I noticed it again today. Ethan was going downstairs, holding onto his daddy's hand. Suddenly he lifted up his legs and hung! Daddy commented that "you sure trust your daddy a lot." Later on we were doing some exploring outside, and Ethan was jumping from sidewalk into puddle-on-road, and then onto the snow-mound beside the puddle, and back into the puddle. The puddle wasn't very wide and was next to the sloping sidewalk, so he had a hard time standing. But he kept doing it because we kept steadying him. He never fell, not even once.

It made me think. Shouldn't this be what it's like to trust our Daddy a lot? To know that we can jump and He will steady us? To know that when we lift up our legs, we won't fall down the stairs but will be held tightly and land gently?

That kind of trust is hard to come by.

from the mouths of babes

Jon was frustrated with something at work, and he was explaining it to me this evening. He was rather upset, but we were sitting at the kitchen table with Ethan, and suddenly I noticed that he was trying to get our attention. I looked at him, and realized that he was folding his hands together, and saying "pray? pray? pray?" I was totally blown away because of the timing of his request. And strangely enough, we don't fold our hands to pray here, we holds hands with each other. So he learned that at church or Buddy Break and decided that right then was a good time to pray! I love it!

the power!

For the past 3 years I've been teaching the parents of our 2-year olds about the power of praying Biblical blessings over their kids. Since I've been teaching it, I figured I better put it into practice when I had a kid, so I've been praying the "may the Lord bless you" blessing over Ethan almost every night since he was born. Sometimes I vary it up with one I really like from Ephesians, but this one is the normal one.

Well, last night Ethan woke up very upset. I don't know if he'd had a bad dream or something, but I couldn't get him to lay down quietly and go back to sleep. So he was standing up in the crib and I was hugging him across the bars, and suddenly I decided to pray and then bless him. I prayed a short prayer, then recited the blessing. Immediately he calmed down, laid himself down, and went back to sleep. I was totally blown away!

I spent the next half hour mulling in bed. I knew from my lessons and other peoples' stories that Biblical blessings are powerful - I'd heard of kids who stopped fussing at bedtime, stopped having nightmares, and begged for their blessings even as young adults. Clearly Jacob was willing to totally screw his brother Esau just to get his father's blessing, and even Jesus is seen to be blessing the children in the New Testament. But I was still awed. I guess I always am when God shows up. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I am!

Well, I guess I have a story of my own to share now when I teach the class again in June!

phone-aholic?

So Ethan wandered into the kitchen today with the phone, and I heard someone's voice coming out of the phone! I assumed he had somehow answered the phone when it rang, and I just hadn't heard it. It was our pastor's wife, and after a few moments of confusion, it turned out that she hadn't called us, Ethan had called her! I think he must have hit re-dial and then speakerphone. Good thing my last call wasn't a long-distance one!

milestones

Ethan hit a milestone on Monday that I never even realized was a milestone! It used to be that we would ask him about his day, and he would just smile at us.

But on Monday, we were rehashing the day to Daddy and he suddenly said "boat" and "water"...we had gone swimming that morning, and he really liked rocking in the big foam boat.

Then on Tuesday, I asked him what he did (after I got home from work), and he said "Moma!" And yes, his Oma was with him all day.

Today, I was reminding him about a birthday party we went to last week for his buddy, and told him that soon it was going to be his birthday. And out of the blue he shouts "cake!" And of course, we had cake at the party.

I was very surprised because up until now he's shown no indication of remembering events. Of course, he has learned a lot so obviously he's remembering stuff, but now he's able to articulate his memories. Cool!

Sweetheart

Ethan is such a sweet little guy. Today we were at the library and another little boy had a little monster truck with him. He kept putting it down to play with something else, and then Ethan would pick it up - I could tell he really liked it. But every time, I told him that we needed to give it back to the boy, and he held it out to him with no complaining. It makes me happy that he's such a sweetheart, but a little scared too because I can just imagine people taking advantage of him when he gets older. I guess our challenge will be to teach him to obey the right authorities, but to also stand up for himself when he needs to. Good thing God helps us raise our kids because I would be hooped otherwise!

jokes!

Ethan has been SO into books recently. Some days I think that's all he wants to do! We usually read until I get tired of it, then I take a break, and a few minutes later he comes to me with a book in his hand, saying "book? book?" It's fun, but gets a little much when he always picks the same ones! He has this one book that has little things you push out to reveal the animal that's hiding. The first one is a mouse, and the other day when I asked him what it was, he said (rather triumphantly) - "Mommy!" I chuckled and moved onto the next page, which had a frog. This one apparently was "Daddy!" So was the next one. The last one was a chick, which he correctly labeled. Funny thing is, I know he knows what those animals are called, so I think I might consider this Ethan's first joke!

croup!

Croup is scary! Last night we got Ethan out of the crib to take him home from our friends' place, and he could barely breath. He tried crying but couldn't and wasn't even able to cough. He was ok when he was calmed down, but that freaked all of us right out! I was pretty sure it was croup again, and I knew that we could have spent a few hours standing in the bathroom with the shower running (for several nights) like they do in all the old books, or we could go and wait 2 hours in the emergency care place. Which we did. They gave himsome "juice" with a bit of a steroid in it and soon enough he was sleeping peacefully! Whew. He's still a bit hoarse today, but much much better! They told us at emerg that most parents take their kids in after a couple days of this, and by then, the worst is over. I say, give me the treatment now! None of this waiting when my kid can't breathe!

Ethan was really calm the whole time though - he just snuggled with us and stared. Even when they put the cold stethoscope on him, he just sat there. Maybe he thought he was just having one really realistic dream!

On a random note, here's a picture of Jon and Ethan sword-fighting at New Years. :)

laundry day

Yes, he did put my unmentionables around his neck. Don't worry, they're clean! Crazy child.

In other news, due date for Pipsqueak #2 is July 5. Bring on the summer!

brother!

I just wanted to say that Ethan is going to be a big brother this summer! Yay!

I just have to write this down before I forget about it!

This morning when Ethan and I returned from Millenium, I was bringing him in the house when he suddenly started say "oh my! oh my!" I have NO idea what he was "oh my"-ing about, but it cracked me up! And of course, when he saw that I was laughing at him, he redoubled his efforts and went wandering around the house saying "oh my! oh my!" What a turkey!

Which reminds me, I often call him a turkey when he's being silly, and he's started to call himself one too! The other day in the car, he kicked his boot off. I looked at him and he said, clear as a bell, "turkey?" and gave me a questioning smile. When I laughed, he said "turkey! turkey!" to himself, like he was congratulating himself for a joke well received. :)

haircut!

I took Ethan for his first real haircut today (aside from the complete shave he got several months ago :). I have to admit, I thought he'd do a little better but he really didn't like the tickling shaver! I'll have to get a picture of his big boy haircut when he gets up from his nap - he looks very handsome!

here I go again...

And tomorrow I leave for Nicaragua again, one more week of hot hot hot but missing my dear family!

trip!

So Jon had his school convention in Calgary last week, and we hitched a ride! Ethan fell asleep in the car on the way topick him up after NOT NAPPING all afternoon (grr)and all he wanted when we got out the car was a hug. So that wiped out all my bad feelings about the lack of nap :)

Then we went to the zoo and saw some pretty amazing animals!

Ethan's favorite? The giant fish!

Um, yes, this is what I've been hearing and seeing a lot of recently.

The W word. Whining. AARRRGGGHHH!!

For the last week and a half I feel like Ethan has turned into a whining machine. Is this normal toddler behavior?? Sometimes I feel like I need a time out just to keep from spazzing at him because I really cannot handle it. Whiny children have always been the only ones I dislike being around, and Ethan's turned into one of them! It's not all the time, but it has been pretty regular around here. Now, instead of saying "please" like he used to, he just looks at something and whines. Or he'll stand at my feet and whine. Or sit in the car and whine. Or stand by his toy shelf and whine. I think he might be getting frustrated because he's getting a better handle on his words, but still can't really express his wishes well. Any ideas on how to nip this whining habit, or do I just have to wait it out?