4 years old

Wow. Time has flown. Almost every month I would say to myself that I wanted to update this, and time just slipped away. I can't believe its been over a year. Ethan just turned 4 on Saturday. He is 41 3/4 inches and 39.4 lbs. He's in the upper 60s/low 70s for weight/height respectively I believe. I'll have to double check the paper. He is just getting over a little cold, and money is tight this year so we didn't do any thing extravagant like normal. Last year we went to Disney World for his birthday. Wes and I took him to Circus Circus Adventuredome.  He wanted to go on the train first, but we weren't allowed to go with him and he was do terrified she had to stop the ride and let him off. Poor baby. I did not want to make him cry on his birthday!  So we went and played  arcade games with him instead. Kristen and her bf Anthony came over and we picked up Yia and ordered pizza and had ice cream cake. He wanted a lightning mcqueen cake which was pretty random since he's really into Disney Planes Fire & Rescue  and a science based cartoon called Blaze and the Monster Machines. But we did it and Wes and I surprised him with a train table. I also got him a blue submarine per his request. Overall, he enjoyed his birthday.  The neighbors Jason, Kerri, and daughter Lacie stopped over and brought him  squirting gun shark and helI copter toy too so that was nice. We are leaving in an hour to go get the camper so I'm excited about that. As for Ethan, he is like an old man. I don't know if it's from being talked to like a grown up or from being the only child but he is so wise beyond his years and so mature. He knows right from wrong on a very deep level. He just has such higher level thinking for a little preschooler. He can tell when somethings wrong with me. He gives advice and makes suggestions.  He is so forgiving and easy-going. It's not always easy living in a house with someone witha brain injury and ptsd and he never let's it get to him. It's like water just slides off his back. He's my role model in that way and I wish I could be more like him. I strive to be a better mama to him all the time and need to learn to be more patient and hAve more FUN with him. Too often I feel caught in the trap of time constraints and all the chores I need to get done. We have started doing school at home, but I'll admit I haven't been the most consistent with it yet because we have been out of town a lot. Plus Wes has had a lot of doctors appointments that mess with keeping a schedule and routine..not to mention sometimes it takes Ethan 3 hours to get through the work. I try to make parts of it as fun as I can but I don't wanna force him or have him dislike it because I believe in himeschooling, roadschooling, some u schooling so I just let him tell me when he's ready to continue and sometimes we play little games with our letters and sounds and words. He can do 1st grade level math but he struggles with writing.  He's just not super interested in things like drawing or coloring or writing letters or his name..but he can read better Than some of the struggling end of year kindergartenwes I taught. I'm sure he will get there. Anyway, he failed his eye exam. Doc said he should be 20/30 or 20/40 and he was 20/50 so we have to take him to an optometrist in the next 6 months she said. I don't know if he just got confused with the shapes or letters or what but wes said he was squinting so idk if he was doing that on purpose or not but we all wear glasses, I just hope he doesn't need them this soon!

Month 31...2 years 7 months

It's getting a little too hard to track in months anymore lol! Anyway, This month Ethan is 28.0 lbs and 36 3/4 inches. He grew 3/4 of an inch. All of a sudden when he hit 2.5 he started talking in full/complete sentences. I just realized 2 nights ago that he has his little "first bible" memorized..and he can count to 15. I love this lil guy. I'm so proud of him. Things have been really busy lately.  I'm currently doing a 21 day Daniel Fast..based on the book of Daniel which is pretty interesting. As for Ethan, he loves trains and Thomas the train a lot right now. He's actually started kissing all his trains individually and saying goodbye to each one! :P Not much else new to report. He's doing really great at church. He asked to go the other day. And they're saying how great he's doing as well.

2.5 years old (month 30)

Well not much has changed. Ethan turned 2 1/2 today! He was 28.2 lbs and still 36 inches (but I weighed him at the end of the day). He loves playing with choo choos and is so good at playing independently. Since Wes is home with him while I work part-time he prefers to play with daddy more. If I try to touch his trains or play with his trains he asks me "why did you do dat?" So, to him, Momma and Daddy have very distinct roles. I turned the tv on last night and national geographic channel was on and Ethan said "no. Daddy's show". If something's broken he wants daddy to fix it. But I'm who he goes to for stories and well...bathtime. He is still a great helper at church. He always cleans up after all of the other kids. He is speaking in usually 5 word sentences. I haven't been working with him too much lately on colors/numbers/letters...so he's probably about the same there..can count through the teens. But we went to the Polar Express and that was a blast. He asks to watch that movie every day and he can recite many of his favorites shows theme songs. Still not much interest in the potty...which...is what it is at this point. We didn't wind up going to NJ because I hurt my back. It turns out I need another surgery...especially before we try to TTC again my doctor said. I'm supposed to be in physical therapy but find it hard to find the time with everything going on with the holidays and with Wes' doctors appointments and with holiday traveling. Ethan finally met Santa though so that's pretty cool. Otherwise not much to report!

Month 27

This month Ethan is 27.6 lbs and 36 inches. He grew 1 1/4 in since last month!! I started working with him more formally on his letters two days ago. We are working on b and m even though he knows and can identify more letters than that. Last night I found out he can picture sort different pictures based on what letters they start with. I'm pretty proud of him for just turning 2 in June. He is still into all the same stuff..still really into trains and his robot. But now he's starting to point out "Elmo" not sure how he knows him since we don't watch sesame street! Also, he says thank you God before he eats and says Amen on his own. :) He also knows his Bible and we are reading to him from it every night. He got bumped up to the Lambs class from the nursery where instead of getting to do his own thing and play he has to listen to a story, and do circle time, and a craft so that's been a little hard for him adjusting to being in a new classroom but he's getting better. I started training this week for my reading tutor job and am going to be at a new school this year. We are also going to NJ soon to visit family and friends and we are going to see the 9/11 memorial in the city and go to the boardwalk so I'm super excited for that!

Months 25 & 26

Ethan says so many words now it's not even funny. The amount he's grown intellectually in the last 2 months is crazy. He is putting together 5 word sentences now ex. "Oh no mommy what happened? " He repeats basically anything you say. He is very good at recognizing animals. He is starting to recognize numbers. He can count to 12 or 13 I can't remember. He was saying the alphabet to G but he kinda lost interest lately. He is really into Scout still. He just started getting into Dinosaurs "Rawr!". We took him to the Childrens Discovery Museum and bought him a little dinosaur there. Compliments of Wes and Shark Week he's starting to get into dolphins and sharks a little bit. We are going to San Diego for a dr appt for Wes but we aren't going to Seaworld bc it's twice the price of the Zoo so we are going to take him to the SD Zoo while we are there and possibly go to an aircraft museum on an aircraft carrier. IDK that Ethan will like it so much since the planes aren't in motion, but I'm sure Wes will like it. He's never been on an aircraft carrier! Aside from that as of yesterday when he turned 26 months, he was 27.2 lbs and he's about 34 3/4 inches. So he grew about a half an inch in the past 2 months. He better get to 36 inches at least before we go to Disneyland! We are going to go to Knotts Berry Farm too and that's the height requirement for a lot of the rides. He's been watching Finding Nemo "Meemo" in the car and he likes it. He's really into "feefees" fishies still. We took him swimming at the lake last week. He likes to "kick! kick! kick!" his feet. I think he likes splashing. :) Oh, I also havent nursed him since the day before yesterday...so who knows if he's done or not. I'm really trying to wean him. He's 2 years old and I really want my body back...esp before we have baby #2! Anyway, nothing else new to report. Two is an exciting yet challenging age!

2nd Birthday

Ethan turned 2 years old two weeks ago. We took him to Legoland for his birthday. There was an aquarium there we took him to as well. Legoland is in Carlsbad, CA. The weather wasn't all that great and the trip was pretty short so we didn't get to have beach time. We did take him once for a little bit just to feel the sand and the waves. Overall, I think he was just too young for the trip because he is only 34 1/4 inches and he could only go on about 5 rides. He LOVED the Legoland Express which was a little train that just went in a circle, but any of the "real rides" like the airplane and the helicopter, he was scared of. We think he may be a little afraid of heights. We also bought him this Step2 Corvette Toddler Bed for his birthday and I made him a healthy chocolate cake. Kristen and her boyfriend Anthony came over on Saturday (his bday was Thursday but we were out of town) and she gave him a mickey mouse trike which he loves (he can't reach the pedals yet though). She took some pictures of him, And on Sunday (Father's Day) we had his dedication at church. In my opinion, this day was monumental and I'm so glad Wes and I decided to do this for Ethan. Wes and I spent like a week painting and decorating the walls of his room. One wall is Mickey Mouse characters, another is Max & Ruby, and the other two are an ocean scene of Finding Nemo. He really likes fish "feefees" and Max and trains (choochoo) and Dora the Explorer. He had his well check appointment the other day. He was 25.8 lbs and 34 1/4 inches. He's in the 46% percentile for height and like the 25th for weight. He says A TON of words.
 Up to Month 23: oh mommy/daddy/Wes"  " a bahbeball (basketball) "Abee (airplane) peas, thank you, more, mkay, back, bubble, hey, shoes, ca-ca, yucky, no, uh huh, yiayia (Gma in Greek) doggy, horsey, Bahh & quack quack, and wawle (waffle), Jew (juice), peekike (pancake), mih (milk) , wawa ( water), ee (eggs), mome (oatmeal), snacks, meme mou (mickey mouse), scou (scout), max, doh (Dora), and fefe (fishy), kitty, and see you.  Lah you (love you), meh meh (good morning ),& sorry, choo choo, daisy, dew (duke), mess, car, food, peepee, backpack,

month 23 uhmow (remote), sock , breaksa (breakfast), Kiki (piggy), ow (owl), meme (muffin), away (throw away), Buh fly (butterfly), uh (up) , pull, how (help), ba (bath), poo (pool) and he will basically repeat whatever you tell him to on his own. But those are the words he says on his own spontaneously. 

He also is starting to ask to go play in the pool every day, but he doesn't really like swimming in it, just putting his feet in and splashing and throwing toys to the dogs. He also got his first big boy haircut this month! 

23 months

Well I just wrote a super long blog and as I was trying to attach the pictures/video. I closed out of the window deleting the whole thing. Anyway to recap, Ethan turned 23 months today. He is 25.0 lbs and 34 1/2 inches. We are taking him to Legoland for his birthday next month and I hope he will be tall enough. He seems to be growing about an inch a month. There are 5 rides he can ride at 34 inches but another 7 if he's 36 inches. He is still skinny (wearing some 6-12 month shorts today) but just tall. He is starting to put together phrases like "buh bye see you" and "thank you mommy" and if he wants something he says "mkay" mkay" because he got used to saying "mkay" to wes when wes would ask if he wanted to watch his movie (in the truck). We are starting to try to get away from that though because he had 2 meltdowns over his movie and we realized we needed to do away with the movies in the car if he was going to get that worked up over it! Oddly enough, he just sits there so quietly we thought he was asleep the last few times! He is still rear facing for safety reasons. He's also still nursing about 2-3 times a day. He still calls wes by his first name, but the cutest thing he does is say "oh mommy" or "oh daddy" or "oh wes!" I also love when he says "mama e daddy" i don't know if he's saying e like the spanish "y" cuz he learned it from Dora? I'm sure that's it. He also says "feefee" now for fishie. He will ride on the dogs and say Horsey! and every animal sound is "Bah!" except duck which is quack quack! The last two months had been really challenging for us, especially Wes as he's the one home all day ( I work 4 days a week about 5 hrs a day so not too bad). Ethan is just becoming more independent and testing his boundaries. He actually threw my phone into the bath tub a few weeks ago..pretty much just because I was frantically telling him not to do it. The last week or two he's been listening a lot better though. I just asked Wes and he agrees. I think we are both anxious/excited for me to be off work soon for the summer. I only have a week in a half left. This month Ethan browsed around the library for the first time. We have also been trying to slowly get him comfortable with the daycare/pre school at church. We have been hanging out with him in there because I don't want him to hate going to church. I want him to feel safe and comfortable. So hopefully next week he wont need us there. Mothers Day was yesterday so we went to church and then to get my rings sized/engraved at town square and ate at california pizza kitchen. On Friday, I went and used my birthday massage voucher from Kristen and while I was gone Wes and Ethan went out and picked up the pineapple upside down bundt cake he orderd me, and some flowers and a balloon (that Ethan picked out) and the card was so thoughtful it brought tears to my eyes. Anyway Ill also catch ethan counting when he doesn't think anyone's listening but when I ask him to count he'll say "no!" and I necver hear him go past four. But aside from that nothing new to report. He still eats EVERYTHING and puts everything in his mouth. I wish he would grow out of that stage soon! He's also super fast and has a frustrating habit of dodging and hiding under the kitchen table lately when i'm trying to change his diaper or get him dressed--but he thinks it's the funniest thing ever! We're working on that now, but otherwise he's such a sweet and loving boy. He gives everyone and everything kisses and will give hugs and blow kisses and say "love you!"