Ethan is very into hats these days – and many things can be hats. Today his favorite was Clay’s Star Wars hat (obviously it’s much more fun to wear hats that are too big for you than hats that are bought to fit!). He was so cute walking around in the yard and in the house with it on. He would get frustrated every once in a while because he couldn’t see, but somehow he managed to push it back up without it falling off – true talent. He was still wearing it when we pulled into the church parking lot, but we weren’t sure how everyone would feel about it, so we left it in the car.

Lately Ethan has been cracking us up with tons of new and hilarious faces and sounds. He still doesn’t actively talk much (he’s more of a parrot these days), but he loves to make us laugh with silly noises. My dad was lucky enough to capture one of these faces the other day and I smile every time I look at it.

He’s also very into the swimming pool these days. Nana and Poppa pull the slide up to the pool and he’s up and down for hours. It’s funny to me how kids don’t seem to mind the freezing cold water that comes out of the hose – as long as it’s going into the swimming pool. Now we just need to get a slip-n-slide. Do they even still make those? So, even though it’s terribly hot, our house seems to attract more mosquitos than any other house, and we’re treating terrible cases of ezcema on his legs and arms, he still loves to be outside.

This is random, but I’ve always known that boys and girls are very different, but didn’t realize how different until I had a boy of my own. Last night our neighbors invited us over for dinner and we took a couple of things for Ethan to play with since they don’t have any kids. He entertained himself for 2 hours with a handful of matchbox cars (his favorite thing), playing hide and seek with their cat (2 guesses which one of them was doing the hiding and which one was seeking), and then he discovered the baseballs. AJ is a baseball umpire and Ethan discovered the baseball room which not only has lots of baseballs (his 2nd favorite thing), but also had AJ’s umpire mask. Ethan promptly began hitting himself in the head which – in Ethan lingo – means please put that hat on my head. I really wish I would have had my camera, but hopefully we can catch it again. Anyway, all of that to say, I’m amazed at the things that not only catch but hold his attention for sometimes hours. I caught him the other day in the bathroom looking at the toilet paper holder. I took out the little bar that holds the t.p. roll, but the 2 holders are still in the wall. It was so funny because he would touch one of them and then sit on the ground under it and look up trying to figure out how it was attached to the wall. Then he’d stand up and touch it some more, then sit down and look at it again. I just love his curiosity and I love watching him learn new things every day.

This is what Clay and I have been saying over and over for the past couple of days. Saturday evening we went to Blockbuster, and on our way out Ethan tripped over something in the parking lot and fell down and scraped his knee. He cried for a couple of minutes, but was then completely fascinated by the red thing on his knee. So, since Saturday, he’ll think of the scrape at the most random times of the day. But thinking about it is not enough. He wants someone – anyone – to acknowledge and then kiss the scrape. Hilarious. He points at the scrape, holds his knee up to be kissed, makes a sound that means “all better” in Ethan lingo, and then proceeds to kiss his own knee. I caught a couple of the steps on film and just had to share. What are we going to do the first time he scrapes his knee and 2 elbows?!?

Well, it’s official – Ethan has finally attached himself to something. As a baby, he never wanted a pacifer, never favored a blanket or a toy…nothing. However, over the past week he has become very attached to his Elmo and his elephant. It’s Ethan, Elmo & Elephant every night going to sleep together. It’s just so cute that I couldn’t resist taking a picture of him when he woke up from his nap today. Before naps or bedtime, he gathers up Elmo in the right arm and elephant in the left arm, and we sit on his little red couch and read books (this is after all 3 of them have had lotion put on of course). Then we turn out the light, sing songs, and Ethan goes to bed with a very firm grip on both of them. It’s just so sweet to see his imagination starting to work – keep imagining sweet boy!

My dad works shift work, so every other week he’s home for a good portion of the day when Ethan is there (which I’m convinced are both of their favorite days). If dad has any work to do in the front yard, he usually lets Ethan play in the truck or in the back because the child is obsessed with trucks. Well, yesterday while my dad is chopping some tree roots, he sees the garage door close and wonders why my mom is closing the door on him. Then a couple of minutes later, the garage door goes back up. Then down, then up…you get the picture. So, he goes over to the truck to find Ethan completely satisfied with himself that he crawled into the steering wheel so he could comfortably reach the garage door opener and proceed to master this skill. Dad – thanks for having the camera ready!

When we bought Ethan’s “big boy” bed and bedspread, we had this great idea to paint his room blue and put red and orange stripes at the top to match the bedspread. Well, after some paint struggles with his room, we had to ditch the stripe idea and move on to plan B…which turned out to be much more fun anyway. We bought 3 canvas boards, 2 paintbrushes, stripped Ethan down to a diaper, and turned him loose with the red and orange paint we had already bought. His paintings are definitely originals, and look pretty cool in his room. So watch out Pollock, Ethan’s giving you a run for your money.

As Ethan is crying in his room as he has been doing for the past 15 minutes, I thought I’d take this chance to blog my frustration. I just don’t understand how an 18 month old doesn’t want to nap – EVER! Well, that’s not completely true because he loves sleeping in the car. He would probably sleep for 3 hours in the car. But at home? Nope, 30 minutes and he’s done. I just don’t get it. Cara and I had a no-nap club meeting the other day because it seems that all of the other kids are napping 2 or 3 hours a day, and I’m doing a dance if Ethan sleeps for an hour. Oh well, at least he sleeps good at night I suppose. So to all of you moms who have children who nap for hours during the day, I applaud you and hate you all at the same time.

Well, we had a verbal breakthrough yesterday – Ethan’s (approximate) 8 word vocabulary grew to 11! He got to hang out with Jack yesterday at the park, and apparently that spurred on the talking. When Clay got home last night, he asked Ethan if he had played with Jack, and he said, “Ack!” Close enough! Since Jack still refers to Ethan as “Mickey,” I suppose it’s fine to not get it exactly correct. So Ack, Mickey says hello.

Then, when we were brushing his teeth, I asked him who was on his toothbrush, and he said, “MelllllllMO!” It’s really cute to hear him say it. And of course we had him repeat it about seven times which was even cuter. And he added to his vocab at bedtime by saying “night-night” instead of the usual “bye-bye.”

So that’s the scoop from around here. I’m sure he’ll wake up one morning and be talking about everything. And then when he’s three I’m sure there will be a day when I’m wishing he was 18 months old again and only knew a few words. But for today, we’re rejoicing!

(Had to get a picture of Josie in here because she’s just so sweet – she really liked the park, too!)