Ethan 'n Beckett Land: January 2008

Beckett, Twenty One Weeks Old!

Just odds and ends this week...lunch with Mormor and Papa Chris...we visited with cousin William...you had your 4 month check up with Dr. Shoichet - you are now 17lbs 9oz.

Beckett, Twenty Weeks Old!

This week you started sleeping even longer stretches! We put you to bed at about 6:30 or 7 at night and you have been frequently sleeping until 4 or 5 in the morning. It feels unreal to be able to sleep 6 or 7 hours in a row again. I will appreciate it while it lasts...

You also tried the exersaucer for the first time. It was very exciting for you to be upright - mostly. You are still so small that when you flex your little legs to stand you kind of flop into a leaning position.

Beckett, Nineteen Weeks Old!

This week you finally rolled over after teetering to both sides for the past few weeks. Now when I put you down on your play mat you egg roll all over the place.

You also had your first taste of brown rice cereal. You liked it.

Beckett, Eighteen Weeks Old!

This week was the first time we put you in the Jolly Jumper. You kind of have the gingerbread man thing (stiff legs) going on like your brother did. I think you liked being upright - but mostly just pushed against the floor without bending your knees making it hard to jump. We'll keep trying...

You also had your 4 month immunizations this week. You were tough, of course. You now weigh in at 17 lbs even and you are 26 inches long.

Ethan at 2 and 1/4

This past month has been the most challenging time that we have had with you. The combination of the time change with the 2 year molars and the nap resistance and Christmas...it was a 1.2.3.4 punch to parenting within a routine. We did our best to stick with things - but this was definitely a time of flexibility and retraining (on both of our parts).

You show up as a blur in almost every picture I try to take without a flash. Still busy, busy, busy. You gallop and hop everywhere, still narrowly missing corners at every turn. Still need a helmet... You were even more of a hazard than usual because you spent so much time overtired.

You are using I and you and me almost perfectly now. The third person has almost disappeared. You even stick in a she, he, him, or her in your descriptions now. As in, "What's HER doin?".

You come up with 6 and 7 word sentences now: "That lady has a compuper like ours, mama." or "Me and mama are havin' oatmeal with raisins.". We sit together every morning and eat breakfast - but now we talk about what you want to do today, or what we should get from the store, or a million and one other things that seem to pop into your head at random. So awesome.

These pictures of you and your Dad sharing cereal are a typical scene at our house every day. One minute the crazy insane business of life with you as an overtired, psychotic toddler (and a baby brother too!) - then suddenly the most hilarious, witty, and charming character emerges and creates the most perfect moments.

The yin and yang of being two (and a quarter). We love you more than ever!

XOXO - Mama

Welcome Sofia!

Congratulations to my brother Grant and his wife Alicia! They now have their referral for their adoption from Ethiopia and are "expecting" to bring Sofia home sometime this spring.

Finally...and its a girl!

New Years Day Walk, 2008

It seems like tradition that we always get out for a walk for New Years Day. That was pretty much the only thing we did today, even though we stayed home and had dinner with friends and went to bed by 10pm last night. Oh, how things have changed in the last few years!

Ethan and Daddy on a "secret mission". It is a new game with Ethan that one of us will walk down some side trails with him and sneak up on the other family members.