Seven Month Pictures

I decided it was time to get some good pictures of Ethan. Mine are fun but not even close to professional. My friend Lynn (used to be Lynn Christian, and used to baby-sit me :) lives in Rexburg and has a photography studio in her basement, so I asked her to take some pictures of him and maybe a few family ones. I scheduled it at a time that is normally between his naptimes, but unfortunately he woke up earlier than normal that morning so he was already tired by the time we got there. After a few frustrating tries for family shots with him rubbing his eyes the whole time, we decided to come back later and try again.
When I went back he was in a better mood, but was content to just look at the camera and be amused by the crazy things Lynn and I were doing to try to make him smile, but he didn't crack. So here are some pretty straight-faced but still cute pictures of Ethan at 7 months.

He had his hands in his mouth almost constantly when we went back! It was hard to get a good picture.

His attempt at sitting up :) We're still working on that one.

Big Thanksgiving for our Little Family

We decided this year we would have Thanksgiving with just our family. The part I was most nervous about was cooking the turkey because I've never done it before, but Eric took the initiative on that one and I was really glad he did because it turned out really well! On the recipe it said to baste it frequently during the first hour, and I swear he got up every 10 minutes to do it. I was worried it wasn't going to cook in time because the oven was open so much! But it ended up being amazing and moist and very good. And we have lots of leftovers.
Last night we made turkey soup from some of the remnants and that turned out really good as well.

The perfect turkey! Basted quite often :)

Ethan wanted to help cook.

He got kinda in the way after a few minutes, and he loves the feel and sound of plastic bags so I put him on the floor with a full bag of marshmallows. A few minutes later I heard him whining and went to see what happened and somehow he had gotten the bag open and spilled marshmallows all over the floor. I actually put that one in his hand for affect, but he did like sucking on it while I took the picture!

Eric wanted to make Uncle Mikes layered Jello, but didn't start it till Thanksgiving morning. He didn't have enough time to let each layer set completely, and added the next layer as soon as the previous one started looking a little firm. After it was all done, he wanted to be able to see all the layers so he tried to turn it upside down onto a plate. This is what happened :)

Before, just out of the fridge.About to flip...

And done. It wasn't hard enough to stand up on it's own.

You could actually see the layers once it was in a dish, and it did taste really good!

A Few Pictures...

Ethan's new outfit thanks to Grandma Carter! Thanks mom he looks so cute in his new clothes! He's also getting more practice sitting up in the Bumbo. He's really good at holding himself up front and back, but side to side he still falls over a lot. We're working on it though.

He also likes sticking his hands in his mouth, and anyone else's mouth.







Eric wanted to see how Ethan would react with headphones on. I think he really liked them!
















Sitting up with a little help, but he loves looking at pictures. Especially of himself :)

Sleeping- Not Wrapped!!!

So we finally got Ethan weaned of having to be wrapped as he goes down for naps or bedtime! He's been waking himself up at nights for the past few weeks because he'll break out and isn't used to having his arms free, so they go right to his face and wake him up. Not fun. But now it seems like he's over it! We just lay him down and put a blanket on him, which he grabs and pulls next to his face, and when we leave the room he'll either talk or cry for a few minutes, then goes to sleep. It's a

pretty nice change. Next Eric wants to wean him of the pacifier, but I don't think that'll happen for a while yet.

Also, the occupational therapist brought us a chair to put Ethan in once in a while to work on his sitting up skills. It's super sturdy and he likes being up in the action, so he has fun with it. But she told us not to use it to much or else it will act like a crutch and he won't learn to sit up on his own. Eric was having fun with Ethan in it and put him in front of the mirror, which he loves looking into.

Fun, funny boy

Ethan is a funny kid with such a personality. It's been fun trying him on new foods and letting him play with new toys. The other day on our way back from the store, we brought him inside in his carseat and let him play for a few minutes and he was just talking up a storm. When we went to get him out, he had gotten one of the links on his plastic chain stuck on the side of his mouth, it was hilarious to watch him try to get it off!

You can't see it very well, but half of it's inside his mouth and the other half is outside, pinching his cheek.

Eric finally took pity on him and helped him get it out.

I bought him a new outfit and for some reason it came with a hat, so I decided to see what it looked like on him. I don't think he'll be wearing it too often :)








Despite his chubby cheeks, Ethan has such a skinny waist that none of the 6-9 month pants fit him yet. This pair of pants even had elastic at the waist and they were still big.


















Ethan in his first "real" pair of PJ's, the two piece non-footed kind. He looked like such a big boy!