Ethan Trying to Crawl

So Ethan is very mobile - he rolls everywhere, can get from laying down to sitting up and then back down again, has stood alone several times, is starting to pull himself up on furniture, etc.

But for some reason, he can't quite figure out crawling yet... and I think the poor guy is getting frustrated about it!

My very favorite part is around :20, where he does the downward dog thing.  And I just love all the babble - can't you just HEAR him saying, "Dad, I'm trying to get this and it just isn't working!!"?

Hold your horses, people - once he figures this out, we're in for a wild ride! :)

Ethan in Video

As mentioned, I take more videos of my little guy than pictures.  So here's the good stuff:

Mike is so good at making Ethan laugh.  Adorable!

First solid food - he didn't go for it nearly as much as Aidan did!  It also took Ethan about 2 solid weeks to really get into it (instead of 4.2 seconds like Aidan in the linked video!).

Demo of his mad sitting and banging skills.  Future percussionist, perhaps?

Finally, Aidan had a community ed class in a school building, and there I discovered Ethan's completely irrational fear of public toilet flushing.  Kind of mean on my part, but super hilarious!

Ethan in Pictures and Words

Oh no... second child syndrome!  Not only have I published about Ethan less, but I have fewer pictures, too.  Shhh - don't tell Ethan!  It doesn't mean I love him any less, just that I have less time!

Here are some recent pictures of my cutie.  I regularly call him nicknames that involve the word fat (Fatty Fat, Little Fat Fat, Chubby Fat, etc.) because I just love his cute fat legs!

I promise, my child is usually in clothes.  But really: why bother when he leaves lovely gifts like this?!

And also, he gets quite a few rashes in his fat rolls from sweating, so I figure that going naked can only be good for those, right?

Milestones:

Rolling over - he can, but doesn't often

Sitting - now a champ all by himself

Chewing toes - obviously, yes

Eating solids - total pro

Moving - some pushing and rotating, but no crawling yet (thank goodness!)

Blowing raspberries - one of his new favorite things, especially when he has a mouthful of food!

Seeing, Reaching, Grabbing, Putting in Mouth - um, yes.  He'll get a leaf, my necklaces, his food, YOUR food... you name it!

Teeth - none yet, but I think it will be soon

Sure love this little one!

And part of why I don't have many great pics is because I tend to take more video of him, so look for that post soon.

Three Years Old

People talk about the terrible twos... Aidan really wasn't terrible!
And then all these experienced moms told me that they though 3 was way worse than 2.

While Aidan still is a really wonderful kid, turning three has certainly brought some temper tantrums, especially about "doing it by myself!"  Here are some hilarious videos for you to enjoy!

I can't even remember why he was so mad in the car seat, but I thought the leg kicking was particularly amusing.

(In case you can't tell, he's upset because he got his arm twisted in the shirt when he put in on by himself, but he didn't want me to help him fix it.)

Does it make me a terrible mom that I laugh at these??

Cape

Wow, I'm so slow on blogging lately.  I figure most of you have given up on me by now, but I keep posting every now and then, more for my records than for anything else.

I made Aidan a cape for his birthday.  It was a great experience for me - my friend Lacey helped me learn a lot of basic sewing stuff that I didn't know before.  The cape is reversible so he can wear it to be either Batman or Superman.

He seems to like it!  And I had so much fun making it that I went ahead and made a second one (before I could forget how!) so that Aidan can have one for a friend (or for Ethan when he's older).  Go, superheroes!

Rock Climbing

Mike and I recently celebrated our 6th anniversary.  For his gift, I signed us up for an introductory rock climbing class.  We had lots of fun!  We learned how to tie ourselves in, how to belay properly (Mike is heavier than I am by enough that he sometimes lifts me off the ground while I'm belaying him!), and we got to try a few walls.  Mike is definitely more skilled at it than I am (no surprise, looking at those muscles!), but we both had a great time!  In fact, they gave us passes to come back free in the next 2 weeks (to help cement what we learned), so we will be heading back again soon!

New Patio Door

When we had our home inspection before buying this home, one of the things that came up was that there was some wood rot on the base of the patio door.  Obviously, we didn't want that to spread into the wood of the house.  Also, the door swings in, which took up a lot of space in our (very small) kitchen.  So we decided to replace the old door with a new sliding one.

Here is the old door.

See how much space it took up when it swung in?

Here's the wood rot on the inside corner...

...and the outside corner.

And you can see the gross treads on the base board.

 So we had the Home Depot guy come install it.  (He was a great sport about being in all of these pictures, and he did a great job, too!)

He started by taking off the trim.

He had one very captivated two-year-old watching!

Next, out with the old - part 1

and part 2.

Unfortunately, the rot had already started to spread beyond the door itself, which was one of our concerns.

Luckily, the fix was this simple - a new piece of 2x4.

And now, in with the new - part 1

and part 2!

Batman thought this whole show was absolutely fascinating!
We sure like our new door!