Crawling and pulling up

Sorry it has been a while since the last post. Ethan has been changing at a blinding pace the past couple of weeks! He has four teeth now. Still having some issues with noisy breathing most days. He is getting very good at crawling, not letting obstacles get in his way- he just goes right over them. Ethan can crawl from one room to another now, so we are getting a true taste of how much babyproofing we need to do immediately. One week ago, while Ethan was having a playdate with his friend Christopher he went from a crawl position to sitting for the first time. Then as the week progressed his crawling took off and he learned to pull himself up- on laundry baskets. We have to be careful that he doesn't go pulling himself up on laundry baskets unless we are holding them, since they are light. He has been having many more bumps on his head these days from his new found mobility. He even had an "incident report" at school when he was "playing inside the toychest and bumped his head". It is getting very difficult to change his diaper these days too- he immediately will turn over and start crawling away, diaperless. We are just amazed and full of joy watching him blossom. We are so proud of our little guy.

Ga!

Just a real quick update- Yesterday afternoon I picked up Ethan from daycare and couldn't believe my ears! As soon as I had Ethan in my arms he excitedly began demonstrating what he learned that day. "Ga. Ga. Ga.". I thought, "are my ears deceiving me?" But sure enough, after months of "Da Da" and indiscriminate vowels, Ethan has learned a new sound. When we got home, he smiled at Wendy and said "Ga Ga Ga" with gusto. It is almost hard to tell whether it is a "G" sound or a "K" sound.

Ethan's teacher, Judy, has declared with utter certainty that Ethan is going to be a judge when he grows up. She says he lets no action in the room go unnoticed and that he is very intelligent. She has a good frame of reference since she has been teaching in the infant room for over 9 years! Now, I need to ask her if she thinks he will have his own show or if she thinks he might be a contender for the U.S. Supreme Court!

Splishin' and a' Splashin'

Sorry for not updating in a while. It has been a rough few weeks with the latest round of daycare bugs infiltrating our family! Ethan's two bottom teeth are growing bigger and are very obvious now when he smiles. Ethan is getting more and more mobile and interested in his surroundings. He LOVES Wendy- his eyes follow her everywhere and he smiles and laughs when he sees her. This morning he managed to grab a big chunk of her fur. Wendy will learn quickly not to get too close!

Last night, as I was drying Ethan off from his bath, he crawled over to his blue tub and pulled his upper body up over the ledge. He then proceeded to splash away vigerously with both hands, drenching himself, me and the surrounding floor. Ethan is getting better and better at "crawling", but he still employs the roll technique to get to points of interest quickly. These points of interest are most often, pieces of (important) paper- such as sheet music, electrical cords, or anything else we don't want him touching or sticking in his mouth. His favorite toy, though a distant second to paper, is the plastic colored rings that his Aunt Lindsay gave him. He LOVES playing with these! Ethan also loves "the passing game"- he reaches his arm out to get passed from one person to another, over and over. And he gets a huge kick out of looking in the mirror these days. Ethan is getting more and more interested in books. His favorite is the "Airplane" book. We have to read him the cloth and board books though b/c he likes to chew on them (and would most certainly tear the paper ones).

Ethan had been refusing to eat with a spoon and I asked the doctor what I should do about this. Dr. Banner told me to let him hold a spoon (or two) while we feed him. This worked like a charm and has made meal time much easier (still messy though!). Ethan has an expanding repetoire of foods that now include his first meat- chicken. He doesn't seem to like anything that much though. Hopefully this is just a stage that will pass quickly. Ethan does like to hold foods himself (like teething bisquits and boiled carrots), but he is still not coordinated enough to chew and swallow, so we will probably have to stick with purees for a bit longer. Ethan weighs almost 19 lbs now!