Ethan Flees from Baby Jesus

The kids at church had their Christmas musical this morning. Very cute. Ethan had his first nativity scene appearance as a reluctant, headless cow. Oh well. We will try again next year. By the way, having tired, teething Emmaline clinging to me the whole morning did not make it easier to get 5 semi-grumpy toddlers into their animal costumes. But we did it! A little creative persuasion was necessary: "Only kids in costumes get to go see the Mommies and Daddies." And "Your Mommy told me it was okay to put your costume on."

If anyone needs interpretation, those pitiful sounds coming from Ethan are "My no like dat!"

After this video, while the other animals stood quietly and respectfully around the manger, Ethan spotted Levi and ran to him. He came back to me after a little while. Then, when the nativity scene was done and we were all going back to the children's department to play, Ethan's desperate screams echoed through the sanctuary. "Daddy! Daddy!"

While Mom's Away...

Our church is doing a drive-through Christmas lights display this year for the community. Last night, I went down to help direct traffic and wave people through the display. It was 3 hours outside in the parking lot (and 16 degrees) so the kids stayed home with Levi. And Joel. And our friend Joel Bannister. No problem, there are 3 adults, only 2 kids, right?

Well...apparently Ethan realized that with mommy gone, slightly less attention would be payed to his whereabouts, and much of the adult attention in the house would be geared toward the basketball game on TV. He seized the opportunity.

Offense 1: Yogurt was swiped from the fridge, fed to the dog, smeared on the dog's head and back, and globbed all over the kitchen floor.
Aftermath: Adults were laughing too hard to dole out appropriate punishment.

Offense 2: Parmesan cheese was swiped from the fridge, carried through the house, and sprinkled liberally in Ethan's bed.
Aftermath: Appropriate discipline was administered. Offender spent the next 30 minutes crying for Mommy. I would not have been sympathetic.

But Emmaline went to sleep for Levi with slightly less screaming than usual, and the Christmas light display was a success! No frostbite, nobody run over in the parking lot (there were some near misses), and about 80 cars came through!

You can still feel the crusty yogurt spots on the dog's back. It may be time for a bath.

Reflections

I caught Emmaline today standing by the shiny oven door, smiling, cooing sweetly, and giving her reflected self slobbery kisses.

She Walks!

It's official! Steps have been taken! If you are thinking, "Aww, I wish I could have seen those precious first teetering steps in person," well, me too! I was doing the dishes and Levi was dishing up some ice cream when Joel called from the living room, "Dude...she's walking."

In other news, we got our first ever Christmas tree on Saturday morning! We packed up the van to bursting (the dog did not fit very comfortably), and headed out to the national forest. Ethan got his picture taken with Smokey the Bear when we stopped to get our permit. When we got to the national forest, Levi and Joel hunted for a tree while Ethan, Emmaline (on my back), and I stomped around in the snow and tried to keep Samson from eating a partially-decayed deer head that some hunters had apparently left behind. Yeah. Gross. Anyway, the tree hunt was a success. It is a little too big for our house (funny how they grow when you get them inside), but it looks nice. Ethan runs straight for it every morning. "Pretty Christmas tree! Mommy turn lights on!"

Baby, It's Cold Outside

It is currently 5 degrees outside, but it feels like -12. Brr! I am thinking about starting to wear long johns under my clothes...inside. We had talked about going to get our Christmas tree this afternoon, but I think maybe we will wait 'til a warmer day!

We had about 6 inches of snow the last few days, so Ethan got to get all dressed up in his winter gear and play in it yesterday. I didn't take any pictures because I couldn't find his gloves and he was wearing Emmaline's purple mittens. Whoops. She did not miss them, because the sleeves of her snowsuit are about 4 inches longer than her arms. So she sat on the back steps and flapped her little sleeves around, watching Ethan play in the snow. I think she'll enjoy the snow a little more when she can walk in it. She's so close, and quite eager, using anything she can find to hold onto and walk, including her little rocking chair and Shadow the dog.

Speaking of Emmaline, we had a 1st Birthday party on Thanksgiving day!

Double X

Oh, what a difference a chromosome makes.

Ethan used to scream every time I tried to hold him still and put his shoes on.

Emmaline recently spent the better part of half an hour sitting on my lap by the coat closet, handing me shoes to put on her feet and fussing if I was too slow at switching them.

Baby Tights

Chubby baby legs in tights may be the cutest thing in the universe. St. Bernard puppies are a close second, but they don't quite measure up. The house is a wreck, the dishes need to be washed (and why am I blogging instead of doing these things, you may ask), but I have a little girl in pink tights, all's right in the world. Sorry, Robert Browning.

Eeyore

I found a box of books in our shed a few months ago. Not sure where they came from, but we kept a few. One of them was about using your children's personalities to relate to them and help them feel secure and fulfilled. I think it's interesting, but it obviously has its limitations and should be used with a grain of salt.

Anyway, after reading that book, I decided that Ethan seems to lean toward the melancholy side. He is a pretty tender-hearted little guy, more thoughtful and serious than other kids his age that I've been able to observe. I don't know how his little personality with develop as he grows up, but that is where I'd put him now.

Ironically, Ethan's favorite little stuffed animal right now is Eeyore.

Does it ever seem like the more adults you have in the house, the less-supervised the kids are? Everyone thinks someone else is keeping an eye on them. That is how when Levi and Joel were home for lunch today, Ethan managed to swipe my scissors and carry them off to his room for sneaky experimenting. I came to find him, and he came out his door, guiltily offering up the scissors.

"Did you cut something?"
"Wes (yes)"
"What did you cut?"
"Eyoh's eoh (Eeyore's ear)"

We are still working on r's and y's. Anyway, I made a big deal about not playing with Mommy's scissors, and how we don't cut our toys.

"Eeyore is so sad that you cut him! We need to be gentle and kind to our toys."

It took the scissors back to their drawer, and I could hear Ethan down the hall saying, "Sorry, Eeyore, sorry Eeyore." My little speech seemed to have sunk in.

Then my little guy's tender heart came out. I got a little teary. He came in to where Levi and I were sitting, eating lunch. He was carrying Eeyore and looking pretty miserable.

"Daddy, Eeyore's crying."

Could I ask for a sweeter kid?

King and Queen

I am trying to branch out a little from this blog being just a record of all the cute things Ethan says. But really, that is one of the highlights of my life right now. So sorry, everyone who is looking for something deep and philosophical to read.

Ethan loves to play with money. I tutored a boy this summer who needed help with his money-counting skills, and Ethan figured out how fun the stuff is. So today I got him busy with a little bowl of change and a truck-shaped piggy bank. He'd been playing for a while, talking away to himself, when I noticed him saying, "This one daddy...no...dis one mommy..." as he put coins into the bank. I went over to investigate. It turns out the Pennies are Daddy, because Abe Lincoln has a beard. The Nickles are Mommy, because Thomas Jefferson has a ponytail. I love that we are the king and queen of his little universe, so much so that it must be our profiles on his coins.

Sickies

Our home has been hit hard this weekend by the dreaded stomach bug. I guess this is just one of the many joys of MOPs - sharing food, fellowship, and viruses. Somehow, poor Emma seemed to get a double dose of the stomach bug, first with no fever, and then 2 days later, the same symptoms with a fever. There is nothing sadder than a sick baby. She was a little trooper though, perfectly content as long as someone was holding her. We enjoyed the extra snuggling time. It is not normal for her to fall asleep being held like this. But oh so sweet.



To make the weekend more exciting, our friends Joel Bannister and Julie Foster came to visit too. Their plan was to go climbing all day Saturday with Levi and Joel Miller, our friend/boarder. The plans changed to playing mini-golf (slightly less strenuous) and hanging out in our living room (i.e. "sick ward") watching us eat Jello. They were very gracious, although after 3 of 5 household members were sick, Joel Bannister did say, "I kind of feel like sleeping in my car tonight."

Sunrises

A certain little girl has been getting up kind of early the last few days. I am not wild about this, because it means I have to go to bed at about 8:30 to get any decent sleep. But it's been kind of nice to have a little extra morning and to watch the sun rise. This was the view out our living room window this morning. It was, of course, much prettier in person, but I'm not much of a photographer.



In other news, Levi recently traded out our old, drafty fireplace for a nice woodstove to help heat the house this winter. Yesterday, everybody at camp with wood-burning capabilities (that is, all but one person), had a big wood-cutting day to stock up for a few months. And then they loaded up a couple of trucks full of wood and distributed it to everyones' houses. Ethan helped at our house. He was very serious about his responsibilities.

Mo' Tissin'

This blog is starting to be less of a blog and more of a cute-things-Ethan-says-compendium.

Today Ethan learned about getting kisses on injuries to magically heal them. For the remainder of the morning, he followed me around the house, presenting body parts and saying "Hurt there" or "Dis one," and waiting for kisses. When I stopped the game for a minute to do the dishes, he asked for "Mo' Tissin'," and then planted a lovely slobber and smoothie-laced smooch on my cheek.

I think when he is a teenager who is way too cool to be hugged in front of his friends, I will have to remind him of today.

Happy Birthday, Shadow!

We are dog-sitting for our friend Jessica's little black lab this week while Jessica is on vacation. This evening, Ethan's been chasing her around the house, giving her big hugs around the neck and saying "Happy Birthday, Shadow!" each time. We are not sure why. We have been saying "I love (insert name)" and giving hugs the last few months, and I think maybe that's what he means. It is cute.

Someone had a BAD morning

Levi came into the kitchen before church yesterday and said, "Go look in the bathroom."
"Why? Is there a really big spider in there or something?" I asked
He laughed, "No, just go look."

I was sure it could be nothing good, whatever it was. I walked in cautiously and didn't see anything. It was a little bit stinky, so I thought maybe the plumbing had backed up. Then I heard a dripping sound coming from the toilet. "Great, it's backed up. Why in the world would Levi send me in here to look at this?" I thought.

I lifted the lid, and there was something black moving inside. Black and fuzzy, trying to climb up the inside of the toilet bowl. It was a squirrel.

They probably heard me screaming in Texas.

Levi thinks the little guy was running around on the roof and fell through a vent into the plumbing (I don't know if all houses have vents like this, but we have a septic system, so ours does). He must have swam through the pipes until he surfaced in a big, slippery porcelain prison. He was doing his best to get out, but between the water, the edge of the bowl, and the lid (which was, thankfully, down), he was stuck. So I opened the lid while Levi grabbed him with a towel. We took him outside and put him on the ground and watched him for a while, hoping he would get up and run away. He couldn't even walk. We figured he was pretty badly injured, so Levi quickly dispatched him, not wanting him to suffer.

What a morning. One minute you're going for a jog on the roof, the next minute, you're in watery prison. Finally, fresh air, and then a shovel ends your misery and you are in squirrel heaven.

Stories

Ethan is getting to be a little story-teller (very short stories, of course), and I am enjoying it. He has moved on from just answering a question to adding a little bit of his own information.

This morning, I left the living room with Ethan sitting on the couch with a book and Emmaline pulling up on the dog. I came running back to Emmaline lying on her back on the floor crying, the dog leaving the room as fast as he could, and Ethan standing a little way away, observing the scene. I am ashamed to say I assumed the worst. Most of Ethan's "loving violence" thus far has involved whacking Emma over the head with books or trying to sit on her shoulders and ride her. I was afraid we had reached a pushing-over stage.

"Ethan, did you push your sister over?"
"No! Doggy did it!"
"The Doggy knocked her over?"
"Wight!" (Right)

Not only do I think Ethan's not quite clever enough to invent a story like that on the spot, the dog did have a very guilty look on his face...

Similar Interests

When people hear how close in age Ethan and Emmaline are, they often comment about how much fun they'll have playing together and how nice it will be for me that they'll go through phases together. I am appreciating that more and more as Emmaline improves her crawling.
This morning, I left the kitchen for a minute and returned to find the kids sitting side by side in front of the hutch. Ethan was "explaining" to Emmaline all the joys of the drawer pulls on the front. She was cooing away attentively. They were both eating shards of a black olive they had discovered on the floor from last night's dinner. What a beautiful stage to be in together, where they can both be perfectly happy with drawer pulls and floor olives.

Just when you think you've got them figured out

I was reading two days ago and came across an article that said something along the lines of "You need to move your kid out of his crib into a bed by the time he is 35 inches." I thought to myself, "Hmm, I think Ethan is a little over 35 inches. It's so nice that he has shown absolutely no inclination to climb out of his crib. These parenting books... you have to take them with a grain of salt..."

So, of course, who did I find staring up at me from right next to the bedroom door this morning? "Wait a sec... that's not where I left you last night..." I tried to interview him about his little escape (I think of Dory on Finding Nemo every time I write that...es-ka-pay...) and didn't get very far.

"Did you climb out of bed this morning?"
Thinks for a minute...smiles... "Uh-huh!"
"Did you fall down?"
Looks a little worried, but no definite response. Not sure how to interpret that one.

I think we will be assembling the toddler bed this afternoon.

Travel Pack

Emmaline's favorite toy right now is a little pack of Kleenex, the kind you put in your purse (if you don't have a giant pack of baby wipes instead). No matter what toy she is holding, if she sees that precious Kleenex, she will go for it. She gazes at it lovingly and crunches the wrapper in her hand.

On a totally unrelated note, the men at camp have been building a bath house down in the "Outback" valley, to accommodate tent campers. I took the kids down to watch them work yesterday, and it was probably the best half hour of Ethan's week. Some of the older guys with masonry experience were laying cinder blocks, while the younger guys were running back and forth carrying bucket after bucket of concrete and cement. Ethan was a little scared of the cement mixer at first, and absolutely petrified when Levi started driving the bobcat ("No! Daddy, No!"). But he loved watching the men laying the bricks ("Mo' Mud!") and Levi shoveling pea gravel into the cement mixer. I think it was every little boy's dream.

Gross.

Samson can now open the toilet all by himself in order to drink out of it. Yeah. The dogs are totally running this house.
In other news, we are back home and back to our routine after having company and then being company at my parents'. It is nice to be making a dent in the laundry pile and the kitchen clutter after a few busy (but way more fun than housework) weeks.

Sauerkraut Baby

Emmaline has finally learned to crawl forward. She has mastered this skill about 2 weeks before Ethan did. When he crawled forward for the first time, it was across the camp entryway to Levi. Emma crawled across the living room to my plate of brat and sauerkraut. She wasn't exactly sure what to do with it when she got there, but it was a great motivator.

Now Ethan is off with Levi and a bunch of the camp guys helping them chase a bear away from the camp dumpsters. His first bear chase!

Cousins

Every summer, Raven and Austin (Levi's sister's kids), come out to Colorado to hang out with Levi's mom for a few weeks. This summer, they are taking turns coming up to camp for a week while they are here. So Austin came to cabin camp last week, and then had a glorious Friday evening playing all of Levi's video games while Ethan "helped."



Saturday, the five of us went up to Denver and met Raven, Kathy, Levi's aunt Christine, Jesse, Kara, and Aydin, and my parents, for an afternoon at Lakeside amusement park. The kids had so much fun! I did not remember my camera, so I do not have photographic proof of this. But we had a great time. Ethan looked a little terrified on all of the kiddie rides, but as soon as they were done, he asked for "more please."

After enjoying Lakeside, we came back home with Raven, who is going to go to camp this coming week. She is so good with the kids! They love having her here. She and Ethan made bead jewelry this morning.

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy...

It's been a long time since my last post, and I can't decide if it's because nothing important has happened or if it's because I've been so busy with unimportant things. Unimportant in a good way. Like playing outside and going to camp and the park and the farmer's market. These things do not really warrant a blog post (especially the farmer's market...nothing is ripe up here but onions and radishes), but they do distract me from updating my extensive readership on our goings on.
So here are the highlights of the summer so far:
*Levi has so far spent most of the summer about 40 feet up in the air working on our new 65-foot climbing tower at camp. It currently has a climbing wall on one side, and when it's finished, it will have 2 other high ropes elements and a zip line across the pond. He said that his most recent day of working on it (last Friday), was the scariest day of his life. He's also been playing on the church softball team, which has a winning record for the first summer in a long, long time.
*Ethan is talking like crazy! He is very into animals and the noises they make. He also has a (kind of annoying) push-a-button-and-strum-and-it-plays-songs guitar that he is wild about. For some mysterious reason, he only plays it while wearing hats.
*Emmaline is sitting up well, getting into all of Ethan's toys, laughing like crazy when he entertains her, and making it very difficult for me to eat dinner with her on my lap. She smiles pretty much constantly, and she is content to go anywhere and do anything as long as she is attached to me.
*Samson has destroyed my garden twice. The first time, I had just planted it, so I was able to replant with a lot of success. But Sunday, he celebrated the 4th of July by digging up almost all my plants while we were at church. I managed to save a few, but that evening, we had the biggest hailstorm I've ever seen here. That pretty much finished it off. I now have one pathetic lettuce, 2 spinach plants, and about 15 carrots. I can plant some new lettuce, and maybe some radishes, but our 3-month growing season is running out too quickly for much else. Better luck next year, I guess. We decided to keep Samson anyway (although I briefly considered turning him into a rug).
*I have been enjoying lazy days, not cooking lunch or dinner, going for lots of walks, and having a bunch of fantastic college summer staffers here (many of whom like to hold/play with babies for me so I can eat at mealtime). I'm planning on blowing up the kiddie pool tomorrow.

So that is summer so far at our house. 2 months summarize into one post quite well.

Pata Pata Bath Time

Glorious Saturday morning.
Levi is at church for the Men's Prayer Breakfast.
Emmaline is napping peacefully.
Ethan has been in the bathtub for at least 45 minutes, with no sign yet of getting bored.
"Unfortunately," I need to stay in the bathroom to keep an eye on him, so I have a great excuse to not work right now and hang out online instead. We have been dancing to "Pata Pata" by Miriam Makeba.
One lazy Saturday makes up for a lot of crazy days.

Hooray for Earth Day!

Yes, I know Earth Day was last Thursday, but I am still celebrating: City Market (our small-town version or Kroger/King Soopers) has a whole page of organic produce on sale!! It is always a delicate balance around here, trying to feed the kids the best food I can find while simultaneously avoiding the poorhouse.
On a related note, we're going to give the ol' vegetable garden another try this summer, this time inside the backyard fence, to keep the marauding deer out, and probably inside yet another fence, to keep the curious Samson out. The garden is a little hard to imagine right now, since my chosen garden spot is currently covered with a foot of snow. But even up here (I have heard, not experienced), beans, lettuce, carrots, and beets grow well, so I am hoping for the best!
In the meantime, we're headed to the grocery store this morning to pick up some fantastic organic strawberries (berrrs, as Ethan says). I wish it were Earth Day every Thursday...

Always Watching

Whenever I cook something on the stove, Ethan pulls one of my pots out of the cupboard so he can stir too. He asks for a "poons" (spoon), grabs a few handfuls of magnet letters from the fridge, and makes alphabet soup. So I wasn't really watching what he was doing this afternoon while I made sauce on the stove. But I turned around just in time to see him reaching up to the counter for the salt shaker. Turns out he had already thoroughly peppered his pot and was finishing up the seasoning. I was very impressed with his observation and culinary skills (even though he knows he's not supposed to play with the salt and pepper).

Early Warning System

Lately, before he does anything he's not supposed to do, Ethan will shout, "No, no, no!" It's really convenient that he gives me a chance to come running and stop him from pulling all the books off the shelf or sitting on his sister. I am just eagerly waiting for the day when he shouts "No, no, no," and then actually stops himself.

Tiny Thumb

I clattered the dishes in the dishwasher tonight, and the noise woke up Emmaline. When I went in to check on her, I found her sound asleep, sucking her thumb. Maybe someday I'll wonder why I ever said this, but she's just SO sweet when she sucks her thumb!

Moving Again, Moving Again, Jiggity Jig

That's right, folks... camp house number 4!! It seems like only yesterday that we moved into our lovely home. But it's been a good 10 months, and the winds of change are blowing again... back down the street to the "blue house" next door to our last house...confused? Me too.
Apparently one of the perks of working at Golden Bell for quite a while is that we get to sample the majority of the camp's houses, in ascending order of niceness, when they become vacant. So this year, in keeping with tradition, we are moving from a nice 3 bed, 2 bath to a 3 bed, 2 bath with a fireplace, patio, and tool room. We will be closer to the camp Lodge, too, which will be convenient.
So now we just need to move! I'm sure Ethan will be very good at helping me unpack.

The Springs Experience

This weekend, my good friend Katie came to visit from Seattle. We had so much fun catching up and playing with the kids! Katie has been to Colorado, but never to the Colorado Springs area, so on Saturday, Katie, Danielle, the kids, and I took the afternoon to go to Garden of the Gods and the Air Force Academy chapel. Then another Olivet friend, Angie, came down from Denver to have dinner with us. The weather was beautiful and the kids were little angels (mostly). What more could I ask for?

Too good to last

This morning, the whole family (including the dog) got on our bed to hang out. Ethan was extra-sleepy and wanted to snuggle with us. It was one of those idyllic fabric-softener commercial settings where the family (in matching white pajamas) all cuddles together in the morning. I thought to myself, "This is just so peaceful and perfect. I need to enjoy beautiful moments like this when they come along." 30 seconds later, Ethan threw up.

Correction

Oops, apparently it was Uncle Ted, not Uncle Rob, who wondered if home would still be there after a long vacation (see May 2009 blog). My apologies to all uncles. :)

Anywho, I took a toddler and an infant to Target today to look for some new jeans (logistical nightmare! You know you have 2 under 2 when you organize outings around which stores have shopping carts).

I don't know whether all serious theological minds would agree with me, but I think God cares about small details of our lives too, not just big ones. I'm not really one to consciously attribute every good parking spot or picked-up penny to Divine Providence. But if He clothes the flowers of the field and feeds the birds of the air, I don't think it's a stretch to say He can direct a frazzled mother with a melting-down-needing-a-nap toddler and a sick-of-the-carseat baby to the right pair of jeans in a large department store.

After the kiddos went to bed tonight, I celebrated the successful trip with a bowl of Samoas Ice Cream...delicious. If I keep celebrating all my solved logistical conundrums this way, however, I may need to go back and trade out the jeans for a larger size.

Two in a Row!

Levi is at a CCCA (Colorado Christian Camping Association?) conference, so the kiddos and I are hanging out in Fort Collins with my parents for a few days. Ethan got to play with Aydin this afternoon and with Grandma and Grandpa this evening, so it's a good day! Ethan did not, however, enjoy my dad sneaking up on him with a fuzzy mountain goat hat on.

A Sentence a Day...

So...it's been a while.
I am shocked and embarrassed to realize that my last blog post occurred about 8 months ago. I think this is because I get intimidated, thinking every time I post something, it needs to be thoughtful, informative, and important, and include adorable photos of the kids. Well, it obviously hasn't been working out very well. However, I saw a great idea in a magazine a few months ago that I thought I'd try. The idea is to write just one or two sentences each day that you can look back on and remember later. I guess this is mostly for my own benefit, but hey, if there's anyone else out there who reads this (ie Mom and Angela), a short blog is better than no blog. Well, here goes nothing.

Feb. 21, 2010.
Ethan is really grumpy today, probably because he has eaten approx. 3 pounds of grapes in the past 24 hours.