Pull ups

Not the diaper kind of pull-up, we're not quite to that stage yet, but the furniture kind! About 3 days after he learned to crawl, Ethan figured out he could crawl to the couch and pull himself up. Or the lamp. Or Dad's leg. And now it's his favorite thing to do (besides open and close doors :). If Eric and I are in the living room, he'll crawl to Eric and pull himself up on his pant leg, bounce for a minute on his knees, then come over to me and do the same thing till one of us picks him up or gives him a little attention. Everyone kept telling me it's so much harder once they start moving because they get into everything- I do have to keep a closer eye on him- but in other ways it's a lot easier because he entertains himself!
Here's the crazy kid with his pull up moves:

Visiting Dad


Coming over to me...Checking with Dad to see if it's ok

Trying to get a good grip

So proud of himself!!

New make-up

Ok don't laugh, I debated on whether or not to post this but in the end the humor factor won out over my embarrassment. Eric and I were watching TV the other day and there was this infomercial on for Sheer Cover make-up. Again, don't laugh! I've been complaining to Eric that I can't find good make-up and when I do find some it's way expensive. Anyway, so I wasn't paying much attention to the commercial till Eric called my attention to it and was like, "Hey, why don't you try this stuff?" So we watched for a little while longer and he was completely sold, he was convinced that I was supposed to try this stuff. To my chagrin, he dialed the number and handed me the phone so I figured Hey, why not. It was what I expected- a scam where they try to get you to subscribe to this make-up so it's delivered to you once a month and then they try to sell you all these extras on top of the basic package. After 20 minutes of convincing this lady I didn't want anything else but the basic deal they were offering, I finally had it ordered. It came in last week and I decided to try it all out! I think Eric was just excited because he had never ordered anything off of an infomercial before :)
I didn't want to post the gross looking Before picture with no make-up on, but I figured the After picture would be more effective that way. It actually works really well and I like it, but there's no way I'll pay $30/month for make-up, even if it's home delivered. Oh and we took pictures similar to what they did- in the before picture my hair is pulled up, no make-up on and not smiling, whereas in the after picture my hair is curled, make-up on and a smile on my face.
Kind of funny but it was actually really fun!
Here are the results:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Caption: I'm a Sheer Cover girl!

Just kidding...

New Found Freedom

As Ethan's crawling skills have been developing, he has discovered a love for doors, of all things. He loves to push them open and closed, and luckily theres a small space between the door and the carpet on most of them so he doesn't squish his fingers. Also, every time we open the front door he makes a mad dash for it.

He still won't crawl on the linoleum (except in the entry way) which sort of surprises me. He will crawl right up to the edge and either stretch his hands as far onto it as he can as long as his legs are still on carpet, or he'll plop down on the edge and start playing. This makes it kind of nice because he hasn't gotten into the kitchen or bathroom cupboards yet, which is one of the things that makes crawling babies not so much fun. But we're proud of how well he's doing with it, and he's already pulling himself up on things! It's actually really nice having him able to crawl because he entertains himself so much better. He was starting to get really frustrated when he wanted a toy that was a little too far for him to reach, so he'd just start whining instead. Not that crawling has eliminated the whining, but now he can do a lot more for himself.

ETHAN IS CRAWLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK so we're more than a little excited that Ethan is now crawling!!! On Tuesday night he was on his hands and knees rocking back and forth, like he's been doing the last few weeks, and Eric was on the floor playing with him when he decided to crawl towards him! Unfortunatley about 5 minutes later I had to head to class, but here's the video Eric got of him continuing to do it!




We're so excited, I thought it'd be another few months before he started! He truly is our miracle, and I know Heavenly Father has blessed our family, and that he has a special plan in store for Ethan. He is constantly watching out for us, and blesses us beyond what we deserve. Ethan brings so much happiness to our family, we are lucky to have him.

Teeth and feeding time

So a week after Ethan turned a year, all four of his front teeth decided they wanted to come in at the same time. I was worried he wasn't going to have any or something, the doctor said 95% of babies get them by the time the are 13 months, and he was creeping closer to that age all the time. But they came! He was sick and upset for about a week, and then he was fine. I was kindof glad they came in all at once so he was only fussy for a week, rather than 4 separate ones. Since then he's gotten one more on the bottom. I haven't been able to get a good picture of them and I finally did, so I thought I'd share!

He was very tired and subdued when I took these, he usually doesn't let me do this :)

He wouldn't smile big enough for a great picture of the teeth, but I thought this one was cute.

Since the teeth, he's definitely been getting more independent at meals. I'm going to have to retire the baby food soon, he grabs the spoon every time I get it near his face and shakes it before putting it in his mouth. So yesterday for lunch I cut up spaghetti noodles and put it on a plate on his tray and gave him a spoon to try to get him to feed himself. Here was the result; not so pretty.


I tried to help him at first but he got so frustrated whenever I'd touch his spoon, and I got frustrated that he was flinging food anywhere, that I just backed off to watch him and decided to deal with the mess afterward. All in all he probably got a total of 4 noodles actually into his mouth. Any suggestions from those more experienced than me on how to get him to feed himself?

First trip to the zoo

Friday afternoon we took Ethan to the zoo for the first time! I think I was more excited than anyone, but it ended up being really fun for everyone. We were worried it was going to be tiny, when we pulled up we could see a camel in a corner cage and we drove another block and we were already to the other side of the zoo. But it took us a good hour to get through all the animals so we were impressed. The Idaho Falls hospital put on a free night at the zoo and we got an invitation, they gave out free refreshments and gave us free water bottles and Ethan a stuffed lion, it was really nice. Ethan's been getting better at animal noises lately and he was super excited to see the animals, he pointed and wanted to reach out to them. When we got to the tigers he even growled!

Squawking at the birds. The pelicans were huge!

Oooh I think we stayed the longest at the tigers, there were two of them and they were HUMONGOUS and gorgeous. They were brothers and played around with each other, so it was fun to watch.

Lion cubs

Ethan looking scared with dad, but that's just how he uses a straw :) It got pretty chilly near the end, Idaho is always windy

I think Ethan's favorites were these special breed of prairie dogs, they came right up to the window and followed his hand. And he barked back :)

The flamingos were my favorite, I've never seen them in person!

It was fun and well worth the trip!

Discovering the world around him...aka our apartment :)

Since he's a little more mobile these days, Ethan has been cracking us up with the things he's doing. He's not crawling or walking yet, but I'm surprised to see how far he can move without that. I was in the kitchen the other day so I brought him in there to play while I cooked, and he got over to the fridge to play with the magnets. I also (stupidly) gave him a bag of goldfish crackers which were promptly spread across a three foot radius around him. But he had fun trying to grab them before I could clean them all up.


Ethan's occupational therapist brought this large pacifier looking thing- in place of the rubber top there is a little mesh bag you can put things in so they can suck on them but not choke. He didn't like it for the first little while, but then Eric tried putting a popsicle into it and he'd get mad if we tried to take it away- even after it was all gone!

He found one of his sippy cups while rolling around in the living room, and was trying to drink it lying down, without turning onto his back. This doesn't convey it very well, but it was hilarious to watch him trying to get a sip :)

On hands and knees

Ethan's been making so much progress lately! Physically, he's able to move around a lot more than he was even a few weeks ago. He's been getting better at reaching out to toys that are far away on the floor, and this week he's even started getting on his hands and knees to reach! Before he was able to get things behind him, because he's learned how to scoot on his bum and also to rotate himself around on his belly, but he always gets frustrated trying to go forward because he doesn't know how. It's really exciting to see his progress, I was beginning to think he wasn't even going to crawl till his 2nd birthday! I guess I should have a little more faith in him, he's done amazing with everything else :)

Look what I can do, Mom!

The toy in front of him is motivation to move :) Whatever works!

Hospital visit

Our friends Kristen and Jared had their baby this week! I was sad because I was out of town on Wednesday when she had it, and figured by the time I got back on Saturday Kristen would be home from the hospital and I wouldn't be able to visit. She was induced and ended up having a C-section, so they were still there to visit when Ethan and I got home. They had a little boy named Kroten, he is so cute and has tons of red hair. Ethan was fascinated with him and every time I'd walk away holding him he'd whine and want to see the baby again. He kept reaching for the Krotens face, so I let him touch his hand. It was really cute to see how interested he was in him. Maybe it's time for a little brother? Just kidding :)

Cute sleeping baby!

Ethan was so interested just to stare at him (and try to grab) that he wouldn't let me go far!


After they got home from the hospital, we went over on Sunday to bring them dinner. Once again Ethan didn't want to leave the baby alone. It was pretty fun to see.

So excited!