Little Stinker!

Ethan has been a naughty boy lately!  The little stinker has been keeping Matt and I on our toes.  Lately we have been taking walks around the neighborhood when Matt gets home from work.  The other day we were just about home when Matt looks down and says "he unbuckled himself."  During his stroller ride he must have been working on unbuckling himself without us even knowing!  And the other night I had just changed him and was walking over to his closet to grab him a new shirt and I hear this scratching noise.  I grabbed the shirt walked over to his changer to find that the scratching noise was Ethan pulling the tabs of his diapers.  He had managed to get them undone!  His latest and greatest is to laugh at the word no.  One night Matt was disciplining Tucker and he said "You need to stop that right now."  And Ethan just busted out in a fit of laughter.  So Matt played along and started to say all sorts of disciplinary phases and pointing his finger and saying "NO" and Ethan continued to crack up.  At first it was pretty cute, but when the joke continued for a few days I told Matt you better stop that before he starts laughing at us when he is actually in trouble.  Sure enough the other day I told him "NO!" and he just smiled at me and giggled.  I pointed out to Matt what happened and he pretended not to notice and just laughed.  My boys are already conspiring against me!  Not to mention its difficult to stay mad when you see that smile.  He is so funny when he doesn't even know he is doing it.  The other day we were riding in the car when we heard this noise that sounded like an Indian.  We look into the mirror we have in front of his car seat and he had his juice cup upside down and his mouth wide open and was hitting the cup against his mouth.

I'm proud to say that Ethan is well on his way to crawling.  He is so determined.  When he is on his tummy he pushes himself up and rocks back and forth trying to move.  He can move himself backwards but not forward yet.  You can just see it on his face that he wants it so badly.  After his little arms gets tired he collapses flat on the floor.  But then a few seconds later he lifts his head and starts rocking around again.  At first I was very excited, but then the thought crossed my mind that he is going to be mobile and I immediately had visions of me running around the house chasing him.  Not that this is a bad thing but I have to admit that I like to put a load in the dishwasher while he plays on with his toys and know that he is there when I am done.  And with the rate we are going with his mischievous behavior god only knows what he has in store for Matt and I.

Our almost crawler

I had to add this because it is so cute

A few of my favorite things

Ethan has been getting more and more personality and is able to communicate a lot better.  He is also getting a lot more independent.  He likes to sit on his blanket and play with his toys, its his new favorite past time.  He is getting really good at manipulating things and using his fingers and hands.  His aunt Jenny gave us this toy that has different knobs and buttons and he can move them side to side and up and down to make the music go.  Now that he can do that its one of his favorites, in fact he loves it so much we will prop him up and put that in front of him and we have tummy time without whinnying!  Our friends Chris and Ally also got him a toy that is stackable and when you take the rings off or on it makes noise.  One of the first nights he got it he had all the rings off and was sticking the base in his mouth and it started to light up and make music, he immediately started to cry and the music stopped because he had taken it out of his mouth.  So he stuck it back in and of course the music and lights went off again and he started to cry again.  This went on for a few minutes before he just lost it and started crying until we picked him up.  Matt and I got a good laugh it was the funniest thing.  He also has a tub of blocks my aunt Kathy got him and the great thing about that is we can put blocks and little toys in there and then he dumps it out on his lap and examines each of them until he gets bored of that.  And then you can walk over fill it up again and the process repeats!

Right now:
Favorite time of the day: Bath time I am happiest
Favorite food: Sweet potatoes and bananas
Favorite pass time: sitting on the floor playing with toys
Favorite way to sleep: with the blanket over my head
To relax: I lay in my boppi and drink my juice
My latest : is to scoot when I'm on my tummy if there is something I want  out of reach(potential crawler?)
I dislike: when daddy uses the food processor it makes me cry
When people: blow their nose I cry
I can't stand : peas (I gagged and puked when I ate them)
I have: stranger anxiety towards men
I ride in carts : like a big boy sitting up
On sunny days: I like to be pushed in my stroller
I make my mom & dad : laugh every day

I don't cry now when I try to eat it!

I snuck a snap shot because it was so cute

It was 82 the other day I love the pout 

Have a nice day!

This is how I ride in my stroller

Big week!

This week has been a big week!  Ethan rolled over!!  It has been a long time coming.  Back in January he was trying so hard to do it and we thought it was going to happen then.  But when he learned to sit up he gave up on rolling over and all he wanted to do was sit up and play with his toys.  Then the other day he was laying down and he started to try again.  This time his form was much better and we knew it was only a matter of time before he would do it.  Matt had a work from home day and sure enough with both of us there he did it.  The first time we didn't catch it on video but we had him do it again so we could grab a video of it.  As you will see in the video we had to help him a long a bit but he did it all on his own.  What a big boy!  He also has a few new loves, the song if you are happy and you know it and waving hello.  As soon as we say "If your happy" he immediately gets this bashful look on his face in preparation for someone grabbing his hands and clapping them together.  He smiles through the whole song.  And waving, well he just started mimicking us one day.  We would say "hi Ethan" and wave and soon he was waving his hand. It is not as controlled but very cute.

In other news Uncle Pat and Aunt Sara made a trip to New York to visit!  They wanted to see us before we made our move and will be going off to Australia soon so they didn't want to miss us.  It was great having them.  It was a short trip but we made the most of it.  Ethan absolutely loved Sara, Pat on the other hand for some reason kept making him cry.  I think it is a combo of his voice and Ethan has suddenly developed stranger anxiety of men.  A nice old man at the post office said hello to him and he lost it and started to cry hysterically.  Last night Matt BBQ up some burgers and we had a fire in the pit in the back yard. Later we Skyped with Jenny and the girls and Gerry too.  Pat and Sara had never used Skype and so it was a first for them.  It was funny joking with Pat and his lack of technology.  We also took them to downtown Fredericksburg, all the shops were closed though because it was Sunday and apparently they don't open until noon whoops!  There is a store dedicated to cats so since Sara is such a cat lover we did stick around long enough to take a peek in there.  We enjoyed seeing them a lot.

Ethan and Aunt Sara 

Hanging by the fire pit

I included these photos because they were so cute!  It was so nice out and Tucker was a little stir crazy so we went out in the backyard to toss the ball.  It was a bit breezy but sunny so we tossed Ethan in this adorable little snow suit my Aunt Kathy got him. It has some meaning to me because she bought it when we first found out I was pregnant and her and my mom took me shopping for maternity clothes in SF.  I remember thinking boy or girl how cute our little one would look in it, and man was I right!   Ethan definitely was having a blast sitting there on the chair watching Tuck run around.  

Virginia Beach

Matt and I wanted to do something to celebrate our year anniversary, and since I have always wanted to check out  Virginia Beach since I moved here we thought that would be the place to go.  It is only two hours away the perfect distance while traveling with a six month old and a dog.  Since sunday was suppose to be thunder storms we decided to go friday to saturday, so we packed the boys up and went about our way.  Friday night Matt made dinner reservations at a restaurant on the beach called Ocean 31 a place recommended for their seafood.  It was out of this world, both of us agreed that it was the best crab and oysters we had ever had.  They even sat us at a table that was facing the ocean so we had a front row view of the sunset.  Ethan was really great through it all, except he was so interested in everything that was put on the table he automatically reached for anything that was placed within his reach.  He even grabbed an oyster off Matt's plate when he wasn't looking and me being the worry wart I am we had to wipe him down for fear of an allergic reaction.  He also wanted to be apart of the festivities when the waiter brought Matts beer and set it on the table he was frantically trying to grab at it.  We snapped a pretty funny picture of it.

Celebratory dinner

Even Ethan wanted to celebrate and toast us

In order to keep with Ethan's routine we got back to the hotel and went to give him a bath before bed when we quickly realized that this was going to be doomed from the start.  Not only did we forget baby soap, but the room we had only had a shower.  Improvising we put him in the sink.  It was a tight fit and he seemed to give us a look like "really mom and dad?"  He probably would have lost it but we gave him a rubber ducky and he immediately forgot about the cramped make shift tub and went about his business with his rubber ducky.  Ethan has an obsession with his rubber ducky at home, lets just say the part of the song "rubber ducky I'm awfully fond of you" holds very true.  When we first checked in Ethan charmed all the ladies at the front desk and they told us to grab him the whole set of Homewood Suites rubber duckies and the matching book from the gift shop absolutely free!  Thank goodness or we would have had one sad bath time.  All in all he was such a sport about it.  

Bath time hotel style

Saturday we went to the beach!  It was over cast and cold but we still decided to  go for a few minutes.    This by far was Tuckers favorite part of the trip.  Matt said he hadn't been to the beach since he was a puppy but boy did he not forget.  We took him down to the water and he immediately started running, jumping and flipping around.  This was sort of difficult because since it wasn't a leash free beach we had to keep him on the leash and since Matt had Ethan in the baby back pack I had the pleasure of holding him.  Believe me it did not stop him one bit he made the best of it.  I really wish I could have seen him run on that beach I honestly think that he would have thought he died and went to heaven.  We only stayed by the water for a few short minutes before we headed up to the boardwalk.  We only got a short distance down before we decided to head back.  All though Ethan was bundled up we were afraid that he was freezing.  After that we headed towards an ice cream shop that we had seen on the travel channel for the"best ice cream" and so of course seeing how we were there we decided we should make our own executive decision about it.  Unfortunately it was closed and wasn't going to open for another hour and a half.  We decided that since Ethan was passed out in the back a two hour blissful car ride would be more worth it than the "best ice cream."  We were right to do that  because he slept peacefully the whole way home.  Traveling with a baby was a lot of work I can't believe the amount of stuff we took for an over night trip. So long are the days of throwing a duffle bag and going.  It was well worth it in the end though... but we are taking offers for babysitters for our next one!!!!

Ethan's first beach trip wish it was warmer

Going

Gone