Our Happy, Happy Jumbo Shrimp

As with just about everything we've done with him, Ethan has amazed and impressed us with his ability to almost instantly love something new. (The new daycare was a notable exception, but he's loving it now - he actually fussed when I picked him up one day last week!) We tossed around summer activity ideas and settled on swim lessons at the Urbana Aquatic Center. We're heading to the beach soon, and knew that we should get Ethan ready for the water. How do you think he likes it?

Blogslacker and the Boy Beat the Heat

Where does two weeks go?! Wow. As always, we've been busy, though trying to stay active and not melt in these 105 heat index days we've had recently. Mr. Ethan is an outdoor kind of boy, and though I like the outdoors as well, I really hate this humidity! We've worked our way around it as best we can, and it usually involves stripping down to the diaper.
Here is this awesome $10 sprinkler that I got at Meijer - little snakes of water that go everywhere. This is Ethan meeting the sprinkler for the first time, and he's not sure if this is going to be a friendly encounter. After awhile he decided the water was pretty neat, and kept sticking his face in there like a dog to drink the streams of water - lots of giggling!
He's also really getting into the car. And I mean getting INTO the car - he still likes his car seat, thank goodness, but now he wants to crawl all over the rest of the car. I can imagine a million things going wrong with this scenario, so the emergency brake is always on, and I am of course always right there for the few minutes that we're playing around. But I have a fun time looking at these pictures and imagining showing them to him when he's ready to get his driver's license. (Which, of course, he won't be getting until he's 30, which is also when he'll be allowed to start dating. Maybe.)

And daycare is going well! He still cries when we leave, but they tell us that he's fine shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, the case of hand, foot, and mouth disease that they had a few weeks ago made it to little Ethan-boy, and he and I have been home together for the last three days. Poor kid! I hadn't planned on this impromptu time off, but we made the most of it.
A goal of mine? To help Ethan learn to color without eating the crayons or markers. The bathtub boat is my latest purchase (yes, from Meijer again) in this attempt, and we might be getting somewhere - coloring on the floor is OK by me, as long as those crayons don't end up in his mouth!

To Time Out, or Not To Time Out?

My goals for Ethan are simple: To raise him to be just slightly less weird than I am. I'm not sure how I'm doing these days! :P

As many of you know, we have switched daycares for Ethan. This was a very hard decision, as we loved Vilma, and she loved Ethan so very much. However, we knew that at some point, Ethan would need a bigger setting - more kids, more opportunities for actual field trips and group activities. And unfortunately, she decided to close down for one of the busiest weeks of my and Brian's summer....so we decided that now might need to be the time for that switch.

Brian and I really like the new place we chose, but I'm not sure if Ethan agrees yet. This is the first example of separation anxiety we've ever seen from him - crying many tears as soon as we say, "Ok, Ethan, bye bye!" It would be so easy to sneak out, but I keep reading and hearing from the folks there that it's best in the long run if he sees us leave - then he (eventually) learns that after we leave, we'll come back. And I think that we probably anticipate his tears and look nervous and fearful - we're going to have to start looking way more cheerful, or Ethan is going to think that we really are leaving him somewhere terrible!

The nice thing, and a total surprise, is that one of Ethan's best friends from Vilma's is actually at this new daycare! Mari was the oldest of Vilma's kids and absolutely the sweetest. Here she is watching out for Ethan on one of his first visiting days there:
She followed him around for that whole hour we were there - watching him on the slide, sitting next to him, handing him little chairs to sit on in the dirt...it was so darn cute. They aren't in the same classroom, but it's kind of nice to think of him seeing a somewhat familiar face during playtime outside!

Now, I'm not saying that they're connected, but right around the time we started making this switch to a new daycare, Ethan started his "I'm independent!" toddler behavior in full force. My sweet, good little boy will now put a knee on the glass coffee table (that he is well aware he's not allowed to climb on), look at me, smile, and climb up on it. When I say no and pull him off, he'll smile again and jump right back up there. !!! Same with dinner time - fling the cup and toss the blueberries...."No, Ethan!" Looks at us, smiles, and does the exact same thing. Are we in the land of time outs yet? Do I ignore this behavior that is obviously acted out knowing it's going to be scolded? Hmmmm...When I was teaching, I was pretty darn good at doling out the appropriate consequence for particular behavior. But this toddler has me all confused...

Fun in the Sun!

We had SUCH a great time in New Mexico! Brian and I took tons of pictures, but I realized as I was showing some work folks today that our pictures have a certain theme - Ethan in the car, Ethan at a restaurant, Ethan at Whole Foods.....you'll just have to trust me as you look at these that we are actually in Santa Fe. :)

I was kind of worried about our plane trip. Ethan is such an active guy that I was nervous he'd be all over the place! (On the way back, he totally was, which is why I only have pictures of well-behaved Ethan. :) On the way there, he was enthralled with the seat belt, the lights above our seats, the tray table, his socks...who knew that planes were so exciting?! The best discovery was the seat belt we bought for Mr. Ethan. In preparing for this trip, I got tired just thinking about hauling around his humongous car seat, so we found this CARES restraint, which is just this awesome seat belt that you can hang around the seat and strap the boy in. Fantastic.
He was even tired enough at one point to take a little nap on me, which was GREAT. He doesn't usually fall asleep in odd places anymore, but on this trip, he fell asleep on the plane trip, several times in the stroller, in the car, etc. We're back on a regular schedule now, thank you very much. :)
Ethan also decided that he was going to be a super cool boy. Here he is in the car (rented car seat) on the way to the grocery store to pick up the requisite applesauce, cheese, and crackers. We made trips almost every day to the Whole Foods store in Santa Fe. I love Whole Foods! We so need one in Central Illinois, but I don't see it coming anytime soon...The interesting thing is, as healthy and environmentally-conscious as Whole Foods is, EVERYTHING has nuts in it there. (Or at least the threat of nuts....processed in a plant where an employee ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when they were five or something...) I expect nut dangers in trail mix and granola, but white bread and bags of dried fruit???
We didn't stick with yogurt and applesauce every day, though. There are way too many great restaurants in Santa Fe, and most of the ones we visited had wonderful outdoor seating that we took advantage of. Here we are at Louie's, a place we liked enough to eat at twice! I now have to find a recipe to make Ethan banana and brown sugar crepes again, since I ordered it for the two of us to share, and he ate it all. :)
We didn't just shop at Whole Foods and eat, though. :) Canyon Road, a narrow street lined with all sorts of galleries, was a short drive from Anda's house and a great opportunity for a walk after naptime (for all of us) one day. Here we are looking at a huge pink pig that moved when you pushed on it - Ethan had some fun with that one. Of course, every single item on the entire street cost more than what I make in 6 months, but it was all fun to look at.
We also took the opportunity in New Mexico to visit with one of Brian's best friends - I haven't seen him since our wedding in 2005, and have never met his wife or his adorable son! Here is our photogenic baby at this great Audubon Center in Santa Fe where we all took a little walk on Monday. (Shortly after this photo, Ethan did a belly flop in the dirt beside this bench, so I'm glad I could capture this shot before the tears. :)
The grounds of this place were gorgeous, and the walk was nice, but I think the best part of that day was spending time with Tim, Inna, and Daniel. Daniel at 7 ("almost 7 and a half") is just one of the kindest little boys I've ever met, and loved Ethan instantly. After our walk, the two boys played and played while we grownups talked and talked. I so rarely get the opportunity to see Ethan play with other kids!
Now I can't wait to see Tim's family and my sister again sometime soon! However, I think that they'll have to come to Urbana. I'm tired. :)

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...