Happy Fall!

Happy Fall, everyone. I think that Central Illinois had the full span of Fall weather this weekend, with a truly icky day of mist, wind, and cold rain all day Saturday, but beautiful sunny skies today! Ethan and I enjoyed some time outside on the hammock. :)
Besides the beautiful fall weather, we're enjoying a great visit with Ethan's Grammy Barbara from Cincinnati. I love that Brian's family is as laid back as the Joneses, because when we get up, we get up (though Ethan rushes that a little), when we eat, we eat, and when we nap, we all nap! It has been great to spend so much time together, since this boy changes weekly.
One of the things that we've enjoyed about Ethan so much lately is his interest in the very very ordinary. His favorite toys? A tupperware container filled with plastic spoons & old pacifiers. An empty formula container produced lots of giggles as we rolled it across the floor the other day. And how dare we recycle that Cheerios box?!
His first birthday is coming up very soon (!!!) and I'm recommending that his friends and family wrap up anything they can find sitting around in drawers that they don't want. Plastic kitchen utensils that need to be replaced? Ethan would love to put those in his mouth. A box from that new TV you just bought? That will be lots of fun for the whole family. And if you've got anything that could be remotely dangerous, he is especially interested in any of that.

If you look closely, you'll see that on Ethan's shirt are lots of clouds, some very stormy. :) That shirt was given to us by Brian's meteorologically-savvy friends Ed and Lucia, who are now the proud parents of little Luciana. We haven't worked out the details for the arranged marriage yet, but we're working on it. She's a cutie.