Halloween!

Well, after eleven months of Ethan wanting to be a triggerfish, his dream came true. It all started when he received a nature magazine that had a green triggerfish and for whatever reason he fell in love with it over all the other fish. He wanted to be a triggerfish in the Christmas pageant but we told him that there was no triggerfish in the manger scene. As the months went by he never wavered so Liz had to come up with a plan.

She got a pattern off the internet and asked Ethan what kind of triggerfish he wanted to be. As luck would have it, he wanted to be a clown triggerfish which of course doubled the amount of work we had to do because of it's complexity (that'll teach us to ask). Liz bought black fabric, batting, paint, etc. It took many nights of Liz sewing and me painting and finished the night before Halloween. Liz made a mermaid costume for Anneliese even though Ethan wanted her to be a pink cat.

Click here or the photo to go to the October photo album to see more Halloween pictures!

Puzzle Master Update

Well, it's been barely two weeks and Ethan is fully proficient with the 48-piece puzzle we mentioned in this earlier post. I help him separate the side pieces to speed things up and away he goes without any help. Amazing.

Here's a link to see the pirate puzzle.

Portraits

Liz had a lady show up at Stroller Strides to take "back to school" photos of the kids and we got some really cute ones (sorry I can't take credit for these). Click any of the photos to go to the album where you can download a full-resolution version for printing at home!

Liz survives bootcamp!

Well, yesterday Liz and her friends survived the 3-mile course at the Marine Recruiting Base in San Diego. There were a lot of guys in funny hats yelling at everyone and stopping random people to do pushups along the way. The obstacles caused a few bruises (see Liz waiting in line wearing a turquoise shirt).

After, we headed off to check out the MCAS Miramar Air Show. It took us well over an hour and a half to park the car but at least we got to see plenty of stuff happening in the sky while we waited. Once there, Ethan got to sit in plenty of helicopters and we all got our ear drums blown out by various overpasses by the Blue Angels (see Ethan covering his ears).

Click here or the photos to go to the photo album to see more pictures!

Puzzle Master

Ethan has turned into a real puzzle master, easily doing 24-piece puzzles without any help. He's adopted starting with the corners and is much better at matching up the picture rather than just relying on the shape. We got three new 48-piece ones but haven't tried them yet...stay tuned!

Recent Ethan Quote

"These grapes are scrumptious!" --Ethan

(We have no idea where he's learning these words)

Big Boy School

Ethan has started day care on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at our church. The potty training has gone well enough that he seemed ready. He had been showing signs that he might throw a fit when Liz left him and kept saying he didn't want to go because it was "going to be boring" but once the teacher showed him some dinosaur toys he ran off without saying goodbye. Subsequent days have gone similarly. At night he seems excited when he talks about playing games, eating a snack, doing art projects and playing outside. Liz is enjoying her two mornings alone with Anneliese.

Crib recall and rooming together

Liz' mom alerted us that Ethan's old Jardine crib had been recalled because the slats on a few had broken and caused abrasions. I tried to break the slats and couldn't but we sent in all the hardware (leaving us with all the wood) to get a voucher for Babies R Us. Anneliese had been getting her arms and legs stuck between the slats. She has turned into a real side sleeper and we've found her with all four limbs outside the crib. Long story short, our neighbor cut the crib up to burn in his fireplace this winter and since I had to put the new crib together anyway, I did it in Ethan's room so they are now sleeping in the same room. Ethan apparently is done being posessive of his room and was open to it. We've had a few nights where he woke up at 3am and then she woke up, but he's been good about leaving her alone when he gets up in the mornings.

Take us out to the ballgame...

I was treated to some free baseball tickets to see the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim take on the Texas Rangers. The seats were great, on the lower level down the third base line. Ethan spilled most of our five-dollar soda which was a bummer but we got so see the famous Rally Monkey come out in the 6th inning resulting in all three runs. Garret Anderson's had a two-run homer that got us fireworks and then when Ethan and I were on a potty run, Torii Hunter raced back on Marlon Byrd's drive to dead center reached back over the wall to nullify a near game-tying two-run homer.

Lightning McQueen

Ethan is all about Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars which we let him watch a few weeks ago. It was great on the airplane to visit Grandma. Ethan's first noisy toy came from our friend Rose for his first birthday which was a sit-on Lightning McQueen car. Now we've got stickers, underwear, coloring books, etc.

Grandma gets married

We all flew to Aurora, Ohio (near Cleveland) as my mom was getting married on the 23rd. The lucky guy is John Petrenchik. I was asked to make sure I videotaped their first dance and got some memorable footage involving Ethan and the cake. The still photos are from Mom's cousin Cindy Wiser. On a related note, at the reception Anneliese rolled on to her stomach for the first time.