Welcome fall!

And by that I mean, there are no temperatures forecast in the 90's for the next 10 days!!! This morning it was actually in the 60's. Ethan and I went out to play during Ella's morning nap. He walked out the door, stopped, and said "cold outside?" He seemed really confused by that! It was so pleasant. We ran, kicked a ball, he rode his tricycle. I made the mistake of picking him up and spinning him in circles. "Again, again, again!!" It was a dizzy funny morning.

The other thing Ethan says a lot these days that makes me laugh is "what's next?" or "what do now?" He leans his head all the way down to his shoulder when he says it, which he also does when he says, "whhheeeere is it?" about something.

Ella has moved to her highchair (pictures coming) and seems to be eating better in it. It's certainly easier than dodging her legs and arms and timing spoonfuls between bounces in the bouncy seat! I have, however, given her a spoon to let her get accustomed to the process. She makes a bit of a mess with it. Ethan is happy to give lessons on how to use the spoon; it's how I got him to finish his peas at lunch today! He also is teaching her how to sign more and all done. He gets a bit frustrated that she won't do it yet! She appears to not have the dairy allergy that Ethan did...this certainly will make things easier, especially when we're eating somewhere other than our house.

Ella is now using her knees to rotate in circles. She turns around so fast! Lately she really enjoys sitting up in the boppy seat and playing (preferably with Ethan's cars...she loves them).

Beginning our third year of this journey...

I suppose it's actually longer than that, since I told Brent the other day between pregnancy and babies I don't think I've slept through the night in almost three years now. The blessings overflow, and the humor of it all is more obvious when you're sleep deprived, right?

Ethan had his two year check up last week. He was a little trooper, and only got upset about laying on the scale to get weighed. I'm pretty sure the automatic paper towel dispenser in the airport bathroom scarred him a bit emotionally to laying down on any surface away from home. Actually, he's never been a fan of public bathrooms. (My mom would tell you he doesn't get that from me, as apparently I never met a bathroom I didn't want to visit when I was a little girl.) The bribe of a sticker eventually convinced him he could do it, and the rest of the day he told me, "mory (what he calls nurse mary) sticker...brave...numbers (what he called the scale) scared." He is 32 1/4 inches tall (8th percentile), 24 lbs and 3 oz (9th percentile), and in the 85th percentile for his head size. At least it's not still the bicycle helmet cone head he was born sporting. I've never seen such a head shape!

Also last week we took a trip to the child research lab at the University for both the kids to participate in some research studies. Ella did one measuring whether 7 month olds would recognize changing number patterns. This involved being recorded while watching a tv screen. I had my eyes closed as instructed so I wouldn't influence her, but had a hard time keeping a straight face when my sweet girl let out a really loud belch in the middle. Ethan's study was trying to see how much two year olds trust adults to give them labels for objects. In the beginning of the study the researcher would pull out everyday toys/objects and repeat, "what's this...I don't know what this is." several times. When she pulled out the airplane, Ethan excitedly squealed "plane!"; each time she would repeat "I don't know what it is" Ethan would repeat "plane!" louder, as if to say, lady I have told you this repeatedly. For some reason when she pulled out the banana Ethan asked her to turn it on. Maybe too many toys with batteries?

Here are some frequent phrases from Ethan these days:
*What's Ella doin?
*Canyoufeelit? (usually about the air conditioner; he hasn't been practicing to be a pro wrestler!)
*What's that? (meaning "who's that?" about random people in the store)
*Ethan do it (or "I'se do it")
*Touch it? (usually said when it's something he suspects he's not supposed to mess with)

Two!

Saturday morning Ethan woke around 7am. Melissa and I both went in and sang Happy Birthday before getting him out of bed. When we finished, he immediately said "cake?"

Melissa had planned a blueberry pancake breakfast for him (one of his favorites), so that was almost as good as cake.

That morning we visited our local fire station. The visit exceeded our expectations. We got the full tour of the station and they had their dispatcher send Ethan a special birthday alert over their system. They patiently opened each compartment of the fire engine to answer every "what's in there?" question Ethan could ask. They drove the fire engine out of the garage, turned on the lights, the siren, and let Ethan spray the hose. He also got to sit in the driver's seat and turn the wheel. As you can imagine, he did not want to leave.

We then went to the large park in central Austin to ride their miniature train and play on the playground. By the time we made it home the kids were exhausted and ready for lunch and nap.

We then opened presents, ate a dinner of things Ethan likes best, and (finally) had some cake. Melissa made a great monkey cake that Ethan loved. We thought he would giggle with delight when he saw it, but got more reaction from the fire on the candles. It was a day of great fun -- check out the album for more pictures from Ethan's birthday.

Fun with family and friends

We left for Ohio on Saturday morning unsure if we had enough hands for the two suitcases, two backpacks, two carseats and stroller we needed to take. In the end through careful planning we managed just fine -- all the while wondering how we will make the same trip at Thanksgiving with winter clothes taking up much more space and Christmas presents in tow. An airport is a pretty exciting place for a two year old -- an almost endless supply of planes and trucks to talk about.

The kids did great on the trip -- we used frequent flier miles so we were able to get on a pricey non-stop flight for free. This was Ethan's last trip he could fly for free since he is still under two years old. Fortunately, we had an unused seat next to us that he could use which kept me from having to wrestle him for the entire flight. Melissa packed almost a full backpack of cars, planes, crayons, stickers, snacks and assorted other toys. It's a good thing, too, because he had no interest in sleeping.

We were able to spend time with both sides of my family -- and they got to see (and hear) Ethan in a whole different way than they did in May. On that trip he was sick and lethargic. On this trip he narrated every event, played in the pond, searched for cats, ran with his cousins, and checked out all the farm equipment. There's not enough room on this page for all the good pictures we got of both the kids and their cousins, so be sure to check out the web album.

We made a short stop in Dayton to visit with my college friends and their kids. We have all had our kids in the past few years, so they have lots of fun playing whenever we have a chance to get together.

Ella ended up getting a cold with a two days left on the trip. The combination of poor sleep due to the cold and different surroundings meant that none of us (besides Ethan) slept well the last couple nights. We're all glad to be back in our own beds and are sleeping much better.

We got to celebrate Ethan's second birthday a few weeks earlier with both family and friends. He is already a big fan of the "fire" and the "song" and of course, the "cake".