Our sweet little 17 month old shows more of his personality every day.  He continues to talk and talk and talk.  We are rapidly approaching the stage of “what is he trying to say?”  He still repeats a lot of words that we say and will pick up on a word and say it over and over even though he doesn’t really know what it is.  For example, lately he loves the word “day.”  If he hears it he says it over and over.  It’s hard to even keep track of all his new words because there are so many!  My favorite new word of his is cereal which he says “ah wee ah wee ah wee.”  He loves to sing along to one of his favorite songs and says “who who – ah bah (all aboard).”

Ethan has added no new foods to his menu.  We will have to talk to the doctor next month to see what we can do to get him to eat a wider variety of foods.  Luckily he is still super chunky so we don’t have to worry about him gaining weight.  His favorite foods are cookies, ice cream, and chocolate, and he would eat them all day if we would let him.

We have been beginning to work on discipline with Ethan.  He has always been a bit strong willed but lately it is apparent that he needs to be told “no” more often and needs to be corrected when he does something wrong.  The biggest thing for me is to not let him have whatever he wants whenever he wants it.  It is amazing how quickly he learns what is right and wrong!  When we have corrected him several times and he still will not listen, he gets a “time out” which is anything that takes our attention away from him.  We will usually just set him in another room and that is enough for him to understand to stop what he is doing.  Now he is learning what is right and wrong and if I say “Ethan, do you want a time out?” he will say “no!” and stop the bad behavior.  That being said, there are still times he gets mad.  He is bad about hitting us when he gets mad.  In fact, yesterday he got mad at me because I was holding him and he pulled on my necklace and broke it!

All of that being said, Ethan is overall a very sweet little boy who loves to smile and give hugs and kisses.  His little imagination is developing.  I love just watching him play and seeing what his mind comes up with.  He constantly makes us laugh.  He is continuing to become more independent.  Today after Jason left he climbed down the stairs to his playroom and played by himself for a while!  He loves to dance, read, and sing.  He is always good in the car.  He is starting to learn some letters but still gets them all mixed up.  He is still loving daycare and is usually very mad when we have to leave.

Ethan loves to go outside and we have loved this warm weather.  We are starting to wish we had a yard but we are making the most of what we have.  Ethan has a sandbox on our balcony and we frequently go for walks and stroller rides.  Sometimes we go to the play ground but most of the equipment is too big for him.  Several times a day we hear “ouh si” (outside), “why” (ride), and “wah” (walk).  He will even hand me his shoes and jacket when he is ready.

We are so amazed by how much he resembles a little boy.  Our baby is growing up!

Happy boy.

Playing outside.

Playing with sand AND water.

Sampling some delicious sand water.

Ethan put his bunny ears on all by himself.

And took his vacuum outside.

Such a silly bunny!