Ethan's Songs

Ethan has gotten to be quite the singer these days. We are constantly amazed at all the songs he can sing. Finally we got him to perform for the camera. Last night at the ward halloween party he got up on the stage and grabbed the microphone before we could get to him. He made everyone jump as he started to sing.

You can see the nice little scratch on his face that he got at the beginning of the week. Right up there with singing is his love for playing baseball. He has an inflatable t-ball set that he plays with constantly (as long as mom or dad keep putting the ball back on the tee). Well every adult and child that plays with him and his t-ball set likes to play by hitting him with the bat. Of course it doesn't hurt and Ethan thinks it is a pretty fun game. Well the problem comes when Ethan uses other items as bats. The other weekend he set up our friend's vase as the tee and put one of her decorative ornaments on top of it for the ball and grabbed another vase to use as the bat. So he doesn't understand that it isn't a fun game to hit kids with all the other "bats" he plays with. So while playing with a plastic guitar and using it as a bat he decided to hit a girl at daycare with it and she got him good with a couple of scratches down his face. Having watched him do it before I truly think he is confused by why the kids start to cry when he does it. It is going to be fun to try to unlearn that little game. So if we come to your houses hide any long narrow bat-like objects you have sitting around.

And I just added a couple of more pictures that I like of my boys.

SOLD - well almost

We were super excited to get an offer on our house in NC today. It has been a LONG wait but it has taught us a lot about patience. We countered their offer but within an hour they had accepted our offer. So October should be our last month with double mortgage payments. What a relief! So one last trip to Sanford to do some minor repairs and we should be set. We will miss the excuse to go and visit all of our friends down there.

Nothing else exciting has been going on. Abe has been studying like crazy since he has had at least one test every week for probably the last month and has a week of exams starting tomorrow. But he has been doing well and we are very proud of him. Ethan continues to amuse us daily. Today at church there was a man sleeping a few rows back and Ethan noticed him. Ethan said (in his loud and very clear speech) "Man sleeping!". I tried to get him onto another subject but he was very concerned about this man. So he said it a few more times. Finally he stood up in the pew and said "Wake up man. Wake up!" Abe and I were dying. I didn't look back to see if the man noticed or not. I was wishing that Ethan would fall asleep during church but that never happens. He usually spends his time just hoping that nursery time is around the corner. After every prayer he said "Amen. Nursery time?" and starts to get up. I guess I'm glad he just loves nursery that much.

Do you know what today is?

If any of you have closely monitored your calendars you will know that today is September 15 but also the day we found out the sex of Baby Fish #2. So would anyone like to take a guess? Though the baby did not want to cooperate for most of the ultrasound in the end it let us have a little peek. And we are having a girl! We are happy to say that we have not broken any traditions in either of our families by having more than one boy in a row. We are very excited and nervous at the same time. Just when you get comfortable with raising a boy you get handed a little girl.

Sorry we have no adorable pictures or creative announcements. I had to leave town after the ultrasound for a work related trip so there was no time for anything fancy. So feel free to send some good advice to Abe on raising a girl 'cause I think he is more worried about this than me.

love,
Meredith

Everyone is getting potty trained

So we have been working with Ethan on potty training and he has been doing great. He is such a funny kid. He told me the other day that monkey needed to go potty so he put monkey on the potty. I think he is just the cutest thing in his little underwear. He has figured out that claiming he has to go to the bathroom will get him out of places he doesn't want to be, i.e. his carseat, church, or his high chair. We will let him watch some tv while he sits on the toilet so if he wants to watch a show and we say no then he will say "potty" and sit down. So manipulative but just adorable.

In other news we now know that September 15th we should find out the sex of Baby Fish if all goes as planned. So stay tuned for the blog announcement around then.

~Meredith

He's a Dancin' Machine

We finally got a clip of Ethan dancing while visiting our friends this past weekend. He loves to get down to any type of music. For the last several months his dancing was always one foot tapping on the floor. We finally figured out why he thought that was how you dance. He has watched a tv show with a tap dancing horse. So Ethan has been "tap" dancing. So now if we sing the theme song to the show he will do his tap dancing. It is so funny.

I can't believe summer is over. Abe started classes again today. We are very glad to have him back home but I know he isn't happy about starting back.

Ethan has something to say

Yes those are pictures from an ultrasound that Meredith had yesterday. So we have an announcement. Meredith is pregnant. She is 10 weeks along. We are very excited about it. The due date is Feb 9th. Here is the up close picture of Baby Fish.

In this picture the baby is facing us. The head is on the left side as you look at it. You can see the arms as you move to the right and down, then the body and the legs. It is to bad you can't do a little video of an ultrasound because its little legs and arms were moving as we watched. You could also see its little heart pounding away. So cool.

Summer Fun

We have been lucky to get to spend the last week with some of Abe's family. His parents and sister, Michelle, came into town for the week and we have had a wonderful time. Ethan adores his "papa" and "gran gran". He was a little confused when we talked about grandma and grandpa coming since he expected it to be my parents but it didn't take him long to warm up to everyone and he LOVED the attention. From the moment he woke up to the moment he went to bed he had to know where "Shell", "papa", and "gran gran" were. We did our best to show everyone a good time. I think Michelle has gotten more than her fill of the outdoors but the weather has been very nice and it was a good time to be outdoors.

We hiked up the Cascades during the week. It was a beautiful, cool day so it was a great time for a hike. Ethan was good on the hike and especially liked the dead deer that was floating in the pool under the falls. Needless to say no one wanted to get into the water.Ethan was not a fan of having me hold onto him while we walked on the rocks. He seemed to think he was big enough to do it by himself.

We got up close and personal with the animals at the zoo. Ethan had a great time seeing all the animals. (And no the alligator is not real, but Ethan was still a little hesitant.)

Ethan liked the animals he could touch. They had some goats wandering around that he followed.
His favorites were the chickens. We probably should have just saved our money and taken him to someone's farm where he could chase the chickens for free. Grandpa taught him to say "dinner" as he chased them. Lucky for the chickens he is still a little slow.


We also took a tour of Tech and wandered by the Duck Pond. Once again Ethan was greatly amused by chasing the baby ducks and telling them "hi".