"I Tuck!"

Ethan, somewhere, has learned to jump over things. He jumps and pulls his knees to his chest, and usually lands on his knees at the end. This, he calls "tucking." He's had no gymnastics classes, but someone has taught him about the tuck position.

His most favorite time to do this is at night, while we are watching his video. He tells me that he wants to tuck, which means I should stretch my legs out (far enough from the edge of the bed not to give me a heart attack) and then he proceeds to jump over them (or on them) shouting "I tuck!" after every leap.

He Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Ethan learned to say this for church on Sunday and was having a lot of fun with the "Alleluia" part. We had a really nice Easter, Ethan and I colored eggs on Saturday (testing to see if our yellow egg would really turn orange when put in the red dye--it did).

On Sunday we went to church for the Easter egg hunt. Little girls who were helping out just couldn't help themselves when it came to the little guys, so Ethan didn't have to do much hunting, the girls pretty much brought him as many eggs as he could have. We enjoyed a lovely service with beautiful music and Ethan paid very close attention to the cross, now with white on it instead of the black he saw Friday night.

We did an egg hunt at home after Ethan's nap and he loved it so much we repeated it, inside and out. Luckily, the weather turned out nice, because it had been forecast to be nasty all day. We had some friends and their 3 boys over for dinner that night and the boys all played well together and we had a great time.

Picnic!

After we settled down from the butterfly fiasco we went into the Gardens for a picnic. Of course, everything tastes better outside, so peanut butter and jelly and string cheese and strawberries were like a whole new world for Ethan. He loved sitting on the blanket, throwing sticks in the bushes, and running in the big wide open spaces. He also got a thrill from climbing up the big, long staircase by himself (although he kept checking back to see if I was there), and watching the turtles in the pond.

Butterflies in the Garden

Every March, the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens release butterflies into their Conservatory. You can buy tickets to walk through and see all of them flitting about. Ethan loves butterflies so we thought it would be really fun to take him to see this. We talked about it for a day or so beforehand and he was really excited to see the butterflies.

I was a little worried that he might get scared if they landed on him or something, but he has always liked the bird cage at the zoo that you can walk through so I thought we'd give it a try anyway. Well, turns out I had good reason to be concerned. At first Ethan was totally fine. He loved looking at the black and yellow striped butterflies flitting about. About 3 minutes in this giant (seriously, bigger than one of Rick's hands) black butterfly flew right at us. That was it. It was all over. Ethan was screaming and Rick had to take him out. I stayed to get some pictures, so you can see all the pretty butterflies now too.






Pretty sure this next one is the one that ended it for us.

Mi Bebe! Mi Bebe!

It is after 10 pm and this is what I hear while trying to have a conversation with Rick, "Mi Bebe! Mi Bebe!" What the ???? That's right, it's Ethan, who, since the wonderful spring forward time change, has been in a BAD sleep pattern. Bad for us. Apparently not so bad for him since he keeps doing it. So the nights go something like this:

9:15ish: Mommy: "Night Night Ethan. Sleep Tight. Sweet Dreams. I love you."
Ethan: "Night Night Mommy."

10:00ish: Ethan (who has been talking and mumbling non-stop for the last 45 minutes): "Mi Bebe! Mi Bebe!" This is a line from a Dora episode where a baby bird is lost and Dora returns it to the mother, hence the joyful cry that my son now repeats at high volume long after he should have been asleep.

10:30ish: Ethan: "Mommy! Mommy!" silence. . . "Mommy!" "I hungry again." I ignore him.

11:00ish: Ethan: "Uh Oh! Blue dog! Mommy! Mommy!" etc.
Mommy (or Daddy): "Ethan, it is time to be going to sleep."
Ethan: "Rocking chair? Sing Songs?"
Mommy: "Okay, just for a few minutes." Then a few minutes of singing and rocking and then I say, "Time to get back in your crib."
Ethan: "Mommy rub back?"
Mommy: "Yes, I will."
Ethan: "Yes, I will." So I do for a minute or two. Then. . .
Mommy: "Night Night Ethan. Sleep Tight. Sweet Dreams. I love you."
Ethan: "Night Night Mommy."

If we're lucky there's only about 15 minutes more of babbling before he falls asleep.
Even with waking him at his normal time in the morning, we can't seem to get back into the regular schedule. I hope this ends soon!

Halloween in March?

It has been really nice here lately, and with the time change it is still light out when we all get home in the evening, so Ethan and I have been doing a lot of strolling around the neighborhood. A couple of days ago, we were strolling along and he was narrating everything going on around him, "There's a big doggy, he's walking on the street. There's an airplane. There's a TCU Flag, it's blowing." etc. All of a sudden, as we got within a couple houses of home he says, "I want to go trick-or-treating."

What? First of all, he was just barely two when we did that. He also wasn't that into it and hasn't said anything about it or costumes or anything since then. But apparently looking at the neighbors' houses reminded him of ringing doorbells that night. I giggled at him and then explained that we only go trick-or-treating at Halloween, but he's been talking about it ever since, so we may have to set up some fake scenario at home--or maybe an Easter Egg hunt will satisfy this desire.

Was that Sass from my sweet baby?

Last night while we were getting ready for bed, Ethan was running away when he needed to come get his diaper changed. I told him "No, come back here now." and he said to me: "You don't tell me no!"

Now, I'm sure this sounds like sass to you. But what I know is that that is what I say to Ethan when he tries to tell me "No" when I've asked him to do something. I always say, "You don't tell me no. When I ask you to do something you say, 'Yes Mommy'." So I know that it is actually probably more a case of him just repeating something he has heard in the appropriate scenario, but he is almost 3, so I'm sure soon enough it will be sass for sure.

Polka Dots

I have some polka dot pajamas that Ethan wants me to wear EVERYWHERE. He'll even pull them out of the laundry and tell me to wear them to church. A little while ago he started saying that he wanted to wear them. I tried to find some polka dot pajamas for him a few places, but they are all very girly, so I decided I would try some more sewing and make him some myself. I just finished them and he was thrilled to be wearing them this weekend (he even wanted to wear them to the park). Here are a couple of pictures of his new Polka Dots.