and (oh my goodness) potty training at our house. Yes, potty training. We have taken the absolute slowest approach to this, but the folks at daycare are encouraging us to speed things up. A week ago, we put Ethan in underwear (and I have the cutest picture of him in his little underwear, but I think we might be verging on creepy if I post it!) and prepared to do lots of laundry. He's had a couple of minor accidents, but so far, so good. What I feel badly about is how anxious the little guy has gotten about it recently. He's very willing to do part of his business, but the other part is making him very worried! Poor kid. And it's funny how I've noticed a little bit of regression - he is asking me to lift him into his car seat more now rather than him climbing in by himself, he wants to be carried a lot more (and he's HUGE), and every once in awhile he'll also ask me to sing "Rock A Bye Baby" to him.
This heat wave has finally, finally broken! Yeah! Since Brian's been gone, Ethan and I have been running in the mornings together - just a mile pushing what has to be 45 pounds with a jogging stroller and a toddler - and this morning it was actually cool. Yeah! Here's looking forward to Fall. (Though it's going to be hard to get Ethan to part with his swimsuit.)
Maybe once Fall comes and we start eating foods like chili, grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, etc., we can put some pounds on this kid. He just keeps growing up rather than out!

Summer Trip #2

As I look over pictures from this last trip (Nags Head, NC), I'm kind of disappointed in myself that I didn't use the camera more! The pictures I did take are awesome, though, so I'll try to describe everything else so that you can all picture the trip in your minds. :)

Given that three plane tickets to Norfolk, VA, a rental car to the beach, and eating out the whole way would be much more expensive than we are willing to spend, we drove to the beach again this year. If I didn't get so tired after two days of driving (each way!), I would prefer this route 100% each year - we can be flexible about when we leave, pack whatever we want at the last minute, and stop whenever we feel the need for some Dairy Queen. I have to say that Ethan was a real trooper the whole way. We packed lots of toys for him, brought a DVD player that we bought specifically for this trip last year, and once when we were really desperate, I gave him my iPhone for a half hour. We also sang songs, talked about what we saw out the windows (which we certainly weren't doing last year!), and even napped once in awhile:
When we got to the beach, Ethan was happy happy happy to see his Aunt Kim and his Grammy Barbara (who he calls Mimi). He was also showing off his best behavior the whole time - lots of "please", "thank you", and "excuse me". They were very impressed. :) (So were we, since we do a lot of prompting with that at home.) And he got right in the swing of things sleep-wise. We had a little air mattress for him, and while we rented a baby gate to lock him up at night, we almost never had to use it - he would come out and say good night once or twice, and then head off to bed. I LOVED that, since he was the exact opposite when we were in Colorado. We all got way more sleep on this vacation!

The beach - fantastic. I love being able to compare Mr. Ethan from year to year at the beach - last year, all he wanted to do was climb the stairs. This year, he was pretty excited about the sand and the water. My favorite video was a morning Ethan woke up fairly early, and we headed out for a walk on beach.

This may have been the day that we couldn't actually go in the water much, because of all of the jellyfish. There were tons! And I quickly learned (and then taught Ethan) the difference between the ones you can pick up, ("You hold that, Mama,") and the ones that we didn't dare go near, ("The ones that have colors will sting you,") so that we could at least take walks that day.

But most of the time we were in and out of the ocean. Ethan was so cute - he loved the water, but was a little nervous of the "big water" - the big waves that crashed - so he made sure to tell us every day what he was ready for, the big water or the little water. He was also very impressed when his daddy made it into the big water and stayed there for awhile - so impressed that he had to report it to his Mimi and to another little boy on the beach. Very cute.

Summer Trip #1

Brian, Ethan, and I are lucky enough to get to take two separate trips this summer. Last year, it was Santa Fe and Nags Head, this year, Boulder CO and Nags Head! Our trip to Boulder was fairly short, but we were able to pack in quite a bit while we were there.
This was actually Ethan's third flying experience, but he was at a great age for me to prep him a little bit for the flight. We talked about going to the mountains, who we were going with, and how we were getting there. Lots of books about airplanes, so Mr. E was ready this time. I fantasized about all of my preloading turning Ethan into a super flyer for the several hours long flight...but he was not as angelic as I had hoped. (But not as horrible as I feared, either, so that's good!)

Besides renewing my love of Boulder, the best part of this trip was that my whole family got to join us. Since I couldn't afford three separate trips this summer, and wanted to see my sister, Brian and I invited her to join us in Colorado. She in turn invited my folks, and it turned into this great family trip. Hotels for all of us would have been seriously expensive, so I found us a house on VRBO.com that was really beautiful. NOT toddler friendly - too much nice stuff and sharp glass tables, but a great place for all of us with plenty of room. Having everyone there was especially nice because Brian was toting his grad students around the whole first day we were there. So my mom and I took a little hike up a very modest hill right by our house:
Now if you have never been, I need to explain something about Boulder. Everyone there is healthy, tanned, and climbing something. Mom, Ethan, and I were passed repeatedly in our short hike by tons of runners skipping up the hills. When we ran into some high school students who were maintaining the trails and asked them where different paths led, they explained the layout but were careful to mention that one of them was "for real hikers". Harumph.

We also made some time to visit Chautauqua, this great area with trails, a park, tennis courts, and an amazing restaurant. On this particular day (we had no idea) there was this children's concert at a nearby building. After the concert, all of the animals came out to play with the kids - fish, turtles, lions, and a monkey who got a big hug from Ethan.

Another highlight (more than once) of our trip was Pearl Street Mall. Fantastic outdoor mall - great stores (I bought two of the most comfortable pairs of shoes I've ever owned there - and yes, I know that loving comfortable shoes means I'm getting old), good eating, and fountains for the little kids. Ethan was slow to warm up to the water, but we forced him into it. You can see that he adjusts. :)

The only negative of this trip was Ethan's sleeping habits. Worse. Than. Ever. Every night we were there, I laid down with him every night until he fell asleep, because he just wouldn't sleep - no napping (until we were in the car, then he was out in 5 minutes - reminded me of the newborn days!), less sleep than ever at night - we were kind of exhausted by the end of the trip! (Brian and I were - not Ethan, apparently.) So our task on the way home became: Wear This Kid Out Anyway Possible. The Dallas airport was kind of awesome to have this during our layover:
But you can see that he is not daunted by the exercise:
We'll go back next year. Definitely. But I'm going to get lots of sleep before we go!