The Ballad of the Green Beret

I have a great story to tell about Ethan and his night time routine. But first a little background information. Meredith is in Atlanta this week doing some training for work. I am in my final week of class for school this year so in order to make both of our lives easier her mom agreed to watch Ethan for the week. In order to stay consistent Judy (Meredith's mom) asked what his normal night time routine is. We normally read one story, say a prayer, and then as I am putting him down and turning out the lights I sing him the Ballad of the Green Beret. Judy of course didn't know this song. So they looked it up on the web. It played the song and had an animated soldier throwing hand grenades and shooting a rifle. http://www.brownielocks.com/balladofthegreenberetsWAVE.html Ethan heard the song playing and came into the room saying "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy". So cute. Then he saw the animation and pointed at it and said the same thing again. Finally when the song finished he said "night, night". If that wasn't the cutest story ever Meredith called on Monday to find out how Ethan was doing. Judy told her that Ethan has been taking her by the hand and walking her to the computer and saying "Daddy, Daddy" to get her to play the song again. This happened at least twenty times. He is the cutest little boy.

We love messes.

The other night we let Ethan feed himself and it became a real mess. So when he started putting the bowl on his head we decided rather than stopping him we would just get the camera. All the damage was already done by that point in time.

Here are some more of the pictures of Ethan helping Dad wash the car. Though in the midst of it all he managed to eat the soap bubbles and dump the bucket out, it was still fun to watch him want to help. His pants were a little big though so he was sporting a little crack most of the time. Good thing the diaper stayed up.

And for those that didn't know three weeks ago the weather started to get a little warm here so we decided to kick on the a.c. (it was 98 one day and I know that many of you live in warmer climates) only to find out that it wasn't working. So we thought that it was lucky that this happened before our home insurance had lapsed. We called them they set us up with a contractor who came out and told us that our heat pump needed replaced. Apparently the insurance company gave that contractor such a hard in the next two weeks that they refused to work with the insurance company. So after many hours on hold and countless frustrations we will finally are having our a.c. unit fixed on Friday. Luckily some friends let us borrow a window unit that they weren't using so we have been able to survive. The whole family has been sleeping in the basement. I forgot to mention that during this time Ethan also got an ear infection, and had a 103 degree fever. Not fun when the house is almost unbearable. With this ear infection we found that Ethan is not only allergic to penicillin but also third generation cephalosporins (the two main antibiotics for ear infections). One last story to go along with this and then the marathon post will be done. Monday we decided to go to Moes for dinner, they have 5 dollar meal deal on Mondays. We had just sat down with our food and given Ethan a corn chip (Ethan was still taking the antibiotics at this time before we found out his allergy) when he starts to cough and then the cough turns into throwing up. So fun. Countless napkins later we are walking out the door with a child in a diaper and the food in to go boxes. Good times.

Helping Dad

This weekend we got to spend lots of time together and outside. It was so funny to see how much Ethan loves to be like his dad and help out. He didn't want to be left out of anything. He was a big help with washing the car. Though I think he ate more soap then actually made it to the car. And in the second picture you can see that he managed to dump a large amount of soap down the front of his pants.
He had his lawnmower out when it was time to cut the grass. He walked around saying "mow, mow, mow" the whole time.
And he even managed to give dad a few pointers on his form. He's been known to put a few books on Abe's back to give him a little extra weight. What a sweetheart!

Our Little Ladies Man

I know we have told you about Ethan and all the girls he adores but I finally have some pictures to back it up. The other night one of our friends brought their daughter over so we could babysit her for the evening. They are only two weeks apart in age and play together all the time. Ethan decided when I told him to share the lion that Emma was riding on that I meant he should get on too. He was totally content to hold on to her and ride too. She was not a fan of this and gave him a push off pretty soon after. They made up later when he gave her a sweet little hug.

So as you all know yesterday was my birthday, my 25th birthday for the 5th time. thanks for the well wishes. Abe was very excited to give me my presents so we had decided that I would open them before work on my birthday. So the night before I was awoken to Abe jumping out of the bed. I looked at the clock and it was 12:05AM. I thought maybe he was just that excited to give me my presents. I asked him what was wrong and he said very clearly "Quick, get out of bed, its not stable!" So I was totally confused. I asked him again and he told me the same thing. Since he has been known to mutter things in his sleep I asked him if he was awake. He was totally annoyed with the question and said "Yes I'm awake. You have to get out of the bed." So I finally did. Abe was looking at the bed and I asked him what he was going to do about it. He told me to get back in bed to test it out. I didn't think it was very chivalrious for making me see if it was going to fall. Then he just got back into bed and didn't say a thing. Of course I laid awake for a while because I started to convince myself that maybe it did feel a little shaky. In the morning I asked Abe why he had thought the bed was unstable. He just looked at me and said he had no idea what I was talking about. So I guess he was asleep after all. All he remembers is that he was having some dream about something being unstable. So I guess I'll have to come up with a better way to decide if Abe is awake or asleep when he says strange things in his sleep.

I want to wish Meredith a very happy birthday. She is turning 25 again this year. Isn't it amazing how when we got married she was the same age. That is one great thing about her she never gets any older :). So everyone wish Meredith a happy birthday. Love you baby

Summer Fun

The weather here has been great so we have finally been able to enjoy the outdoors again. We took Ethan out for the first time in our canoe and we all had such a fun time. Ethan just needed a fishing pole to complete his look. For such a little guy he was great in the boat. He loved looking at all the birds and trees as we paddled through this lake at the state park near our house. I just wish I could have gotten some pictures of him in the boat but I wasn't brave enough to bring the camera out on the water just yet. Maybe next time.

On Friday I took Ethan to a park at a nearby river and as soon as Ethan saw it he kept saying "wa wa" which means water to him. He didn't stop saying it over and over again until I let him get out of the stroller to put his feet in the water. I think he has inherited his father's persistence. It's fun that he can finally get his point across for most things he wants. It makes life so much easier when we know why he is crying. Though when he is repeating the same phrase over and over again because you aren't giving him what he wants I think it was quite nice when he couldn't say anything at all. ~Meredith

Our Spotted Leopard

So the other day we were getting ready to leave for a trip to North Carolina and I noticed a few spots on Ethan's legs. I didn't think much of it because we had been playing outside a lot lately and I just assumed he had gotten bitten by a bug or something. Right before we left I went to change his diaper and took off his pants and he was covered in spots. I took him to the doctor and they said it was an allergic reaction to penicillin. Thankfully he wasn't miserable but they looked awful. The pictures here are from Saturday and they looked even worse on Sunday when we went to church. We went back to our old ward and everyone just starred at his poor spots. Of course Sunday was the day that it spread to his face so there was no way to hide them. I assumed that everyone who looked at us was thinking what kind of a stupid mother would bring her child with chicken pox to church. Needless to say the other moms kept their children very far away. Of course Monday morning most of the spots were gone, just in time to finish our trip.

By the way, I added a picture of Ethan and his nightlight to the post below.