Toddler Bed

As I wrote last night, we transitioned Ethan to a toddler bed. He had been attempting to climb out periodically when throwing tantrums at bedtime, though he never actually made it over the rail, so we knew the transition was coming. He has had an awful chest cold/bronchitis this week, so I brought him into bed with us on Tuesday night and gave him a pillow to keep his head elevated. He thought this was amazing, so on Wednesday night, he asked for a pillow again. However, he did NOT want it in his crib and insisted on lying down on the floor with it. Thursday's nap was the same story, so we made the decision to go ahead and convert his crib that night.

I worried that Ethan would freak out about the change since he pitched a fit the last time we lowered his crib mattress. However, he excitedly climbed all over everything, helping Daddy use the drill and playing with the Allen wrench.  After our usual bedtime routine, I kissed him goodnight, and he pointed to the floor and said, "Pillow right here!" I told him he needed to stay in bed, but he was already off and dragging his pillow onto the ground. Since he was happy, I decided not to push it, and he joyfully told me "bye bye" and went right to sleep without a fight (rare for him these days since he usually wants to go potty 3 times and then begs you to lie on the ground next to him).

The next morning, I woke up and checked the monitor only to see the following scene. Can you find the toddler?

This afternoon, he happily napped on the floor once again, so I figured we were going to have a floor-sleeper on our hands, but at least he wasn't trying to escape or throw fits. Then tonight happened. He begged me to lie down with him, and I did for a minute, but when I got up, he began to cry. A minute later, I heard the doorknob turn, and when I told him he needed to go back to bed, he grinned and said, "Need go potty?" After a potty run, I put him back in his room, and he immediately began to cry. I stood at the door while he kept trying to open it. Finally, Daddy had to go in and talk to him, and when he left, Ethan just sat on the edge of his bed and wailed. One more visit of reassurance from Daddy, and Ethan finally laid down in his toddler bed. And, for the first time, he actually fell asleep In the bed instead of on the floor!

I'm not sure whether to count tonight as a win or not, but at least the toddler bed transition is going better than I had feared. Hopefully, a week from now this will all be old hat, and he'll be happily sleeping in his toddler bed every night!

Two Years Old!

Dear Ethan,

This year has gone by faster than the first! I cannot believe you are already TWO! And yet you are so grown up. You are becoming more verbal every day and talk all day long. There is pretty much nothing motor-related that you cannot do and no surface is too high for you to climb to. You are borderline fearless and almost always eager to try new things. And there's just not much baby-ish left about you. You're fully potty-trained. You go to (and absolutely love) preschool. We even transitioned you to a toddler bed tonight (you've been insisting on sleeping on the floor with a pillow these past couple of days/nights, so we finally decided to convert the crib. You had no problem whatsoever with the conversion and liked climbing in and out of your new bed, but you are currently asleep on the floor with your pillow. Weirdo!)!

Unfortunately, you seem to be afflicted with your first case of bronchitis for your birthday, but you haven't let that stop you from enjoying all the festivities. You are such a happy and playful little guy, and your sense of humor is just enhanced as your vocabulary continues to grow. In two days, you'll be surrounded by some of the many people who love you as we celebrate your birthday with a proper party, and I know you'll just hate to be the center of attention like that =P

I am so blessed to be your mommy and am so excited to see what the next year has in store for you. And, as always, even though you're a big boy now, you're still my baby and always will be.

Love,
Mommy

First Day of School

Today was Ethan's first day of preschool! Shockingly, I had no nerves about it whatsoever and was simply excited, which is odd since I've been lamenting all the big-boy changes of late. Ethan must have sensed this because he went in like an old pro! We got to the building, and he strolled right in to his classroom. I had to pull him back out to show him his hook for his bag. He resisted, but finally grinned when I pointed out he had a blue nameplate. Then he charged right back into the classroom, heading straight for a plastic bin and carrying it over to the play kitchen to "fill it with water." I stood back for a minute and watched him and then decided I might as well go! I asked him for a hug and a kiss. He sighed and gave me a hug. I asked if I could have a kiss. He audibly groaned and gave me a quick peck before going back to his work. I told him to have fun and keep his underwear dry. He responded, "K!" On my way out, I reminded the teacher to remind Ethan to keep his underwear dry, and as I left, he had already discovered the real sink and was gleefully washing his hands. I left and he didn't even bat an eye. The little punk =) (Not that I wanted him to be upset, mind you; I just expected some sort of goodbye =P)

I left the building (practically skipping, I'll admit) and rushed to enjoy my 3 hours of childless-ness, the only ones I'll get before my class starts back tomorrow. I wish I could say I did something fun, but in reality, I came home, uploaded a picture of Ethan to facebook, and then set about cleaning the house. I scrubbed the bathrooms, unloaded the dishwasher, dusted, captured an escaped goat (damn goats), and then headed back out to talk with a friend for an hour before heading back to the preschool to fetch Ethan.

I walked into the classroom behind some other mothers, whose kids came running into their arms. Not Ethan. He stayed right where he was, sitting on a shelf, and pushing a toy vacuum. Finally he noticed me and exclaimed "Mommy!!!" I went to give him a hug, and he said, "Mommy back!!!" Then he started showing me all the toys he played with, including a book that had wheels on it that he made "vroom vroom" noises over as he pushed around. Every adult in the classroom (his two teachers, the director, and an additional helper for the first week) came up to me to comment on how much he liked to wash his hands... apparently every time they turned around, he was back at the sink. Now they know what life is like at home! They also pointed out that he'd had no accidents, so that was my one fear put at ease! I asked Ethan if he was ready to go home, and he grabbed my hand and went to get his bag. As I put him into his carseat, I asked if he had fun, and he responded with an enthusiastic "Yes!"

All in all, it was a great first day for both of us. Hopefully he's just as excited on Thursday!

Twenty-Three Months

Dear Ethan,

In one short month, you will be 2. And as momentous as your first birthday seemed, somehow your second seems like an even bigger deal! It's been a busy and accomplished month, and the last month of your second year will see even more milestones.

We're 100% done with diapers, and you're in underwear full-time. You average an accident a day, though some days you have none and occasionally you have more, so things are going pretty well! The only downside has been less sleep since you wake up earlier from both your nap and overnight in order to remain dry, but hopefully your bladder will expand some as you age. I'm so proud and amazed by how quickly you've come with this!

Your vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. You boss us around all day long and continue to crack us up with the sentences you construct. You tell jokes (not very good ones, of course), you dictate your surroundings, and you let us know what you want and need. You know all of your letters (one-to-one correspondence, even!) and are getting better with numbers (you can count to nine, though you don't always get the correspondence). Almost daily, we turn to one another and say, "Did you hear what he just said?" with a mix of awe and amusement. You're certainly becoming your own little person!

You love playing with friends, and you're going to have plenty of opportunity because in two weeks you will begin preschool! In fact, your first ever first day of school is less than 24 hours before my last ever first day of school! It will be hard to be apart from you for 4 mornings a week (between preschool and my class), but you'll be with friends and we'll both be learning so much.

You're amazing, little one, and as big as you grow, you'll always be my baby.

Love,
Mommy

3 Day Potty Method: Day 3

Only 2 accidents all day long. 2. That's it!

AND we went for a short drive this morning (during which I discovered Target doesn't open until 8 AM), we went to Target (after 8 AM), and we went to the farmer's market this afternoon, all with no accidents!

I have moved away from some of the 3-day method in that I have a few tricks to make the potty seem more appealing during times I suspect he might need to go (he generally goes about every 45 minutes, more often after drinking liquids). The most successful way to get him to decide he wants to go potty is to tell him Mommy needs to go. He races ahead of me and shouts, "Ethan first! Bye-bye, Mommy!" tugging his underwear down and grinning at me mischievously. My other method is to tell him we can do [insert activity here] after the next time he uses the potty. It began with nursing since I don't enjoy being peed all over and want to make sure his bladder is empty before letting him lie in my lap for long stretches of time, but it's useful for other activities as well. It's slightly coercive, yes, but the impetus is still on him to recognize that he needs to use the potty, he still has to climb up himself, and he decides when he gets down. So hopefully I'm only aiding him in his ability to decipher his body's signs and not irreparably screwing it up.

As terrified as I was of this step (and as anxious as I still feel throughout the day), I do feel like he was ready and am very glad to have said goodbye to diapers. Honestly, I think part of my anxiety throughout the day is not wanting to screw up a good streak. Who I think I would be disappointing if my 22 month old has an accident here and there is beyond me, but it's definitely my own desire for perfection. I should probably get a handle on that before I pass it on to Ethan, huh?

Time will tell if this sticks or is just a novel phase, but hopefully it will continue to be just this easy!

3 Day Potty Method: Day 2

Well, today was a much better day! Just in the stats alone: 7 accidents total. No accidents from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM. Only 1 accident from 10:30 AM to 8 PM. I think he might be getting it!

The thing that's amazed me most is Ethan's attitude through all of this. He is having the time of his life. He giggles the entire time he runs to the potty, and he does a victory lap around the house after every success (prior to putting his underwear back on, which makes it even funnier). He's been a complete delight (other than being a mischief sometimes, especially with his returned obsession with sticking his hand in the potty water... gross!).

I'm much more encouraged after today, but I'll admit I would feel a lot better if it hadn't been for that 5:30 PM accident. I know that kids continue to have accidents long after they're potty trained, but I would really feel like he'd gotten it if not for that. Also, a couple of times he went this afternoon were the result of my saying, "You can't do X until you after the next time you use the potty" (nurse, feed the goats, etc.), so that wasn't really him realizing he had to go. I guess I'm just trying not to get my hopes up too high, and I'm also very nervous about going out with him in underwear.

We'll see how tomorrow goes, and go from there, I guess!

3 Day Potty Method: Day 1

After Ethan's initial interest in the potty at 17 months, his enthusiasm began to wane. He went from only having 2 wet diapers a day (the rest being in the potty) to only using the potty twice a day (if that). Recently, however, he's been more interested again, and we've gone over a week at a time without having to change a poopy diaper, which is always nice. So about a month ago, I decided to investigate the 3-day potty training method several of my friends had raved about. You have to wait until your child is at least 22 months and set aside a 3 day period to do absolutely nothing but stay at home watching your child with rapt attention. And that 3 day period I set aside a month ago began today.

The first step of the method is throwing out the diapers. Since we use cloth, that meant a final wash and stripping in preparation for storage for an eventual kid #2. From now on, Ethan will be exclusively in underwear. The point of this is to remove any crutch the parent might have in starting potty training and also to make accidents readily apparent. As soon as the child has an accident, they are whisked away to try to finish on the potty. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. The whole process is meant to be very positive (tons of praise, no negativity, rewards, etc.)

So how did day 1 go? Well, we survived. Ethan was NOT thrilled about his underwear at first. He loved that there are trains on it, but when I tried to put it on him, he started crying. He continued to be upset about it all through breakfast and would only eat sitting in my lap. We kept praising him and telling him what a big boy he was, and by the time Daddy left for work, Ethan was fine with his new duds. When he woke up this morning, he had peed on the potty, and he managed to stay dry until his first accident over an hour after waking. And then it began. You give them TONS of fluids to provide plenty of opportunities for learning. In total, Ethan had 20 accidents today. Some were bigger than others, and a couple of times he finished on the potty. Several other times, he realized he had to go, ran to the potty, and went all by himself (he'd usually preface such an event by telling me "Bye bye!" and running off)! In fact, he stayed in the same pair of underwear from 5 to almost 8! And he woke up from his nap dry, which he hasn't been doing lately after having done it for months earlier.

I'll admit we aren't sticking 100% to the plan. You're supposed to use underwear for overnight as well, but I'm just not sure I'm up to changing sheets in the middle of the night just yet. Instead, we're using the training pants we got 4 months ago. His "sleep underwear" (as we're calling it) looks and goes on just like his normal underwear but has a cloth insert that can be changed out 5 times. The main reason the method wants underwear 24/7 is to avoid a regression if a child realizes there are still diapers in the house, so hopefully this won't cause any problems since it's so similar. And since Ethan didn't use the potty before bed (or 30 minutes after I put him to bed when I took him to try again), I'm thinking the chances of him waking up dry tomorrow are pretty slim.

The method says the majority of kids won't get it until the end of day 3, and all of my friends who have used this method experienced the same thing. I'm hopeful that MAYBE Ethan will get it at some point tomorrow because I'm already starting to go stir crazy.

Potty training is certainly not for the faint of heart, but I'm glad we're doing it! And if you made it through all that, here's your reward: Ethan wearing his very last diaper last night!

Twenty-Two Months

Dear Ethan,

Yet another month has flown by. In two short months, you will be two. So hard to believe, and yet when I think of how much you've changed so far this year, it's amazing that it hasn't been so much longer!

You narrate everything you do, and at this point we are actually able to understand 75% of the words! You're up to 4 word sentences, and we're always amused by the phrases you concoct. It's amazing what all you pick up on when we didn't know you were listening. And it's amazing how much you've learned that we've actively tried to teach you. Today, I asked you if you wanted to go downstairs to get a snack, and you ran into your playroom and exclaimed "Clean up first!" before picking up all your toys. You are getting better and better with your letters and numbers, though your favorite letter is still "O" and your favorite number is "2." Colors and sorting have become your go-to activity, even in ways Mommy never imagined. Blue remains your favorite, but you will sort anything by color or shade, and lately you've become more picky about things getting mixed up.

You are so creative. In addition to the sorting activities you make up and all of your dramatic play, you're starting to come up with actual pretend scenarios. Yesterday, several of your blocks were "hot" so you and Mommy had to blow on them to cool them down and touch them very carefully if they fell. I certainly didn't expect this sort of thing already, and I'm thrilled to get to watch your mind work.

We've reached a point where food has become a non-issue, which I never thought would happen. You're still somewhat picky and definitely have your favorites, but there's no food I'm worried about you trying to eat, and you eat enough variety from each food group that meals have become easy at last. And as long as you're still nursing six times a day, I don't have any worries about you getting all the nutrients you need!

You are so strong-willed and stubborn sometimes, but those "Terrible Twos" behaviors are balanced out by your gleeful, mischievous grins and copious hugs and kisses. In short, you have us wrapped around your little finger, and it doesn't hurt that most of your tantrums are still more adorable than anything else.

I can't wait to see what the next few months have in store!

Love,
Mommy

Confession

I've been cheating on this blog. After several weeks of not feeling like writing, I decided I needed to get a lot out. But I wasn't sure I wanted to get it all out in "public." So on Saturday night after Ethan went to bed, I turned to an old blog I never really started. 10 single-spaced pages and over 5000 words later, and the words are still pouring out. Since none of it is really Ethan-related, you're not really missing out on anything good =) But as long as I continue to find my catharsis there, it's unlikely I'll be updating here as much.

A few bullet points to tide you over:
- Ethan had his first swim lesson at the Y today. He loved it, except for when the lifeguard changed shifts, at which point he puckered up and wailed like he hasn't in months. Apparently he didn't care for the new guy.
- Ethan now attempts to sing along to the ABC song and does the motions for "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." It's as adorable as it sounds.
- We've been exploring museums lately to beat the heat. The weekend before last we went to the local children's museum and this past weekend we went to the state museum of natural sciences. Ethan loved them both!
- Friday marks 22 months. Wow.

P.S. To preempt any speculation, when I say it's not Ethan related, I also mean it's not pregnancy/parenting related. No I'm not pregnant. No I haven't been pregnant since Ethan. No we're not trying. So no worries!

We're Still Here

I've been a neglectful blogger of late. You'd think I'd have plenty of time to blog during the summer, but it's amazing how busy you can become playing, relaxing, and getting projects done. There's been a lot going on both good and bad, and I may get around to sharing some of it eventually, but for now, I'm just enjoying all the time off to focus on my sweet boy! Hope you and yours are doing well, too!

Twenty-One Months

Dear Ethan,

In three short months, you will turn 2. Mind-boggling. And yet you've changed so much just in the past month. Most notably, you have become so much more talkative and are constantly narrating the world around you. I tried the other day to count up the words you know and eventually gave up after I hit 50. Any fears I might have had about you being slow to talk are long gone. You're up to 3 word sentences now, and I'm constantly amazed (and amused) by the things that come out of your mouth ("daddy truck poop" anyone?).

So many of the peculiarities of infanthood and even young toddlerhood seem so long ago. It was just recently that you refused any fresh fruits and vegetables but now you chow down on just about anything. You love carrots and green beans the most, raw or cooked, and you go nuts over sliced apple. I'm finally enjoying meals with you instead of it seeming like just another chore.

You are such a delight, Ethan, and I genuinely enjoy our play together. Even when you have gotten on my last nerve refusing to mind and getting into mischief, you just look up at me with that grin and it's all I can do to keep a straight face. You are considerate and empathetic beyond your years, and you love your family and friends so fiercely. I'm constantly in awe of the little boy you are becoming and I can't wait to watch you grow into the man you will be. Until then, I'll continue to savor these countless sweet moments.

Love,
Mommy

Frugal vs. Natural

Since I just posted about green cleaning, I figured now was as good a time as any to vent write about green eating. Ideally, everything we ate would be locally and organically grown or raised. Unfortunately, we just don't have the grocery budget for that. So then the issue becomes, what do we compromise on? As I think I confessed earlier, I've dropped many of the organics I insisted on for Ethan's first year. He still gets ($6/gallon) organic milk, but his yogurt, meat, and some of his produce are conventional. I try to buy organic for the dirty dozen, at the very least, but sometimes the budget gets in the way yet again (especially since our local organic farm is having hard times due to the weather and a family emergency so all organics have to be bought at the store). And organic meat/cheese/eggs? There are not enough coupons in the world for us to afford that on a regular basis. It's frustrating because I would like to eat more responsibly, but do we dip into savings (or stop putting money into savings each month) in order to buy $6+/lb. organic chicken breasts when I can stock up on the conventional variety on sale for just $1.65/lb?

And eating organically isn't the only way I want to raise Ethan. I want him to be a locavore, too, supporting our small farmers and enjoying the fruits (and veggies and meats) of the land he lives on. We go to the farmer's market in our little town every Saturday morning, and I'm excited to start going to their new Wednesday afternoon one as well. There I stock up on kale, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, etc. All the veggies we need to get us through a week's worth of dinners. I also buy our local honey there, which we have been going through lately at an alarming rate. A couple of weeks ago, I even decided to purchase a few pork chops and some bacon for a dinner I'd been wanting to make for a while (but the grocery store pork chops didn't look good enough). The price tag for 2 dinners' + 1 breakfast's worth of meat? Over $20. $20 for the meat alone!!! And while that was some of the best bacon I've ever had, that's just not possible on a regular basis (which may be a good thing, in this case...)

So what's the answer? In a dream world, we'd have enough money to shop exclusively at Whole Foods and buy all our meat and produce at the farmer's market. In a slightly-less dream world, I could grow all our produce organically in our backyard and put that savings towards buying other organic/local goods. I would love to do this, but I lack both the know-how and the green thumb to make this a reality, I'm afraid. Our neighbor has started to grow a lot in an effort to reduce grocery costs, so she and my horticulturalist mother-in-law would be great resources, but, honestly, I'm intimidated. And it's that intimidation that has stopped me from starting a garden for three years now. ((Thanks to said mother-in-law, I do now have an amazing herb garden, which has already helped tremendously with produce costs since I use a LOT of herbs in cooking. I also tried to grow some spinach this year, but the deer ate it last week)).

Since I've missed out on planting a garden this year, I'm going to keep muddling through like we've been doing. I buy locally and organically where I can, and I try not to fret over the rest. I'm getting to know our local small farmers (my favorite new farm is a certified natural farm that I visited last week on the way home from sailing. She gave me the full tour and is just as friendly and helpful as can be!), and those relationships are as important for Ethan's culinary education as organic, locally-milled flour would be.

What We've Been Up To In Pictures

We've done a lot of stuff lately that I haven't made time to post about. So instead of doing several different posts for the varying topics, I'm going to tie them together with the theme of pictures. Here goes:

Sensory bins:

Playing with his sensory table bin full of dyed cooked spaghetti

 

Making piles

Swoosh!

We made up a big batch of cloud dough (flour and oil) for a play date

Making it snow

New Truck:

We bought Ethan a Power Wheels at our church's youth yard sale for $15. Unfortunately, the battery was dead. Enter Ethan.

4 days and one $50 battery from Amazon later, he was good to zoom!

Our neighbor of course came down to race

They spent a lot of the afternoon staring at one another as they drove

Nathan hopped in to ride shotgun

Random Moments:

Ethan dragged his rocking chair onto the screen porch to watch a thunderstorm

It's horribly blurry, but Ethan loves wearing his daddy's shoes around the house

Playing in a plane at a local organic farm

Pinterest Crafts:

Felt mail

Repurpose a wipes container with scraps of cloth for wipes! Ethan loves it, and he's no longer throwing away good wipes!

It takes a bit longer to reload, but if you take the time, you can even make it feed automatically like real wipes.

The past few weeks have been chock full of play dates, baking, errands, and play, but this should get us slightly more caught up, at least!

Chemical Purge

I haven't shampooed my hair in over a week. It's been almost as long since soap has touched my face. And that Seventh Generation cleaner I always used on my kitchen counters? Well, it's been over a year.

While you're on hold with CPS to report the squalor I'm allowing Ethan to live in, let me assure you that my house (and body) is perfectly clean. I've just been gradually removing chemicals from my cabinets in favor of more natural remedies. It started around the time Ethan began crawling. Even though the Seventh Generation cleaner I'd always used is supposed to be natural, I was looking for something totally baby-proof. So I went old-school. Starting with the kitchen counters, I began using a 1:1 solution of white vinegar and water. Then I began using it in the bathrooms, too. With the addition of my new steam mop, all of my cleaning agents are now homemade, and my home is even more sparkling than before!

Then I discovered coconut oil. I was looking for a lotion/diaper cream for Ethan, and it became a fixture in my bathroom cabinet as well. This stuff is an amazing moisturizer, it smells divine, and you can use it in the kitchen to boot! I slather it on my hands every night, and it's cloth-diaper safe, so I can use it on Ethan without fear.

My most recent switches have come in the past week only because I wanted to wait until after graduation since there is a bit of an in-between time where you can look a greasy mess. I first heard about going "no-poo" from a blog written by a local mommy friend of mine last November. I decided then that I wanted to try ditching the shampoo but decided to wait until the pony-tails of summer allowed me to hide my greasily-adjusting hair. Y'all, this method is amazing! My hair already feels healthier and silkier. It's definitely still adjusting as the oil levels regulate themselves (it takes a couple of weeks), but I don't foresee going back to shampoo.

While I was already greasy from the no-poo plunge, I decided to try out the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM). Using the science of "like dissolves like" this involves washing your face with a mixture of castor oil and olive oil. After the first night, my face felt silky and smooth, and it's such a relaxing process! I had heard there could be an adjustment period with this method as well, but I honestly haven't noticed any difference. The breakout that was starting when I began the OCM was stopped in its tracks. We'll see if it passes the test of hormonal breakouts or not, but I have high hopes for this method as it avoids any need for facial cleanser or moisturizer, and, at the very least, it seems to work just as well.

So what started as an attempt to keep chemicals out of Ethan's crawling environment has become a process of detoxing the house entirely. I have a feeling there will be more changes over the coming months as I discover new ways to ditch the chemicals in favor of more natural methods. But there are still some things I'll hang on to. Most notably: store-bought deodorant, more specifically antiperspirant. In just the past week, two different recipes for homemade deodorant have come up on blogs and forums I follow. My husband has been trying to get me to stop using antiperspirant since we met, but I've just told him it'll be his job to care for me when I'm struck by the aluminum-induced Alzheimer's. I may not know who I am, but at least I won't be sweaty.

Graduation Weekend

I'd planned on getting to this post much earlier in the week, but apparently that didn't happen! It was certainly a whirlwind weekend, though quite enjoyable! I'll try to summarize briefly and of course include some pictures.

Everyone came to town on Friday evening. Ethan went nuts over seeing his BeBe (my maternal grandmother) in person, and even though this was only the 4th time he'd seen her, he was calling for her all weekend long (and all of this past week, too!). On Saturday, after breakfast with my dad and a trip to the farmer's market, my mother-in-law came over in the morning to build me an herb garden for my graduation gift. It's amazing! Then we spent some time playing (mostly with water balloons) before Ethan's nap:

After Ethan's nap, I was able to nurse him quickly before my dad and I headed off to get seats for graduation. We got there right when the chapel was supposed to open, and yet we still ended up in the 3rd to last row!!! I headed off to the div. school chapel where all the graduates were to gather, and there were some mighty pissed off people whose parents were stuck in overflow seating already! After an hour catching up with friends and enjoying the moment, it was time to process in.

The graduation itself was full of mixed feelings. While I was trying to focus on the moment, my mind kept getting distracted by all the crying babies. "Was that Ethan? It sounded too young. That couldn't be him. Could it?" I did hear a laugh that sounded a lot like him (and indeed it was) and found out afterwards that he was as happy as could be, sitting in Grandma's lap and playing with her iPhone. I'm quite proud of how well he did, in fact, especially considering graduation lasted 30 minutes past his regular bedtime!

It was also full of mixed emotions for other reasons. In part, one of my friends from my first year spiritual formation small group passed away last fall from cancer. As we were seated, I asked the person next to me (also from our year) if that was our friend's wife sitting across the aisle. I'd only met her once or twice, but I was pretty positive. Sure enough, it was, and there was a very moving ceremony in which they awarded him a posthumous degree. I (and many of my classmates) couldn't hold back the tears thinking about what an amazing person he was and how much he's missed.

It was also full of mixed emotions because it was the end... but not quite. In a way, I'm actually thankful that I have to go back for one more class next fall because it allowed me to keep it together at graduation. This place has been so wonderful, and I hate to think of leaving. So while I was proud to have (almost) made it through, I'm so glad I don't have to say goodbye yet.

The dean of the chapel gave an amazing sermon, and then it was time for the hooding ceremony. After that, there was a time of community celebration (read: cheering), and then we recessed back up the aisle. I cannot describe how incredible it was to see Ethan waiting for me. He was just beaming, so excited to see his mommy. Seeing him, everything was worth it. And so I couldn't help absconding with him for the rest of the recessional!

We headed to our pre-determined meeting spot. Everyone soon joined us, and then it was time for pictures. By then, Ethan was quite sleepy, so we didn't get a lot of smiles out of him (save for when he started sticking his finger up his nose... he'd outright giggle every time I playfully yanked it out). Finally Ethan couldn't wait to nurse any longer, so we said our goodbyes as I nursed Ethan on the bench.

 The plan had been to change him into PJs, let him fall asleep on the way home, and stop at a fast food restaurant to pick up some dinner. Well, Ethan decided that was a bad plan. Instead, he spent the drive back laughing at his phone, talking away, and just celebrating the evening. I tried to quiet him down, and even recited his favorite book to him from memory, but by the time we got close to home, he was still wide awake. So Ethan and I were dropped at home so I could get him to bed while Daddy went to pick up Chick-fil-A (Everyone else in the family had the same idea, funnily enough!). Ethan went down almost immediately as soon as he got in his crib and slept just fine all night.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, and I'm so glad Ethan was there to share it with me! Now I just need to actually finish earning my diploma!

My Smart Boy!

This is a total bragging post. I make no appearance otherwise. But bear with me because it has a cute video.

A week or two ago, I told my husband that Ethan knew a letter: "O." He has one of those magnetic letter sets with Scout from VTech, and he likes to play with them sometimes during lunch. On one such occasion, he exclaimed "O!" picked the "O" up, and threw the rest on the ground. My husband was unconvinced.

This morning, he was playing with his letters on the light table. He handed me the "O" and said "O." Then he handed me the "Y" and said "Y!" I was so excited I ran and got the camera to collect proof. I have no idea if he knows any of the others (so far "D" and "M" were busts, though he did identify a "V" as a "U" and called a "B" an "E" so maybe he just knows vowels), but I'm quite impressed as it is since we've never formally attempted to teach him any letters!

Sorting Colors

One of Ethan's new skills is sorting things on the light table by color. He initiated this entirely. I noticed one day the other week that he was picking up all the yellow jewels. Then he began handing me all the green ones. So I got down some containers, and he got to work. He's done it several times since then, but I finally decided to grab a camera after he started doing it this morning:



So far he seems to like it best with these jewels as he won't sort the pony beads as easily (he ends up getting distracted and just making shakers out of the containers!). But it's definitely a first step towards color recognition!

Twenty Months

Dear Ethan,

I can't believe you're 20 months. No longer in the single digits, no longer in the teens. In just four short months, you'll be 2!!! Now I understand what people meant when they said the second year goes by faster than the first!

It's been a fun and eventful month, and even this weekend attests to its busyness what with my graduation (post to come), all our visitors, Mother's Day (happy Mother's day!), and your monthly "celebration" all within two days! I feel like you've come so far and grown so much this past month, and yet I can't think of specific changes to list. You are so independent, yet you love to follow us around and mimic us. You love playing with your neighbors, yet you can also go off and do your own thing. You're learning words left and right, yet you stubbornly refuse to say certain words we know you're capable of. You are a blur of boyish energy, yet you have the focus and concentration to sit down with a task to its completion. You amaze me every day, and I feel so blessed to be your mother!

Not much has changed from last month as far as your eating, sleeping, and pottying. Naps are still fairly unpredictable in length. You are trying more foods and textures all the time, but you still make your mind up about something and refuse it no matter what I try. If your daddy and I put a little more energy into the whole potty thing, I bet you'd have it down in a few weeks, but, honestly, we've been lazy about just letting you tell us when you want to go. As quickly as you're trying to grow up, maybe it's our unconscious way of hanging onto the little remnants of "baby" as long as we can!

We've entered the months of play dates, so the coming month will see lots of socialization and fun! In fact, we're hosting one at our house tomorrow, my first since last August. Other than that, we don't have much planned! Daddy will take some time off from work with the close of busy season, and I'm sure we'll just spend our days enjoying one another and exploring. While it may not sound eventful, I feel sure I'll still have plenty of tales to tell!

Thank you, Ethan, for making me a mother. I can't imagine anything I'd rather be!

Love,
Mommy

This Weekend's To-Do List

Saturday, 5/5:
[X]Go to Farmer's Market
[X]Go to Lowe's to get toilet handle (Ethan broke off the toilet flusher in his bathroom)
[X]Go to Target to look at curtains
[X]Mow lawn
[X]Prune bushes in front
[X]Repair toilet
[X]Sweep and steam mop front room
[X]Go to Big Lots and look at curtains
[X]Go to craft store to get things to make wreath?
[X]Make wreath?

Sunday, 5/6:
[X]Go to church
[X]Hang curtains in master bedroom
[X]Preschool Advisory Board mtg. @ 2 PM
[X]Clip coupons
[X]Deadhead plants around pond
[X]Label and store bins of baby clothes in attic
[X]Meal plan


It's been busy, and that doesn't even include a lot of what we did this weekend! Since this was my first free weekend after the semester ended, I decided to tackle all of the domestic odds-and-ends (beyond basic cleaning and laundry, of course) that had been neglected while I was in school. I honestly didn't expect to get everything done, especially since I had to run a meeting at church this afternoon and my husband and our neighbor went to the shooting range this morning. But despite these interruptions, we managed to cross everything off my to-do list. And I'm quite thrilled with the results!

On Saturday, I went into "PRUNE ALL THE THINGS!!!" mode. I cut back some very overgrown bushes in front of our garage back to the size they were when we moved in. I cleaned up some other bushes in the front and cleared tree branches from over our front walkway. I wish I'd taken before and after pictures because the difference is quite noticeable. The front still needs some work, though, but that will have to wait for us to buy some mulch and pine straw. Our curb appeal got a final boost in the form of a wreath I made last night. I've been thinking about making one for months, but just never had the time to get around to it. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, all for around $10!

In the back, I finally did something about all the dead plants around our pond. We have several plant varieties that need to be cut back every winter, but we've never done it, so all the fresh greenery arises amidst the brown dead stuff from the year before. It had gotten bad, and I finally tackled them this afternoon. One variety proved more stubborn so most of that will have to wait until this winter, but overall, it looks much better! Our massive rosemary bush that didn't survive winter 2010 also went today, and we discovered a bit of brick walkway that we never knew existed.

The other major changes happened inside. I finally labelled and got stored away in the attic all the bins of baby clothes Ethan's outgrown, in addition to a bin of bibs, bottles, etc.

The other big change was we FINALLY got and put up curtains in our master bedroom. As I posted here, I made roman blinds back in January, but the room was still pretty plain, mostly shades of white and brown. I discovered this color scheme on Pinterest and found these curtains:

 The room just feels so much more put together already, and we haven't even added any pillows or artwork yet!

A productive and fun weekend, indeed!