That's Not My Pirate!

I haven't posted a picture of Ethan reading for a while but he often amuses himself with his touchy-feely books. He has That's Not My Pirate, That's Not My Dragon, and That's Not My Truck. You can probably tell that he's reading That's Not My Pirate in this shot. He really likes the textures.

Today we managed to mop the kitchen, do laundry, visit the jeweler to have a few things resized, and go to the farmer's market. Not too bad. Ethan was in good spirits and he even ate pretty well today if you don't count breakfast.

In the Bag!

Ethan got a package from his Grandma and Pa today that contained this bag that he can tote his stuff in. He thinks it's just the right size to tote him in.
His Grandma also made him some nice bibs, here he is showing off his new sippy cup skills while wearing one. Ethan was exhausted this evening, he didn't want to eat his dinner or do anything besides being held. He had a bath and went to bed. He's so funny when he sees the bath water he gets all excited and kicks his legs and waves his arms. I should make a movie of it but I'm usually holding him then. His new teeth on top are really showing now. He still hasn't started to get the other middle one but I imagine it won't be long.

Springfield

Sunday we went to Springfield to the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden and the Springfield museums. This is Ethan with the Grinch and dog, I don't remember the dog's name. What a mother I am.
We met James's brother Jason and his family in Springfield. This is Ethan w/ his cousin Aidan.
This is Ethan reading inside with his cousin Bowen. They had a little play area where kids could read Dr. Seuss books.

I would say more, but my child who cannot stop rubbing his eyes is refusing to go to sleep AGAIN so I have to go see what the problem is. now.

Happy Birthday

Since half of the people we know have July birthdays, Ethan wanted to take this opportunity to say that his Daddy won't let him eat cake yet. But, he does want to wish happy birthday (belated where appropriate) to Aunt Linda, Paulie, Elise, Amber, Metzner, Grandma and Pa, Andrew, and Auntie Mandy (on the right day no less!) and anyone else we may have missed. He hopes you all enjoyed your special days.

Hard Work

Today Ethan and I went to a free trial class at Gymboree. I didn't get many pictures because I didn't want to be obnoxious. It was small, only four kids. Apparently they have a music class for older kids at the same time which got canceled so there were some younger siblings who did not come. Ethan went on a slide, crawled across a bridge, caught bubbles, and climbed a lot. He liked the class and it was fun to see him w/ other kids, but they want you to do a three month committment to a once a week class. It includes a "free play" time as well any days you want to go. The downside is it's about half an hour away and I don't know if I want to tie up our schedule with it. There's another similar place in a different town so I might try that one too. It is about the same length of time away, but I think distance is closer. We went to lunch afterward because it ended at noon, and then we went to Trader Joe's to grocery shop. Poor Ethan must be getting more teeth because he's been a little out of sorts the past few days and constantly chewing on his hand. Hopefully it will quit bothering him soon.

Get That Camera

Ethan wanted to take his own pictures tonight. He turned on all his charm, but he did not get ahold of the camera.

Ethan's First Concert

Ethan enjoyed his first concert yesterday evening. We went to New Haven for the free concert on the green. The act performing was the Squirrel Nut Zippers. James has all of their albums so I guess you could say he's a fan. If you click on the link you can hear a little of it. They're kind of ecclectic, a little swing, a little big band, a little jazz. Ethan enjoyed it and even did a little dancing, but of course he would not dance when I tried to make a video. And he made lots of people smile. Among the compliments he received was someone I overheard saying "that's the happiest baby I've ever seen!" Oh, and I didn't mention that Friday it was so hot we did not want to cook so we went out to dinner. Two different tables of people came over to us as they were leaving to say what an adorable baby he is. As if we didn't know :)

Splash!

Ethan got a new pool. The water was pretty cold, but he had fun anyway.

Spaghetti!

Today for lunch I got out the usual array of things hoping that Ethan would eat at least one. We had blueberry waffle, cheese, pineapple, mandarin oranges, and banana. I decided to make some pasta and thought I might share with Ethan if he was interested. I put a few pieces in front of him and he didn't want andything to do with it. Then I started eating and he thought it was pretty funny how I twirled it on my fork. He still wouldn't eat it so I offered a little bit off my fork. He took that right away, so we got out his fork and he tried that a little. Then he just stuck his whole head in the plate and licked it up. I think you can tell from his picture that he really did do that. Then he tried to eat the plate. I'm just glad we've found one more food this kid will eat!

Playground

We went to the playground this morning. There weren't many places for Ethan to play, but we checked out the swings and sat in the shade. He enjoyed picking grass and watching other kids.

...Then I Get Down

I Get Up...

In case you were wondering...

Ethan's been waiting a while to wear this shirt that his great aunt Karen sent him. Somehow she knew ahead of time that Ethan would redefine cute! Though I think the days of letting him sit on the good couch are numbered.

Long!

Ethan's legs are getting so long that James had to lower the foot rest on his high chair. Ethan had started using it to push himself up and he would bounce the chair. I don't think we'll be using the baby rail too much longer. In other news, after a lot of work, the poor little guy is finally getting a tooth through on the top.

In Summation

This is what we saw on our way out of Annapolis. It pretty much sums up our experience there. A lot of shaking our heads and saying "what the....???? was that???"

Though I will give major props to the waiter we had on the 4th who brought us our food in the pouring rain. The restaurant was good too. Sadly, I don't remember the name of it.

Aquarium

Ok, so I did this backwards. We went to the aquarium before the duck tour. Here ar a few shots of Ethan before he fell asleep. This waterfall seemed to be his favorite thing.

We also saw the Dolphin show. Ethan had a great time flirting w/ the little girl sitting next to us, and with one sitting in front of us, but he wouldn't look at the Dolphins. I hope that's not a football sign...

Ducks!!

Saturday morning we grew tired of our hotel. We had pretty much seen Annapolis, so we decided to get up and go to the Baltimore Aquarium. After the aquarium, which Ethan slept through, we decided to go on a Duck Tour. That was, by far, the thing Ethan enjoyed the most. He LOVED everyone "quacking" and he loved chewing on the duck whistle.

More of the 4th

On the morning of the 4th we visited the William Paca House to join in their July 4th celebration. We wanted to go their because my friend Nan worked on this house early in her career. It was nice, though apparently the Paca family had a fire and lost a lot of their possessions, so there were a lot of reproductions.
We sat in the garden for a little while and listened to a reading of the Declaration of Independence and muskets being fired. Oh, the day before we toured the Hammond Harwood House. Ethan was a little less happy on that tour. There was a woman on the tour w/ us who kept saying "Oooh! I have goosebumps" and "wow!" every time the guide told us something. I thought she was much more intrusive than Ethan's whimpering.

That afternoon, we toured the Naval Academy. Had we known that the chapel would not be open because it was a holiday, we probably would have gone a different day. That's supposed to be one of the nicest buildings. Ethan was great on both tours.

Independence Day

On the fourth, we watched the parade. That is when it started to rain. It wasn't too heavy but it was steady. Ethan liked some of it. Yes that is a "colonial" man on a Segway. They do tours on them. We obviously did not go on one of those, but we did go on a walking tour given by the same company and it was nice. We were the only people on it. After the parade the rain let up and we walked around till we found a restaurant for dinner. There was a table outside, and as it was nearly 8 o'clock and fireworks were scheduled for 9, we though we would just be able to sit there and eat and then watch them. Soon after we ordered the sky opened up and it poured. It was windy too. We were under an awning, but to avoid getting wet we had to move from the sides of the table to sitting on a stair by the building. They had no inside tables to move us to. The waiter did come outside to check on us and to bring us our food, though eating it was a challenge. Ethan did manage to stay awake for the fireworks, which were ok but not spectacular.

And this is a picture of our hotel- notice the scaffolding? The left side of the building was covered with it as well. That is where our room was. And guess where they were working- yep, right outside our window. They got there around 6am and started working around 7. They were so loud at 6 they may as well have started then, but I guess that was their attempt to be considerate. I'm not sure exactly what they were doing, but it sounded like pounding on the brick.

Anniversary Trip

Every year James and I take a little trip around the time of our anniversary. We decided this year we'd just do it with Ethan. We went to Annapolis, MD. We left Tues. night after James got home from work. We won't discuss the hotel check-in, or the people in the room next to us, suffice it to say we all got very little sleep. This hotel is definitely top candidate for my world-famous disgruntled consumer letter. AAA rated it 3 diamonds. HA!!! They also said newly rennovated- we'll show you about that too. Anyway, on Wed. we were tired and decided to take a nice relaxing boat tour. Ethan napped through the entire thing.
We discovered several ice cream establishments in the city, and had to try them each out. James had peppermint, and Ethan tried a little. He liked it a lot. He didn't eat much else the entire trip, but he seems to be eating better now. However, I have another cold- yippee. The kid won't stop putting his fingers in my mouth and/or slobbering on my face so it's bound to continue. He's cute though, so I'll forgive him. I'll post more pictures of our trip in the coming days.

Sick Baby?

Yesterday Ethan had a fever of 103 so we went to the doctor. He was fine otherwise, no ear infection and they tested for strep which was negative so it's just a virus. He sounds a little hoarse so we think he may have a sore throat, and all I can get him to eat is food that's cold so I think it must feel better on his throat. Of course he was charming to the doctor and happy as a clam.

Other than napping a little longer than usual (which means napping at all) he is his happy self. Everywhere he goes people say "He's so happy" or "he's going to be so friendly." I think he already IS friendly. He also gets lots of compliments on his hair.

He's certainly charming to himself, whenever I upload pictures of him for the blog he grins at himself from ear to ear.