Ethan

Ethan has been so cute lately. Even in the last couple of weeks he has grown so much. He is talking more and more every day and sometimes we can't help but crack up at some of the things he says.

I thought he looked so adorable in this outfit.

Chris' grandma, "Nana", brought over lunch from In 'N Out a couple of weeks ago and Ethan enjoyed part of a milkshake for the first time. I think he liked it. :-)

In the picture below, he had set up camp by the front door so that he could watch the gardener across the street mow. Apparently it was quite fascinating!

Nana gave Ethan a Little Einsteins laptop computer a while back and although he wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, he is starting to get the hang of it and is having a blast! One particular activity shows him a lower case letter and he is supposed to find the capital letter that goes with it. He doesn't recognize all of the lower case letters yet, but because they verbalize the letter as well, he is usually able to come up with it on his own and push the correct button on his keyboard. Wow. Technologically advanced at (almost) age 3.

And to close, two quick potty stories for you . . .

The other day I thought I smelled something suspicious and asked Ethan if he'd gone poo-poo in his underwear. As I peered in to check, he replied, "There's nofing in there!" ;-)

Earlier this week, after he has successfully done his business on the toilet, he exclaimed, "I'm so proud of you!" Guess he's heard that a few times!! :-)

Bringing Out the Inner Bohemian . . .

I needed some new clothes for this Fall/Winter, so I headed to one of my favorite places to shop, Kohl's. They were having one of their gigantinormous sales and I was armed with my 30% off coupon. Amazingly, I was able to find several things that I loved all in one trip. Ahhhhh . . . sweet success. All I had left to do was accessorize.

However . . . I'm not very good at accessorizing. So, I pleaded with my sister-in-law (who is fabulous at it), to help me out. She graciously accommodated my request and totally "hooked me up". Here is one of the trendy necklaces she helped me pick out. I truly felt like I was going back to my Bohemian roots. :-) Very fun!

Thanks MB!

Harvest Time

Now that it's almost an entire week after-the-fact, here are some pictures from Halloween. Our church had a really great "Harvest Festival" on Saturday that we dressed both boys up for and took them to. It was lots of fun! I bought the costumes about 2 months ago and although Ethan's costume ended up fitting 'just right' (whew!), we almost didn't get Benjamin's 6-12 month one on him! But despite a little "squeezing", I thought the results were delightful. ;-)

One very cool Buzz Lightyear:

And one absolutely adorable lion cub.

It had not been a great day overall, so even though Ethan had been ecstatic to don his Buzz costume on earlier in the week, this time was not quite so enthralling--apparently. So, once dressed, we popped him in the chair with a movie on my iPod while I finished getting Benjamin dressed and ready to go. (If only we can get out the door . . . )

The Harvest Festival at our church, complete with bouncy castle, slide, ball toss, cake walk and other such games, music and candy.

One very cooperative and happy little boy who did very well for staying out past bedtime.

Cutey patootey!!

Between the bouncy castle and Jonah's whale, Ethan was in little boy heaven.

In, out, in, out, in, out . . . over and over and over again. He loved feeling the "inside" of the whale.

Inside, there was a lady telling the story of Jonah and handing out candy. Besides getting to sit inside a whale, you know how Ethan loves a good story, so this was a great combo for him! [Strange enough, he couldn't have cared less about the candy (definitely not MY son! :-/)!]

In the bouncy castle. He was very tentative at first, but got the hang of it rather quickly. Shoes had to come off to go inside, so there was a whole lot of shoes being put on, then taken off, then on, then off, on, off, on . . .

Decorating sugar cookies.

Enjoying sweet success!!

Yum! "Can Mommy have a bite pretty please!?!" Um, "nooooooo!"

Enjoying his cookie while back in the whale yet again.

Benjamin checking out the hale bales.

You're getting very sleeeeeeppppyyyy . . .

Earlier in the week we had met some ladies and their kiddos over at the Marketplace to let the kids run around in their costumes and take pictures. I didn't quite get Benjamin in his costume since I had to wake him up from his morning nap in order to go, but I definitely had one cute Buzz!

Enjoying some pretzels.

And friends!

Soooo close!

Benjamin is starting to get frustrated that he can't get where he wants to go very easily. I think he does an amazing job scooting around on his bum, rolling from side to side and folding himself in half as he reaches for the object of his desire, but that doesn't seem to be enough now-a-days. He wants it all, Baby.

"I'm in position . . . now what!?"

Usually what happens: a foot gets stuck underneath him and then when he finally gets it out, he falls flat on his tummy and "swims" like there's no tomorrow. When he does periodically manage to pull his knees back up underneath himself, he typically moves backward instead of forward.

This crawling business is hard work!!

Gerber Visit

Several weeks ago we had company again for the weekend. Chris & his sister grew up with the Gerber girls (Kristin & Katie) and the two families frequently vacationed together. Over the years, the Gerbers have remained close friends and I have had the incredible privilege of being included in their "family".* :-)

Dave & Nancy have a grandson named Spencer who is just a couple of months older than Ethan. We hadn't had the opportunity to meet him yet, so their daughter Kristin & her husband Jake gave Dave & Nancy permission to bring Spencer down (from the Sacramento area) for all of us to meet him. It was wonderful to see them!!

Here are Spencer & Ethan playing trains:

Funny how it seems that all boys like to lie on the ground like this while playing with different modes of transportation (cars, trucks, trains, boats, etc.).

It seems that Spencer enjoys a good book! That's something he & Ethan definitely have in common!!

Dave & Chris took the boys in the pool. Benjamin & I decided it was a little too cold for us whimps. ;-)

(*I will never forget my "initiation" with the Gerber/Green families when Chris & I were dating. I went snow skiing with them at Lake Tahoe. All of them had skiied pretty much forever and this was my very first time. They paid for me to have lessons and as I stood up for the first time on my "baby" skiis and fell flat on my back while they were all looking on, I guess I endeared myself to them for good. ;-P)

Culture in Bakersfield!?

I was so surprised the other day when Chris & I went out to dinner (that's not what surprised me :-P) and afterward, as were walking around the Marketplace we saw sidewalk painting in progress!! Now, I admit that I am pretty "uncultured" when it comes to stuff like this. I've never seen sidewalk art before, so I was especially impressed that Bakersfield had a few of its very own artists creating masterpieces on the asphalt. Wow. It was quite a production! I took the boys with me the following day to check out their progress.

And here are some of the coolest ones up close:

If you can't tell, this is a peacock. It wasn't finished yet, but it sure was beautiful!

I liked this one because it was sponsored by San Joaquin Community Hospital and is a picture of the game "Operation"! Very creative!

You can't see it very well in this picture, but the guy below in the white hat is working on a picture of a man who is shrinking in fear of the giant ant towering above him. And the man in the picture was the exact image of the artist himself!!

Now here's one I think I could do! :-P

These last two were 3D ones--although my pictures don't nearly do them justice! Pretty incredible, but check out these other ones I found online!!! Whoa.

This was how impressed Benjamin was with all of it.

Ethan just enjoyed walking (& dancing) around the fountain to the music of the . . .

. . . belly dancers!!!

I've never seen belly dancers before (like I said, totally uncultured :-P), so this was very interesting. And I thought you had to have a totally toned & fit tummy to be a belly dancer . . . Hmmmmmm . . .

Kern County Fair

A few weeks ago Chris & I took Ethan to the Kern County Fair for the first time. It had been years since I'd been to the fair, so this felt like a real blast from the past. :-)

I think Ethan was a little overwhelmed at first . . .

We started out at the special kid's corner and Ethan immediately found the enormous bubble maker.

Then we saw some reptiles and birds.

Ethan loved petting these animals! They didn't move, neigh, bite or kick! (And for those of you a little slow on the uptake, they weren't real either!!)

Some of the animals looked so real, however, that he was a little unsure about getting very close!

Cutey patootey. He was having so much fun . . .

The Turkey Stampede!

Their motivation: a little red remote-controlled truck that had food in the back of it. ;-)

Enamored with the turkeys.

We decided to really live life on the edge and Ethan & I took a ride on an . . .

. . . ELEPHANT!

Her name was "Kitty". :-)
It really was very fun.

One of the main things we wanted to show Ethan was all the animals. He liked the sheep a lot--at least until one of them opened his mouth and made a noise! I guess knowing that a sheep says "baaaa" and actually hearing one say it are two completely different things!

Yeah, he wasn't so sure about that. (Moments later he actually burst into tears and we had to make a quick exit.)

Here he is enjoying a true fair favorite, the corn dog!

I think one of Ethan's favorite parts about our afternoon was actually the little train that you could ride around the fairgrounds on. It was quite a hit!

Talk about starry-eyed . . . ;-)

Checking out the brand new baby calves born earlier that day.

Soooo cute!

Our budding artist.