The Hat

We came across a hat at Old Navy the other day. I put it on E's head just to see, thinking he would immediately throw it off as he usually does. See, the only hat he's really ever kept on his head is a winter hat, and that's probably only because it was 20 degrees in NYC and he's no dummy. Much to my surprise, he happily put the hat on, nodded in approval, and started to walk around the store. I asked him if he wanted the hat, and he nodded and smiled, so to the checkout counter we went.

I mean, really, how could you not buy him the hat after seeing this?

So the hat has come with us to dinner, to the park, and to the store. If he sees it lying around the house, on his head it goes. I'm thinking the obsession might be short-lived, so I thought it'd be a good idea to document it.



I'm really hoping he'll at least like it long enough so it can work as a sun hat of sorts for the beach in a couple of weeks and maybe even for summer, but we'll see. For now, he's all about his hat.

It's Bluebonnet Time Again

I love bluebonnets, always have. I used to make huge bouquets of them and other wildflowers from my grandparents yard. Taking E to take pictures in the flowers is a Texas tradition that I will definitely take part in as long as he'll let me, as corny as it may be.

This year, he wasn't really into it. He loved running around the field, but sitting and smiling for the camera was not interesting to him.

"you want me to do what now?"


"alright fine, but this seems weird to me."


He liked picking the flowers too...don't tell.


Nana and Daddy managed to get some smiles out of him.

And then he was off. I must have looked like a fool chasing him around with the camera trying to get a good picture.

This one looks to me like he's saying, "yo, Ma, I told you I'm done with pictures!"

He then proceeded to crawl around the field, so we called it a day.

Perhaps we'll get another chance for more pictures if we visit Gramma, but I'm pretty happy with these.

Par-tay!

On Saturday, my baby turned two, can you believe it? (this is what he does when you ask him how old he is, we've been practicing).

We've spent quite a bit of time preparing for his birthday parties (that right, plural, parties), and this weekend was our "family" party at our house. Next weekend, we'll have a "friends" party and a bounce house place because there was NO way I was having two parties at the house.

I have to say, I think the party went well. Some of our family couldn't make it, so it was a little smaller than last year. E has had a wicked case of diaper rash, which he never gets, so we were a little sad for him, but it didn't seem to bother him too much. We spent the morning having a little naked time, and Ethan thought it'd be fun to have some pants-less backpack time.

He ran around the house like this for quite a while, and it was one of the cutest things ever.

He also did a little naked decorating.

After naked time, he took his nap right on schedule, which gave me, Cory, and Nana time to do some last minute things before the guests showed up. Luckily, I learned my lesson last year and did a lot of prepping in the weeks before. However, there are always things that never seem to get done on time... no one noticed I'm sure.

The banner.

Snacks and dips.

garland.

"Cake" table. The cake pops are in the blue box in the back.

Grilling the kabobs.

The cooks.

The party.

The spread. There's fruit, chicken, steak, and veggie kabobs. Can you guess my "theme" for the party?

Ethan appreciated the theme.

Cake pop time.

He blew out his candle like a pro. (I told him it was hot, so he blew on it).

Unwrapping presents. It went really slowly at first, you know why? My little OCD boy would pull off a piece of paper and walk it to the trash. We had to put a stop to that if we were going to get everything opened by time he was 3.

Then it slowed down again because he found something he liked, a whistle. He got some great things though: tons of clothes (yay!), trains, a trike, a remote control car, a rocket, books...

Playing in his new sand box from Mama and Dada.

Having a blast in the bounce house from Nana. Bonus, it holds Mama too, so we can have all kinds of fun. We're looking to have more playdates at the house too....any takers?

Lastly, there was pinata time. E was of course excited about the stick, and got the hang of it pretty quickly. He did recruit help to finally get the candy out though.

That was the first of his parties. He goes for his well check on Tuesday, so I'll probably post his stats along with a lot of gushy stuff about him being two and all the things he's up to these days, so get ready. Then next weekend we'll have more party time with his buddies, can't wait!

What we've been up to

Well, not much really. This week, I've been slowly dying. Okay, I'm being dramatic, but something has me out of commission, and hopefully the doctor will diagnose what that "something" is. In the meantime, it's been really hard taking care of my ball of energy when I'm curled up trying to ignore the pain.

What's the solution to that problem? Lots of outside time. I swear we spend most of our day in the backyard. It's great for E because he absolutely loves it, and it's also great for me to get some rest. When I'm not sick, it's also good because we've been working in the backyard trying to make it look halfway decent. Ethan helped plant some bulbs last week (and then he dug them up again just for fun), and hopefully we'll actually see something start to grow. We've also fenced off an area for compost, and we're contemplating a vegetable garden. When you're always outside, you come up with a lot of things you'd "like" to do, so we'll see.

Here's some pictures of some of things Ethan likes to do:

Play some football.

A rare shot of him being nice to Avery.

Waving at the neighbors. A lot of them like to come by and say hi.

Hopefully we'll start doing some more exciting things soon, but I have a feeling there will still be a lot of outside time. I'd really like Ethan to have more playtime with other kiddos, so we're going to work on that too.

Wordless Wednesday

Because I've been severely lacking in posts...

Outside

Our little man LOVES to be outside. Whether it's cold or hot, he'll stay out there for hours if he could. I'm not too fond of the cold, so we hadn't been outside as much as he liked, but since it's warmed up we're out there at least once a day.

When I uploaded these pictures the other day, I realized they pretty much sum up some of Ethan's favorite things.

Bubbles. He loves them. He'll go to the cabinet where we keep the bubble machine and ask, "bubbles?" I think his addiction to bubbles might put us in the poor house.

He's also learning how to use the bubble wands himself. Too cute.

Running. The kid loves to run. He'll start at one end of the yard, give us a sneaky grin like he's saying, "You ready for this?" and take off, usually giggling along the way.

Sticks. Who knows what's with the sticks, but unlike bubbles, they're free and they're everywhere. He likes to pick a stick as soon as we step out the door and carry it around the whole time. He can find a stick-like object almost anywhere we go.

That's our Ethan. And yes, he's wearing Christmas pajama bottoms in the backyard, don't judge.

Another Video

This is actually one of my favorite Ethan videos EVAH. A while back, E learned how to say "Oh" in front of everyone's names: "Oh, Mama," "Oh, Dada," etc. Well one day, this song came on, and Ethan started to "sing" along. He loves his Nana.

Christmas 2010

Thought I'd share a video from Christmastime to go along with that belated holiday post.