My YouTube Junkie

Last week I introduced Joshua to YouTube Disney Halloween cartoons. Now he keeps asking to watch videos on John's laptop and he even navigates YouTube by himself with supervision. (I do NOT consider YouTube to be a safe website for children to freely browse!) This is one of his favorites. It is the Silly Symphony Skeleton Dance. Your children might enjoy it too. But, BEWARE, they might become YouTube Junkies too! Consider yourselves forewarned!

My Dancing Boys

In this house we love to listen to music and dance and be silly! Ethan has figured out how to add arm movements to his dancing. Here is a video of Joshua and Ethan dancing. Enjoy!

Family Fun at its Finest!

It's Official!

Ethan had been taking steps here and there but on June 14, 2008 he started officially walking. Isn't he cute?

Good Girl!

Ethan used to call Daisy by her name but now he only calls her "Good Girl." I guess this shows how much Daisy's behavior has improved since Joshua started talking. His first word was not Mommy or Daddy-- No, it was Daisy! He also quickly learned how to say "No, Daisy. Bad Girl." This is when I realized I was calling her a "Bad Girl" too much.

Ethan loves to feed Daisy his food! I often have to send her outside while he eats or else he will give almost all of it to Daisy. John gets mad at Daisy for taking the food from Ethan but hey, if he is handing it to her or throwing it on the floor, how can we expect her, a Beagle, to stay away!

Hand-Me-Down Toy

Ethan now realizes that he can stand by himself. He has also figured out that he can walk while holding our hands-- it took him a while! He likes this "new" toy we introduced to him today. Gotta love hand-me-downs from your older siblings!

I told Ethan to say goodbye as I was turning off the camera and he actually did it! I didn't even wave and I had no idea that he knew that trick yet! Unfortunately, the camera didn't catch it because it had already turned off so I had to turn it back on and take another video. Isn't he cute? Sorry about my annoying mommy's-excited-about-what-you-did voice. : )

Spring Break Bowling!

My children only made one request for Spring Break and that was to go bowling. They love to go bowling so we try to go about twice a year. (It's really expensive!) Abby even came to me and said that she would like to contribute $5 towards bowling and then Jack and Joshua each contributed $5 too! (My children each have a wallet where they keep any money they get. This way if they want something like a toy or special treat, they can buy it with their own money. I RARELY buy them toys unless it's a birthday gift or other holiday gift. This has really helped them understand money and how to save for what we want!)

We had a lot of fun bowling! Bowling with a three year old can be a little embarrassing though. If we weren't careful while helping him, the ball wouldn't roll fast enough and it would stop in the middle of the lane. Then an alley worker would come to get the ball for us! Joshua had a great time and even bowled two whole games without wanting to quit!

Abby's ball even jumped the bumper once! Look at her! She has such a fun personality!

Here's a video of Jack bowling!

John and I bowled with Daniel and Karen who were visiting. I even won the second game when I bowled 4 strikes in one game! Go Heidi!!!

It was a fun night for everyone!

This one is for you Nana!

Since Christmas vacation Joshua can't stop talking about going to Nana's. Many a night when it starts to get dark outside, you can hear these words, "It's dark outside. We need to go to Nana's." We usually leave after dark when we go to Virginia Beach. If it is Joshua's turn to say the dinner prayer or the family prayer, you will surely hear about Nana's house no less than 3 times per prayer. Now if we could only convince Nana and Papa to move closer!

More of Ethan's Words!

Ethan is amazing us by constantly learning new words! He even knows what some of them mean now. Here are a few short clips for those interested. I made them short so that they wouldn't take too long to load. He also knows "Jack" and definitely knows what it means but I couldn't get it on video tonight. These were all recorded in the same sitting except for "car." Enjoy!

The first one is "Daisy".

The next one is "uh-oh".

This one is "Da-da". He knows what this means.

This next one is "Joshua" just so you know it wasn't a fluke.

He definitely knows what this means!

Last but not least is "car".

You won't believe your ears!

One day about a week ago Ethan repeated a word I had said (I can't remember what the word was) and I thought "No one would believe me." Then John heard him say "Cheerios" but didn't tell me because he wasn't sure. Then last Wednesday morning I was making juice and telling Ethan about the juice and he said "juice" a few times in a row. I thought "Wow, he's really repeating my words! But, no one would believe me if I told them."

Ethan had a doctor's appointment the same day for his 9 month checkup. While waiting for the doctor Joshua was playing with a puzzle and complaining that Ethan was messing up his puzzle. When the doctor came in, Ethan said "puzzle" and his doctor heard it and said, "He just said puzzle! Did you hear it?" She couldn't get over it. I told her that he's been repeating my words sometimes and that I hadn't said anything to anyone because I didn't think they'd believe me. She said, "Well, I believe you and I think it's going to be very interesting to see where he goes with this." She said she can tell by his babbling that he is very advanced in language-- even more than my other advanced children were at his age. Isn't that cool?

So, here is Ethan saying "Joshua" several times in a row. It is so cute and makes Joshua just laugh and laugh! He said it even more times but I edited the video to make it shorter. I'll try to catch some more words as he says them but he usually quits talking once he sees the camera. He is too interested in the camera to concentrate on anything else!

Ethan's fishface is so cute!

Ethan kept making a fishface as I was feeding him so I decided to catch it on video. I think it's almost funnier on video!

Ethan Started Crawling February 4, 2008

I'm always amazed when babies learn to crawl! They figure it out one day and then just crawl and crawl! With walking, they take a few steps one day and then a few more another day until they really have it down. But with crawling they start one day and just don't stop! So fun!

Ethan is a happier baby now that he can go where he wants which actually makes my day easier.

This is a video of his actual first time crawling! As far as I know and I'm pretty sure. : ) I was lucky enough to catch it on video because I always leave my little flip camera where I can get to it quickly.