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!

May showers, not flowers

Let me just say that I'm not going to miss Rexburg weather AT ALL when we leave (which won't be till next April). Idaho is always colder than Utah, Rexburg is up on a hill so it's always windy, and there's no guarantee you can't have a snow storm after April. This makes family outings pretty hard when it's windy and raining. I was getting really excited for summer and so far we've had probably a week total of nice weather. But we've tried anyway, we went out to a park where Eric could fish and I could take Ethan on the swings- they even have fire pits so we were going to roast marshmallows, but it was too windy to build a fire, and too windy to fish. Needless to say, we didn't stay that long.

Our windy outing, with Eric trying to fish

On the swings- Ethan cracks up every time we go forward!

Just to make me nervous...

Other than unsuccessful outings, our family has stayed pretty busy this month. School started up again the last week of April, Eric is going full time and I'm taking 4 credits that aren't very hard, but still require some homework. Neither of us are working, but I am babysitting some for girls in our ward who are in school. Ethan is doing great-- he just learned to push himself up into a sitting position, and now I can't keep him down on the floor for more than two seconds. It makes changing diapers and trying to get him dressed interesting, and a few times I've gotten to get him out of his crib from naps and he's sitting up pulling on the bars. We just recently lowered his crib, because he's also started pulling himself up halfway on things. The occupational therapist thinks he's going to skip the crawling stage and go straight to walking!

At the end of last week he went through a rough time with a fever, runny nose, and temper, and he wouldn't leave his glasses on for more than a minute. I thought maybe his prescription was too strong for him and bothering him, because the ophthalmologist said their eyes change pretty quickly at this age, but the next day I looked in his mouth and all four of his teeth had popped in! Two top and two bottom- the week before we could barely see one of the bottom and a hint of the top two coming in, but they all decided to spring forth at the same time. He's a much happier kid this week :)
And here are some random pictures of our experiences this month:

Yes those are gummy worms. Ethan did them himself (Ok so Eric helped)

Riding his bike- Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! He can only go backwards right now, we're working on going forward.

Discovery #1: Light switches. He won't let me pass one without trying to leap out of my arms and grab it

Discovery #2: I can eat my toes!



Thanks Great Grandma and Grandpa for the birthday card! I loved looking at the Blues Clues dog!

Tribute to Ethan on his 1st Birthday!

As of yesterday at 5:10 pm, Ethan is officially ONE YEAR OLD! I can't even believe it, and I've been here for every minute of it! My little boy is growing up, now if he would just start crawling or walking...:) He does have his first tooth coming in, so that's good, and he's learning to push himself up into a sitting position. Twice he has come so close, only to give up at the last minute. Hopefully another week and he'll have mastered that one! He is such a jabber-mouth, he talks constantly in so many different sounds with such inflection, that when he does it staring right at you, you think you've just gotten through a long and very descriptive conversation about one of his many toys!
Ethan has been such a blessing in our lives, I can't imagine life pre-baby. What did we do with all of our time? ;) But seriously, he is an amazing kid and has come so far. He still has a long way to go, but from his original diagnosis, it's clear he is a living miracle. We are so grateful to a Heavenly Father who loves us enough to trust us with such a special spirit, we don't deserve the amount of joy he brings. We know he has touched many lives and will continue to do so.

Happy Birthday Ethan, we love you so much!

Blessing Wyatt

After graduation, we headed down with my parents to Utah for when Jenn and Bridger blessed Wyatt. Their house looks amazing now, they bought an old house in Salem, completely remodeled it, and now they've gotten their yard in and it looks awesome. We went outside afterwards to take some pictures, here are some of them:

Everyone there, mostly Jenn's In-Laws
(Eric, Ethan and I are in the shade on the right)

Carters and our families

The girls and the kids! Wyatt had the cutest outfit with a tiny yellow tie.

Ethan and Avarie having fun on the keyboard

Ethan helped us drive home :)

Ooops...

So I've been messing around with the template for the blog and somehow I deleted all my friends and family's blog links...When you get on and check out the blog if you could please let me know your address and I'll add you, thanks!
Jessica