Happy Birthday Ethan!

So we celebrated Ethan's 3rd birthday the other week. I can't believe how much time has passed. We had a big snowstorm here the weekend that we were planning to celebrate his birthday since Abe was gone on his actual birthday. Abe was a trooper and thought he could make it home in the snow but he had continual bad luck. The highway became a parking lot for about 5 hours and the rest of the way he had to drive under 35 mph. Needless to say a 4-hour trip turned into a 14-hour trip. He probably would not have made it home for the weekend except for the fact that all the exits had huge piles of snow from the snowplows and he couldn't get off the highway. Once he finally got home around 5am he still had a walk a mile to our house since the roads had not been plowed in our hilly neighborhood. So he gets lots of brownie points for the effort. It was nice to have him home while we were stuck in the house.

But we did have everything we needed to celebrate Ethan's birthday so we had fun. Ethan was so excited with his chocolate cake and ice cream. When everything has to be made completely from scratch it isn't often that we make that kind of effort. When we got done with the cake and presents Ethan said "Thanks guys for celebrating my birthday, thanks guys." It was so sweet.
Grandma Singletary got Ethan this great wooden castle for his birthday. We joke that it was a present for Ethan and Abe. Honestly, we have all had a great time using the castle as a backdrop for stories, puppet shows, and battles.

So in honor of Ethan's birthday this post is all about him. He continues to amuse us with the things he says and does. I had a video I wanted to upload but it wouldn't load. It may be too big. I'm stubborn enough that I will probably try to load it another time. The video was of him telling me a story. I love his stories. They usually start off "Once upon a time when I was bigger...." Then he continues with pieces from other stories that he has heard. They always make my day. But instead of the video I will just list off some of my favorite Ethan lines from the last several months. I'm afraid I will forget them so I'm saving them here for posterity. Here are my favorites. I may have posted some of them in the past so forgive me if you have heard them before.

- While talking to Abe on the phone "Dad, is it okay if I catch up with you later?"

- When he was told that he had to talk nicely to his dad if he wanted something he replied "Abraham may I have some milk?" (I don't know why he had to call dad Abraham)

- While saying the prayer at dinner he opens one eye and says "God made the animals so I can bless them too, right?"

- While visiting his grandma he sat down outside the bathroom. She asked him what he was doing and he replied "Just making sure you don't get into anything."

- When Grandma said, in a serious tone, that it was time to stop playing and lay down (while he was suppose to be in his bed asleep) Ethan said "WHO taught you to talk like that?" Grandma doesn't get serious very often.

- While Ethan was suppose to be taking a nap I found him in my room with a jar of vaseline and vaseline all over him. He quickly said "I'll get it off in just a minute. I just wanted to look like Santa Clause."

- Ethan is great at learning new words from books and movies and using them. The other day while watching a movie he said "Jesus' shadow is looming over the man." "Looming" came from a Winnie the Pooh book. He also came out of his room one night saying he couldn't go to sleep because "there are mysterious shadows on the walls."

-He has become a master at trying to get out of going to bed. The other night he had several trips down the stairs to avoid bed. Once he said "oh I thought it was morning time." I explained that I would call him when it was breakfast time. So 5 minutes later he came down and said "Umm, mom I just have to ask you something. Did I just hear you say 'Ethan, its breakfast time'?" When i said no he said "oh, okay" and went back to bed for good.

- I love the way he talks to Taylor. She was crying in the store because she wanted to get down from the cart. He looks at her and in a very sweet voice says "Taylor, we can't yell in the store. Okay?" And if I ever tell Taylor no or she gets into something he is very quick to defend her. He tells me "She's just a baby mom. She doesn't know any better."

- The other day Ethan says "Let's play David and Goliath. You be Goliath." I said okay and as soon as I turn around Ethan chucked a plastic screw at my head. I got really annoyed and lectured him about how we don't throw things at people. He looked confused and said "but you said we could play David and Goliath?" I learned my lesson.

- We are fully into the "why and how" questions stage. The other day he wanted to know why boys marry girls and why girls are different than boys. After our discussion I asked him if he was going to get married some day. He said "no, I can't." When I prompted him for why not he replied like it was obvious "because I can't dance." He continued with "I just know silly dances. I can't do real dances, you know, like Prince Phillip."

- In the car the other day he wanted to know what Heavenly Father had made us out of.

- After leaving the bathroom one day he said "Do giants have big penises?"

- While sitting on the toilet he says to Abe and I "can you hear that?" then says "try and smell it"

Thanks for humoring me. I just want a record of these things so I will remember all the fun times with this little boy as he gets big.