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I think Ethan will grow up to be an engineer like his dad.  He already shows those tendencies, he’s constantly flipping over his toys to see how they work and he knows where all the switches are on them.  He also loves the computer.  He loves pushing buttons and is currently watching me type (so it will take longer than usual to type this as he keeps pressing buttons on me!) and comes running whenever it plays music.  Grammy sends Ryan a lot of ecards which Ethan loves to watch, after we preview them of course.  Our new favorite website for him is YouTube.  We go there and find silly videos of cats and babies laughing, which he just loves and keeps him entertained while I’m cooking dinner.  I’m not sure if it’s better than watching tv, probably not, but he likes it.  Another favorite was the OK Go band on the treadmills.  And he discovered Weird Al this morning with daddy.    So if you ever come across a video you think he would like, please send us the link and we’ll check it out.  So we haven’t watched too much of the Tube over the years, but we’re about to start.

I have decided that chapstick is a conspiracy.  Or lip balm, or whatever I’m supposed to call it without violating some sort of trademark issues.  Don’t get me wrong, I love chapstick and always carry it with me, which is why I’ve decided it’s a conspiracy.  I probably have at least 10 open tubes around the house in various places – bathroom, bedroom, coffee table, at least 4-5 in my purse, etc.  Not to mention the other tubes that have yet to be opened.  I have no idea how many I have lost and replaced in the past year due to laundry washing.  I don’t know  how many chemicals they have absorbed during the washing process so I just can’t reuse them after washing for fear I’m just slathering cleaning agents on my lips to be liberally applied to Ethan’s face.  I will admit it, I am a chapstick addict.  My biggest complaint about maternity pants?  No pocket in which to store my ever present tube.  Which leads me to lose more of them because I just can’t remember where I put them without that side pocket.  And which also leads to much drier lips and more frantic searches through my purse to locate that ever present but hard to pin down tube.  Ryan swears that my use of chapstick is counterproductive, and he may be right.  It seems the more you use it, the more you need it, kind of like caffeine or some other addictive drug.  Once you get started, you have to keep using to maintain that nice, soft moisturized feel.  And if you think I’m crazy, you probably aren’t the addict that I am, or you’ve managed to maintain your daily quota of applications with that lovely little tube in your pants with pockets.

I’m not too sure about that.  We’ve become increasingly aware that we need to be increasingly aware of what we say and do around a certain little someone.  I knew that kids were imitators, but I wasn’t fully apprised of what that meant until we started having our own little imitator around.  I know I still don’t really know what that means because he isn’t fully verbal and doesn’t play house or its equivalents yet.   For example, Ryan couldn’t figure out why he kept kicking the tv audio receiver in the family room until I pointed out that that is how we turn it on and off, by pushing the power button with our feet.  Ethan doesn’t really know why we kick the receiver, only that we do, so he kicks the receiver too.   He does know what the phone is, when it rings he holds his arm up to his ear and says “hello”.  He doesn’t say hello at any time other than when he answers the phone, usually it’s “hi”.  He watches us closely to see how we act in situations, he knows that we spend a lot of time looking at the computer and pushing buttons, so he likes to push buttons too.  Unfortunately, his favorite button is the power button.  He does have quite a few words now, all ones we approve of, so far.  We do try to be careful of our language around him, not that we really use any words that we shouldn’t anyway.  But I’m learning from friends that we also need to watch our tones and how we speak to each other apart from him.  Some friends of ours were talking about a game their kids like to play called “Chad and Lisa”.  They don’t play house or mom and dad, they play a game named after their parents.  Needless to say, Chad and Lisa have been not so pleasantly surprised by some of the things that “Chad” and “Lisa” say to each other or their kids.  They’re trying to get their kids to change the name of the game so that when friends come over they can just play something simple like “house” without so many fears about what other parents will hear when their kids get home.  I’m sure we’ll have our own version of this game as Ethan gets older, and I’m sure it will be equally unflattering to hear what our kids really think of us.  There’s nothing like a child to make you see yourself for who you really are, whether they can verbalize it or just kick the furniture.

Ethan is finally eating and playing again.  It took almost a week, so I do mean finally.  It has been a long week.  I know a stomach virus is nothing compared to what some kids are going through, but it has been our burden to bear this week and Ethan has born the brunt of it.  I hate it when he’s sick, he hasn’t really been sick much so far so it’s kind of a change.  I’m glad to exchange my whiny, tired, don’t want to do anything baby for a happy, albeit still slightly whiny, able to play on his own again baby.    Of course, his illness did have its bright spots, like sleeping until almost 9:30 every day for a week and taking really long afternoon naps and still going to bed early.  If you haven’t noticed, I’m really into sleeping.  In fact, it’s one of my favorite pastimes.    But he’s finally feeling better and we’re all glad.  Now maybe he’ll eat something besides mandarin oranges…

I’ve heard it said that a toddler’s job is to play.  This does seem to be what Ethan does with most of his time, aside from sleeping and eating and getting his diapers changed, so I would guess that play is his job.  Of course, it would be nice if he got paid for it, but that’s ok.  It is fun to watch him play, which sounds silly, but sometimes the best part is just sitting back and watching him figure things out.  One of the things I love to do is stand on our balcony over the family room and watch Ethan and Ryan play.  Ethan got a bunch of cars for Christmas (he loves cars!) and they play on the little people garage ramp.  He loves to race the cars down the ramp and have them collide at the bottom.  I love to listen in on their conversations about the cars and Ryan teaching him a little about how things work.  Ethan definitely reminds me of his dad, he is such a little engineer!  He flips over all his toys to try to figure out how they work and knows where all the switches are so he can turn them on and off at will.  I can see him trying to work it out and it’s just fascinating.  He grows and learns something new every day.  We went to the park this afternoon and he played on the playground.  He loves going down the slides, especially the spiral ones.  Some bigger boys were there with some really nice remote control cars and Ethan was just fascinated.  Cars is one of his favorite words and he says it all the time, so we just hung out on the playground and watched the really cool cars race around for awhile.  I love watching him be fascinated.