Cutest Jailer Ever

Today Ethan and I were playing with his big box house. "Momma in there" for fun and games together, or so I thought. Wrong! No sooner was I in then Ethan slipped out the door and shut it. If I tried to come out, "No momma no" was his response. OK if I'm in prison at least I can read the new Ensign. Quickly I planned my escape, grabbed my righteous reading material and began to read. Not for long. Ethan the jailer barged in and confiscated my magazine. Quickly he returned and handed me Count With Tigger. I feel my brain cells dying. What makes it worth it though is that my jailer comes in like clock work every two minutes and gives me a great big kiss before he leaves to make his rounds.

Big Box Fun

Last night Nathan brought home a huge box from work and turned it into a cool little house for Ethan. Here are some pics from last night and this morning.



Is that a wheat kernal in there?

One on One with Candy

Today I went to the YMCA to do some weights and try a core power class that uses those great big balls you sit on. I'm pretty sure there's a good chance of losing/and or falling off the ball, so my game plan is to stay in the back, out of sight and as far away from the instructor as possible. I'm sure Candy is a nice person, but I've done a few of her classes before and I think there's a slightly sadistic tendency beneath the blond, bubbly, bouncy persona. Being in one of those classes is the closest I've ever come to boot camp. Candy would have made an excellent drill sergeant. Did I mention she's eight months pregnant with her 4th child?

So I head up the steps to the gym, where I am greeted by Candy who directs me to get a ball and a mat. And there is NO... ONE... ELSE. Me. Candy. The Ball. GULP. I persist though, and as we warm up Candy confesses she has had people leave when they are the only ones in the class. So we are chatting and I'm thinking this won't be so bad-then we begin...that was only the warm-up. Picture standing with your back holding the ball to the wall, doing squats up and down, then holding the down position keeping your arms out and your feet out so when you squat down its like sitting in a chair only there's no chair. That was just one of many things we did, others were push-ups and plank positions using the ball. Thankfully it was just a 30 minute class, her others are an hour. As I headed out the door I was thankful I would walk comfortably. Then I proceeded down the stairs where my legs started shaking, my quads started quivering, I dissolved into pile of glutenous jello.

Hey-what's that noise?

Tonight as I'm making dinner I can hear Ethan playing cars in the living room. Then I hear a strange noise...like a maracca being shaken. I'm not alarmed since I know Ethan has maracas-not the same ones that sent him to the emergency room last year-but that is a different story. Then I hear an excited "Yay! Did it!!!" and I drop what I'm doing and run to the living room.

Somehow my child had retrieved a ziploc bag full of hard red wheat from the pantry, which I must not have locked after I grabbed what I needed from dinner. That maraca-like sound had been him shaking the bag enthusiasticly around the living room. Then he opened it and the real fun began. I have wheat kernals everywhere. Ethan is gleefully running his fingers through the stuff and then scooping it up and letting it fall, further aiding in the dispersal process. I am sure he is getting a great tactile sensory learning experience but I cut it short and retrieve the vacuum. Even with the Kirby, it took 45 minutes to get all those kernals. I have a feeling though, that they are like fallen pine needles from the Christmas tree and will be turning up in all sorts of places for the next few months.


Ethan helps clean up.

Hurray for Target!!!!

Nathan and Ethan had a busy day today. While I was at the Boston Temple with the youth from our ward, they went to Target and had some fun. I have a bookcase now!!!! I am so excited about that. Best of all is the storage system Nate got for Ethan's toys-it looks good and so far he is doing well with the concept of taking 1 bin down to play, then putting it away before he takes the next one down.

Christmas Day

Grandma Terry came over to our home for Christmas morning. I tried to get a picture of Ethan with the tree but the boy is a study in perpetual motion. Notice the sparseness of the decorations on that tree. Not many of my ornaments are Ethan proof, so they didn't come out! Nathan brought home a box of shatter proof red balls, and most of them survived the season. Ethan took the top part of at least one off, leaving no way to hook it onto the tree.

Ethan had a blast playing with everything. He loved the construction trucks from Grandma Terry and Great Grandma Bowden. He also had a super fun time playing with all the hot wheels cars and the road rug that Grandpa and Grandma Fullerton got him. Vroom vroom vroom noises all day long coming from the living room where Ethan was busy driving the cars all over that rug. He is a very good driver too, stopping at stop signs and using his turn signals(clucking tongue noise).

Christmas Eve

We enjoyed Christmas Eve with Grandpa George and Nanu. Ethan really liked the big bulldozer and the dinosuars.


Ethan eats Dinosaurs!!! ROAR!!!!

Ethan cuddles with his new Curious George doll

Go Go Gadget Arms!

While making dinner tonight I thought Ethan was busy watching Curious George. In reality he was busy-and quietly-moving a large tripod table toy from behind the TV where it lives to the front of the fireplace, then climbing up on it and stretching those long arms of his up to reach BOTH of Daddy's remote controls. It was a little too quiet so I peeked in on him and thats how I found him-sitting sprawled out in the red chair with a remote control in each hand. You know at the end of each Curious George episode you hear a little child say "George is a monkey and can do things we can't do." I KNOW that my child doesn't hear or understand that part.

Paint Off

Yesterday Ethan and I had fun painting on the kitchen table. Ethan especially enjoyed mixing the colors into one bowl. Had I known that I could have saved time and not mixed up seperate bowls of red, green and purple paint. I used powdered milk, water and food coloring to make the paint. Q tips and the ends of a carrot and celery were brushes. I was cooking dinner at the same time, waste not want not you know. Ethan pronounces paint as hate. This morning when Ethan woke up I heard happy humming noises coming from his room-almost always a sign of trouble. I opened his door to find that he had pushed his bed over to the window and had his head under the window blinds-I thought he was looking at the freshly fallen snow. Then I heard, "hate off" and realized he was busily chipping the paint(lead-filled I'm sure) from the window sill. Time to cut those little finger(nail)s off.

What I hate the most in my house...

Hate. Detest. Loathe. Do you get the idea? This afternoon I'm trying to finish sewing squares of fleece into strips to make a baby blanket. Two strips get sewn with no problems...then the third it starts to make loud clunk noises...turns out the bobbin thread is in a huge knot. I fixed it twice, the third time it happened I was so close to the end of a square I just kept going. SNAP! Off flies the clear plastic bobbin cover and the bobbin flies out and breaks. Has that ever happened to you? Just thought of two more adjectives: Abhor and Despise.

Things my son has taught me...

You can put a VHS tape all the way into a VCR length wise. It will fit. It just won't play.

Hurray for tops that have been sealed for your safety.

Ethan found a box of baby soaps and lotions that haven't been opened yet. I guess he can unscrew lids now. He's so proud of himself.

Pool Fun

So I was NOT the slowest person in my age group at the big swim meet-but lets just say I need to swim 5 seconds paster per 25 meters to be really fast. I am a bit bummed about mutual moving to Tuesday nights as I will miss the masters practice with Molly-we usually swim a good workout then spend a few minutes at the end working on something, the other week it was diving off the blocks to get ready for the meet(did you know that once they say take your marks you CAN"T move after that or you'll be DQed, neither did I, good thing to find out before the meet)anyways last night was working on the butterfly which is the hardest stroke. Turns out I do the kicking/wavelike body motion pretty well-Molly has the others watch me as I did it. Adding the arms to the equation was hard trying to figure out timing, breathing, ect. Oh well its good to have something to be working on. At least I can still make the 6:15 practices with Jack Wednesday and Friday mornings-but we hardly ever get to work on neat things-most everyone at those practices are experienced swimmers and we do workouts focusing on stamina, spped and strength, not techniques. Perhaps I can figure out a way to make it on Tuesday nights sometimes.

The Littlest Ward Clerk

Here is Ethan after church helping Daddy in the clerk's office-actually it looks like he's the one doing all the work there doesn't it? Watch out Nate-I don't think the Bishop shares your views on child labor.

My first swim meet!

So I've been swimming with the master's swim team at the YMCA since September, and I decided to try a swim meet! I did the women's 50 meter freestyle at the New England short course meters championships. There were over 600 swimmers, most from New England but some lady from San Diego flew in and set a world record in the Butterfly right before my event. I think there were a couple of world records set, they'd announce whenever that happened. The pool was huge-this is a shot of warm-up before the meet began-that's the competition pool with 10 lanes! In the upper right hand corner is the warm-up/cool down pool. There were 136 woman in my event, so we went in 14 heats. I was heat 3, lane 8. I think I swam it in 42 seconds-I couldn't wear my contacts because my eyes were all red when I woke up-that was a bummer. I'll update this with the real time and results for my age group when its posted online. Unless I came in last in my age group-which could happen-I'm new at this, remember-in which case I'll just "forget" that update.

Local Flooding

This is route 171-that is a police car blocking the road. Usually this is a swampy area way below where the road is, as you can see the water level is really high. It was over the road behind the cruiser and extended for some distance behind him. Luckily we are up on a hill so weren't really affected.

Buffleheads!

Nathan, Ethan, my mom, and I all drove down to Jacksonville NC to spend Thanksgiving with Jessie and Danny. Jessie and I drove to Sam's club to get some groceries, we went past a small pond and I saw my first Buffleheads! I did not take that picture- my little camera isn't THAT good, but I found an online pic to share because they are so beautiful! They are the smallest diving duck-I recognized them because of the work I've done at whatbird.com

Thanksgiving was fun-My Dad surprised us all and was able to join us. Jessie and Danny have a really cute home, but they are leaving it soon to go to Spain for a few years-must save my pennies so I can go see them! I really slacked off and didn't take any pictures-but Danny took some on their new camera-if either of you are reading this can you resend them? Hotmail does NOT like their format. Thanks!

A busy week

Here are some random shots of Ethan taken this week. In this one he has found some toothpaste, and bitten all the tires off of a Schneider truck toy my parents had given him. Meanwhile I was trying to get dinner started, and feeling thankful for the few minutes of peace I had. Little did I know...

Here he is having a BLAST in a box filled with packing material. He had so much fun with this-throwing everything out was the best part. Did you know that packing peanuts can be squeezed between your fingers and disintigrate into zillions of tiny pieces? Neither did I 'till Ethan proved it was possible.

Here is Ethan when I went in to get him from a "supposed" nap. Yeah-he took off his p.j.'s, and the diaper, moved his bed to the middle of the room, took the baby wipes out of the childproof dresser drawer, ripped the top off them and took them all out of the package. He kind of throws a party where ever he goes. Maybe when he's older this'll be a good trait?

Here is Ethan on a day when he really didn't want to take his nap-he had protested and partied hard for a while. I went in to see if he was asleep and this is what I found...

Picture Day

Two weeks ago was picture day at the daycare where Ethan goes for a few hours a week. So I got him all dressed up cute and drove him over, on the way I realized that if he wouldn't sit still or was running around, it wouldn't be a bad thing cuz it would save us money if the pictures weren't great and we didn't buy them. Well, my always on the go, never sit still or hold still while I try to take pictures was an absolute perfect picture taking model of a child. Seriously my jaw was on the floor. The boy sat, held a pose, looked straight at the camera, smiled and I just knew this was going to be an expensive photo shoot. Ka-Ching! Here is a link https://shop.lifetouch.com/Gallery.jsf

Warning: Prepare yourself for serious blinding cuteness....Sunglasses are recommended.

More Pictures

The Farmer's Cow

This morning Nathan finished off a 1/2 gallon of The Farmer's Cow 2% milk, then exclaimed, "This milk has crack in it!" He went on to explain that it was so good-there had to be something in it. And it couldn't really be 2%, it just tasted too good. We are going through 3 1/2 gallons a week-when I buy a gallon of regular milk I end up having to make pudding with it before it goes bad. Here is their website http://www.thefarmerscow.com/ One of their 6 CT dairy farms is right here in Woodstock, by the fairgrounds. There is a white house next to the red barn with an open sign-I always just drove by assuming it had silly mom and pop store hours. One day last month we needed milk, and I was driving by, so I just thought I'd stop and see what their hours were. They are open 24/7! I couldn't believe it-that is so convenient now for Nate to stop in and pick some up on his way home. There is a refigerator with milk, cream, cider and lemonade, with the prices posted. The milk is $3.00, which is about a dollar cheaper then when I buy this milk at the store. There is a box on a table you put your money in, and if you don't have change, or enough, there's a pad of paper and a pen for you to write an IOU. How cool is that! But that's not even the best part...you can go pet the baby calves. Last time we were there petting the calves, the farmer walked up, thanked us for buying his milk, and invited us to stay and see the milking start up in a few minutes. So, you get you local, fresh, organic milk-cheaper than in the store-and a field trip all at once!

Election Day Fun

Today was a great day. Ethan and I met some of our ward friends at the Lutz Children's Museum in Manchester. All the kids had fun inside, and it was nice enough that we were able to take them outside to play also! Here are some pictures:



After Ethan's nap, we drove over to the town hall to vote. Ethan had a great time flirting with the old people in line and helping me fill in the circles. For the first time in my life, I voted for the Democratic candidate. I think he is the better choice for several reasons, one of which is the fact the Bob the Builder is among his campaign advisors. Can we fix it? Yes we can!

Eastford Fire Station

Well, driving home from the trunk-or-treat I noticed the lights were on and the doors open at the Eastford Fire Station, so I turned around and we parked and went inside. The firefighters were handing out candy and icecream and Ethan thought it was the greatest thing! He was so happy and enthusiastic about everything, they ended up letting him sit in ALL the firetrucks, turn the lights on and off, try on a real fireman's hat, and even brought us more icecream and we had a picnic in the back of one of the trucks.

At one point I asked Ethan if he was ready to get in my car, he shook his hard and said "no no no no no no no." Then I asked if he was going to spend the night there, to which he replied "yes...bye bye mamma!" I can't even begin to tell you what a great time Ethan had, climbing in and out of all those trucks. He sat in a cab, said "mamma up" patting the drivers seat, so I got up and behind the wheel, then he said "mamma go" as in lets drive this thing home!!! Seriously we stayed for about 45 minutes and I had to trick him into my arms and carry him to my car to get him to leave. They loved having him there and said anytime we drive by and someone's there to stop in and say hi and let Ethan see the trucks again. Here are some pictures...

Happy Halloween!

Tonight we went to a Trunk-or-Treat with many of our Ashford Ward friends. It was awesome-lots of yummy food, tons of kids, and beautiful 50 degree weather...its so nice to go trick-or-treating when you don't have to wear winter coats over your costumes and aren't trudging through rain, sleet, or snow. Anyways, since it cost less to buy Ethan's tuxedo than to rent it for Sara's wedding, I thought I'd get one more use out of it before I put it on ebay. My friend Jenny found a cute white dress for her daughter Anna, and she and Ethan went trunk-or-treating together. They were so cute! Here are some pictures...