No Pants and "Peas"

Spending the summer with Ethan helps to assuage the feelings of guilt I have for seeing him so little on weekdays during the school year.  It's been great to be with him this summer because now that Ethan's a toddler, he's just so much more fun to be around.* Ethan does the funniest, cutest, things that are probably only funny to me and my husband.  This, for example...

I've also been amazed by Ethan's language development this summer.  I'm so happy to have been with him so much during the last few months to see the daily progress.  Right now, his vocabulary is rapidly expanding and it's helping him become more communicative and expressive. Most recently he's started to say "peas" (please) unprompted when he wants something.  He's saying "uh oh," "oh no," and, "oops," at the right time, and he also has started to say "more" and "milk" instead of using his baby sign language.  The cutest thing Ethan does right now, though, is "read" books.  He will sit down, flip through the pages of the book, and babble away.  I love that he loves books so much right now. I guess our weekly trips to the library this summer have paid off.

* Not that I didn't enjoy being around him last summer, but it's a very different experience to take care of a 16 month old than a 4 month old.

Baby Adam

The last few weeks have been exciting for my family because my sister and her husband made the big move back to Rochester, after living in Northern Virginia for the last several years.  I'm beyond excited they are back, for many different reasons, but one of the most important reasons is because Ethan will get to grow up around his new baby cousin.  They are so close in age (only 14 months apart) so I hope they grow up to be great friends.

So, after four months of Facetime chats, Ethan and Adam finally got to meet, and it was just so sweet.  Ethan was so excited to see Adam in person and couldn't stop pointing to him and saying "babay."  He hugged the baby, held the baby, and gave him kisses; the pictures are precious! Ethan is still practically a baby himself (18 months), though, and so he still has a lot to learn about being around them, especially about being gentle.  Adam got poked in the eye when Ethan decided to show us that he knows where Adam's eye is, and, fortunately, Adam took it like a champ.  Anyway, it won't be too long before Adam can poke Ethan right back!

Schoolwork and Spaghetti

Even though I have the summer off, I have some extra school responsibilities that require me to come in for a few summer work days.  Mostly I sat in meetings, but I also got the chance to develop some Common Core aligned materials to use in my classroom, which was great.  I had to be at school for four days, so my husband took a few days off from work to spend some time with just him and "the boy". They had a lot of fun, although, not without a few injuries, namely, a bump on the noggin and a scraped nose.

In between applications of Neosporin, ice packs, and summer work days, we still found some time for some fun activities.  Here are a few in no particular order...

Fun with Spaghetti...





















Notice the injuries...

Another jaunt to the zoo... the lions were very active and a treat to see!

Pool Party!!!