Here’s a snippet from a car ride conversation (or should I say debate?) last night:

Ethan: The moon is out. But where is the moon?
Lucas: Moon sleeping, o-tay?
Ethan: No it’s not sleeping! The moon is out.
Lucas: Eet-an, moon taking a nap, o-tay?

Our car ride conversations are always entertaining!

Categories: Ethan, Family, Lucas
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Today was Ethan’s first day of preschool. He’s been anticipating this day for quite some time… since the beginning of spring to be exact… for Rainbow Preschool is why he decided to get potty trained!

Rainbow is a co-op preschool where I will be working in the classroom once a month as well as serving on 2 different committees. I’m excited to be a part of his classroom and watch how he learns and grows throughout the year. Today was a shortened session (only 1 hour) to get the kids used to the school. Parents were allowed to stay with the kids. Needless to say, Ethan could have cared less if I was there. And he practically threw a fit when it was time to leave and come home! I don’t think he’ll have any problems saying good-bye on Monday when I don’t stay with him.

Here are some pictures from an overly excited mom sending her 1st born off to school.

A proud daddy

A proud mommy

Heading out the door

And outside our house ready to go

And then again outside the school

A little playtime at school

“Look Mom, it’s just my size!”

Categories: Ethan
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Every Sunday we go to my parents house after church for lunch and usually stick around till the kids bedtime. It’s become a “tradition” and the boys know it is part of our Sunday routine. Ethan loves playing with PaPa and Lucas is also getting old enough to anticipate the visit each week too. A few Sunday’s ago, my mom and I left after lunch to do some stuff around town and Kevin was inside the house studying while Lucas took a nap. Ethan wanted to stay with PaPa … I got this email from my Dad this week that brought tears to my eyes… what sweet memories for him AND Ethan! Thanks for sharing your heart Dad! I love you and so does Ethan!

“Last Sunday was a very memorable Sunday with Ethan. He and I were out in the garden, which is always fun with him, when you guys were gone. We were picking the cherry tomatoes and I kept telling him just the red ones and not the orange or green ones. Every once in a while I would remind him when his hand was heading toward an orange one. On a few occasions his little hand came out of the tomato plant with a red or orange one as well as a green one. He promptly discarded the green one on the ground without a word or hesitation and quickly moved on to get the next tomato. A little later I was stooping by the garden’s edge pulling a few weeds and showing him how as of course he wanted to help and pull weeds as well. As I am going about my little task and not paying too much attention, all of a sudden I notice that he has somehow nudged his way into my lap to sit on my knee and watch. A few very precious moments occurred like that. The final episode came after I had tightened the sting on the grape tomato vine at the end of the garden and had walked back and stood under the apple tree looking at the garden and again not paying too much attention as to where Ethan was at that time. All of sudden I feel this great big thud square on the top and smack dab in the middle of my head from something hitting me. It must have startled me so since it caught me with such surprise, that I jumped. Before I could look around to see what the object was and where it came from that caused such commotion, I hear this soft quiet voice behind me saying with great sadness, “I’m sorry”. When I looked around, I must have had such a frown of bewilderment that he said he was sorry several more times. Then, when I looked at him and realized he had launched one of the largest apples that was lying on the ground and landed a perfect bull’s eye on my head, I gave him a great big grin and his forlorn look turned into jubilant laughter. Of course he want to do it again but I discouraged him and we went on enjoying the rest of our time by the little garden on a nice, quiet, sunny Sunday afternoon. Thanks for the memories, Ethan.”
Love,
Dad

I, of course didn’t get any pictures since I was gone that day but here are some pictures from last year… looks like this will be an annual thing… helping PaPa in the little garden.

Categories: Ethan, Family
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To our great surprise and excitement, last Wednesday (5/14), Ethan decided he wanted to say good-bye to diapers and start using the big potty! I had tried on and off months ago to get him to do this but he didn’t want anything to do with it and it was more frustrating for both of us than fun so I decided to just let it happen when he wanted it to happen. When he started using the potty last week I wouldn’t let myself get too excited b/c I didn’t know if this was really for real!!! Well after filling 2 charts of stickers (for using the potty) and very minimal accidents AND using public restrooms I figured this was it! And it felt great!!! So to celebrate his great success we went to Monkey Jump (a giant inflatable gym). He and Lucas had a blast!
Yay Ethan!!! We are so proud of you!

Training time… he came out of the bathroom saying… ‘mom i need you’… why does every kid seem to do this

Jumping Fun!

The big slide

They had a little craft time too… he made butterflies

Ice cream treat after dinner

Categories: Ethan, General
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As you can see we’ve upgraded to more “sophisticated” postings with our new You Tube account. I’ll still post pictures more often just cuz it doesn’t take quite as much time but it’s fun to see videos too. Here’s one of Ethan today on our way home from an Easter Egg Hunt. He loves the song “Whoo Hoo” by Newsboys and he was very into wearing my sunglasses. Enjoy!

Categories: Ethan, General, Movie Clips
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Ethan had the amazing privilege to be born on my grandpa’s birthday… February 18th. When I was pregnant with Ethan, Grandpa would always say to me… “you need to have that baby on my birthday”. I really didn’t think it would happen since Ethan was due a week later and I just figured he would come late since he was my first. But to our delight, Ethan came one week early and fulfilled my grandpa’s request. When we were headed to the hospital on February 18, 2005, all I could think of was … “today is grandpa’s birthday and we’re not going to be able to go out to dinner with him… but I’m sure he won’t mind”. He came to the hospital that day and was overjoyed to meet his “birthday present”, Ethan. Everytime we would visit him he would always introduce Ethan… “this is my birthday present, Ethan”. He was so proud his great grandson was born on his birthday! And we are too… what a special man to share a birthday with.

Grandpa would have been 95 this year.

What a good looking pair.

Categories: Ethan, Family
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Our Ethan turned 3 last Monday! Hard to believe he’s getting so big. We had a party for him on Saturday to celebrate with family. He had all but one great grandma come to spend the day with him. He had a blast and was soooo…. tired by the time everyone left.

I love to see this little guy develop right before our eyes. Even though toddler syndrome make him frustrating to deal with sometimes, he is truely a joy to be around. He make us laugh all the time! He is constantly reminding us how much of a boy he is…. and I love how he finds new ways to jump around and make funny faces or crashing noises with anything. And at the same time, this dear boy has such a sweet spirit and tender heart. I look forward to seeing his little personality develop even more in the days and years to come. We love you Ethan… Happy 3rd Birthday!

My attempt at a choo choo train cake!  My cousin does cakes for a living… I can really respect cake decorators after this one…

Ethan spent lots of concentrated time opening cards

Grandpa showing Ethan how to cook a hamburger

The birthday boy!… he loves to sing, so after we sang happy birthday to him he wanted us all to sing Away in a Manger!

The Vile clan

Ethan loves is new play hut!

Categories: Ethan, Family
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