On the move is the way to describe our family now. Preparing for the move back to Illinois (5 weeks and counting for Kate, 7 weeks for Joe) is one way that we are staying busy. Another is the increase in physical activity. Thank goodness for spring and nice warm days outside.
While I did not catch Ethan in the act this time, his new favorite activity is climbing on top of things. He will push this chair by himself to Olivia's bedside and then will climb from the chair to the bed. He is so proud of himself when he does this, too. This new game has kept me on the move keeping him safe.
Ethan has shown no interest at all in walking by himself. As eager as he was to start moving on his own, Joe and I thought for certain that he would be walking and/or running by now. We have tried many tactics to try and have him walk to us, but no luck. If he doesn't walk on his own in the next 2 weeks then it means that Olivia will have walked earlier than Ethan (she walked at 1 year and 1 week), which is something that we did not expect. Yes, yes, we know that you are not supposed to compare kids, but we all know that every parent does it! However, he will happily walk with a walker or while holding onto furniture. Here he is outside on the sidewalk in front of our house. He has become a regular fixture on the sidewalk the last few days, walking up and down the block.
Olivia joining in on the fun as well. She will be wrapping up her first year of preschool in the next few weeks. While it started off very rocky, it is ending on a high note. She loves her school now and happily talks about it on a regular basis. She claims to be very excited about the upcoming move back to her friends. She has very specific requests for her new bedroom...purple walls, white furniture, green bedspread, a pink pillow, blue sheets, and "all new books". I think we can accomodate everything except for the last request.
Olivia and Ethan racing each other down the sidewalk. They have become great playmates lately, even though we will need to intervene at times to remind Olivia that Ethan is still not able to play in the same way that she can.
Ahhh, sleep comes at last. While Ethan has not been the best sleeper in the world lately, we still can't complain about it too much.
A little video of Ethan and Olivia playing together outside. Olivia was pouting a bit in the shot due to the focus of the video not being exclusively on her.
This will be the last blog for a bit. We leave for Marco Island, Florida in one week for a full family vacation with my entire family. We will be celebrating Ethan's first birthday on the beach, so there will be lots of pictures upon our return!
The aftermath of the cake. How does one slice of cake multiply into such a huge mess?
Opening presents with Grammy. She, Brennan, and Grandpa Brett (who was in California with a previous engagement) bought some great gifts for him. A ride on toy, clothes, lots of toys, books, and more. Both Ethan and Olivia were in heaven.
Ethan and Aunt Rachel enjoying a night walk on the beach with everyone. Ethan really enjoyed the night walk and would splash in the ocean and be happy. However, the rest of the vacation he did not like the actual ocean (but he did like the sand!) and would cry if someone carried him too close. I guess he liked it best when he could not actually see the water?
