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".

I finally added links!

Be sure to check out the links I've provided in the sidebar. If you visit my blog and would like a link to your blog here, just let me know!

Fun in the Snow!

Okay, so these pictures are from January and now it is March. I really agree with "Better late than never" in this case so here they are!

We all played in the snow this day. My children were excited about me coming out because last year I was pregnant and didn't go out much. Why bother if you can't go sledding at top speed down the hill just to throw yourself off of the sled before it goes over the drop off and into the woods???

This was Ethan's first time in the snow! He really enjoyed it and smiled a lot. When my other children were first introduced to the snow, they were curious but didn't really smile and eventually cried to go back inside. Ethan stayed outside for at least twice as long as the others did as babies.

He even let us lay him down in the snow and help him make a snow angel!

We actually didn't get much snow this winter and the children are disappointed. Abby keeps commenting on the lack of snow and I'm sure I'll continue to hear about it for a few more months or even until next winter!

At least they didn't lose any of their Spring Break like they usually do. My parents are going on a cruise for Spring Break so we are staying home the whole time. We hope to go bowling as a family on the discount day.

Fun, fun, fun!

Before and After

I'm sure many mothers can relate-- or at least I hope they can-- but lately I've been thinking that when I finish my chores and the house is clean I should take a picture. Then I should take another picture in the evening so I can compare. It is truely unbelievable how quickly a clean house can become a messy house! I often wonder if someone stopped by, how long would they think it had been since I last cleaned the house? Hours? Days? Even a week? Maybe I should start asking!

Loving our spouses!

I am copying a letter into my blog that I wrote to the Today Show this morning. I watched it for a few minutes this morning when they were discussing "Why Men Cheat." I saw Dr. Laura basically express that men often cheat because their needs are not being met at home. She claimed that we should love, cherish and take care of our spouses. Of course, she got a lot of negative responses from people who think she was claiming that it is a woman's fault if her husband cheats.

Here's my letter:

I did not enjoy seeing the way you treated Dr. Laura today. You had her on a panel where she expressed her opinion based on years of experience. Then you held another panel, left her out of it and allowed her to be talked about in a negative way. Then you had yet another segment where Dr. Laura was being interviewed by two of you. She again expressed her opinion and I felt that Ann (I love you, Ann!) wasn't even listening to her. It seemed that she had a strong opinion about this topic and so she was unable to listen without getting upset and trying to "fight" back. Maybe someone who didn't have such strong feelings about the comments should have done this interview. We are all entitled to our opinions and should be able to express them without being attacked. I think Dr. Laura deserves more respect than you gave her. It is obviously not a woman's fault when her husband cheats. He made that choice by himself. I think Dr. Laura wasn't try to blame women for their husband's choices but instead trying to express that many men claim they cheat because some of their needs weren't being met by their wives and they were able to have those needs met by another woman. I believe she was trying to help us strengthen our marriages by reminding us that we should be looking after the needs of our spouses. If we ALL did this, I'm sure the divorce rate would start dropping instead of climbing. Obviously, there are many cases where one spouse is trying his/her best to tend to the needs of the other spouse and the spouse cheats because he is selfish. I believe that divorces are often caused by selfishness on the part of one or both spouses. We should try to focus more on our spouses instead of focusing so much on ourselves. I believe this is what Dr. Laura was trying to express. Loving, cherishing and taking care of our spouses will make for a better marriage. Can you really argue against that?

Sincerely,

Heidi

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.

Joshua goes potty!

I was fixing dinner when Abby came to me and said, "Mommy, Joshua pulled his pants down and took off his diaper!" Of course, I went to see what was going on. Joshua was in the living room and I asked him, "Do you need to go potty?" He didn't answer so I picked him up and went into the bathroom. There was already pee in his potty! He uses the potty when I ask him to and sometimes tells me he needs to go but this is the first time he has taken care of things by himself. Go Joshua!

Later on, I asked Joshua if he needed to go potty and he did so I took him into the bathroom. He took off his diaper and then went pee standing up! It was so funny because he uses a little potty! I've never seen a child do that before. I guess he must have seen Jack peeing standing up at some point but I don't know when because Jack is actually quite private about these things. Today Joshua sat down about half of the time and stood up about half of the time. I've figured out that rewarding him with a piece of chocolate helps him remember to go!

Three Boys in a Room!

Ethan has been sleeping in his Papasan swing since he was born because it was the only way he would sleep well. His doctor told me it was perfectly fine to keep him sleeping in the swing but that now might be a good time to try moving him to his crib before he gets more stubborn.

I wasn't expecting it to go very smoothly but he has done very well! His crib is in the same room as his two older brothers so it is a little tricky.

We have been putting Joshua and Ethan to bed at the same time. Joshua turns on his aquarium music and Ethan will just lay there listening to it until he falls asleep. I can actually leave him in his crib AWAKE!!! He usually sleeps from 8:30 PM to 5:00 AM. What a good little baby!