"Kampa" and the ping-pong ball game

Getting Spoiled by Grandpa

I was fairly impressed last night when my dad got home from work and Isaac actually almost jumped out of my arms, kicking his little feeties trying to get to him. He actually recognizes him. It's been fun to spend the past week with my parents and watch the boys get to know them.

This is Isaac's favorite game. My dad loves to walk him around the house and let him "touch" all sorts of things. And Isaac's in that really grabby stage so he loves this too.

The silly things we do to get a laugh

Caution when opening this closet!

Since we're spending the summer in Utah (again) where Taylor has a job lined up, we spent most of last week packing and cleaning. We're also subletting this year so we had to pack up not only what we were taking with us, but also pack away most of our own personal things we didn't want the subletters using into one closet. Needless to say it was a really full closet. I do have to give a big thank you to Taylor who drove solo across the country (in less than 2 full days) while I took the boys on an airplane for a vacation with my parents in Chicago. Sometimes it's nice to be the one nursing who can't possibly make the 36 hour drive across country with a 4 month old infant. Ethan and Isaac are also due a big thank you for entertaining each other so nicely while I got all my work done. They really are sweet to each other.

Chevy Chase Fire Station

Last Friday Ethan and I took a break from the cleaning and packing to visit a local fire station. I think I was more impressed than he was (especially with their wall of fame- pictures from all the crashes and fires they've helped at that list the fatalities, etc. They even had pictures from the Pentagon on 9-11 where they got called in). He loved the engines though and the firemen were really neat. They spent a lot of time having one fireman (dressed up in his gear) put on his mask, then take it off, then put it on again and take it off again. The point in this exercise they explained was that one of the hardest parts of their jobs is that when they go into a fire to look for kids, they're hiding under furniture. And where an adult would know it's a fireman walking in the door, kids think it's a monster (they're kind of scary looking in all their gear) and they keep hiding. So their motto is "firemen need hugs" so that kids will run up to them and give them hugs and get out of a fire safely. Something I'd never thought of and thought I should pass along.

The world according to Ethan

Ethan has had us laughing all afternoon. Taylor picked him up from Nursery and we got in the car and he announced: "I no live in Salt Lake, I live in DC!" (we assume one of his teachers was asking him about where he's going for the summer) And when Taylor asked where daddy lives, Ethan's reply was "at school". To the query, where does mommy live? "at da pardment". Halfway home, he yelled "mommy, hey look at dis" and I turned around to find him with his knee bent and an empty water bottle balancing on it (Taylor was more impressed with this than me and made me include it in the blog). Ethan has also gotten into this habit of tripping and getting muddy right before church. He honestly has tripped every Sunday since Christmas (that's when we got him the new shoes which are slightly too big and probably to blame). So this morning as we walked out the door Taylor said to me "I'm betting he doesn't make it up the stairs". I bet he would but that he'd fall before getting into the car. Surprisingly we were both wrong. And he made it all the way into church and out of church and even all the way home- and then he was running too fast and ran right into the door and fell over. Poor guy, at least he's only clutsy on Sundays. And last of all, after we had packed up our tiny car and Taylor was ready to leave to make the drive to Utah solo, he came back down for hugs and kisses. Ethan gave them happily and as Taylor walked out the door yelled: "bye! Thanks for comin!" He's a funny one.

What's so funny? Only Isaac knows!

Spring is Here...

and so are the caterpillars... Ethan is in heaven! He actually yelled at another kid in the park yesterday "hey boy, yook at da cadapida!" Everyone's a "boy" to Ethan. Too bad it was a girl. Nice try though.

Isaac's new enemies and friends

Isaac has now become his own worst enemy. He has SOME control over his little hands and what they grab onto, but not much. Mostly it's just like those grabby claw machines outside of Wal-mart that never really give you the prize. Most of the time it just picks it up an inch and then drops it. So is the everyday life of Isaac. Which was fine when he was just trying to grab at toys and couldn't really get them, but now... his little hands have started removing his binky from his own mouth and he can never seem to get it back in by himself. He's pretty funny when he's really tired and those phantom hands come and steal his binky from his mouth. He always looks at the person closest to him like we've just done it.
On the upside, sometimes he can at least get part of the binky back into his mouth which he likes since he's teething.
And maybe it's like that saying, "the Lord giveth and he taketh away", Isaac may be constantly taking away his own binky, but he's also recently discovered that he can fold himself in half and put his toes into his mouth. So even if the binky is gone, somehow he now always has something to suck on.

Happy Birthday Ethan

How old are you now? Don't forget to count that thumb!

Ethan loved opening all the presents and playing with the books and toys he got.

Isaac was totally excited about the ribbon on top of each present.

Ethan is obsessed with cars and trucks right now so I found a cake pan that created individual "car" cakes. I squirted frosting and he helped add gummy wheels, m&m's, and teddy graham passengers.

Because our apartment won't accomodate all his little friends we decided to have his party at a local park. The kids ran around and chowed down on the food and had a great time.