The Kitchen

After two years of deliberating, I finally picked a kitchen for Ethan and got it for Christmas. He just got it yesterday because I hadn't had time to put it together before that. It took me 4+ hours to put it together, calling in Rick from time to time for extra muscle power. Ethan played with it a little bit last night when he got home, so we'll just have to see if it turns out to be a winner or a dud.

The Christmas Rush

Our holiday schedule was a little crazy this year, but we all had a fun time (until Ethan had to go back to day care today, which didn't make him very happy). Here's where we were:

Dec. 22nd--Finish all shopping, wrapping, baking, that we haven't been able to do for the last two weeks because Mommy and Ethan have been sick.

Dec. 23rd--Continue wrapping, packing, etc. Watch TCU beat Boise State in the Pointsettia bowl!! GO FROGS! Open presents at home so we don't have to cart them with us. (This was a long process as Ethan just wanted to play with each one, and not open anymore. Yay! for fun presents, but not so good on the time line. We were up LATE.)

Dec. 24th, Christmas Eve--PACK and try to get on the road to Houston. We finally made it out the door around 3:00. We arrived in Houston in time for dinner with Brad, Nicole, the girls, and MeMe and Pop. Ethan was thrilled to see everyone.

Dec. 25th, Christmas Day--After sleeping in (we'd had a late couple of nights) we made it over to Brad and Nicole's house for some presents and lunch. The kids played and played. We went back to MeMe and Pop's house for naps (Rick and E slept for 3+ hours). Then the rest of the family (and Nicole's parents) joined us for a lovely Christmas turkey at MeMe and Pop's. The kids love playing with the balls on the pool table, so that was the activity of choice (even taking precedence over more presents). Merry Christmas!

Dec. 26th--We took a little shopping trip with Pop to buy Ethan some much needed new shoes. After a quick bite to eat, it was on the road again, heading to Columbus, Texas. Rick's aunt's family owns a ranch there and they invited us there for the weekend. There were quite a few of us: Rick, Ethan, and me; Brad, Nicole, Avery, and Madi; MeMe and Pop; Greg, Gina, Forrest, Logan, and Preston (Rick's uncle and his family); Steve and Jenger (Rick's other uncle and wife), and Jenger's mom; Jill (Rick's cousin), and David and Robin (Rick's cousin and wife). It was a crowd, but the house was beautiful with plenty of room for all. We had fantastic hosts and everyone contributed to a meal or two. Ethan had a blast playing with all the cousins out under the big oak trees, playing football and just running around. We toasted marshmallows over the fire at night and watched the cattle stroll by in the morning. It was a terrific weekend.

Dec. 28th--After lunch we headed back home. Phew!

Below are a few pictures from our escapades. If you would like to see more please go to: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0ActWrJm5aOWLlI and enjoy the full slideshow of pictures from this great season. We hope you all had as nice a Christmas as we did.

JibJab

In the JibJab video below, Ethan, who has no earthly idea about the juggernaut that is High School Musical, doesn't care about dancing with Gabriella (or that Mommy screwed up his face so the singing doesn't look right). He only cares that it is "him" playing basketball. And we watch it over and over again.

I'm Playing Basketball!

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Merry Christmas!

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Nouns

The last video we watched tonight before bed was the "Nouns" song on Schoolhouse Rock. While we were reading stories later, I'm making my way through The Little Engine That Could and Ethan couldn't care less. He's standing in the middle of the room, turning around and around and around. . .

E: "SuperFrog and penguin and lamp and crib. Those are nouns. Chair and Mommy and stool and Blue Dog and oranges. Those are nouns. Door and window and rug and penguin [yes, that one got in there more than once]. Those are nouns."

M: "Yes, E, those are nouns, good job!"

Here's the song in case you want to sing along: Schoolhouse Rock

Night Terrors

Imagine Barry Gibb's falsetto: "Night terrors, night terrors, we know how to do it." Yeah, these are not as much fun as the BeeGees "Night Fever" song, even if they sound similar.

Last night, about 11:30, an hour or more after Ethan went to bed, we were startled by his crying. Screaming really. We went in, he wasn't awake, I rubbed his back and he seemed to settle down. As soon as I left the room he repeated the screaming and I went back in. The 3rd time I went ahead and picked him up. He was obviously not yet awake and was batting at me and still screaming and crying, stiff as a board. I tried rocking him for a while, and he had moments of calmness, but then would just start up again. Finally I decided I just needed to try and really wake him up. So we went out into the living room with the lights on. His eyes were open, but he wasn't really awake yet. Finally I could see that he was recognizing where he was and who we were, but he was still very disoriented and upset. We snuggled on my bed, but nothing made him happy, he didn't know what he wanted, and certainly, neither did I. Eventually, through much crying, screaming and fitting, we just all laid down together in our bed to go to sleep (after I accomplished the feat of removing my contacts with one hand, while holding a screaming, squirming 3-year-old with the other).

He slept well with us (squished up next to me, leaving me about 8 inches of bed for myself), but I'm hoping we don't have to do this again tonight, I don't want our room to become a habit. I'll keep you posted.

Like Father, Like Son

For the last few TCU football games, Rick has taken Ethan up to the press box to watch the game from there. Ethan is not as adversely affected (i.e., screaming and crying) from the noise up there. He's been really good and knows that he has to "be quiet up there." So, Rick and Ethan have been enjoying the games from a new vantage point. Mommy sits in the regular seats because she wouldn't be as good as Ethan about being quiet when she wanted to cheer for her team!

Expressing His Emotions

Lately I've been hearing Ethan say, "You blocked it!" quite a lot. I'm not completely sure where it came from, but now I know why he's saying it.

Today, at church, during a screaming fit because he wanted Mommy to change him but wanted to do it in the Men's Room. I would neither a) go get Daddy in the middle of the sermon after Ethan had already pitched a fit about wanting Mommy and not Daddy, nor b) take him in the Men's Room:

E: "I want to go in there! Not this one! Not this one!"
M: (Picking E up and taking him to the Ladies Room) "I'm sorry, but Mommy can't go in there."
E: "You blocked it!"
M: "Is that what you say when you're mad at me?"
E: "Yes. It. Is."

Mystery solved.

Update: Could it be that he got this from Charlie Brown and what he is really repeating is "You Blockhead!"? Probably. Guess we should put an end to that one.

Spineless?

While watching a PBSKids segment about animals during Curious George:

E: "Backbones."
D: "Yes, vertebrae. Ethan, do you have a backbone?"
E: "No. I have a face."
M: (snickering) "I'm pretty sure you can have both."

Hat Day

This week, something really appalling happened at work.

An employee in my deptartment who has ovarian cancer and has been going through chemo went to Human Resources to ask for a handicap parking sticker because she's pretty weak and having a hard time getting around. While she was there the HR representative told her she was in violation of the dress code because she was wearing a cap. The employee told her she has cancer and has no hair. HR Lady said it didn't matter, that there was no provision for cancer in the policy and that she would give her one week to get a wig. The employee said the only wig she had was her daughter's and it was in Nevada. HR Lady said she would give her a Fed Ex box.

The employee (very hurt and upset) reported the incident to her manager and she to the Director of our department. HR Lady originally denied the incident, saying that the employee must have misunderstood, and even after being confronted by several managers, never really admitted to any wrong doing (at least to anyone I've talked to). However, HR Lady's boss clearly knew it was inappropriate, because she called the employee and apologized, telling her that she should wear whatever makes her comfortable.

Everyone who hears this story can hardly believe it, and most people here really wanted to do something for the employee. Our facilities manager, who recently lost his wife to the same cancer, brough scarves and a couple of wigs for her. And the rest of us? We declared it hat day! Because certainly, with all that she has been going throuhg, she doesn't need to feel belittled or lonely. The whole department donned their most stylish/funny/ridiculous headwear for the day, and as other departments found out, some were able to run home or borrow hats to join in as well. We took a group picture that is below, and the employee felt nothing but love and support and she got a copy of the picture in a frame with a mat we all signed.

Stripes

Ethan has noticed that I have lines on my forehead and that they get more pronounced in certain situations or with certain emotions. Since he's so in tune to people's emotional states lately, he is also paying a lot of attention to what he calls my "stripes."

E: "Are you mad Mommy?"
M: "No, Ethan, I'm not mad."
E: "But you have stripes."
M: "Yes, but I have stripes all the time--when I'm happy (big smile), when I'm thinking hard (furrowed brow). Not just when I'm angry."
E: (smoothing his forehead) "I have stripes too!"

The Negotiator

Ethan has started trying to talk his way out of things, eating his dinner, naps, the usual. He has apparently picked up some of my habits of speech because when he's really trying to talk you into something it goes like this:

M: "No, Ethan, it is nap time. You need to go to sleep."
E: "Here's the thing Mommy. . . ."

He almost never actually tells you what the thing is though, he just stutters around repeating, "Here's the thing."

Last weekend I told him I didn't care what the thing was, he needed to take a nap. To which he retorted: "I LISTENED TO YOUR THING!"

Halloween

Well, Ethan was recovering from a cold and Mommy and Daddy were just starting to feel the germs, but we managed to head out for some trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Ethan wore his red dragon costume, and I'm still dressed in my costume from work. We had a board game theme this year and my team chose Trivial Pursuit. I was representing the Arts and Literature category, so I'm dressed as Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Rick is dressed as Coach Gary Patterson, untied shoelaces and all.

Halloween Preparation

As if we weren't busy enough the weekend of Oct. 24th, we had all our Halloween preparations to do too. So, we baked and decorated cookies (Ethan had seen some pictures lately of our Valentine ones and was wanting to do it again), and carved the pumpkins. It was a lot of fun.

Cookies



Pumpkins

Kids' Place Carnival

For the 2nd year in a row, we enjoyed a Fall Carnival at Kids Place with Ethan.

TCU Homecoming

The weekend of Oct. 24th was a busy one. We started it on Friday with Ethan's day care carnival, TCU Homecoming parade and Frog Fest, and on Saturday we celebrated Cris's birthday and the Homecoming Football game.

Parade


Frog Fest



Game