Happy Mama's Day

Ethan is a teaser. And he knows it. This morning we did one of my favorite Sunday morning rituals (that I even did when I was a kid). Everyone gathers in Mom and Dad's bed and we talk and laugh and play around. Trent said to Ethan this morning: "It's Mama's Day. Can you say Happy Mama's Day?" Ethan's not a big talker so I prompted him. me "Happy", Ethan "happy" , me "Mama" Ethan: mischievous grin "DADDY!" of course, I thought, but Trent and I both laughed. When we didn't protest against Ethan's replacement word, he smiled, gave in, and said "Mama". I wonder how at such a young age he knows how to tease!

As a side note, I love to be called Mama. I know that Ethan can say Mommy, but I don't want him to, I love hearing him say Mama too much.

So today was Mother's Day. My third. All of them have been special and have been good days to reflect on the great blessing I have to be a Mom. When I was a girl I knew that I wanted to be a mother, but I had no idea how wonderful it would be. Ethan is the love of my life. I cannot express it. I know all mothers love their babies but I can't help but think they would love them more if their child was Ethan (I know its not true-but to me he is just that wonderful).

I once heard of a lady who had a child who she loved so much that she never wanted to have another baby for fear that she wouldn't have enough love for a second child. I used to think she was crazy. Or heartless. Of course you could love two babies. Now as a mother of one I know why she thought that. To me it seems impossible that I could love another child or person like I love Ethan. I know that I can, but it is really hard to imagine. He is everything to me. I cannot believe how all my actions and thoughts revolve around him without my consciously thinking about it. No wonder children think they are the center of the universe!
I am so grateful for my mother who had enough love for me. Who was selfless and serving. Who was always the perfect example for me (even if it was sometimes a bad one ;). I hope to be as good as a mother to Ethan and my future children. I might not naturally be as good, but I know that through the teachings of Jesus Christ I can learn to be more charitable, forgiving, and supportive.

I love being a mother. It is truly the best calling in life that there is.

Two. Today.

I have a two year old. A TWO year old! How crazy is that?!

So some info on the two-year-old. He talks like crazy, mostly gibberish but a lot of new words every week. Even words that we haven't said in awhile pop up in his vocabulary. The other evening we were at a friends house for dinner and he pointed up in the sky and said "moon!". He had never said that word before and I hadn't said it to him in a few weeks so I thought he was just making sounds. Our friend looked up and said, " Yeah! That is the moon!" Sure enough there in the clear, blue sky was the moon. I was so surprised. How did he remember that word when he had never said it before?

We are always asking Ethan to point to things and people. The other day Trent said, "Where's Caitlin?" He whipped around and pointed to me. I was shocked! So I said, "Where's Trent?" and he pointed to him. Of course Trent and I call each other be our first names but I had no idea that Ethan paid attention to it.
Ethan notices EVERYTHING. He knows which key opens the mailbox and which one opens the apartment. He puts the dirty dishes in the sink, except for the silverware-he puts those in the silverware drawer because he knows that's where they go. In the morning and after nap time we hide Ethan's pacifier and blanket so that he doesn't carry them around all day. We have to find new spots to hide them everyday because he will have us carry him around searching in all the 'usual' spots.

He is totally a Daddy's boy. He usually wants me when he gets hurt but in every other situation he wants Trent. He's funny though because if we are both at home he wants us all to be in the same room together. If either one of us leaves the room he asks where they went and wants them to come back. It is pretty sweet that he loves our little family so much.

He is so social. He smiles and says hi to everyone. He will even shout/scream at them to get their attention and them smile shyly. He loves any kid and thinks that he is as big as they are. He has stayed on the court/field playing dodge-ball, basketball, and baseball even though all the other little kids sat on the side and watched.

He's tricky. He thinks he is so clever. He knows he isn't supposed to go into Mom and Dad's room alone so he will casually walk by our door and 'accidentally' throw a ball in there and then give his question hands and say "go?" and then point. Translation: I have to go in there now so that I can get my ball. Of course he doesn't come back out unless he has some "help".

My mom, Ethan and I went to visit Natalie in Connecticut. We went to walk in the sand at the beach. Ethan was holding Nat's hand as they walked with their feet in the water. He let go, took a few more steps and then bolted into the water, face planting when a wave hit his chest. Natalie ran in, grabbed him and walked back on shore. He started crying-he wanted to go back into the freezing cold water!

Favorites:
Favorite Sport: Basketball. No question.
Favorite Food: Cookies. And ice cream. With Trent as his father how could it be any different? Luckily he loves most food including vegetables.
Favorite Place: Outside.
Favorite Color: No idea, but his favorite pajamas are orange and he either likes them because of the color or the monkey on them...
Favorite Animal: Doggie.
Favorite Song: Jump by Van Halen (because he likes to jump and headbang...)
Favorite Words: Daddy, truck, doggie, night-night

I never thought I could love anything like I love Ethan. Trent and I marvel every night at how much we love him. I am so grateful to be able to celebrate that he is healthy and happy for his second birthday.

Here is an update with pics from his little birthday party:

I made him a basketball cake in a bowl so that it would be roundish. It was a new endeavor, but turned out kinda cool!

We had friends meet us at the park so the kids could play and we set up his new basketball hoop! And Trent would have me note that Ethan made his first shot ever on this hoop!

This is a pic of a balloon that a lady at Smith's gave him for his birthday. Right as we walked into the store an employee approached us and just raved about how cute she thought Ethan was and that her boys were all bald until they were three. She was super nice and then asked how old he was. When I told her it was his birthday today she almost died! She kept telling him happy birthday. Then, after we had left to roam the store, we saw her running up an aisle after us-carrying this balloon! She said she couldn't NOT give him one and that she hoped he had a great day. He never wanted the balloon out of his sight! I seriously think it made his day!

Food=Mama's Job

So yesterday morning Trent, Ethan and I were all in Trent and I's bedroom. I was laying on the bed pretending to sleep while Ethan and Trent talked/played. After a few minutes Trent said to Ethan, "Want some food?" Ethan yelled "yeah!" and as he ran to the kitchen he yelled "Mama!" in such a way that it could only have meant: "Come Mama, it's your job to make us food!" I love how I wasn't even involved in the conversation but I was the one requested to make breakfast. I should probably make Trent start cooking more so that Ethan knows I am not the only source of food in this house!

The little naysayer

So within the past week Ethan has gone from saying "yeah" to every question we ask to saying "NOO" to every question we ask. How did that happen? As my way of coping I have started to call him the naysayer...trying to find humor where humor is nowhere to be found. And today we hung out with a neighbor boy for about an hour and suddenly Ethan learned "mine" and said it in the correct context and constantly for the next hour afterwards until nap time. Why is it that he doesn't learn the words I am trying to teach him? And what happened to my sweet, obedient boy? He has gone from darling to terrible twos right before my eyes...for some reason I expected this to be a gradual change not an all-at-once thing. Ahhh! Needless to say it is driving me crazy.

Here, however is a ridiculously adorable photo of the little naysayer. Multiple things add to that cute pose. First of all, this shirt has the name of my dad's business on it (Advantage Water Conditioning). This was my shirt when I was a kid. So cute. Also, hanging on the fridge is something that Ethan "colored" during nursery at church. "Heavenly Father Has a Plan for Me." They say he is really good at nursery. Even people who drop in to see their own kids comment to me how good he is. Well, at least he is polite to strangers.
Yesterday I saw Ethan playing make-believe for the first time. He handed me a cup from the table and then proceeded to pinch "something" (air) between his fingers and hand it to me. When I took it he laughed and did it again and again. Then I pretended to eat it. So he ate it too, and fed me some more. It is moments like this, and nap time, that make me still love the little monster.

Catching up

So it has been forever since I posted and I just want to get caught up on what has been going on with our family.
This past semester was a lot of fun (and is the last time for awhile that we will count time in "semesters" haha!) Trent took his last semester of classes this fall. He is so ready to have a full time job and be done with school. Even though he was taking a full load he still had a part-time job working for BYU grounds. He worked on the pesticide and turf crew. He got to help take care of the BYU football field and learned a ton about turf. I think it is one of his favorite things to learn about. BYU doesn't have a graduation ceremony in December and we probably won't make it back in April for him to walk, but he did so well. He will probably be embarrassed that I am posting this but he graduated with a 3.97! I am so proud of him. I really respect the fact that he wanted to learn all that he could in school and that he took it seriously.

 Trent's parents couldn't come down to celebrate Trent's graduation but they treated us to Brick Oven pizza (Trent's choice for dinner). It was really good and so fun to be able to go out. Here are Trent and Ethan doing their pirate faces.

This fall I also got to teach my first real English class at BYU's English language center. I taught an intermediate Listening/Speaking class for 65 minutes Monday through Thursday. It was such a good experience and kind of a nice break. By the time I got home I was so excited to be a mom again (even though I loved teaching-it just reminded me what I loved more!). Trent was at home to watch Ethan two days a week and two of my good friends took turns watching Ethan (who is about the same age as their kids). It was kind of nice to leave and have Ethan be sad to see me go...(even though I know it wasn't so much because I was leaving but because he wanted to go outside too!
Trent and I decided to have fun our last semester in Provo instead of focus on school so much (mostly because I wasn't in school and I was getting bored ;). We went laser-tagging a lot with some friends, went on more dates, etc., and we went PARAGLIDING. I have always wanted to do something of that nature but now that I have a kid I feel that skydiving would be irresponsible so we opted for the safer (and less expensive) route. I found a deal online and couldn't say no (even though it was 4:00 in the morning I had to go wake Trent up and ask if we could do it-I think he was half-asleep when he said yes because I had to re-explain the deal later that day-haha!). Trent and I had so much fun and in our group of six students Trent had the longest (and most beautiful) flight!

Ethan of course is the most exciting thing in our lives. He has changed so much during this past four months and I have loved seeing his little mind work as he learns new things! During the fall he started folding his arms and bowing his head to pray. As soon as we say "prayer time" he stops what he is doing and folds his arms (of course that doesn't mean he always stays like that throughout the prayer). I often watch him during the prayer (I can't help it!) just to see what he is doing. He often looks up at us and if we are still bowing our heads he will bow his head again too and fold his arms. One time he was drinking out of his sippy cup when we said "prayer time". He put his sippy carefully on the ground and stood up and folded his arms. Then part way through the prayer, he opened his eyes and started to reach for his sippy. He picked it up and started to bring it to his mouth when he looked up and saw everyone still praying (we were at Trent's family's house) and immediately put his sippy back on the ground, folded his arms and bowed his head. Another time we called for prayer but he didn't want to slow down so we just started without him. Trent and I were kneeling side-by-side and in the middle of the prayer Ethan ran over, turned around (so his back was to us), folded his arms, bowed his head, and backed into us so that he was kind of between us as we prayed. We can't get him to sit still for even two minutes of Family Home Evening...but at least he kind of prays with us!
Ethan still doesn't talk much. His words consist of: Daddy, Mama, badetball (basketball), ball, doggie, shoe, sock, night-night, nana (banana), Nana, Papa, sock, tuck (truck), bye-bye, yeah, no and I am sure there are a few more that I just can't think of at the moment. His favorite words are Daddy and basketball. He says both of them constantly. I remember one of my brothers telling when his son was two that all of his friends would say "my son's favorite sport is__________" and Doug would say to us: "that is so dumb, a two-year-old can't have a favorite sport." I thought he was right, until recently. Ethan's favorite sport really is basketball. Trent, of course, has helped in this but Ethan LOVES basketball. He has a little basketball hoop that Trent made him and he shoots baskets all the time. Sometimes he will sit on the floor with a ball and I will hear him whispering to himself over and over again: "badetball, badetball, badetball..." sometimes disrupted only by him yelling out the word before he continues to whisper it again. If he sees a basketball hoop while we are on a walk he starts yelling "badetball" and makes the motion of shooting with his arm as he makes a swishing sound to go along with it. The only TV he watches is basketball with Trent. He will sit in Trent's lap and point and say ball and follow the ball on the screen. He won't sit still for anything else, not even football-just basketball! It is pretty cute. Here are some photos as evidence of his obsession. 

While I was getting dressed one morning Ethan went out into the living room, turned on the TV and crawled onto the ottoman to watch Sports Center.

This is the "hoop" Trent made Ethan (out of a hanger and old shirt) and Ethan in Trent's basketball shoes.

Here are some other highlights from the fall:

 This is at Trent's little sister's volleyball game. Grandma and Grandpa took turns holding him. The last picture is blurry, but I put it in because every time people cheered Ethan would get that look and start clapping. It was pretty cute. He actually watched the ball go back and forth.

Ethan likes to play in his room on his own, normally he reads to himself. One day he was being loud and I came into find this mess! Ethan also loves belts and always takes ours to wear around his neck.

On the far left is Ethan and I on the kiddie slides. He wanted to go again and again. Closer is Ethan and his friend Naomi at the water park. Ethan LOVES the water.
 

 Throwing bread to the ducks. A favorite past time. As is chasing the ducks as seen below.

 This is Ethan's Tupperware drawer where is was allowed to pull everything out and climb in if so desired. And believe me, it was desired a lot. P.S. When Trent changes Ethan's diaper in the morning he doesn't want to bother getting him re-zippered or putting new clothes on him, so he leaves him like this. 

And calls him cape boy.

 Trent and I at a basketball game and my parents and us at a football game. Our last semester to truly enjoy BYU sports.  

 

Ethan with Nana and Papa. Whenever they call on the phone he gets so excited and whispers "Nana...Papa".

    This is a typical Ethan face. He loves to make this face.       This one is just plain cute.

 This is in our bike trailer. To entertain Ethan I give him all sorts of odds and ends. This jaw breaker was wrapped in plastic until Ethan figured out how to open it. 30 min later, when we got home, I saw this. Woops!

 

 Book time with Mama.             Ethan must face forward in the cart.

 Ethan got these new snow pants and boots from Nana. He opened them up and although I am sure he didn't know what they were for, he knew they were for him (and he loves shoes) so he was pretty excited and walked around trying to check them out for a good 15 min.

 Playing with cars. This is so cute to me. I don't know why.

Ethan could eat apples all day. I gave him one and he cried until I gave him the second. This middle picture perfectly describes my son. The third picture is of Ethan on Trent's little Honda 50.  Trent wants to give it to him in a few years. I am thinking more like 10.

 Tired Daddy and non-tired baby.

Ethan signs food, all-done, more and night-night so at least if he can't say them we have the basics covered. 
He turned 18 months in November and I couldn't believe it. At his checkup the doctor said he was in the 25th percentile for weight and 75th for height (so tall and skinny). He said that was perfectly normal (which I thought was interesting-isn't 50th and 50th "normal"). He is super happy and always giggling. He naps well and sleeps well at night (most of the time) He is still as bald as can be. We have been teaching him body parts including hair. Sometimes I can see him rubbing his head randomly and I wonder if he knows that he doesn't have any hair. He runs EVERYWHERE-no walking allowed I guess, and he is really fast. Sometimes I really do have a hard time catching up to him. He loves to jump (he can get a few inches off the ground and has been able to for months). He also does "quick feet" (can you tell who Daddy wants to be a basketball star-jumping and quick feet?). He loves to dance to music and kind of bobs up and down doing little squats. He also loves to go outside. He loves to run and climb on the jungle-gym, go on the slides and the swings. He is a pretty typical boy. He is ALL boy, as Trent loves to say. But he is MY boy, and I guess that is what makes him special (to me at least). He is entering the stage of independence and in the past few days has started to say "no" to everything. It is SO frustrating. Yet I still adore him. I love his mischievous little smile and the sound of his laughter. I love him so much but I can't even begin to describe it. I love to look at people older than me who have their first born boy all grown up (like Trent and I's parents and our grandparents) and imagine that they must have felt this way about their first child, their little boy.

Montana Continued

On July 19th at 9:30 at night I left Ethan with my parents and I left for Oregon by train to check out Portland and see my sweet hubby. Ethan still hadn't walked yet (although he had taken a few steps) and I told my mom she wasn't allowed to let him walk until we got home. It was kind of hard to leave Ethan for almost four whole days but I was SO EXCITED to see Trent that I only noticed some of the time. Trent was staying at my parents best friends' house so it was good to see them too (and, of course, they adored Trent. I think they like me a lot more now that they know Trent :). Ranice (my mom's best friend) took me around while Trent was still working and then for the next few days when Trent wasn't. We went to Canon Beach and to the Tillamook Cheese Factory (white cheddar pepper cheese....*sigh*). I was in love with Portland and the idea of living there. The closest job option to both our families, Dan and Ranice close by, a beach nearby (*sigh* again)...but even as I wanted it I kind of felt like we were still supposed to go to Albuquerque. But I didn't tell Trent quite yet. We had so much fun being back together and then we drove back to Montana on Saturday hoping to get home by 6:00 PM in time to see Ethan for awhile before he got to cranky. Before we pulled into the driveway Trent told me that he wanted to go in separately. He was worried that Ethan wouldn't be excited to see one of us (like he wasn't excited to see me when we got back from Albuquerque) so he thought seeing us one at a time would be better.
I went in first and Ethan was playing in the living room. He looked up at me, smiled big and crawled over really fast to see me. Oh my heart melted. I was SO happy to hold him again. I jumped around with him and kissed him a bunch. Then Trent walked up the stairs. When Ethan saw him he stopped and stared. Then he got this HUGE grin on his face and started laughing and clapping his hands. He was seriously so excited. I was glad too, I think Trent was a little worried that Ethan would forget him. We played for about15 minutes throwing a beach ball around when Ethan took a step. Then, holding the beach ball, he took a few more steps. Then again with a few more. We ran and got the video camera and recorded him walking! He only took about 5 steps at the most. But it was so awesome to come home and see him walk for his first time. My mom promised that he hadn't walked, that she had sat him down every time he looked like he was going to. I guess I believe her ;).
During our stay in Montana we did some fun things (boating, swimming, hanging out with friends) but we worked too. Trent put in a french drain for our good friends and Trent and I built a staircase! I know crazy. We were just going to replace the treads on my parents old staircase but it was so rotted that we ended up making new stair jacks and building a whole new set of stairs. They are quite beautiful if I do say so myself ;). Trent and I make such a good team because we both think in different ways to we bounce ideas off of each other and are able to come up with really good plans. I think building stuff is our favorite thing to do together.

 After we had already torn out the old stairs and the old handrails

 Cutting and installing the stair jacks

 

The final project. I am quite proud ;).

We headed home to Provo on about August 2nd. It was so awesome to spend so much time around my family. I am sure that this opportunity will not happen again, or at least not for a long, long time so I am really glad we were able to go. I love my family so much. My parents inspire me with their testimonies and examples and I hope to be more like them every day.