a few new words

An attempt to capture some of Ethan's new words - he wasn't in much of a mimicking mood but at least it's a little taste of all that he's learning to say lately!

spring day in january

St. Louis has been having a lot of warm days lately - this week we have been in the 60s which is a lot higher than normal especially for January! We have been taking advantage of it and getting outside, taking walks and spending time at the park! Ethan has been quite the explorer!

number 29

Pete and I are now officially only one year away from the big 3-0. We celebrated our birthdays over the weekend with a lot of good food and some time with good friends. I wish I would have taken more pictures of some of our food because it was soo tasty!

On Pete's birthday morning I made him a birthday breakfast burrito (from our favorite cook book lately The Pioneer Woman).

Later that day I made him an ice cream peanut butter pie and some cinnamon rolls from scratch (also from the Pioneer Woman).
Then on Saturday night (my birthday) we had our friends over and enjoyed salad with home made ranch dressing (yes, the pioneer woman), steaks on the grill and twice baked potatoes (again, pioneer woman - these might have been my favorite!), and some pink birthday cake made by Auntie. It was delicious!

Our friends Kristin and Shane and their kids Halle and Owen, along with Auntie and Uncle Russell joined us for dinner. Ethan and Halle had so much fun together! This picture doesn't capture their excitement but they were running and chasing each other and giggling - it was priceless!

breakfast creations

Ethan has been enjoying yogurt for breakfast each morning. He has been pretty adamant about also having cheerios too as he watches me eat my cereal. The last few days, he's been getting a little creative and adding some crunch to his yogurt!

Belly button

Sorry for the twisted angle but we were having too much fun! Who knew a belly button would be such a fun discovery?

big boy in small spaces

Lately Ethan's favorite thing to do has been to squeeze himself into various containers and boxes and just sit. He's tried out his wooden block box, small mega lego box and others (all with the blocks and toys still inside - not sure how he can be comfortable!)

The other day he tried out a new space.
Yes, our nearly 35 pound boy squeezed himself into the drawer and just hung out for a bit. I snapped a picture quickly and then pulled him out - pretty sure the drawer wasn't made to hold over 30 pounds for long periods of time!

and baby #2 is...

A BABY! We had our big ultrasound 2 weeks ago and unfortunately Baby #2 was being modest (or stubborn!) and kept legs crossed and hands covering his/her parts. And so, we don't yet know what the baby is but are hoping to find out sometime during pregnancy.

And, as seems to be the case with our children, the baby is a "little ahead of schedule" in terms of size, but looks to be healthy and growing along just fine! :)

language burst and climbing

Over Christmas break Ethan really started to have a language burst. I'm going to have to capture video of some of his new words because they are so precious. First, Grandma Sheila taught him his first two word phrase - "love you." His version is kind of "duuhh dooo." Then he kept repeating "rectangle" after his new computer that has shape buttons and "Go Pack Go" that proud papa taught him while we were listening to the Packer game in the car.

Since we've been home he is mimicking us all the time and trying out new words. He's added orange, cheese, let's go, bye bye, tree, truck, shark, yellow, purple, stinky, amongst a bunch of other words he's trying out. It is so much fun to see him learning and communicating!

One of my favorite memories from this Christmas was on the plane ride home when we were going through Ethan's flash cards that have pictures on them and to watch him try to use the cards based on what picture was on them. He tried to brush his hair with the picture of the hairbrush, brush his teeth with the toothbrush, knock on the door, and put the picture of the glasses on our nose. Our boy is learning all the time and it is so sweet to have him show us all that he knows.

Another new skill that he learned was climbing up on to the couch! I was pretty nervous about bringing this newly attained skill back home to our hardwood floor-filled-house, but it has so far gone just fine (aside from one couch fall this past weekend). He has started to become a lot more careful about how he gets off of the couch and seems to be growing more awareness of the "edges" of things. Because of his new desire to climb things we are trying to figure out a good solution for the crib, since it is only going to be a matter of time before he figures out how to get (or fall) out. Hoping we can find a good solution before he tries it!

snow!

While we were up north Ethan got to really experience snow for the first time! It was SO much fun!
He tried out sledding (very carefully!).
Grandpa Todd built us a snowman.
And we just explored. Once Ethan got comfortable walking in his boots he wanted to go all over the lake. SO fun!

christmas vacation

I have been a little MIA from the blog lately because we have been keeping pretty busy since we got back to St. Louis after our 11 day Christmas vacation in Minnesota. I can hardly believe it's the middle of January and I'm already over 20 weeks pregnant with baby #2 (another reason for lack of posts - Ethan's naptime is my naptime too these days - being pregnant with a high energy toddler is exhausting!).

For Christmas - We spent a few days in the Twin Cities, celebrated Auntie and Baby Girl Schmaltz with a baby shower and enjoyed Christmas Eve with the fam. On Christmas morning we had breakfast with my mom and siblings and then headed up north to spend the Christmas and the whole next week with my dad and stepmom. Here are a few pics:

Auntie Lindsay, due in March!


Ethan and Grandma Sheila.Ethan enjoying a special ice cream treat.
In the picture below please note the very special snow globe Ethan is holding. Cousin Alyssa lovingly gave it to Ethan after he continued to play with it for hours and it seemed it was going to be a bit of a pain point to let go. Thank you Alyssa!
All in all a very Merry Christmas!