Ethan is on the move!  He went from taking a few steps (for several weeks) to taking multiple steps, to standing up on his own and toddling with ease.  He is also constantly talking these days.  He will repeat almost any word that I say.  He is also frequently using mama and dada to refer to me and Jason.  His favorite words include kitty cat “kee ca,” puzzle “ba bul,” and hi and bye.  He also loves saying “uh oh” especially when he drops something (or throws something on the ground).  The other night he woke up around 4am and I went to settle him.  I picked up his pacifier and dropped it and he said “uh oh.”  It was pretty adorable and made being awake at 4am much more acceptable.  He is also mimicking a lot of things that I do.  After I brushed his hair the other night he grabbed the brush from me and tried to brush it himself.

Ethan still loves getting into things.  He loves opening doors and pulling things out.  He also loves bowls and spoons.  He will sit and “stir” a bowl with his spoon for a long time.  He especially loves a bowl when there is yogurt or applesauce in it.  He demands to feed himself, even though he can’t operate the spoon very well.  He usually ends up reaching into the bowl and picking up the yogurt with his hand and shoving it in his mouth.  Then he will stir his bowl for a while.  He ends up completely covered in yogurt, but he has a good time!

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Bedford.  Ethan put on a good show for everyone and was adorable.  He seems to moving out of his grumpy phase and getting back to normal.  He is still refusing to take 2 naps a day, but is starting to sleep in a bit later.

Here are some pictures of our little turkey!

Toddling!

We cannot believe we have a one year old!  I am very late with my update as we have been very busy.  Our little guy is constantly on the go and keeps me on my feet!

Ethan checked out perfectly healthy at his 1 year appointment.  He weighed 20 lbs 14 oz (22%), is 29 inches (25%) and his head circumference is 51%.  He is a bit of a peanut but is right where he needs to be, as he was in the 22% in weight at birth.

Here is what our little guy is up to these days:

Sleeping – Ethan has recently deviated from his wonderful 2 nap a day schedule.  For the past few weeks he will not take an afternoon nap.  He first started sleeping longer during his morning nap (2.5 or 3 hours if I would let him) and then not falling asleep for his afternoon nap.  But now even when I wake him up at noon (his normal wake up time) he will not take an afternoon nap.  He will usually be quiet for a half hour to an hour, playing and walking around in his crib.  If I put him down later (11 or 12) he will only sleep for about 1.5 hours!  I have also been trying to get him to sleep in later than 6 so he can make it all day.  Sometimes he will go back to sleep, but sometimes he won’t.  We have also been putting him to bed earlier since he goes so long without a nap.  I think we are just in a bad in between time and hopefully will be back on a schedule soon!

Eating – Ethan is starting to do really well with table food.  The poor thing still doesn’t have any teeth, but really likes bananas and sweet potatoes.  He also still loves muffins, waffles, and crackers.  He is eating much better at daycare than he is at home.  The past few days he has decided he doesn’t want to eat anything except for Mommy’s frosted mini wheats, but I guess that is the age we are approaching!  I feel like I feed him the same things all the time because he is so picky, but I’m hoping to get him to try some new things soon.

School – Ethan just moved to the Toddler room at daycare and he is doing great!  He looks like such a little peanut compared to the other kids in the room.  There are a lot of changes in this room and I was a little nervous, but he is doing really well.  He can only eat table food provided by the school and he takes 1 nap a day on a cot instead of a crib.  Like I said earlier, he eats much better at school than he does at home.  Last week he ate a hamburger!  Goodness knows he wouldn’t even put it in his mouth here at home.  He also eats his meals at a little table instead of in a high chair.  He is doing well with his naps too.  He has never napped well at school and he is actually doing better because the room is quiet and the lights are off.  His teacher said that as long as he can’t see the other kids he will go right to sleep on his cot.  He loves his time there and is always happy when I pick him up.  It is so cute to see him sitting at the tiny little table with all his friends!

Activity – Ethan has really taken off with walking over the past few days.  He also loves climbing up the stairs.  He is pretty much constantly getting into things and making a mess.  Ethan loves putting things in things including his shape sorter.  His very favorite activity is putting things into trash cans.  We’re pretty sure we’ve lost several paci’s and blocks this way.    Ever since he stopped napping well he has been quite whiny and clingy.  I think it is because he is tired.  He wants my full attention all of the time and does not want to play on his own.  His favorite place to be is on my hip with his arm hooked around mine so I can’t put him down.   One day he was so rotten I ignored him, and after a few minutes of crying at the baby gate he got really quiet.  I went in his room to find him face down on the floor on his blankey as if to say “I’m sooooo tired!”  This makes me think he is just tired and hopefully soon he will be back to his well rested happy self!

Ethan’s vocabulary is really expanding.  He constantly tries to repeat everything we say.  He still loves “b” and “d” words but just recently started saying “mama” which is pretty cute!  Some other words he loves to repeat are kitty cat (kee caa), Uh oh, goof ball (boo baa), and the letter A.  He will try to repeat pretty much any word I say, but these are a few of his favorites.  He is almost always talking!  It will be so fun to see his language develop and becoming more refined.

Let me help you unload the dishwasher, Mommy.

Putting granola bars in the trash bag box.

This is what my house looks like most of the time.

And my handsome little dinosaur for Halloween.  We went to the Harvest Party at our church and spent time with friends!

I LICKED ALL THE CHOCOLATE OFF A TWIX BAR!!!

Our sweet baby is only a month away from his first birthday!  They really do grow up so fast!

Ethan has been such a little darling this past month.  He is eating and sleeping well and continues to grow, change and learn every day.  He is still sleeping like a champ most of the time.  It is so nice to have a predictable nap schedule and for him to sleep all night in his crib most nights.  He wakes up around 6:30 every morning.  He usually takes naps at 10am and 3pm and sleeps around 1.5 to 2 hours each.  He will usually sleep until 5pm, or we will wake him shortly after 5 so he goes to bed on time.  He is in bed by 8 for the night.  He is doing really well with purees now and has expanded his horizons to include broccoli, spinach and peas, and pumpkin.  I got so frustrated with him not eating any vegetables so I decided to try some combinations.  I bought several Plum’s Organic pouches for him to try and he loves them all, so I am buying most of his food now instead of making it.  It has taken a lot of srtess off me, especially since he will eat it!  He is still loving his puffs and crunchies and does pretty well with bread items (crackers, waffles, etc).  He even got to enjoy a few bites of my apple cider donuts this weekend (and it was delicious!).  He is still not interested in feeding himself chunks of fruits or veggies.  I am trying to not get too impatient with him, as I know all babies develop differently, but he needs to be on full table foods before he can go to the toddler room at school.  They are doing a fantastic job of working with him at school.  He does still eat much better for them than he does for me!

Ethan has been showing signs over the past few weeks that he is ready to learn how to walk.  For a long time we thought it was a long ways off, as he didn’t seem interested in taking steps or standing on his own.  He was very content crawling, pulling up, then getting back down and crawling to his next destination.  We have been helping him play with his walking push toys and that has seemed to help.  Initially he wanted to stand and push his toy, but he did not want to take steps, so he would have fell forward.  We held his toys so it wouldn’t move so he could very slowly take steps.  After just a few days of this, he took off pushing and walking by himself!  The past few days he has stood on his own for a few seconds (until he realized he is standing on his own!).  I can only imagine what kind of trouble he is going to get himself into when he can walk!

Ethan is currently saying two words.  Well really only one word, but two meanings.  He started saying book (buh) a few weeks ago but it took about a week for us to decide he was really saying book and not just babbling.  But if you point to a book and say “Ethan what is this?” he will say “buh” or if you say “Ethan can you say book?” he will say “buh” which he does not do with any other objects.  Over the past week he has been doing the same for ball, which almost sounds exactly the same as book.  Sometimes it sounds a little more like “baa” but he will say it when he sees a ball.  Sometimes it seems like he is saying “dada” when he sees Jason but we’re still not sure if he is just babbling.  He has also started doing this funny thing where when he says book he lets the pressure of the “b” build in his mouth before he says it so it sounds more like “bbbbbbbbbbuh!”

Speaking of books, Ethan still loves to read.  We are accumulating a lot of books with frequent trips to Half Price Books and Home Goods.  His favorite new book is a lift the flap “noisey” book that moos, baas, and oinks when you open the right flap.  We also go to the library often, which is one of Ethan’s favorite places.  Not only are there tons of books, there are aisles that he loves to crawl up and down.  There are also other kids which always want to talk and play with him.  We are very excited to go to the 1 year old story time at the library in November.

Ethan still loves singing and music.  His new favorite song is “If you’re happy and you know it” and he is learning to clap his hands at the apprioriate times.  He has also started “dancing” when he hears music – wiggling back and forth when he is standing or sitting down.  I’m hoping that we can take a music class at Gymboree this winter.

We are loving every moment with our little boy, and as much as I would love for him to stay little forever, it is so exciting to watch him grow up!

Sitting in the hand chair at the library.

Celebrating Grampy’s birthday!

He loves riding on Daddy’s shoulders!

Sweet little boy.

It is nearly impossible to take a picture of Ethan these days.  It usually goes something like this…

Ethan is doing something cute, I get the camera, he sees the camera and decides the camera is way more cool than what he’s doing.

“Ooooooo a camera!”

“Give me that!”

“Oh, wait, there is something more interesting on tv…”

“Nope, back to the camera.”

“Gimme gimme gimme!  I want it in my mouth!”

The end.

I apologize for the late post, as we have had a rough week!  Our past week consisted of a broken air conditioner and all of us being sick with a stomach bug.  Poor Ethan spent his 10 month birthday with a fever.  Luckily, the rest of the month was great.  Here is what our little guy is up to.

Sleep – Ethan continues to sleep great!  It is so nice for his sleeping to be predictable and for him to fall asleep on his own.  I really never thought this day would come!

Eating – Ethan is still nursing 4 times a day, but I think we might be getting close to dropping one.  I’m not quite sure how we’re going to adjust our schedule, but we’ll figure it out.  He still isn’t always loving solid food but is slowly figuring it out.  Some days he eats with no problems and others he sits in his high chair and arches his back and whines like I’m feeding him poison.  He looooooves “snack” food such as puffs, mum mums, and lil crunchies.  He gets so excited when he sees the cans.  But, I tell him he cannot live on those things and we try others.  He still isn’t a big fan of feeding himself pieces of food (other than the snacks) but we are trying.  He still loves yogurt and eats it every day.  The funny thing about all of this is at daycare they claim he is starving all day long and always finishes all his food.  We think it is because every time he sees other babies eating he wants to eat too!  He has mastered the sippy cup and actually prefers a straw sippy to a regular sippy.

Activity – Ethan is still loving to crawl and pull up on things.  He has just started cruising on furniture the past few days.  He loves to open and close things, especially the kitchen cabinets.  We have had to put child proof locks on all of our kitchen cabinets.

He is making lots of noises – apparently he is the most vocal of his daycare class.  His favorite is still dadada but he has been making a really loud “eeeeeeeeeeeeee” shreak when he gets excited.  He also likes to smack his tongue and blow raspberries.  He is constantly talking and moving.  If he is quite he is likely getting into trouble.

Ethan loves music these days.  He is starting to recognize songs and gets excited when he hears something familiar.  He especially loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  He will stop whatever he is doing is try to do the hand motions.  He also loves anything that he can shake that makes noise.  His two favorite “shakeys” are some plastic containers with beans inside and some cat toys with bells.  There is also a commercial on TV that he watches intently every time it comes on and sways back and forth to the music.  I’m hoping to find some new ways to incorporate his love for music into our playtime.

Ethan also loves to read.  A book will always keep him quiet and keep his attention.  He loves to turn the pages.  His favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and he loves any book about animals.  He also loves books that have “peekaboo” flaps.

Ethan is getting so big, we can’t believe how much older he looks every day.  I haven’t weighed him in a while but I’m guessing he is close to 20lbs.  He has grown out of his Carter’s 9 month outfits so we are trying to get by on his 6-12 month clothes until the fall.

Here are some pictures of our big boy.

Happy boy

He will eat cookies, of course.

Playing with his books.

Reading with Daddy.

He loves to swing!

Getting into everything!

My sweet boy is 3/4 of a year old – how did that happen?  Ethan has changed so much in the past month!  Here are the basics:

Eating – Ethan is down to nursing 4 times a day (wakeup, after both naps, before bed) and eating 3 meals a day.  He has really taken off over the past few weeks!  He usually has fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, yogurt for lunch, and sweet potatoes and/or rice for dinner.  He is starting to really enjoy feeding himself lately.  Just within the past few days he has been doing great with crackers, mum mums, and his favorite, lil crunchies (which look like cheetos to me).  I try my hardest to feed him the healthiest foods possible, and of course his favorite are the dorito smelling baby cheetos.  Oh well.  He loves those darn things.  I think he would eat an entire container if I would let him.  It is pretty cute to watch him shove them in his mouth, one after the other.  He even kicks his feet with excitement as soon as he sees the can.  I offer him some “real food” (pasta, chunks of sweet potato, etc) once a day but so far he isn’t interested.  He is also not interested in any vegetable besides sweet potatoes.  He refuses to eat carrots, peas, and green beans.  But he likes most fruits, rice and oatmeal, and he LOVES yogurt.  He will eat a whole container of yobaby, and also likes the Trader’s Point Creamery yogurt.  It is very thin so he enjoys drinking it out of his sippy cup.  It’s hard to believe that in a few months he will be getting almost all of his nutrition from solid food.  He still has a long ways to go but it is pretty amazing how far he has come.

Ethan enjoying aspragus – he actually gummed it up pretty good!

Sleeping – Ethan is still sleeping really well.  Most nights he sleeps from 7:30 or 8 until 6 or 7.  He is taking 2 good naps a day as long as we are home and he can be in his bed.  He usually falls asleep on his own with his blankie and paci.  He also falls asleep in some pretty funny positions.  It’s amazing to me that he has turned into such a great sleeper!  He does not nap very well at daycare, there is just too much going on!

He fell asleep with his blankie over his face – don’t worry, I moved it!

Activity – Ethan is quite the active little guy.  He is crawling with ease these days and is able to get to pretty much whatever he wants.  He loves pulling up on whatever will support his weight – baby gates, the warming drawer of the oven, the dishwasher, his toys.  He is also clapping and waving.  His vocabulary is starting to develop a bit more and he is saying mamamama.  I don’t think he understand what it means, but it is still pretty cute to hear him say it!  He will only say it on his own, and usually when he is being whiney.  Usually if I say to him, “Ethan, can you say mamama?” he will smile and say “dadadada!”  He is still a very happy little guy and is constantly smiling.  He really only fusses when he is tired or doesn’t feel well.

How is he big enough to do this?

Ethan loves to read these days.  He sits quitely and listens or sometimes tries to help me turn the page.  We have enjoyed several trips to the library and he has even enrolled in the summer book club.  So far he has received a certificate for an ice cream cone and a free book.  The Zionsville library is amazing – I’m so glad we are able to take advantage of it.

We are still going to Gymboree classes once a week.  Ethan loves the classes and especially loves Gymbo, the stuffed clown that demonstrates all the activities.  He enjoys all of the songs and the bubbles.  I have learned a lot of songs and activities that we can do at home!

Climbing a mountain of mats.

Ethan is still doing great at daycare.  He recently moved up to the “older infant room” which made mama very sad.  But he is loving being in a bigger room with other babies that are crawling too.  And he gets to go outside and swing now.  Like I mentioned earlier he does not nap well at daycare, but he does eat well!  They always comment on how much he eats!

Ethan did great at his 9 month check up.  He weighs 19lbs 2oz (28th %) and is 28 inches long (43%).  He had another ear infection 2 weeks ago and it still hasn’t completely cleared in one ear so we will have to keep our eye on him.  Dr. Wheeler was amazed by his lack of stranger anxiety.  She thinks he is doing great.  He has one shot but got over it pretty quickly.

Ethan is such a sweetheart and we feel so blessed to have such a precious, happy boy!

To see lots more pictures check out: http://mobleyweb.com/photos/8-months/