A tooth?!

Trent called me over today as he was playing with Ethan saying, "Ethan has a tooth!" Don't judge me, but I exclaimed, "Liar!" I went over anyway and started to feel Ethan's gums. To my surprise I DID feel a tooth on his bottom gum and said, "oh my gosh! He does have a tooth!" Trent started laughing and said, "No way, I was just joking!" So, I guess if Trent hadn't been teasing me we never would have known that Ethan had a tooth! It has already broken through and everything...he could have had it for days! We had no idea. Mostly because we were expecting him to be really fussy when his teeth were coming in but he has just been his happy little self. Kind of makes me happy. I hope all the other teeth come in this easy.
Also, this week Ethan started saying "ma-ma-ma." No, he doesn't know that means ME, but it does mean he is at least able to make that sound when he does know. He also pulled himself to standing today for the first time. He was playing with an electronic toy that probably weighs half of what he does but only stands about four inches high. I looked over to check on him and he was folded at the waist-his hands on top of his toy, his legs straight, and his bum in the air! You always hear people say: "kids grow up so fast", but seriously, kids grow up SO FAST!

This is a toy Nick and Sylvia are lending us. Ethan LOVES it. He will go back and forth between this toy and the big mirror, entertaining himself for a whole hour!

Trent thought it would be fun to put Ethan on the roll-away. Needless to say, he almost rolled off of it.

How does he sleep like this?

Here he is crawling! He is getting around so well.

Ethan loves me!

So my little boy is getting pretty good at crawling. He still doesn't get into too much trouble but he is figuring out that he can go pretty much wherever he wants. After my class today I went to pick Ethan up from our neighbor who was watching him. When I opened the door I saw him on the other side of the room. He looked up from where he was sitting and immediately leaned forward and started crawling towards me! He has never crawled to a person before, only toys. So it was adorable to have him crawl all the way across the room to my feet and hold up one hand, gesturing for me to pick him up. I could have died. It was the sweetest thing ever. He hasn't crawled to Daddy yet. Ha! Not that I am gloating...I just am excited that my little boy loves me!

These aren't pictures of him crawling, just some recent ones that are kind of cute. 

 Trent put this cup on his head. No, I do not know why.

Here is Ethan and Daddy doing their trick. Ethan is obviously concentrating very hard. Trent is making sure he has the strongest core of any baby to have ever lived. Not that its a competition.

It begins...

So, Friday morning I was sitting in the living room eating breakfast, watching Ethan playing on the ground in front of me. He was up on his hands and knees, rocking like crazy, like he normally is. He has figured out the moving his legs thing, but not his arms (which means he face plants it when his knees get too close to his hands). Anyway, this morning he actually started moving his hands! He slowly lifted his arm way up high in a big circle before putting it down a few inches in front of where it had been. Then he moved his opposite knee. I yelled to Trent to come quick. As Trent ran in Ethan fell over. Luckily, he got back up to try again. This time he moved his one arm (still bringing it up high), followed by this opposite knee, followed by his other hand, you get the idea. He was crawling!! We kept moving him away from the inspire-er of this crawling, Trent's backpack, and watching him crawl forward towards it again. We were laughing and giggling like little kids. It was pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. I have been scared for him to start crawling for fear that I will not be able to get anything done, yet part of me wanted him to crawl because I was scared he would never figure it out! It was amazing to see that he did figure it out, all on his own. How does that happen? How do they know how to do it? I have no idea, but it is pretty cool.
Fortunately, Ethan has not figured out that he could move all around the house if he wanted to. For right now he only crawls when we set him down with everything out of his reach. Other than that he just rolls in his little five foot area like normal...so we are getting the best of both worlds ;).

Here is is just chilling in the morning, drinking his bottle, watching Trent and I get ready for the day.

Lots of learning going on around here

Ethan has started doing a ton of things this week! It is crazy how much he has grown and learned in just 9 months! I know it would be exciting if I told you that he finally learned to crawl...but I will not tell a lie. No crawling going on around here.

This past Monday Ethan started saying his "d"-sound. Now it is the sound he uses most, "da-da-da-da", I cannot wait until he finds out it means Daddy. On Thursday he turned 9 months old! Wow. These months have flown by. Trent and I were looking at pictures of Ethan as a newborn last night and oo-ing and aw-ing over how TINY he was. I feel like my little boy is all grown up! On Friday he started clapping! I have been practicing clapping for weeks with him, moving his hands together and clapping my hands, but, wouldn't you know it, he clapped first for Trent. I was getting out of the shower and Trent says: "Caitlin, come here, I taught Ethan how to clap!" As if clapping twice in front of Ethan is all there was to it! Although, with as much as he loves Trent, maybe it was!

Also, as this week has progressed, Ethan has become extremely mobile. He still doesn't crawl, but he can pull himself forward on his hands, twist his body, roll around and finally make it to where he wants to. It is so slow that you don't really realize he is moving that much, but if I walk out of the room for a minute, I come back to him in a completely different spot! It is nice to see what kind of things interest him and yet still not have to chase him around a bunch...I am scared for that day! Please let it not come until April ;).

Sleep is good

So Ethan is being a super sleeper! He has been sleeping through the night for a few nights with only tiny little relapses!

On January 11th he slept from 7:00 PM to 6:00 AM for the first time! He still wakes up sometimes for just a few minutes but not very often. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to figure out how to sleep for that long! I kept waking up and listening for him. I would then start to worry that he hadn't woken up (which is silly because we had to let him cry it out-we KNEW he would be sleeping through the night) but I would have to go and check on him. Finally though, a week later on January 16th we both were successful, I woke up to my alarm at 6:15 and realized that I had slept the whole night! I, of course, immediately went in to check on Ethan and he was just as adorable as could be, sound asleep. It was a huge step for us both I'd say ;).

Some more. Just for fun.

I just have a few more cute pictures that I want to put on here. These are from before the break.

 Here is Ethan in his Sunday clothes. I know I am biased, but I think he is pretty adorable.

Ethan's poor cheeks. Combination cold and dry weather and loads of drool. And here they are studying. Lots of studying. And it looks like Ethan is following right along. I don't know why he would want to read about Business Strategies. He only looked up because I called his name.

 Trent is such a good dad. He does pretty much everything with Ethan.

Ethan fell asleep like this. Grabbing the side of the pack 'n play. Interesting.

The holidays are over...

Well, the break is officially over and we have been back at school for one week. At the beginning of last semester I cried every day at the thought of having to go to school AND take care of a baby. I know that this semester is going to be even harder, but for some reason it doesn't seem as scary. Maybe its because I have a whole line of people who I know will babysit Ethan for me. Or maybe it is that the end is in site. Four more months and I am done with school. Forever. Well, I can hope at least ;).

Ethan is getting so big I can hardly believe it. He turned 8 months old this past Monday. Wow. At the doctor's on Tuesday they measured him at 29 inches. That means he has grown a foot since he was born! Minha nossa. He had surgery this past Tuesday, but he is doing great. He was pretty out of it for the whole day, but on the up side he was super cuddly ;). By Wednesday morning he was laughing and squirmy again. Back to normal. We were very happy to see him recover so fast. We know that he had lots of prayers on his behalf.

 Ethan is not crawling yet. Nana taught him how to "rock" on his hands and knees over the break, so he does that pretty well, but he seems to like doing push-ups better. Or maybe he is doing downward facing dog? I wish I could ask him.

Here is Trent wresting with Ethan. Ethan is laughing hysterically. 

It must be a boy thing.

 This is their new trick. Ethan's leans forward as far as he can without falling forward. I was pretty impressed.